It's all about books

Sitting here at my desk, keyboard at the ready, I'm looking for inspiration for my first blog post of the year which has been a long time coming. So, I'm glancing at my book case, crammed with all manner of reading matter. I love books, can't get enough of them. The trouble is there's only so many you can house at any one time.

This is just a small bookcase, there's another much larger one in my sitting room, one in my entrance hallway, one in the kitchen, one in my study upstairs and various nooks and crannies. Not forgetting those on my my bedside table and a great pile of books dying to be read on the floor beside my bed.

If on occasion I do take the trouble to go into town to dispose of a few books in the local charity shop - guess what - I bring another armful home with me!!

Well that broken the ice for my long awaited (by me) fingers on my keyboard once again. I must say it is very relaxing and a lovely way to spend time on a damp and foggy afternoon.

Back again soon folks.  P x

Floating bookshop

I love London and we often spend hours just walking around and exploring the hidden alleyways, cobbled streets, marketplaces and old buildings.  It was last year that I heard of this fabulously quirky bookshop that is known as the "Word on Water" a floating bookshop barge on the Regent's canal and so we had to go and investigate.

On our visit it was moored at Granary Wharf near King's Cross, where regular jazz bands play either alongside or on the roof.

It cruises and moors up between various locations on the Canal including The Angel at Islington and another close to the Olympic Park at Stratford.

It was a book lover's delight - so many fabulous second hand books

Its uniqueness had me enthralled

It had its own resident dog and even an old iron stove below deck

  

 This visit certainly came up to my expectations and didn't let me down.

Have a great weekend.

A book to re-kindle memories

Hello everyone - just to let you know I'm w-aaaaaaay behind with my post reading at the moment but hope to catch up in the next day or two. Apologies though if I have missed you, this was not intentional, just a glitch.

As I mentioned a week or so ago, I have joined Laura at a Circle of Pine Trees in the Year in Books challenge which you can find here. Basically we have to choose a book at the beginning of the month (a bit late in posting mine I'm afraid) and post about our choice and maybe write a little about last month's book.  So - my choice for February is

 East of the Sun by Julia Gregson, published in 2008

As I said before, as much as I love them, I'm trying to wean myself off historical novels, so this fits the criteria - well almost. Set in Autumn 1928, three young women are on their way to India, each with a new life in mind. 

Rose, a beautiful but naive bride-to-be, is anxious about leaving her family and marrying a man she hardly knows. 

Victoria her bridesmaid couldn't be happier to get away from her overbearing mother and determined to find her own husband. 

Viva, their inexperienced chaperone is in search of the India of her childhood, ghosts from the past, and freedom.

Each of them has their own reason for leaving their homeland, but the hopes and secrets they carry can do little to prepare them for what lies ahead in India.

I chose this book as I was drawn to its location in India. We travelled to there five years ago for a ten day tour - known as the Golden Triangle where we visited Delhi, Jaipur and Agra (including the Taj Mahal) 

                              

At the end of the holiday we chose to tag on another five days to stay at the hill station of Simla, a beautiful old colonial town set high up in the foothills of the Himalayas which was once the official summer retreat for the British Raj.

                  

It was wonderful - the people, the culture, the history and the magnificent landscapes. 

Anyway - I digress

So you can see where I'm coming from with this book - I'm hoping to re-kindle some of the sights, sounds and smells of a fantastic trip with the added bonus that Viva herself travels to Simla too.

Anyway, last month's book Dissolution by C J Samson was definitely worth reading. I'm not a lover of crime novels but this had a slightly different edge to it as it was set in the era of the Reformation (which was right up my street so to speak). There are several others in the series which I would love to read - but for the moment will put them on the back burner for another time.

Thank you all for your comments on my last post and hope to catch up with you all very soon.

The Year in Books

I am a book lover, always have been. My shelves are full of them - fiction, non fiction, reference books, guide books, history books. If I see a book I like the look of, then I buy it and put it on the bookshelf ready to read when the mood takes me. Like many things in life you have to be in the right frame of mind.  Sometimes I'll start a book or two (that's my trouble I'm impatient) only to find that other things get in the way and so I'll put it in my bedside drawer with the idea that I'll pick it up again soon. But do I? There are times when I simply can't get into a book. I'll read a couple of chapters and realise that this isn't the book for me. Other times I only have to read the first line and I know I'm going to love it. But, books can be expensive especially if you aren't actually reading them, plus there are only so many you can store.

So I've decided to make more use of my local library. There are three within a two mile radius of where I live, two of which are walkable (good for the exercise I keep telling myself I'm going to do more of). So today I'm going to take a look at what books take my fancy and I figure that if I bring several books home, there's got to be one that will have staying power!

With this in mind I'm excited to be joining in The Year in Books challenge which is organised by Laura at Circle of Pine Trees which you can find here. The idea is to choose a book at the beginning of the month and post about your choice and then maybe write a little about the last month's book. A great idea that will ensure that we make a space for reading in our busy lives and hopefully discovering more lovely books - either novels, poetry, non fiction, biography - whatever takes your fancy.

I read a lot of historical novels, I mean lots and I'm trying to wean myself of them gradually - not forever but want to read more of a variety.  Everyone has their own particular favourites. I recently joined a crime fiction book club which I'm afraid is just not for me. I don't mind a good old 'whodunnit' kind of novel but am not into serial killers with lots of blood and gore. Needless to say I won't be going back.

So - I'm a little late joining the group but this a book I've read during January - historical I know, but things are a changing!

Dissolution by C.J.Sansom is set in 1537, a time of revolution that sees the greatest changes in England since 1066. Henry Vlll has proclaimed himself Supreme Head of the Church. The country is waking up to savage new laws, rigged trials and the greatest network of informers it has ever seen. Under the orders of Thomas Cromwell, a team of commissioners is sent throughout the country to investigate the monasteries. There can only be one outcome: Dissolution.

Matthew Shardlake, lawyer and long-time supporter of Reform, has been sent by Cromwell into this atmosphere of treachery and death. Shardlake's investigation soon forces him to question everything he hears, and everything that he intrinsically believes.......

A good 'whodunnit' novel where the sights, voices and the very smell of this turbulent age seem to rise from the page.

I've yet to choose my book for February but will be back - with what, I'm not sure?

See you soon

x

A lovely day all round...

On Saturday afternoon we went to The Globe Theatre in London with friends to see one of Shakespeare 's most outrageous comedies The Taming of the Shrew. We went last year to see Anne Boleyn and loved the experience of outdoor theatre so decided to book another play.

A wonderful performance by actors under the most searing heat in very heavy costumes. I don't know how they survived the temperature which was well into the mid thirties and being an open air theatre there was no getting away from the sun. We, the audience had a slight respite as the balconies were just under cover but boy was it hot!!

The story is about two wealthy sisters in Padua who must be married off. The modest demure Bianca has no shortage of suitors but who on earth will take the wild, ungovernable, shrewdish Katherina? Only the gold-digging Petruchio, a man as maddeningly strong-willed and perverse as Katherina herself, is equal to the task of bullying her to the altar.........   A brilliant performance which had us rocking with laughter. Shakespeare certainly had a wonderful sense of humour and not a rude joke or swearing to be heard.

The Globe  put on some wonderful plays during the season which lasts from early June to mid October. We booked our tickets back in February but they do sell, on the day up to 700 standing room tickets for £5 each, which is a fantastic way to see Shakespeare on the cheap if you are in London for the day.

When we got home that evening my neighbour knocked at the door with a parcel that the post van couldn't deliver. It was my course books from the OU for next year's study. Well I was like a child at Christmas - didn't know what to look at first - so exciting.  It's always overwhelming to receive these lovely shiny books in pristine condition and begging to be read  but as I'm only just beginning to catch up with my summer projects and chores after my recent eye surgery and holidays etc, I'm going to have to wait a few weeks before I get stuck in.  A lovely day all round!

Bye for now

Patricia

Celebrating Charles Dickens' birthday

This painting was originally called 'A Souvenir of Dickens' was painted by Robert W Buss (1804-75)  copied from a photograph by Herbert Watkins, and shows Dickens in his study at Gad's Hill, dreaming of some of the many characters he has created. It was left unfinished and presented to the Charles Dickens Museum in 1928 by his grandson.

************

It will not have gone unnoticed that today is Charles Dickens' 200th birthday and to celebrate this I am launching my Dickens Reading Group at our local library. Our first read will be Oliver Twist a story about the orphaned Oliver who was born into a life of poverty and misfortune. As an ardent social reformer Dickens uses this character to criticise public policy towards the poor in the 1830s  highlighting the social and moral evils of the workhouse and the criminal world.

He was orphaned at birth when his mother died and his father fled, leaving Oliver to be taken to the workhouse where he was brought up with little food and few comforts. At nine years old his overseer Mr Bumble moves him into the main workhouse where food is also very short. Fed up with their hunger, the boys drew lots to decide who was going to complain. The task falls to Oliver, who at the next meal tremblingly comes forward with his bowl in his hand and makes his famous plea:

 "Please sir I want some more".

This caused an uproar and Oliver was immediately sent out on apprenticeship for the sum of £5 where he eventually worked at an undertakers. Things didn't go well for him there and he decided to run away to London. The story sees him meeting up with many scurrilous but likeable characters such as the Artful Dodger who introduced him to the infamous pickpocket Fagin with whom Oliver lives with his gang of juvenile pickpockets.

Later he is to meet up with the brutal robber Bill Sikes

Although treated with cruelty and surrounded by coarseness for most of his life, Oliver is a pious and innocent child and his true identity is the central mystery of the novel.

Pictures by courtesy of Wikipedia

A really good read

This book, The Red Queen by Philippa Gregory was one of those books you just couldn't put down until you'd finished it kind of books. If you enjoy history, as I do then you should enjoy this one.  It is set in 1453 and tells the story of Margaret Beaufort, Heiress to the red rose of Lancaster and her life and bitter struggles during the War of the Roses. As a child she has a fierce and unwavering sense of destiny. If not a nun then she'll be Queen of England.

As a young girl Margaret is sent to a loveless marriage to Edmund Tudor in remote Wales, where she gives birth to a son whom she names Henry after her cousin Henry V1 of England who was on the verge of madness. She was determined that her son would become King one day, regardless of the overwhelming power of the York dynasty. She sends Henry into exile and pledges him in marriage to the daughter of her enemy Elizabeth Woodville.


I was given my book as a gift and was unaware that it was the second book of a trilogy, The Cousins War. However this did not spoil the book for me and I now intend  to read the first book The White Queen and thereafter The Other Queen which I'm sure will be equally as stunning.

 www.amazon.co.uk/

Charles Dickens: A Life

First of all a Happy New Year to you all and a welcome to my new follower Anne.

I just wanted to share with you my new book Charles Dickens: A Life - written by Claire Tomalin and published by Penguin which arrived from Amazon yesterday. It’s yummy, and as it’s been raining non- stop all day here in Essex, have managed to dip into it on and off most of the afternoon. Such an indulgence but well worth it. The book is in hardback and includes maps of where Dickens lived, worked and socialised in London as well as Gad’s Hill and Rochester. There is also a ‘Cast list’ of people he was connected with during his life as well as many photographs and illustrations. A book to be recommended.

www.amazon.co.uk/dickens+claire+tomalin

My favourite book of all time..

What better book to feature on my very first Library page, than A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens.

It's that time of year when this old favourite comes out again. I have at least six different copies in all shapes and sizes and this one published by Dorling Kindersley in 1997, being illustrated and annotated gives so much information about life in Victorian London.

When Charles Dickens wrote his Christmas Carol in 1843 he had his 'social reformer' hat on. Few people knew London as well as Dickens. He had seen the overcrowding, the diseases and the poverty which were all widespread at that time. The themes of many of Dickens' novels were mostly aimed at making his readers understand how hard life was for the working poor, and how horrible it was for London's vast underclass of jobless, often homeless people. A Christmas Carol  was no different and he shows us a cross-section of London society from the very rich to the very poor. Dickens himself had endured a poverty stricken childhood and had worked in a filthy factory and it was these memories that haunted him for the rest of his life.

A Christmas Carol is the story of the miserly Scrooge and the apparition of three ghosts of Christmases past, present and future which were sent to make him see the error of his ways. The lessons learned by Scrooge and the moral of the story being that there is more to life than money - it's people and families that count and that we should all make the most of life and enjoy every minute.

The Preface written by Dickens in a very early edition of the book reads as follows:

I have endeavoured in this Ghostly little book, to raise the Ghost of an Idea, which shall not put my readers out of humour with themselves, with each other, with the season, or with me. May it haunt their houses pleasantly, and no one wish to lay it.

Their faithful Friend and Servant,

CD

December 1843