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Your Book Activity - December 2019


Onion Budgie

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December has been a mixed bag of books for me. I started with the Deathless Girls by Kiran Millwood Hargrave, a teenage novel based on Dracula (tying neatly to Onion Budgie’s opening post). Part of a series telling the stories of girls/women inspired by classic novels. 

I followed this with Simon Mayo’s Mad Blood Stirring, which was to fulfil part of a reading challenge for 2019 on a Facebook group I belong to. This was the book for “read a book by an author better known for something else”. I’m so glad I read it - it’s set in 1814 in Dartmoor (my favourite part of the UK) around a little known part of the prison’s history. Mayo successfully crafted great characters, in a well drawn setting, and wrote it in a compulsive reading way.

From this to a crime thriller (also for the above challenge, this time about the authors initials), Now You See Her by Heidi Perks. A lightweight read but with some interesting psychological analyses.

I’m very close to finishing George Orwell’s Down and Out in Paris and London. (“A book published before I was born” for the Challenge). Not sure what to say about this. I didn’t know it was autobiographical until I was over 50 pages in, and I decided I didn’t like the main character so did some googling... 

I also finished The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult yesterday that I’d been listening to on Audible while driving. I read the last 20% on my Kindle though as I couldn’t sleep in the night and didn’t want to miss any of it/spoil the twist/disturb my other half.

Aiming for a lighter, seasonal read in James Bowen’s A Gift from Bob next. Hoping that everyone’s favourite Streetcat will help me with some festive spirit for this week...

 

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On 15/12/2019 at 6:14 AM, willoyd said:

Finished Reading Allowed by Chris Paling this morning, recounting his experiences as a librarian in a proviincial city library.  Very similar to the best selling This Is Going To Hurt by Adam Kay, complete with issues of funding shortages and staff cuts, but more sympathetic to his 'customers' than Kay and, for me, a better book (partly as a result of this). Both books make me even more depressed about what happened on Thursday - it appears that turkeys do vote for Christmas.

Thanks for highlighting this. I’ve added it to my wishlist.

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Finished my biennial reread of A Christmas Carol.  Each time I read this, I'm surprised at quite how good it is - I'm so used to the (for me, much weaker) various adaptations for radio, TV, cinema.  None have quite the richness of the book. 6/6

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On 27/12/2019 at 4:24 PM, Brian. said:

I've started with Vernon God Little by DBC Pierre and although I am only 50 pages into it I am really struggling to get on with it.

 

Well, you've already got further than me!  I don't think I've come to dislike a book so rapidly as I did with this one.

 

Three more books read over the Christmas break:

 

What the Fat? Sport Performance by Grant Schofield et al: another part of my background reading into Low Carb High Fat eating.  Helped me clarify my thoughts on how to relate my diet and training.  Functional rather than aesthetic reading!  4/6

 

The Christmas Egg by Mary Kelly: promising murder mystery with an engaging style of writing, that ultimately didn't quite deliver, which seems ot be the storyfor most of these British Library reprints (at least IMO!); 3/6.

 

Stop What You're Doing and Read This by Carmen Callil et al: collection of 10 short essays on reading, that need to be reread individually rather than as a sequence.  4/6.

 

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7 hours ago, willoyd said:

Stop What You're Doing and Read This by Carmen Callil et al: collection of 10 short essays on reading, that need to be reread individually rather than as a sequence.  4/6.

 

I read this a few years ago and gave it a similar rating as you.

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8 hours ago, willoyd said:

 

Well, you've already got further than me!  I don't think I've come to dislike a book so rapidly as I did with this one.

 

 

I managed to finish it yesterday and celebrated by throwing it across the room.

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Finished the year off with two fairly quick, and contrasting (!), rereads:

 

Acts of Union and Disunion by Linda Colley, a set of essays on the state of the United Kingdom, written in 2013 prior to IndyRef and Brexit, but still highly pertinent. 5/6

 

Paddington Helps Out by Michael Bond, still my favourite go-to for a dose of gloriously funny light relief (no, I have never grown up when it comes to these books!).  Paddington and I are almost exactly the same age, as the first book was published the week I was born, and he remains one of my all-time favourite literary creations.  This is the third volume, and it's as good as it gets.  6/6

 

 

 

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I didn't get any books for Christmas, but I did get some money, so on Sunday and Today I have spent some time in my local Waterstones and have picked up the following:

 

Wind/Pinball, by Haruki Murakami

Mortal Engines, by Stanislaw Lem

The Girl Who Could Move Sh*t With Her Mind, by Jackson Ford and

The Last Wish, by Andrzej Sapkowski

 

It is the first time I have spent that much money on physical books in a long time!

 

Additionally, I have also picked up the following for 99p each from Amazon for my Kindle:

 

Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bronte

Christmas at Cold Comfort Farm, by Stella Gibbons and

A Wizard of Earthsea, by Ursula K. Le Guin

 

So, a bit of reading to do there!

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