Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Claire from The Captive Reader and Sharlene from Real Life Reading that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you’d like to participate, just write up your post-feel free to steal the button-and link it using the Mr. Linky any time during the week. And of course check out what other participants are getting from their libraries.
Last week didn’t go quite as planned for me. I’d been looking forward to taking Thursday and Friday off work (following the Wednesday holiday for Remembrance Day) and escaping to Vancouver Island for a little break. I’ve only left Vancouver twice in the last year and was eager to be anywhere that wasn’t my house for just a couple of days, even a place that I’d usually visit as a day trip. But alas, the COVID numbers are rising dramatically here so they’ve sensibly asked us to avoid non-essential travel from the plague-ridden metropolis.
Instead, I spent my time off doing lots of walking, gardening, and, to a surprisingly small extent, reading. I’m deep into The Eighth Life by Nino Haratischvili, which is a wonderfully absorbing Georgian family saga, though I’m picking up a few shorter books to give myself little breaks from it (it’s over 900 pages). I couldn’t resist starting in on one of my most recent library books as soon as I picked it up…
Gilead by Marilynne Robinson – yes, I’ve finally gone and read this beloved Pulitzer-prize-winning novel! And very suitably it’s also the subject of Simon and Rachel’s most recent podcast episode.
Frederick the Great by Nancy Mitford – Obviously better known as a novelist, I’m intrigued by the non-fiction books Mitford wrote. This will be the first one I’ve actually read but where better to start than with one of the most fascinating of enlightened despots?
Fabulous Monsters by Alberto Manguel – I’m in the mood for books about books and it’s hard to be in safer hands than Manguel’s. Here he takes “an original look at how literary characters can transcend their books to guide our lives.”
The Midnight Library by Matt Haig – This sounds wonderful and like just the right thing to read in these dark days. I know I’m in safe hands with Haig.
What did you pick up this week?
The Captive Reader 
So sorry your holiday got cancelled! Understand the reasons but it still stinks.
I’m curious about Frederick the Great – could either be very interesting or very dry! Such a surprising person to be his biographer too.
No loot for me this week! I’m deep into The Golden Thread and not reading any fiction. Ebook holds are really backed up too.
I think it’s impossible for Mitford to be dry so have high hopes for her take on Frederick!
Just finished, and returned, The Weight of Ink…fantastic read. A review I read recommends it for those who loved Byatt’s Possession and Brooks’ People of the Book.
Currently I have returned to Barsetshire and am reading Trollope’s Doctor Thorne.
I am now very tempted with The Eighth Line…thank you.
Hard to go wrong with a return to Barsetshire! And any book that draws comparisons to Possession has me intrigued.
The Eighth Life is the one I would like to get hold of. Very unlikely so I’ll look forward to your thoughts on that one.
It’s VERY good.
Have you seen the post Sam wrote recently, on books about books? He’s updated it and got over sixty titles listed now! I keep meaning to go through it because I know there’s a lot in there I want to add to my TBR.
Sounds like a great resource! I’m not sure who is Sam is though, can you point me in the right direction?
I always like your Library Loot posts, because I think your sum-ups are better than the blurbs on GoodReads — direct and succinct. Liked Frederick and Fabulous Monsters, so will add them to my TBR too :p