Category: Books

Weekly Geeks – Reading Globally

Published on by Margaret7 Comments

weekly-geeksThis week’s Weekly Geeks is brought to us by Terri who asks us about our world travels through books.

Are you a global reader? How many countries have you “visited” in your reading? What are your favorite places or cultures to read about? Can you recommend particularly good books about certain regions, countries or continents? How do you find out about books from other countries? What countries would you like to read that you haven’t yet?

I’ve included books both set  in the country and by a native or resident of the country. I don’t have favourite places or cultures to read about – my choice of books is purely haphazard as far as location is concerned. Looking at the map there are large “white” areas indicating countries I’ve yet to visit. Brazil is the only country I’ve “visited” in South America through reading The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, who is Brazilian. I’ll be reading more from South America with Isabel Allende’s City of the Beasts and The House of Spirits.


Create Your Own Map at The World 66 site

Some of my favourites are:

Musing Monday – Book Covers

Published on by Margaret6 Comments

Musing Mondays (BIG) Today’s MUSING MONDAYS post is about book covers€¦

We all know the old adage about not judging a book by it’s cover, but just how much sway does a book cover have when it comes to your choice of book €“ whether buying or borrowing? Are there any books you’ve bought based on the cover alone?

The book cover doesn’t have much effect on me when I’m deciding whether to buy a book. If I know the author or am looking for a specific title I take no notice of the cover. If I’m browsing then it’s the title that attracts me more often than than the cover and I’ll look at books even if the covers aren’t to my taste. If it has an attractive cover that’s a plus. Above all it’s the content I go by not the cover, so if the blurb reads well, plus the opening pages then I’ll pick that book.

If I’m at the library I have a slightly different approach and it’s there that I’ll sometimes just go for an attractive cover as a sort of “mystery” buy, without checking the content. Sometimes this works and other times it’s a complete failure.

Unread – Booking Through Thursday

Published on by Margaret16 Comments

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An idea Deb got from The Toddled Dredge (via K for Kat). Here’s what she said:

‘So here today I present to you an Unread Books Challenge. Give me the list or take a picture of all the books you have stacked on your bedside table, hidden under the bed or standing in your shelf – the books you have not read, but keep meaning to. The books that begin to weigh on your mind. The books that make you cover your ears in conversation and say, No! Don’t give me another book to read! I can’t finish the ones I have!’ ‘

My first thought was “impossible, I’m not listing all my unread books, way too many!”  My second thought was OK – just the books in piles by the bed. These are there because at some time I thought I’d read them next and then forgot about them when others got added on top. I dragged them out and here is the list, in no particular order:

  • Turbulence by Giles Foden – a book from LibraryThing’s Early Reviewer Program. I have just started this and it promises to be good.
  • The Ode Less Travelled by Stephen Fry – another one I’ve started. It looks excellent but it’s not one to read striaght through – that’s my reason (excuse) for not having finished it.
  • Roma by Steven Saylor – a chunkster that I really want to read.
  • The Tuscan Trilogy by Derek Adie Flower – this was forgotten about at the bottom of a pile – sorry Derek.
  • The House of a Thousand Spirits by Isabel Allende – can’t remember why I haven’t started this one.
  • Resistance by Owen Sheers – I was full of enthusiasm for this when I bought it and since then I’ve never been in quite the right frame of mind to read it. I loved his series on BBC4 recently, A Poet’s Guide to Britain.
  • Stockings and Suspenders: a Quick Flash by Rosemary Hawthorne. This is a history of stockings etc full of fascinating information. Did you know that stockings are 3,000 years old and the first stocking machine was invented by a Nottingham vicar? It’s only a short book – must read it soon.
  • Shoe Addicts Anonymous by Beth Harbison – a library book – chic lit I think.
  • Fleshmarket Close by Ian Rankin – for when I get up to it in his Rebus series.
  • The Naming of the Dead by Ian Rankin – as above. (Both books borrowed from our son).
  • Whitethorn Woods by Maeve Binchy. I have started this and was disappointed it didn’t appeal much.
  • The Chymical Wedding by Lindsay Clarke – started but thought it a bit heavy going so I left it for a while.
  • The Appeal by John Grisham – again forgotten about at the bottom of a pile.
  • The Lollipop Shoes by Joanne Harris – forgotten about it because it was buried at the back of the piles.

This is a good exercise if only to remind me of the books buried by the bed.

My third thought came to me as I passed yet another pile of books on the bookcase on the landing, so instead of listing them here is a photo –

Bookcase Unread Books

I’ve had the Thomas Hardy book a long time now and although I’d started it once I put it to one side whilst I read more of his books and haven’t got back to it yet!

I’m in no danger of running out of books to read – I just need more space for them and time to read them!

Teaser Tuesday from The Gardens of the Dead

Published on by Margaret17 Comments

teaser-tuesdayTeaser Tuesday is hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading:

Share a couple or more sentences from the book you’re currently reading. You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your ‘teaser’ from €¦ that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given!

And please avoid spoilers!

My teaser today is from page xii of The Gardens of the Dead by William Brodrick:

She would never behold Charles, her husband again … he was at Smithfield Market, fretting over the morrow; or Nicholas, her unwary son … he was probably on the Barrier Reef, among the brightly coloured fish; or George, her friend and accomplice, who was waiting beneath a fire escape. And yes, in terms of these grand designs of hers, death had come too soon. It was, as ever, the spoiler.

William Brodrick was an Augustinian friar before leaving the order to become a practising barrister. The Gardens of the Dead is his second novel featuring Father Anselm, the barrister turned monk.

Mid-Year Reading

Published on by Margaret12 Comments

Musing Mondays

Today’s MUSING MONDAYS post is about mid-year reading€¦

Now that we’ve come to the middle of the year, what do you think of your 2009 reading so far? Read anything interesting that you’d like to share? Any outstanding favourites?

I’ve read some very good books this year so far. The list is in the tab labelled Books Read at the top of my blog. There have been just a few that were disappointing but a lot that I thought were excellent including these (in no particular order). Click on the titles to go to my reviews:

The Sunday Salon – Today’s Selection

Published on by Margaret8 Comments

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Some thoughts on today’s reading.

But first of all a short video (the first one I’ve put on YouTube):

Thunder and lightning – very, very frightening!

We had the most tremendous thunder storm last night and our lane was like a river in full flow. We’ve never had such a storm before with the whole lane covered by several inches of fast flowing water. The patio in the backgarden was completely flooded, fortunately it didn’t get quite up to the height of the doorway. This morning we found the slabs were lifted and the patio covered in garden debris.

I’ve not done much reading today. The family stayed overnight, arriving just as the water was subsiding. They’ve gone now to visit friends and will be back here later in the week.  Meanwhile, they’ve left behind quite a range of books that I could read today, including these –

Granddaughter (age 8 )

Granddaughter’s choice (age 3)

  • Pants by Giles Andreae, featuring lots of pants (what would Alan Sugar think?!) – giant frilly pig pants, fairy pants, hairy pants, run away from scary pants!  Love it!

Grandson’s (age 7) selection:

My selection?

I’ve read a short chapter from After the Victorians by A N Wilson, called The Silly Generation –  in the 1920s enthralling the world were Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, Charlie Chaplin, Ronald Coleman, Greta Garbo and Harold Lloyd. Rudolph Valentino, one of the first great stars of the Silver Screen died in 1922; thousands attended his funeral, openly weeping, foreshadowing the 21st century’s adulation of celebrities as witnessed by the deaths of Elvis, Marilyn Monroe, Princess Diana  and most recently Michael Jackson.