So...adieu, adieu to you and you and you (I think that may be overstating the number of people who read this blog!) I'll still be checking into other blogs and commenting occasionally.
So long!
Showing posts with label General. Show all posts
Showing posts with label General. Show all posts
Saturday, January 3, 2009
So Long, Farewell
I've decided not to continue on with my blog anymore. I've always struggled to keep it updated and frankly I can't be bothered any longer. I have too much else going on to be able to dedicate enough time like I wanted to.
Friday, December 5, 2008
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
My Brand Spanking New Library
OK, so I've moved house and, for the first time in my life, I have a place where I can put all my books together. It's not quite complete, but this is the basic setup. The purple (excuse me, plum) armchair and ottoman arrived last week.
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Classic First Lines Part 4
47) They embraced each other as tightly as two-flavor entwined string cheese, the orange probably being a bland Cheddar and the white, Mozzarella.
48) Her mouth was set with pearls adorned with elastic rubies and tuned with minstrel lays, while her bulbous nose gracefully concealed its umbrage, and her eyes imparted a cross-eyed, but radiant glow to the azure of the sky
49) As she gingerly reached for the constipated gorilla's suppository.
50) Nicolette let the silk blouse fall from her shoulders, wrapped her left leg around John and deftly cut some cheese.
51) He smelled of pork. Rotting pork, in fact, and lots of it.
52) This time he was prepared for the alien probe, having just finished a seventh bean burrito, a case of Bud, and four packs of Pop Rocks
53) The graphic crime-scene photo was not pretty, mainly beause of the shutter speed,
54) Desiree, the first female ape to go up in space, winked at me slyly and pouted her thick, rubbery lips unmistakably - the first of many such advances during what would prove to be the longest, and most memorable, space voyage of my career.
55) Lashed with duct tape to the side of his stolen hovercraft, her head lolling in the breeze...
56) He fell off the wagon like a frozen turkey from a Goodwill Helicopter.
57) No one knew of Alicia's troubles, because they'd learned to tune her out.
58) Colin slammed the spritely Vauxhall Vixen into a lower gear as he screamed through the roundabout heading toward the familiar pink rowhouse in Puking-On-The-Wold.
59) And so rosy-fingered Dawn awakened him, first with light counterclockwise strokes, then with gentle kneading, and finally with relentless ticklings that made him rue ever buying her finger paint.
60) Borson crushed a Coke can powerfully with one hand and turned slowly to face the source of the ridicule.
61) He blasted the creature from Xilth, as one pops the head off a zit, except of on a much larger scale.
62) "Forgetttabowwwtit" intoned Arnold gutturally,
63) Olive was waiting on the couch, with only a smile and a cucumber sandwich.
64) "Wear something uncomplicated-I'm in no mood for a struggle tonight,"he drawled.
65) Though flanked by two swarthy state troopers, Paula found her gaze drawn to the chubby saxophonist.
66) Along greasy, paving-stones slick from the sputum of the sky, he wearily trudged up the hill from the cemetery where his wife, sister, brother, and three children were all buried, blissfully unaware of the catastrophe that was soon to devastate his life
48) Her mouth was set with pearls adorned with elastic rubies and tuned with minstrel lays, while her bulbous nose gracefully concealed its umbrage, and her eyes imparted a cross-eyed, but radiant glow to the azure of the sky
49) As she gingerly reached for the constipated gorilla's suppository.
50) Nicolette let the silk blouse fall from her shoulders, wrapped her left leg around John and deftly cut some cheese.
51) He smelled of pork. Rotting pork, in fact, and lots of it.
52) This time he was prepared for the alien probe, having just finished a seventh bean burrito, a case of Bud, and four packs of Pop Rocks
53) The graphic crime-scene photo was not pretty, mainly beause of the shutter speed,
54) Desiree, the first female ape to go up in space, winked at me slyly and pouted her thick, rubbery lips unmistakably - the first of many such advances during what would prove to be the longest, and most memorable, space voyage of my career.
55) Lashed with duct tape to the side of his stolen hovercraft, her head lolling in the breeze...
56) He fell off the wagon like a frozen turkey from a Goodwill Helicopter.
57) No one knew of Alicia's troubles, because they'd learned to tune her out.
58) Colin slammed the spritely Vauxhall Vixen into a lower gear as he screamed through the roundabout heading toward the familiar pink rowhouse in Puking-On-The-Wold.
59) And so rosy-fingered Dawn awakened him, first with light counterclockwise strokes, then with gentle kneading, and finally with relentless ticklings that made him rue ever buying her finger paint.
60) Borson crushed a Coke can powerfully with one hand and turned slowly to face the source of the ridicule.
61) He blasted the creature from Xilth, as one pops the head off a zit, except of on a much larger scale.
62) "Forgetttabowwwtit" intoned Arnold gutturally,
63) Olive was waiting on the couch, with only a smile and a cucumber sandwich.
64) "Wear something uncomplicated-I'm in no mood for a struggle tonight,"he drawled.
65) Though flanked by two swarthy state troopers, Paula found her gaze drawn to the chubby saxophonist.
66) Along greasy, paving-stones slick from the sputum of the sky, he wearily trudged up the hill from the cemetery where his wife, sister, brother, and three children were all buried, blissfully unaware of the catastrophe that was soon to devastate his life
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Classic First Lines Part 3
31) It was a dark night on Pluto, a planet nobody had ever taken seriously before.
33) As she pulled Chloe's unmistakable prosthetic arm from under the bed, she knew she'd been played for a fool.
34) Grandpa was belly down in the meadow , taking a close-up of a cow-pie, when lightning struck.
35) The corpse had been shredded, as usual, with coffee beans to throw off the police dogs.
36) Her face was a perfect oval, like a circle compressed by a Thigh Master
37) I'd always wondered what it was like to wake up naked in a dumpster...
38) The chubby-faced cherub of a niece was stopped abruptly, like a pancake, by the sliding door she had failed to notice, and slid to the floor in a motionless heap.
39) Hoping his lunch hour would provide time for a romp and a digestive biscuit...
40) His thoughts, making and breaking alliances like underpants in a tumble dryer,
41) My underwear stuck to my backside like an All-Pro cornerback to a rookie wide receiver as I browsed through the seed catalog that had mistakenly found its way into my mailbox."
42) Her hair as dark as new tires, her eyes flashing like bright hubcaps, she was driven -fueled by a single accelerant- the man, Alf Romeo.
43) To escape the grizzly, all Gordon had to do was outdistance his chubby hiking partner, Fred.
44) 'Time to leave the Fluffy Forest,' said Susan, as she was smashed on crack.
45) On reflection, Angela perceived that her relationship with Tom had always been rocky like the way a squashed toilet roll that goes bumpity bumpity in it's holder,
46) Mud squished up between the toes like cappuccino-colored bog-ooze.
33) As she pulled Chloe's unmistakable prosthetic arm from under the bed, she knew she'd been played for a fool.
34) Grandpa was belly down in the meadow , taking a close-up of a cow-pie, when lightning struck.
35) The corpse had been shredded, as usual, with coffee beans to throw off the police dogs.
36) Her face was a perfect oval, like a circle compressed by a Thigh Master
37) I'd always wondered what it was like to wake up naked in a dumpster...
38) The chubby-faced cherub of a niece was stopped abruptly, like a pancake, by the sliding door she had failed to notice, and slid to the floor in a motionless heap.
39) Hoping his lunch hour would provide time for a romp and a digestive biscuit...
40) His thoughts, making and breaking alliances like underpants in a tumble dryer,
41) My underwear stuck to my backside like an All-Pro cornerback to a rookie wide receiver as I browsed through the seed catalog that had mistakenly found its way into my mailbox."
42) Her hair as dark as new tires, her eyes flashing like bright hubcaps, she was driven -fueled by a single accelerant- the man, Alf Romeo.
43) To escape the grizzly, all Gordon had to do was outdistance his chubby hiking partner, Fred.
44) 'Time to leave the Fluffy Forest,' said Susan, as she was smashed on crack.
45) On reflection, Angela perceived that her relationship with Tom had always been rocky like the way a squashed toilet roll that goes bumpity bumpity in it's holder,
46) Mud squished up between the toes like cappuccino-colored bog-ooze.
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Classic First Lines Part 2
16) Lidie Meaks was a medium-sized, elegant figure, wearing a neatly fitted travelling dress of black alpaca, her raven black hair, copious both in length and volume and figured like a deep river rippled by the wind was parted in the centre and combed smoothly down, ornamenting her pink temples with a flowing tracery that passed round to its modillion windings on a graceful time.
17) The sea raged, the wind howled, and the sand was just plain irritated.
18) We stumbled numbly, dragging behind us the frozen dead corpse of our friend, Bartholomew, whom the hardened permafrost of the tundra had resisted our burying.
19) If it weren't for the knee-high sewage lapping at his dress pants and the confused terrorist spraying automatic gunfire over his head, Johnson could see little reason to change his mind about the wisdom of registering at a two-star hotel.
20) The Prince stood, wondering how her supple lips would feel against his own and contemplated how bad Sleeping Beauty's morning breath would be after one hundred years.
21) The butler did it. Sorry!! I've given the ending away - I couldn't help myself.
22) The thunder sounded like a thin sheet of metal being shaken backstage
23) Thockmorton knew if he were ever to break wind in the echo chamber, he would never hear the end of it.
24) The newest Lady Turnpot descended, her creamy bosom rising and falling like a temperamental souffle.
25) The sun rose over the Canada geese, feathered rumps mooning the day.
26) She gratefully popped the glass orb back in place with a soft sucking sound.
27) The moment he laid eyes on inmate #472825994, he became a prisoner of love.
28) As the blue screen froze, Capt Kirk vowed never to use a Microsoft system again.
29) The blood dripped from his nose like hot grease from a roasting bratwurst pierced with a fork, except that grease isn't red and the blood wasn't that hot and it wasn't a fork that poked him in the nose.
30) This is a story of twin Siamese kittens, or, more specifically, of their shared appendage; it is a tail of two kitties.
17) The sea raged, the wind howled, and the sand was just plain irritated.
18) We stumbled numbly, dragging behind us the frozen dead corpse of our friend, Bartholomew, whom the hardened permafrost of the tundra had resisted our burying.
19) If it weren't for the knee-high sewage lapping at his dress pants and the confused terrorist spraying automatic gunfire over his head, Johnson could see little reason to change his mind about the wisdom of registering at a two-star hotel.
20) The Prince stood, wondering how her supple lips would feel against his own and contemplated how bad Sleeping Beauty's morning breath would be after one hundred years.
21) The butler did it. Sorry!! I've given the ending away - I couldn't help myself.
22) The thunder sounded like a thin sheet of metal being shaken backstage
23) Thockmorton knew if he were ever to break wind in the echo chamber, he would never hear the end of it.
24) The newest Lady Turnpot descended, her creamy bosom rising and falling like a temperamental souffle.
25) The sun rose over the Canada geese, feathered rumps mooning the day.
26) She gratefully popped the glass orb back in place with a soft sucking sound.
27) The moment he laid eyes on inmate #472825994, he became a prisoner of love.
28) As the blue screen froze, Capt Kirk vowed never to use a Microsoft system again.
29) The blood dripped from his nose like hot grease from a roasting bratwurst pierced with a fork, except that grease isn't red and the blood wasn't that hot and it wasn't a fork that poked him in the nose.
30) This is a story of twin Siamese kittens, or, more specifically, of their shared appendage; it is a tail of two kitties.
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Classic First Lines Part 1
Got this off a forum I'm on. Some good stuff here - I'm sure these books would be very interesting to read in full!
1) Sex with Isaac had been like an experiment wherein she had accidentally mixed ammonia and bleach, burned her eyebrows off, lost all sense of smell for weeks, and never saw the family cat again.
2) McMurphy hit the pavement running like a paper bag filled with vegetable soup.
3) Had she known Duncan was a psychopath who would seduce, then brutally murder her, she wouldn't have bought that screwdriver.
4) Ralph looked over at the rumpled form of Lila sleeping next to him in bed and wondered idly why making love with her made him feel as though his body had been pounded by heavy surf.
5) In these uncertain times, one must think of others' viewpoints, and always remember that a crowded elevator smells different to a midget.
6) The scent of sweat from the horse's buttock wafted into his left nostril, past the fine cilia of his nose, through the nasal cavity and into the dark damp depths of his single emphysemic lung.
7) Stanley looked quite bored and somewhat detached, but then penguins often do.
8) The potted palm made a feeble attempt at photosynthesis with the naked 25 watt bulb that hung from the cracked plaster of my low-rent office on a less-than-desirable (unless you were vermin) stretch of Pico.
9) He wanted to hold her forever, but he knew evntually that he'd have to take a whizz.
10) Her breasts were like ripe strawberries, but much bigger, a completely different colour, not as bumpy, and without the little green things on top.
11) The sun rose over the horizon like a great big radioactive baby's head,
12) He slumped wearily onto the couch like a sack of **** slung over the shoulder of a warehouse worker.
13) I'm sorry but you still have 873 pages to go.
14) He snapped my bra like a Concord taking off, and I was unhooked for love.
15) The alien was eager to ravage her, unlike Ted, who wanted to take it slow, having come of the heels of a nasty divorce.
1) Sex with Isaac had been like an experiment wherein she had accidentally mixed ammonia and bleach, burned her eyebrows off, lost all sense of smell for weeks, and never saw the family cat again.
2) McMurphy hit the pavement running like a paper bag filled with vegetable soup.
3) Had she known Duncan was a psychopath who would seduce, then brutally murder her, she wouldn't have bought that screwdriver.
4) Ralph looked over at the rumpled form of Lila sleeping next to him in bed and wondered idly why making love with her made him feel as though his body had been pounded by heavy surf.
5) In these uncertain times, one must think of others' viewpoints, and always remember that a crowded elevator smells different to a midget.
6) The scent of sweat from the horse's buttock wafted into his left nostril, past the fine cilia of his nose, through the nasal cavity and into the dark damp depths of his single emphysemic lung.
7) Stanley looked quite bored and somewhat detached, but then penguins often do.
8) The potted palm made a feeble attempt at photosynthesis with the naked 25 watt bulb that hung from the cracked plaster of my low-rent office on a less-than-desirable (unless you were vermin) stretch of Pico.
9) He wanted to hold her forever, but he knew evntually that he'd have to take a whizz.
10) Her breasts were like ripe strawberries, but much bigger, a completely different colour, not as bumpy, and without the little green things on top.
11) The sun rose over the horizon like a great big radioactive baby's head,
12) He slumped wearily onto the couch like a sack of **** slung over the shoulder of a warehouse worker.
13) I'm sorry but you still have 873 pages to go.
14) He snapped my bra like a Concord taking off, and I was unhooked for love.
15) The alien was eager to ravage her, unlike Ted, who wanted to take it slow, having come of the heels of a nasty divorce.
Monday, June 30, 2008
A Book Meme
Because you can never do too many of these, here's a book meme. The usual rules apply:
1) Bold those you have read.
2) Italicize those you intend to read.
1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible - I've read enough to constitute it as being read
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte - on my TBR pile
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy - on my TBR pile
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare - read a couple in school, want to read the rest...one day
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier - on my TBR pile
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger - on my TBR pile
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot - on my TBR pile
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell - on my TBR pile
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens - on my TBR pile
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh - on my TBR pile
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck - on my TBR pile
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame - on my TBR pile
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis - part-way through them
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen - on my TBR pile
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne - pretty sure I read all the stories when I was younger (so much younger than today)
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins - on my TBR pile
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy - on my TBR pile (started this last year - had to put it aside for a little while)
48 The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding - bit dull
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan - meh
52 Dune - Frank Herbert - on my TBR pile
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons - on my TBR pile
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon - on my TBR pile
57 A Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt - on my TBR pile
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy - pretty sure this is on my TBR pile
68 Bridget Jones's Diary - Helen Fielding - on my TBR pile
69 Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce - I'm hoping to get to it before I die
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray - on my TBR pile, looking for a nicer copy before I read it
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell - meh
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker - on my TBR pile
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte's Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery - undecided whether I want to read this or not; sounds too much like The Alchemist for my liking
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams - on my TBR pile
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole - on my TBR pile
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute - on my TBR pile
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo
(I have an awful lot of them on my TBR pile!)
1) Bold those you have read.
2) Italicize those you intend to read.
1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible - I've read enough to constitute it as being read
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte - on my TBR pile
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy - on my TBR pile
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare - read a couple in school, want to read the rest...one day
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier - on my TBR pile
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger - on my TBR pile
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot - on my TBR pile
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell - on my TBR pile
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens - on my TBR pile
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh - on my TBR pile
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck - on my TBR pile
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame - on my TBR pile
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis - part-way through them
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen - on my TBR pile
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne - pretty sure I read all the stories when I was younger (so much younger than today)
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins - on my TBR pile
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy - on my TBR pile (started this last year - had to put it aside for a little while)
48 The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding - bit dull
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan - meh
52 Dune - Frank Herbert - on my TBR pile
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons - on my TBR pile
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon - on my TBR pile
57 A Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt - on my TBR pile
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy - pretty sure this is on my TBR pile
68 Bridget Jones's Diary - Helen Fielding - on my TBR pile
69 Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce - I'm hoping to get to it before I die
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray - on my TBR pile, looking for a nicer copy before I read it
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell - meh
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker - on my TBR pile
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte's Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery - undecided whether I want to read this or not; sounds too much like The Alchemist for my liking
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams - on my TBR pile
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole - on my TBR pile
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute - on my TBR pile
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo
(I have an awful lot of them on my TBR pile!)
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Book News (Old and New)
Here's an article from the beginning of the year regarding Vladimir Nabokov's final and incomplete manuscript that goes by the name of The Original of Laura. Nabokov wanted it destroyed but his son, Dmitri, is trying to decide whether he should honour his father's wishes or get it published anyway. I'm in two minds about it, myself (like my opinion matters!)
And a story pinched from another blog about various items that have been found in books - some interesting stories there!
By the by, I'll be moving out of home soon (got my keys on Monday), and I'm moving into a 3-bedroom place, so I'll be able to do justice to my book collection (present and future) and house them in their very own library. I'm going to buy a stack of bookcases from IKEA - the famous Billy bookcases. Think I'll get 5 bigguns to start with, and we'll see where to go from there. I'm planning on putting in a comfy lounge as well that will double as a sofabed for guests (who of course will be under strict instructions to keep their mitts off my books). The room is pretty small, but it'll do - it's nice and cozy.
And a story pinched from another blog about various items that have been found in books - some interesting stories there!
By the by, I'll be moving out of home soon (got my keys on Monday), and I'm moving into a 3-bedroom place, so I'll be able to do justice to my book collection (present and future) and house them in their very own library. I'm going to buy a stack of bookcases from IKEA - the famous Billy bookcases. Think I'll get 5 bigguns to start with, and we'll see where to go from there. I'm planning on putting in a comfy lounge as well that will double as a sofabed for guests (who of course will be under strict instructions to keep their mitts off my books). The room is pretty small, but it'll do - it's nice and cozy.
Monday, June 16, 2008
I Hereby Christen Thee...
I've changed the name of my blog because I didn't think it sounded pretentious enough. This means that I should probably avoid any further mention of The Baby-Sitter's Club and restrict myself to reading only long and complicated Russian literature. Hmm, maybe I should change it back.
The Fine Book Connoisseur is IN (and currently reading 'The Jungle Book' by Rudyard Kipling).
The Fine Book Connoisseur is IN (and currently reading 'The Jungle Book' by Rudyard Kipling).
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Idle Chit Chat
I have so many freaking reviews to write, but I can't seem to find the time to write them. I keep thinking 'I'll do it later - this time would be better spent reading'. Grr...
Maybe it's also because work has been busy lately, and work is where I write most of my reviews (shhh...) If I have time when my work deadline passes this afternoon I'll get onto them.
In the meantime, to keep all my thousands of readers entertained, there's a great blog on cover artwork for books over at Caustic Cover Critic.
There's one post in particular that caught my eye, and that was about...well, read it for yourself here. Very sad pics, especially the one of the abandoned/trashed library. I'm currently reading The Book Thief by Markus Zusak and have just gotten past a section on Nazi book-burning. What a crying shame to see all those books go to waste.
Maybe it's also because work has been busy lately, and work is where I write most of my reviews (shhh...) If I have time when my work deadline passes this afternoon I'll get onto them.
In the meantime, to keep all my thousands of readers entertained, there's a great blog on cover artwork for books over at Caustic Cover Critic.
There's one post in particular that caught my eye, and that was about...well, read it for yourself here. Very sad pics, especially the one of the abandoned/trashed library. I'm currently reading The Book Thief by Markus Zusak and have just gotten past a section on Nazi book-burning. What a crying shame to see all those books go to waste.
"Wherever they burn books they will also, in the end, burn human beings." - Almansor - Heinrich Heine
"There are worse crimes than burning books. One of them is not reading them." - Joseph Brodsky
"There are worse crimes than burning books. One of them is not reading them." - Joseph Brodsky
Monday, June 2, 2008
Tag! I'm It!
I've been tagged by Sarah over at Crescent Moon Reviews (lovely name for a blog!)
Here are my answers:
1. Who is your all-time favourite author, and why?
It would probably have to be Jane Austen. I think she writes the most beautiful prose and lovely stories. I really get sucked in by the romance of each one, even though they do seem to follow the same basic plotline. This may change over time though, as there are several other authors I greatly admire (such as Vladimir Nabokov) but of whose work I may only have read one so far. Perhaps I need to do a little more reading before I establish my favourite author.
2. Who was your first favourite author, and why? Do you still consider him or her among your favorites?
Ann M Martin, author of The Babysitter's Club series. I read those books over and over and over again when I was young. I envied all of their adventures and their close friendships with each other. I still have all of my books, which probably number around 150, although that's not all of the books in the series. I did eventually grow out of them, but if I see the books going cheaply one day, I might buy up the rest to complete my series.
I kind of wish I had a better answer, but I never read the 'classic' children's books when I was young, such as LM Montgomery's Anne... series and Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows, etc.
I did (and still do) very much love Roald Dahl, and I also read his books many times over. He had enough of an impact on me that I can still remember the day he died. I have an image of myself walking to the bookcase in my classroom in primary school. I think I probably chose one of his books to read that day.
3. Who’s the most recent addition to your list of favourite authors, and why?
Probably Truman Capote. I've read a couple of his works this year and been blown away by them.
4. If someone asked you who your favourite authors were right now, which authors would first pop out of your mouth? Are there any you’d add on a moment of further reflection?
Jane Austen, Truman Capote, John Marsden (Australian writer of young adult fiction) and Roald Dahl pop into my mind straight away.
On further reflection, I would probably add Arthur C Clarke, Charlotte Bronte, John Banville, Vladimir Nabokov, Jonathan Wylie, JK Rowling, Harper Lee, Charles Dickens, Margaret Atwood, Hunter S Thompson, Alexandre Dumas, Anthony Burgess, Ken Kesey, LM Montgomery, John Wyndham, Jack Kerouac, Bill Bryson...good lord! I better stop there I think!
5. Tagged
Er, I dunno. Tag yourself if you want to take part!
Here are my answers:
1. Who is your all-time favourite author, and why?
It would probably have to be Jane Austen. I think she writes the most beautiful prose and lovely stories. I really get sucked in by the romance of each one, even though they do seem to follow the same basic plotline. This may change over time though, as there are several other authors I greatly admire (such as Vladimir Nabokov) but of whose work I may only have read one so far. Perhaps I need to do a little more reading before I establish my favourite author.
2. Who was your first favourite author, and why? Do you still consider him or her among your favorites?
Ann M Martin, author of The Babysitter's Club series. I read those books over and over and over again when I was young. I envied all of their adventures and their close friendships with each other. I still have all of my books, which probably number around 150, although that's not all of the books in the series. I did eventually grow out of them, but if I see the books going cheaply one day, I might buy up the rest to complete my series.
I kind of wish I had a better answer, but I never read the 'classic' children's books when I was young, such as LM Montgomery's Anne... series and Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows, etc.
I did (and still do) very much love Roald Dahl, and I also read his books many times over. He had enough of an impact on me that I can still remember the day he died. I have an image of myself walking to the bookcase in my classroom in primary school. I think I probably chose one of his books to read that day.
3. Who’s the most recent addition to your list of favourite authors, and why?
Probably Truman Capote. I've read a couple of his works this year and been blown away by them.
4. If someone asked you who your favourite authors were right now, which authors would first pop out of your mouth? Are there any you’d add on a moment of further reflection?
Jane Austen, Truman Capote, John Marsden (Australian writer of young adult fiction) and Roald Dahl pop into my mind straight away.
On further reflection, I would probably add Arthur C Clarke, Charlotte Bronte, John Banville, Vladimir Nabokov, Jonathan Wylie, JK Rowling, Harper Lee, Charles Dickens, Margaret Atwood, Hunter S Thompson, Alexandre Dumas, Anthony Burgess, Ken Kesey, LM Montgomery, John Wyndham, Jack Kerouac, Bill Bryson...good lord! I better stop there I think!
5. Tagged
Er, I dunno. Tag yourself if you want to take part!
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die
Good article on the '1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die' by Peter Boxall.
I agree that the book is lacking in a lot of areas while overdoing others. Even I, massive Jane Austen fan that I am, don't really think it's necessary to include all of her novels.
Of course, these lists are completely arbitrary. No-one is ever going to be satisfied with such lists unless they've created them themselves (and possibly not even then). I still always enjoy looking at them though - maybe it'll introduce me to an author I would otherwise never have noticed.
So far I've read 52 books from the list (a measly 5.19%), with a further 104 books on my TBR pile (either hard copies or ebooks), and another 114 on my wishlist. That only adds up to about 27%, which is fine by me. Despite creating a 1001 Books Challenge for 2008, I have absolutely no intention of ever trying to complete this list. As with all of these lists, the interest for me is in the novelty of it. I like to count up my numbers and feel pride (or, more often, disgust) at the how many I've read.
Incidentally, Arukiyomi's website contains a spreadsheet that you can download containing a complete listing of the 1001 books. It's set up in such a way that you can keep count of what you've read (hence me being able to give a percentage). I've tweaked it a little to customise it for my own needs.
Arukiyomi also has great book reviews of the 1001 books, which I've been neglecting for about a year. Looks like I have a bit of catching up to do.
I agree that the book is lacking in a lot of areas while overdoing others. Even I, massive Jane Austen fan that I am, don't really think it's necessary to include all of her novels.
Of course, these lists are completely arbitrary. No-one is ever going to be satisfied with such lists unless they've created them themselves (and possibly not even then). I still always enjoy looking at them though - maybe it'll introduce me to an author I would otherwise never have noticed.
So far I've read 52 books from the list (a measly 5.19%), with a further 104 books on my TBR pile (either hard copies or ebooks), and another 114 on my wishlist. That only adds up to about 27%, which is fine by me. Despite creating a 1001 Books Challenge for 2008, I have absolutely no intention of ever trying to complete this list. As with all of these lists, the interest for me is in the novelty of it. I like to count up my numbers and feel pride (or, more often, disgust) at the how many I've read.
Incidentally, Arukiyomi's website contains a spreadsheet that you can download containing a complete listing of the 1001 books. It's set up in such a way that you can keep count of what you've read (hence me being able to give a percentage). I've tweaked it a little to customise it for my own needs.
Arukiyomi also has great book reviews of the 1001 books, which I've been neglecting for about a year. Looks like I have a bit of catching up to do.
Friday, May 16, 2008
Skydiving Rocks! (No Book Content)
I went skydiving today and it was FREAKING AWESOME!
I jumped on a train to Sydney at 5.40am where I met my friend and we got the bus to Wollongong just after 7am. We got there a bit late (partially my fault, partially not) and as we were in the first group to go, we put on our gear quick smart and got taken through what we would have to do.
The guys were absolutely lovely - very easygoing and reassuring. We took a 10 minute drive to the airport, climbed into a tiny plane and lined ourselves up. There we got strapped onto our instructors. My friend and I were at the front of the line as we were due to jump first.
We took a lovely 15 minute flight up and around Wollongong and climbed to 14,000 feet (over 4 kilometres!) Again, the guys were lovely. Mine kept asking me how I was going and giving me pointers for keeping calm. He even cleaned my goggles for me before I put them on.
Next thing I know, the door is open and my friend is perched in the doorway, only to be gone a split second later. Before I even knew what was happening, I was in the doorway as well and my instructor was reminding me to cross my arms in front of my chest. Next thing, we're out! It was a slightly cloudy day which I think made it all the more terrifying because we just fell into greyness for a few seconds. Then the landscape opened up and I uncrossed my arms and just hurtled towards earth. I got a bit teary because it was such an overwhelming experience.
After about a minute of freefall, he pulled the parachute and there was a jolt. Then we cruised down and took in the scenery, which was absolutely stunning - beaches, ocean, mountains, bush, cities etc. He asked me before we left if I wanted a wild ride or a tranquil one and I said 'tranquil', but he had other ideas. He kept spinning us around in circles, which was thrilling, but not so great afterwards because I was a bit crook for a couple of hours. I also got to 'steer' a little bit.
You seem to lose all strength when you're in the air; on the ground he showed me how to pull my legs up to keep them out of the way when we landed, but it's a very different story in the air - I could barely move my legs at all! Luckily, when it came to the crunch, I was able to keep 'em out of the way.
Now, I'm not a confident or brave person, but somehow I managed to escape the worst of the nerves and didn't actually get scared at all until after we'd jumped. All in all, a terrific day, and if you have ever wondered what it would be like to jump out of a plane, DO IT! I promise it's not as terrifying as you might think! (Well, not after the first few seconds...)
I jumped on a train to Sydney at 5.40am where I met my friend and we got the bus to Wollongong just after 7am. We got there a bit late (partially my fault, partially not) and as we were in the first group to go, we put on our gear quick smart and got taken through what we would have to do.
The guys were absolutely lovely - very easygoing and reassuring. We took a 10 minute drive to the airport, climbed into a tiny plane and lined ourselves up. There we got strapped onto our instructors. My friend and I were at the front of the line as we were due to jump first.
We took a lovely 15 minute flight up and around Wollongong and climbed to 14,000 feet (over 4 kilometres!) Again, the guys were lovely. Mine kept asking me how I was going and giving me pointers for keeping calm. He even cleaned my goggles for me before I put them on.
Next thing I know, the door is open and my friend is perched in the doorway, only to be gone a split second later. Before I even knew what was happening, I was in the doorway as well and my instructor was reminding me to cross my arms in front of my chest. Next thing, we're out! It was a slightly cloudy day which I think made it all the more terrifying because we just fell into greyness for a few seconds. Then the landscape opened up and I uncrossed my arms and just hurtled towards earth. I got a bit teary because it was such an overwhelming experience.
After about a minute of freefall, he pulled the parachute and there was a jolt. Then we cruised down and took in the scenery, which was absolutely stunning - beaches, ocean, mountains, bush, cities etc. He asked me before we left if I wanted a wild ride or a tranquil one and I said 'tranquil', but he had other ideas. He kept spinning us around in circles, which was thrilling, but not so great afterwards because I was a bit crook for a couple of hours. I also got to 'steer' a little bit.
You seem to lose all strength when you're in the air; on the ground he showed me how to pull my legs up to keep them out of the way when we landed, but it's a very different story in the air - I could barely move my legs at all! Luckily, when it came to the crunch, I was able to keep 'em out of the way.
Now, I'm not a confident or brave person, but somehow I managed to escape the worst of the nerves and didn't actually get scared at all until after we'd jumped. All in all, a terrific day, and if you have ever wondered what it would be like to jump out of a plane, DO IT! I promise it's not as terrifying as you might think! (Well, not after the first few seconds...)
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Bookish Articles
Interesting article from the NY Times about the roles that books play in our relationships.
Long live the semi-colon! The world would be a poorer place without them. I do my part in keeping them alive when I'm proofreading papers.
And here's an article about a previously unpublished (and incomplete) manuscript by Alexandre Dumas (author of the brilliant The Count of Monte Cristo) called The Last Cavalier. It was completed by a French scholar named Claude Schopp and published in France; it became an instant best-seller. I think it'll be published in English some time this year. If you follow the links, the first 6 chapters have been posted online. I'll look forward to reading this when it's published in full!
And here's a cute Rights of the Reader poster, illustrated by Quentin Blake. I've printed it out and hung it on my desk at work. I'm such a nerd :)
Long live the semi-colon! The world would be a poorer place without them. I do my part in keeping them alive when I'm proofreading papers.
And here's an article about a previously unpublished (and incomplete) manuscript by Alexandre Dumas (author of the brilliant The Count of Monte Cristo) called The Last Cavalier. It was completed by a French scholar named Claude Schopp and published in France; it became an instant best-seller. I think it'll be published in English some time this year. If you follow the links, the first 6 chapters have been posted online. I'll look forward to reading this when it's published in full!
And here's a cute Rights of the Reader poster, illustrated by Quentin Blake. I've printed it out and hung it on my desk at work. I'm such a nerd :)
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
What Will Life be Like in the Year 2008?
I found an interesting blog containing scans of an article written by James R Berry in 1968 for Mechanix Illustrated. It contains his predictions for 40 years into the future, which would make it...right about now (funk soul brother). Check it out (now):
40 Years in the Future
Some predictions are eerily true (GPS, internet) while others are a bit off the mark. I love the accompanying illustrations. Very Jetsons-esque. Man, I love that cartoon! I have the first season on DVD but I really want that episode that does a take on Dickens' A Christmas Carol. When, oh when, are we going to be able to fly to work?
The dome in the pic also reminds me a little of Arthur C Clarke's 1956 The City and the Stars, one of my fave sci-fi novels, in which the city of Diaspar is completely enclosed in a huge dome. As far as the residents know (not that they care or give it much thought), they are the only humans left on earth. A terrific read. I think it has dystopian elements to it as well - I'm not quite sure why it isn't on Wikipedia's giant list of dystopian literature. It's certainly more worthy of the title than some of the others they've got on there! That books is well overdue for another re-read.
Monday, March 31, 2008
Bookshelf Etiquette
Because I'm lazy and have no desire to trawl the internet for interesting articles, I pinch them from other blogs instead. I'm at least kind enough to give credit where it's due, so thanks to Chris from Book-a-Rama for the following entertaining links.
So, I've been reading some articles concerning 'bookshelf etiquette'. The original article was posted in a Time blog by Matt Selman and be found here. He raises some interesting points and rules that he has devised, such as: 'It is unacceptable to display any book in a public space of your home if you have not read it.'
Thankfully I don't agree with this or I would have quite a lot of empty shelves and literally hundreds of books hidden away, never to be seen by the public or gazed upon with fondness by myself. I'm a compulsive book-buyer and buy books way faster than I can read them (so far this year I've read 16 books and bought 41 more - that means for every book I read, I add at least 2.5 more to my TBR pile).
I don't think there's any problem displaying books on your shelves that you've yet to read, although it would be a different story if the you had no intention of ever reading them (like if you're so stupid you buy books just to try to make yourself look smart/well-read, in which you'll be found out sooner or later).
I fully intend to read all of my books one day and I love sitting and looking at them all - thinking of the wondrous tales therein that I've yet to discover (yes I'm aware that I sound like a nutter). One day soon I'll be buying a place of my own and once I have a mortgage I won't be able to go out and buy as many books as I do now. So the way I see it is that I'm stockpiling reading material for future years. No reading drought for me!
There's a couple of other excellent blog entries regarding the original blog posting, which can be found here and here. The comments on both are very interesting as well.
It's nice to know I'm not the only person who has a problem with buying a lot of books :)
So, I've been reading some articles concerning 'bookshelf etiquette'. The original article was posted in a Time blog by Matt Selman and be found here. He raises some interesting points and rules that he has devised, such as: 'It is unacceptable to display any book in a public space of your home if you have not read it.'
Thankfully I don't agree with this or I would have quite a lot of empty shelves and literally hundreds of books hidden away, never to be seen by the public or gazed upon with fondness by myself. I'm a compulsive book-buyer and buy books way faster than I can read them (so far this year I've read 16 books and bought 41 more - that means for every book I read, I add at least 2.5 more to my TBR pile).
I don't think there's any problem displaying books on your shelves that you've yet to read, although it would be a different story if the you had no intention of ever reading them (like if you're so stupid you buy books just to try to make yourself look smart/well-read, in which you'll be found out sooner or later).
I fully intend to read all of my books one day and I love sitting and looking at them all - thinking of the wondrous tales therein that I've yet to discover (yes I'm aware that I sound like a nutter). One day soon I'll be buying a place of my own and once I have a mortgage I won't be able to go out and buy as many books as I do now. So the way I see it is that I'm stockpiling reading material for future years. No reading drought for me!
There's a couple of other excellent blog entries regarding the original blog posting, which can be found here and here. The comments on both are very interesting as well.
It's nice to know I'm not the only person who has a problem with buying a lot of books :)
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Vale Arthur C Clarke
Arthur C Clarke, one of the greatest science fiction writers the world will ever see, has passed away. Details of his life and works can be found at Wikipedia.
He has given the world a body of terrific work that will be valued forever. I have quite a few of them myself, including an absolutely wonderful collection of his short stories. I'm halfway through the Rama series and hoping to continue on with it this year. I also love the Space Odyssey series, and The City and the Stars has always been a personal favourite.
Clarke's works have always been very quotable. Here are some pearls of wisdom:
"Sometimes I think we're alone in the universe, and sometimes I think we're not. In either case, the idea is quite staggering. "
"Behind every man now alive stand thirty ghosts, for that is the ratio by which the dead outnumber the living."
"It may be that the old astrologers had the truth exactly reversed, when they believed that the stars controlled the destinies of men. The time may come when men control the destinies of stars."
"And because, in all the galaxy, they had found nothing more precious than Mind, they encouraged its dawning everywhere. They became farmers in the fields of stars. They sowed and sometimes they reaped. And sometimes, dispassionately, they had to weed."
And here are Clarke's three laws of prediction:
He has given the world a body of terrific work that will be valued forever. I have quite a few of them myself, including an absolutely wonderful collection of his short stories. I'm halfway through the Rama series and hoping to continue on with it this year. I also love the Space Odyssey series, and The City and the Stars has always been a personal favourite.
Clarke's works have always been very quotable. Here are some pearls of wisdom:
"Sometimes I think we're alone in the universe, and sometimes I think we're not. In either case, the idea is quite staggering. "
"Behind every man now alive stand thirty ghosts, for that is the ratio by which the dead outnumber the living."
"It may be that the old astrologers had the truth exactly reversed, when they believed that the stars controlled the destinies of men. The time may come when men control the destinies of stars."
"And because, in all the galaxy, they had found nothing more precious than Mind, they encouraged its dawning everywhere. They became farmers in the fields of stars. They sowed and sometimes they reaped. And sometimes, dispassionately, they had to weed."
And here are Clarke's three laws of prediction:
- When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.
- The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.
- Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
Friday, March 7, 2008
Another Reading Meme
I found this reading meme and thought I'd give it a go, seeing as it'll be a few more days before I can get through Jane Eyre and post my review.
Which book do you irrationally cringe away from reading, despite seeing only positive reviews?
Usually chick-lit books such as those by Janet Evanovich, Sophie Kinsella and Helen Fielding (although I have to admit that I've given in on Fielding and bought Bridget Jones' Diary).
If you could bring three characters to life for a social event (afternoon tea, a night of clubbing, perhaps a world cruise), who would they be and what would the event be?
I'd have a few lads around to my place for dinner: Alex from A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess, Raoul Duke from Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S Thompson, and Dean Moriarty from On the Road by Jack Kerouac. Let chaos reign! It would certainly be an interesting night!
(Borrowing shamelessly from the Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde): you are told you can’t die until you read the most boring novel on the planet. While this immortality is great for awhile, eventually you realise it’s past time to die. Which book would you expect to get you a nice grave?
The Bible? Although from what I remember reading of it during my childhood days, there were some interesting parts in it. I really can't think of anything too boring. I'm sure there are plenty out there but as I don't make a habit of reading boring books, it's a bit difficult to know really...
Come on, we’ve all been there. Which book have you pretended, or at least hinted, that you’ve read, when in fact you’ve been nowhere near it?
I can't recall ever pretending to have read a book.
As an addition to the last question, has there been a book that you really thought you had read, only to realise when you read a review about it/go to ‘reread’ it that you haven’t? Which book?
I don't think that's happened either :) I certainly buy doubles of books occasionally, because I can't remember what I've already got!
You’re interviewing for the post of Official Book Advisor to some VIP (who’s not a big reader). What’s the first book you’d recommend and why? (If you feel like you’d have to know the person, go ahead of personalise the VIP.)
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. One of the greatest books ever written and, of my personal favourites, the most likely that is to appeal to the broadest audience (and therefore have a greater chance of pleasing the VIP).
A good fairy comes and grants you one wish: you will have perfect reading comprehension in the foreign language of your choice. Which language do you go with?
Ooh, tough choice. On the one hand, I'd like to be able to read Russian so I can enjoy Tolstoy and Dostoevsky as they were meant to be enjoyed. However, there's also a lot of French literature that I'm looking forward to reading one day, by the likes of Emile Zola and Marcel Proust. Ultimately there's probably more French literature I'm interested in reading, so I'd have to go with that.
A mischievious fairy comes and says that you must choose one book that you will re-read once a year for the rest of your life (you can read other books as well). Which book would you pick?
It's a close call between To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee and Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. Hmm, I'll go with To Kill a Mockingbird.
I know that the book blogging community, and its various challenges, have pushed my reading borders. What’s one bookish thing you ‘discovered’ from book blogging (maybe a new genre, or author, or new appreciation for cover art-anything)?
I've discovered the wonder of reading challenges. They're quite addictive: I'm doing 9 this year, although I haven't officially signed up for any on the various blogs. I'm just doing them on my own terms. Every time I read about a new one I want to take it up. They all sound so good! There are challenges celebrating author's birthdays, dead authors, 19th century women, etc.
That good fairy is back for one final visit. Now, she’s granting you your dream library! Describe it. Is everything leatherbound? Is it full of first edition hardcovers? Pristine trade paperbacks? Perhaps a few favourite authors have inscribed their works? Go ahead - let your imagination run free.
A good-sized room with high ceilings, but not so large that it becomes impersonal. It needs to be cosy, with a fireplace and lounges, armchairs, chaises etc - plenty of different seating to suit my different moods (all matching, of course). Large windows to allow plenty of natural light but also big enough to watch thunderstorms from - it will have a window seat, of course. And there'll be plenty of reading lamps on tables for atmosphere. The bookcases will stretch from the floor to the ceiling, and cover all the walls (except where the windows are!), with a ladder on tracks to get to the higher books.
As for the books themselves, I don't need anything fancy. Just my usual paperbacks, with the odd hardback thrown in. A mixture of new and second-hand books, with maybe a few autographed copies as well.
Which book do you irrationally cringe away from reading, despite seeing only positive reviews?
Usually chick-lit books such as those by Janet Evanovich, Sophie Kinsella and Helen Fielding (although I have to admit that I've given in on Fielding and bought Bridget Jones' Diary).
If you could bring three characters to life for a social event (afternoon tea, a night of clubbing, perhaps a world cruise), who would they be and what would the event be?
I'd have a few lads around to my place for dinner: Alex from A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess, Raoul Duke from Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S Thompson, and Dean Moriarty from On the Road by Jack Kerouac. Let chaos reign! It would certainly be an interesting night!
(Borrowing shamelessly from the Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde): you are told you can’t die until you read the most boring novel on the planet. While this immortality is great for awhile, eventually you realise it’s past time to die. Which book would you expect to get you a nice grave?
The Bible? Although from what I remember reading of it during my childhood days, there were some interesting parts in it. I really can't think of anything too boring. I'm sure there are plenty out there but as I don't make a habit of reading boring books, it's a bit difficult to know really...
Come on, we’ve all been there. Which book have you pretended, or at least hinted, that you’ve read, when in fact you’ve been nowhere near it?
I can't recall ever pretending to have read a book.
As an addition to the last question, has there been a book that you really thought you had read, only to realise when you read a review about it/go to ‘reread’ it that you haven’t? Which book?
I don't think that's happened either :) I certainly buy doubles of books occasionally, because I can't remember what I've already got!
You’re interviewing for the post of Official Book Advisor to some VIP (who’s not a big reader). What’s the first book you’d recommend and why? (If you feel like you’d have to know the person, go ahead of personalise the VIP.)
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. One of the greatest books ever written and, of my personal favourites, the most likely that is to appeal to the broadest audience (and therefore have a greater chance of pleasing the VIP).
A good fairy comes and grants you one wish: you will have perfect reading comprehension in the foreign language of your choice. Which language do you go with?
Ooh, tough choice. On the one hand, I'd like to be able to read Russian so I can enjoy Tolstoy and Dostoevsky as they were meant to be enjoyed. However, there's also a lot of French literature that I'm looking forward to reading one day, by the likes of Emile Zola and Marcel Proust. Ultimately there's probably more French literature I'm interested in reading, so I'd have to go with that.
A mischievious fairy comes and says that you must choose one book that you will re-read once a year for the rest of your life (you can read other books as well). Which book would you pick?
It's a close call between To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee and Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. Hmm, I'll go with To Kill a Mockingbird.
I know that the book blogging community, and its various challenges, have pushed my reading borders. What’s one bookish thing you ‘discovered’ from book blogging (maybe a new genre, or author, or new appreciation for cover art-anything)?
I've discovered the wonder of reading challenges. They're quite addictive: I'm doing 9 this year, although I haven't officially signed up for any on the various blogs. I'm just doing them on my own terms. Every time I read about a new one I want to take it up. They all sound so good! There are challenges celebrating author's birthdays, dead authors, 19th century women, etc.
That good fairy is back for one final visit. Now, she’s granting you your dream library! Describe it. Is everything leatherbound? Is it full of first edition hardcovers? Pristine trade paperbacks? Perhaps a few favourite authors have inscribed their works? Go ahead - let your imagination run free.
A good-sized room with high ceilings, but not so large that it becomes impersonal. It needs to be cosy, with a fireplace and lounges, armchairs, chaises etc - plenty of different seating to suit my different moods (all matching, of course). Large windows to allow plenty of natural light but also big enough to watch thunderstorms from - it will have a window seat, of course. And there'll be plenty of reading lamps on tables for atmosphere. The bookcases will stretch from the floor to the ceiling, and cover all the walls (except where the windows are!), with a ladder on tracks to get to the higher books.
As for the books themselves, I don't need anything fancy. Just my usual paperbacks, with the odd hardback thrown in. A mixture of new and second-hand books, with maybe a few autographed copies as well.
Monday, February 25, 2008
Freedom to Read Week
There are worse crimes than burning books. One of them is not reading them. - Joseph Brodsky
You wouldn't think that in these times it would still be an issue, but Harry Potter still gets banned in schools for encouraging children to practice witchcraft (don't get me started on their misguided views of Wicca!) Children shouldn't be so mollycoddled by their parents. The books in question usually contain important issues that the child will inevitably come across in life. Isn't it better to arm them with knowledge and information concerning the subject beforehand? Otherwise they'll grow up to be intolerable adults (goodness knows we have enough of them already!) and go into situations totally ignorant of facts.
So join in the fun and help fight back against those who believe a book should be censored just because it contains material that offends them (the individual, who sometimes hasn't even read the book in question).
In honour of this week, I'm going to start up a new challenge (which will actually last the rest of the year). Details to follow shortly!
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