The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid book cover
Well, this is becoming a little familiar, isn’t it? Another month gone, just one paltry review added to the total. It seems my life is just too full at present to keep up with the pace. I know, poor old sod. But listen here, I’ve been working hard on a novel of late, and I’ve also written a short play in the last month (although technically, that only accounted for one day of October – a mammoth effort, and rather iffy result), oh, and there’s been the few odd essays and assignments for my course. So all in all, I’ve been scribbling away furiously throughout October, just not on much of my output has found its way onto these pages. A shame, I know.

I love my little blog and browsing through what I’ve managed to put up over the last year or so always makes me happy. That I’ve been falling behind over the last few months really does irritate me, but I suppose there’s only so much one person can do and the blog is low priority at the moment. I’m sorry to all of you who hang on my every word – and yes, I realise I’m now addressing a group of approximately 0 – but order will be restored at some point. When, I’m not sure. But I enjoy writing reviews too much to set them aside permanently.

I think the truth is, I’ve been working on my first novel slowly this year, and actually I’d really like to push forward so a lot of my energy has gone into writing new pieces for that. I’m sure all you writers out there will understand that sense of urgency that catches hold of you at times: that all-consuming need to do everything, know everything, experience and write about everything! As Kerouac would have said, “mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time.” Well that’s how I feel most of the time in one way or another, in my own quiet way, and I think that energy has well and truly been focused on the novel lately. Incidentally, I’m about 25,000 words in, which is almost halfway to where I want to be, so things are coming along.

In light of the complete jumble of interests and commitments that my life amounts to at the moment, it seems rather pointless coming up with a list of books, which I pretty certainly won’t review over the coming month. I will try hard to finish my review of The Reluctant Fundamentalist, but beyond that I think we might just have to take things as they come for a while.

I’m quite aware that such a statement can only be met with widespread and devastating ambivalence; fear not chaps and chapettes, we shall get through this together!

Notable Posts from September