About Time

It's been six years, somehow, since I last wrote anything here, and like so many things I'm slightly wary to come back because it seems that a lot of golden things that I miss actually just no longer exist and this blog and the community of book nerds on the internet that I found through it was that for me, way back when. 

Since I last posted here we've been through a pandemic, I've closed a business (Ninja Book Box was a beautiful experience which taught me so much but online selling is hard and I only have finite energy. Indie Book Advent Calendars still exist, though), expanded Bookshop Crawl across the UK into a pretty full time job (although not financially, yet!), co-founded a children's literature festival and am somehow parenting a teenager and an 11 year old. Rhys and I still like each other. I still read 4-7 books at a time and go through months at a time of not finishing things. I'm still obsessed with my garden and allotment. I still love my armchair by the sea. 

I've moved over to Bookshop.org for my affiliate links, and this last weekend we got back from two days at the Winchester Bookshop Crawl and at Legoland so I haven't yet managed to put away my book purchases from that (the bookshop crawl, not Legoland. That one just involved getting absolutely soaked on Pirate Falls and going on several rollercoasters) or, to be honest, the three bookshop crawls before that. I'm not spending a lot of time reading at the moment as I've been launching programmes and configuring things for volunteers meetings and generally everything is a lot busier than when the kids were tiny or even before they were born, when I was working part time and would just potter along to the library to write my blog posts. Never has a sentence made me feel so old!

It doesn't help my productivity that we've also reached both peak 'all the seeds need sowing and all the seedlings need potting on and there's no room in the shed for anything' season and peak 'lay in the hammock and read all the books about self sufficiency and gardening and dream about maybe just quitting everything and becoming some kind of farmer/hermit hybrid' season. These are not real seasons, but they are very real seasons in my life and they very much affect my ability to do the things that I'm supposed to be doing. As does posting on a blog that's been dormant for - well, if we're not counting the two posts in 2020 - 8 years. 

I don't think people even read blogs anymore. Everything's much faster and shorter these days. Too many characters in a blog post! But if anyone is still out there on the old feeds, hello. I make no promises about my return, but maybe I'll write some vaguely book related ramblings here from time to time. Or maybe I won't.

Currently Reading

Bookshops & Bonedust by Travis Baldree

The Garden Against Time by Olivia Laing

The Light Years by Elizabeth Jane Howard (Re-read) 

 

Sunday Thoughts

It's Sunday. It's been 3 years since I regularly blogged here, so what better time to update people on what's different since then?

My kids were tiny when I last blogged regularly. They are less tiny now - Ben is 7 and Sam is almost 6. Here they are eating an ice cream that our friend chucked down her driveway at them as we walked past yesterday (not literally, but there was some back and forthing involved in actually getting the ice creams from her house to their hands)

There's Rhys in the background, wearing his Bookshop Crawl hoodie. Some of you might know that the London Bookshop Crawl, which I started when I was regularly writing this blog, recently celebrated its 5th birthday. It's become an awesome, big, three day celebration of the bookshops of London each February and takes up loads of my time planning it! It's so much fun and a real highlight of my year and we were so, so lucky with timing this year as we squeaked in a couple of weeks before the current situation all began to kick off! I also now run bookshop crawls in different cities across the UK in the spring and summer, although these are mostly going to be postponed this year, but we'll get back to them as soon as we can. Rhys is now much more involved in all the planning and idea generation than he was when I last wrote. He's on twitter as @ninjasassistant and is responsible for having the initial idea for the Virtual Bookshop Crawl we're currently running on social media while we're in lockdown.

I've got into yoga since I was last here too. I started it when I was going through a really bad phase of anxiety and googled 'yoga for anxiety'. From there I discovered Yoga with Adriene and it's amazing! I've been to a few real life yoga classes too, back when that was a thing that we could do, and I enjoyed them, but I really love my at home yoga practice - it makes me feel so strong and clears my head. We've also taken over an allotment, although I might have mentioned that before as this is about our fourth summer with it. It's brilliant - I have an asparagus patch which was entirely inspired by Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver, and which is now at a point where we actually get asparagus from it, and the allotment is full of salvaged things, like the three gooseberry bushes we rescued from the reduced section in Tesco for 20p a plant and which last year had fruit for the first time! I have turned into the crazy neighbour that yells at cats too - between them our neighbours have about twenty cats and one or two in particular are always getting into our garden, digging up plants and pooing on them and it drives me nuts. I spend a large percentage of time (particularly at the moment) wandering round my garden, swearing under my breath (and sometimes not so under my breath if I feel the need to make a point) about the cats (which for the record are all gorgeous and I would love them if they weren't destroying my garden).

I am still a book polygamist - it's actually impossible for me to only be reading one book at a time! Most recently I finished Anybody Out There? by Marian Keyes which I really loved. I know I've read some Marian Keyes in the dim and distant past but I honestly don't remember it very well, but this has made me want to get all of her back catalogue and read everything she's written. It was perfect for my state of mind at the moment. I'm also currently reading The Minor Adjustment Beauty Salon by Alexander McCall Smith, The Polar Bear Explorers Club by Alex Bell (which I LOVE and am adding the next two onto my wish list immediately) and dipping in and out of Ducks, Newburyport by Lucy Ellman for the readalong I'm hosting at Ninja Book Box.

Speaking of which, we've opened an online bookshop selling pre-loved indie books of all genres alongside the quarterly book boxes. We're also looking into the possibility of opening a real life space here in the Thanet once we can go outside again. It's both exciting and terrifying and I would hugely appreciate any advice anyone can offer!

That's probably enough rambling from me for now, except to say that I'm off to eat some microwave chocolate cake - who would have thought that lockdown would inspire me with a love of microwave baking? But sometimes you just need cake in under ten minutes... 

I am happy to be back!

Hello

Is anyone still out there? 

I've been off working on other projects for the past three years or so but they're all very specifically tailored towards certain things and for a while I've been thinking about this space and the possibility of picking up where I left off. 

This blog has a long history of me making grand declarations about my intentions and then completely failing to live up to or fulfil any of them, but given that we're currently in lockdown and life is pretty weird right now it seems as good a time as any to pick up again. I am making no plans about the regularity of posting, or even if I will post much after this, but I miss the old blogging community - I miss browsing through friends' blogs and commenting on each others posts and discovering all kinds of books I'd never have heard about otherwise. 

If you read this, please leave a comment, say hi and link to your latest blog post - I've got some catching up to do! 

Shopping My Shelves (and giving away books!)

Hey people, it's been a while... I've been having a wonderful time reading whatever I want and having very low commitments blog-wise. It's making my brain feel better I think - either that or just leaving me more room to be anxious about other stuff!

Either way I reorganised my books the other day during a fit of wanting to hide from the world. They're now shelved by publisher, which is pretty much the only way I've never shelved them before and it means they no longer fit on my (two bookcases worth of) shelves! When I was going through them though I realised, as you do, that I'd forgotten I had a lot of them and while I've done a pretty good job of passing on things I know I'll never get around to, I thought a fun thing to do might be to go through them in a bit more depth. Cue a new thing I'll be doing over on my Instagram: Shopping my Shelves. 

Each day (or sporadically, depending how ingrained this becomes) I'll post a picture of a book chosen at random from my shelves of unread books, plus the blurb and a little on where I acquired it/how long I've had it for and a summary of whether I'm going to add it to my pile of books to get to immediately, put it back on my shelves for eventual reading, or pass it on! If it's a book that's being passed on, you dear friends and readers will be able to request it. I'll send one parcel a month for free (up to 2kg - 2-3 books) to a UK person, and other than that you can just cover postage & I'll send you books. I do this fairly often on twitter, but I thought this would be really fun, give me something to post on Instagram rather than just pictures of my lunch, and enable me to share even more bookish love with you lovely people.

Hopefully I'll also make you aware of some brilliant books in the process. If you're not already following me do come and say hi! I'll be using #shoppingmyshelves and will have a page here on the blog for books currently on offer. Look out for the first post this evening!

For reference purposes, here's what my bookshelves of unread books look like:

There are between 300 - 400 books pictured. I have a lot of books. I do not need any more books. I will undoubtedly get more books. We are so far failing absolutely on the spending freeze front, but we are becoming way more mindful of what we're spending and why and I hope this exercise will help more with my book buying! Wish me luck!

London Bookshop Crawl 2017

Where to start with this post? If you've been around the blog for a while you'll have seen that the bookshop crawl I started last year to brighten up February, support bookshops and meet fellow book lovers got a lot bigger this year. Because of that I've been busy madly co-ordinating everything and organising groups and haven't had time to worry about how it was actually all going to work. As we got closer to Saturday I found myself getting a bit apprehensive...

However Saturday morning hit and we headed out to Foyles, the meeting point for the people who were in the four groups we ran during the day. Many other people took part in the crawl across London and it was amazing seeing tweets of where they'd been and all the bookshop love going on - one of my favourite things about the day!

We were a little late to Foyles due to some train/breakfast issues so lots of people were already there when I arrived - some familiar faces and a lot of new ones. If you were feeling overwhelmed I was totally there with you! It was lovely to meet so many people though, and we spent a little while chatting and handing out books (some of us had posted books we wanted to rehome on social media beforehand so it was fun to put faces to names and make some shelf space all at once) and the tote bags we'd had printed for the day.

Rhys and I were leading group 3 and headed off to Orbital Comics. Personally I love and adore Orbital, and they were giving away free comics to bookshop crawlers which was amazing. Rhys got Doctor Strange and I picked up volume one of March by John Lewis which was recommended to me by Elena (and many others). I've actually already finished it and it's just as brilliant as everyone says it is - I highly recommend it! I'm not sure there were a huge number of comics fans in our group, and so we thought it would be good to split up, as our second stop according to the itinerary was Gosh! Comics.

Rhys took most of the group off to Oxfam Books in Bloomsbury where they were given free chocolate and badges and generally seem to have had a whale of a time! Katie, myself and Jane (who it was awesome to finally meet after a while of Ninja Swapping and chatting online) headed off towards Gosh where we found Katheryn, Hanna, Charlotte and Laura (and Peter). This was particularly exciting for me since I last saw Charlotte and Hanna three years ago, before Sam was born, and we've been trying to meet up again ever since! I think I did a good job of creeping up on them and generally involving myself in conversations that didn't involve me, whilst accusing them of bitching about us. Excellent friend, me.


Anyway, at Gosh I decided to theme my comics buying for the day and got volume 2 of March. I'm slightly kicking myself now for not having bought volume 3 as well, but never mind! I've never been to Gosh before and I'll definitely be going back - I loved the layout as the upstairs is laid out much more like a bookshop than other comic shops I've been to, and I found it really easy to browse. Their selection was awesome and the staff were great - the 10% discount for bookshop crawlers helped too!

After we'd rounded up all the people we were supposed to have we made our way over to Persephone. After a couple of minor mishaps (we got split up from a couple of people but found them again at the other end) we finally made it, to find the rest of our group had already finished! Agreeing to meet them at Blackwells we went for a browse. I love Persephone books. They're a small (teeny) bookshop with a publishing house in the back and they publish books by forgotten writers, mostly women. I've yet to read a Persephone book I didn't like so my choices this year were mostly random. Taking advantage of the 3 for £30 offer (they're usually £12 per book) I grabbed High Wages by Dorothy Whipple, because I bought and adored They Were Sisters on last years' crawl, William - an Englishman by Cicely Hamilton, because it's Persephone Book 1, and Miss Buncle's Book by D.E Stevenson.

The last stop before lunch was Blackwells, where I picked up Under the Udala Trees by Chinelo Okparanta, with some encouragement from Jane! Those of us who'd met last year, plus a few people I was particularly looking forward to meeting, met up for lunch at Pizza Express. It was really nice to chat with everyone and have a little bit of time off from being in charge of everything!

After lunch we embarked on my big mistake of the day. Our next stop was Libreria, which is a really cool little bookshop - really quirky, beautifully and very cleverly designed, but absolutely miles away from the rest of the crawl route and really not big enough for a group! I grabbed The Association of Small Bombs by Karan Mahajan which I'd heard good things about, and we were on our way over to Word on the Water.

This was the stop most people were most excited about I think. It's a bookshop on a barge in the Regents Canal and it's amazing. They had a great selection of second hand books, live jazz and a really lovely owner who gave me a book (Bookshops by Jorge Carrion) as a thankyou for organising the crawl and generally enthused about how brilliant it all was so much that it really reminded me why I was doing it in the first place. Independent bookshops are the best. With the last of the unseasonal sun on the water and the saxophone, plus the friendly dog sniffing all of our bags, it was the perfect penultimate stop. I also bought Nina George's The Little Paris Bookshop, as it's about a bookshop on a boat and seemed fitting.

We merged the remainder of our group with the remainder of Louise's group at this point. Our final stop of the day was Waterstones' Piccadilly where we had a chance to sit down and have a drink while attempting to remember obscure bookish things and doing a quiz organised by Stephen (thanks again!). Everyone was pretty much asleep by this point, but after some lemonade and a chat I felt sufficiently revitalised to spend my book tokens on A Close and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers, the only thing besides March that was actually on my 'must buy' list, The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden, and the beautiful hardback Victor Gollancz Guards! Guards! to add to our collection.

After that we said goodbye to everyone who was still around and wearily made our way home. Of course being me I'm already thinking about the summer crawl (if you have an idea for where you want it to be - it roams, and isn't in London - please let me know on twitter. At the moment the front runners are Canterbury and Brighton) and ideas to make the 2018 London event even more excellent. If you missed out on the event but would like info about future ones you can sign up for updates here.

I'm sending out a feedback survey this week, but so far all the feedback I've had has been really good. It seems like people had a brilliant day and I'm so thrilled to have met so many book lovers and made so many bookshops happy by pointing people in their direction. This is the stuff I live for guys. It makes me happy.

My eventual haul plus awesome tote bag & badge. The left hand pile were given to me by fellow crawlers, the right hand pile are my purchases...

On Quitting

I've seriously lost my enthusiasm for blogging lately, and I don't blame the blog. I overcommit myself and I'm really sick of feeling like I can't read what I want to read. Even when constraints are things I'm really excited about and even things I've originated (i.e Re-Readathon, Discworldathon) I've still been feeling really unmotivated. This week has been Re-Readathon and my usual count is 2-4 books finished. This week I've not finished one, and this is partly because of Bookshop Crawl planning but primarily because I'm just having a huge aversion to anything I 'have' to read at the moment.

This post is an announcement, of sorts, and before I start I want to apologise to anyone I may be letting down, but I've decided for the sake of still loving books that I need to pull out of all reading commitments for the rest of the year. No more Re-Readathons, and I'll still co-ordinate Discworldathon of course and will still hope to read some Pratchett this year, but overall I'd like to leave the actual posting and running of events to the hosts for each month as I'm finding having to post about stuff to be really off putting too.

I'm feeling like my focus needs to really be on Ninja Book Box, bookshop crawls and book swap, since these are things that I'm enthusiastic about, and I'd love to bring the excitement back to my reading life. I think making these changes will do that.

I'll probably be putting the blog on a little bit of a hiatus. I plan to primarily post short book reviews on Instagram and leave the blog for the occasional parenting/lifestyle/general thoughts type posts and book lists. I'll be on twitter for all the events I organise. I don't want to stop blogging but the fire has really gone out of it at the moment and I think I need to read exactly what I want, when I want, without ANY pressure at all for a long, long time.

Thanks for reading.

Re-Readathon: Day 1-3 Stats & Different Perspectives

My re-reading so far this week has been really reflective of the state of my brain; disjointed! I'm going through a phase of life where I think after this week I'm probably going to throw in the towel for any kind of reading commitments besides Discworldathon (which I'm doing a terrible job of hosting, and I apologise) and Ninja Book Box related things and just read whatever the hell I want for the rest of the year. However it remains that I love and adore the premise of Re-Readathon and I have been doing some re-reading this week, amongst the mass email sending for London Bookshop Crawl, sorting things for goody bags and organising the February book box! 

Day 1,2 and 3 
Books read from: Pride & Prejudice, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver and The Colour of Magic by Terry Pratchett
Pages read: 90

So that's pathetic, but on the plus side I am really enjoying Pride and Prejudice. Mr. Bennet particularly is hilarious. 

Different Perspectives 

Today's mini challenge is hosted by Gee. She asks us to reflect on a different perspective a re-read has given us, for better or worse. Honestly I don't have an answer for this! I'm not saying I've reacted in exactly the same way every time I've re-read a book, but similarly enough that there aren't any particular books that spring to mind when I think about this question! The closest I can get is my response to Sylvia Plath. 

When we studies Plath at school I really really hated her poetry. It struck me as massively self indulgent, whiny and narcissistic. Honestly, it still pisses me off that she'd compare her relationship with her father to Hitler and the Jews. For goodness sake. But when I re-read a lot of it at University I eventually began to realise that although all my former opinions remain (in my head at least) true, I do have to give her credit for being pretty great with words. 

Here's the poem that changed my mind (from allpoetry.com) 

Cinderella

The prince leans to the girl in scarlet heels,
Her green eyes slant, hair flaring in a fan
Of silver as the rondo slows; now reels
Begin on tilted violins to span

The whole revolving tall glass palace hall
Where guests slide gliding into light like wine;
Rose candles flicker on the lilac wall
Reflecting in a million flagons' shine,

And glided couples all in whirling trance
Follow holiday revel begun long since,
Until near twelve the strange girl all at once
Guilt-stricken halts, pales, clings to the prince

As amid the hectic music and cocktail talk
She hears the caustic ticking of the clock.

Weird because it's definitely not technically her best, but I do still really like it. 

Head over to Gee's blog and link up your entries for today's challenge, and don't forget to let us know how your re-reading is going in the comments or using #rereadathon!

Re-Readathon Day One: Intro Survey & TBR

Hey people, welcome to day one of Re-Readathon. I hope your reading has been going well, and I'll just say now, from the start, that you shouldn't expect my posts this week to be anything less than last minute. I'm going to aim to post every day but we'll see what happens because with organising the bookshop crawl and sorting the February Ninja Book Box not to mention caring for two under fives, everything's a little bit mad around here!

Anyway, here are my answers for the opening survey. Below there will be a master linky for you to link up anything Re-Readalong related all week so please feel free to link up your survey answers and TBRs there!

Opening Survey

1. Tell us a little about yourself!
I'm Bex, I'm the founder of Re-Readathon and many other much crazier internet based projects. I find it impossible to do just one thing at a time, including reading one book at a time. I have an addiction to buying books and live in a house with 300+ of them as well as my two young children and husband. I like milkshakes, singing loudly, Harry Potter and board games, the more obscure the better. I'm also entirely failing at hosting Discworldathon this year!

2. How often do you re-read books?
I re-read fairly often - often I don't finish my re-reads though. Whenever I'm feeling down or the world is going to shit I reach for an old favourite, most regularly Harry Potter, Little Women, or Fangirl or Attachments, but I'll often just read until I start to feel better again and then move on to something else. Re-Readathon is my chance to actually finish entire re-reads.

3. What is your current favourite book?
I think The Outrun by Amy Liptrot which is absolutely phenomenal memoir slash nature writing, although I did just finish Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi which is entirely as good and better than everyone has been saying it is. Talk about breaking your heart, firing you up and making you fall in love with it all at once.

4. What do you love most about re-reading?
Oh where to start. Re-reading is like my medication. Reading familiar words calms me down so much. I love revisiting worlds that I know I'll be swept up in, or wallowing in nostalgia from re-reads of childhood favourites. For me there isn't really a risk in re-reading like there is in other reads. Yes I've started to re-read things and they've not had the same effect that they did the last time I read them and that's sad but ultimately I just put them down until another time. For years I re-read Little Women annually. In the last couple of years I've only dipped into it, as mentioned above, but have moved to Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle for my annual fix of familiarity. I think what I re-read reflects what I need at the time really, and I'm great with that.

5. What's on your TBR? What are you going to read first?
I've tried to keep my TBR a little more manageable this time. Usually I go completely overboard and it's ridiculous but this time I've kept it to six... Animal, Vegetable, Miracle (of course, because it's a new year and I haven't read it in 2017. Plus it'll inspire me for the coming season on the allotment), The Winter of Our Disconnect by Susan Maushart, because I've been thinking a lot about how connected we all are all the time recently and I'm needing some inspiration to unplug, The Colour of Magic for Louise's readalong for Discworldathon this month, Little Women because it feels like a crime to not include it, The Outrun by Amy Liptrot because I haven't re-read it yet, and I've started with my beautiful clothbound edition of Pride and Prejudice because I saw it at the theatre last week and wanted to remember it better.

Please link up any and all Re-Readathon related posts below!

Re-Readathon Schedule and Kick Off!

So Re-Readathon 5 officially starts tomorrow but since it's Saturday evening and I have small kids who are actually asleep I thought I'd put this up now.

If you have no idea what Re-Readathon is, basically it's a week during which you read something you've read before. You can devote the entire week to re-reading or you can pick up a re-read on the side of whatever else you're currently reading. You can read old favourites or books you just read last year (or even last month). The only rule is that you give yourself some time to revisit books you've already read.

For this Re-Readathon I have two co-hosts, Katie and Gee, and they'll be hosting various mini challenges and events throughout the week. Of course, all of these are entirely optional, but it is nice to get to know each other a little better and chat as well as inspiring each other with what we're reading! If you haven't officially signed up for the event yet please do make sure you do so so that we can all come and say hi to you - you can link up your blog, twitter, Instagram, Youtube channel, wherever you'll be talking about what you're reading, at this post.

We'll also be using #ReReadathon across all social media channels throughout the event. 

And as you can see Day 1, officially tomorrow but have the questions now, is me with the Opening Survey & TBR. I'll be answering this myself tomorrow as well as posting my updated TBR. 

Opening Survey

1. Tell us a little about yourself! 

2. Have you participated in a re-readathon before? How often do you re-read books?

3. What is your current favourite book? 

4. What do you love most about re-reading? Or what makes you wish you re-read more? 

5. What's on your TBR? What are you gonna read first? 

Happy Re-Readathon, everyone! 

Re-Readathon #5: February 5th - 12th

It's a new year and thus time for another Re-Readathon! Those of you who took part last time will know that I was ill and thus the event sort of fell apart. To stop that from happening again I'm so excited to announce that I now have two co-hosts for the event, so please give your loudest cheers for long time Re-Readathon supporters, Katie and Gemma!

The rules for Re-Readathon are simple: during the week it's on, read a book you've already read. This can be a book you've read once or seventeen times, you can dedicate the week solely to re-reading or just pick up an old favourite alongside your other books, it's entirely up to you. We just love it as a week out of any reading obligations, spending time with old friends. 

During the week we'll be running mini challenges and also possibly giveaways and we really encourage the social aspect of the event, so please go and visit other participants and say hi! You can use #rereadathon on social media to easily find each other. 

If you'd like to take part please blog, vlog, Instagram or tweet about your intentions (with a link back to this post please!) and link it up below. For your convenience, we have an easy tweet you can send already written for you, just click the link below. 

What'll be on your TBR? 

London Bookshop Crawl #2

London Bookshop Crawl is happening again and its popularity has exploded, as mentioned in my previous post. Because of this there seems to be some confusion about details for the day and this would appear to be the easiest way to clear those up!

Last year, on the first London Bookshop Crawl, there were less than 30 of us and we went around a route created by myself and chatted and had a lovely day. This year the intention is to do the same, but because of the interest we've had it's going to have to work a little differently.

I pretty much organise this event on my own, but thanks to help from some lovely past crawlers we are running four groups this year, each of a similar size to last year (so 25-30 per group), because it's very important to me that people have the chance to connect with each other and meet new book lovers without the day becoming totally overwhelming. I know some people deal well with huge groups but I don't and I know a lot of others don't either, so the groups are staying small, for this year at least. Small groups are also essential for some of the smaller bookshops that we'll be visiting on the day, as large numbers would overwhelm them. These four groups will be visiting 7 bookshops over the course of the day - the bookshops are pretty much the same for each group but the itinerary is different, allowing us to stagger the arrival of groups at smaller shops and helping them to deal with the crazed book lovers descending on them! People who sent a message asking to be in the guided groups before the spaces were gone have been allocated a group and we'll be sending more information to them this week.

However because we didn't want anyone to miss out on the day, we have extended the crawl throughout Greater London and are putting together a huge list of bookshops who'll be taking part and providing special offers and discounts for bookshop crawlers. We'll be circulating this list along with some suggested routes and a printable bookshop crawl ID card to everyone who has a free ticket via Eventbrite so anyone who wants to will be able to take part on the day. We'd also love everyone to use #LondonBookshopCrawl to share where they go and what they buy and even to meet up with other crawlers if that's something they're interested in doing.

The only difference between being in a guided group and doing the tour alone is that people in guided groups will be following a set itinerary and meeting a few new people, but as of writing this post there are 400+ people with Eventbrite tickets who aren't in guided groups, so I'd say the chances of you stumbling across another bookshop crawler during the day are quite high!

It's basically going to be a huge celebration of the excellence of bookish people and bookshops and we hope you'll join us, whether or not you got a place in a guided group (which, to be honest, are just a group of people walking around visiting bookshops anyway!).

Six.

A few days ago my blog turned six. I KNEW I would forget so I mentioned it on twitter several days beforehand, but I thought I should write something here (especially since I've been so awol recently!) to mark the occasion because the fact is that blogging has pretty much changed my life.

I could talk about all the books I've read since I started, and I will if you give me long enough, but really for me blogging has been the gateway to things and people and experiences and even a business. Here are some things that have come from six years of blogging:

• Friends of the most wonderful (and offensive. Hi, Laura!) kind. They are not just blogging friends, they are real friends friends, especially the two other Southerners, and they enable me to buy books and eat cake and shout rude words in the children's section of bookshops and sing songs from Les Mis loudly outside Queen's theatre. One of them can walk around for hours in the most ridiculous (and beautiful) shoes, and one sends me secret santa parcels that make me cry and talks to me about minimalism and another I'm just looking forward to getting to know better. And one of them is from all the way over in America and has actually come and stayed in my house and I LET HER GO TO FOYLES ALONE BECAUSE I'M A TERRIBLE FRIEND (and then her luggage weighed so much she couldn't carry it anymore). These are people I would have never met without the wonderful world of book blogging and I am extremely grateful for them. 
• Ninja Book Swap. Although I've recently had to close it to new participants I love the swap so much. It was the first time I ventured into a joint project with a person I (at the time) had never met before and Hanna and I had a lot of fun running it together. I'm excited to keep running it with the group of swappers I already know and trust, and I've met so many fantastic people through it as well as acquiring so many amazing books and sending many many copies of The Night Circus to people...

• London Bookshop Crawl - in case you're not aware, this is pretty much the reason I've been missing from the blog for a while. Last year I decided it would be cool to get random bookish strangers from the internet to come book shopping with me and lo and behold we had an amazing day going round lots of different bookshops and I got to meet some Ninja swappers face to face and made a lot of excellent new friends. It was always going to be an annual thing and we all thought it would be bigger this year, but this year I decided to put the event on Facebook and currently we're running three groups for the day and have literally 300 others taking part on their own. There are bookshops all over London joining in and it's totally insane, but very very wonderful and I'm terrified and excited and hoping it's going to be just as amazing as last year's was. (If you want to join the madness the Facebook event is here). If it hadn't been for my experience with Ninja Swap and with meeting Laura, Katie, Hanna, Ellie and Charlotte in real life I never would have had the guts to start this, so thanks blogging!

• Ninja Book Box. This is the most recent of my bookish projects, but blogging has made me so much more aware of publishers in general and there's no way I ever would have had the thought of starting up a subscription box of any kind without seeing all the other wonderful ones there are out there and realising that there isn't one that did exactly what I wanted - gives you books from all genres published by independent publishers along with gifts that are beautiful as well as being actually useful. Without blogging and all the previously mentioned confidence boosting projects I would have never had the guts to launch a Kickstarter which was really successful due to phenomenal support mostly from online friends, and now here I am with a business and once again thanks blogging!

So yes. Six years ago I'd just moved across the country with my fiance and was living in a teeny tiny flat with a teeny tiny shower and terrible windows on the high street with VERY LOUD buses going past constantly and now I'm married with two kids and a lovely house with a garden and all sorts of bookish shenanigans going on. It's pretty miraculous really, thanks for being here for it. 

#Discworldathon: In the Beginning...

Welcome to Discworldathon, a year of celebrating all things Discworld. If you're new to the series, this month is designed to help you work out where might be best for you to start. If you're not new to the series, feel free to weigh in in the comments with where you started/where you'd advise newcomers to start!

This is the Discworld Reading Order produced by Epic Reads and it's a handy, colour coded way to decide which order to read the books in. Each colour represents a character or theme - just pick a colour and follow it. Easy, right? 

But what if you know nothing about Discworld? Well, either you can find someone who knows you well who's already a fan and can give you an idea about which characters might be most 'you', or you check out my little guide below! 

If you've ever mentioned your desire to read Discworld to anyone it's quite likely they've told you not to start with The Colour of Magic. Although it's the first book in the series even Terry Pratchett didn't think it was the best. Honestly Wyrd Sisters, our readalong book for January is probably as good a place as any to begin, although it's technically the second book in the Witches 'series', but the writing is hilarious and the story is gripping. If you're still baffled, here's a little synopsis of the characters...

Wizards - you'll get a better introduction to them when Louise hosts next month but they're basically a bunch of ageing, slighly bumbling magic men who think they know a lot more than they actually know about the world. They also have some strange ideas about...well, most things, and have a librarian who is an orangutan. 

Witches - the antithesis of the wizards. A (smaller) group of women (not) lead (they don't believe in leaders) by Granny Weatherwax who believes in 'headology' and has no idea what the theatre is. The witches are the ones who actually get things done in the Discworld. 

Tiffany Aching - some of the witches (notably Granny Weatherwax) also feature in the Tiffany Aching books, but these are the ones I recommend most often to people starting out. Tiffany has help in her  world-saving endeavours from the Nac Mac Feegle, a group of vicious, hard-drinking pixies...

Death - Death is brilliant, and this is probably one of the only times you'll hear that said. A big skeleton with piercing blue eyes riding a horse named Binky, he's constantly struggling to understand mortals and has the occasional midlife (mid death?) crisis...

City Watch - These are my favourite books. Commander Sam Vimes sort of accidentally becomes in charge of turning the Night Watch from a shambles of inept, bumbling men into a cohesive system of law enforcement. He's pretty put-upon and has to deal with all sorts of idiocy and prejudice along the way. 

There are lots of other stand alone type books, and the Moist von Lipwig books which also (in the above infographic at least) encompass some of the other 'industrial' books, but hopefully this little intro gives you some kind of ideas about where you might want to start. 

Those who are familiar with the series already feel free to weigh in in the comments or over in the Goodreads group!

2016 Bookish Stats

Ah 2016. What a year! I think my 2016 has been better than lots of people's - I started Ninja Book Box, ran two bookshop crawls and gained a new brother in law along with other fun things. There's also been a lot of well documented awful this year, including closing the Ninja Book Swap to new participants which was a very sad day but necessary for my mental health! I've really found my friends in the bookish community this year though and I'm so grateful for everyone who's supported me in any way over the course of the year.

This being New Year's Eve, what better way to spend it than by collating the stats of all the books I've read this year? I was going to do Jamie's End of Year Survey (and may still) but my attention span is crap at the moment, so here we are.

I read 90 books this year and this pretty stats picture I made will give you the general idea. Basically...

The only stats on here that I'm proud of are the number of books I finished and the percentage of female authors I read. The rest are pretty shocking, but I turned them into a pretty picture because it's important to pinpoint where you need to do better.

I'm hoping my Read the World Project will help with some of these, and I'm signing up for #ReadMyOwnDamnBooks again in 2017, plus the Spending Freeze means I won't be buying books except for on bookshop crawls so that should help too. Besides that though I'm giving myself permission to read whatever the hell I want during 2017.

My year of reading indie has been a massive failure stats-wise, but in terms of awareness I'd call it a huge success. I spend far more time looking for independently published books in chain bookshops now and am far more aware of small presses and what's coming out from them. I also started a business dedicated solely to the promotion and discovery of independent publishers (Ninja Book Box, check it out) which has been a massive thing and is already causing big changes in my reading life so watch this space for more of that next year!

How's your reading year been?

#Discworldathon January Readalong Title & Schedule!

In case you haven't seen, January 1st sees the beginning of my year long celebration of everything Discworld related. January's theme (hosted by yours truly) is 'In the Beginning' and I'm going to be posting about reading order and all the various smaller storylines within Discworld. If you're new to the series (or if you're not but have thoughts) hopefully this month will be helpful to you. 

In the Goodreads group for the event - please come and join us there and chat to everyone - I put up a poll to see which title people would like to readalong in January and Wyrd Sisters got the most votes. This is technically book two of the Witches books, but Equal Rites has wizards too so I'm counting it!

Because Pratchett books don't really have chapters I've divided the book roughly into quarters and for each section I've given the page number from my edition (the Corgi paperback edition with the Josh Kirby cover) plus the quote that ends the section for that week. Each Sunday I'll be posting here on the blog with my thoughts and a link up for anyone who wants to add their own thoughts. Alternatively there's a thread in the Goodreads group which will be active all month so you can discuss the book as and when you like. 

If you are planning to join in and blog/vlog/whatever about the readalong you can add your link below so I (and others) can make sure we're following you. You can also use #Discworldathon and #wyrdalong on social media. 

Here's the schedule:

January 1st - 8th - Beginning to P82 "and to think she had expected it to be small..."

January 8th - 15th - P82 - P171 "and grinned a set of gums that were more menacing than teeth"

January 15th - 22nd - P171 - P248 "And as for thinking it could be controlled..."

January 22nd - end - P248 - end of the book!

It works out at approximately 82-85 pages a week so not a huge commitment really! The great thing about Discworldathon is you don't have to join in for all of it so if this is the only thing you do all year then that's totally fine!



See you tomorrow for kick off!

#LilttleHouseRAL: The End!

Apologies that we've been a little awol for the last month or so. We've had family weddings, unexpected trips home and lots else to deal with so the blog has been a bit quiet which has included Little House. As of yet I haven't finished A Wilder Rose but I'm hoping to put in some reading hours tonight now we're home from our travels and get it finished before the year is done.

Please use this post to link up for November as well as I never got around to putting up that post! Personally I enjoyed West from Home a lot more than I did On the Way Home, since I felt like more interesting things happened in it (and there was less about how much land cost and what kind of crops people were growing) and I found it really interesting to read about the fair and a part of history that I didn't know much about, although the more of the series I read the more troubling I find the casual racism. I don't know if it makes it more or less troubling that this was probably reflective of the general attitudes of the time but either way I've noticed it progressively throughout the series and it troubles me. Aside from that I thought the last story was a nice way to end the series - with Laura when she was older and her relationship with her daughter. It's like we've gone full circle with her.

I'll post about A Wilder Rose when I've finished it, but I'm very much enjoying fictionalised Rose Wilder Lane's take on her mother. The story is very entertaining and her view of Laura - 'Mama Bess' - is quite different from the image we've been given of Laura throughout the earlier books so that's fun.

I can't believe 2016 is pretty much over. In a year that's been difficult in lots of ways this read-along has really been a bright spot and I'm so glad I had the chance to discover this series for the first time. Thanks so much to all who have read along with us!



If you're interested, I'm hosting Discworldathon starting January 1st; a year long celebration of all things Discworld and Terry Pratchett related. Check out the schedule and/or join the Goodreads group - our first readalong title will be Wyrd Sisters!

2017: The Biggest Challenge Yet

If you've been a long time reader of this blog you've been with me through my boycott of Amazon (still ongoing), my 9 month long book buying ban, my decision to read more nonfiction and more diverse authors, my recent decision to participate in Louise's Read the World Project (a review of my Malaysia pick is coming soon), as well as being aware of Ninja Book Swap and Ninja Book Box from the beginning and dealing with all my rambling about both London and Bath bookshop crawls plus dealing with my massive love for Laura, Katie, Hanna, Ellie, Charlotte and Nahree among many other blogging friends. Which is to say you've put up with a lot from me, but 2017 is going to be, as the post title says, the biggest challenge yet.

Rhys and I have decided that in 2017 we are going to spend no unnecessary money. Yes, you read that right, and yes I am immediately going to state that this is with the exception of the two bookshop crawls (London is on February 18th, everyone's welcome so tweet me if you want info!) but I will be holding myself to a very strict one book per shop rule!

This year we've got rid of loads of stuff we didn't really use and cleared our house out a lot and we're both feeling so much better about everything. It's also changed the way we shop - before this year we were thrifty shoppers - car boot sales and charity shops are big favourites of both of ours - but we bought a lot of stuff we didn't need. This year we still do that but we're more likely to think about purchases more. We want to take it one step further next year and try not to really shop at all.

Spending Freeze

Here's what we're planning to do:

• Get rid of our car. This is more of a stress thing than anything as Rhys does all the driving (because I'm a wuss) and although he loves driving he finds he's always really stressed and tired by it, plus the car is expensive so we're going to see if we can do without and use public transport and our legs instead!
• Get rid of the TV licence (again). We only got it back just under a year ago but we barely watch TV and it seems like even if we were to buy box sets of the four or so series a year that we actually watch plus occasional CBeebies DVDs for the boys it wouldn't add up to £150 a year. Also means we'll spend less time watching mindless rubbish and actually do more productive stuff instead hopefully. 
• Not buy books. With the exception of bookshop crawls as mentioned above and if we have book tokens. I have one more month of OTSP Secret Sister to go so I'll spend some for that but I'm not signing up for the next round, and though I'll be running at least two Ninja Swaps this year I'm undecided whether I'll participate or not. If I do it'll be only one parcel per swap and I'll do my best to gift homemade and preloved stuff. It also means I'll only be doing giveaways on the Ninja Book Box website and twitter on occasion and here not at all (because postage costs), but I will be doing lots of books for postage giveaways so watch out for those. 
• Bring tea from home in a thermos. I have a terrible weakness for coffee shops because I get into work way too early for my shift (because buses) so I tend to go to a coffee shop at least twice a week. This will stop and I know I'll save more than I think from it. 
• Bring lunch from home. We're generally pretty good at doing this when we're at work except when we're not and we're terrible at it when we go out for the day all together. I think this is because we get caught up in the mad rush of getting out the door and forget about food, thinking we'll just grab something while we're out. Hopefully public transport will help with this, as our days out will have to be generally more planned and that'll prompt us to remember a picnic! No restaurants unless we have a gift card! (So anyone who wants gift ideas for me for this year, I love Pizza Express...)
• We can buy shoes & clothes only if they're absolutely necessary, so shoes for the boys are fine, shoes for us aren't unless we've actually worn them out. Also where possible we'll try to go to charity shops for clothes (we mostly do this anyway since you often get way better quality clothes for Primark prices!). 
• We can buy only what's on the weekly grocery list. If we want treats that week we have to factor them in to the weekly shop, and we're going to try to make that stuff as much as we can. Ditto for beauty and cleaning products. Homemade stuff is way better for you anyway!
• Buy bus passes and use them to get as many places as we can! If we can get a bus using our already paid for monthly bus passes rather than a train then we will. If we can get a bus part way and save some money, we will. If we can get a bus and hike across a field, we will. You get the picture. 

The reason this list is weirdly worded is that I didn't want to write a bit list of stuff starting 'no' or 'not', so I've rephrased things to make it feel more positive! I've started a Pinterest board full of Spending Freeze ideas. Let me know what you think of our crazy plan - I'll be keeping you all updated whether you like it or not (though seriously, if you don't want updates unsubscribe now, you've been warned!). 

#Discworldathon January Readalong Title

I'm back with another post about Discworldathon! I'm in the full throes of planning January now and I've put a poll up in the Goodreads group so everyone can vote on a title to read-along together in January. In case you're a Discworld newbie and have no idea about the titles included here's a little more information to help you make up your mind!

The Colour of Magic is the first Discworld novel, but even Terry Pratchett didn't think it was that great (as he mentions in A Slip of the Keyboard and other places!). Not to talk it down, as it's a great book, but the majority agree it's not the best place to start - it's not as funny as some of the later books, and Pratchett hadn't really developed his Discworld style yet. It's about Rincewind (who you'll be encountering a lot more throughout the year!) a more than slightly inept wizard, and Twoflower, a tourist with a trunk called the Luggage which has hundreds of tiny legs... 

Image credit

Mort - from Goodreads:

In this Discworld installment, Death comes to Mort with an offer he can't refuse -- especially since being, well, dead isn't compulsory. As Death's apprentice, he'll have free board and lodging, use of the company horse, and he won't need time off for family funerals. The position is everything Mort thought he'd ever wanted, until he discovers that this perfect job can be a killer on his love life.

This is the first book I fell in love with, and I continue to be a big fan of the Death books. I'm particularly excited about Hogswatch in December!

Equal Rites - from Goodreads:

On Discworld, a dying wizard tries to pass on his powers to an eighth son of an eighth son, who is just at that moment being born. The fact that the son is actually a daughter is discovered just a little too late. The town witch insists on turning the baby into a perfectly normal witch, thus mending the magical damage of the wizard's mistake. But now the young girl will be forced to penetrate the inner sanctum of the Unseen University--and attempt to save the world with one well-placed kick in some enchanted shins!

If you were reading in order of publication, Equal Rites is the book I'd start with because it's the first one that feels Discworld to me, and also it's funny and feminist as. So there's that. 

Guards Guards! - from Goodreads:

Here there be dragons . . . and the denizens of Ankh-Morpork wish one huge firebreather would return from whence it came. Long believed extinct, a superb specimen of draco nobilis ("noble dragon" for those who don't understand italics) has appeared in Discworld's greatest city. Not only does this unwelcome visitor have a nasty habit of charbroiling everything in its path, in rather short order it is crowned King (it is a noble dragon, after all . . .).

Meanwhile, back at Unseen University, an ancient and long-forgotten volume--The Summoning of Dragons--is missing from the Library's shelves. To the rescue come Captain Vimes, Constable Carrot, and the rest of the Night Watch who, along with other brave citizens, risk everything, including a good roasting, to dethrone the flying monarch and restore order to Ankh-Morpork (before it's burned to a crisp). A rare tale, well done as only Terry Pratchett can.

The first in the City Watch series which is probably my favourite of the mini series. 

Wyrd SIsters - from Goodreads: 

Kingdoms wobble, crowns topple and knives flash on the magical Discworld as the statutory three witches meddle in royal politics. The wyrd sisters battle against frightful odds to put the rightful king on the throne. At least, that's what they think...

Technically this is the second Witches book, but Equal Rites has witches and wizards so. 

You can vote in the poll here once you've joined the group, which I strongly encourage even if you're only planning to join in for a month or two (or less!). 

#Discworldathon 2017 Schedule

Hi everyone, apologies for the silence on the blog recently. Things will return to normal soon, and kicking that normalcy off will be Discworldathon! If you haven't seen I'm hosting a year long celebration of all things Discworld throughout 2017. Whether you're an afficionado, a total newbie or somewhere in between you're more than welcome to join at any point throughout the year.

We have lots of fun bookish stuff in store for you and fellow bloggers will be hosting events throughout the year. If you'd be interested in hosting a readalong, themed month or anything else get in touch as there are a couple of hosting spots open still. We're also looking to do lots of giveaways throughout the year so if you'd like to donate a prize towards that please fill in the form below:

Discworldathon Giveaway Donation Form

The below schedule is just for structure for those who want it to help guide their reading or know where to start with a huge series. The event is only about celebrating Discworld so you can do that in whichever way you want and your reading doesn't have to fit in with the themes at all, it's entirely up to you. However, we're here if you want to join in! All year we'll be using #Discworldathon on social media - if you're participating why not tweet your intention using the hashtag then we can all follow each other and talk! At the moment the schedule is thus:

January: In the Beginning 

(hosted here at anarmchairbythesea.blogspot.com)

There are many places to start with the Discworld series and it's generally accepted that this is one of the cases where 'at the beginning' isn't always the best option, so this month I'll be talking about all the first books. If you're not aware the series is made up of lots of mini series (sort of, although they can all be read in pretty much any order) featuring different characters, and I'll be discussing the first in each series in a brief kind of way and hopefully other participants will be weighing in with their favourites and thoughts about reading order. If you're new to the series this will hopefully be a helpful month for you!

We also have board game tie ins throughout the year which will be over at Tame the Board Game. If you own the board games you can play them during this month  (or sometimes over a couple of months) and feed back your thoughts about them, or you could see if any other participants live near you and organise game night!

The game for this month is Ankh Morpork. 

February: Wizards

(hosted by anovelhaul.wordpress.com)

This month will be about all things wizards so head over to Louise's blog to see what she has in store.

Board Game: Guards Guards!

March: March Magics 

(hosted at webereading.com)

Kristen is hosting her annual month of reading Terry Pratchett (and Dianna Wynne Jones but we'll let that slide and I might even use it as a chance to finally read my first DWJ book!) and there's all kinds of awesome involved. Nearer the time there will be lots of info on her blog, so head over there to find out more!

April: Small Gods
(hosted by spiritblog.net)
This month will be all about the standalone books, with a readalong of Small Gods and some other discussion hosted by Heather. It's been ages since I've read this one so I'm really looking forward to it!

May: The Watch 

(hosted at doddyaboutbooks.com)
The City Watch books are possibly my personal favourite of the series, and I adore Sam Vimes! Head over to Sue's blog for a month of Watch related fun!

Board Game: Thud

June: Tiffany Aching 

(hosted by gotmybook.booklikes.com)

A perfect series of books to get you into Discworld if you've not yet made the leap, spend a month with the Nac Mac Feegles. There will be a readalong of The Shepherd's Crown later on in the year so this month will focus on the first four books. 

Board Game: Witches

July: Witches
(hosted by joyisabella.com)
It seems fitting to follow Tiffany with the Witches! Joy will be hosting and is new to the series so she'd appreciate all the pointers you can give her!

August: Moist von Lipwig
(hosted by janecrowley.co.uk)

This month is dedicated to crook turned reluctant entrepreneur Moist von Lipwig. All sorts of fun stuff going on this month so head over to Jane's blog to find out all about it.

Board Game: Clacks

September: Pyramids Readalong

(hosted by @ShutUpBanks on twitter)

Come and read Pyramids with us (and marvel over how it took me almost an entire book to realise that it was jelly baby the first time I read it). Use #Discworldathon. 

October: Discworld Inktober

(hosted by C. Nick on Instagram)

If you're not familiar with Inktober, the idea is that you draw each day for a month. Artist C.nick will be hosting a Discworld themed inktober over on Instagram (but you can participate on twitter too I'm sure) all you have to do is draw, and share it using #Discworldathon!

Board Game: Cripple Mr Onion

November: Graphic Novels & The Shepherd's Crown Readalong

(hosted by anarmchairbythesea.blogspot.com)

We're going to be co-hosting this month, my husband and I. He'll be talking about all the graphic adaptations of Discworld, and I'll be hosting a readalong.

I haven't yet plucked up the courage to read Terry Pratchett's final book yet and I feel like I'm going to need moral support for it, so during November we'll be reading The Shepherd's Crown together. I'll post a schedule closer to the time, but I hope you'll join me!

December: Hogswatch Month

(hosted by curiositykilledthebookworm.net)

Ellie will be hosting Hogswatch on her blog, which is pretty much the most exciting thing! Watch this space (and her blog) for details closer to the time!

Readalongs: We'll also be running readalongs throughout the year and we'll be taking votes for titles to read. If you have any suggestions for any you'd particularly like to read as part of a group please leave them below and I'll add them to the polls for the relevant months, going up soon! This will be just for those who like the motivation of group reading and discussion so don't feel you have to participate!

Twitter Chats: There will be some twitter chats during the course of the year. If you're hosting a month and would like to have a twitter chat as part of that that would be great, just let me know and I'll put it in the schedule!

Goodreads Group: Although lots of discussion will take place on blogs and twitter, I've also made a Goodreads group that you can join if you'd like to where we can talk about the books and all other Discworld related stuff and get to know each other a bit better!

So that's it for now! If you want to post/vlog etc about the event that would be excellent, and don't forget to use #Discworldathon. See you in January!