Another Way to Phrase a Book Buying Ban...

The other day I posted a picture on Instagram with a bit about how it had led me to a revolutionary resolution. Here are the details of said revolution. It is not a book buying ban but a new way of looking at my books.

As I mentioned on Instagram, having filled this jar to the top and still having over ten shelves of adult fiction and two or three of kids fiction to add to it made me really stop and think about the amount of books I have. I said something to Rhys along the lines of 'if someone had 300 pies they'd not eaten everyone would think that was obscene and disgusting' and he looked at me like I was crazy. The (badly made) point is that while books obviously don't have the same kind of potential for going bad that pies do, I don't know what I'm stockpiling them for. Yes, I'm always going to want to read more books; it's in the nature of being a reader and I wouldn't want to change that. I love discovering new titles and getting excited about them. I love the smell of new books (and old books, come to think of it) and I really love the thrill of coming home laden down with bags of books, but when I'm asked what the point of owning so many books that I couldn't read them in a year, or probably even two even if all I did was read I don't really have an answer.

For years my answer has been 'well what if I only had a few books and finished one and didn't feel like reading any of the ones I had? I'm providing for that eventuality.' Obviously the answer to this is that I go to the library or borrow a book from a friend, but instead I've been using it as an excuse to buy more and more books. This is fine and I'm absolutely not judging people for acquiring large numbers of books, but in the spirit of my One Little Word project this year I'm trying to be more grateful for the things that I already have and think less about things that I might acquire at some point in the future. I'm also attempting to express my gratitude by not buying things unnecessarily and while that doesn't always work, here is a place where I can at least try.

Now at this point I know the sceptical among you (or just the long time readers of this blog) are remembering all the other times I've put myself on book buying bans, or pledged to cut back but I'm determined that this is going to be different. Firstly, I'm not viewing it as a ban because I know that as soon as I tell myself I can't do something, that's all I want to do, so instead I'm not thinking about not being able to buy books but focusing on all the amazing books I already own that I'm excited to read, and secondly I'm motivating myself extra by putting a charitable slant on it. Every time I finish a book that I don't love so much I must keep it and pass it on to everyone I know immediately, I will put it up for auction on eBay, starting at 20p (plus postage). ALL of the money from any books I sell there will go to Beanstalk, an awesome charity which helps kids to be better at reading, plus I will donate £1 to them for every book I sell in this way. Over the course of the year I may also do extra book related fundraising for them (24 hour readathon, some kind of sponsored Banned Books Week event. I don't know), and obviously if you feel like helping to spur me on with my insane resolution you can just donate through my JustGiving page at any time and make me feel like my not buying books is making a difference to someone!

I'm planning to do this until the end of 2015 and because I know I have no staying power I've decided to introduce a forfeit. For every time I buy books, I have to donate £25 to the charity. This should be a good deterrent because I have no extra money! Hold me to this, blogging friends. I'm determined!

A Day in the Life

Today Trish is hosting an awesome blogger event called A Day in the Life. It's pretty self - explanatory - the idea is that everyone picks an ordinary day and just keeps a record of what they do and then shares. The day I journalled was actually this Tueday just gone as between then and now we've had a few odd days with appointments and then today Rhys has an extra day off work so we'll likely be out all day. I'm looking forward to catching up with everyone else's posts this evening though!

If you want to join in the fun you can check out the other posts here. 

5.45am    Ben wakes up. Rhys goes in to stay with him and try to keep him in bed longer. It doesn't work all that well...

6.15am    I groggily respond to calls of 'mama!mama!' from Rhys and Ben (who think it's hilarious that they've made me get up!). Sam is now up too so we all hang out in the boys room having cuddles and reading a few stories. 

6.40am    I bring the boys downstairs. They play in the playroom while I make breakfast and Rhys gets read for work. 

7.30am   We have breakfast - cereal and toast. Rhys leaves for work. 

8am         Breakfast over, boys listen to Peter Rabbit audiobook and watch a little Fireman Sam while I do some blog stuff. 

9am        I hang laundry and play with the boys a little. This mostly involves throwing Sam in the air while he giggles madly and letting him bounce on my knees as if I were a trampoline. He gives a lot of kisses, which involve him grabbing my face in a fairly scratchy manner and then slobbering all over my face. Lovely :-) 

9.30am   Sam is grouchy so I put him down for a nap. 

10am      I do some painting with Ben while Sam naps. We are finishing off a 'Paint your Own Birdhouse' kit he got for Christmas. It's incredibly colourful, but most of the paint is running out so it's a good thing we're nearly done! After we finish we do a little drawing. Apparently drawing along a ruler is the funniest thing ever and causes Ben to laugh hysterically for a good five minutes. Then (predictably) we have to pretend pens are lightsabers and have a fight. Also predictably I have to be Darth Vader. It starts raining. 

10.50am   Sam wakes up. Ben and I get dressed (I know, really late!). We start to get ready to go for a walk but are interrupted by an impromptu dance party while listening to the soundtrack to the Muppets movie. 

11.15am    No walk yet, we got distracted by Beatrix Potter books, the favourite of the moment! We read most of The Tale of Mrs Tittlemouse and Sam is crying because he's hungry so we all have a snack. 

12 noon    We finally go for our walk! 

1,45pm    Back from our walk. We went down to the sea via the post office as I had to post some letters to international penpals. Ben counted boats (there were eight!) and Sam wore his Gruffalo jacket and giggled. Sam is sleeping when we get back and I'm anticipating having a little time to relax when Ben wakes him up by yelling. We have lunch. The boys eat while I check the fridge for leftovers to put in pasta sauce for the evening. 

2.30pm    Pasta sauce is on the hob. Eventually settled on carrots, mushroom and the last of the gammon from earlier in the week with tomatoes. Yum. We listen to the Muppets (again) while the boys play cars. I read some bloggiesta posts and then go and play cars with Ben. 

3.30pm    Boys watch another episode of Fireman Sam while I gather toys to bring on the bus trip to pick up Rhys from work (approximately 40mins). It's the first time we've taken the bus from our new house - up until now I've just been going to our old house and getting everywhere from there, so this is a big step! I'm finally accepting that I don't live in my old house anymore! (It is the same bus route as the old house, just further along but also perfect as a trial run to check how long it actually takes before I return to work on Monday!). 

4pm    We leave to pick up Rhys. The bus stop (just up the road) is about a half hour walk with Ben walking! Typically with me being so prepared with toys and snacks, both boys sleep the entire journey!

5.10pm   Arrive in Canterbury. Rhys doesn't finish til 6 so we go to the supermarket to pick up garlic bread for dinner and grab an extra drink. We walk around to Rhys' work and feed Sam while waiting. 

7pm     We get home after having to stop to pick up a carton of milk for Sam and feed him en route as he was beside himself crying for some reason. Teeth I think! Rhys puts Sam to bed while I cook pasta , garlic bread and reheat the sauce we made earlier. Rhys comes down from putting Sam to bed and we eat dinner. Ben and I look at his alphabet poster and talk about the letters and what sounds they make. For the past couple of days he's been obsessed with it! We've been going on 'letter hunts' outside where he basically spends a lot of time pointing at street signs and I tell him what the letters are.

8pm       Rhys takes Ben up to bed and I load up the laptop to work on the blog. 

9.30pm  I finish working on the blog. I've made social media icons which are pretty, the right size and work. This is incredible for me as my technical ability is pretty much zero! I've also commented on lots of Bloggiesta posts  so I'm pretty happy with what I've done!

9.30 - 11pm  I make a few more slips for my TBR jar and think about getting a bigger jar. I've only done nonfiction and graphic novels so far and it's already half full! I still have eight shelves of fiction to go, plus kids books I haven't read yet! After that I curl up with my book. I'm determined to finally finish Peter Duck after months of reading it and move along to the next book in the series for my big Swallows and Amazons read! I don't quite manage to finish as my eyes are closing, but I do only have one chapter left to go! 

11.30ish   Bed! Inevitably woken up at 2.50am by Ben refusing to accept it's the middle of the night. After 45 mins of struggling to get him to stay in his bed I give up and stick him in ours where he immediately falls asleep. Typical. 

So that was my day! Next week they'll start to look a lot different as I'm back at work two days a week and Rhys is in charge!  

What do your days look like? Anything like mine or totally different? 

Things Which Have Been Happening Lately

Some of you will know about the recurring awful thing that's been going on in our family for the past couple of years, about which I am generally very mysterious and fairly depressed. We (by which I mean me) have dealt pretty well with the bulk of it, primarily because it involves a family member and so only really involves us indirectly, however about a year ago we had an unexpected event happen in connection with it and it left me feeling pretty powerless and scared, and in the last week we've had a totally unexpected recurrence of the same event which has left me a bit dazed. We're still waiting for the outcome of what's happened, which is always the worst bit because I spend my time convincing myself that the worse possible scenarios will definitely happen and generally stressing myself out more than I need to. Hopefully I've learned how to deal with it enough from the past two years to not have to absent myself from blogging this time, but if I'm more vague and all-over-the-place than normal then I hope you'll forgive me! Also for how totally cryptic I'm being!

So anyway, this is a really a reorientation post. I've been struggling with a review of MaddAddam for a few days so I'm taking a break from it to give you a little bullet pointed sort of post about what's going on around here! Firstly, for those who are interested, I'm now 17 weeks pregnant and in the annoying stage of being too fat for my normal clothes but too thin for maternity clothes, meaning I'm continually pulling my trousers up, which isn't the best look for work, but never mind! I heard the baby's heartbeat for the first time last week, which was pretty lovely :-) Unfortunately EVERYTHING (for which read this and this) that I'd really like to do this year is either happening just before or just after I'm due to give birth, but never mind!

Books wise, I finished MaddAddam by Margaret Atwood this week, as well as The Mark of Athena, the third in the second series of Percy Jackson books by Rick Riordan, and The Forgotten Affairs of Youth by Alexander McCall Smith. The latter two I probably won't review, because, well, Percy Jackson is Percy Jackson, really. They're very entertaining books, but there's not a huge amount that's new to say about them, and the Alexander McCall Smith is one in the Sunday Morning Philosophy Club series about Isabel Dalhousie, which I really enjoy and find mildly hilarious but again there's not a huge amount to say except they always make me want to go to Edinburgh. Again, probably something for next year! 

I've just remembered I'm also meant to be reading Macbeth before the end of the month for The Classics Club Twelve Months of Classic Literature Challenge I decided to participate in at the end of last year. I should probably get on that...

I also signed up for another Coursera course. After the epic failure that was me signing up for Modern and Contemporary American Poetry AND Comic Books and Graphic Novels, both of which had heavy workloads and quite a bit of reading AT THE SAME TIME as going back to work and then finding out I was pregnant again (so basically just a bad idea), I decided to sign up for another course which probably has waaaaaaayyy too much of a workload for the time I actually have available, but it looks really fun and has a cool reading list and as a bonus I'm pretty sure Hanna is doing it too. Because we have to do everything together now, I blame the Ninja Book Swap. So yes, this is the course and I'm super excited about it!

Speaking of the Ninja Book Swap, sign up info for the first ever Valentine's edition can be found here. Basic premise (for those who don't know) is that you sign up, are given a swappee, make them a nice parcel of a book or two from their wishlist (which don't have to be new, just in nice condition), a little gift and a card telling them who you are and then post it. Meanwhile somebody else does the same for you and it's just generally ridiculously fun, so if you haven't signed up you should and if you can't take part for whatever reason you should still definitely tell all your friends about it :-) Oh, and you should follow us on twitter for all the updates! @NinjaBookSwap

Finally, if you want to sponsor me for the reading I did for Great Ormond Street Hospital back in December (final page count is still to be determined, but I read A Tale of Two Cities plus at least one other book and some bits and pieces, so it's a fair amount!) it would be hugely appreciated and you can do so here.

And that's pretty much my life in a nutshell. I feel like somebody should be doing a drumroll....

A Rant

I love this blog primarily because it gives me the chance to express myself that I haven't really had since I stopped keeping a diary aged about fourteen. After the cleaner found it and quite probably read it, I didn't really feel safe committing my deepest feelings to paper and so I stopped until a couple of years ago, and although the blog really isn't a diary (maybe a reading one?) I do like the fact that I can occassionally have a bit of a rant about how life is going. 

At the moment, it's pretty crap to be honest. Way back last summer I had a short blogging break because of some family stuff that was going on. The situation is still ongoing, but we were learning to cope with it. This week something else happened that's thrown the cat in with the pigeons and left me feeling totally awful. Sorry to be so vague but in all honesty details don't particularly help :-( Suffice to say that something happened to a family member which I would never in a million years have imagined happening and there have been ramifications which have left me personally feeling really judged and scared and depressed. I just want to add that this is totally stupid because as far as I'm aware, I haven't done anything personally to make me feel that way, it's just that the whole situation is total bollocks and it's one of those which is really difficult to judge from the outside, but because of its nature, it is being judged by people who know only the bare minimum of facts and it makes me angry. 

Our life since May of last year seems to have been made up of waiting for other people's decisions about things that majorly affect us, and I thought we were over it all, but apparently not. I just wanted to ask you lovely lot to pray or keep your fingers crossed or whatever it is that you personally do, because if things don't get better soon I really don't know what I'm going to do. 

In happier news, I finished The Uncoupling yesterday and it was great, and I started reading My Life in France by Julia Child & Alex Prud'homme which is helping a little (as are long hot baths and copious amounts of Creme Eggs and hot chocolate!). I also started knitting my first ever jumper and made mushroom soup, so it's not all bad! 

Sorry to be on such a downer, I just needed to vent. I'll be happier next time I post, I promise!

Food Glorious Food

I know I spend a lot of time here at An Armchair by the Sea talking about un-book-related things, but I've decided that I'd like to make the unrelated rambling slightly more specific, and talk about some of the other stuff that I love.

We've just moved and my new kitchen is beyond gorgeous. It's massive, and has so much worktop space that I really don't know what I'll do with it! I've always loved cooking, and collect cookery books as voraciously as I do all other genres, but sometimes in my previous tiny kitchen coming home after a long day of standing up at work, it was difficult to find inclination to cope with the confines of space and actually cook. Especially when nobody's done the washing up and there's stuff all over the place... It's things like this which finally convinced me I wasn't cut out to be a chef, but with this new sparkly spacious piece of awesome (it also has a brand new oven!), I'm hoping that I can get back to cooking often and manging to feed me and the husband better.

I was given a hand held blender as a wedding present, so I want to try mushroom soup from scratch for the first time this week, and I also want to try a tomato and sausage bake. I love food blogs and I love browsing recipe sites for inspiration. Anybody have any good ones for me?

Sunday Salon - The Armchair has moved!!

It has been a while since I've done a Sunday Salon - things have been a bit complicated and crazy since we got back from honeymoon in September, but hopefully that is almost all over now, and we will all start to feel a bit happier for the New Year. So, on to the big news! This weekend we've been moving. As a result of this the Armchair is no longer actually next to the sea. We are only around the corner, but I will miss being able to see the sea from my window. However, to make up for the lack of sea, I do now have my own personal READING ROOM!! Currently it's full of boxes, but hopefully soon it will have a little sofabed and desk and a big standing lamp, and the walls will be lined with bookcases. I am so excited about it! :-) It would be nice if people would stop making so many nursery and baby remarks in reference to the second bedroom, but being the eldest of seven it's kind of expected of me so I guess I'll just have to put up with it.

So, the most important query I have this week is one I know lots of people have asked in the past, and is in relation to organising books, as my day off this week will be spend with giant cups of tea, sorting out my reading room. I've organised my books most ways that are possible in the past - prior to moving I'd got them in a system I quite liked. As we only had the two rooms really, in the bedroom I had all my 'keeper' books. Then in the living room I had one shelf for non-fiction, biography, ARCs, classics, poetry and literary criticism, and one big shelf for all my unread books, categorised by shelf. My latest idea is to organise them by publisher and then alphabetically within publisher group. This is mostly because I've recently fallen in love with Persephone books and I think they'd look beautiful all together on the shelves, but I realise this probably isn't the most practical way to organise my collection... Does anybody have any suggestions?

Oh, and the other great thing about moving is that we now FINALLY have reliable home internet, so I should be able to post whenever I want to, rather than whenever I remember to plan ahead and bring my laptop to work with me! Very happy Sunday, everybody, and a late Happy Thanksgiving to the Americans!

The Sunday Salon - Home Internet at LAST!

Sunday's almost at an end, and I have to say, I've just had the kind of Sunday that I absolutely love to have. We went to a car boot sale this morning, and I didn't realise how much I've missed them! Car boot sales = the reason it should be summer all the time. Then for a loooooong walk in the sun, and off for Sunday roast at the local pub. Unfortunately, the service was terrible, but the food was good, so I'm not too put out!

Anyway, to celebrate the fact that I finally have home internet (yes, that's right, no more only being able to post when the library's open!!), and my last weekend of freedom before starting my new job, which requires me to work every Saturday... I thought I'd write a particularly bookish Sunday Salon. I'm slightly distracted by my fiance learning how make pew bows (??) for our wedding via Youtube, but I'll do my best!

This week, I started taking part in the 30 Day Book Challenge, and have just discovered today, that having the internet on one's phone,is adamantly not the same as having it in actuality. The questions which I had, are not the ones on the facebook group. I am now supremely confused, and so will re-post on here the first five days, according to the actual list. Here goes:

Day One:- Favourite Book - Little Women by Louisa M. Alcott

My first response to this question was, obviously 'oh I have so many favourites, how can I choose?', but then I realised, if you've read a book at least bi-annually since the first time you ever read it (incidentally, the first time I remember reading a book all in one sitting) at the age of seven, and it still makes you happy every time, and basically acts as your anti-depressant/escape from tough situations, then it's probably a favourite.

Day Two:- Least Favourite Book - Tess of the d'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy

It took me three years to read this book. Yep, years. I hated it. I found it very dry, really really slow moving. It had its moments where I thought it would redeem itself, but basically, Hardy and I just don't get on. I had a very similar experience with Jude the Obscure years later. It's a shame, I really wanted to love it. 

Day Three:- Book that Makes you Laugh out Loud - The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

I love this book. I start laughing at the first page every time I read it, and I don't stop. It's not just this one, though, all of the sequels have the same effect.

Day Four:- Book that Makes you Cry - Ravenheart by David Gemmell

Of all the fantasy I've ever read (quite a bit), David Gemmell is the writer who turned my world upside down. His characters are amazing and always bigger than life. This book makes me cry every single time I read it. It's just gorgeous, without being at all gorgeous...

Day Five:- Book You Wish You Could Live In - Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

This isn't the cover I have, but I reckon it'd be great to live there.. Endless tea and madness with the Mad Hatter? Yes please!

So that's that. From now on I'll have to try to answer the right questions! I love it, because it makes me think about books properly, rather than just defaulting to the same few whenever anybody asks me a question. I'm still promising to finish my April Fairytale Feature. I really really will, just finding the energy to concentrate on the actual writing of the thing is proving difficult...

As a distraction from that, this week I've finished a fair few books :-) Links mostly go to Goodreads, as I've not reviewed much yet.

- Beyond the Vicarage by Noel Streatfeild
- The Girl who Chased the Moon by Sarah Addison Allen
- Harvesting the Heart by Jodi Picoult
- Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K Rowling (re-read)
- The Woman he Loved Before by Dorothy Koomson
- A Perfect Proposal by Katie Fforde

This week I'm hoping to finish Even the Dogs by Jon McGregor. I was so excited to find this at the library, as he's an amazingly poetic writer - I'm sure his first novel, If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things, will come up on the challenge at some point! Also wanting to start Emma, as it's the only Austen I've not read, for the upcoming Classics Circuit Duelling Authors Tour!

What's everyone else reading this lovely sunny May?

April RAK Thankyou's & The Four Meme

If anybody hasn't signed up for this yet, you really should! The girls at BookSoulMates host Random Acts of Kindness (RAK) monthly - April is just closing so May sign up will be up shortly I'd imagine - all you have to do is sign up with your wishlist, and then other participants can contact you if they'd like to gift you a book. I've been participating for the past two months now, and I have to say that giving books is at least as rewarding as getting them, and makes me feel all warm and fuzzy about the world, and all you lovely bloggy people :-)

On that note, I've got some thank you's to say. This month I recieved THREE amazing books from three lovely bloggers!

 I've been after Delirium for absolutely ages, since I read Before I Fall, and JL from An Avid Reader's Musings was nice enough to send it to me! I haven't got round to starting it yet, as this month's been mental, but I definitely will do soon!

Sarah Addison Allen is my new love! And Erika was lovely enough to send me a copy of it! Thankyoooou! :-)

And finally....I fell in love with T.S Eliot at University, and yesterday I got this copy (different cover) of The Cocktail Party from Lainy (who also has a great Pre-Loved Giveaway going on at the moment!). I'm reading it as part of my drama challenge, and I'm very excited about it!

The Four Meme

So lots of people have been doing this lately, and as I was reading an article about making your blog more personal the other day, I though I'd join in! If anybody knows where this originally came from, can you let me know so I can credit please?

Four jobs I’ve had in my life:

1. Tutor
2. Carer for Special Needs children
3. Retailer
4. Manual labourer

Four books I would read over and over:

1. Little Women (and sequels)
2. To Kill a Mockingbird
3. Harry Potter Series
4. The End of Mr Y

Four places I have lived:

1. Hampton Hill (Greater London)
2. Teddington (Greater London)
3. Broadstairs (Kent)
4. That's it!

Four books I would recommend:

1. The End of Mr Y - Scarlett Thomas
2. Garden Spells - Sarah Addison Allen
3. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
4. Ravenheart - David Gemmell

Four places I have been:

1. Australia
2. New York
3. Paris
4. Kuala Lumpur

Four of my favorite foods:

1. Roast Dinner! (especially chicken)
2. Roast Potatoes
3. Pasta (especially with melted cheese...)
4. Ice cream

Four of my favorite drinks:

1. Hot Chocolate
2. Milkshakes
3. Cranberry & Orange juice (with or without amaretto)
4. Tea

Four places I would rather be right now:
I really like where I am now, but 4 places I'd like to be if I wasn't here are:

1. At my mum's house, having dinner with my family
2. In Australia with my godmother and her family
3. Devon, at the house we used to have summer holidays in when I was a kid
4. In the car (oh, how I miss the car!) on a road trip somewhere random

Four things that are very special in my life:

1. my wonderful fiance
2. my family
3. all my gorgeous friends
4. my books!



So, there you have it. A little bit of the personal touch. Oh, and just in case anybody was wondering, the car we had (an amazing classic mini with a union jack on the top) finally gave up just after Christmas :-(