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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“A man is responsible for his deeds, and not just the deeds, but for the consequences of those deeds, as well.”

Ordeal by Innocence by Agatha Christie (1958)

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Yet there was no such thing in politics as true friendship. There could never be absolute trust, not when one was Prime Minister.

Precipice by Robert Harris (2024)

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She remembered something her revered German teacher at Oxford, Cecil Fairfax, liked to say. That there were two kinds of people, those who made something of their life and those to whom life merely happened.

Midnight in Vienna by Jane Thynne (2024)

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Had she but known it, it was the happiest time of her life. If there were only some guide near us all, to cry halt when we reach the summit of our joy, to say, ‘Pause here, do not waste time looking back, do not try to rush forward, for there is nothing better to come,’ how different life might be!

Tales Accursed: A Folk Horror Anthology selected by Richard Wells (2024)
Quote from The Country-Side by Elinor Mordaunt (1917)

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The speaker said life is about change. That’s how we grow and develop, but to change we have to let go of the past. Most of us, she said, are bad at this, especially when a situation that was good turns bad. We cling to the past and deny the need for change, telling ourselves everything is as fine as it ever was, when it isn’t.

The Examiner by Janice Hallett (2024)

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Favourite books read in September:

The Examiner, Precipice and Midnight in Vienna

Authors read for the first time in September:

Jane Thynne, Fiona Macleod, AC Benson, Algernon Blackwood, Elinor Mordaunt, Ulric Daubeny, Margery Lawrence, MR James, Eleanor Scott, Frederick Cowles, HR Wakefield, William Croft Dickinson, LTC Rolt

Places visited in my September reading:

England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, Austria

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Reading notes: I didn’t finish many books this month, for various reasons, but I enjoyed most of what I did read and that’s more important. I also have a long list of new-to-me authors read for the first time this month, thanks to the short story anthology Tales Accursed. As you can see, I’m behind with reviews again but will try to catch up with those in October. Also in October, I will be joining in with 1970 Club hosted by Kaggsy’s Bookish Ramblings and Stuck in a Book, and have already started my first book for that event.

How was your September? What will you be reading in October?