My 2019 Reading Challenge - Short Stories

I love reading but if left to it I'd just read trashy detective novels all day long. Instead I prefer to shake up my reading with a bit of variety. Like last year when I read only non-fiction books.

This year I wanted to try read 5 books of short story collections. I've loved short stories since being read one in my English class in high school. The Vertical Ladder by Michael Sansom is a great example of how a short story can build the tension quickly and leave you wanting more. Short story collections are great to pick up and read when you don't have much time.


So here's what I've been reading:

Apparently Stephen King is afraid of flying so wanted to inflict the same fear in everyone else. It's a great collection of stories. One of my favourites was a story by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, written in the early days of flight. It holds up well and is frightening even now. It didn't give me a fear of flying but I wouldn't recommend it if you're a nervous flyer with an upcoming trip!

Annie Proulx is great at short stories. They loosely have a theme of the Wild West but are all very different. My favourite one is of a childless couple adopting a cactus that looks vaguely child like. It becomes carnivorous which is a genius story idea right there!

This book blew me away with it's heartbreaking stories about women and the relationships in their lives. The characters are so real and relatable to me. There is a recurring character in 3 of the stories and honestly I could've read about her all day. Such mastery of the short story in this collection.

This book was a delight to read. Authors were invited to submit their own Sherlock Holmes stories and what was achieved was varied and joyous. Some of the stories were crazy, some were focused on Watson or Mrs Hudson but they were all entertaining. I would recommend for any Sherlock fan.

I decided to finish big with this anthology of 100 short stories. It has some really great stories in there from The Hare and the Tortoise to The Red Shoes to The Nose - a story about a man who finds a nose in a loaf of bread his wife bakes him for his breakfast. The stories in this book are really short mostly only a few pages each so they really are a glimpse.


I've enjoyed reading more short stories this year and I find it totally different from reading novels. Short stories have less time to wow you but they invariably do!


Any suggestions for future reading challenges are welcome! :)

My Medal Motivation

I like to exercise, it makes me feel good and I'm always pleased I've done it when it's finished. Haha! But sometimes some extra motivation is needed to keep me going. I've said before (many times) that I like to use Zombies Run when I'm out walking (I used to call it speed walking but I'm not that fast anymore!) Twice a year in the Spring and at Halloween they run Virtual Races.

Virtual Races are races you run (or walk, cycle, swim, whatever) on your own and in your own time. Zombies Run gave you a window of a week to do your race. You receive a medal when you've completed it. After getting my first medal, I was hooked. The orange ribboned medal on the far left was my first medal and I felt quite proud of myself for completing the Virtual Race.

I did the next few virtual races with Zombies Run but then I started having knee problems. So I looked into doing Virtual Swimming Races. I found a site called Swim The Distance. This was a bit different, you had a whole month to rack up as many lengths as you could, swimming to reach the goal you'd set yourself. I chose to try do 100 lengths (2,500 metres). I really enjoyed doing this race and got this blue swimming medal for completing it.

I really like swimming but it's just not accessible enough for me to do often so I decided to look around for a second hand exercise bike. JD found me one on Facebook Marketplace for £150. After wrestling it home we set it up in the corner of the dining room. I can cycle every day without leaving the house and I love it. I do 20-30 minutes a day (usually cycling between 3-5 miles) and it's great for my arthritic knees.

I still need that extra motivation some days though and so I found another virtual racing site. Virtual Racing UK does virtual races for all types of exercise. If you can log your distance you can take part. I've done several of their races including this lovely Remembrance Race earlier this month. I cycled 11 miles and it took me nearly an hour. My legs were like jelly when I'd finished.

My latest challenge is doing a Virtual Race with The Conqueror. They do longer distance challenges like the length of Hadrian's Wall (90 miles) or the Grand Canyon (280 miles).

I chose to do their Alps to Ocean challenge. It's 180 miles and I'm almost 1/3 of the way there so far. It keeps me motivated to cycle every day and to push that bit more to get a decent distance to log on my challenge.

I really enjoy my cycling exercise. It always feels like a great start to my day and I feel pleased whenever I look at my virtual race bling!

Ditch the Toxic Media in Your Life

I haven't read a women's magazine in years. They make me feel bad. If it's the kind with an impossibly toned woman on the front doing a yoga position I could only dream of, it makes me feel bad. If it's a magazine with a glamorous celeb on the front, it makes me feel bad. If it's the trashier kind of women's magazine pointing out cellulite and fat on minor celebrities, it makes me feel bad.

Magazines just make me feel bad. They make us all feel bad even if we don't realise it. It might superficially make you feel good that celebs have cellulite too but really when you're having a laugh at a pock marked celeb bum you're just re-inforcing to yourself that it's terrible to have cellulite. Which will inevitably make you feel bad. You'll imagine that if anyone ever saw your bum they'd shriek in horror or even worse laugh.

Nothing you read in that magazine will help you become toned, famous or perfect. It'll just make you realise that you're none of those things. Of course, nobody is perfect. All magazine covers are staged and airbrushed. Why pay to feel bad about yourself? So, no magazines for me!

Until recently when a new magazine appeared on the shelves. It's called In The Moment, tagline Wellness Mindfullness Happiness! Yes please, I'll have some of that.

I subscribed with an offer for the first 5 editions for £5. It gets posted through my door every month and I can honestly say it is pure fucking joy reading it.

There are no bullshit headlines making you feel bad about yourself. No horrible ads trying to make you feel bad about yourself (there are ads but they're not the majority of the magazine being all glossy and in your face). There's no celebs, no cellulite, no toned yoga person. No tips to make you look younger or lose 10 pounds.

And relax!

What you do get is interesting content. You get a pleasant matt drawn cover. You get articles such as:

Simple winter rituals to help you thrive.

Be spontaneous, find wonder in every day.

Slow down, feel calm and be kind to yourself.

It's full of thoughtful ways to make your life happier. As I read it I find myself wanting to jot down things to try or films to watch or books to read. It's so refreshing to be reading useful articles about having less stress and trying to reduce anxiety.

I'm off to drink a nice cup of tea and have a read :)

We Love Mug Cakes!

Mug Cakes are the perfect quick cake fix. They're not quite as delicious as a properly baked cake but they're ready right when you want cake. They're still warm from the microwave and they only take a few minutes to be done.

When I say 'We' I mean Leigh and I love Mug Cakes. I got her this book from The Works for £2 and we've made a start on sampling it's delicious recipes.

First we had Almond & Berry Breakfast Mug.

We didn't have it for breakfast, we're not cake maniacs! Recipe here. It was delicious and ready in just 5 minutes. Yum!

Next we tried the Lemon & Poppy Seed Drizzle Mug Cake.

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons butter
1 egg
1 tablespoon lemon juice
3 tablespoons sugar
4 tablespoons flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon poppy seeds
pinch of salt
whipped cream and lemon zest to finish

Microwave the butter for 15 seconds. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well. Microwave for 2 minutes. Top with the whipped cream and lemon zest. Eat while still warm.

We really liked this one, it was light and lemony. I'm going to try it again with a spoon of lemon curd on top!

Watch this space for more Mug Cakes!