Preparations...

August has been slightly book-heavy for me, as an obvious consequence of working in a 2nd hand bookshop (Waterfields on Oxford High Street, for those of you who know it). So, in addition to the piles and piles of trash novels that I have read, I also have the following lurking in a reproachful pile next to my bed:

- Robert Blake's Biography of Disraeli (which I've started, and is jolly good);
- Karl Popper's intellectual autobiography, "Unended Quest" (double ditto);
- Hayek, Road to Serfdom, which I bought new, feeling it was some kind of gap in my political knowledge. Anyway, 150 pages in, it is excellent, although sometimes prone to attacking paper tigers.

I've still not got any further with Trollope, which I think may be permanently shelved. There's also a large pile of (popular) history books which I will try to fit around Powelling - top of the list being various tomes on the English Civil War and its aftermath..

Does anyone else use www.librarything.com by the way? My trash novels are all on there (username "hackloon"), as is a good number of my academic books, but there are some massive gaps which I haven't got round to cataloguing, and can't do until I am back home for a while.

A call to arms

September approaches. We have effectively aimed for a September 1st start date by, er, no-one actually starting in August.

I've given some thought to the rules. Here we go:
1. Read a volume a month for the next 12 months (catch-ups allowed)
2. Write at least one blog entry a month, ideally when you have finished
3. Don't write plot spoilers until everyone is finished
4. Write other blog entries on a Powellian theme or about your (lack of) progress at any time

I have my bumper three volumes in a book. I am ready for the Autumn.