A selection of quotes and pictures to represent September’s reading:

commonplace book
noun
a book into which notable extracts from other works are copied for personal use.

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But it does not do to laugh, however softly, when you are alone. Laughter calls for answering laughter; and when there is none, it is not like silence, but more like a very special kind of sound. A sound that must be listened for, attended to, with every faculty suddenly alert.

Uncle Paul by Celia Fremlin (1959)

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There’s nothing as exciting as a fresh new start when the page is blank and the future is all for the making!

The Appeal by Janice Hallett (2021)

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It was growing dark now. How the years had flown. He had not always been a prisoner of this unwieldy, diseased body. He had been a golden youth; he had known glory upon glory. The world had celebrated him. He had thought himself immortal. How God makes fools of Man…

Henry VIII: The Heart and the Crown by Alison Weir (2023)

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“It is only that I dislike the whole notion of subordination. The corporal lurks in almost every bosom, and each man tends to use authority when he has it, thus destroying his natural relationship with his fellows, a disastrous state of affairs for both sides. Do away with subordination and you do away with tyranny…”

The Ionian Mission by Patrick O’Brian (1981)

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‘But to me the great interest of a case is not in material clues, like a bright little puzzle-box with all the pieces numbered and of a different colour. No! To me it lies in the human mind, the human behaviour: if you like, the human soul.’

He Who Whispers by John Dickson Carr (1946)

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“The illusion that freedom is the prerogative of one’s own particular race is fairly widespread. Dr Gerard was wiser. He knew that no race, no country and no individual could be described as free. But he also knew that there were different degrees of bondage.”

Appointment with Death by Agatha Christie (1938)

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We’re all a collection of stories, she had thought afterwards. Some good, some not so good. The question was, how did you allow a new story in, when just one of your stories already took up too much space?

Night Train to Marrakech by Dinah Jefferies (2023)

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‘The world will be very different,’ said Mr. Femm, slowly, ‘when all the people have been cleared out of it, and not before. Men and women do not change. Their silly antics are always the same. There will always be a few clever ones, who can see a yard or two in front of their noses, and a host of fools who can see nothing, who are all befuddled, who pride themselves on being virtuous because they are incompetent or short-sighted.’

Benighted by J.B. Priestley (1927)

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Favourite books read in September:

Uncle Paul and Appointment with Death

Authors read for the first time in September:

Celia Fremlin, J.B. Priestley

Places visited in my September reading:

England, Israel, Jordan, Greece, Morocco

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Reading notes: This was another good month of reading for me, although I didn’t manage to get to everything I had hoped to read. I was pleased to add some different countries to this year’s ‘places visited’ and the two new authors I read this month (Fremlin and Priestley) are both authors I would like to explore further. As we move into October, I’m looking forward to 1962 Club, hosted by Kaggsy’s Bookish Ramblings and Stuck in a Book, but otherwise I’m enjoying just reading whatever I want to read, whenever I want to read it!

How was your September? Do you have any plans for your October reading?