That upbeat ‘I’m going to finish all the unfinished books’ post that I posted at the start of the month? Yeah, that didn’t go quite as planned.

I did finish Illuminae and it was incredible (and I will review it eventually) but that was on the 5th and I didn’t pick anything else up again after than. Nothing. Nada. Zilch.

It turns out that my head just isn’t in a book place right now. The time I would normally have my nose in a book has been spent in different ways and after a few days of feeling bad about it, I have accepted it and enjoyed a month of ‘other things’ instead.

I have still had sudden waves of guilty feelings about all the things I had planned to do but haven’t, but actually, looking back at the month I have done a fair bit even if it wasn’t reading.

There was Arthur’s birthday and his party and Caius getting stuck in Scotland because of the snow all in the very first week and it hasn’t really stopped since then!

I have made the most of the sunshine when it has shown its face and got going on some gardening – I took a break from the Bramble Battle and fought with some rose bushes instead this last week. Clearing out the two random flowerbeds in the middle of the lawn, ready for them to be turned back into grass. Two rose bushes went to a new house, two others found new homes elsewhere in our garden and the myriad of bulbs I dug up have been replanted throughout the borders. Aside from a few snowdrops and daffodils I have zero idea what most of them are so here’s hoping they survived my (none to gentle) efforts and I get to discover what they are as the year goes on!

Tori got given a set of knitting needles which inspired me to dig out my stuff and have another go. Turned out I am not the right person to teach Tori to knit because I’m too much of a beginner myself and just got us both in a big old mess, but we had a go!

Arthur and I got crafty for the church Easter market last weekend (my house may be glittery for the rest of forever now…) and made bunnies. Arthur’s won first prize!

We played games, I got addicted to an Xbox game and the nearest I got to reading was indulging in an evening of Fighting Fantasy fun. And that’s all okay.

I was beating myself up over not reading the stuff on my list, because that’s how my brain works, but that’s silly because it’s just a list that I made up. The books aren’t going to go off or disappear – I can pick them up next month or next year or never. Whatever I want.

I am hoping to read the Book Club book before our next meeting which means I have a week and a half  – it’s not too enormous so I reckon I can do it. (It’s Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury and has been on my TBR forever!)

After that? I’m planning on picking something light and fluffy to get me reading again and then see what April brings. One of my neighbours very kindly brought round a stack of books she was finished with so I might start with one of those as there were a couple of easy looking romances in there.

I didn’t totally ignore my books this month though – I gave my bookshelves a bit of a makeover and decided to make them rainbow pretty! What do you think?