yes they are talking about eating each other!

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****************************
Please leave a link to your Teaser in my comments or pop on over to Should Be Reading and get tantalising glimpses of other reads.

This Teaser is from my current read – Time Traveller’s Wife Audrey Niffenegger (which I am totally enjoying!) p132

‘what about the Categorical Imperative?’ asks Henry.
‘Say what?'
‘You know the Golden Rule. Don’t eat other people unless you are prepared to be eaten.’

Okay, trying to get back to normal…must do weekly memes…

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

Today, busy-borrowing Becca asks about library borrowing habits…

Do you restrict yourself on how many books you take out from the library at a time? Do you borrow books if you already have some out? Do you always re-borrow books you don’t get to?

I’m  hopeless library borrower. I love libraries & have spent most of my working life in them, which is helpful when you’re also a hopeless returner. Working in libraries allows certain advantages; seeing all the new books come across the desk (& into my carry-bag), seeing interesting books returned (& into my carry bag), scanning the spines whilst shelving and finding many interesting reads that find their way into my carry-bag…you get the idea.

AND being able to renew all said carry-bag books without incurring fines is very helpful for a slow reader.

I find when I’m not working in one (as I am right now) I don’t borrow from libraries much because I hate the due-date pressure. I read so slowly (am amazed by bloggy friends who read multiple books in a week) and mount TBR is so huge – I have plenty to be getting on with without a visit to the library.

That’s not to say I don’t miss the library like an amputee…

I’m not back yet, but nearly…

Just popping my head up to say thankyou for all your kind thoughts. My mother-in-law died last Friday. She was that rare breed of in-law who manages to walk the fine line between overbearing and disinterest.

Her amazing capacity for unconditional love allowed me to feel loved like a daughter rather than daughter-in-law. She was a woman of definite ideas that were tempered by her ability to accept other points of view and alternate life-styles. Even when her grandchildren didn’t do things in the ‘right’ order she never judged – just loved.

It’s time like these when one relies on faith – could not get out of bed in the morning without God by my side; books – to take me some place safe, distant and distracting; and friends.

My friends (you all included) have been praying for us, I know because I can feel it, and helping out in practical ways too. We’ve had meals dropped in, and flowers and people stepping in to do things we’d normally do to give us time to catch our breath.

And then there are days like yesterday that will stand out in my memory as beacons of hope in a fog of grief. Two of my booky friends took me out to a bookshop and craftshops and lunch. This was to celebrate my birthday which happened to be just four days after Mum died. It was so good during last week to have something to anticipate, and now to look back on, as not only  brief respite but a reminder that it is okay to smile and laugh and one day smiling and laughing will come naturally.

- will share my book purchases soon (seven books in one go – The Blue Dragon second-hand bookshop is my new favourite bookshop!).

R.I.P.

We read has had a death in the family so things here will be quiet for a while. Will see you all when I come out from under the cloud of grief.

Sunday too far away

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

This week not before-bedtime-Becca’s post is about reading time…

Do you have a set reading time (before bed, perhaps)? Do you read more at night or during the day? Is there a day of the week, perhaps, that you set aside to catch up on reading?

When I was studying my reading day was Sunday. Up early-ish, off to Church, family lunch and then I’d high-tail it up to my bedroom sanctuary for unadulterated reading. It is a practice I’ve continued.

My family got so used to my departing with book (sometimes with unseemly haste) that they don’t seem to mind me disappearing on Sunday afternoon – so long as I resurface in time to cook the Sunday roast for our evening meal – Sunday dinner is sacrosanct.

I don’t have a lot of time at my disposal in the daytime for luxurious reading so I’m inclined to read anywhere, anytime. I’m never without a book…picking up the kids, waiting for the kids, watching the kids play sport (not popular if caught in the act), waiting in line, brushing my teeth, drying my hair, well you get the picture.

And then there’s bedtime, can’t go to sleep without reading. I do sometimes go to bed early to read although that usually means I’m still reading in the wee small hours. At other times I can only mange a couple of lines.

what about you when do you read?

Friday Firsts is now monthly…on the First Friday of course!

* Copy/paste the question and button.
* leave a comment and link to your post.
* Join in with the intermittent puzzle, (look for the answer the following FF). First correct answer = 1 pt.    A prize will go out on FF 1st anniversary ! (track your progress on my sidebar)…

When was the first time you thought ‘I can do that’ and put pen to paper for your first work of fiction? Care to share yours I’d love to read some new stories.

When I first read Tolkien I was so taken by the other-worldliness of Middle Earth I thought I’d like to create my own world. I had great ideas for the most wonderful leading man (based way too closely  on Strider) and a grand quest theme. It did not take long to work out that Tolkien possessed a genius that few people have and that the great novel just was not in me (I was about 13/14).

It took another 35 years for me to actually have the skills to write and the knowledge that I am not a writer. I’ve heard enough authors talk to know that their inner life needs expression, they have a compulsion to write. I understand it because I get antsy when I’ve been deprived of creative time. I think I need to make jewellery and beads and cards in the same way as a writer needs to write.

That’s not to say I didn’t absolutely love my creative writing classes and the process of writing, I did. But I know that anyone who can say ‘one day’ about putting those stories I’ve got floating around in my head down on paper is not an author. What about you have you managed to take the step from reader to writer?

Puzzel: On a cold day in April what time were the clocks striking

only fifteen?!!!

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

This question inspired from Shelley’s blog, and what a great question it is too! “This can be a quick one. Don’t take too long to think about it. Fifteen books you’ve read that will always stick with you. First fifteen you can recall in no more than 15 minutes.”

So here goes 15 books in no particular order that will stay with, I’ve got the timer going, 15 minutes starting now…

1. To kill a mockingbird (always my go-to book)
2.The Bookthief
3. The Great Gatsby
4. The Lord of the Flies
5. The Lord of the Rings
6. The Crystal Cave
7. The Lymond Chronicles (okay, I know, not one book but Lymond is inside my head complete and gorgeous)
8. The Year of Wonders
9. Dune
Am panicking now because I don’t want to forget something special before I'm out of time!
10. Rebecca
11. Here be Dragons
12. Sense and Sensibility
13. The Belgariad
14. The Potter’s Field
Last one... oh oh which other of my loved ones makes the grade….
15. Watership Down

this was fun, I love thinking about my treasured reads but I’m sure I’ve left some off the list and they’ll be all ‘boo hoo you don't love me anymore’ – really I’m not that weird but I am convinced that inanimate objects have feelings.

What about you, what are your first fifteen favourites? Bye now I’m off to read everyone else’ s over at BTT (to see what I forgot).

coming late to the party

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****************************
Please leave a link to your Teaser in my comments or pop on over to Should Be Reading and get tantalising glimpses of other reads.

My teaser, from a book everyone already seems to have read…

However, my positive opinion of his looks was damaged by the first words out of his mouth. ‘You’re Isabella Swan aren’t you?’ It was like the first day of school all over again

Twilight Stephanie Meyer p 103

Save me from the Epic Fail

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

This week Bored-before-the-end-Becca’s post is about sticking with it…

How much time (or how many pages) do you give a book that you aren't really enjoying before you'll set it aside? If you're reading it for a book group discussion, or for review, will you give it more of a chance then, say, a book you're reading for your own interest? Why, or why not? (courtesy of MizB)

My friend Renae says there’s too many books and not enough time to punish yourself with a book you’re not enjoying and I DO try and follow this sage advice. Now you know there has to be a BUT coming didn’t you?…okay…BUT I often find myself slogging it out  because of the epic-fail thing, I just hate giving up , on anything.

Becca commented on our last book club where some of us didn’t read the book. I  finished it for a number of reasons:

1. it was a Booker prize winner and I’ve found award-winning books are worth the struggle. This theory was proven by The God of Small Things because it’s one of those books that stays with you and gets better the more you think time you spend in contemplation of its merits.

2. I don’t like going to bookclub with an unread book because of the teasing :) we didn’t tease each other about The God of Small Things though because so many found it a struggle and it’s a credible response to a book – no I didn’t like this one. (AND it’s a very laid-back bookclub full of lovely people who really just want an excuse to get together).

3. It was recommended by my good friend Tracey who seems to know what I’ll like because all of her recommendations have been right on so far.

4. I hate the feeling of failure when I can’t get through a book.

There are some books I can happily apply Renae’s rule to and give up on with a feeling of liberation. If the writing’s bad, moat small r romance, if it’s formulaic, has abundant swearing (b-o-r-i-n-g), or if there’s too much sex (yawn) I don’t waste my precious reading time. If it falls into one of these categories and is a bookclub nomination I’ll give it more of a go than otherwise but that’s so I can argue my point with conviction – I’m also a firm believer in never condemning a book I haven’t read.