Reading Now

Members share what they are reading, where they read, and some of their reading habits

Date: 26 February 2026
Member: Nathan Jardine
Reading: Honeybees and Distant Thunder by Onda Riku.
Translator: Philip Gabriel.
Published by: Doubleday (2023)
ISBN: 13 978-0857527950
Where: On the London Underground Northern Line
Mise-en-scène: I have a long commute four days a week. Before I leave home I open a 500ml bottle of S.Pellegrino mineral water, drink the top inch of water, replace it with fresh lime juice and screw the top back on tight to keep the bubbles in. A good book and the water make the commute just tolerable. I usually get a seat becuase I am visibly old and broken. The walking stick gives the game away. I find that Londoners are surprisingly kind and considerate.

Date: 2 February 2026
Member: Joe Tibbetts
Reading: Japan the Beautiful and Myself by Yasunari Kawabata. The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Matsuo Basho; The India Trilogy by V.S. Naipaul; The Complete Angler by Izaak & Charles Cotton.
Translators: Japan the Beautiful and Myself translated by Edward Seidensticker and The Narrow Road to the Deep North translated by Nobuyuki Yuasa
Published by: Kawabata by Kodansha International 1968 and Basho by Penguin Classics
ISBN: 0-87011-088-8
Where: At home in my “reading chair”
Mise-en-scène: I have a very comfortable, red leather, wing-backed chair with an added lumbar support cushion. I have a good reading light that shines over my right shoulder. All this was designed for reading but I find it is also wonderful for sleeping and for viewing our small back garden which we share with a grey squirrel, some garden birds and lots of butterflies. I have a small table to my left which often has four or five books and an empty coffee cup on it. Sometimes, as I awaken from my post prandial kip, I imagine that Donald Trump and the incompetence of so many western European political leaders was all just a bad dream.

Japan the Beautiful and Myself by Yasunari Kawabata. Translated by Edward Seidensticker. Published by Kodansha International 1968 ISBN 0-87011-088-8 suggested by Joe Tibbetts 20 January 2026 This is Kawabata’s acceptance speech given to Oscar Fredrik Wilhelm Olaf Gustaf VI, King of Sweden and the Members of the Swedish Academy in 1968 on being presented with the Nobel Prize for Literature.

All She Was Worth by Miyuki Miyabe. Translated by Alfred Birnbaum Published by Mariner Books May 1999 ISBN-13 978-0395966587 suggested by Popthekettleonpet 23 January 2026

Tokyo Express by Seicho Matsumoto, translated by Jesse Kirkwood. Published by Penguin Classics, 2023 ISBN 13: 9780241439081 suggested by Tokaido Tim