Musing Mondays – Sticking With It

Posted on June 1, 2009 by Margaret

How much time (or how many pages) do you give a book that you aren’t really enjoying before you’ll set it aside? If you’re reading it for a book group discussion, or for review, will you give it more of a chance then, say, a book you’re reading for your own interest? Why, or why not?

I don’t have a set rule about how many pages I read before giving up on a book. It all depends on the book. If it’s awful I may give up after a few pages, but if it’s so-so I’ll carry on reading for say 50 -100 pages before stopping. There aren’t many books I don’t finish and even if I’m not keen on I’ll skim through it to see if it gets any better. Sometimes my frame of mind and the book don’t meet and if I leave a book for a while then pick it up again I’ll get on better with it. The rest of the book may be much better than the beginning. On the other hand it’s disappointing when the first part of a book is really good and the rest isn’t.

If I’m reading a book that has been sent to me to review then I do finish it, because I don’t think it’s fair to write about a book when I haven’t read all of it. For a book group discussion I may persevere a bit longer than usual, but I wouldn’t feel bad about abandoning the book if I really didn’t like it.

Musing Monday – Early Reading

Posted on May 18, 2009 by Margaret

Today’s MUSING MONDAYS post is about early reading…

Do you remember how you developed a love for reading? Was it from a particular person, or person(s)? Do you remember any books that you read, or were read to you, as a young child? (question courtesy of Diane)

My love of reading comes from my parents. My father always read me a bedtime story and would make up stories of his own to tell me. My mother always had a book on the go and she took me to the local branch library, which was a small library with both children’s and adults’ books all in one room. This was before I started school, but according to my parents I could read by myself then.

I don’t remember learning to read and I don’t remember a time when I didn’t have books. My parents bought me books each birthday and Christmas and so did my aunties and uncles. Some of the earliest books I remember being read to me are a book of nursery rhymes and a book about Teddy Robinson. When I was a bit older I read the Noddy books and then other Enid Blyton books and fairy tales I loved those. I loved the Flower Fairy books too. I don’t have any of my orginal Flower Fairy books, but I’m delighted to see they’re still in print. There are many more now than when I was little and you can get the Flower Fairies Complete Collection of all eight original books – “Spring”, “Summer”, “Autumn”, “Winter”, “Wayside”, “Garden”, “Alphabet”, and “Trees” .

Musing Mondays – On Re-reading

Posted on May 11, 2009 by Margaret

Today’s MUSING MONDAYS post is about re-reading…

Have you ever finished a book, then turned around and immediately re-read it? Why? What book(s)? (question courtesy of MizB)

I often re-read the first few pages of a book immediately after finishing it, but I don’t re-read all of it. There are many books I’d like to re-read but only a few that I have re-read and then only some months or even years later. Recently I’ve re-read Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier and Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte, both of which I’d first read many years ago. A while back I re-read Susan Howatch’s Starbridge series and I’d like to read them again one day, but really there are so many books I haven’t read that my re-reading is limited.

I should keep a list of those I’d like to re-read. Ones that spring to my mind today are

Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen. I keep saying this and never doing it. I have read it several times but the last time was probably after the TV version with Colin Firth as Mr Darcy. I’d also like to re-read her other novels.
Sophie’s World – Jostein Gaarder. I was so impressed with this one when I read it – a basic guide to philosophy mixed in with the story of Sophie, a fourteen year old Norwegian girl. I must read it again sometime.
Melvyn Bragg’s The Soldier’s Return, A Son of War and Crossing the Lines. I’ve just this morning finished reading Remember Me and would love to re-read these earlier novels about Joe Richardson.

Musing Monday – The To-Be-Read Pile

Posted on May 4, 2009 by Margaret

Today’s MUSING MONDAYS post is about your tbr pile…

How many books (roughly) are in your tbr pile? Is this in increasing number or does it stay stable? Do you ever experience tbr anxiety in the face of this pile? (question courtesy of Wendy)

I don’t have a tbr pile. I have piles and piles and a bookcase full of them too. I’ve not counted them and don’t really want to know how many there are, because that would give me tbr anxiety/stress. If I could bear to look I could see from LibraryThing how many I’ve tagged TBR, but not all my books are in LT yet. Anyway, I would rather just know that I’ve got plenty to read to keep me going for a while.

The trouble is that although I read from the piles and the bookcase I keep adding to them, so the piles never really go down.

Non-Fiction – Musing Mondays

Posted on April 27, 2009 by Margaret

Today’s MUSING MONDAYS post is about reading non-fiction…

Do you read non-fiction regularly? Do you read it in a different way or place than you read fiction? (question courtesy of Diane).

I don’t read a lot of non-fiction, but I do read it regularly. I like to have at least one that I’m reading in between reading fiction. I read mainly biographies, books on history, religion, art, travel and cookery.

I don’t read them differently from fiction, apart from the travel and cookery books, which I use as reference books – dipping into sections rather than reading them straight through. I do like looking at cookery books for inspiration and at travel books to get an idea of what places look like. I suppose I read cookery books mainly in the kitchen, but really I read books wherever I am (including cookery books).

I think the one main difference when I’m reading non-fiction is that it’s usually for information and I don’t often make notes of what I’m reading as I do with fiction. The indexes help and sometimes I wish fiction had indexes too.

Click on the graphic above to read more Monday Musings.

Musing Mondays

Posted on April 20, 2009 by Margaret

Today’s MUSING MONDAYS post is about 2009 favourites…

Coming towards the end of April, we’re a third of the way through the way through the year. What’s the favourite book you’ve read so far in 2009? What about your least favourite? (question courtesy of MizB)

I wrote about The Cipher Garden by Martin Edwards a couple of days ago – that’s one of the best books I’ve read this year but as I’ve also read other books that were excellent it’s difficult deciding which is one is the favourite. The other contenders are:

Fire in the Blood by Irene Nemirovsky – my review is here
The Falls by Ian Rankin- my review is here
Star Gazing by Linda Gillard – I’m still to write about that one!

It’s easier to decide about my least favourite; that has to be Death of a Gossip by M C Beaton – see my review here.

Musing Monday – My To-Be-Read List

Posted on April 6, 2009 by Margaret

Today’s MUSING MONDAYS post is about your to be read list…

As a follow up to last week’s question, Joseph asked how you keep track of your tbr list. Do you have a paper list or on your computer? Do you take it with you when you go shopping? How do you decide what gets added to it?

I blithely write about my “tbr read” as though it’s just a list, but it isn’t. It’s several lists, in several places.

For years it was just in my head.
Then when I found Amazon I started a Wish List on there – books I thought I wanted to own.
I soon found that wasn’t enough. I like online book-browsing, but it can’t beat the real thing and there were more and more books that I thought I might like but I wanted to have a proper look at them before actually buying them. So I started a Library List on Amazon, for books I might want to read and I either check them in the library or in a bookshop. Now this is much longer than my Wish List. At one point I did print it out to take with me but now I only note down a few titles when I go shopping or to the library.
Then when I started to read blogs I jotted down authors and titles in a notebook and the name of the blog I got it from. I took this book with me to the library or bookshop each time I went and crossed off the books whenever I read one of them. At first this was manageable but as time went on I added more and more books, even sometimes adding them more than once when I saw them reviewed on different blogs.
My next list is on LibraryThing. I have tagged the books I own and haven’t read “TBR” and this is very useful as I can bring up on the screen all the books on my own shelves to remind me of what I have waiting patiently to-be-read without going out and buying/borrowing any more.

Even though I have these lists the most frequently used one is the one in my head, because I often forget to take the notebook with me or to check my Amazon Library List . Recently I’ve tried to be more selective about adding books to the lists because there are already so many books on them and I’m sure there are some I’ll never get round to reading – so why add more? Of course I do, because there are always unmissable books being written that I want to read.

Musing Mondays – Keeping Track

Posted on March 30, 2009 by Margaret

Today’s MUSING MONDAYS post is about recording your reading…

Do you keep track of what and/or how many books you read? How long have you been doing this? What’s your favorite tracking method, and why? If you don’t keep track, why not? (question courtesy of MizB)

I first started to keep track of which books I’ve read when I was about 10, when I simply listed them in an exercise book, but that didn’t last very long! For the last ten years I’ve attempted to keep a record but it was very spasmodic until 2006. I would intend to keep the list up to date but often went for months just reading books without keeping track of what I’d read. Then I realised that I’d be in the library, looking at a book and thinking I’ve read that – or have I? So I decided it was time to be more organised and I started a list in Word.

I still record books in that way but I also have a Book Journal in which I note down the author, title, date and a very brief note of what I thought about each book that I’ve read since 2006. The benefit of this is that I can take it with me to check which books I’ve already read and to look up authors I’ve enjoyed. It also has a section to record “Books I Want to Read” – very useful!

I also list the books on this blog – see the tab at the top – “Books Read”. I’ve listed there the books I’ve read since 2007. Just recently I’ve added a section on the sidebar of the books I’ve read each month, but I’m not sure I’ll carry on with that – it’s just an experiment to see how I like it.

I suppose LibraryThing is also a place where I record what I’ve read – in reverse. In that catalogue I’ve tagged the books I haven’t read “TBR” and rated some of the fiction that I have read.

It really is so easy to become (just a bit) obsessed by books!

Musing Monday – New Authors

Posted on March 9, 2009 by Margaret

Today’s MUSING MONDAYS post is about new authors…

What is your policy when it comes to new authors? Do you feel comfortable purchasing a book or do you prefer to borrow new authors from the library? How often do you ‘try out’ a new author?

I like reading books by “brand new” authors – the first book display in the library is usually the first place I look for books. I don’t have a policy about new authors – many authors are “new” to me in any case and I’ll happily read a book by an author I haven’t read before if the book appeals to me.

I’m trying to cut down on buying books this year because I’ve got so many unread books of my own, so the library is the place I look for “new” authors. So far this year I’ve read 18 books and 11 of those are by “new to me” authors.

Library Matters

Posted on February 23, 2009 by Margaret

I started to write Library Loot posts a couple of weeks ago and thought I’d combine this one with the today’s Musing Mondays post as that is about the library …

monday-musing

How often do you visit the library? Do you have a scheduled library day/time, or do you go whenever? Do you go alone, or take people with you?

I don’t have a scheduled day to visit the library, but I do go frequently. Actually I borrow books from two libraries – a little branch library, which I visit the most and the main County library. I either go on my own or with my husband.

Sometimes I go specifically to the library but often I combine my visit with shopping trips. I prefer the branch library because even though there are less books on the shelves to choose from there is a really friendly atmosphere there – the staff know me. In any case if I want a particular book I can reserve it. They have several displays, that I always check first such as new books and first books before browsing the shelves or looking for specific books/authors. It’s a lot easier to park here as well. I usually borrow far too many books. At the moment I’m up to the limit on my ticket – 15 books, but I can always use my husband’s as he doesn’t borrow as many. We often borrow a DVD and have recently been taking out an audiobook as well.

library-loot I haven’t been to the library this week, maybe going tomorrow, so my Library Loot post is about some of the books I’ve got out already. Of the 15 books I have out there are four books that I haven’t started to read. They are (the summaries are from the library catalogue, except for the Wodehouse book):

The Crowded Bed by Mary Cavanagh – Joe Fortune, a Jewish GP, has been married to Anna, his Aryan beauty, for 20 years, in a relationship that is sustained with great passion and happiness. But in the shadows of their lives, dark secrets are hidden.
An Imaginative Experience by Mary Wesley – Mary Wesley draws out on a plot of unforgettable impact: of loss, of release, of a necessarily comic acceptance of fate, of love the ‘imaginative experience’. Rich in character and wit, and powerfully moving, this is a novel of the heart’s pain and deliverance.
Aunts Aren’t Gentlemen by P G Wodehouse – extract from the back cover – When the doctor advises Bertie to live the quiet life he and Jeeves head for the pure air and peace of Maiden Eggesford. However they hadn’t reckoned on Aunt Dahlia, aound whom an imbroglio develops involving the Cat which Kept Popping Up When Least Expected.
The Mirror Cracked from Side To Side by Agatha Christie – One minute, Heather had been gabbling on at her movie idol, Marina Gregg – the next, Heather suffered a massive seizure. But for whom was the poison really intended? This is one in a new-look series of Miss Marple books for the 21st century.

Writing about them now makes me want to read them all at once, but since I’m in the middle of other books they’ll have to wait.