christmas present potential

Hey!

Cherub #2 asked me for my wish list today - he was off to do some Christmas shopping. I had 'books' on the list of course, he scanned the list and said 'books' were the only thing he felt at all confident about (and didn't require a trip inside anywhere too girly) but could I be more specific?

Yes! I said Yes I can & I pointed him towards We Read, told him to search for wish-list knowing full well he'd find his way here ...am so excited!

thankyou blogosphere, I love you.

Wicked Cover

I love this meme hosted by Marcia at The Printed Page. Pop over to The Printed Page from time to time to see if you can catch some gorgeous cover attractions over there.

Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradury - new to We Read Mt TBR

school days

Musing Monday is hosted by Becca of Just One More Page. Pop over and read lots of interesting comments & post your own.

This week brand-new-teacher Becca asks about out school reading...

What books did you read while in school? Were there any that you particularly liked, or even hated? Did any become lifelong favourites?
HA! am feeling all nostalgic for my high school years and Mr Rule – my gorgeous English teacher in my senior years – on whom I had the biggest crush of my adolescence. Details of which books I studied with him are a bit fuzzy, high school was over 30 years ago and I was focusing on other things...that lightening smile, those dreamy eyes, that seductive intelligence ... but I do remember him taking books I hated and bringing them to life. Othello, The Tempest, The Taming of the Shrew all made sense when HE read them. I began a life-long love of Shakespeare under his tutelage.

I hated To Kill a Mockingbird (I know can you believe that!) until it was brought to life in class discussion and it has since remained my all time favourite book, re-read many times. In fact, when I think about it, I really didn’t like most of my high school books until we deconstructed them in class. 1984, Lord of the Flies, Animal Farm, Great Expectations were all turned around from hated to loved under closer examination.

The standout unsalvageable was Greene’s The Power and the Glory – never conquered the wordiness or engaged witht the subject.

There’s often one teacher in your career that makes a difference and for me it was Mr Rule. While I was convinced that I was not ‘academically minded’ (the euphemism of the day for not so bright), Mr Rule, wrote in my 6th form autograph book that once I got to English at university there’d be no stopping me. University! I kept that thought alive for over 20 years. I wish there was some way that I could tell him he was right – that I loved uni when I started as an undergrad at 41 and, just between you and me, I’d love to to share my 6.0 GPA with all the ‘well meaning’ but unobservant knockers of my childhood.

classic characters

BTT is a long running bookish meme. To join in pop over and read the 100's of interesting comments. A meaty question this week…

Do you think any current author is of the same calibre as Dickens, Austen, Bronte, or any of the classic authors? If so, who, and why do you think so? If not, why not? What books from this era might be read 100 years from now?

The meaty bit about this question is defining 'calibre'. Dickens, Austen Bronte, those pedestal gods of ‘good’ literature, cast a long shadow. If by calibre you mean their way with language, the way they engage with and confront their culture and ideology, their status as part of the cannon then no because the old boys club of the cannon is hard to breach.

On the other hand if you’re talking about an author's way with language, engagement with and confrontation of their culture and ideology, and total disregarding the cannon…then yes! of course there are writers today who are up to the challenge.

My picks for those authors in the same league as Bronte, Austen & Dickens? Arundhati Roy, Tracy Chevalier, Margaret Attwood, Geraldine Brooks, Tim Winton, Markus Zusak, Ian McEwan…there’s seven authors just off the top of my head without even stopping to think too hard - wonderful work that will still be read a hundred years from now and hopefully contributing to a new cannon!

What about you, who do you think of as a classically great writer? - go on add to mt TBR I dare you :)

I love this meme hosted by Marcia at The Printed Page. Pop over to The Printed Page from time to time to see if you can catch some gorgeous cover attractions over there.

I've seen the other cover for Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger but I like this one better. I loved loved loved The Time Traveller's Wife so have high expectations for this wish-list book.

Teaser Wednesday - doesn't have quite the same ring does it

hosted by MizB @ Should be Reading.
* Grab your current read & let it fall open.
* Share 2 “teaser” sentences, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
* Share the title of the book… remember... **************************avoid spoilers please****************************

I'd like to tell you

I'd fallen head....................................over heals in love
with Derk. I did.........................feel something, but
it wasn't the............hearts and flowers
kind of live in my
dog-eared
books.

Looking back, it...............................seems I should
have been in love.......................with him. We did
all the things..................two people in
love were supposed
to do. Maybe
more.

I love verse novels ewre form reflects meaning! This is from Burned by Ellen Hopkins P.125

Musing on Monday

Musing Monday is hosted by Becca of Just One More Page. Pop over and read lots of interesting comments & post your own.

Today Bethlehem-Becca (she really loves Christmas but I can’t call her Christmas Becca no alliteration there) asks…With the holiday season now upon us, have you left any hint – subtle or otherwise – for books family and friends might buy you for Christmas? Do you like to receive books, or do you prefer certificates so you can choose your own?

ooo this is a hard one I so love gift certificates and getting to choose for myself but you know that we've talked about gift certicates before...AND I do LOVE Christmas presents...lookin at them under the tree, Christmas morning mayhem of unwrapping so I for Christams I'd jave to go with the list over the voucher.

We’re a Christmas-list family, ever since that dreadful year when Father Christmas missed the boat in spectacular fashion. Mummy was greeted with the saddest Christmas face ever after the contents of the stocking were searched and the stocking was turned inside-out in incredulous disbelief. No coal but no pink Nintendo DS either… how could he have got it sooooooooo wrong! Quick boxing day shopping did not undo the trauma of not getting the exact right thing – apparently it’s not the same if Mum buys it, and to be fair it’s really not the same getting the ‘desired’ after the 25th!

Even though the cherubs are grown-ups now I still get them to write out a wish-list that includes specifics (not risking that Christmas disappointment ever again). I need titles from no 2 because he reads so voraciously I now have little idea of what he has/hasn't read. No 1 gives generalities 'I'd like biographies this year' and no 3? Well she's still finding her reading niche so I'll just get her some titles I think she'll like.

Thanks to blogging I now have a wish-list easily accessible for any potential present-givers but just in case this is too subtle I’ve also added titles to my paper list (which is on my bedside table in case any family happen to be reading this). I can cross one off my Dad has already got me The 19th Wife by David Ebershoff, I know this because I do his Christmas shopping (he is 90 after all).