📖 Infinite Jest
✍️ Junji Ito
📽️ Infernal Affairs trilogy (from Hong Kong)
🎸 Iron Maiden
🎶 Iieee by Tori Amos, In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida by Iron Butterfly

#ManicMonday #LetterI @CBee

From one fairytale inspired title to another - I came home to book mail!

Home from Gladstone's and almost done with the buddy read.

@julesG You might like to know that it did take a turn in the direction I was hoping!

#Gladstonerds #ReadingRetreat

So pretty! I also found a book called the Henwife, a big book on Forestry and Forest Products, and a massive tome called Hints on Farming. They are placed directly below a shelf with such titles as "The Mammoth and the Flood" and "Mount Vesuvius". The implications are clear. If we end up in a post-Apocalyptic state, Gladstone's is the place for city folks to go to learn 19th Century survival skills.
#Gladstonerds #ReadingRetreat

Treasure found at Gladstone's. The Book of the Goat. By the British Goat Society. Containing Full Particulars of Breeds of Goats and Their Profitable Management.
The publisher also has "Book of the Rabbit - a charming book for rabbit fanciers", "Pig Keeping for Amateurs", and "Fancy Mice" which "goes thoroughly into the subject".

#Gladstonerds #ReadingRetreat

Two books read and halfway through the third.
The McCarthy I didn't care for. The Winterson was alright but not my fave by her. Both were rather grim and violent. The Stephen King is positively feelgood in comparison.

#Gladstonerds #ReadingRetreat

In an uncanny coincidence I found a book at Gladstone's that matches my bookmark.

#Gladstonerds #ReadingRetreat

'She heard wings. She held out her arm. It was her bird. He scarred her arm where she had no glove but she did not care because she loved him and she knew that love leaves a wound that leaves a scar.'

My view when I glance up from my book. So far October has better and milder weather than September! (Also, shit just got (un-)real in Fairy Tale.)

#Gladstonerds
#ReadingRetreat

Stephen King and Toffee Vodka at Gladstone's with the #Gladstonerds.
#ReadingRetreat

This was so much more entertaining than I expected. Especially after my teen found me a Russian Literature Bingo board. I'm not sure if Lermontov invented all of these tropes, but he definitely set the tone for later Russian literature. And he managed to pack all of this into a barely 200p. travelogue that's also filled with nature descriptions from the Caucasus region. Add to that the first literary depiction of a game of Russian Roulette -see B2

📖 The Hobbit, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Half of a Yellow Sun, Half Bad trilogy
✍️ Barbara Hambly, Tanya Huff, Victor Hugo
📽️ Highlander, 📺 Hemlock Grove
🎸 Jimi Hendrix
🎶 The Four Horsemen by Aphrodite's Child, Hell is for Children by Pat Benatar, Helpless by Neil Young (also Horse With No Name, Harvest Moon, and From Hank to Hendrix)

#ManicMonday #LetterH @CBee

📖 Good Omens, The Graveyard Book
✍️ Neil Gaiman, Elizabeth Gaskell
📺 Good Omens
🎤 Greta Van Fleet
🎶 Genjer Genjer by Dengue Fever

#ManicMonday #LetterG @CBee

📖 The Fifth Head of Cerberus, The Fellowship of the Ring
✍️ Joseph Fink, Raymond E. Feist
📺 Firefly
🎤 Freddie Mercury, Fiona Apple, Findlay
🎶 Fuzzy by Grant Lee Buffalo
Forgotten Pleasures, Fake Black Heart, and Fever by Findlay
Freedom! '90 by George Michael

#ManicMonday #LetterF @CBee

This was intense. A short novella about a Senegalese soldier in WW1. 145 pages of brutal madness and a backstory that unfolds like a fable. The original French title means "Soul Brother", or "Brother of the Soul", and is the key element of the story, but the English title is fitting as well (and definitely catchy).

A real page turner, and very visual. I can definitely picture it as a mini-series. The prose is a bit clumsy at times and it's a bit bleak in an "(almost) all men are bastards" kind of way, but I greatly enjoyed joining the MCs in suspecting everyone and squinting suspiciously at red herrings. Often I feel annoyed by crime books because I either solve it too quickly or it's written to be impossible to solve. But this was done just right.

📖 The English Patient
✍️ George Eliot
📺 Eerie Indiana
🎤ELO, Emerson, Lake and Palmer
🎶 Epic (Faith No More)

#ManicMonday #LetterE @CBee

📖 The Dispossessed
✍️ Lord Dunsany
📺 Doctor Who
🧑‍🎤 David Bowie
🎶 Dream On (Aerosmith), Don't Fear the Reaper (Blue Öyster Cult)

#ManicMonday #LetterD @CBee

Book: A Civil Campaign
Author: Carter, Angela (I'm saving Wilkie Collins for W)
Movie: Coraline
Band: Creedence Clearwater Revival
Song: Crazy On You ( by Heart)

#ManicMonday #LetterC
@CBee

I'm not entirely sure what exactly happened here, but I mostly liked it. Absurd and ever so horrifying and highly confusing. While the audio was good, I think print would have been better as it would have allowed me to pause and take in sentences, see how the names were spelled, and flip back to check my recollection. On the other hand, I'm not sure that would have made anything clearer. A hell of a train ride. Love the cover.

Book: The Brothers Lionheart
Author: Briggs, Patricia
TV-show: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Singer: Billie Holiday
Song: Bohemian Rhapsody

#ManicMonday (even though it's Tuesday) #LetterB
@CBee

Took my Youngest to the library for his summer reading challenge, and was not supposed to get any for myself. I resisted all the displays on the way in. But then there was a scavenger hunt for hidden posters that took us out of the children's section and all around the library, and somehow at the end of it I had picked up these three. 🤷‍♀️ To go with the 14 books I already have on loan. 🤪 #SendHelp

Book: American Gods
Author: Austen, Jane
TV -show: Angel
Band: Aerosmith
Song: Almost Cut My Hair

@CBee

#ManicMonday #LetterA

Not my favourite from the Women's Prize shortlist, but I guess I can see why it won. I dunno. I liked it, but I found a bit... cute and trite rather than gripping and profound. A tiny bit overbearing with the whole zen thing. It's still a pick. I really enjoyed the library and the Marxist poet hobo and the Borgesian performance artist. I think it was just... the tone? Or I expected something more? Yeah, super helpful and clear review. 🙄🤦🏻‍♀️😂

The joy of surprise bookmail when you get books you had forgotten you ordered. 😂
Waterstones had a sale, and I was a bit short of free shipping when I pre-ordered something or other. 🤔 I think. Oh well, more surprise bookmail coming up in the future then.

Two down 2/3 of one to go. Will have to take the 10p per day fine for this one and keep it an extra day or three to finish it. (Two not being an option, since the library is closed on Wednesdays.)
Also, the publisher is being a bit sneaky here. Or am I the only one who assumed at first glance that this particular book is Booker prize shortlisted (as opposed to some previous book of the author's)?

#TBR for #Deweys #ReverseReadaton this weekend. They all need to be returned to the library on Monday. 😱😵‍💫

I've already returned The Paper Palace unread once. Not going to do that again! At least I'm almost halfway through the Straub as it is the current #CampLitsy book.

Ok, I'm wearing short sleeves, so no need to roll them up. Limbering up my fingers. Readying the snacks. Channeling Undertale: I am filled with determination.

#readathon

For my fellow #CampLitsy True Biz readers. This is the Norwegian Sign Language manual alphabet (or "the one hand alphabet" as the heading says). I think it was given to me at school as a child. It only has a couple of slight variations from the ASL manual alphabet given in the book, (plus 3 extra letters of course). The British Sign Language manual alphabet, on the other hand, appears to require two hands.

Question: Is "Under the Whispering Door" as child friendly as The House in the Cerulean Sea? My pre-teen just finished the latter and liked it so much he was upset that it ended. He was even grudgingly ok with the kissing (minimal as it was).? It was like that kid in The Princess Bride when he decides they might have earned it.
And yes, I can read it before him, or with him, but he'll pounce on it the moment I buy it so I'd like to be forewarned.

Only a couple of hours until the #WomensPrize for Fiction 2022 is announced. Prediction? Favourites?
I have read 5/6 shortlist books and they were all good and very different reads. With the caveat that I haven't read the Ozeki yet, I think/hope that the winner will be The Bread The Devil Knead. I don't remember when I last hoped that hard for a happy ending for a character!

While religions clash to have the final say, and nationalisms teach a sense of superiority and exclusiveness, superstitions on either side of the border coexist in rare harmony.

People assume it's a matter of personality, the difference between optimists and pessimists. But I believe it all comes down to an inability to forget. The greater your powers of retention, the slimmer your chances of optimism.

My 11y/old says I have to recommend this book to anyone who is interested in the history of decease or the history of English villages. He says it's really good. But he gives the content warning of death. So much death. Hundreds. A lot A LOT of death, it's the plague in 1665, Mum!
It made him kind of sad. Especially about the dog.
And that's how I know that this book based on true events must be good: He'll normally bail if there's death.

Quite a marathon, but I finished these two with just enough time to get to the library. 😅 The Paper Palace will be returned unread to be borrowed again later.
And now I need some light escapism with a guaranteed happy ending where no one gets ill or dies, before I attempt How High We Go In The Dark. Because while Sorrow and Bliss at least had some surprisingly funny parts, To Paradise was 700 pages of unremitting and unresolved discomfort.

Even his new grossness was a kind of shout, a defiance; he was a body that took up more space than was allowed, than was polite. He had made himself into a presence that couldn't be ignored. He had made himself undeniable.

"Self-pity is an unattractive quality in a man," he heard his grandmother say.
What about in a woman?
"Also unattractive, but understandable," his grandmother would say. "A woman has much more to pity herself for."

Tried to renew some library books. Turns out these three have holds and must be returned on Monday (Saturday for one of them, but let's go with Monday). So... I guess I know what I'm spending the bank holiday weekend doing! Good thing I have at least read Part 1 of To Paradise already. But I admit I might have to return at least one of the others unread. 😬

@batsy Front covers for the Ransome books. The backs have an illustration from inside the book.

My very sturdy tote bag from Foyles is worth every pound. And look at the amazing edges of the Miéville book! I might have to shelve it spine in.

#bookstorecrawl

My #bookhaul from yesterday's London #bookshopcrawl with @squirrelbrain @Oryx @LeeRHarry and @scripturient

Some of these were planned, others were total impulse buys. Some are gifts for the fam.
Books bought at Waterstones, Foyles, Daunt, and Gay's the Word. (And I lost my self control almost completely in Foyles. If we hadn't been on a schedule I might have ended up with twice as many books (and possibly a fraud check-up from my bank) 😅)

Ghost story, lockdown novel, indigenous characters, bookstore setting, George Floyd, multireferential title, identity, forgiveness, author self-insert side-character, list of book recs.

#WomensPrizeShortList

My eldest child makes my bookmarks. Origami bookmarks that hook over the corner of the page, intricately drawn and coloured in bookmarks with trailing ribbons, and for those hardcover tomes: embroidered felt bookmarks.

#Deweys #readathon #bookmark

It's that time again! @DeweysReadathon is happening, and each member of the family is hunkered down with stacks of books and snacks.
#RaisingReaders #readathon #Deweys

Opening day for #SpeculativeSpringSwap #SSS at last! 😄 Thank you @maich for an exciting package with the cutest wrapping paper. The mermaid stickers are awesome. I want the Resting Beach Face one as a pin/button. 😂 My teen has already stolen the washi tape, but has kindly allowed me to keep the rest. 😆 Can Malorie be read as a standalone or should I read (or watch) Bird Box first?

Thank you @Avanders for arranging the swap.

I rarely preorder books, because it usually takes me months or even years to get around to reading them anyway! 🙄 But I really wanted a signed edition of this one. My precious. *caresses book* 🤩

I've had way too many library holds come in lately! Add to this three audio books and an ebook in my library app. I need an intervention! 😱 Especially since I keep ignoring these in favour of my Kindle. I should ban myself from charging the Kindle or using the Kindle app until I've read a few of these. 😣😬

I have an #SSS package from Slovenia and from the Book Depository. There's a name, but no Litsy handle, and the name doesn't come up when I search. So thank you secret swapper! I can't wait until opening day! 😃

@Avanders #SpeculativeSpringSwap

@Blueberry See? Same cover, different book! I didn't really expect Penguin to use stock images. You'd think they could afford to comission their own covers!

Eunice has passed us by, and we're all fine (except for our fence, which needs replacing). I finished two good books and watched a bunch of curling and figure skating. Pretty good Friday, all in all!

Any #readathons going on? We have holed up awaiting the arrival of Storm Eunice in the early morning hours, so I figure I'll just read from now until it blows over (apparently on Monday). What do you say, fellow Brits, Irish, and continental Europeans in the path of the storm(s): #StormReadathon ftw? Keep safe, keep indoors, keep reading.