Alex Ferguson: My Autobiography book cover
I’m really starting to get into this year. You know, I reckon 2014 is going to be alright; first draft of novel completed, a few reviews bunged up, went Folio Prize ceremony, summer on its way. Yeah, 2014; it’ll do. I’ve been on a bit of a reading spurt lately, which may explain my unusually chipper mood (claiming anything’ll ‘do’ counts as extravagant praise in my book). If reading a few novels in my spare time makes me feel this good, imagine how I’d feel if I did this shit full-time? Just read and wrote until I got hungry, or someone demanded social communication – it’d be a state beyond euphoric. Right, new life plan: stop doing ‘stuff’, start reading more.

Excellent, that’s sorted then: in the morning, I’ll quit work, uni, socialising, and anything else disposable. In the meantime, do mail me any loose change you find to see me through the next few months!

So, what to do with all this freedom? Well, the first literary quest is easy: Sir Alex Ferguson’s autobiography, obviously. If that doesn’t say literary gold, I don’t know what does. Besides, I was given a copy for Christmas so it would be rude not to get on and read it sometime soon. Plus, SAF is looking more and more like my own Dad every day (or vice versa), so really it’s a duty to my surrogate pa that must be undertaken (Dad, if you ever read this, I apologise. Fear not, I do not see you as an overbearing, surly man with pink cheeks and cool blue eyes whose diction has descended to the point of near incomprehensibility. You do have the same haircut though, just saying.)

On a slightly more high-brow note, I’ve also been thinking about Vladimir Nabokov’s Transparent Things for a while. I’d very much like to write something about this, but it’s taking me a while to untangle my own thoughts. Hopefully I’ll have something before the end of the month.

I’ve also had to read Lord of the Flies for the book group I’m now attending, so I shall have to deal with that soon too. I’ve never read it before (shock horror!) and have rather mixed feelings about it so far (edging towards the critical, I fear).

My phone – source of all knowledge – also tells me I’m reading Orwell’s Homage to Catalonia at the moment. On brief reflection, I concur. Good work, iPhone. I seem to have read a fair bit of Orwell lately so I hope I’m not boring you all too much or, at the very least, you’re able to black out ventures in that direction like myself.

That’ll do for April, I think. What do you think; a fairly eclectic selection?

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