Well, of course, there are many things one does at the cottage (by which I mean, that WE do at the cottage).  Cycling, hiking, kayaking, swimming, lounging, eating, drinking … the list goes on. Sometimes even writing is done at the cottage.  But the major thing we do at the cottage is read. We read inside when it’s raining and down by the lake when it’s nice. We don’t watch TV at the cottage, so we read every night.  We each take up a bag of books (well, fewer now that a large portion of my reading is on my Kobo).   For the physical books, I pile them on a spare bed by category so I can vary my reading between SF, fantasy, horror, non-fiction, and anything else I brought along.

One of my projects this summer has been cleaning up the many pictures languishing on the computer or in the cloud.  In the process, I came across my annual “some of the things I read this holiday” shots from 2014 through 2017.  Not everything appears in each shot (see reference to Kobo, above) but I try to show a selection of what was interesting me at the time.

Cottage 2014 books

In 2014’s selection, you can see several of my main sources for books: CZP (bought at local events) and stuff acquired from the tons of free titles sent to the magazine publishing company where I worked.  Note my selection regarding the murderous ability of said work.  The Lost Upland (the subject of an earlier post) is about southwestern France, an area I visited in 2013.  I read the book at the gite we were renting and then had to get my own copy and read it again.

Glamour Lake 2015 books

CZP and work-acquired title show up again, supplemented by a book about Paris during the Occupation (borrowed from a friend), a book about unconventional women in Western Canada (bought in Banff), and The Vampire Tapestry by Suzy McKee Charnas, which I was rereading in order to write the introduction for a new, gorgeous edition from Centipede Press.

Glamour Lake 2016 books

More books from work, acquired before the day I was downsized (Lab Girl, The Idiot Brain), more CZP, and a catch-up on Lapham’s Quarterly, because I am usually at least one season behind.

It can take me awhile to work through the “To Be Read” pile, so in 2017 there’s one stray work book (The Regional Office Is Under Attack!), a few CZP titles, The Sum of Us, an anthology featuring a brilliant (and Aurora-nominated!) short story by my dear friend Sandra Kasturi, and the massive Bruce Springsteen autobiography.

What’s in my pile to be read this year?  Check this space to find out.