National Poetry Day
Happy National Poetry Day everyone!
To celebrate, I made some book spine poetry:
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Category: Blog
September reading round-up
I’ve been a bit quiet on the blog because we’ve been off holidaying again. This time we’re in Yorkshire, where we’ve enjoyed a sheep fair, a brewery, some old ruins and some fancy gardens, among other things.
It’s been a really lovely week and I have even found time for reading, but I don’t plan on reviewing any of it here properly. Partly that’s because it’s all starting to blend into one. I bought the recent Neil Gaiman Humble Bundle, a digital collection of rarities either wholly or partly written by Gaiman. Among the comics and short story compilations there are some more unusual works, such as Ghastly Beyond Belief, a co-production with Kim Newman collecting notably terrible quotes from science fiction and fantasy novels. Which is hilarious.
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Sunday Salon: How I learned to love comics
Growing up, my Dad bought us the Beano every week and I loved to read about the Bash Street Kids and all those other characters. But then I got too old for the Beano and I never replaced it with other comics, turning instead to novels.
When I met Tim he wasn’t a big reader of comics either, but he owned a few and had read a few more, and over the years he’s increasingly become a big fan, to the point where the staff at our local comic shop know him by name and we’ve started to invest in comic book storage boxes. I’ve always liked Tim’s taste in books, so I figured I should see what this comic thing was all about, in case I was missing out on something.
I didn’t feel interest in classic superhero stuff at first, because they all have these huge decades-old universes that call back to all that background, and even outside of superheroes I was tentative of where to dip my toe, so I opted mostly for one-off graphic novels.
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Genre limitations
As anyone who reads this blog/scans my reviews archive can tell, my reading leans heavily towards literary fiction. Sure, there’s a pinch of sci-fi and a touch of comics (an increasingly large touch) and a sprinkling of literary essays, but overall my reading has a clear leaning. I don’t necessarily want to change that – I enjoy most of what I read – but I would like to widen the boundaries a bit more.
A recent trip to my Dad’s house had me scouring the familiar old bookshelves and remembering how I used to read a lot of autobiographies (my Mum’s influence, I suspect) but also had phases of horror/thrillers, comic fantasy and historical romance, none of which I read a whole lot of these days. It could just be that my tastes have changed (I’m certainly more squeamish about graphic violence) but it could be that I have discounted whole sections of the bookshop through a combination of poor memory/one bad experience tainting the genre/snobbery.
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Here ends the summer book bingo
Today is officially the last day of the Nights on the Bookstand Summer Book Bingo and I have failed to complete any more rows or columns. I tried!
For “Revolves around a holiday” I read Us by David Nicholls. For “With a happy ending” I read Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm by Kate Douglas Wiggin, which, as I mentioned yesterday, might not strictly count anyway. For “By any Booktopia author” I’ve started but not finished Quiet by Susan Cain. And I hadn’t even chosen a book for the last square I was aiming to fill, “A presidential biography”. I was thinking of reading one of Barack Obama’s books, but Tim suggested I look outside the USA and I got completely stuck. Also I ran out of time.
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August reading round-up
Happy Bank Holiday Monday to those of you having one!
I’m cheerful having spent most of the weekend celebrating 13 years with Tim. Tim gave me a night in a fancy hotel, I gave him a behind-the-scenes tour of Temple Meads train station and the SS Great Britain. I clearly got the better end of that deal (though the tour was a lot of fun too).
I’ve also read some great books this month, my favourite being The Worst Journey in the World by Apsley Cherry-Garrard. What was your favourite recent read?
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TV shows based on books
I seem to be watching several TV shows based on books at the moment. Not that it’s in any way a new phenomenon. I was raised on The Waltons, M*A*S*H, Lovejoy, Jeeves and Wooster, BBC Shakespeare and the Jeremy Brett Sherlock Holmes. (To be honest, I didn’t even know those first three were based on books until recently.) And let’s not forget Woof! and, well, basically all children’s TV shows from my youth (or so it sometimes feels). Books, and especially series of books, are ripe for TV adaptation, where more time can be devoted to the plot than a film allows.
Of the examples I’m currently watching, I have read none of the books. There’s The Walking Dead (Tim is reading the comics and says they’re more graphic and violent than the TV show, which I can’t say appeals to me), Orange is the New Black (how have multiple series been made from one slight memoir?), Mr Selfridge (same question re this biography), Masters of Sex (this is one book I’d like to read, actually) and True Blood (I really can’t tell if I’d like the books but I lean towards not).
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Sunday Salon: So many things
I seem to have spent this week endlessly booking tickets for awesome stuff coming soon to Bristol or somewhere nearby. My diary is now crammed with dates for theatre, comedy, music, author events and other cool stuff. Why does all the awesome bunch up like that?
I shouldn’t complain. I love living somewhere with so much going on that I want to do. Like a Metric gig! Super exciting. And Salman Rushdie! And The Crucible at the Old Vic. And a new Mark Thomas show! Bristol rocks.
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Double bingo!
It might not be a full house but I’m pretty pleased that I’ve managed a double bingo in the Books on the Nightstand Summer Book Bingo.
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Royal Society Winton Prize shortlist announced
Today, the Royal Society Winton Prize for Science Books shortlist was announced. Congratulations to all the 2015 contenders:
The Man Who Couldn’t Stop by David Adam
Alex Through the Looking-Glass: How Life Reflects Numbers and Numbers Reflect Life by Alex Bellos
Smashing Physics: Inside the World’s Biggest Experiment by Jon Butterworth
Life’s Greatest Secret: the Story of the Race to Crack the Genetic Code by Matthew Cobb
Life on the Edge: the Coming of Age of Quantum Biology by Johnjoe Mcfadden and Professor Jim Al-Khalili
Adventures in the Anthropocene: a Journey to the Heart of the Planet we Made by Gaia Vince
After the great success of my 2014 Popular-Science Reading Challenge, I have completely dropped the ball and read zero popular science this year, so I have read none of the above titles. Ellie of Curiosity Killed the Bookworm has read and recommended The Man Who Couldn’t Stop. I don’t think any of the others have been covered by bloggers I follow, but I may be being rubbish at searching so please do leave a link in the comments if I missed your review.
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