Musing Mondays

Musing Mondays – Bookshops

Published on February 2, 2009 by Margaret9 Comments

monday-musing Musing Mondays is hosted by Rebecca from Just One More Page.

Today’s MUSING MONDAYS post is about book stores…
How do you choose what to buy from your local bookstore? Do you have a list, or just browse? What is the selection in your book store like? Do you find what you’re looking for? Do you feel pressured to buy the kind of books the store makes prominent?

There is only one independent bookshop near me, about 8 miles away. Waterstones and W H Smiths are nearer and I visit these more, mainly because they’re where I usually shop. The trouble with bookshops like Waterstones is that they’re usually the same wherever you go, with the same books on display. Waterstones has a branch very close to where I used to work and I used to go there most lunchtimes when I wasn’t in the library. Sometimes I went looking for a specific book and other times I just browsed.

Further afield in Oxford, I like to visit Borders and most of all Blackwells, my favourite bookshop of all. It’s book heaven.

I’m trying to resist buying any more books until I’ve made some inroads into my to-be-read piles and so I don’t often go in bookshops these days as it’s almost impossible to come out without a book once I’ve gone in. It’s not that I feel pressured by the displays but because there’s usually one or more books I want to buy whether they’re on display or not.

My son found this blog Great Bookshops, which is great if you live in Scotland (he does, I don’t) because most are in Scotland but some are south of the border. To quote them this blog is:

dedicated to the best independent book shops. Not those that are part of a large national chain, but those that are much more the one of a kind, kind; shops that offer readers enthusiastic and knowledgeable advice, ones that are run by people who are passionate about books, not product.

Published on January 19, 2009April 25, 2020 by Margaret5 Comments

Today’s MUSING MONDAYS post is about reading while sick…

How does your being sick (or injured) affect your reading? Do you read more? Less? Do you pick out a different book than you had already planned? Do you have a “comfort book” that makes you feel better?

It all depends on how sick I am. If I’m just off-colour or have a cold it doesn’t affect my reading, except that I’ll probably spend more time reading, until I fall asleep. When I’ve felt really bad – when I had flu or a middle ear infection for instance (both were years ago) I just couldn’t read at all – couldn’t even lift my head off the pillow, never mind pick up a book!

lark-rise-still-glides

I don’t have a “comfort book” that makes me feel better, although when I was recovering from flu I read and enjoyed Flora Thompson’s books Lark Rise to Candleford and Still Glides the Stream and remember both with affection as comforting books.

the-sea-the-sea2 When I had a really bad cold once (not flu) I was off work because of it and read Iris Murdoch’s The Sea, The Sea, which was not really a good choice if you want a book to cheer you up, but it sticks in my mind. It’s the sort of book I like to read in large chunks and having a cold gave me the extra time – although I did keep falling asleep and having to re-read pages. It’s funny but when I’m dropping off I read words that make sense but are not in the book at all and when I read it again it’s very different – either that or I have no idea what I’ve read at all.

Monday Musing – Reading on the Go

Published on December 15, 2008 by Margaret13 Comments

Today’™s MUSING MONDAYS post is about reading on the go’¦

I always like to have a book with me at all times ‘“ call it a nerdy grown-up security blanket ‘“ and rarely do I leave the house without slipping one into my bag (even if I KNOW I’™m not going to have a chance to read it). Do you take a book with you? Do you take whatever book you’™re currently reading, or do you have a special on-the-go book? And do you have a preference for a these types of book (paperback, hardback; short stories; poetry etc)?

This follows on quite well from yesterday’s post about how many books I’m currently reading. I do take a book with me most places I go, as you never know when you’re going to find an opportunity to read. I used to keep a book in the car but as I don’t drive every day I don’t do that any more, but I slip one into my handbag each time I go out, so that limits the size of book I choose. It’s usually a paperback as that is lighter to carry around and if I haven’t got one on the go that’s the right size I pick one that is, which is one reason I often have a lot of books on the go at once. I don’t for example take out Les Miserables, which I’m currently reading!

I don’t have a preference for any particular type to take out, but as I read more fiction than non-fiction it is usually fiction. When I worked I always had a book that I left there to read at lunch-time – I was even known to read a book whilst waiting for the lift, which used to take an age to come. I hated the waste of time.

Musing Mondays

Published on December 8, 2008 by Margaret8 Comments

How long do you wait after finishing a book before you pick/start another one? How many books do you have planned ahead or do you pick up random books from your tbr pile (if you have one)? Do you review right away or keep reading and come back to it later?

As I always have more than on book on the go at once I’m never without a book to read. I usually start thinking about what to read next as I’m coming to the end of one book. I try to plan in advance but usually I read whichever book takes my fancy at the time, or I read one that’s due back at the library and cannot be renewed. I use the challenges I’ve joined to nudge me to read from my large to-be-read list. (See my previous post for a list of books I’m “planning” to read next year.)

Reviews vary. Sometimes I review a book straight after reading it – which I prefer, but other times I let books settle in my mind before reviewing them, but if I leave it too long it gets more difficult to write about a book without going back and scan reading it. I like to make notes as I go along but sometimes I get so involved with the book and don’t take any notes. At the moment I’m a bit behind with writing about the books I’ve read as I have still to write about Stillmeadow and Sugarbridge by Gladys Taber and Barbara Webster, Cider With Rosie by Laurie Lee and The Arsenic Labyrinth by Martin Edwards.