I'm a reader - long-term, confirmed, committed - I simply cannot imagine how I would cope without it. For me, there's no emotional strife which cannot be calmed by withdrawing into a book - or at least there hasn't been to date. Why then, have I only managed to read 4 books since the UK... Continue Reading →
I'd like to talk today about bookcase judging - not judgement on the quality of the bookcases themselves, you understand ... but the contents thereof. In this current lock-down period, there's been an explosion of communication by video, resulting in our personal space being on display to all manner of person - both personal and... Continue Reading →
As someone who sets their annual reading target to 52, January's intake was surprisingly high at 9. What surprised me even more was that over half of them were 4-star reads. That situation was doubtless helped by the inclusion of two books from someone who is rapidly becoming my favourite author - Sebastian Barry. Both... Continue Reading →
My thanks to the Orangutan Librarian for the following questions ... What book has been on your shelf the longest? Nothing has been there that long for, having travelled across three continents and downsized dramatically over the past 10 years, not much has survived. The oldest are Centennial and Chesapeake - both by James Michener - great big lumps of... Continue Reading →
Last December, Crime Reads discussed holiday films in a feature entitled 10 Thrillers You Forgot Take Place During Christmas. Now, Himself's idea of a Christmas film is more Die Hard than Holiday Inn and, despite my joy in holiday smaltz, Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas is probably mine, so I thought it was time for... Continue Reading →
My annual Goodreads challenge is now frozen at 52 books per year - a level I feel comfortable in achieving and one which means I don't spend too much time eyeing up short books solely in order to catch up! Before having a quick review of my progress, I instinctively felt I'd had a good... Continue Reading →
As you can tell, I started drafting my post to discuss how much I was looking forward to reading 2019's Booker winner ahead of time, only to discover the judges had announced joint winners! But, I'm going to stick with my title and graphic because the one book I wasn't drawn to read - even... Continue Reading →
As a reader, I'm always book first, film after. In fact, many a book on my TBR list has been promoted up the order following the news it's being filmed. As a writer, I'd like to think that order would be the case for the majority of my readers-to-be. I got to wondering, how do... Continue Reading →
I wrote about my plans for reading to a Black History theme earlier this year. As Black History month is October in the UK, here's what's I've been reading since February - Black History month in the US - which got me started on this theme. If Beale Street Could Talk - James Baldwin James... Continue Reading →
The first man walked on the moon 50 years ago this July when I was but 12 years old. I was absolutely fired up about the subject having read the wonderful Time-Life series of hardback magazines on the US space programme. We didn't have much in the way of TV (we were living in West... Continue Reading →
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