So while I’m catching up I go and find myself something else to do. Next Monday is Blog Action Day (see above) and the focus this year is The Environment. I found this while I was searching for some stuff for the Eco-Ecole Club (try saying that very fast, over and over). I figured the little darlings have got enough to be getting on with for the moment, so I’ll do this one. Don’t know what I’m going to post yet. The other options were to donate your blogs’ proceeds of the day to a charity. Hang on! Are you lot making money out of this?
Anyway, I’m now going to tackle the book meme that Vanilla tagged me for ...ooh eons ago. Mmm... when you take out Vanilla’s answers this seems like a manageable book meme.
Total number of books owned
Well there’s a little pile there by the fireplace, that bookcase there, there’s some more on the phone table, that other bookcase...Look everywhere I am there are books: at home, at work, in my bag, there’s even a book under my pillow. I have more than enough for one person really, but then again you can never have enough. Does that answer your question?
Last book bought
I don’t live in the land of readily available English language books, then again I’m not deprived of books, but I do like to make part of my trips back to Blighty involve book shopping. So I bought:
The Weather Makers by Tim Flannery
Twenty love poems and a song of Despair by Pablo Neruda
Lady Friday by Garth Nix, the 5th in the Keys to the Kingdom series. I’m not entirely sure about this series of books, but the first book, Mister Monday has got probably the best prologue I’ve ever read.
The Art of Travel by Alain de Botton.
Last book read
The Weather Makers by Tim Flannery and Coven of One by ole Minx.
Five books which mean a lot to you
Only 5...
The House at Pooh Corner by A.A. Milne. If I can’t cross a bridge without playing Pooh Sticks, it’s because of A.A. Milne, and E. H. Shephard’s drawings. I really dig Pooh bear because there are days when I feel of very little brain. You know if we all lived our life like Pooh we probably wouldn’t get an awful lot done, but we’d eat a lot of honey!
Setting Free the Bears by John Irving. It was probably the first book that made me cry. It was hysterically funny, so full of historical resonance (the first time I read it was as the then Yugoslavian state began to fall apart) and dreadfully sad too. And yeah I’ve read it a few times along with quite a lot of other
Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. I read this shortly after moving to
Heaven Eyes by David Almond. I remember putting the book down in complete awe and realising I had just read the best Magic Realist since Marquez. Who is Heaven Eyes? We never know, but this is a story that will stay close to your heart for years to come and fill you with hope.
Oh no... I’m at five and there are so many more... Ok. Last year I read History of the World in 10½ chapters. You couldn’t put a more disparate bunch of themes together and tie them together with a woodworm if you tried, or unless you were Julian Barnes. I have an absolutely terrible memory and yet I think I can just about remember everything he writes about love in the chapter entitled parenthesis. This is the sort of love I want to believe exists.
I’m not going to tag anyone for this meme as it’s been going around for a while and if you haven’t done it already then you SHOULD. Let me know if you do have a go. Also as this is quite long I won’t add a Phoktober bit, but do check it out here. I’ll catch up on that tomorrow!
8 comments:
Well about time too... ;-)
I can't believe I left dear ol' Winnie ther off my list! What a sin on my part. I'm glad I'm not the only one who plays poohsticks. Want a game sometime?
Be interested to know what you think of Neruda's book.
Ah, you too, book buying binges to Blighty ... me too, it's to Dublin. There's always the Internet, but I love the smell in bookshops ... in a nice way ... but we don't have Shakespeare and Co down here, though I'm in Paris for two weekends soon ... so ... I will be buying books no doubt. Your kitten is ADORABLE by the way! Muffin was jealous when I pointed out the pic.
John Irving is one of my favorite writers. The Cider House Rules profoundly changed my life.
Ah Winnie is a must. Would definitely love a game of Pooh sticks, anytime soon? There's quite a big river here and lots of bridges. I've only read a bit of the Neruda so far, will tell you more later.
Hi Seamus, oh book buying, lovely. And Muffin cannot be jealous, maybe she was just upset that he was all the way in Paris and they couldn't be friends.
Hi Kat, I think I may have to read it or reread it because I'm all confused as to whether I've read it or not. Still you can always do an Irving book more than once.
I still can't be out in the rain with an umbrella, without going "tut tut, looks like rain". Pooh and crew, just become part of you.
You write about those books so intriguingly it makes me want to read them. To see if I can find in them what you have seen/felt.
Because you're so nice, you have now also been awarded a "smile" - over at my place ;-)
Poohsticks on the Seine, perhaps? I'll bring Eeyore with me. Now, which one of us shall be Piglet and which one Pooh?
Have had the Neruda for years - so keen to know what you think!
Oh Taffiny they do don't they. I think there's a little bit of every character in me and there's a whole lot of Tigger in Tibo! Aw and you've just reminded me of the picture where they are all looking over the bridge and poor little piglet can barely see. I'll read the Neruda after I've finished the Andrew Marr book.
We don't have a lot of overlap on the fiction, but I am a huge fan of Garth Nix' Abhorsen trilogy as well as Shade's Children. I read the first book in this series and eh, didn't go any further.
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