My Sort of Picture Book

Now this is my type of picture book. I doubt I’d stop finding it hilarious anytime soon. I’m advocating at work for us to purchase a copy of it… but where will we shelve it?

 

 

Heartbreaking Reads

In an antithesis (or perhaps I’m just a little strange) to the sappiness of the recent Valentine’s Day, I feel like reading something that will utterly break my heart. Soul destroying. Devastation. However, I’m stumped at what to pick. I’m reading The English Patient at the moment and that is supposed to be heartbreaking but I’m finding it difficult to get involved in it. I haven’t seen the movie or know anything about it so I’m quite unspoiled.

I do have a few titles in mind though:

• The End of the Affair – Graham Greene
• Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy?
• Requiem for a Dream – Hubert Selby, Jr
• Anything by Thomas Hardy …

I need recommendations! I don’t want anything sappy and it doesn’t have to be about love/romance. In short, any book that completely crushed you (and perhaps even made you shed a few tears ).

An Award and Bookish Tees

Kimberly, at The Perpetual Writer, has awarded me with the Prolific Blogger Award. Hurrah! I’m still pretty surprised that people actually read my blog let alone like it.

Here are the seven bloggers I pass the award to. I already follow these blogs regularly and enjoy them immensely.

• Another Cookie Crumbles A Londoner blogger who steamrolls through books and writes excellent reviews on them.
• BiblioAddict Is truly a biblio addict and reviews a wide variety of books.
• With Extra Pulp Writes from a journalistic perspective and have some great posts on writing and blogging.
• Start Narrative Here Another great reviewer with a strong penchant for all things Carson McCullers.
• Novel Insights I always enjoy reading posts from this blog which are fun and lively.
• The Evening Reader Writes thoughtful and insightful posts.
• The Private Library This is one of my favourite blogs/site to lurk about. It has fantastic posts on book collecting, hints, tips, themes, etc.

By chance, I discovered two fantastic sites that sells wonderful bookish tees. Now bibliophiles can really wear their hearts on their sleeves!

Over at mannikin.com they stock an apparently famous bookish tee. I’m just drooling over the fact that it’s in fact bookish.

And over at Out Of Print they have a variety of tees with cover art from famous books such as Catcher in the Rye and (I know some of you will love this) Master and Margarita.  The tees are separated into women and men but I think I like the men’s designs and colours better.

Women’s

A Streetcar Named Desire

The Master and Margarita

Men’s

Fahrenheit 451

On the Road

I really want them all! I’m not too sure about the Lolita one though…

Life Defined by Literature

I’ve snipped this from Paperback Reader. Looks like immense fun (the book geek that I am).

Using only books you have read this year (2009), answer these questions. Try not to repeat a book title.

Describe yourself: The Reader (Bernhard Schlink)

How do you feel: The Big Sleep (Raymond Chandler)

Describe where you currently live: Love in a Cold Climate (Nancy Mitford)

If you could go anywhere, where would you go: Breakfast at Tiffany’s (Truman Capote)

Your favorite form of transportation: 4.50 from Paddington (Agatha Christie)

Your best friend is: Lucky (Alice Sebold)

You and your friends are: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass (Lewis Carroll)

What’s the weather like: Tender is the Night (F. Scott Fitzgerald)

You fear: The Plague (Albert Camus)

What is the best advice you have to give: Let the Right One In (John Ajvide Lindqvist)

Thought for the day: This is How (M.J. Hyland)

How I would like to die: Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)

My soul’s present condition: Great Expectations (Charles Dickens)

That was pretty hard! Leave a link if you decide to do this too. I’ll be interested in your replies.

And here’s a quiz via With Extra Pulp about your reading personality.

Your Reading Personality: Eclectic Reader!

You read for entertainment but also to expand your mind. You’re open to new ideas and new writers, and are not wedded to a particular genre or limited range of authors.

Well, that was interesting. The book quotes were all so fabulous I wanted to pick them all.

Reason #454 – You Know You’re a Read-a-holic When…

Reason #454 – You know you’re a read-a-holic when you find yourself reading the backs of all the various bottles in the shower caddy whilst showering.

The Private Library

Here is a very nice link to a blog that details the ideas, methods, history and everything in between in the world of book collecting for readers like ourselves.

http://www.privatelibrary.typepad.com/

There are even links to shelving ideas and library designs. Marvellous!

Fun Links

I’ve been browsing a bit through the web and I thought I’d share these great links.

• Judge a Book by it’s Cover is hilarious. We all know what a bad cover can do to a wonderful story.
• This person not only committed book sacrilege but graduated from a LIS.
• Finally, this is a cute comic strip about librarians.

Merry Christmas!

I’ve been on a short break and decided to pop in to post. I will not be back until the new year. Hopefully, I’ll have more new posts, reviews and news for us bibliophiles.

I hope everybody has a Merry Christmas and a happy New Year. Hopefully, many of us will receive excellent bookish gifts for Christmas. I’ve received a fantastic bookish diary that details Faber and Faber’s publishing history and it’s brilliant.

Stay safe and thank you for reading my blog.

Change

I thought it was about time I made this blog a little more ‘bookish’. Unfortunately, my layout and graphic skills aren’t what they used to be, but this is the best I could do within WordPress’ limitations. The banner is a very cropped version of one shelf in my bookcase. It’s mainly my ‘classics’ shelf.

On another note, I have  just found out I have received a First Class grade for my honours year.

Medieval Treats

Do you start feeling peckish when you are reading stories set in Medieval times? Their infamous long feasts and banquets that lasts for days on end?

Well, Medieval Cookery has collected hundreds of recipes from Medieval England, France, Germany and Italy and has translated them into it’s modern day meanings for us. The site has even catagorised the recipes for vegetarians, freezer-safe and travel-safe.

So next time you’re reading about King Henry VIII’s decadent gorge or Queen Elizabeth I’s week long banquet, you too can whip up something similar in your own kitchen. What a great idea for a website!

Personally, the sweets section looks so appetising that I might give it a go although I’m no whiz in the kitchen. The meat section makes me feel slightly queasy though.