A is for Astronaut - the joy of reading several books at once

There's a stack of books sitting on the stairs.  They look at me reproachfully as I bought them back in June celebrating a permanent job.  Since then, they have sat there.  I waded through the "for and against" books on christians and homosexuality and ended up more confused and certain only of the fact that 6 -7 passages in the bible weigh against a fat volume of verses on social ethics and justice.  All of which I probably tramp over on a daily basis, as a comparatively - and that feels a bit of a joke - fat cat westerner.  A wiser friend tells me both sides of the argument sound convincing which is very true.  There is also a book on "cold case christianity" which I leant to someone and wanted to read,  so re ordered one night and so haven't got round to yet

The actual reading is the leaning pile in the front room, cosily sandwiched between the gas fire and the sofa, which accumulates bookmarks, coffee cups if I am not careful and junk if I am miserable - I am tidy to a fault so I am starting to realise that when paperwork and admin pile up, I need to listen to my heart and say hello to what's going on in there!  I know - I want a holiday - it's starting to be good walking season and the peak district walk is 6 weeks away.

So I am actually reading "ask an astronaut" by Tim Peake, which is truly lovely.  I would have adored it as a teenager - child/adult questions to an astronaut : how do you go to the loo in space, what do you eat in space, what happens to the rubbish, lots of more technical stuff and pictures and diagrams.  What's not to like? I've also just finished the railway detective which is about murder in Victorian times; a dastardly plot to blow up the Great Exhibition and take on the train builders.  Extremely enjoyable feel good fiction.  And I have on order from the library "living with a black dog" by Matthew Johnstone and an autobiography of Professor Dame Sue Black whose more serious work I will struggle with but whose views on death I look forward to reading!  A life without reading can't be much fun.