Books with Wine and Chocolates

Stickers

2008-02-23T15:22:00.000-08:00

Something that irks me intensely about buying cheap books is all the damned stickers on them....

You know the ones - 3for2, buy one get one free, price stickers, book club endorsements.. I HATE them all!

I have no idea what it is about them that I hate so much, but i can barely wait to get my books home so I can peel the damned things off and shake the sticky things off my fingers and into the bin.

I know that it's a good marketing technique, clearly marking the books on offer that might otherwise be missed - and believe me, I like getting a good deal, getting more books for less money absolutely rocks, but....

I still hate those damned stickers.

I'm finally reading again!

2008-02-23T03:02:00.000-08:00

It seems far too long since I read a good book...

But, I have now finished my third book this year. Two have been mills and boon type - but with vampires instead of hunky millionaires, okayish, but not the finest of reads. The third book, which I read yesterday, was the latest Ian McEwan book - On Chesil Beach. It was a fairly good read, although I wanted to knock the two main charcters' heads together!

Ian Mc is a very good read. Of the books of his that I've read, my favourite would have to be Enduring Love.

I'm now going to read The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, a story written from Death's point of view...
I'll bet MIR is interested in that one!

New Year

2008-01-22T17:57:00.000-08:00

Well, it HAS been a long time since i was here last, hasn't it!...

No excuses or explanations, you know how it is, just on with the show eh?

Since the new year arrived, I havent read a thing. Well, I've started a couple, but finished nothing. So not much to report on that front.

Maybe it's an idea to sum up some favourites of last year...?. yes, I think I might just do that.

Last year I read A lot of Laurell K Hamilton. I was practically eating up those books (having been pointed in their direction by the lovely Stacy), sometimes reading about three in a week.

Two books which spring to mind as being particularly fabulous were:

Soon I will be invincible by Austin Grossman. Being a huge superhero fan, i adored this book, didnt want to end and now hope that there will be a sequel.

Mr Darcy Takes a Wife by Linda Berdoll. Any one who loves Pride and prejudice should like this book. Its not Jane Austen but all the characters are back doing new (and quite naughty) things, and I just loved it.

A classic I got around to reading this year was I am Legend by Richard Matheson. Picked up at my local library, I read this before I even knew about the new film of it.

An author I'd never previously tried, Iris Murdoch was a delightful discovery for me. I read The Severed Head and whilst it wasnt a particular favourite, I really liked her writing.

My top read of the year would have to go to Khaled Hossieni for his second book One thousand splendid suns. Its a fantastic book , I completely loved it.

What I Read - 2007

2007-12-31T18:15:00.000-08:00

A List of all the titles I read last year....

In Alphabetical order:

*A Caress of Twilight - Laurell K Hamilton
*A Kiss of Shadows - Laurell K Hamilton
*A Stroke of Midnight - Laurell K Hamilton
*Be Careful What You Wish For - Alexander Potter
*Blood Lines - Tanya Huff
*Blood Pact - Tanya Huff
*Blood Price - Tanya Huff
*Blood Trial - Tanya Huff
*Bloody Bones - Laurell K Hamilton
*Blue Moon - Laurell K Hamilton
*Burnt Offerings - Laurell K Hamilton
*Cerulean Sins - Laurell K Hamilton
*Circus of the Damned - Laurell K Hamilton
*Dance Macabre - Laurell K Hamilton
*Getting rid of Matthew - Jane Fallon
*I Am Legend - Richard Matheson
*Incubus Dreams - Laurell K Hamilton
*Love Story - Erich Segal
*Lucy in the Sky - Paige Toon
*Mistrals Kiss - Laurell K Hamilton
*Mr Darcy takes a wife - Liinda Berdoll
*Narcissus in Chains - Laurell K Hamilton
*Night Pleasures - Sherrilyn Kenyon
*Obsidian Butterfly - Laurell K Hamilton
*Public Confessions of a Middle-aged Woman - Sue Townsend
*Seduced by Moonlight - Laurell K Hamilton
*Soon I will be Invincible - Austin Grossman
*Storm Front - Jim Butcher
*The Association - Bentley Little
*The Dead of Summer - Camilla Way
*The Harlequin - Laurell K Hamilton
*The Killing Dance - Laurell K Hamilton
*The Laughing Corpse - Laurell K Hamilton
*The Lunatic Cafe - Laurell K Hamilton
*The Moth Diaries - Rachel Klein
*The Observations - Jane Harris
*The Outsider - Albert Camus
*The Painted Veil - Somerset Maugham
*The Perks of Being a Wallflower - Stephen Chboski
*The Severed Head - Iris Murdoch
*The Testament of Gideon Mack - James Robertson
*The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
*The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
*Two Lipsticks and A Lover - Helena Frith Powell

More For Your Money

2007-08-03T14:31:00.000-07:00

You just gotta love the internet....

Checking out your favourite authors website is deffinately worthwhile these days, there seems to be just tons of lovely stuff on them. Not just information on release dates etc but really good stuff. Extra stories for free, between the books chronicles, even diaries of characters. There's all that and more. I've been browsing, and I am a happy lady.

Bad, bad girl

2007-08-02T04:16:00.000-07:00

I know, I know, I know....

I promised I was going to finish up my "what I'm reading" list before picking up any other books - especially the, oh so tempting Laurell K Hamilton book which I really did try resisting....
Yes. I gave in.

But I have a good reason... really!

I was working my way through the list pretty diligently but I made one mistake. Usually, I can have several books on the go at once and can happily put them down and pick them up without needing to do any back reading, or at least, not very much. The one exception to this seems to be one of the books that was on my list - 100 years of solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez. I'd just found a good pace with the book, despite two of its problems: 1) most of the names are too similar and 2) it is pretty surreal. Anyway.. I'd gotten to page 92 when in between, I picked up another book. I read it, enjoyed it, then picked up the Marquez again. As I started to read, I realised I didnt have a clue who any of the characters were. I read back a little, to no avail, and so I've decided not to try to continue from page 92. I'll have to read from the begining again if I'm ever going to finish it. So having abandoned that book, I set about reading some of the books I have from the local library, I read the Laurell K Hamilton and have basically been loving everything I've read - reviews will follow.

What I've Read #5 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins

2007-07-14T02:40:00.000-07:00

woo, is that list coming down!...

and let's face it, it needed to.

I'm not going to give an overlong review of this book, to be honest, I just don't have the time. Suffice to say, this is a very good book. Hugely enjoyable; even though at times I felt it was too long.

I give this book 8 out of 10

J J J J J J J J J J

My Daughter heartily recommends....

2007-07-06T16:57:00.000-07:00

Did I tell you that I've completely and utterly corrupted my daughter....?

She's three and already she has a huge shoe collection and a very enviable library.

Every day she likes me to read to her, sometimes it can be three or maybe more sessions in a day. She likes being read to whilst in the bath, obviously she likes stories at bedtime and all other times in between.

As well as this the childrens tv channel CBeebies, has a story time too. During one of these story times, a presenter read The Rattletrap Car, which my daughter thoroughly loved. She had me scooting around every bookshop in our area just to buy this book, but we didnt manage to get it.

Instead we hotfooted it to the library where they ordered it.

I wonder how many orders a library gets from a three year old...?

I'll give this book 10 stars on her behalf (and they'll be in red as it's her favourite colour); we've read this book so much already that i almost know the whole thing without having to look at the words!

* * * * * * * * * *

What I've Read #4 - The Shoe Queen - Ann Davis

2007-07-06T15:46:00.000-07:00

Could there be a book more perfect for me???

I borrowed this one from the library - when I saw it, I just knew I had to read it.

the blurb on the inside flap reads: English society beauty Genevieve Shelby King parties to the utmost with the Anglo-American artists and writers of Montparnasse. She has a rich husband, a glamorous apartment and an enormous shoe collection. But there is something hollow at the centre of Genevieve's charmed life. When she spots a pair of unique and exquisite shoes on the feet of an arch rival one night, her whole collection - indeed everything she has - seems suddenly worthless. The exclusive designer Paolo Zachari, renowned for his fabulous shoes and eccentric behaviour, hand-picks his clients according to whim. And he has determined to say no to Genevieve. As her desire for the pair of unobtainable shoes develops into an obsession with their creator, Genevieve's elaborately designed life comes under threat, and she is forced to confront the emptiness at its heart.

This was an okay book. The title immediately appealed to me (of course!) and I adored the cover (which fits perfectly with my living room decor - perfect coffee table book) but I wasnt as impressed with it as I had hoped.

Don't get me wrong, there was nothing wrong with the book.. it just wasnt great. Good...but not great. It'll appeal to lovers of chick lit.

I give it a 6 (although after ive thought on it, I may up the score to a seven)

J J J J J J J J J J

What I've read #3 - Public Confessions of a Middle-aged Woman - Sue Townsend

2007-07-04T02:41:00.000-07:00

Finished less than an hour ago....

I was sorry to finish this one.

As I said in a post previous to this, Sue's book is ideal for any blog readers. The chapters are short, you can dip in and out of the book as and where you have a spare moment, you dont have to read the chapters in any particular order and it is very amusing.

While I dont think of this book as a classic, it still gets a high score... It does however lose a point because when I reached the end of the book, it didnt feel like I had reached the end. There was one last chapter (I almost said 'post') and that was it. No afterword, nothing. For my taste, I thought it needed a little something just to finish it up, but well, thats just my personal taste.

I gave this book a 9 (I'd read a sequel to it)

J J J J J J J J J J

What I've Read #2 - The dead of Summer - Camilla Way

2007-07-04T02:24:00.000-07:00

This was the next book in the pile on my bedside table....

I think reading this book after Camus' meant that I give it a slightly higher mark than I otherwise would have. It tackles one or two of the issues in The Outsider - murder, alienation, normality... but it is no way in the same league as The Outsider. One of the reviews printed on the front cover claims the book to be a modern classic in the making... I really didnt think so.

While, it has to be said, the book is very atmospheric, I found it to be a mish-mash of other novels - Catcher in the rye - JD Salinger, The body - Stephen King, A secret History - Donna Tart, The Outsider - Albert Camus, The Virgin Suicides - Jeoffry Euginides and anything by Virginia Andrews are the ones that spring to mind. Not bad comparisons I don't suppose, but I found this to be a book I could really have seen myself enjoying at the age of thirteen (incidentally, this was my opinion when I read the Euginides book.).

It was an 'okay' book though I probably wont be reading it again.

I give this book a 6 (I was going to say 5 but it gets an extra point for the sustained atmosphere throughout the book)

J J J J J J J J J J

What I've Read #1 - The Outsider - Albert Camus

2007-07-04T02:05:00.000-07:00

It took a little re-arranging of my schedule....

cashing in a sick day (which constitutes someone other than me looking after my daughter for the day - and I genuinely was sick...not faking.. honest! ) and not picking up the new Laurell K Hamilton which seems to call out to me evey time I pass by its little book nook, but I seem to be finally making a weeny little bit of progress on my "to read" list.

The first book I finished this week was Albert Camus' - The Outsider.
I had to start this book from scratch as I couldnt remember much of what I'd read before, but as the book was only a hundred and something pages long, that didnt matter so much. While I read it, I thought it was an okay book. It doesn't seem to be spectacularly written; no extravagant prose or complicated lex, but therein lies it's charm. The simplicity with which the story is given ensures you see the story and not the overly verbose props that creep into some fiction.

Once I'd finished this book, I thought it a good book, better than the "okay" I'd previously labled it with but I did wonder if it deserved the classic status which its been given.

A few days later and I think it does; with a resounding yes. Mostly because I can remember the book so easily now, even after finishing two others, this is the book that is staying with me. And really, what is a classic if not a book that stays with you long after you've finished reading it?

I give this book a 9

J J J J J J J J J J

Silly

2007-06-30T02:11:00.000-07:00

Just looking at the 'little' list of books that I am reading....

and really, I have far too many on the go.
The situation has arrisen because I just have so many books that I want to be reading, I can't help myself and end up picking up and dipping into several at any given time. Added to this are my monthly book club reads...

What is a bookwhore to do?

Read of course!

My aim is to clear the list to the right before adding any new titles...a task that will be difficult indeed as I recently bought the new Laurell K Hamilton, the latest in the vampire series I've been reading (thanks to Stacy :) ) and I'm just itching to read it.....

I think I'm going to be a might bit busy for the forseeable...

I wish I was a speed reader...

2007-06-26T02:04:00.000-07:00

I'm sitting in a room of wall to wall books....

Sounds delightful, does it not? And indeed it is.
My daughter is across the park at school and I have already chosen an armful of books for her (I have corrupted her from a mere sappling - she's totally addicted to books already...yaay!), and seen at least another dozen or so that I would like to take out myself...but I cant.

My card is full.
My shelves at home are full.
My "to-read" list is leagues long.

I wish I was a speed reader so that I could read all the books I want to.

Or maybe it would be nice if I could absorb all the stories osmosis style; just from having them on my shelves. (A similarly nice idea would be if just by having fitness dvd's, or at most, watching fitness dvd's, could transform my body to it's pre-baby condition).

So many books.. so little time.

Technology at it's finest

2007-06-15T02:32:00.000-07:00

My my my, it's been quite a while since I dusted the shelves in here, hasn't it?...

I'll not do the 'not-blogged-blah' so.. lets skip ahead a little.

One of the books that I'm reading at the moment - one of quite a few if you glance to the right - Is a book by Sue Townsend (of Adrian Mole fame). It's called The Public Confessions of a Middle Aged Woman.

The blurb on the back says:

Over the last decade, Sue Townsend has written a monthly column for Sainsbury's Magazine. Covering everything from hosepipe bans and Spanish restaurants to writer's block and the posh middle-aged woman she once met who'd never heard of Winnie the Pooh.

Now collected together for the first time, these funny, perceptive and touching pieces make up the brilliant new book from one of Britains most popular and acclaimed writers.

So far, I am enjoying the book. It's a blog readers type of book really, without the necessity for an internet connection; portable, lightweight and totally wireless.

It is funny, and you can read a whole chapter in the time it takes to boil a kettle - the chapters of course being one month's article.

I think I'll give it a six out of ten so far, being as I havent finished it yet, and if it were a blog, I'd already have linked to it.

Nb. I've decided to add a little point scorer for when I review the books - much like my MIR. I chose little islands to indicate whether or not I would like to take the book to a desert island with me...I'd need a helluva sized luggage trunk....

6 out of 10 - so far.
J J J J J J J J J J

100 reads

2007-03-27T00:32:00.000-07:00

This post stolen from the lovely Jo....

Look at the list of books below.
*Bold/colour the ones you’ve read
*Italicize the ones you want to read - I've also put a little * next to these ones
*leave blank the ones that you aren’t interested in.
If you are reading this, tag your it!

1.The Da Vinci Code (Dan Brown)
2.Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)
3.To Kill A Mockingbird (Harper Lee)
4. Gone With The Wind (Margaret Mitchell)
5. The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (Tolkien)*
6. The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (Tolkien)*
7. The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers (Tolkien)*
8. Anne of Green Gables (L.M. Montgomery)
9. Outlander (Diana Gabaldon)
10.A Fine Balance (Rohinton Mistry)
11.Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Rowling)
12.Angels and Demons (Dan Brown)
13.Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Rowling)
14. A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving)*
15. Memoirs of a Geisha (Arthur Golden)
16.Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (Rowling)
17. Fall on Your Knees (Ann-Marie MacDonald)
18. The Stand (Stephen King)*
19. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Rowling)
20. Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte)
21. The Hobbit (Tolkien)
22. The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger)
23. Little Women (Louisa May Alcott)
24. The Lovely Bones (Alice Sebold)*
25. Life of Pi (Yann Martel)*
26. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams)*
27. Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte)
28. The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe (C. S. Lewis)
29. East of Eden (John Steinbeck)*
30. Tuesdays with Morrie (Mitch Albom)
31. Dune (Frank Herbert)*
32. The Notebook (Nicholas Sparks)*
33. Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand)
34. 1984 (Orwell)
35. The Mists of Avalon (Marion Zimmer Bradley)
36. The Pillars of the Earth (Ken Follett)
37. The Power of One (Bryce Courtenay)
38. I Know This Much is True (Wally Lamb)
39. The Red Tent (Anita Diamant)
40. The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho)
41. The Clan of the Cave Bear (Jean M. Auel)*
42. The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini)
43. Confessions of a Shopaholic (Sophie Kinsella)
44. The Five People You Meet In Heaven (Mitch Albom)
45. Bible (All of it) {most of it}
46. Anna Karenina (Tolstoy)*
47. The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas)
48. Angela’s Ashes (Frank McCourt)
49. The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck)*
50. She’s Come Undone (Wally Lamb)*
51. The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver)*
52. A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens)
53. Ender’s Game (Orson Scott Card)
54. Great Expectations (Dickens)
55. The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald)*
56. The Stone Angel (Margaret Laurence)
57. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Rowling)
58. The Thorn Birds (Colleen McCullough)*
59. The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood)
60. The Time Traveller’s Wife (Audrew Niffenegger)
61. Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)*
62. The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand)
63. War and Peace (Tolsoy)*
64. Interview With The Vampire (Anne Rice)
65. Fifth Business (Robertson Davis)
66. One Hundred Years Of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
67. The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants (Ann Brashares)
68. Catch-22 (Joseph Heller)*
69. Les Miserables (Hugo) In French!
70. The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint-Exupery) In French!
71. Bridget Jones’ Diary (Fielding)
72. Love in the Time of Cholera (Marquez)
73. Shogun (James Clavell)
74. The English Patient (Michael Ondaatje)*
75. The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett)
76. The Summer Tree (Guy Gavriel Kay)
77. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Betty Smith)
78. The World According To Garp (John Irving)
79. The Diviners (Margaret Laurence)
80. Charlotte’s Web (E.B. White)
81. Not Wanted On The Voyage (Timothy Findley)
82. Of Mice And Men (Steinbeck)
83. Rebecca (Daphne DuMaurier)
84. Wizard’s First Rule (Terry Goodkind)
85. Emma (Jane Austen)
86. Watership Down (Richard Adams)
87. Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)
88. The Stone Diaries (Carol Shields)
89. Blindness (Jose Saramago)
90. Kane and Abel (Jeffrey Archer)
91. In The Skin Of A Lion (Ondaatje)
92. Lord of the Flies (Golding)
93. The Good Earth (Pearl S. Buck)*
94. The Secret Life of Bees (Sue Monk Kidd)
95. The Bourne Identity (Robert Ludlum)
96. The Outsiders (S.E. Hinton)
97. White Oleander (Janet Fitch)
98. A Woman of Substance (Barbara Taylor Bradford)
99. The Celestine Prophecy (James Redfield)
100.Ulysses (James Joyce)*

Some of the ones I have left alone, I just haven't heard of...a couple of the titles look appealing, but I think I shall have a look at them first.

So, how many have you read?

Making it like home

2007-03-08T06:37:00.000-08:00

Well, I've most deffinately moved in here....

and today I managed put up a few shelves, moved in some furniture; even managed to hang a picture or two.

As you can see, It's far from finished yet... I still have to move in all my books...gotta install the cooker and the suchlike.. but it's looking more homely already....
I have to say.. I do like it here.

All those of you who have been popping in and leaving comments, you will notice that I have linked you as book club members. We dont have a set book every month.. but hey.. we potter about talking books and general chit-chat.. what is that if not a book club?.. Anyway.. any suggestions for a name for us?

Let me know if there's any links you'd like me to stick on the ole notice board.

...all this hard work deserves some wine.. dont you think?

xxxxxxxxxx

For Le Laquet

2007-03-08T02:07:00.000-08:00

My lovely (and patient) shoe-lovin', Swansea sister....

Who mentioned that she could do with some pointers to the directions of some good books...
It's been a little while, so, forgive my slowness sis!

Here are some of the books I've enjoyed recently:
Kafka on the shore - Haruki Murakami
Shipwrecked Sailor - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
The Horrific sufferings of the mind reading monster Hercules Barefoot His wonderful love and his terrible hatred - Carl-Johan Vallgren
Midsummer night's dream - ole shakey
Slaughterhouse 5 - Kurt Vonnegut
A moveable feast - Hemmingway
Children of men - P D James
Perfume - Patrick Suskind
Careful what you wish for - Alexandra Potter
All the Anita Blake Vampire hunter novels - Laurell K Hamilton
The secret of crickley hall - James Herbert
The observations - Jane Harris
The testament of Gideon Mack - James Robertson
The Historian - Elizabeth Kostova

I'd also highly reccommend The Time Traveller's wife by Audrey Niffenegger, The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (excellent book) and Chart Throb by Ben Elton

Hope theres some in there that you havent read and do fancy.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Book Club meeting

2007-03-08T01:18:00.000-08:00

A surprisingly uneventful meeting....

We didnt get banned from anywhere, which was a good start for us (!) and our chat was mostly... umm.. sortof.....well, partly about books. We did have a good catch-up with what's going on in each other's lives.....

we got around to the books eventually.

And we had a new member...a teeny tiny and very cute, adorable new member who is the daughter of G (a member who has been with us from the start).

I stand by the marks I gave last months books.

I did eventually finish the Gideon Mack book and it seems that I was the only one that liked it in our group; every one else preferred The Observations.

This months choices look like this:

The Interpretation of a Murder by Jed Rubenfield
The woman in white by Wilkie Collins.

Both look pretty good and I have a feeling my MIR may like the Jed Rubenfield choice.

I did a lot of bookwhoring yesterday...more on that later. But suffice to say, No more books till next months book club choices....

At least I'm not going to run out of books!

Playing catch-up...Last months book choices

2007-03-05T07:51:00.000-08:00

Last month, I was the one responsible for choosing our reading matter....

I wasn't however, responsible for getting us banned from Charlie's Chowder House. That would have been my good mate, Maria.

I'll not go into full details.. lets just say that men's bathrooms were involved and an irrate chowder house owner.....

On to the book choices.

The first book I read was The Observations by Jane Harris and I found it to be an okay book. I've read a lot worse, but I've read a lot better too. It had enough in it to intrigue me to reading til the end; which was, on the whole, satisfactory and the majority of the characters were like-able enough. On the whole, I think I'd give it a 6 out of 10.

I haven't yet finished the second book which is The testament of Gideon Mack by James Robertson. This one I think is by far a more superior book. The writing style is more pleasing, the story is interesting and although when I began the book, I didnt expect to like the character of Gideon, I actually do. I can't give a fair rating yet, as I have yet to finish the book...but, judging by what i've read so far, I'd give it an 8 out of 10.

Our next meeting is this wednesday, and I'll be sure to post the new choices.

xxxxxx

Recent book whoring

2007-03-05T01:40:00.000-08:00

Wednesday is typically a book whoring day....

It's when I have time to myself to browse contentedly in book shops, and then with my lovely new purchases nestled together in their carrier bags, I head off to my favourite coffee shop.

Last weeks purchases were:

Bel Canto - Ann Patchett

Extremely loud and incredibly close - Jonathen Safran Foer

Orhan Pamuk - Snow

Suite Francaise - Irene Nemirovsky

The mathematics of love - Emma Darwin

Ratcatcher - James McGee

The Swarm - Frank Shatzing.

I also picked up the last few books that I ordered through my local independant bookshop.

I've recently re-discovered my absolute delight in horror novels - my reading since I joined the book group being guided to less bloody paths - and having thoroughly enjoyed the Anita Blake vampire hunter books (thanks to the Peanut Queen) I orderd two more horror series: the books by Kim Harrison and the books by Kelley Armstrong.

The last books I picked up were:

For a few demons more - Kim Harrison

Stolen - Kelley Armstrong

Dimestore Magic -Kelley Armstrong.

Methinks I need a lot of wine and chocolate to go with this little lot...

xxxxxxxxxxx

Romance

2007-03-01T02:16:00.000-08:00

Here is a little story told to me more than ten years ago....

At the time, along with WHSmith's, there were two other main places to buy books from - two independant book stores. One was called Paperback Parade (now an outdoor persuits store) and the other was called Peter's bookshop (now just an empty building). Once a week, I would end up in one or another of these bookshops; if one didnt have the book i was looking for, I would happily toddle along to the other, possibly to WHSmiths or even the bookstall in the local market. There was lots of choice in - dare I say it? - the good ole days.

Of all these shops, my personal favourite was Peter's. The choice was always pretty good, the people working in the shop actually liked to read and could hold a good conversation about various books and authors. They would also remember their clientele and their reading preferences, keeping books under the counter til they could be collected, without even being asked.

One time - near Christmas, if memory serves, I was indulging my book loving self, spending ages merely browsing, every so often choosing something appealing, until I had an armload of books to take to the counter.
"Christmas presents?" The cashier asked (I'm afraid I dont remember her name, but I have a suspicion it might have been Mary)
"Yes." I said, smiling, "For me"
She laughed a little. "Those are the best kind."
We chatted for a little while and then she told me about a gentleman customer of hers who had been coming into the shop every week all year, and twice a week since the beginging of November. Every visit, he would purchase a £5 book token. (Books back then cost about a fiver each)
He had told Mary that his fiancee was a complete book worm and that he planned on presenting her with all these book tokens just before christmas so that she could come in to the shop and buy exactly what she wanted.
I had thought this the most wonderful and romantic gesture possible. I could think of nothing I would like more than to receive a surprise like that.

A couple of years later, I recounted this little story to my boyfriend, hoping that he would get the huge "hint hint".. but of course, it fell on deaf ears.
"Bit daft of him wasnt it?" he'd said. "why didnt he work out what he was going to spend on her, keep the money in the bank till the end of the year - he'd have the interest that way. He'd have saved himself all the journey's to the shop too."
I remember sighing...so much for romance...
My boyfriend continued, warming to his subject..."And if he'd given her money instead, she wouldnt be limited to just buying books." (he completely missed the point) "plus," he continued, unabated "If she got the tokens, or money after christmas, she could buy stuff in the January sales and get more for her money."
I remember him smiling, totally satisfied with himself.
His advice was practical, it had to be said... but as for as being romantic goes,
Casanova he was/is not.

I do think I may treat myself to that particular gift....

xxxxxxx

From between the pages, to between the sheets...

2007-02-28T02:53:00.000-08:00

I am a little curious....

Have you ever been reading a story or novel and wished a little that a character was real?

If it where at all possible for any characters to spring themselves free from their fiction shackles, and walk into your lives, who would you choose?

Mine are listed below:

1)..Peekay from The Power of One and it's sequel Tandia, by Bryce Courtenay.

A fit, well muscled boxer with a brain as powerful as his body. He speaks several African laguages and hates any injustice.

2)..Jean Claude from the Anita Blake vampire Hunter books by Laurell K Hamilton.
(Peanut Queen, I blame you for this one...lol)

A pale and beautiful French vampire with long dark locks. He's devious, but generally well meaning and a little more 'good' than he appears. Not to mention that he is an incubus...

My next to choices are really not wholly imaginitive...

3)..Mr Darcy from Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen.

C'mon, who wouldnt want Mr Darcy with that arrogance to conquer, the tight britches, the closet hero in him (riding to the rescue saving maidens from the dastardly Mr Wickham), the tight britches....

4)..Rhett Butler from Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell.
And what girl doesnt want to try and tame a bad boy?...

Now, how about your choices? List as many or as few as you like.

xxxxxxxxx

The Blogging Bookers....

2007-02-28T02:39:00.000-08:00

I had a little thought....

I was thinking it might be nice if we could all get together and a have a little book discussion, rather than relying on the comments section. I think Chatrooms are easy enough to put onto a blog ( even for a techno-blonde like myself) so it shouldn't be too much bother - especially as I'm still decorating the place anyway.

So what do ya think?.. fancy arranging a time to sip some wine and talk about books?

xxxxxxxxxxxx

My Book Nook

2007-02-26T02:29:00.000-08:00

I have settled here into this little nook.....

It's nice and quiet, it has chocolates in abundance, wine on tap and books everywhere.

So, why the new home? I hear you ask... Well, as much as I like the other place, This place is pretty much just about book-talk.

I plan on talking about book club choices, putting up some links to author websites and the such like and adding lists of the books that I own.

I've seen a few blogs that do this, and being naturally curious (read, nosy) about what others are reading, I thought it only fair if I included my own little collection.

Anyway... what are you reading right now?

My Library Shelves - Fiction

2002-03-30T03:00:00.000-08:00