Good evening, fellow Bookworms!
Ain’t no drag… Chief Bookworm’s got a brand new bag! With obvious apologies to the Godfather of Soul, the late great James Brown! It’s a book bag and it came freee with one of the items of reading matter I purchased during the week!
If you cast your minds back to last year’s books read, one of those was Northerners, by Brian Groom. Well, the bag is promoting his new book Made in Manchester. I didn’t know I got a free bag until I went to pay. I’d bought the book about Manchester and a couple of other books, and the member of Waterstone’s staff, after asking me if I needed a bag, then realised that I got a free bag for buying the Manc book!
I also apologise in advance that this blog might be interrupted by goalflashes. Euro 2024 got under way on Friday, and England v Serbia has just kicked off as I type. I love the early stages of these tournaments, European Championships (as these are) or World Cups… the bit where there’s three matches on every day!
Isn’t that cool?! Post box topper near Swinton Precinct. Saw it on Friday when I was waiting for a bus home from work. We had all gone in to the office for the day, plus two of us were getting new work laptops so we arranged to get those on Friday morning as we could then help each other through setting up of the new technology!
Big news on the book front is that I have got two books finished this week, taking my total for June up to five finishes so far! Yay! Two weeks of June left so there’s time to get more read, possibly.
Anyway, both finishes had a fishy flavour, so to speak. First up was Dark, Salt, Clear, by Lamorna Ash, which is her account of life in a Cornish fishing town.
We interrupt this blog to bring you a goalflash…
England 1 Serbia 0 Jude Bellingham 13 minutes! Yay!
* sings * La la la… la la la laaa… la la la laaaa…. Hey Jude!
Right, OK, back to the books now that the Three Lions have got a goal, and with reading about those who catch our fish, the other book is about those who coat it in batter and deep fry it before serving it up at cafes and takeaways… Food of the Cods, by Daniel Gray. How could I not read a book like that given that I love a chippy tea on Fishy Friday?!
I often mention my stationery supplies and journaling, and will mention the recent Big One which came early this month from Oops a Daisy, this is the quarterly box, and the theme is “Busy Doing Nothing” which is ironic as it’s about productivity, lol!
One of the features in this box is about the Pomodoro technique, which was devised by a guy called Francesco Cirillo in the late 80s to break work into intervals. He used a kitchen timer, and as his was a novelty one in the shape of a tomato, he called each interval a pomodoro after the Italian for tomato!
Basically, each pomodoro is 25 minutes and then you have a 5 minute break, and you do 4 pomodoros. If you are then going to do another set, have a longer break at the end of the 4th pomodoro, like 15 minutes for instance. There was also a little Oops a Daisy digital countdown timer in the box, so I’ve been doing some Pomodoro sessions to get books read and have intensive reading sessions!
So, given that I’ve been having a few Pomodoro sessions, significant progress has been made with the Ongoing Concerns! The Lost Rainforests of Britain, by Guy Shrubsole, which won the 2023 Wainwright Prize for conservation writing, is now 50% read! Yay! My aim is to get that one read in the coming week, get a sixth book finished this month, plus the fact that it was started back on 19th January and is on the OC Progress spread for February and all the other books on that spread have been finished, along with all those on the January spread.
Then I would just need to go as far back as March’s OC Progress spread. There are a couple of finishes on the March page already, those being Car Park Life, by Gareth E. Rees and the recently-read Food of the Cods, and I will soon be able to start on the April spread. I just use them in order, regardless of when I start the actual books and aim to fill as many as possible!
As I type, it is now half-time and England go in at the break with a 1-0 lead thanks to Jude Bellingham’s goal on 13 minutes.
Anyway, as you can see from the photos, I am going through the progress spreads in order and not far off completing February’s now.
Due to an intense Pomodoro session this afternoon, Concretopia, by John Grindrod, is now 35% read, and that is followed closely by Tales from the Cafe, by Toshikazu Kawaguchi, which is 33% read.
A Poem for Every Summer Day, edited by Allie Esiri, is now 17% read, that one will reach its next milestone next weekend when it will get to the quarter of the way through stage. Last, but by no means least, is Believe Me, by Eddie Izzard, which I only started today, but it is 10% read so it has become an Ongoing Concern!
Right, that’s Chief Bookworm’s selection of crisps right now, lol! The Torres ones are Spanish, all the Brets ones are French, and they’re all from Wandering Palate. They’re all yummy. Would particularly recommend the Iberian ham ones and the Pesto and Mozzarella ones.
Just before I wiffle on about my reading aims for the rest of the month, I would just like to congratulate Simon Le Bon, Duran Duran’s frontman, on being awarded an MBE in the King’s Birthday Honours, and Sir Max Cavendish, the cyclist, on his knighthood.
So, I will be looking to get The Lost Rainforests of Britain finished off, and the two books that are a third of the way through, Concretopia and Tales from the Cafe, I will want to get to at least the halfway stage.
The poetry book is one of those with a poem, or rather two poems, per day, from 1st June to 31st August, so that has a schedule of its own and will reach 25% read next weekend. I will also look to move Believe Me onto the 25% read mark. With having finished two books this week, there will be space for two new books to become Ongoing Concerns!
You know I can’t resist a bad pun! It is Father’s Day today, so I think some Dad Jokes are apt for the occasion, lol! Where do you weigh a whale? At a whaleweigh station! Where do you weigh a pie?
* sings * Somewhere over the rainbow, weigh a pie!
Those were a couple of my dad’s jokes!
Well, that’s probably about it for now. Still 1-0 to England at the moment, they really could do with getting a second goal, it’s getting a bit close and the Serbs are trying to get back into it.
Until next time, take care and Happy Reading!
Joanne x x x
Books mentioned in this blog entry…
- Northerners – Brian Groom
- Made in Manchester – Brian Groom
- Dark, Salt, Clear – Lamorna Ash
- Food of the Cods – Daniel Gray
- The Lost Rainforests of Britain – Guy Shrubsole
- Car Park Life – Gareth E. Rees
- Concretopia – John Grindrod
- Tales from the Cafe – Toshikazu Kawaguchi
- A Poem for Every Summer Day – Allie Esiri (Ed.)
- Believe Me – Eddie Izzard
Joanne's Bookshelf 