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12 Books in 12 Months

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Book Recommendations

Lately I have been trying to read ALL THE BOOKS.  This is impossible, but I am making a better fist of it that I did when I was doing the writing of the 12 books in 12 months.  Here are some brief highlights of what I’ve read since the start of October.  You should read all of these and tell me what you think.

  • The Pirates in an Adventure with Whaling – Gideon Defoe
    Made me laugh out loud several times, even better than the first in the series; ham.
  • Sparks – David Quantick
    Tonally a lot like Douglas Adams.  Parallel universes.  Jolly good fun.
  • Let’s Pretend This Never Happened – Jenny Lawson
    Likely to make you snort-laugh in a most unladylike fashion. A memoir of a perplexing childhood and an account of an interesting adulthood by one of the internet’s best bloggers.  Worth a look if you enjoy Caitlin Moran, or if you want to laugh a lot.
  • Maus – Art Spiegelman
    I’m late to the party with Maus, obviously – it’s been on my to-read list for years, but I finally got around to it last month.  I can’t add much to what you probably already know – it’s fascinating and horrible and heartbreaking.  Read it please.  The end.
  • Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children – Ransom Riggs
    A magical tale built around old sepia photos of freak shows.  I worried this might be a little bit cheesy, especially when the American kid went to visit Wales… but it’s actually not.  I’m very curious to know what happens next.
  • The Sisters Brothers – Patrick De Witt
    If you’re a horse lover you may wish to look away.  An absorbing tale of the Wild West, but not the Will Smith kind.  It is a little slow to get started, but once it gets going it is very good.
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Weekly Photo Challenge: Geometry

I have so much writing to do this month I will go crazy if I don’t do something else too, so I’m going to join in with a couple of photography challenges.  This one is from the post a day blog.

If pushed to describe what geometry means to me (unlikely, sure, but stranger things have happened), I’d probably say something vague about lines and shapes and change the subject.  So, without further ado, some lines and shapes:

My house
Venice

And how is NaNoWriMo going for you?!

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Winter is Coming

 

And I think I’m OK with that.  Since fuel prices are increasing exponentially (something that affects me these days, how depressingly grown up) I forsee a lot of sweeping round the flat wearing my patchwork blanket like a mantle and demanding ale and wenches.  It’s going to be pretty sweet.

Continue reading “Winter is Coming” →

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Dyslexia Awareness Week

It is coming to the end of Dyslexia Awareness Week, and I wanted to mark it in some way.

Continue reading “Dyslexia Awareness Week” →

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We Could Be Heroes

Yesterday, Luath Press (an independent Scottish Publisher) asked Twitter for their best literary heroes.

Continue reading “We Could Be Heroes” →

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Naughty Bits

You know when you’re reading a book in a public place like a bus or your office at lunchtime, and you get really absorbed in that different world, so it seems totally normal when there’s a naughty bit? ‘He put that there, she made an unusual hissing sound, they used a melon’ – all that sort of malarkey happens around you and it’s fine because you’re swept along with the narrative. Only then you have to get off the bus ,or answer the phone to a stationery supplier, or do whatever other thing it is that brings you crashing back to normality.

What next? Do you feel slightly embarrassed that you just witnessed something so intimate in public? Do you feel a bit giggly, like you have a naughty secret? Do you look around furtively for people that have read the book before, with that sinking feeling they know they know exactly what you just read and are going to mention it in front of everyone?

Also, do you factor in book snobbery? If you’re reading 50 Shades of Grey, everyone knows what’s happening in there cause of the terrifying hardware shortage in the US – that was on the news, by jimminy. But more literary books have sex by the shed load too. (See what I did there? Shed load? Cause that’s where you keep your hardware, unless you’re kinky billionaire whats-his-chops – I havent read 50 Shades, but I think I get away with it…) This week I’ve been reading Half of a Yellow Sun, and there’s human anatomy all over the shop. The very first chapter ends with a boy listening to his new boss have intimate relations, and it starts as it goes on.

For my part, when I come across a rude bit and I’m in the office or wherever, I opt for a giggly/furtive mash up. I’ll look around surreptitiously to see if anyone else has clocked me reading about bedtime highjinks in the middle of the day, smile secretly to myself, and carry on about my business.

How about you?

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