June Review 2021 – North Wales Book Spree and Year So Far…

Good evening, fellow Bookworms!

Yes, it’s 30th June, so it’s time for another monthly review, and also a good shufty at the year so far from a literary point of view… So, grab a drink and prepare to enjoy another helping of waffle from yours truly as I let my 139 followers know what I’ve been reading and what I’ve been buying…

First up, let’s look at this month before we look at the whole of 2021 thus far. When I blogged the other day, I mentioned that I was reading an ebook called 80s Kid, by Melanie Ashfield, which shouldn’t surprise any regulars to this blog as I frequently mention my love of 80s music. I have finished that book so it has become my 32nd finish for this year.

Before I go any further, yes I am still reading The Wrong Kind of Snow, by Antony Woodward and Robert Penn, and by Friday this week, 2nd July, I will be exactly halfway through the year and thus through that book!

As has been documented on here, I was off work for a week this month and Mum and I went away for a short break in Llandudno, North Wales, also having a trip to nearby Conwy. If you remember our trip to the North-West coast last summer, when I returned home with 22 books from the Fylde area, well we have a new personal best for book-buying sprees while on UK short breaks! I returned home from Wales with THIRTY books! Yep, almost as many bought in the space of 3 or 4 days as I have read in the course of 2021 so far!

I did get a couple of my Ongoing Concerns finished off while I was in Llandudno, though. Passion Pure, by Charlie Connelly, was my first finish for June, and that was followed by Seven Brief Lessons on Physics, by Carlo Rovelli. That took us to 29 books read, but my 30th read of the year would be, rather appropriately, one of the 30 books I bought in Wales, and that was Many Different Kinds of Love, by Michael Rosen. I have lent that one to Mum for when she finishes the book about Prince Philip.

So, I reached the 30 book milestone and had to increase the Goodreads Challenge target yet again, and that went up to 35 books. To think it started out this year as “I can’t be arsed doing it” then thought “Well, go on but let’s just set it at ten books as ten is the minimum number of items on a List Challenges list” so the damn thing started as a 10 book target, but that was achieved in February because the UK was still in lockdown at that point so there was pretty much bugger all else to do back then, lol, and at that time of the year the weather was what you would expect, i.e. the well-known technical term of “shite”, ha ha!

Therefore, I had the idea of increasing the challenge just five books at a time. After all, people were being jabbed by this point and in March we would start to see the phased lifting of certain restrictions, so I suspected that getting off to a good start on the book front was a wise move as things might peter out a bit once Boris said it was safe to do more things again, lol! So, what I can do, before I bring you back to books 31 and 32, is go back to the start of the year when it’s cold, dark, most things are shut apart from takeaways and a few essential shops, and I get the ball rolling for 2021 on the book front…

Dear Reader, by Cathy Rentzenbrink, was my first finish of the year, a book about books, and I also created a List Challenges list to go with that, of all the books she mentions in her tome! I also read and enjoyed Post Office, by Charles Bukowski, before Facebook sent me down a rabbit hole, so to speak… Jane Tranter posted a picture of Bring Me Sunshine, by Charlie Connelly, on the book group I run on FB, and, as documented in May, that basically led to a whole lot of books about the weather and the Shipping Forecast!

So, I started tuning in to the Shipping Forecast, the late night one, on BBC Radio 4, and given that I tend to tune in too early, I ended up hearing the serialised Book of the Week before the familiar strains of “Sailing By” by Ronald Binge and the forecast for the seas around the UK and Ireland. In early March, there was a Book of the Week that really piqued my interest, that being Slow Rise, by Robert Penn, which was about his adventures in growing wheat and making bread from it. Thus we moved from weather to wheat-based comestibles, although Robert Penn is a link between both as he is the co-writer of The Wrong Kind of Snow, of course, as well as writing Slow Rise!

March and April were largely about food-related books as there were a couple of Jay Rayner books I read and loved, especially My Dining Hell, and there were several books about bread, including Our Daily Bread, by Predrag Matvejević. The 15 book target was reached, and then the 20 book target by the end of April. There was also another nod to the Shipping Forecast, though, in the form of Sandettie Light Vessel Automatic, a poetry anthology by Simon Armitage!

Aside from the books, in March and April things started to open up a bit more, and from 12th April, the “non-essential” shops were back open again, and eateries could serve food and drink outside, hence Mum and I had al fresco Big Mac meals at Cheshire Oaks on my birthday!

Also, during April, while reading some of the bread books, I noticed that a few of them made reference to The Epic of Gilgamesh. I had seen that listed on List Challenges in the past, but started to take more notice of it and decided to give it a go – so glad that I did as I really enjoyed it! Even some books that I read in May after the Epic made reference to it, including The Pun Also Rises, by John Pollack, in which he highlighted the importance of puns and wordplay in ancient Mesopotamia.

That one took the total to 25 books, although there were another couple finished off in May after that, as the total at the end of May was 27 books before we went into June and the books I mentioned at the start of this blog where I finished two of them off while on holiday in Llandudno, and then read the Michael Rosen book that I had bought in Wales. That takes us to 30, thus I just have to mention the excellent Stamping Grounds, by Charlie Connelly, and then 80s Kid, by Melanie Ashfield, and you’re now up to date with 32 books read by me by the end of June!

May also brings us up to where we are currently at with the roadmap back to some semblance of normality, lol! 17th May was the day when dining establishments and pubs could serve food and drink indoors again, although it is still table service – hanging around at the bar can’t happen until the remaining restrictions are lifted, for those who just want to stand around having a drink. I have now been out for a few meals since I have been able to do so.

We head into July tomorrow, we will be officially halfway through the year on Friday, and I have my second jab this coming Sunday, 4th July, so I will be fully-jabbed at the weekend – yay! Happy Canada Day for tomorrow for my Canadian followers. I might possibly blog again at the weekend, providing there are no untoward effects of having been poked in my upper arm on Sunday lunchtime, lol!

I nearly blogged yesterday, but then there was footy on and a rather important match for the Three Lions… a certain match at Wembley against Germany! To my utter amazement, not only did England win, but they actually managed to score more than one goal in the match! Good job I was sitting down, lol! England 2 Germany 0 was the final score, and we play Ukraine on Saturday in the quarter-finals.

That probably is about all for now, I think I have covered the main news and books of this past six months, so I am off to sort the List Challenges lists out, and until the next blog, take care and Happy Reading!

Joanne x x x

Books mentioned in this blog entry…

• 80s Kid – Melanie Ashfield
• The Wrong Kind of Snow – Antony Woodward & Robert Penn
• Passion Pure – Charlie Connelly
• Seven Brief Lessons on Physics
• Many Different Kinds of Love – Michael Rosen
• Dear Reader – Cathy Rentzenbrink
• Post Office – Charles Bukowski
• Bring Me Sunshine – Charlie Connelly
• Slow Rise – Robert Penn
• My Dining Hell – Jay Rayner
• Our Daily Bread – Predrag Matvejević
• Sandettie Light Vessel Automatic – Simon Armitage
• The Epic of Gilgamesh – Unknown
• The Pun Also Rises – John Pollack
• Stamping Grounds – Charlie Connelly

Return of the Bookworm

Good evening, fellow Bookworms!

Yes, I have returned! As I said in the last blog, I was about to be busy as I had family birthdays, my mum’s and my sister’s, coming up. Those have happened in the week just gone. Also, we have a new hub for our WiFi, don’t get me started on the faff it caused, though! I worked round at my sister’s for a couple of days. However, now that the eventful week is done, I am here again.

The Funko should have been mentioned in the previous blog as I got him last weekend, not yesterday, but it does mean I now have one half of the Pet Shop Boys! Yay! Got my Chris Lowe Funko from Forbidden Planet on Oldham Street in town. They still don’t know when the Neil Tennant Funkos will be in, so I will have to keep trying, I guess!

Anyway, last time I blogged, I had finished my 31st book of the year, when I came to the end of Stamping Grounds by Charlie Connelly, which I really enjoyed and it took me back to when I saw England play Liechtenstein at Old Trafford and both countries had the same tune for their national anthems!

My main current read, though, goes back to one of my other loves… 80s music, and it was something I spotted on Facebook, so I downloaded it for my Kindle. The book is 80s Kid, by Melanie Ashfield, and is a memoir of her and her twin brother growing up in the Midlands in the 80s. From what she writes, she’s my sister’s age. For those of us who grew up in the UK in the 1980s, it’s very relatable and very funny. I am currently 31% of the way through and I only downloaded it a couple of nights ago, so you know what I’m like when it comes to books about the Eighties!

Currently still Belgium 1 Portugal 0, could do with Portugal getting level. Belgium do have Romelu Lukaku who used to play for my lads, but Portugal have one former and two current United lads, Cristiano Ronaldo being our old boy and Diogo Dalot and Bruno Fernandes being the current players, hence the preference for the Portuguese.

Back to the books for now, and there was one I now want to read as I saw it on someone’s List Challenges list the other night. It’s called The Buried Book, by David Damrosch, and it’s about the loss and rediscovery of The Epic of Gilgamesh. Having read and enjoyed the Epic, I want to read more about how it was rediscovered.

Another book I saw via List Challenges, although I am only around 7% into this one, is Stillness is the Key, by Ryan Holiday. The writer might be familiar, however, as he is the writer of Ego is the Enemy, which I read back in 2018, so it will have been mentioned on these blogs at some point three years ago.

I get a lot of ideas when I go on List Challenges, lol! It is a good source of book recommendations for me.

Still 1-0 to Belgium in the footy, in case you were wondering. About 10 minutes for Portugal to try to get an equaliser. Getting very distracted! Now, as I type, just four minutes, plus Fergie Time, for Portugal to force extra time.

5 minutes of Fergie Time coming up…

Trying to focus on books, which is not easy while watching Belgium v Portugal, but I have got Toast, by Nigel Slater, not that I’m very far into that one, any more so than the Ryan Holiday book. More likely that, if I am going to get a fifth book read in June, it’ll be the ebook about the 80s. Already at 31%, there is every chance that I could get it read by Wednesday when it gets to the last day of June and time for me to do the monthly review! Most of that will probably be about my book-buying spree in Llandudno, lol!

Full-time whistle has just gone and Belgium have won 1-0, and I can get back to the books again, ha ha! Probably should get this finished off though so that I can get on with the 80s book and see if I can finish it off before the end of June. However, before I go, we shall have a look at a few books that are lying around.

We have Nothing to See Here, by Kevin Wilson, and A Very Special Year, by Thomas Montasser – that one has been around for a while, should probably be added to the “A Round Tuit” list, ha ha! Mind you, the same could probably be said of Beauty Tips from Moose Jaw, by Will Ferguson. I have just about started that one, so I may well continue it.

For now, though, I shall get this list published, so until next time, take care and Happy Reading!

Joanne x x x

Books mentioned in this blog entry…

• Stamping Grounds – Charlie Connelly
• 80s Kid – Melanie Ashfield
• The Buried Book – David Damrosch
• The Epic of Gilgamesh – Unknown
• Stillness is the Key – Ryan Holiday
• Ego is the Enemy – Ryan Holiday
• Toast – Nigel Slater
• Nothing to See Here – Kevin Wilson
• A Very Special Year – Thomas Montasser
• Beauty Tips from Moose Jaw – Will Ferguson

Before Things Get Busy…

Hello again, fellow Bookworms!

I thought I should blog. Got the pressies wrapped, as there are family birthdays coming up, so if I get in now with some book news, you won’t have too long to wait until I’ve got time to blog again.

The news is that I have my 31st finish for the year! In the wee small hours, I finished off Stamping Grounds, by Charlie Connelly! This is my fourth finish this month (ending the 7, 3, 7, 3, 7, 3 pattern as that last 3 is now a 4), and the fifth book by Charlie Connelly that I have read.

Would definitely recommend. He takes it upon himself to follow the minnows of European football, the principality of Liechtenstein, a tiny little place barely 16 miles long and 4 wide, between Austria and Switzerland. It is so tidgy that its football clubs play in the Swiss league and they use Swiss currency.

He goes over there and pretty much ends up being mates with the players, many of whom are just part-time footballers, although as time goes on, more full-time professionals have been developed. You just start willing them to get a draw, or at least a consolation goal… you feel chuffed for them when they only lose 0-2, as it’s an impressive result to prevent the other team from giving them a good stuffing!

Although most of the book is about the qualifying campaign for the 2002 World Cup, towards the end of the book, Connelly does stick with them and mentions the 2004 European Championships qualifying campaign – this was the one where they were in the same qualifying group as England, and I actually went to England’s home game against Liechtenstein at Old Trafford in 2003, a match notable for the fact that the national anthems of both countries share the same tune! I kid you not – Liechtenstein’s anthem has the same melody as God Save the Queen! Unsurprisingly, the home fans just sang their anthem twice, lol!

In fact, the anthem fact is touched upon by Connelly when it’s Liechtenstein’s national day and he is experiencing the celebrations. It reminds me of the book I read last year, Republic or Death! by Alex Marshall, about travels in search of national anthems. On his travels, Marshall also went over to Liechtenstein, mainly because their anthem shares the same tune as ours here in the UK.

I also have a book I have mentioned previously, amongst my sheet music, which is Nationalhymnen, by Jakob Seibert, and is the music for 50 of the world’s national anthems. I might as well mention that while we are still on the topic, lol! By the way, yes it was unusual, back in 2003, to be at an international football (soccer) match where it seems like the same anthem is being played twice!

England will be playing later on, in the European Championships, but as they will be up against the Czech Republic, there will be two different tunes before kickoff, as is normal, lol!

Actually, I got very confused once years ago when I was a kid, back in the 80s, and it’s because I didn’t realise until afterwards that the USA has a patriotic song that shares the same tune as our national anthem! It was the memorial service for the astronauts who were killed when the space shuttle Challenger exploded in 1986, and I was watching on telly and wondering why on earth I could hear what I thought was God Save the Queen when there weren’t any British people involved – then I found out that there is a song in the States that shares its tune with our anthem! Confused the hell out of me when I was 12 going on 13, though!

Right, we seem to be done with the football and national anthems thing. For now, at least. Still, it hardly compares to the “rabbit hole” from earlier this year that I went down in January and came up from in May, lol! The one that took on board the weather, the Shipping Forecast and books about bread, lol! It started three books into the new year with Bring Me Sunshine, by Charlie Connelly, and fetched up in early May with The Epic of Gilgamesh! Actually, though, even The Pun Also Rises, by John Pollack, referred back to the Epic as it mentioned how puns and wordplay were important back in ancient times!

Just looking on one of my piles of books and I can see four Penguin Classics all together! I love it when I have matching editions for a number of books. Quite a few of my science-fiction novels are from the SF Masterworks series, including the two by H. G. Wells that I read back in 2018, The Time Machine and The War of the Worlds.

For the record, the four consecutive Penguin Classics books are Three Men in a Boat, by Jerome K. Jerome, The Phantom of the Opera, by Gaston Leroux, Crime and Punishment, by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, and Notre Dame de Paris, by Victor Hugo – often referred to as The Hunchback of Notre Dame. There’s always a Rue Victor Hugo in French textbooks, isn’t there?! When you’re learning French and you’re on for the unit about asking for directions, there is a map of some made-up French town and on that map there is always a Rue Victor Hugo! There is always an Avenue Charles de Gaulle as well, lol!

Pour aller à la bibliothèque, s’il vous plaît? Prenez la rue Victor Hugo!

Next time you have the opportunity to look in a textbook for learning French, find the unit about asking for directions, and I am fairly confident that you will see what I mean!

Sorry about that! Just an interlude while Chief Bookworm had her tea, lol! Back again now, at least before the footy starts. England have already qualified for the knockout rounds because of things going our way in last night’s matches – something to do with those results meaning that our four points so far will get us at least one of the “best 4 3rd place teams” slots even if we were to lose later. I hope that we win, or at least draw, but that it’s a damn sight more entertaining than it has been from England thus far. Don’t get me started on the 0-0 bore draw with Scotland – watching tectonic plates move would have been more interesting! So dull it reminded me of United under the Bus Parking One! Zzzzzzzz!

Oh, and Gareth Southgate needs to get his waistcoats back on like at the 2018 World Cup! We did well when he had his M&S waistcoats on! We came 4th at Russia 2018, which equalled our performance at Italia ‘90 when the Three Lions were managed by the late great Sir Bobby Robson. As I wasn’t around when England won the World Cup in 1966, those two 4th place finishes are the best my country has done in my lifetime.

Listening to “Three Lions” by Baddiel and Skinner and the Lightning Seeds… seriously, that was 25 years ago?! Euro ‘96 here in England… somewhere I still have one of the special £2 coins that came out that were like a football! In that tournament, England beat Scotland 2-0 in their group game and Gazza did that “dentist’s chair” goal celebration… one of the best goal celebrations ever – that and Wayne Rooney’s “boxing” celebration some years ago now for United vs Spurs at Old Trafford, lol!

Anyway, I should probably get this finished and published before the footy starts, so until the next time, take care and Happy Reading!

Joanne x x x

Books mentioned in this blog entry…

• Stamping Grounds – Charlie Connelly
• Republic or Death! – Alex Marshall
• Nationalhymnen – Jakob Seibert
• Bring Me Sunshine – Charlie Connelly
• The Epic of Gilgamesh – Unknown
• The Pun Also Rises – John Pollack
• The Time Machine – H. G. Wells
• The War of the Worlds – H. G. Wells
• Three Men in a Boat – Jerome K. Jerome
• The Phantom of the Opera – Gaston Leroux
• Crime and Punishment – Fyodor Dostoyevsky
• Notre Dame de Paris – Victor Hugo

New Books for Old! The Reshuffle Continues…

Good evening, fellow Bookworms!

Just before I get going, the latest score in the current match on telly from the European Championships is Netherlands 2 Austria 0. And now for the book stuff, lol!

In the last blog, which has now garnered four likes, which are much appreciated, I had mentioned the rather considerable amount of reading matter which was brought home from Llandudno and Conwy last week. A new short break “personal best” of 30 books came home with me, ha ha! However, those 30 books had to join the countless others chez moi, and some reading matter is having to make way.

Regular followers of the blog will know that the clearout had been started prior to going to Wales, and there were some books bagged up from under Computer Corner. Well, one of those bags of books was taken down onto the road yesterday lunchtime and donated to the St Ann’s Hospice shop, and I didn’t return with any replacement books.

Still another bag of former Computer Corner books to go, but there are two bags on the landing again, as I thought I would sort out the bookshelves downstairs – the ones between the lounge and dining areas. The books in this unit are stored two deep so the front ones are hiding more books behind them. Thus I sorted out some of the books from that unit which could also go to charity shops as I have either read them or am unlikely to do so. This made room for me to store quite a lot of the books which were brought home from North Wales!

Coming to the end of this match, nice to see an Austrian guy helping a Dutch player who had gone down with cramp. We have now gone into Fergie Time at the end of the game. Four minutes added on. Still 2-0 to the Dutch, they are set to go through to the knockout rounds with this win as they’ll have 6 points from two games.

Final score: Netherlands 2 Austria 0.

Anyhow, talking of footy, I have started another ebook about the Beautiful Game and it’s another one by Charlie Connelly, albeit one about a tiny European principality with a rather less than enviable record… the book is Stamping Grounds, and it is about Liechtenstein and their quest to qualify for the 2002 World Cup, in which they failed heroically!

I am unsure of their record since the 2002 qualifying campaign and the publishing of Connelly’s book, but he did give the record prior to that campaign starting… before a ball had been kicked in the unsuccessful effort to go to Japan and South Korea, Liechtenstein had played 30 international qualifying games for various World Cups and European Championships. Of these 30 games, they lost 27 of them. They did however manage a couple of draws and one solitary victory at home to Azerbaijan in 1998 when they managed to win 2-1.

Blimey! Imagine being the Azerbaijani manager after that! Your team have just lost to a country that usually gets completely stuffed in continental competition and you’ve got to go back to Baku… wonder if he was advised not to make the return journey? Or, perhaps, on the team’s return, he was serenaded with the Azerbaijani equivalent of “You’re getting sacked in the morning”?!

Progress has only just started with Stamping Grounds, but The Wrong Kind of Snow, by Antony Woodward and Robert Penn, is making good progress. We are nearly halfway through the year and still keeping up with it, sometimes a few days at a time.

I hope all those books are waterproof, lol! I do have one waterproof book, though, The Beach Book, which is a book of short stories with a beach or seaside theme. It is in my suitcase as I take it away with me on short breaks and holidays, and last read some of it in October in the hot tub when Mum and I went to the Lake District. Thing is, I can never remember where I am up to from one holiday to the next! I need a waterproof bookmark, I think!

I need to resume The Black Flamingo, by Dean Atta, which I started before our holiday in Llandudno, but am considering a couple of the books I brought back from Wales, those being West End Girls, by Jenny Colgan, as it shares its name with a Pet Shop Boys song, lol, and The Iron Man, by Ted Hughes, as it is only short. Although he obviously did write prose, he is probably best known as a poet, and was the UK’s Poet Laureate from 1984 to 1998. He is also known for having been married briefly to fellow poet, Sylvia Plath.

I read a bit of Sylvia Plath’s work when I was at uni, her novel, The Bell Jar, and one of her poetry anthologies, Ariel. In modern parlance, one might say it was quite “emo”, lol!

In the photo at the top, where I have had a book reshuffle in the unit, there are still some books that were already there, but I have put quite a few of the acquisitions from Llandudno in there, largely on the bottom row.

I still intend to sort out the book chest in the garage, but the unit in the living room will do for now – it’s more accessible. I will have to go into the garage at some point and get a lot of stuff off the top of the chest so I can open it up! I haven’t had a shufty for a while, but I know there are plenty of books in there, so I should be able to have a good clear out for the charity shops and fill the void with books from the landing and in my room.

Just been into my backpack to get my Kindle out for a shufty and found Black Coffee Blues, by Henry Rollins, which is another of the books I bought in Wales. It’s a collection of his writings. I have now switched my Kindle on for a look… things I have downloaded recently…

Night Witches, by Fergus Mason, is about the Soviet Union’s all-female bomber pilot regiment during World War II. I have About Britain, by Tim Cole, a journey of 70 years and 1,345 miles, and the very amusingly-titled Fox Tossing, Octopus Wrestling and Other Forgotten Sports, by Edward Brooke-Hitching! I like to find some unusual and amusing books!

Not sure we will ever better Economics for Babies, by Jonathan Litton, though, on the unusual book front, lol! That was the book my sister found early last year when we were over in Ireland visiting family and went for a look in the library in Dun Laoghaire! I have reposted the photo above for your amusement!

Anyway, I think that’s probably about all for now, and you now know that a lot of the books brought home from Wales have been found a shelf. Got some family occasions coming up fairly soon, so unsure when I will be blogging again, but I should be back for the monthly review if not earlier. Until the next time, take care and Happy Reading!

Joanne x x x

Books mentioned in this blog entry…

• Stamping Grounds – Charlie Connelly
• The Wrong Kind of Snow – Antony Woodward & Robert Penn
• The Beach Book – Various
• The Black Flamingo – Dean Atta
• West End Girls – Jenny Colgan
• The Iron Man – Ted Hughes
• The Bell Jar – Sylvia Plath
• Ariel – Sylvia Plath
• Black Coffee Blues – Henry Rollins
• Night Witches – Fergus Mason
• About Britain – Tim Cole
• Fox Tossing, Octopus Wrestling and Other Forgotten Sports – Edward Brooke-Hitching
• Economics for Babies – Jonathan Litton

The North Wales Book-Buying Spree of 2021

Hello there, fellow Bookworms!

I am back, and if you were wondering where I had been, the answer, for a good portion of last week, was Llandudno, North Wales! To say that a number of books were purchased on the North Wales coast would be an understatement, so I am NOT going to list them all at the end, that would take forever! However, I will put up a photo of the list I made so that you can have a look at the 30 books I acquired! I have created a list on List Challenges already, so you can check it out on there.

I will, of course, mention some of the books I bought, but I also need to mention a couple that I read while I was away, and one, from the list, that I have also finished. We are halfway through June now, well, we will be tomorrow, and I have got my 28th, 29th and 30th reads of the year under my belt!

The pattern so far this year thus maintains the 7, 3, 7, 3, 7, 3 thing at the moment, but we still have more of June to go, so you never know, lol! There could be more this month, possibly, if not distracted by the football (European Championships), cross-stitch, or anything else.

Passion Pure, by Charlie Connelly, was the first book to be finished off this month. It was on my Kindle, and is the fourth book I have read by this writer, along with Bring Me Sunshine, Attention All Shipping, and The Channel. As you can probably tell, I am very partial to his books!

I finished that one off while I was in Llandudno, as I did with Seven Brief Lessons on Physics, by Carlo Rovelli, which is a paperback. So, while I was in Wales, I was still getting some reading done.

And that, above, is The List! Yep, those are all the books I bought last week on my jollies! Now you can see why I am NOT typing that out all over again, lol! I may mention one or two of them and list them at the end of this blog, but if you think I am typing out a list of over 30 books, you have got to be joking!

The first book from that list which I WILL mention, though, is near to the end of the list, and it is Many Different Kinds of Love, by Michael Rosen, as that is my 30th book finish for this year so far! I bought it in Conwy when Mum and I went there for a visit on the tourist bus – it’s not far from Llandudno. The book is about the author’s experience of having had coronavirus big time last year, the most serious, life-threatening version of it, and about his survival, and recovery from it. I have now lent this book to Mum, although I think she is still reading Prince Philip’s Century 1921-2021, by Robert Jobson.

If you recall my blog from before I went away, and the mention of a book called Cross Stitch Samplers, by Jane Kendon, it may interest you to know that one of the books I bought in Wales is mentioned in the bibliography at the back of this book! That book is Embroidery Motifs from Dutch Samplers, by Albarta Meulenbelt-Nieuwburg. I don’t really see myself stitching any full-on samplers, but the motifs, certainly the smaller ones, will come in handy for stitching onto bookmarks.

Poland have just equalised against Slovakia, so it’s currently 1-1.

While a few of the books have come from actual bookshops, many of them have come from charity shops, and even one or two from the likes of Waterstone’s and W H Smith’s were on offer! West End Girls, by Jenny Colgan, was one such book – it was in the sale in W H Smith’s, and as it shares its name with the first number one single of my favourite synth duo, it just had to be bought, lol!

Well, it was only £3, it’s called West End Girls, and I have been a fan of the Pet Shop Boys since I was 14 years old…

Funnily enough, I have a PSB t-shirt on today!

The Haters, by Jesse Andrews, sounded good, and it is by the same guy who wrote Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, which I read and enjoyed a few years ago – one of the 45 books I read in 2017, to be exact, lol! Also, while we are on books by authors I have already read, Exit West, by Mohsin Hamid was one of my charity shop bargains in Llandudno, and I read The Reluctant Fundamentalist by the same guy some years ago – before I was keeping a regular record, though. I was on Facebook, so it was at least the summer of 2007, but I think it was more likely around 2008 or after that, as that’s when I started up the book group on FB.

Mitch Albom is also an author I had read before, and that one was Tuesdays With Morrie, which I read on Tuesdays back in the early months of 2017, around March, I think. Anyway, I bought The Magic Strings of Frankie Presto, which sounds good.

Slovakia are back in the lead now, 2-1, taking advantage of the fact that Poland have had a guy sent-off for a second bookable offence. I think this one is being given to the Slovak player, as opposed to their first goal which went down as an own goal by the Polish goalie! Oops!

Some of my books from my jollies, there. You may notice Basta by Marco van Basten – sadly, didn’t get to see him play live, his playing days were mostly before I started going to matches in the autumn of 1991. Also, he played for AC Milan at the time, and United didn’t get drawn against them in European fixtures for donkey’s years! I think it wasn’t until the noughties that I saw us play against the Rossoneri in continental competition.

I did get to see the legend that was Paolo Maldini play against us at Old Trafford, but never saw Marco van Basten or Frank Rijkaard play against my lads. Did see Ruud Gullit, though, because he came over to play for Chelsea for a few years! Used to have a big poster of Ruud Gullit and Eric Cantona having a post-match hug – that image was from when we beat Chelsea in the FA Cup semi-final in 1996 on the way to our second Double that season.

Mind you, we have had plenty of Dutch players of our own at Old Trafford over the years! From Arnold Muhren back in the 80s, when I was a kid, an FA Cup winner with United in 1983, to Donny van de Beek in our current squad, although he is injured and had to pull out of the Netherlands squad for this current tournament. Talking of the Oranje, that was an absolutely cracking match that they and Ukraine served up last night with the Dutch narrowly winning 3-2! Best game of the tournament so far, I think.

Well, I think that is about all for now, as I need to decide on what to read next, ha ha! The Goodreads Challenge target has been increased to 35 books now. Slovakia beat Poland 2-1, that was the final score from that game which I was mentioning in this blog. Earlier, the Czech Republic beat Scotland 2-0. Spain vs Sweden has just kicked off a few minutes ago, so I am going to watch the footy. Until next time, take care and Happy Reading!

Joanne x x x

Books mentioned in this blog entry…

• Passion Pure – Charlie Connelly
• Bring Me Sunshine – Charlie Connelly
• Attention All Shipping – Charlie Connelly
• The Channel – Charlie Connelly
• Seven Brief Lessons on Physics – Carlo Rovelli
• Many Different Kinds of Love – Michael Rosen
• Prince Philip’s Century 1921-2021 – Robert Jobson
• Cross Stitch Samplers – Jane Kendon
• Embroidery Motifs from Dutch Samplers – Albarta Meulenbelt-Nieuwburg
• West End Girls – Jenny Colgan
• The Haters – Jesse Andrews
• Me and Earl and the Dying Girl – Jesse Andrews
• Exit West – Mohsin Hamid
• The Reluctant Fundamentalist – Mohsin Hamid
• Tuesdays With Morrie – Mitch Albom
• The Magic Strings of Frankie Presto – Mitch Albom
• Basta – Marco van Basten

A Mixed Bag of Books

Hello again, fellow Bookworms!

Time for another blog ahead of my week off work! I won’t be available, though, for much of it, I expect to be busy doing stuff, so I have taken the precaution of reading a bit ahead in The Wrong Kind of Snow so that I don’t have too much catching up to do, and I am blogging now to update you on some progress with a couple of my Ongoing Concerns, and to let you know of some charity shop purchases I made yesterday in Swinton!

England have won 1-0 vs Romania this evening in Middlesbrough, with Marcus Rashford MBE, captain for the occasion, scoring the only goal of the game from the penalty spot in the second half.

Today is, of course, 6th June, anniversary of D Day, but I have read up to 8th June in The Wrong Kind of Snow, so that there’s less to catch up with once I am able to do so.

Classic FM are still reading my blogs, I am convinced of this. As I said recently, there are no bread books currently on the go. However, I think they are hedging their bets that there will be, as I have heard the Largo from the New World Symphony, the Hovis advert music, a couple of times in recent nights and they did play Ravel’s Bolero not long after I found my Torvill & Dean book the other week, lol!

I have now read five of the lessons in Seven Brief Lessons on Physics, by Carlo Rovelli, and am now 62% of the way through that one. I am also over halfway with Passion Pure, by Charlie Connelly, on my Kindle. Currently 57% read as I type, but I may well make further progress later.

Time to have a look at what we’ve bought… the books were from a combination of three shops on Swinton Precinct. The Salvation Army, Oxfam and Barnardo’s. Sadly, Headway seemed to be shut, and I actually forgot that there was another charity shop on the precinct, for an autism charity, so I missed out there, but I did get a few purchases.

First up, we have Cross Stitch Samplers, by Jane Kendon, which, as you can tell, is for one of my other hobbies. I’m not really thinking of doing a full-on sampler, but thought the motifs and alphabets might come in handy for my bookmarks! This one and the next book were from Barnardo’s.

The Now That’s What I Call Music Book, by Pete Selby and Andy Healing, is a guide to the NOW series of compilation albums which have been going since 1983, and is not even my first book on this series of albums, as I also own The Story of Now That’s What I Call Music in 100 Artists, by Michael Mulligan, which I have had for a while now. As you might expect, I also own a fair few NOW LPs, especially from the early days in the 80s! Wouldn’t know anyone on the recent ones, though, lol!

The Salvation Army shop browsing session led to three very different books being acquired. The Danube, by Viking River Cruises, is a guide to the river and the sights that can be seen if you were to go on one of their cruises on the Danube. As I’ve never had good sea legs, I am not sure I fancy an ocean cruise, but I still wouldn’t mind trying a river cruise.

Mondegreens: A Book of Mishearings, by J. A. Wines, was one of my other purchases, and this is all about misheard lyrics. The term mondegreen came about because of a mishearing from a Scottish poem years ago. They had slain the Earl of Moray and laid him on the green were the proper words, but an American writer, Sylvia Wright, had misheard the last part as Lady Mondegreen, and it stuck.

As a kid, I remember Bruno Brookes doing some misheard lyrics on his drivetime show on Radio 1, and in more recent times, there have been the misheard lyrics collected by comedian Peter Kay – if you need a good laugh, just go on YouTube and search for “Peter Kay misheard lyrics” – I have heard these loads of times and they still make me laugh my arse off!

My own personal set of misheard lyrics, however, come from when I was at primary school, and we are going right back to the academic year of 1977-78, when I was only just starting school and was in the reception class… I may have blogged about this previously, but not for a while, so new followers will be able to enjoy this…

It was from school assemblies, and we infants were not given hymn books. I would have been fine as I could read even at that age, but not everyone could at that age, so they only expected the junior classes to sing, not the infants. Anyway, one of the frequent hymns which was sung regularly at Monton Green Primary School back then was “Lord of the Dance” and I am sure it’s a pretty well-known one on both sides of the Atlantic as it does come from a Shaker melody.

“Dance, dance, wherever you may be. I am the Lord of the dance said he…”

Except that my little ears didn’t quite hear it that way at the age of four and a half… oh no… my lugs heard it as “I am the lord of the damp settee”! So, it has always been the damp settee ever since, lol!

The third book from the Salvation Army shop was Feel: Robbie Williams, by Chris Heath, which had a cheeky dedication in it to the previous owner, lol! Observant readers might know that I have read a Chris Heath book previously, that being Pet Shop Boys, Literally, which I finished off in 2017 having started it donkey’s years ago. He also wrote Pet Shop Boys versus America, which I have still yet to read.

This just leaves the Oxfam Shop and a couple of Penguin Classics were purchased from there, those being The Phantom of the Opera, by Gaston Leroux, and Three Men in a Boat, by Jerome K. Jerome, and that completes the votes of the Swedish jury, er sorry, lol, getting confused with Eurovision for a moment, ha ha, it actually completes the round up of charity shop book purchases from Swinton.

Although you never know… the Swedes might have given some of these books “douze points”, lol! The countries along the Danube might be quite inclined to give their top votes to the Viking River Cruises guide book. Perhaps there should be a Eurovision Book Contest?!

Well, I think that’s about all for now, so I shall get this finished off and published so you can have a good giggle at the lord of the damp settee, lol! Until next time, take care and Happy Reading!

Joanne x x x

Books mentioned in this blog entry…

• The Wrong Kind of Snow – Antony Woodward & Robert Penn
• Torvill & Dean – John Hennessy
• Seven Brief Lessons on Physics – Carlo Rovelli
• Passion Pure – Charlie Connelly
• Cross Stitch Samplers – Jane Kendon
• The Now That’s What I Call Music Book – Pete Selby & Andy Healing
• The Story of Now That’s What I Call Music in 100 Artists – Michael Mulligan
• The Danube – Viking River Cruises
• Mondegreens: A Book of Mishearings – J. A. Wines
• Feel: Robbie Williams – Chris Heath
• Pet Shop Boys, Literally – Chris Heath
• Pet Shop Boys versus America – Chris Heath
• The Phantom of the Opera – Gaston Leroux
• Three Men in a Boat – Jerome K. Jerome

Dining In, Pride Weekends, Awareness Months and More…

Good evening, fellow Bookworms!

As you can see, Chief Bookworm has been out for a meal! In fact, two days on the trot, as Mum and I went to Tim Horton’s yesterday evening, and to La Turka this evening, hence the above photo of me with my main course, the garlic and chili king prawns!

We are now in June – year’s going by quickly, isn’t it?! Already finished off 27 books in 2021, so let’s see how many more we add to that this month. Three more and I will have to increase the Goodreads Challenge target yet again! It started as 10 when 2021 got under way, and has gone up by 5 books at a time when I have increased it. Current target is 30.

Seven Brief Lessons on Physics, by Carlo Rovelli, is currently 41% read and I am partway through the fourth lesson. It’s been very interesting so far, as has The Black Flamingo, by Dean Atta, which I started in the early hours, and have read 26% of it already.

That second book I mentioned just now is quite apt as it is Pride Month. I might even get some more of Breaking Down the Walls of Heartache read during the course of June. That’s the Martin Aston book about how music came out. Despite this being Pride Month, our local pride parade is still a couple of months away – Manchester has its Pride Weekend at the end of August. Many of my favourite musicians are gay, as I have probably mentioned from time to time. The Martin Aston book is currently 42% read, so could try to get it to at least 50%.

Another Pride Weekend, and one worth experiencing if you get the chance, is in early August and it is Amsterdam Pride. Discovered this by chance back in 2002 as we were over in the Dutch capital to see United in a pre-season tournament, but it also coincided with their pride event, and it was brilliant!

As I have said before, though, my advice is to read any books at any time of the year! I often feel that awareness weeks and months are a bit manufactured and fake. It feels like tokenism, people paying attention to some cause or illness or whatever at a certain time of year, but not bothering with it for the rest of the year. People are not just gay, or black, or lumbered with a particular medical condition or disability for just a week or a month, though, are they?! They are that way all year, every year! So, read books by and about those people all year, as that is more realistic!

Ironically, I’m not aware of any awareness week or month for my condition. I certainly haven’t heard of any Under-active Thyroid Awareness Week or anything like that! If there actually IS a Lazy-Arsed Thyroids Awareness Month, or even week, or day, could someone please let me know when it is?! Ta! As I said, though, that little gland of mine is a lazy git all year round, and this has been a diagnosed medical fact since I was a baby. There have been 48 years so far of it not producing the thyroxine it’s supposed to produce, the lazy little shite, lol!

Back to the books, though, and I need to catch up on The Wrong Kind of Snow. However, we are only a couple of days into June, so it shouldn’t take long. This one will be finished at the end of the year, as it has an entry for every day.

I could always resume One For the Books, by Joe Queenan, which is on my Kindle and 10% read, but I did start a Charlie Connelly book on my Kindle the other night, Passion Pure: Football Stories from the New Millennium, and I have read 16% of that one so far.

Talking of books on my Kindle, there is one I am reading via the Kindle app on my iPad due to font size changing issues with this particular book on my actual Kindle, and that is A Strange Manuscript Found in a Copper Cylinder, by James de Mille. I have read 30% of that so far.

Need to take some of the books in bags on the landing and give them to charity shops. These are the ones from under Computer Corner that I sorted out at the end of May. Could take some after work or at lunchtime if I am just going on the road. We have three charity shops on Monton Road.

I have set my out of office message to kick in on my emails on Friday afternoon as I am on annual leave all next week. Yay! I enjoy my job but still enjoy having time off from it!

The List Challenges list for June has been set up so we can start on that in a bit, once I have published this blog! It might even feature Murder in G Major, by Alexia Gordon. I chanced upon this on someone’s list earlier. At the moment, there are five books in the series, and I am not normally a crime fiction person but they are music-themed mysteries, and the author is a musician herself, so I might give them a whirl. The last time I read a crime novel was probably 2018 when I read and enjoyed The Red House Mystery, by A. A. Milne, who is more famous as the author of Winnie the Pooh – I have also read that!

Well, I think that’s probably about it for now, so until the next time, take care and Happy Reading!

Joanne x x x

Books mentioned in this blog entry…

• Seven Brief Lessons on Physics – Carlo Rovelli
• The Black Flamingo – Dean Atta
• Breaking Down the Walls of Heartache – Martin Aston
• The Wrong Kind of Snow – Antony Woodward & Robert Penn
• One For the Books – Joe Queenan
• Passion Pure – Charlie Connelly
• A Strange Manuscript Found in a Copper Cylinder – James de Mille
• Murder in G Major – Alexia Gordon
• The Red House Mystery – A. A. Milne
• Winnie the Pooh – A. A. Milne