I was awake extra early this morning, and instead of my usual half-hour jog down a leafy track under the arch of trees (an old coach-road, apparently), then across the golf course, and along the edge of the stream, and back up the road, I sat down at my computer and visited some of my favourite blog sites.

When I’ve gone a few days without dipping in to these sources of mental stimulation my brain gets as itchy and restless as the rest of my body does when I’ve missed out on physical exercise.

I was well rewarded this morning before I went to work, and again when I returned this afternoon. But before that, came a big disappointment – One of the first book-blogs that I’d come across, Ex-libris ‘taking an indefinite hiatus from blogging’.
It was a lively site with thoughtful reviews and I always enjoyed my visits (not merely to the link to her kind review of my novel, The Dangerous Sports Euthanasia Society)

My next stop, Rhapsody in Books yielded two delights with one hit: There was the smiling face of my friend, Linda Gillard, an excellent novelist holding a fascinating discussion with an author I’d never heard of, Gillian Philip, who writes Young Adult fiction. Of course I then had to scroll down to the review that Linda had posted there about Gillian’s latest novel. I won’t say anything more about that, as you can read it yourself here!

I’m sometimes amazed at the amount I’ve forgotten in my life of what used to be an important source of pleasure and insight – in this particular case, the Young Adult books I used to read when I taught English in a girls’ Secondary Modern School (that shows how long ago it was- there’ll be plenty of people who’ve never heard of anything but comprehensives and grammar schools) –anyway, reading those posts, I was reminded of how I used to love those books – The main name that comes to mind is KM Peyton with her Flambard Trilogy and the rebellious schoolboy, Pennington, but there were lots of others.

Reading about Gillian Philip’s Crossing the Line has reminded me of how YA books often tackle the really important subjects in a very readable and thought-provoking way.

Another of my favourite sites is Dovegrey Reader and there again I was awash with nostalgia, thinking of books I’ve enjoyed over the years. Today’s post was about Susan Hill’s book ‘Howards End is on the Landing’ It sounds very enticing and I love the idea of listing my forty favourite books, and reflecting on each of them as I do this.

Another one that I first came across fairly recently is Juxtabooks This time my eye was caught by Juxtabook’s Top 10 Books of the Last Ten Years. I’d read five of her ten, and of those, I’d rate at least two as some of my own top favourites – Cloud Atlas I ’read’ as an unabridged audio version – it was fascinating to hear the six different voices telling their different tales. For the first couple of minutes of each new ‘story’ I’d feel a bit lost, not wanting to leave the other voice behind me, but overall I found it a compelling read. The other was Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Craik, in which I found echoes from some of the ‘future’ parts of Cloud Atlas. I won’t attempt to say anything else about the books, as you can read those reviews for yourself.

Last, but by no means least, is a new treasure – Baroque in Hackney, a site crammed with a huge variety of posts and links. I’m afraid it’s going to be a particularly effective displacement activity for me in the future.