Reading Group Day

Today was the day I made my first return trip to Manchester Central Library to meet with my reading group. First time back to the library felt only a little strange. The library seemed very busy- no doubt lots of new students visiting and joining for the first time.

Also first time with my reading group since June, 'cos of holidays. We were a small group as a few people still away. 2 of them are in Australia and one in Nice. Don't know where Geoffrey was. We are a well-travelled lot.

Today's book was A Pair of Blue Eyes by Thomas Hardy- thankfully one of his  shorter novels. I enjoyed " the reading experience"  i.e. back with Hardy who I used to admire for his descriptive powers and idealised characters. But I confess this book irritated me. The social conventions were stifling and Elfide, the central character both did not seem to know what she wanted and was incapable of communicating. I know I'm reading with 21st Century attitudes, but did Hardy have such a low opinion of women? We know he was "disappointed" in marriage but he can't have been an easy man to live with!

One of our group is a real Hardy fan and she pointed out how many of the themes were taken up again in his next book, Far From The Madding Crowd, also a story of a woman with 3 "suitors". We had much discussion about Hardy himself,  as this is considered his most autobiographical novel. as always, we managed to stick to discussing the book for a full hour and thanked Brian for recommending it.

A quick trip around a bookshop afterwards reminded me of several new titles I must try to catch up with on return from holiday. Time to test out my library service's reservation system I think.

Using my local library

So 7 minutes from my front door to my local library on my whizzy new bike this morning. That's good. Not quite far enough to be really good exercise but not likely to ever put me off going on damp days.

Very impressed that my library ticket still worked even though its years since I used it. Less impressed that I couldn't reserve Jonanthan Franzen's Purity despite it being publication date,  "as the service hasn't ordered it it yet". This doesn't bode well for some of the small-press titles I am likely to want to reserve and which the service may never order without a little push.. Still- early days. I shall persevere.

 I did find 2 books to borrow which will come on holiday with me- We Need New Names by NoViolet Bulawayo  which I have heard of and  looks fun  and The Secrets We Keep by Jonathan Harvey. Never read anything by Jonathan Harvey even though he's a name I know well. This edition has a picture of a left luggage ticket from Manchester Piccadilly station on the front and  I'm a sucker for novels that feature Manchester.

I've just checked the ManBooker 2015 shortlist which has been announced. Bit surprised to see A Spool of Blue Thread by Anne Tyler there which I have read and was under-whelmed by. I do like Anne Tyler and have read many of her books. This one just seemed a bit dull to me and not nearly as good as Did You Ever Have a Family by Bill Clegg, which struck me as having many similarities to Anne Tyler's work in its family focus,but with a bleaker atmosphere. Having enthused about it to lots of people I really wanted to see it make it on to the shortlist.

I haven't read any of the others yet and hope my library service is getting them ordered today.

Improved vision

So- on my way to an eye test I was cheered to hear a discussion on Woman's Hour (BBC Radio 4) about older women actually feeling better than they had done when younger. Contrary to  popular belief most older women i.e. 55+ feel re-energised and fitter and apparently an increase in testosterone makes us more confident.

Its difficult to remember how one felt when younger- most of us probably say we feel the same- but perhaps  the ability to be more assertive as well as more sure about what one wants out of life is partly based in hormones as well as experience.

Then to the opticians to be told my distance vision is improving! Balanced by less-good near-sight of course but I seem to be in a happy place visually!

Eye-test is another job on the post-retirement list ticked off. At this rate I'll be able to go back to work by Christmas.

Day 2 of blog

I didn't get to the library today. Too many other things to do.

One thing I did was 1.5 hours volunteering at Elizabeth Gaskell's House. A small tour group had booked in and I offered to serve them tea and cake. This was fine but the house was somewhat disordered as it had been used a s a film set for a forthcoming TV drama. I won't spoil the surprise yet about what the series is. Suffice to say its a period drama..

Otherwise lots of small jobs- grass cutting, hanging new curtains, visiting mother etc. Its true what is always said- how did I find time to go to work?

How it's been so far

On September 1st 2015 my new life as a retired person began. So far I have barely had time to pause for breath.  All the things that older people say about not knowing how there was time to go to work seem to be true.

So far I have worked extra at Elizabeth Gaskell's House, joined a choir, bought a bicycle, bought bird feeders for the garden, been to the Lake District for a couple of days, done more shopping and met friends.

Of course the weather has been pretty good which helps a lot. One of the things I aim to do is to spend much more time outside which is much easier at the moment than it will be in a few months time.

Of course I have missed people at work a little,  as well as the structure of the week. Its going to take a bit of time to get used to having to decide what to do with lots of days, but I'm grateful that I have "hobbies" and interests.

This blog is going to be a bit of diary about my life as  well as a way of continuing to share some of my reactions to books I have read. There haven't been many books so far. I'm reading A Pair of Blue Eyes by Thomas Hardy for my reading group meeting next week. It feels strange reading Hardy again- but at least this one is relatively short and easy to follow, though some of the language seems very convoluted. But what an archaic story it seems now- all about reasons for  and attitudes to marriage. Young people could read it as an historical guide to how women were constrained in the 19th Century and how far we have moved since.

Tomorrow I shall go and join my local library. For obvious reasons I haven't been a member of my local service for many years, having had an excellent library at my work base. I'm curious to rediscover using a branch library for browsing and reservations and even though times are hard for libraries, I'm optimistic that I'll find my local library to be somewhere I want to go regularly. I'll let you know.