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