My Christmas cunning plan

Musing Monday is hosted by Becca of Just One More Page. Pop over and read lots of interesting comments & post your own. This week Busy-Bee Becca asks about  holiday season reading/blogging…
How does your reading (or your blogging) fare in the holiday months? Do you read more or less? Do you have to actively make time to read?

It’s fair to say that we are all time-poor in the lead-up to Christmas, isn’t it? There’s so much socialising and end-of-year things to do that something has to give and for me, like the rest of you, it’s usually reading/blogging/me-time that is sacrificed to accommodate all the extra demands.

Having said that I must confess to being in the lucky situation of being on holidays as of today. Working on contract means that I go where and when I’m needed. The uni semester ended last Friday and so the library can manage with less staff for the next 3 months so, although I miss everyone, staff and students alike, I do relish the opportunity to take the 9 to 5 job out of the equation (whilst also not being too thrilled at abandoning the pack packet).

So I do actually have more time to read/blog if I can just manage to prioritise them. To do this I have a cunning plan – so cunning I could plug it in and light up the Christmas lights with it - My plan is two-fold: firstly I’ll do a list (yes Becca the one with tiny writing) that factors in time for reading and blogging; and secondly I plan to view all the ‘extra demands’ as pleasurable opportunities…

a little bit of positive thinking never hurt anyone!

what about you …how are you going keeping up with Christmas rushing?

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).

life IS too short

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

I'm bit late but nevertheless yesterday's question was an interesting one so I'm playing belatedly, this week’s question is…

Do you read everything all the way through or do you feel life really is too short to read bad books?

Really life IS too short and Mt TBR too high to force yourself to read something you’re not enjoying. When I finished my degree (actually while I was slogging it out during my degree) I promised myself to never again endure the torture of great books waiting on Mt TBR while I punished myself with mediocre.
As always this declaration has an exception in the case of bookclub. If we’ve got a book I’m not enjoying I will persevere (most often but not always) so that I can be an informed part of the discussion. Actually so I can bang on about how much I didn’t like it – with examples!

Cover attraction

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 came upon this I happened upon Wild Thyme gorgeous blog while wondering through the web instead of paying attention to cooking dinner…as you do. I spent enough time there to burn the veg and find this beautiful book cover…

Isn’t just the way that when something is brought to your attention (paper cut on your pinkie finger which finger you otherwise you never notice) you just keep bumping into it.

Since last weeks BTT I keep finding biographies I want to read, like this one about British aristocrat and artist Mary Delany. She was friend to Jonathan Swift, corresponded with Sir Joseph Banks, moved in circles that included George III and Queen Charlotte and was so expert at decoupage that some of her art survives in the British Museum.

Too many interesting books – not enough cooking (housework) –free time!

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’ve tried praying.
It gives me comfort.
But not as much as a cup of tea
and a ginger nut biscuit.

Cold Skin Steven Herrick P100

Now we're talking! this book is so much more the type of book I like to read (I'm comparing it to the last Australian book I read The Slap by Christos Tsiolkas). It is gorgeous writing and the reflects an ideology with which I can engage happily.

more shelves please

Musing Monday is hosted by Becca of Just One More Page. Pop over and read lots of interesting comments & post your own. This week book-shelf Queen Becca asks…

Does your house have a communal bookshelf? If not, is your bookshelf centrally located so everyone has access to it?

We have bookshelves everywhere in our house. Each of us has one (or more) personal shelf in their room and there’s two in my study and another in the family room. These shelves are crammed with ‘overflow’. #2 and I are probably the best(?) worst(?) when it comes to shelves. We both have a TBR beside our bed and another in our bedrooms jampacked with TBR overflow and the family room shelf is often used when we cannot fit new arrivals into our rooms.

there is a common cry in our house – we need more shelves – which makes MGM groan!

10 best(?) firsts

* 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)…
First things first we had five points up for grabs last month and Becca got them all! straight to the top for you girl…

• What book famously begins with what the narrator is not going to do...bang on with ‘all that David Copperfield kind of crap.’ The Catcher in the Rye
• What is the iconic narrator’s name? Holden Caulfield
• Who wrote it? J. D. Salinger
• Who wrote the book referred to in the opening sentence? Charles Dickens
• Which American punk band has a song about the book? Green Day

November’s Friday First is for my list loving friends. Below is a list of 10 Famous first lines that I copied from 100 best first lines from novels. How many have you read and how many make it onto Mt TBR on the strength of the first line alone?

1. Call me Ishmael. Herman Melville, Moby-Dick
2. It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife. Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice
3. A screaming comes across the sky. Thomas Pynchon, Gravity's Rainbow
4. Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice. Gabriel García Márquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude
5. Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita
6. Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.  Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina
7. Riverrun, past Eve and Adam's, from swerve of shore to bend of bay, brings us by a commodious vicious of recirculation back to Howth Castle and Environs.  James Joyce, Finnegans Wake
8. It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. George Orwell, 1984
9. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair. - Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities
10. I am an invisible man. Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man

I’ve read four (1,2,8 and 9),  have  4, 5 & 6 already on Mt TBR and I think I’ll add 3 on the strength of this first line.

Puzzle: for three points: Where was Mary Lennox sent to live and what did everyone say about her looks? From which book does this fabulous first come?

It’s all about them

BTT is a long running bookish meme. To join in pop over and read the 100's of interesting comments.
Which do you prefer? Biographies written about someone? Or Autobiographies written by the actual person (and/or ghost-writer)?

I’m not a big bio fan I must admit and I don’t mind if it’s an autobiography of a biography – it’s the person that attracts me. The last bio I read was Freda: a biography of Freda Whitlam. She interested me because she is a member of my church, sister to a past Prime Minister and has lead a very interesting life. I also know the author, Noelene Martin, so I was very curious to read both about Freda's life and sample Noelene’s writing skills.

I’ve read Michael J Fox’s first (Lucky Man) and his second (Always Looking Up) is on my Christmas reading list. I love the intimacy of the first hand autobiography so I’d probably choose an autobiography over a biography, unless the writer of the biography interested me in their own right – as Noelene did.

how about you…bio or autobio, or neither?

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 haven’t read this book but Becca has and I just love the cover so it’s my cover attraction for this week I like the idea of using the before/after perspective that Jessica from Reading is Sexy describes. I have often discussed this idea when trying to steer my kids away from life’s hazards. I might suggest it as a read for #3 who’s reading tastes are very eclectic – she has Alice in Wonderland  and The Killer book of true crime on her bedside table (at the same time).

Teaser Tuesday

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****************************

Handsome, did you say? You foolish girl! Is that what you consider to be of importance in the world? p 92

In the book I’m reading at the moment…

Musing Monday is hosted by Becca of Just One More Page. Pop over and read lots of interesting comments & post your own. This week Book-babbler Becca asks...How much of your reading do you share with others (outside of blogging?) Do you belong to a book or library club? Do you trade books with friends? Do you tell others what you’re reading?

So many of my conversations begin with this line, ‘in the book I’m reading right now…’ I love sharing books with others. You know when you go to an art gallery, shopping, craft show, on holidays and the experiences are so much more enriching when you can ooo and aaa with someone else? Well reading is the same for me. It’s a great joy having grown-up children for many reasons as well as the long conversations about the book we’re reading which usually begin with ‘oh …you have got to read this book…’

I’m lucky to have some really good readers as close friends, some really close friends who are also bookclubers, and some really patient friends who are willing to listen to me bang on about the fabulous book I’m reading that they are not even remotely interested in - so that my reading is always a shared experience. I’m lucky too, that my friends get excited over whatever book is currently exciting me.

A perfect example…I’ve just discovered verse novels. They’re so amazing but I couldn’t quite nail down what it was that appealed to me but Becca knew! She knows my reading habits well enough to encapsulate for me just exactly why I would be attracted to verse novels AND she suggested two more (I’m reading my first one atm – Cold Skin by Steven Herrick) AND she borrowed them from the library AND hand delivered them to me at work today – now that’s sharing with others!

and I know we’re not supposed to talk about book blogging but that’s what We Read is all about - the shared experience that is reading **smiles contentedly**.