I read with a different purpose in 2013. Much of what I read was research for the novel I continue to write, This landscape of failure. Hence, the journals of expeditions to places unknown, and gospels of the known and little known.

I read David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas after seeing the film and enjoyed both equally. A revelation to me was the writing of Randolph Stow, especially his gem [sic] of a novel Tourmaline. I thank a fortnight residency at Varuna – the Writers’ House in the Blue Mountains and the chance meeting with Gabrielle Carey (co-author of Puberty Blues) who was adding the final touches to her memoir about her family’s links with the Stow family and over dinner one night with the residents trying to come up with a suitable title. The publisher wanted something related to one of his books, but they all sounded like they could be misconstrued. I can’t remember what we came up with. It was published as Moving among strangers: Randolph Stow and my family.

And, the only book I took to read during six months of travel in Myanmar, India and Sri Lanka, and it took that long to read, The Holy Bible.

Which brings my reading up to the present. Follow What I have read.