You are currently browsing the category archive for the ‘Stuff’ category.
You’re Watership Down!*
by Richard Adams
Though many think of you as a bit young, even childish, you’re
actually incredibly deep and complex. You show people the need to rethink their
assumptions, and confront them on everything from how they think to where they
build their houses. You might be one of the greatest people of all time. You’d
be recognized as such if you weren’t always talking about talking rabbits.
Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.
* Thanks to Lizzy’s Literary Life for pointing me in the direction of this quiz, which resulted in me being identified with a book I could never finish (despite two attempts) although I quite liked the movie and have a soft spot for Art Garfunkel. Perhaps I should have gone with the armadillo…….
If I can put it like that. I haven’t posted for a bit (although looking at my stats it hasn’t been quite as long as I thought) for the simple reason that I haven’t actually been reading – and not just not reading very much but not reading at all. This is awful, and can mainly be put down to two things:
- an incapacitated Book God (back injury plus bronchitis) which has meant all the chores falling to me (the poor thing has really been in the wars so I shouldn’t complain!)
- what feels like a horrendous workload (especially so close to Christmas)
- all the Christmas preparations themselves
And all of this has made me think – what can I do to get myself back in the reading habit again? First thoughts are that I should try and carve out some dedicated reading time for myself and not rely too much on my daily commute, which is going to change significantly later in 2009 anyway, but I’m sure there is more that I can do…..
Suggestions welcome from anyone who has been through this themselves!
So here we are back again after a forced hiatus due to major desktop problems (don’t ask – it’s enough to say that there are certain pieces of anti-virus software that I won’t be recommending to anyone I actually like) and two weeks in Italy (much more pleasant!) I didn’t actually do very much reading in the four five (!)weeks since I’ve been offline but I’m sure I’ll get back into the swing of things fairly shortly, so watch this space.
It’s very wet and grey and windy here in London, and just a few days short of my long-awaited annual holiday my PC has decided to go kaput; well Windows isn’t working properly rather than the hardware failing. It’s a long, long story…….
So while I wait for a solution and contemplate whether this is a message that I really should by a new computer (as I’ve been talking about for months), and as the Book God mops my fevered brow, I’m going to start my blogging break slightly earlier than planned.
Normal service will resume later in October.
Happy reading!
You are The High Priestess
Science, Wisdom, Knowledge, Education.
The High Priestess is the card of knowledge, instinctual, supernatural, secret knowledge. She holds scrolls of arcane information that she might, or might not reveal to you. The moon crown on her head as well as the crescent by her foot indicates her willingness to illuminate what you otherwise might not see, reveal the secrets you need to know. The High Priestess is also associated with the moon however and can also indicate change or fluxuation, particularily when it comes to your moods.
What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.
Three Act Tragedy
I’m sure I’ve mentioned on this blog before that I got into reading crime fiction through Agatha Christie, partly because of the wonderful film version of Murder on the Orient Express (reviewed on my film page) but also through my Mum buying me a copy of Nemesis with a creepy Tom Adams cover to get me through a bout of flu.
They Do it With Mirrors
The paintings of Tom Adams were associated with Christie’s novels in paperback for almost 20 years. A number of them were collected in Agatha Christine: The Art of Her Crimes in the early 1980s. Sadly this seems now to be out of print, but I was able to get hold of a slightly bashed second hand copy which, in addition to the artist’s own comments, has a commentary by Julian Symons and an introduction by John Fowles.
The Mysterious Mr Quin
I have always loved how Adams’ paintings caught the spirit of Christie’s novels, even when the objects on the covers seem obscure in terms of the story, although I’ve always suspected that if I had been paying more attention I would have seen a greater relevance in the objects he uses.
Hickory Dickory Dock
Sadly I don’t have a full set of the Tom Adams Christies but I’ve reproduced one or two of my favourites here and hope that you enjoy them. Although some of the later paperbacks have attractive covers nothing says Agatha to me like Tom Adams.
So it’s August in London; hot, humid, wet, busy with tourists and grumpy commuters, and it’s nine weeks today until my holiday. What is a girl to do to cheer herself up, I hear you ask, with no Dr Who on TV, Criminal Minds finishing this week, and not many Without a Traces left to divert her from the long haul through what remains of the summer?
The answer is clearly to plunge into my large tbr pile of crime fiction. There is nothing like murder, mayhem and failing to guess the culprit to bring a smile to the Bride’s face, so all my reading in August will have crime as a theme; even the stuff I am reading for challenges.
And as if to endorse this plan, Thursday’s podcast from Simon Mayo’s book panel on Radio 5 Live reviewed new books by Mark Billingham and Karin Slaughter, so this is clearly a sign that I’m on the right track!
- The Bride’s Pride & Joy
So one of the reasons I’ve been so quiet over the past few days (apart from still being very busy at work) can now be revealed – the bookshelves I commissioned in May have finally been installed and I’ve been beavering away moving piles of books from the floor, the top of radiator covers, and lots of other places to their new home.
Apart from the fact that they look great (apologies for the poor quality photograph which really doesn’t do them justice) the whole experience has been really liberating. I can move around the house now without tripping over things, I can find my DVDs more easily (over on the far right in case you wonder) and I’ve come across some great books that I forgot I had.
I’m now inspired to try to catch up with my tbr pile now that so much more of it is easily to hand.
Susan tagged me for this a while ago but I have only just got around to thinking about what I would say. It’s an interesting meme for me as I don’t really talk about myself on my blog, but here goes:
What was I doing 10 years ago?
I was moving into this house in south-west London with the Book God, the first property we had bought together after living in rented flats for 3 or 4 years. I was very excited about owning my own home again and immediately came down with summer flu to celebrate. Also, around this time, I was looking for a new job and am pretty sure I had an interview just after we moved. However, it took me another 3 years to get to the job I’m in now and which I’m still (more or less) enjoying!
Five snacks I enjoy in a perfect, non weight-gaining world:
Otherwise known as the weekend
Chocolate, milk or white for preference, don’t like dark chocolate
Fortnum & Mason’s hand-made fudge, the closest I can get to Scottish tablet down here
Balsamic vinegar & onion crisps
Maltesers
Cheese
Not really a snack but I would like to add cocktails here, preferably Cosmopolitans, though the opportunity to drink these is not as frequent as I would like…..
Five snacks I enjoy in the real world:
Otherwise known as Monday to Friday
Apples
Cereal bars with raspberry or ginger
Grapes
Cheese
Chocolate, and I’m not going to apologise for it, sometimes it’s the only thing that gets me through…
Five things I would do if I were a billionnaire:
Give up work
Buy a house in Scotland (or possibly a castle, or even an island)
Travel
Endow a library
Make time for good works (a bit vague, I know)
Five jobs that I’ve had (in no particular order):
Shoe stores salesperson
Post Office counter assistant
Civil servant
Data inputter (if that’s a word?)
Bookshop salesperson
Three of my habits:
Talking to myself (actually talking in general, very rarely lost for words – just sometimes the words don’t make any sense)
Channel surfing when bored
Never throwing anything away
Five places I have lived:
Glasgow
Paisley, Renfrewshire
Kilbirnie, Ayrshire
Redditch, Worcestershire
Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire
Five people I’d like to get to know better:
Ooh, most of the bloggers I would put here have already been tagged. In my dreams there’s always David Tennant, I suppose…….
Five fluffy things
I have a fascination with Canada, have had since I was quite young but no idea where it came from – I collect the stamps, I love the authors (which is why I’ve signed up to the Canadian reading challenge), I love the bands, but I’ve never been there.
I collect Tarot cards, and books about Tarot
I do needlework (intermittently) but can’t remember the last time I finished a project
I panic if I have nothing to read on my daily commute; if I finish a book unexpectedly on the way into work I have been known to buy something simpy to get me home – there have been some bad choices made in that situation – this is becoming less of a problem since I started downloading podcasts to the iPod
I sometimes can’t remember what I did yesterday, but can clearly recall the names and important information about almost any actor of note that I’ve ever seen in anything. Helpful for pub quizzes, annoying for family and friends.
Consider yourself tagged!
Sorry it’s been a bit quiet around here lately; I only realised when I posted on Booking Through Thursday earlier today that it had been a whole week since my last post.
Pressure of work I’m afraid, which might continue for another week or so; this is how I feel, but hopefully not how I look…..
But never fear I have a few posts in draft and will hopefully get them up over the next few days.
Bride of the Book God 