April was a difficult month, full of energy and thus full of post exertional malaise crashes that made it difficult to impossible for me to read. Still I did managed some amount of reading in between all the resting.
First up is Matrix by Lauren Groff. I started it in March and fell in love with the visceral physical writing of the book until part three kicked in. My reading slowed to a halt. I lost interest in the plot, resisting the path the author chose to take. Consequently I still have not finished this novel. I am considering giving up but I am curious about the ending so I will keep at it, slowly.
Next up, I broke the rule I set at the start of the year: to read my bookshelves only. My mind spiralled into fatigue and fog. I was unable to focus on the written word or much else and yet my mind spun and gave me no rest. So I tried an old trusted alternative: audiobooks. I have long loved audiobooks but I have only ever borrowed them from my local libraries so I have none of my shelves. I decided that rest and escapism into a different world were more important things than arbitrary reading rules. I downloaded Mister Monday by Garth Nix and thoroughly enjoyed the mad imaginative world he created. I will read the rest of the series as and when my reservations come in.
Then came the Easter week-end. I was beginning to feel better so I took some books along with me to my camping trip. I settled in my tent or the grass outside according to the weather and returned to Ice Rivers A Story of Glaciers, Wilderness and Humanity by Jemma Wadham. In March, the scientific jargon kept me from continuing with the book but in April, I was less weighted by it. Instead I became fascinated by the history of the glaciers the author presented to us. These masses of ice turned into living beings under her prose and I found myself intrigued and full of care for these fast melting beings.
Alongside the tales of glaciers, I read the tales of Yvain ou le Chevalier au Lion by Chrétien de Troyes, the third book of the medieval reading challenge. I immediately fell in love with the story and characters, as I was sure I would. The translation I am reading is both modern and ancient. The rhythm of the text flows and carries me forward until it didn't. This was not the fault of the book or translation but once again of fog and fatigue. I put the book down and left it down as words stop making sense.
As the last days of April arrived I turned to a Maigret story. I had not read any in the month. I was not sure I could read yet but I tried and found the familiarity of George Simenon's prose allowed me to read in short enjoyable burst. Maigret reluctantly entered the world of politics in Maigret Chez Le Ministre but as usual the story focused on the human elements more than anything else. I enjoyed this story, full of intrigue but also rich in Maigret lore I knew nothing about.
April was a very mixed month in a lot of ways. I learned some more about my life redesigned by long covid and reading took a backseat. It was not a choice, but a consequence of my actions that carried over into May. That, though, is a story for another time.