All posts filed under: Updates

Six Degrees of Separation // ‘Never Let Me Go’

Published by

Six Degrees of Separation is hosted by Kate at Books Are My Favourite and Best. It goes like this: “On the first Saturday of every month, a book is chosen as a starting point and linked to six other books to form a chain. Readers and bloggers are invited to join in by creating their own ‘chain’ leading from the selected book.” Then you head on over to Kate’s blog and link up. Easy. Unsurprisingly (if you happen to have seen my last two Six Degrees posts), I haven’t read this month’s starter book, Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go. Neither have I read the book I’m linking it to, this one another of Ishiguro’s – The Buried Giant. I do own a copy of that book though, so it’s a start. The link to the next book is fairly obvious – it too has the word “giant” in the title. In The Giant O’Brien by Hilary Mantel, two characters are facing off: the titular giant, Charles O’Brien (based on a real life giant named …

The round up // October 2016

Published by

Another month has gone by in a blur. Surely someone has hit the fast forward button on the last two months of 2016, which can only be a good thing. This year has been like a scary rollercoaster ride with loads of ups and downs that doesn’t seem like it’s going to end, but then all of a sudden it’s over and you just walk around in a daze for a bit, coming down from the adrenaline rush. October was ok, I think. I got loads of reading in, was reasonably productive at work and around the home, and that’s all there is to report really. Oh, I did participate in my first Dewey’s 24 Hour Readathon which was fun. I had a much more casual approach to it than I have for the 24 in 48 Readathon; I was so casual about it in fact, that I didn’t even keep track of how much time I actually spent reading over the 24 hours, and I didn’t write a wrap up post. It was really …

Bookish (and not so bookish) thoughts // 29 October, 2016

Published by

‘Bookish (and not so bookish) thoughts’ is hosted by Christine at Bookishly Boisterous – go say hi! 1. Wonder Woman in the U.N.: a great symbol of empowerment, but more power would be nice. 2. I’m now a Book Ninja and damn am I excited about it. Gotta start practicing my stealth mode. 3. Last year I participated in a postal Secret Santa run by The Broke and the Bookish. It was so much fun putting together a Christmas gift for a complete stranger. It’s happening again this year if anyone wants to jump on board. 4. There has been a huge load of science stuff that happened in the last few weeks that I’ve barely even read about, let alone shared with people. So today I want to make sure you all know that the FIRST EVER FOSSILISED DINOSAUR BRAIN HAS BEEN FOUND. 5. I’ve been spending the last few days putting together a most awesome playlist of songs for one of my best friends (music is probably my second love behind books even …

Six Degrees of Separation // Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Published by

Six Degrees of Separation is hosted by Kate at Books Are My Favourite and Best. It goes like this: “On the first Saturday of every month, a book is chosen as a starting point and linked to six other books to form a chain. Readers and bloggers are invited to join in by creating their own ‘chain’ leading from the selected book.” Then you head on over to Kate’s blog and link up. Easy. This month’s chain [which accidentally turned out to be one filled with unread books and similar titles] starts with Jonathan Safran Foer’s Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. I’ve had a digital edition of this book sitting on my iPad for approximately forever and I’m yet to read it. Another book that I’ve had sitting around forever and haven’t read (one of many), is The Railway Man’s Wife by Ashley Hay. I have the suspicion that I purchased this book thinking that it was actually The Railway Man by Eric Lomax; that’ll teach me to not pay attention when going on a …

The round up // September 2016

Published by

IT’S OCTOBER. That’s all I’ll say about how fast the year is going. September was kind of a blur. I spent the first two weeks of the month on leave and I think not paying attention to the date for those two weeks made the month go by that much quicker. But it was still a reasonably productive month. I got the internet situation sorted in my new house, had some furniture delivered, got my little garden sorted, caught up on a bunch of NetGalley reviews, and just generally had a nice time. Some reading things from September: I had an ok reading month. My favourite read was definitely Heather Rose’s debut novel The Museum of Modern Love (my review). I read the first two books of my Bookabuy subscription (last month’s book and this month’s). The first, In the Month of the Midnight Sun, had loads of promise but it didn’t really deliver (my review). The second was a new thriller by Claire Douglas called Local Girl Missing and IT WAS SO GOOD. I …

Six Degrees of Separation // ‘Flowers in the Attic’

Published by

Six Degrees of Separation is hosted by Kate at Books Are My Favourite and Best. It goes like this: “On the first Saturday of every month, a book is chosen as a starting point and linked to six other books to form a chain. Readers and bloggers are invited to join in by creating their own ‘chain’ leading from the selected book.” Then you head on over to Kate’s blog and link up. Easy. This is my very first Six Degrees of Separation and it was so much fun to do. I would encourage everyone to join in – you might even learn some weird bookish facts on the way. And there’s very little in the way of rules, which is lucky for me because I think my links are the loosest ones in the history of any chains and are tenuous at best. Oh well. The starting point for this month’s chain, is Flowers in the Attic by V.C. Andrews. Published in 1979, I haven’t read this book, but I have read the most …

Bookish (and not so bookish) thoughts // 2 September, 2016

Published by

‘Bookish (and not so bookish) thoughts’ is hosted by Christine at Bookishly Boisterous – go say hi! 1. After reading Seven Skeletons, a book about fossils, I’m really into fossils now. So I was super excited to read about the discovery of a new extinct mammal in Australia late last week. It’s called microleo attenboroughi – which basically means it’s a small lion named in honour of Sir David Attenborough. Very cool. 2. Look at this amazing edition of Ian Fleming’s Goldfinger from Shakespeare and Company in Paris. I’ve never read a James Bond book and I doubt I will any time soon, but if I could have this first edition I’m sure I’d change my mind. 3. I received my copy of Michel Houellebecq’s Soumission this week, all the way from Blackwell’s Books in Oxford, England, and it reminded me of how much I love the idea of books flying halfway around the world to get to me. Needless to say, I’m a huge fan of sending and receiving postcards from far off places. …

Reading Challenge Update // August 2016

Published by

It’s time for another update on the reading challenges I’m participating in this year (I first wrote about them here if you’re interested). All of the books basically fall under the Read My Own DamnBooks challenge, but for the sake of tracking eBooks and physical books, I’m keeping them separate. The ‘Clean Your Reader’ Challenge This challenge is officially over and my total for it was 10 eBooks read, but I’m going to continue to keep track of my eBooks read separate from the physical ones. This month I read some eBooks, but they were new ones from NetGalley, so I guess I need to stay away from that website (hahaha as if). #ReadMyOwnDamnBooks A sign that the end of days is truly nigh, is that this is the second month in a row that I’ve read one of my own damn books. Actually, I read TWO of my own damn books. Whaaaat? Rush Oh! by Shirley Barrett Cat’s Eye by Margaret Atwood So far I’ve read 8 of my own damn books. The “Read Harder” Challenge After …

The round up // August 2016

Published by

I’m starting to feel like a broken record with all this, “I can’t believe it’s [insert month here] tomorrow”, because I’ve been saying it every month for the last three months (at least) and I still can’t understand how the year is going by so quickly. But on Thursday it’ll be September. In my opinion, it should only just be coming into June or something, but the calendar will have its way. August was pretty ok. I finally have a phone line installed (which I discussed a little bit here and how not having one has seen me somehow translating a book from French to English for “fun”), which means there’s a very real chance I’ll have the internet at my house before the end of the year. I’m really thrilled by this: Some reading things from August: I read some pretty great books this month, including Rush Oh! by Shirley Barrett (probably my favourite book this month); my first Margaret Atwood, Cat’s Eye; a hilarious debut called The Gentleman (my review) by Forrest Leo; …

Reading Challenge Update // July 2016

Published by

It’s time for another update on the reading challenges I’m participating in this year (I first wrote about them here if you’re interested). All of the books basically fall under the Read My Own DamnBooks challenge, but for the sake of tracking eBooks and physical books, I’m keeping them separate. The ‘Clean Your Reader’ Challenge This challenge is officially over and my total for it was 10 eBooks read, but I’m going to continue to keep track of my eBooks read separate from the physical ones. This month I didn’t read any eBooks – and I’m ok with that. #ReadMyOwnDamnBooks WHAT IS THIS MADNESS?? After not reading any of my own unread books for the last couple of months, I actually managed to cross one off the list in July. This must be what they call a miracle. Phar Lap by Geoff Armstrong and Peter Thompson So far I’ve read 6 of my own damn books. The “Read Harder” Challenge I crossed off zero tasks this month. Apparently I’m not reading very hard. Number of tasks completed so …