2013 in First Lines

A fun yearly meme I've done at least once or twice is the Year in First Lines created by Melwyk at The Indextrious Reader. It's very simply - you copy across the first line of each month's first blog post, and a link to that post, as an intriguing overview of the year... and it seems an appropriate way to celebrate Boxing Day.

January: "You'll be sick of these soon... but what is the new year for but to share book-reading statistics?"

February: "I'm starting a new job on Monday (maternity cover) at Oxford University Press."

March: "Happy March, everyone! I hope my March reading is substantially more than my February reading..."

April: '"Yet one fearful characteristic of the physical world tempers any optimism that a reader may feel in any ordered library: the constraints of space.'"

May: "Book reviews coming soon, promise - and those replies to your great comments which I promised last week."

June: "There are some authors, because of the influence of the online reading group I'm in, that I stockpile before I get around to reading them."

July: "Sometimes you just need to read an Agatha Christie, don't you?"

August: "I can't remember if I've already blogged about the beautiful new editions of some Barbara Comyns novels that Virago have brought out, but it bears repeating."

September: "A couple of times I have had the pleasure of staying with bloggers, who have kindly put me up (and put up with me) when I've needed a bed to crash in while in London."

October: "Well, sort of."

November: "Simon... is me!"

December: "Of all the books to speed-read, The Good Soldier (1915) by Ford Madox Ford was a poor choice."