Here we go again. Summer is back, and I am thinking about a Reading Week. As usual, I still don’t know whether I’ll manage it: work is rather intense, the revision is only a week away, and I have a short play to write… There is no question of going anywhere – but that’s all right if only I can get myself a week of blissful, uninterrupted reading. Why, at a pinch, even half a week would do very well.

When? No idea. We’ll see. Meanwhile, I’m hoarding books like there is no tomorrow. Let us see…

1. Rafael Sabatini‘s Bardelys the Magnificent. It wouldn’t be summer without some Sabatini.

2. P.F. Chisholm’s An Air of Treason, the latest instalment in the Robert Carey (and Henry Dodd) mysteries.

3. Patricia Finney‘s Unicorn’s Blood. Another Elizabethan mystery of sorts that has been in my Kindle for ages now.

4. Anna Castle’s Death by Disputation, the second book in a series centred on a young Francis Bacon.

5. C. C. Humphrey’s Shakespeare’s Rebel – just because it struck me that there might be too little in the way of Elizabethan stories in this list…

6. Georgette’s Heyer‘s The Grand Sophy – because it wouldn’t be summer without some Heyer.

7. A.C. Doyle‘s The White Company. I have no idea, but seeing how delightful Doyle was when writing about the irrepressible Gérard, I have high hopes.

And this already makes one book per day… Oh dear. And what about Muriel Bradbrook‘s life of Joseph Conrad? And Tey‘s The Singing Sands? And Holsinger’s The Invention of Fire? And Rutherford‘s Sarum? And the Sarah Monette books that were recommended by a friend? And some Sutcliff – because it wouldn’t be summer without some Sutcliff? And the re-readings… don’t even let me get started on the re-readings.

As I said: Oh dear… I can picture myself sitting among pile of books with a mad twinkle in my eye, muttering “Which next? Which next?…” Without saying it is an unpleasant condition per se, I’m forcefully reminded of Buridan’s Ass, starved while trying to decide between a stack of hay and a pail of water. And all of this even before knowing not just when, but even if I can have a Reading Week at all.

I’ll let you know. Meanwhile, do tell: what are you looking forward to reading this summer?