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Numbers Game

Published on April 9, 2009 by Margaret3 Comments

Deb writes: For something different, I’m borrowing a question from €¦ here! One of the very first questions ever at Booking Through Thursday. Back from 2005 when Laura owned the blog but, because it was so new, it didn’t get as many responses as it does now €¦ so, why not revisit?

Here’s the question:

Some people read one book at a time. Some people have a number of them on the go at any given time, perhaps a reading in bed book, a breakfast table book, a bathroom book, and so on, which leads me to€¦

Are you currently reading more than one book?
If so, how many books are you currently reading?
Is this normal for you?
Where do you keep your current reads?

My answers:

Yes, I usually do read more than one book at a time – each time I decided to concentrate on just one another one pops up demanding to be read straight away.
Currently I’m reading three.
Normally I have at least three or four – or more – on the go. Some may have got a bit stalled and some I’ve only just read a few chapters.
I have books I’m reading in the kitchen, in the bedroom, computer room, bedroom, and living room. They’re all over the place – I never have to go far to find a book – books in the car too and in my handbag when I go out. The only place there are no books is in the bathroom – I’ve dropped too many books in the bath to read there and you can’t read in the shower!

Tuesday Teaser

Published on April 7, 2009 by Margaret17 Comments

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

Grab your current read
Open to a random page
Share two (2) ‘teaser’ sentences from somewhere on that page
BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

My teaser today is from page 107 of The Cipher Garden by Martin Edwards, a Lake District murder mystery.

For a wild instant she imagined sidling up behind the woman. It would be so easy to slip off the scarf, loop it around her neck – and squeeze.

Musing Monday – My To-Be-Read List

Published on April 6, 2009 by Margaret6 Comments

Today’s MUSING MONDAYS post is about your to be read list€¦

As a follow up to last week’s question, Joseph asked how you keep track of your tbr list. Do you have a paper list or on your computer? Do you take it with you when you go shopping? How do you decide what gets added to it?

I blithely write about my “tbr read” as though it’s just a list, but it isn’t. It’s several lists, in several places.

For years it was just in my head.
Then when I found Amazon I started a Wish List on there – books I thought I wanted to own.
I soon found that wasn’t enough. I like online book-browsing, but it can’t beat the real thing and there were more and more books that I thought I might like but I wanted to have a proper look at them before actually buying them. So I started a Library List on Amazon, for books I might want to read and I either check them in the library or in a bookshop. Now this is much longer than my Wish List. At one point I did print it out to take with me but now I only note down a few titles when I go shopping or to the library.
Then when I started to read blogs I jotted down authors and titles in a notebook and the name of the blog I got it from. I took this book with me to the library or bookshop each time I went and crossed off the books whenever I read one of them. At first this was manageable but as time went on I added more and more books, even sometimes adding them more than once when I saw them reviewed on different blogs.
My next list is on LibraryThing. I have tagged the books I own and haven’t read “TBR” and this is very useful as I can bring up on the screen all the books on my own shelves to remind me of what I have waiting patiently to-be-read without going out and buying/borrowing any more.

Even though I have these lists the most frequently used one is the one in my head, because I often forget to take the notebook with me or to check my Amazon Library List . Recently I’ve tried to be more selective about adding books to the lists because there are already so many books on them and I’m sure there are some I’ll never get round to reading – so why add more? Of course I do, because there are always unmissable books being written that I want to read.

The Sunday Salon – Reading Report

Published on April 5, 2009 by Margaret5 Comments

As the first quarter of the year is now over (where did it go?) I thought I’d look at the state of my reading over the last three months. Given my obstinate urges not to read books I’d planned to read I’d decided at the end of last year not to join any challenges apart from What’s In a Name 2?, which I’d enjoyed very much last year. So of course I then signed up for Support Your Local Library Reading Challenge, the Chunkster Challenge and the Agatha Christie Reading Challenge.

Challenge Progress January – March

What’s In a Name 2?

The Challenge is to read one book from each of 6 different categories between January 1, 2009 and December 31, 2009. So far I’ve read 3 books from 2 of the categories. Not too bad – at this rate I’m on target to complete the challenge.

Support Your Local Library Reading Challenge

The Challenge is to read 25 library books by 31 December 2009. I have absolutely no problems with this Challenge and am well on target with 10 books read so far. They don’t have to be on any particular subject, have particular features in the title, or be in any specific genre. They just have to be library books. This suits me down to the ground as I can pick whatever takes my fancy whenever I go to the library.

Chunkster Challenge

I joined this in an attempt to read some books that I’ve owned for a while and not read yet. A Chunkster book is 450 pages or more long and I signed up to the Too Big To Ignore Anymore section – that is books you already own on your to-be-read list.

You have to decide which ones to read in advance and stick to that. I’m no good at that and haven’t read a single one of them yet. Why do I suddenly have an aversion to reading books that I really do want to read just because I’ve put them in a list? Looking at my list today they all look enticing, so why haven’t I even picked up one of them?

The Agatha Christie Reading Challenge

I’m doing much better with this one, mainly I think because when I go to the library there are always quite a few Christie books to choose from. But on looking more closely I find that the Challenge as described by Kerrie is to read them in the order they were written – at least that’s what she is doing. I’ve read three so far, not in the order they were written because that would mean trying to buy them or find them at the library. I’m trying to cut down on the number of books I buy and I’m too impatient to wait for library reservations to materialise. So I’m reading them as I find them.

General Progress

Of course I’ve read other books apart from the ones in these Reading Challenges. They’re all listed with links to posts where I’ve written about them on the Books Read tab at the top of the page. So far this year I’ve read 26 books, most of them have been really good reads. A lot of them have been spontaneous choices either from the library, bookshops, presents or my own shelves.

My “Plan” for Reading over the next three months is not to plan what I read, not to bother if the books I choose fit into any of the Challenge categories, but each time I finish one book to read whatever takes my fancy next.

What I’m Reading Today

So far today I’ve read a few pages from Sue Roe’s book The Private Lives of the Impressionists. I wish it had more illustrations, because I want to see all the paintings she mentions. This morning I read about Manet’s paintings of Berthe Morisot in 1872/3. His wife Suzanne was tolerant of his womanizing and put up with his love of other women. He painted Berthe (who was also a painter) in seductive poses, searching for the

sensation Ã©lÃ©mentaire, the sensation de vivre which ValÃ©ry elsewhere equated with the frisson of being in love.

Library Loot

Published on April 3, 2009 by Margaret8 Comments

I gave myself a pat on the back as I walked out of the library yesterday, because for once I’d borrowed fewer books than I’d taken back. As usual though I can’t wait to start reading them and have already started the genealogy book – well I’ve dipped into it. My loot this week is:

The Anti-social Behaviour of Horace Rumpole by John Mortimer. This has such a beautiful cover. I think it may be the last novel published by Sir John Mortimer who died in January this year. The Times is quoted on the back cover: ” Very funny about the old dinosaur’s attempt to fit into the depressingly clean modern world”. It promises to be good – about petty criminials, kids playing football in the streets and it even looks as though Rumpole himself will be getting an ASBO (Anti-Social Behaviour Order).
Not the End of the World by Kate Atkinson. I’ve become a fan of Kate Atkinson so I have to read this one. It’s a collection of short stories, beautifully illustrated with woodcuts, described on the cover as:

Vibrantly contemporary, plausibly implausible, refreshingly original … a timely meditation on mythology and transformation …

The Beginner’s Guide to Tracing Your Roots by Diane Marelli. I’m researching my family history whenever I get the time. Actually once I get started it’s hard to stop, but then my brain gets addled and I get everyone mixed up. So I was interested in this book which decribes how Diane Marelli went about her research and I thought it looked rather different from other “how-to” books. It’s written with enthusiasm and is very funny in parts – it’s not a text book but is still packed with information.
The Birthday Present by Barbara Vine. Cath’s post on her blog Read Warbler about Barbara Vine made me realise that I hadn’t read any of Vine’s books, although I’m familiar with her work through the TV adaptations. Anyway books are better than filmed versions so I thought I’d see what the library had. Again from the book cover, The Birthday Present is described:

Set against an age of IRA bombings, the first Gulf War and sleazy politics, The Birthday Present is the gripping story of a fall from grace, and of a man who carries within him all the hypocrisy, greed and self-obsession of a troubled era.

I hope it won’t be too long before I get time to read these books!

And to finish off here is another photo of my local branch library, showing a display of books on Mediterranean Cookery with some of the fiction shelves in the background. Note the stand of reading glasses!

500th Post! And a Giveaway

Published on April 2, 2009 by Margaret42 Comments

This is my 500th post! I began very tentatively in July 2006, when I wrote my first post beginning “This is my first attempt at writing a blog.” It wasn’t much of an attempt and I wrote nothing more until April 2007. I never thought then that I’d keep going for another two years and reach 500 posts! To celebrate I’m holding a giveaway – see below.

Last week we were in Scotland staying with our son and his family and whilst there we visited Linlithgow and found a really great little bookshop called, not surprisingly, the Linlithgow Bookshop. It’s on the High Street in a 16th century building, the entrance being down some steps through a small door – if you’re taller than me you have to duck your head! I’m sorry I didn’t take any photos but their website shows what it’s like. It has very friendly, helpful staff and a really good range of books, specialising in Scottish authors, children’s books, travel and fiction. In fact it’s packed with books, cards and gifts – a book lover’s heaven. We bought several books and I could have bought plenty more:

Be Near Me by Andrew O’Hagan – an award-winning Scottish author. This book was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2006. It’s about a priest assigned to a small Scottish parish. The title attracted me first, taken from Tennyson’s “In Memoriam” and when I read the first paragraph I was hooked:

My mother once took an hour out of her romances to cast some light on the surface of things. I was just back from Rome and we stood together on the ramparts of Edinburgh Castle, watching the sky go black above a warship anchored in the Firth of Forth. Picture that time of day in the old city when the shop windows stand out and the streets of the New Town begin to glow with moral sentiment. She took my arm and we rested like passengers bound for our distant lives, warm in our coats and weak in our hearts, the rain falling heavily on the stone.

Star Gazing by Linda Gillard – I wrote very briefly about her book Emotional Geology in my second post. I’ve been meaning to read this one for ages. Linda now lives in Glasgow, having spent six years living on the Isle of Skye. This book was shortlisted for the Romantic Novel of the Year 2009. It is set in Skye with a blind heroine exploring the beauty of the island, in particular the stars in the winter night sky.
Doors Open by Ian Rankin – the award-winning Scottish crime author famous for the Inspector Rebus books. Now D I Rebus has retired this is a stand-alone thriller about a plan to steal paintings from the National Gallery of Scotland. I couldn’t resist this one either.
Southern Uplands by Nick Williams – this was my husband’s choice. It’s a pocket mountain guide. It’s a small book but filled with beautiful photos and sketch maps. I think I’ll only be attempting the gentler walks and content myself with reading about the others. The book features

40 circular hill routes from the remote Galloway Hills and the rolling Cheviots to the folding valleys of the Borders and Edinburgh’s own Pentland skyline, this region is rich in history and diverse in topography, inspiring great days out for walkers of all levels.

Making History by Stephen Fry (a present for our son) – what can I say about Stephen Fry? He makes me laugh and he makes me think; both are good for you. I love QI, he was wonderful as Jeeves in Jeeves and Wooster with Hugh Laurie as Bertie Wooster, and even further back I enjoyed the show A Bit of Fry and Laurie. His documentary The Secret Life of a Manic depressive was very good and his TV series Stephen Fry In America was fantastic (I have the book of the series) and that’s only mentioning a few of his achievements. If you follow him on Twitter you’ll be amazed at the amount of travelling he’s been doing recently – currently he’s island hopping around Indonesia (I think).

Giveaway

Because this is my 500th post I’m having a book giveaway. It has a Scottish connection as I’ve been reading books by Scottish authors or set in Scotland recently (and our son lives there).

Everyone is welcome, wherever you live. Just put a comment on this post giving the title of the book you’re currently reading and whether you would recommend reading it or not and I’ll enter your names in a draw next Thursday to win a copy of Ian Rankin’s last Inspector Rebus novel Exit Music and a magnetic bookmark from the Linlithgow Bookshop.