The Library

Hello all!
Today I want to have a little chat about my library books. As you know I am a librarian, I am actually a full time librarian now (more or less) and so i spend even more time than before surrounded by books, and I get to take lots of them home!

Lately though I have had to be strict with myself, in our county you can borrow 30 books at a time, and previously I have been borrowing pretty much to my limit, there are so many that I just can't wait to read, and I might forget about them if I just don't take it home right there and then, that I scan my card and into my bag it goes. This behaviour is not good for my reading corner.

I have a small corner on top of my bookcases where my library books live, and I like to keep it tidy, bringing lots of books home doesn't keep it tidy because there simply isn't room for that many.
As you can see I currently have one too many on loan, but I really really really want to read Steve Jobs' biography, so I am letting that slide, I absolutely cannot take any more out though. I had to take back quite a few to get my selection back to a suitable size, and I really had to think carefully about which ones I definitely would pick up and read.

So why have I elected to keep these ones until they are finished?

The Well of Lost Plots is the third in a series of Jasper Fforde books about Thursday Next, she lives in an alternate universe where literature is the most valuable commodity of all. Nuff said.

The Night Rainbow I picked up from one of the displays at work quite randomly because it has a pretty cover, the synopsis hints at darker contents touching on depression and loss of innocence, the juxtaposition here really intrigued me. I can't wait to crack open the cover of this one.

Before I go to Sleep has had a lot of press coverage and is going to be made into a film with Nicole Kidman, you wouldn't believe the amount of times I have picked tis up and nearly brought it home and instead passed it onto a borrower I thought might like it, the other day there were three copies on the shelf though, so I decided it was time for it to come home. the synopsis hints at a woman who loses her memory every night and has to write herself a diary of the days events. Something fishy is going on though, and I love a mystery or thriller.

The Five People you Meet in Heaven is another book which has had a lot of attention. It is one of those books you feel like you should have read years ago but never did. It is about a man who dies and discovers that when you to heaven you actually have your life explained to you by five people who appeared throughout it. I love concepts of a different afterlife, one which defies the norm, and I think this will be an interesting and thought provoking read.

Vanished Kingdoms is a history book, but not your standard this war happened during so and so time period history book. This book is about fallen dynasties, royalty that has fallen out of favour, empires and republics that have been overthrown. I find history that is completely missing from the modern day fascinating, especially if there is a bit of doubt over what happened. I think this one will teach me a lot.

Company of Liars is a book that I have had a lot of recommendations for. Since I started reading historical fiction I have had various works suggested to me but Karen Maitland's works have always cropped up. Some of her books can apparently be quite gruesome, so I am starting with this one which is set during the plague. Lets hope i can stomach it!

I picked up The Yard shortly after i watched a BBC television show called Ripper Street. The show is set in victorian london after Jack the Ripper has had his day and the police are encountering a surge in murder and crime. The Yard appears to be along a similar vein, set one year after Jack the Ripper a new killer is on the prowl and the newly formed Scotland Yard murder team is on the case. It sounds gripping.

Another Non-Fiction title, From Gutenberg to Zuckerberg is a bit of a social history of the Internet. Another one spotted while browsing the shelves, and another one that I think might just expand my knowledge a little bit. I already have quite a knowledge of the Internet because of my profession but I always like to read new takes and opinions, you never know what nuggets of information you may have missed.

What I Did has an interesting synopsis and I predict it will get my brain whirring. It is about the repercussions that our actions can have on the order of things. A child runs across a busy road and his world changes completely, his father punishes him, a passer by sees this and reports him and the child's life and his family's begins to spin out of control. I like that this one reminds the reader that split second decisions can have a huge impact. Another one I can't wait to pick up.

Old Filth was a recommendation from a colleague, she assured me it would have me chuckling while also being in awe of the writers descriptive skill. this book follows a character throughout his life from being a child to being an old man, from being an orphan in the Raj through the British Empire and the Second World War. This one sounds like a fun journey.

Lastly Steve Jobs, I have wanted this book ever since it was released, but it wasn't cheap so I lumped for borrowing it. Once I have read it I will probably buy a copy anyway because Steve Jobs has had a huge effect on my life. At 15 I decided to go against the grain and convince my dad that I wanted an iBook, not a windows laptop, and since then I have been an absolute Apple convert. I know that the biography also tells us some of the negative points from Steve's life, but he was an inspiration to me so I want to read anyway.

So there you have it, the books I currently have on loan from the library.
if you use your library what do you currently have on loan and why?

Book Review: Police at the Funeral ★★★★

Published in 1931 Allingham wrote her mysteries in the height of the golden age of crime fiction, a time when mysteries were supposed to adhere to certain rules. The authors at the time did like to surprise their readers though by finding ways to solve the crime that would be entirely unexpected. Cue Allingham's Police at the Funeral.

Albert Campion, an upperclass professional socialite (but with enough brains to class himself as an adventurer and detective) is called upon to help solve the mystery of his friend Joyce's uncle Andrew's death, found drowned in the river, there are suspicious circumstances, and along with his chum Inspector Oates, Campion solves the mystery with flair.

I bought this book years ago, and should have read it in 2009 when I was writing about Margery Allingham as part of my undergraduate dissertation, but for some reason I never got around to it, and I really don't know why because I absolutely love Campion as a character and all the stories he features in. He manages to appear the fool at all times until he pulls an absolutely genius solution out of the bag. He is constantly fooling people into believing that he hasn't the capacity to be of any threat, when in actual fact he is a very good judge of character. I love that allingham has created such a versatile character.

If you prefer your aristocrats to fulfil the stereotypes but still capable of doing some crime bashing, Campion is rumoured to be a parody of Dorothy L Sayers' Lord Peter Wimsey, who is rather more as you would expect for a gentleman detective, no hopping out of fireplaces for him.

Police at the Funeral surprises me every time with how clever it is, even when I know how it will end and who has committed the crimes I smile to myself as I read it or watch an adaptation, and marvel at the skill there is to be found in golden age crime fiction. The construction is marvellous, you are presented each clue in turn, but the most probable solutions seems far fetched, but is it?

I love when a classic mystery can boggle the mind, and boggled my mind was.

★★★★

The Book Jar

Now, in case you don't know me very well, you may not be aware of the extent of my TBR pile. I can't really call it a pile any more because it takes up a whole bookcase (though I now have new shelves, so it takes up 8 cubes, which sounds nicer) and is somewhat out of control.
I may tell you the number...177, though that does include eBooks, they aren't all sat on the shelves.

Anyway, this is definitely out of hand, and as much as I try to read them, I do get overwhelmed and sometimes haven't a clue what to read next.

Last week I decided enough was enough, I had just finished Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl and I had had my YA fix and couldn't for the life of me decide what to read next. In panic mode I started watching YouTube book recommendations, picking random books off my shelves and then putting them back, I simply couldn't decide. I had seen a couple of videos on YouTube about making a Book Jar, so I decided this was the solution.

I opened a document on the computer and got to typing, thank god I already keep a record or I could have spent ages looking at each book in turn. I grabbed some pretty coloured paper a la Rincey Reads, printed and trimmed each slip, folded them up and popped them into a pretty jar from Laura Ashley.

I actually ended up reading a library book next, but I have my jar all ready and waiting for the next time I really haven't a clue what to read, I will simply pull out a slip and then grab the book.

Problem solved...I hope!

The Best of Omens ★★★★★

This was my 26th book of 2012, and my World Book Night book.

I love Neil Gaiman's work, I have written about him before (American Gods, The Graveyard Book) but I had never read any Terry Pratchett. I had had him recommended to me time and time again, but had simply never got around to reading his work. The writing in this novel is fascinating as both authors collaborate and manage to create a story that is both hilariouisly funny and a gripping adventure at the same time. They manage to do so while making sure they read as one voice, and it has inspired me to pick up more of Pratchett's work.

The story follows a slightly suspect bunch of characters, a demon, an angel, a witchfinder, a witch, the four bikers of the apocolypse and the eleven year old anti-christ as they all either help to or fight to stop armageddon from occuring some time after tea next saturday. As you can imagine it is fraught with adventure and hilarious circumstances. I especially loved the use of the stereo as a means for communication between the firey depths of hell and the surface.

The story took me quite a long time to read, though this does not by any means suggest I didnt like it, in fact i loved it and would happily read it again now. It is quirky and funny and also very complex, there is a lot of information packed into each paragraph, with pop culture references and historical and religious references too. The story reminds me of the film Dogma, but better. I love that there are multiple story lines with multiple groups of characters that all come together at the end, it really does help to create the feeling of impending armageddon.

The novel was a great choice for World Book Night as it is something a bit different being of the fantasy genre. It is something i believe many would never pick up by themselves, but if they enjoyed it could open a whole new genre up for them to try.

★★★★★

Mid Year Update

So it is over half way through the year now, and I am thinking maybe we should have a little update on my reading challenge progress.

So far I have read 39 books, the list of these books can be found in the "Project 2013" page which is liked to the right, or of course on my Goodreads page, linked to the left.

I am 14 books behind, and to some this would be a disaster, but I have already pulled this back once this year from being 10 books behind (and then let it slip for various reasons) so I am not too worried, but I am also not so determined to finish this challenge either.

This year has been pretty awful so far, I have never believed in unlucky numbers, but maybe the whole 13 is a bad number thing has got something behind it, there have been a lot of things going wrong so far so in light of those I am not going to beat myself up if I don't hit my target.

Now don't get me wrong, I am still trying to get as close as possible, I just wont be too upset if I don't hit it.

In terms of other updates, I have spent the past few days writing and scheduling a whole bunch of book reviews from last years challenge. They aren't going to be posted in the order that I have read the books I am afraid because I may have forgotten to take some pictures (I am in the process of retaking them now) but I aim to have a good chunk of the reviews I want to write posted over the next few months. If you do want to see what order I read them in, they are listed correctly on the Project 2012 page to the right.

I am working on a backlog of about 45 books from last year, and then I want to catch up to the ones from this year, so depending on how many I can sit and write at once (I managed 8 last weekend) I am aiming to have at least one a week, maybe two, to allow for me to get on with other things in life too.

So how is your reading challenge going? Have you hit a slump or are you powering through?

Librarians make the best detectives ★★★★

The Aurora Teagarden mysteries compose of eight seperate stories all of which occur in the town of Lawrenceton, Georgia, and are solved by the local librarian Aurora Teagarden. 

Harris wrote these before her sojourn into fantasy crime fiction with the Sookie Stackhouse books, and she really excels at writing standard crime fiction, the writing doesn't feel awkward like it sometimes can in her other work, an although not entirely realistic all the time, it doesn't feel too contrived either. Auroras character has a good balance between firm strengths and realistic weaknesses and as the stories progress she grows as a character demonstrating plenty of gumption, I suspect she also grows as Harris grew into being an author.

So how does a librarian get mixed up in solving crimes? By being a font of knowledge of course. In Real Murders, the first of eight novels, Aurora is a member of a true crime fan club where they discuss real life criminals like detectives would, examining evidence. At one of the meetings a murder occurs and Aurora finds the body, being a potential suspect and being a professional know it all (im allowed to say that when I am one) she begins to investigate to help clear herself of suspicion. 

This was the first book I finished on my Kobo, it got me really excited to read on it, I bought the whole collection in two omnibuses and read about one per day. They are incredibly quick reads but also addictive, I was sad when the last one was finished because I simply wanted more!

The only real disappointments I felt we're Harris's need to create drama in Roe's love life mid way through the series (she is known for not allowing her characters to be happy for too long), and that the importance of the crime to the plot varies between stories. As mysteries go these we're light and fluffy while still having some integrity and I often didn't guess the criminal, either through cleverness or being content to float along with the story.

If you are looking to read a new series I recommend you give this one a try.

I give the series as a whole ★★★★

Currently Reading

So lets catch up. I've had a very busy year, I wont go into why, but I have done a lot of reading. I have so far this year read 39 books, almost twice the amount I had this time last year. I have been making my own notes about them but I obviously haven't been posting, and I wont promise to for various reasons, but I hope to post a bit more over the next 6 months now things have settled down a bit.

Lets start with what I am currently reading.

As I am sure you are aware Philippa Gregory's The White Queen has been made into a BBC television series, 10 parts I believe. I loved The White Queen and have a review for it here, I also have read The Red Queen, though did not enjoy it as much. The television show is actually bringing together the first four books in the Cousins War series, and as I have only read two, I thought I had better hurry up and catch up to the show.

I am about 3 chapters in to The Lady of the Rivers, which is so far ok, I don't love it as much as The White Queen, nor dislike it as much as The Red Queen.
I shall pass verdict once I have finished.

I have also been really interested in non fiction reads lately, I am not sure what it is about them, as it is only recently (by recent I mean maybe the past year) that I have been drawn to them. I have always been someone who enjoys learning and as I am now out of education I suppose I am fulfilling that desire for knowledge.
Also I will admit I simply like to knows lots of random information so that I can pull it out of my head when everyone else least expects it.

So far Food Myths is interesting, each myth is spoken about for a couple of pages, with some quick key facts at the end. It feels very quick to read because each chapter is essentially one myth.
I am enjoying the writing style, it's to the point and slightly humorous, and I love to know stuff about food.
It is win win!

How about you, what have you been reading lately? Any recommendations for me?

Death of a Gossip ★★

Death of a Gossip is a crime novel by the author of the Agatha Raisin books, M. C. Beaton. The series of novels follows Hamish Macbeth, a countryside constable based in the Scottish Highlands as he bumbles through the solving of murders in his area.

The story of Death of a Gossip starts with an introduction to all of the individual characters, we meet them as they travel to Scotland to partake in fishing lessons from a fishing school local to Lochdubh, the town where the story is set. The many characters, as with most whodunnit's have different motives for being there, and they are gradually revealed throughout the story. The gossip of the title is Lady Jane Winters, a bolshy woman who on joining the fishing school begins to drop hints about knowing more than she should about the other students.

This is the first in the series, and as I love Beaton's other books I really hoped I would enjoy this one, but unfortunately I didn't. The story lacked connection between the main character and the rest of the characters as Hamish is painted as an outsider, a bit too weird to be of interest to the visitors to the town. Because of this he comes across as a secondary character, we don't really know him very well and Beaton doesn't make many efforts to make us want to get to know him.

The solution to the mystery was also a weakness for this mystery, it felt rushed and sudden and came out of nowhere, with hardly any set up. This made the proportions of the story feel terribly imbalanced, there was too much plot before the murder for the actual murder to feel intriguing, the real mystery lay with the different characters and their motives for visiting Scotland.

Although I didn't enjoy this story, I will definitely give the Hamish Macbeth stories another go just to be sure, they have potential, this one just wasn't quite there!

★★

Go Kobo

I wanted to make sure I had written my Reading On The Go blog post before I wrote this one, mainly because I feel that this is a supplement to that post and my opinions on the whole about reading on the go haven't changed since I have recieved this gadget.

In May I had my twenty-fourth birthday, and I was very lucky that my other half wanted to treat me to an e-reader. Having been against the Kindle for such a long time I was a bit nervous when he first said he wanted to get an e-reader, but relieved that he had paid attention and knew that if I did get a reader I would want a Kobo.

Why a Kobo you may ask, well as you probably know I am a Librarian, Amazon quite famously restricts which file formats can be placed on a Kindle, and library books from my library are some of those affected. If you are lucky enough to have a library service which uses Overdrive you probably don't have that problem, but it isn't a widespread service here in the UK. Any restriction to eBooks is a huge no-no for me!

I had been admiring the Kobo for about a year since it came to my attention during my dissertation. Firstly I was attracted to the freedom it allows you, then the features available for a low price point, and then the fact that they are a darn sight prettier than the kindle. I recieved the black touch version which costs around £80, much cheaper than a touch screen Kindle, and the features have really impressed me. It was incredibly easy to set up, I already had a Kobo account (which was also easy to set up) and it synced all of my books quickly using Kobo desktop after inputting a couple of details into the reader to register it.
I also use Calibre to sync books which I haven't purchased from Kobo (for when I'm being a bit sneaky) and Adobe Digital Editions to add library books to my reader, all of which recognise the device quickly without prompting and are easy to transfer either specific files or groups of files to.

I find I generally use my reader when out and about, especially during breaks at work, but also when I am just sitting at home. It enables me to read really long books without carrying the weight of one with me, I doubt I would have read Game of Thrones quite so quickly if I hadn't had this! The light weight also means that if I am really tired, too tired to properly hold a large book open, but just want to read one more chapter, the weight doesn't stop me reading before I am ready.

I shall be updating you as I go with more posts on my Kobo, but for the time I have had it I have fallen in love with it!

The only problem is it does prompt a few case purchases :)

2013 / 100

Hello!

It is months since I posted, I know. I just logged into blogger and realised I have 3 book reviews already written that I forgot to schedule too, quite frustrating!

I am going to update you today on my reading challenge progress, in case you don't follow me on Goodreads, 

I stomped all over it last year! 

OH YEAHH!!

I read 70 books last year, SEVENTY! My target was 52, a book per week, and I surpassed it several months before the end of the year.

I am so proud of myself, considering 2011 was such a fail year for reading I really feel that I have accomplished something by managing to read so many great books.

Obviously I didn't come anywhere close to reviewing all of those books and some of them were really great and deserve some attention, so I might do mini reviews with my quick thoughts on them, maybe 5 at a time just so you are up to date. My GoodReads account though is up to date, and all the books I read in 2012 are on the 52 of 2012 bookshelf.

I also expanded my horizons last year and ventured into eBooks. 22 of the books I read in 2012 were eBooks, pretty good considering I didn't get my ereader until my birthday in May. It really helped me to change my reading habits, and I have a post about it in draft too which I will post for you soon.

I didn't read many of the books currently on my TBR shelves in 2012, mainly because I actually started to use the library again properly. Working there more means that I am constantly finding new books I want to read, at one point I had my limit of 30 books on loan, and a couple on my Mum's card too, and I read 29 library books last year (and still have 20-odd on my shelves that I haven't got around to yet), yay for libraries!

So for 2013 I have set myself a new challenge, I am going to try to read 100 books this year, this amounts to about 2 per week, which is very doable (I often finished 3 books a week last year, obviously depending on the length) while still remaining a challenge.

Although I have found it a lot easier to read this year, to find time and space to read, the reason blogging fas fallen to the wayside is because reading has taken over quite a lot of my spare time, I am working a lot more than I was this time last year, and have a lot less spare time so I am spending it wisely. Reading is now something I choose over television and often YouTube which is how I want things to be.

I have signed up to several yearly challenges as part of the GoodReads 2013 Reading Challenge group and I am trying to read as many books from my TBR shelves as possible to fulfil those challenges. I would love to read at least one quarter of the books on my TBR list (which currently stands at 150 books, yep, thats a lot!) and I really want to tick off some classic novels this year, I own several that I haven't read yet and I really, really want to.

So for the forthcoming year, I hope to read 100 books, a good proportion of which are currently sitting unloved on my shelves, and I hope to review them in batches, maybe a weekly, fortnightly or monthly round up would be best.

Have you set yourself any reading challenges for 2013?