It’s been a very indulgent month at Bibliofreak.net, so thank you all for going with me on my own reading tastes – I’ve had a very enjoyable month, picking up some of my favourite authors. For those who keep a tab on my progress through each month’s reading plan you’ll notice that I haven’t posted a review for either Jude the Obscure or The Outsider, the former I have read and am delaying my review as I’d like to write a fuller piece if I find the time, the latter I simply haven’t got round to yet – if December is a good reading month I’ll try and slip it in at some point, probably between consuming industrial quantities of mince pies.

Outside of serious gluttony, my plans for December are shaping up quite nicely. I am absolutely, definitely committing to read One Day this month – yes, really! It’s been on my ‘to be read’ pile for so long that it has probably fused itself to my bookshelf, but this is the month I finally get it read.

I’m also mid-way through Richard Bradford’s biography of Martin Amis and should, in all likelihood, get it finished in the next couple of weeks, so that’ll be another review to add to my Amis shrine. Incidentally, I’m still waiting for a copy of Time’s Arrow to appear at my local library. It’s only been on order for oh, I don’t know, six months!

Right, let’s see... I bought a copy of The House of Silk the other week, so I think I will give that a go. I really enjoy the Sherlock Holmes stories, and I’m confident Anthony Horowitz will have done a good job in writing a new adventure for our favourite detective. I have mixed feelings about authors taking on other people’s characters, but I have a good feeling about this one.

I’d also like to take a look at The Swimming Pool Library. Having already reviewed Hollinghurst’s two most recent novels, it seems like a good idea to go back to his first and compare it. This is another one I have on order from the library so fingers crossed. Seems like a Summer read anyway, right?

So that’s my plan for a merry December. If I find time to write a more detailed study of Jude or I find a spare evening or two to whizz through The Outsider they’ll go up to, but other than that this seems like a pretty good way to round out 2011.

Notable Posts from November
Review: The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst
Review: Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
Review: The Adventures of Augie March by Saul Bellow
Review: Northern Lights by Philip Pullman