Tag Archives: Ali Smith

First Monday Book Day

First Monday Book Day: Ali Smith

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I did it.  I read the full Seasonal Quartet by Ali Smith last month.  And then I realized that I enjoyed her writing so much, that I read a bunch of her other books too.  She is a writer that is perfectly in my sweet spot of wordplay and art and invention.  I read 7 of her novels in March, and I truly enjoyed every single one.

Ali Smith books read last month with my star ratings: Not a bad one in the bunch.

  • Autumn (5 out of 5)
  • Winter (4.5 out of 5)
  • Spring (5 out of 5)
  • Summer (4.5 out of 5)
  • Gliff (4 out of 5)
  • Companion Piece (4.5 out of 5)
  • How to be Both (5 out of 5)

I have to compliment my past self for deciding to keep buying books by authors that I enjoy even though I don't always read them right away.  In the past year I've done a deep dive into Jeff Vandermeer (October), N. K. Jemisin (January) and now Ali Smith (March) just because I had a bunch of their books un-read on my bookshelf.  I got to revisit the books of theirs that I liked in the past and add on more reading experiences.  It's a good way to do it.

Not sure that I have a real goal in mind for reading in April.  It's the end of the semester, so I'll probably just end up reading whatever comes across my path without a real plan.

Currently, I'm reading Worry by Alexandra Tanner - I just started it, but it's supposed to be witty and fun.

Which author would you dedicate a month or two of your reading to if you had the chance?

Books Read in March:

"You Dreamed of Empires" was a real trip of a book - the meeting of Moctezuma and Cortes imagined through a hazy mushroom trip.  I've read two books of Enrigue's (both translated by Natasha Wimmer) and both have been surreal and captivating.

Also, Natasha Wimmer is becoming a must-read translator for me, her hits/misses ratio is spectacular. She's done Bolaño, Enrigue, Nona Fernández - all great.  I see that she has also tranlated a Fresán book, which I now pretty much have to read.

I did not enjoy my first experience reading Kathy Acker.  No more of that for me, thanks.

First Monday Book Day

First Monday Book Day: Seasonal

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I've mentioned before that I have been on a very slowly progressing odyssey to acquire the entire Seasonal Quartet by Ali Smith.  To recap: in 2017 I read Autumn and loved it.  I noted that she was writing additional books as follow ups to that and resolved to read those other books as well.

Time passed.

In 2019, I bought Winter, the second book in the series, I noted that Spring was coming later that year and that Summer would be out shortly after that.  I resolved to read all three books once they were out and available.

Time passed.

In 2021, I was in a bookshop in White Bear Lake and noticed that they had all four books of the Seasonal Quartet available.  Being unprepared, I misremembered my previous purchases and bought Winter and Summer. Upon returning home I discovered that I now had two copies of Winter and zero copies of Spring. I resolved to buy the missing book and start reading the series.

Time passed.

In 2024, I was in a used bookshop and found a copy of Spring! The series, now complete, I just needed to set aside some time to read all four books. In September, I posted, "Now I just have to get around to reading these."

Between September and now, I listened to a podcast episode of Across the Pond with an interview of Ali Smith about her new book, Gliff, It is a wonderful interview and it reminded me of everything I loved about Autumn and so I resolved two things.

  1. March of 2025 would be the month that I read the entire Seasonal Quartet (I started re-reading Autumn on March 1, and I still love it)
  2. I went out and bought Gliff, and I resolved to read that one and its companion novel Glyph when that one comes out, I'll just have to keep an eye out for it, hopefully it takes less than 8 years to follow through on this one.

All the books I read in February: