February Reading

I know that this didn't work out too well for me last year, but I have been going a little bit mad with the library lately, and in preperation for Modern March, I feel like I should probably try to get through at least some of the mountain!! In fairness, I've kind of cheated as I've glanced through some already. In case you can't see what's in the awful photo, the pile is thus:- 

(from top to bottom)

• The Library Book - produced in aid of The Reading Agency this is a collection of essays by different people about the importance of libraries to them. I've been dipping in and out of it and so far it is ridiculously great. I have pages and pages of quotes for my eventual review and I'm planning to get somebody to buy me my own copy at some point. 
• My Life in France by Julia Child - I've wanted to read this since watching Julie & Julia a couple of years ago and it just happened to be sitting there in the library the other day when I went to pick up another book...
• The Song of Achilles by Madeleine Miller - so. much. hype about this last year, and it was on the longlist for the Orange Prize which I usually take as a good sign. Also I'm about to start a course on the Ancient Greeks and this is all about the Trojan War, so it seemed a good fit!
• The Fire Gospel by Michel Faber - part of the Cannongate Myths Series that I've been trying to get through for a couple of years
• A Cat, a Hat and a Piece of String by Joanne Harris - I love Joanne Harris, but I didn't even know that this existed. It's short stories which is super great for my limited attention span at the moment, and I'm looking forward to it!
• Great reading, Weaning. Exciting, I know, but Benji is starting to chew on anything that comes near him and stare at my biscuits longingly, so I figured it was time to find out how to go about feeding him something other than milk... Although they recommend waiting till 6 months, if he's ready I can do it from a couple of weeks time. So we'll see how it goes. 
• The Uncoupling by Meg Wolitzer - I ordered this in for my Wishlist Challenge and I'm already half way through it, so it should just be a little finish up job. So far it's really great and making me think about all the things, which is great. 
• How Not to F*** Them Up by Oliver James - another parenting book, but this seems really interesting and has lots of stats and stuff so I can read it all and weigh up the pros and cons of being a working mother and then completely ignore all the advice and do what the hell I want anyway :-) 
• The Art of Handmade Living - this is just a kind of cute little crafty book with ideas about how to accessorise things around the home to make them prettier. It's more of a flip through book than one that actually needs to be concentrated on. 

The last one is The Vintage Tea Party Year which I've already had a look through. It is possibly the most beautiful book that I've ever seen, and has some really cute invitations you can photocopy or download from their website. Thanks to it, I've already decided that Benji's 1st Birthday party in October will be Circus themed. Yes, I know he'll be 1 and unable to remember anything or really participate at all, but it will be tons of fun for the adults!!

I am also determined to finish reviews of Snow White and Mirror Mirror and of both book and film of Beastly for the Telling Tales Challenge, plus finishing the draft of my review of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce which has been sat in my drafts folder for a few weeks now... 

Modern March Event

Last year I kept signing up for events and then not actually managing to participate in them. This year it's all change! I've made it through January without buying a book for myself, I'm keeping on track with my reading and already making progress with some of my challenges - I'm feeling good! Allie of A Literary Odyssey is hosting A Modern March, during which the aim is simply to read literature from the Modernist period. It's weird that I would voluntarily return to something which formed the basis of my most hated class at University, but time obviously takes its toll in weird ways and here I am! 

I have a couple of shelves where I've pulled together all the books I already own for challenges this year, and on the shelf there are definitely a couple at least which fit in with this event. Keeping my targets low, as I know my reading rate at the moment, realistically, is far from where I'd like it to be, during the event I am definitely going to hope to read The Beautiful and Damned by F. Scott Fitzgerald. If I get time I might pick up Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf, which is also on my Classics Club list, Hemingways A Moveable Feast, or one of the other beautiful Fitzgerald editions I have sat on my bookshelves. I'd also like to keep up with the poetry reading goal I've set myself (which I'm already failing dismally at!) and try to read some T.S Eliot to accompany my March!

Reading Poetry and Other Projects I Don't Have Time For...

I currently have three poetry books on my list for The Classics Club, and as it stands, almost no hope of actually ever getting to them. The way I'm currently reading (i.e slowly and whatever the mood takes me to read), they will languish at the bottom of the list, unread, forever. So I'm taking on another project. I will aim to read one poem a day, every day, until these books are done. It shouldn't be too difficult - after all poems aren't very long, and while one book is by an author I have a difficult relationship with, one I have no experience at all of, the last one is T.S Eliot, the greatest of all the greats, so that shouldn't be a problem. These are the books I have to read:

My plan is to alternate, so that I read from Ariel one day, Kid the next, and finally from T.S Eliot. I also plan to share the poems which really strike me here. For those who are curious, Armitage is the author I have no previous experience with. Somehow I managed to miss out on studying him both during GCSE and A Level English Lit (we did Carol Ann Duffy instead. Blergh.), and Plath is my turbulent relationship. It took me until the third year of my degree to admit that the woman can actually write. Up until that point I was so consumed by how self-obsessed she is that I just couldn't get past it. NO, WOMAN, YOU CANNOT COMPARE YOURSELF TO THE PEOPLE WHO SUFFERED DURING THE HOLOCAUST! Argh.








Anyway. I'm trying to have a better relationship with her, and I'm hoping that putting her next to Eliot will have a positive effect. We shall see.

Here's a list of the poems I've read so far (linked to the poem online, if you want to read):

Morning Song by Sylvia Plath (about motherhood, so quite resonant...)
Gooseberry Season by Simon Armitage 

And then we hit this, which is such a beautiful poem that I wanted to put it up here, but it's really long, and to be honest I'm pretty sure a lot of people aren't as geeky about poetry as I am, but if you are you should hit the link and read it because it's awesome. And if you're super geeky, read it aloud. Makes it better. 

The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock by T.S Eliot

So, poetry aside, there's a couple more things I've decided to do recently. Because obviously I need more to do - looking after a small baby all the time while attempting to not let my house become the pit of desolation and ensure clean clothes/dishes/dinner exist is obviously not enough, but there we go. I'm the kind of person who isn't happy unless they've taken on far too much. Obviously. 

After two years of sitting on my bum watching stuff about it on TV and listening to other people blog about their experiences, I finally got motivated and signed up to be a giver for World Book Night. I say got motivated - today was the last possible day for signing up, but still, I did it! Have to wait till February to find out if I get to do it but I feel better for having applied, even if I don't! And if I don't I'm thinking I'll do some kind of giveaway or something to celebrate anyway. (While we're on the subject, I'm still selling books in aid of the National Literacy Trust & doing a 10k in March for them too. Sponsor page is here!). Part of me really wants to launch yet another project to read all of the World Book Night books from the last three years, but I'm actually making progress with my challenges so far and I think that adding to my reading list would just be an incredibly bad idea. Especially since everytime I go to the library to get books which are actually from my list, I pick up something else that isn't which just looks really good....

And finally, I discovered Coursera this week when Sam blogged about how she was taking a course with them (for which I thank her profusely!). I've been looking for somewhere to study something for the past two years, but failing dismally as all of the local adult education places around here refuse to acknowledge either literature, history, or film as valid subjects. Obviously these are the subjects that I want to study. Anyway, I got all over excited the other day and have signed up for a course on the Ancient Greeks starting in March. There's a fair bit of reading for it so I hope I'll be able to keep up! I really wanted to do the Greek & Roman Mythology one that they run, but there was definitely too much reading for that! :-( Maybe next time. 

So that's my pile of crazy. If you read till the end, have a cupcake :-) 

The Classics Club : January Meme

As per my resolution for this year, here is the first Classics Club meme question for 2013!

The question for January is thus: 

What is the best book you’ve read so far for The Classics Club — and why? Be sure to link to the post where you discussed the book! (Or, if you prefer, what is your least favorite read so far for the club, and why?)

If I answer the question as is it will be pretty boring as I've still only read three books from  my list. Shocking, I know, but my favourite of the two is, of course, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte, which was so great that I wrote two posts about it. Soooo instead I will answer a question which will undoubtedly come up in coming months and I'll have to repeat myself. The book that I'm most looking forward to reading from my list. 

I think it's probably between two (and one is kind of cheating). Firstly the fairytale buff in me is ridiculously excited for the mythical day when I will finally get my hand on a copy of Tales of Mother Goose by Charles Perrault, but I'm also really looking forward to sinking into a big re-read of the Swallows and Amazons series by Arthur Ransome. Bring on the summers of sailing away from adults and responsibility and eating sweets and climbing trees and planning strategic boat captureyness on each other all day. Oh yes. 

Telling Tales Challenge 2013 Master Review List

This is the master list of all the review links for the challenge this year - all the reviews posted in the monthly link ups will be added here. The 2012 list is here if you'd like to see what was read! The sign up post for the challenge if you'd like to join us in reading anything related to fairytale or mythology is here.

A

Alternative Alamat by Paolo Chikiamco (ed.) (Michele)

B

A Bite's Tail by Veronica Blade (Becca)

Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale (Michele)

D

Dark They Were and Golden Eyed by Ray Bradbury (Carolyn)

Deathless by Catherynne M. Valente (Michele)

Donkeyskin (Short Retellings) by Various Authors (Rachel)

E

Everneath by Brodi Ashton (Michele)

F

Fables volume 8: Wolves by Bill Willingham (Bex)

The Fairest Beauty by Melanie Dickerson (Rachel)

Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm by Phillip Pullman (Michele)

The Foundling Fox by Irina Korschunow (Carolyn)

G
Gil Marsh by A.C.E Bauer (Michele)
 

H

Hercules and Other Tales from Greek Myths by Olivia E. Coolidge (Carolyn)

L

The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery (Carolyn)

P

The Palace of Illusions by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni (Michele)

Preludes and Nocturnes by Neil Gaiman (Rachel)

R
Rapunzel by the Brothers Grimm (Sarah

SScarlet by A.C Gaughan (Doing Dewey)

Scarlet by Marissa Meyer (Darlene)

The Silmarillion by J.R.R Tolkein (Jen)

Stuart Little by E.B White (Carolyn)

T
The Battle of the Labyrinth by Rick Riordan (Jessie)
The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle (Rachel)
The Night Dance by Suzanne Weyn (Sarah)
The Outlaws of Sherwood Forest by Robin McKinley (Doing Dewey)
The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald (Rachel)
The Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan (Jessie)
The Titan's Curse by Rick Riordan (Jessie)
The War of the Flowers by Tad Williams (Nina)
Towering by Alex Flinn (Sarah)
U
Unnatural Issue by Mercedes Lackey (Rachel)

Review: - Fables Volume 8: Wolves by Bill Willingham

Because I’m reading ridiculously slowly lately, there’s really no excuse for me not to review things pretty much as I finish them, provided Benji’s being ok. I’ve been reading The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce, but you know how it is when you’re reading something and it’s really good but after a while you just kind of feel in the mood for something else? Since Fables is part of my reading for both The Graphic Novel Challenge and the Telling Tales Challenge and since I know graphic novels are quick, I took Wolves and had a long bubble bath. It was awesome.

Basically, Wolves follows straight on from where Arabian Nights (and Days) left off and sees Mowgli out looking to find Bigby and bring him back to Fabletown for a special mission. The book is split between Mowgli’s mission and the Farm where Snow White & Bigby’s children are facing their own dilemmas. It’s pretty much a continuation of the Fables’ struggle against the Adversary and in the spirit of not ruining any plot twists for those of you who want to read this series (and you really should be reading it if you’re in any way into fairytales) but haven’t got as far as this.

There weren’t any major new characters introduced in this volume, and it wasn’t as gripping as some of the previous volumes have been. It was still great though, because they all are, but it kind of felt like a ‘middle of the trilogy’ sort of book – like Willingham was just trying to move the story along and setting the groundwork for something much bigger to come in the next volume. It was solid, but there were no fireworks.

Can I just say though, I seriously love Bigby Wolf. He is just too cool and [SPOILER] in this volume he and Snow FINALLY get it together!! Also their kids are just too cool – being able to turn into a wolf and to fly would be just the best thing ever. As always, Wolves is beautifully drawn  and it super sucks that I can’t buy the next one because of my silly book buying ban!

And now I’m off to read some Nora for my Essay reading project!

Showcase Sunday - Being a Baby gets you loads of stuff...

This week I decided I should start doing weekly showcases of the books that have come into the house, so that I can easily keep track of where our books come from. I swear sometimes they just appear without me even having any clue how they got there! Obviously, because I decided to do this, the week then went ABSOLUTELY INSANE. Admittedly, most of these are Benjamin's books, not mine, but to be honest I love these kinds of posts and we have been ridiculously lucky this week, so if you're bored by posts with lots of pictures and lists of books, stop reading now. You have been warned....

This weekend we went to see some family, and Rhys' dad's friend gave us a box of children's books she'd been saving for Benji from the charity shop where she works. I expected there to be a few, but I didn't expect this:

Apologies for the horrendous photography, but just for information purposes, there are 31 children's books in this photo. Loads of board books, pop up books, books to teach him about counting and the alphabet, picture books. It literally goes on and on. It was the best box I've opened since the box of awesome Hanna sent us when he was born! Horrendously, though, I just inputted all the books into my spreadsheet (yes, I have a spreadsheet for books, I'm a huge geek, I know) and then hit 'no' to the do you want to save this option. So now I have to do it all again, because I am crazy. I'm not going to list what's in this picture, because I think even I would get bored. Also, I have no point of reference, because of the deleting them from the spreadsheet malarky...

Also waiting when we got back from our weekend at my parents' were three parcels from Amazon. As previously mentioned, Hanna got Benji a voucher for Christmas, which I spent, and there was also a present from Laura for us both waiting. This is what was in the parcels: 

With Hanna's voucher I bought:

• Superbabe by Deborah van der Beek because it is the most awesome and difficult to find children's book EVER. He needed it. 
• The Nursery Collection by Shirley Hughes 
• Winnie the Witch by Valerie Thomas
• All in One Piece by Jill Murphy because we love the Large family. 

Whatever Next! also by Jill Murphy (for those who know their Jill Murphy, it's the one where the bear goes to the moon wearing a colander on his head!), and also a copy of I Remember Nothing by Nora Ephron (for me!) were from Laura and Benjamin and I just want to say that we love you both!

Lastly, Rhys and I had a day off from baby raising on Saturday and went to watch Les Miserables in the cinema (I am a massive fan of the stage show and just in case anyone's wondering if the film's good, it is!), and we had a wander around some charity shops while waiting. I spent a grand total of £4.50 and here's what I got:

• The Alfie Treasury by Shirley Hughes was the one that set me back the most (a whole £2.50!), but I had to have it because it's in lovely condition and I have a serious fondness for the Alfie books. 
• The Bravest Ever Bear by Alan Ahlberg because I love Alan Ahlberg and it was 49p...
• The Gruffalo's Child by Julia Donaldson because ever since Laura sent us The Gruffalo before Benji was born it's felt wrong that we don't have this. And also, it was 49p too!
• Slinky Malinky by Lynley Dodd because Hairy Maclary from Donaldson's Dairy is pretty much the best children's book ever and this is pretty epic too. Also, 99p isn't bad for a board book in near perfect condition!

Also this week, Rhys' dad sent me a copy of Good Omens and one of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close that somebody had given him. Terribly, and despite being a gigantic fan of both Gaiman and Pratchett, I haven't yet managed to finish Good Omens. My copy went awol half way through so I never finished, so here's my opportunity! 

The last thing I want to showcase is my brand new shiny copy of Stitch N Bitch Superstar Knitting by Debbie Stoller. When I made my resolution about my book buying ban, this was the one book I was allowed to buy for myself this year, and pretty much a day later it was on eBay for £2. So, now I have it and while that may not seem exciting to some of you I assure you that it is, because it means that I can now learn how to do really pretty stuff and even write my own patterns!

It's been a ridiculously good week here. There may in fact never be a week as good in terms of book acquisition again. 

How's your week been?