The year started as all years do for the last six years: with a Maigret story. Except not quite. I still had fifty pages or so of Imogen, Obviously by Becky Albertalli to finish from December. I picked the book on a whim for something easy and cosy to read and this it was. It was also entirely forgettable but that was the point. At the end of December, waiting for 2025 to kick in so I could turn my attention to Maigret and the medieval reading challenge, I needed an easy book to distract me without demanding much of me.
Then Maigret by Georges Simenon. The sixth compilation collects books published from 1953 to 1956, and starts with Maigret a Peur, a thoroughly enjoyable read. Not the best Maigret story but I enjoyed the heavy atmosphere of rain and murder, decaying bourgeoisie, and friendships of old examined under a new eye.
As I was reading this book, I pitch my tent in a field covered in frost and camped for a couple of night. I finished the Maigret story there and started A Woman in the Polar Night by Christiane Ritter. The book has been lying by my bedside for months. The first book to accomplish my aim to read the bookshelf this year, it felt very appropriate. I only managed to read the introduction by Sara Wheeler. It was too cold to read with hands outside of the sleeping bag and during the day my attention was held by the Chanson de Roland, the first book of my medieval reading challenge. I have not quite finished this book. This is not because it's a difficult book to read, the modern translation makes it very easy to understand and follow (not to mention the extensive research I have undertaken prior to opening the book), but because I'm reading this book aloud. It takes time and energy, the latter I am often short on. There is no rush. My brother is deep in exams and so the first chat of our mini book club is set for after the exams are over. All that said, I am hoping to finish the book this week-end.
A Woman in the Polar Night kept me enthralled. I have long held an obsession for the polar regions of the world but not for the tales of conquering adventurers. It was good to read an account of daily life, of light and darkness, of silence and thundering winds, of beauty and loneliness, and of the Spitsbergen mania. The writing is clear and often prosaic with peppered moments of transcending beauty, probably a reflection of a winter within the artic circle.
At the same time as I read the words of Christiane Ritter, I read the second Maigret story: Maigret se Trompe. I am of two mind about this novel. I enjoyed it well enough but most of the intrigue was held in the waiting for the last interview, the one character Maigret held of talking with. In some regards the rest of the book was simply a long delaying technique. When the last chapter came around, it wasn't especially gripping or the character of the surgeon especially believable. In the end, it was an interesting exercise in waiting and building tension that didn't quite manage to deliver. It was not bad enough to deter me from continuing on with another Maigret adventure. Last year, I struggled through the first two stories, I put down the volume for months. Still, I put the next story on hold for the simple pleasure of delaying the next Maigret read and eking out the stories through the year.
I rummaged through the books by my bedside table and selected After the Gold Rush by John Stuart Clark. A friend lent me this book so long ago that I cannot remember when this was. I have grown weary of cycle touring stories over the years. Having read so many when I first discovered cycle touring, my interest quickly waned when the books and blogs began to each relate the same thing, following the same narrative model. This book is different. The author is on a cycle tour but focuses on sharing the story of American folks who set out in search of gold in 1849. Along the way, he explores this heritage and the life of rural America in the early 2000s. I'm just over halfway through and enjoying the easy writing, sometimes funny, sometimes a bit jagged, but always observational and full of curiosity. The book is long and could have benefited from a stronger edit (from catching typos and spelling mistakes to scenes that do not add anything) but it reads easily and does not ask of me anything more than to be entertained and along the way learn a thing or two about the history of the USA and the state the author found it at the time he cycled across it.
All in all, January was a good start to my reading year. Then again, Januarys usually are. I am full of excitement. Maigret stories often flow easily, I have new books from the holidays, and plenty of old books I am excited to get to. Life is slow in the long cherished nights and it is easy to stay at home and read.