It's Monday

Your meme is hosted by Sheila here: http://bookjourney.net/

I had a reasonably productive week, I think. Well. Weekend, anyway. I read Cold Feet by Jay Northcote, a sweet gay romance story about best friends trapped in a Welsh cottage over Christmas. I WONDER WHAT THEY GET UP TO THEN. It was lovely, a nice slice of escapism.

I also finished Parasite by Mira Grant, which I also liked a lot. There was a twist right at the end that made me keen to seek out book two.

Of course, I have Goblet of Fire on the go, and I’m about 100 pages in to that for Sheila’s readalong.

And the lovely Care at https://bkclubcare.wordpress.com/ is hosting a readalong of a novel called Sister Carrie, which I had never heard of but barged in on anyway. It’s my lunchtime reading on my ipad, and so far, so good.

What are you reading?

Health updates and a cat thing.

As some of you know, I had  a health hiccup in April of 2014. By “health hiccup” I mean I had the period of doom for three weeks and wanted to kick puppies.

I had blood tests and a smear test, and that all came back normal. The lovely doc also wanted me to have a vaginal scan (woo hoo) and that was scheduled for November.

I finally had it last month, and they found …. nothing. Not even fibroids. Just nothing. My body was just messing with me because it could, which. THANKS A LOT.

Though I am grateful that it turned out to be nothing more than a random aberration.

The cat thing. I didn’t talk about this on here, because I wasn’t sure if it would ultimately be worth its own post or not, but one of our cats - Morgana - brown tabby and lapcat extraordinary - went missing. She just … vanished.

I duly called around the vets, and called the SPCA and put an ad on Trade Me but nothing was forthcoming.

Then, one morning, about a week after she went missing, I got up early to go to the loo, and was greeted by some rather frantic meowing. I had to go back to get my glasses because I was 100% sure that was not the meow of any of the cats currently in residence.

I was correct. It was Morgana - brown tabby and lapcat extraordinary - popping up like nothing ever, meowing her face off and demanding cuddles.

A very minor miracle, but I still think of it as fairly miraculous.

It's Monday

Your meme is hosted by Sheila here: http://bookjourney.net/

Let’s see … I had a reasonably productive reading week last week. It helped that I only worked Monday and Tuesday. Back to “normal” this week.

On Wednesday I went to see The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies and thought it was the best of the three. I still have issues with a 300 page children’s book being turned into three overly long movies, as much as I love The Lord of the Rings movies but THAT ASIDE …. Battle of the Five Armies was pretty good. I also accidentally started shipping Bard and Thranduil, so that was entertaining.

The week before that, I took spawn to see Big Hero 6 on Boxing Day and absolutely recommend it, it was great. Spawn loved it too, and I think it’s the first movie he’s been to that he hasn’t complained about being overly long.

Uh, anyway. Last week, I finished The Miseducation of Cameron Post on iBooks, and it was great. It’s a coming-of-age YA novel about  young girl who’s just lost her parents, and she’s starting to explore her sexuality. When she’s outed, her born-again aunt sends her to a conversion therapy school.

That’s a terrible summary but it’s a great, great read.

I also, finally, finished The Two Towers in the world’s slowest LOTR re-read. I’ve got a bookmark in Return of the King but haven’t cracked it open yet.

Right now, I have  Parasite by Mira Grant on the go, and I’m really enjoying it. I just need to pick something on my iBooks to read at work.

What are you reading?

Happy new year and all that

Goodness, it's 2015. That's come around rather quickly, hasn't it?

I didn't do very much to ring in the New Year - just beetled on with my annual LOTR re-watch and a new cross-stitch project, which is always my very own end of the old year/start of the new year ritual.

Of course, I start thinking about all of the things I could do in the new year, all of the possibilites ... it does feel like turning to a fresh page, doesn't it? There's nothing on there yet, but by the end of the year it will be packed with memories - photos and movie tickets, memorable quotes, lists of books and films and TV shows and Stuff that Spawn Says. Well, mine will be. Also, cats. Always cats.

The photo today is of my optimistic TBR bookcase. There are 85 books on it, and of course I won't get to them all this year, but I'm hoping to make a reasonable dent at least. I'm also going to try and not buy books if I can. Well - not NEW books anyway because they are so very expensive. Bargain, secondhand and withdrawn library books are fair game, however.

My goodreads goal for 2014 year was 75 books. I managed 62 - https://www.goodreads.com/user_challenges/1100497 - which isn't a bad effort. I did fall behind but I'm not losing sleep over it. So I'm going to aim for 75 books again, with a hopeful tilt at reading more diversely.

Which means I'll be going in for the More Diverse Universe challenge later in the year, assuming it's all go again - I hope so. :-)

Other than that I'm not signing up for anything right now. That's part of the trouble with the new year - you feel all earnest and energised and like your cape/hair are blowing gently in the breeze but then you remember things like Real Life and distractions and you kind of go, wait, hang on, I have some VERY IMPORTANT nothing to do right now and .. uh, anyway.

Later on I'll likely sign up for Carl's OUAT and RIP because I always do that and then I forget I've done that and  fail anyway, but I love the IDEA of the challenges so much, so there's that.

And I'm in for another readalong with Trish's readalong gang, although I've consistently failed out of the last two but never mind. Also next up is Goblet of Fire, for Sheila's Harry Potter readalong. Goblet of Fire is my favourite of the Harry Potter books, so I'm looking forward to that.

I am going to try, if I can manage it, to make 2015 The Year of the Series. I'm terrible with series - I'll read one book and then not pick up the next one for months and years and wonder what on earth is going on. THIS year, all going to plan, I'm going to read Stephen King's The Wasteland and also Isaac Asimov's Foundation series. I'm also going to search for two series by writers of colour, to balance out the white dude-ness.

My plan, such as it is, is to read one series book, another book, second series book, another book .... you get the idea.

So for 2015, I'm hoping to read more widely and diversely, actually make my goodreads goal, FINISH at least, say, four? series, read more graphic novels and uh...

Oh. Non-reading. I want to finish two cross-stitch projects. One for myself that I've been working on on and off for about 10 years, and one for a friend, that I started this week.

And, I don't know, save a puppy from a burning building maybe

What do you want your 2015 to look like?

An anniversary, sort of

I realised last week that on Friday, I would have been blogging here for seven years. I meant to do a post on Friday, but sunk into post-Christmas laziness instead. Yesterday I went out into the real world (went to a friend's), and so here I am, hastily writing a post before I forget.

My modest goal, at the time, was to have somewhere to record an also modest goal of reading one classic novel a month, and maybe a space to write some reviews.

Over the years, of course, my focus has shifted slightly. Some years I've hardly blogged at all. This year, I made more of an effort because I do like my little corner, but I've ... I can't really say expanded. I don't really post many reviews, but that's fine. I half-decided to try this new thing instead, where I talk about life and books and cats and spawn and general things.

It's sort of working.

Seven years ago, I poked my nose over the book-blogging fence. There wasn't anyone at first I could say "hi" to, but I went out in search of other bloggers, and memes, and put myself out there as it were.

This tiny space has never, and will never be a place people visit for deep and insightful reviews, or posts. But I hope in my ramblings about books, cats, spawn and life in general, people find something to smile at, and something they recognise.

Onward, yes?

Yes.

It's Monday

Your meme is hosted by Sheila here: http://bookjourney.net/

I missed last week because I forgot to put the post up. I had it written early and efficiently and then I forgot. Oop.

Anyway. I finished Prisoner of Azkaban yesterday for Sheila’s readalong, so I’m going to dig into Bag of Bones over Christmas for Trish’s readalong. Festive, no?

I also have Hogfather by Mr Sir Terry Pratchett to read, and it’s out of order for my Discworld read all of the books, but it’s Christmas, so that might showup as well.

The week before,  I read Rose Under Fire by Elizabeth Wein - it’s a sort of sequel to Code Name Verity and is just as heartbreaking in its own way.

I also read The Strange Library by Haruki Murakami. It’s not a very long book at all - really a very well illustrated short story - but it’s chilling and odd and heartbreaking.

I was picking at Throne of Glass on iBooks but I sensed the presence of a love triangle looming, and some of the plot points were puzzling, so it’s gone on to the metaphorical perilous shelf for now.

Instead, at lunchtime, I’ve picked up The Miseducation of Cameron Post, which is so far, so good.

What are you reading?

BOBalong!

I failed out of Trish's Drood readalong pretty hard, but I promised myself I'd be back for this one, so here I am - ready for some Stephen King.

I just finished Revival, which I liked a lot and I'm eyeing the Dark Tower series for January maybe, so I'm definitely in a King place.

I read Bag of Bones many years ago and remember enjoying it very much, so this is a very timely readalong because I have been meaning to re-read it for some time.

If you want in on the fun, the link is here: http://www.lovelaughterinsanity.com/2014/12/bag-of-bones-readalong.html