Reading, thinking, doing August 2026

This summer I’ve been reading yellowing paperbacks, thinking about extreme heat, and promoting a book. A little context: this type of blog post is what I decided to do instead of starting a newsletter. You can subscribe to this blog (enter an email address, get updates when I post) using a widget that, hopefully, you can see at the bottom of the screen. Or, if you use an RSS reader like Feedly or Readwise Reader, you can add this blog there. The format was inspired by someone on BlueSky saying: “I don’t really want to read writing advice from authors… I just want to know what they are reading and thinking and doing.” Reading yellowing paperbacks I usually put together a list of the best things I’ve read at the end of each year but I’ve had a run of good ones in the past few months and thought I’d mention them here, now. The following are books that I ‘starred’ in the document I keep as a log: The Boarding House by William Trevor, 1965 – a weird-adjacent ensemble piece set among the…