Good evening, fellow Bookworms!
You’re getting a Chinese lantern photo ‘cause Mum and I went into town earlier for the Chinese New Year celebrations, and it’s one of the lanterns from City Buffet where we ate. We also went on to Old Trafford afterwards, as today is the 64th anniversary of the Munich air crash, so we went to the remembrance service outside the stadium. Very well-attended, especially given that today’s weather has not been the best. In fact, at times, to use that well-known technical term, it has been shite!
As I said when I blogged earlier in the week, we are in Chinese New Year mode, and we have just let in the Year of the Tiger, hence I have another book finish to report to you, my third for February and eighth overall, as I felt it was appropriate to read The Tiger Who Came to Tea, by Judith Kerr as part of the celebrations! Also quite good that it was my 8th book as the number eight is particularly auspicious to the Chinese.
Only two more book finishes and I will have to increase my Goodreads Challenge target! We are now halfway there with True, by Martin Kemp, as the Spandau Ballet bassist’s autobiography is now 50% read! Yay! Arsène Lupin, Gentleman Thief is also at the halfway stage, so we have two half-read books on the Ongoing Concerns list at present.
Before I go any further with news of Ongoing Concerns, I have some book-related news from my friend Liz in Canada – Bashaw Public Library have retained their Read for 15 title! They are the most readerly community in the under 1,000 population category.
Also, more book news, this time closer to home as Mum recently finished reading Prince Philip’s Century, by Robert Jobson, and she is now reading Ole, by Ian Macleay, which regular followers of my blog might recall me reading a few years ago. It was one of the books I read in 2019, and I’m pretty sure I read it, or at least part of it, when I was on holiday in Mauritius that summer.
Back to the OCs now, though, and after the two half-read books, next in line is Face It, by Debbie Harry at 33%, with I Named My Dog Pushkin, by Margarita Gokun Silver still at 26%. Of the remaining OCs, Britain By the Book, by Oliver Tearle, is now 17% read as I did get a little of it read on the way home from the match the other night, and I will return to Tearle’s book shortly.
Seashaken Houses, by Tom Nancollas, is now 13% read, so is level with Thinking On My Feet, by Kate Humble, and Life’s What You Make It, by Phillip Schofield, is 10% read, so that’s all the OCs as they stand at the moment.
Couple of bookmarks there, which were both acquired this afternoon at a shop in Chinatown. The wooden one is my Chinese sign, the Ox, and the other is a see-through leaf-type bookmark.
Back to Oliver Tearle’s book for a moment, as promised, and when I was reading a bit of it on my Kindle on Friday night on the way home from a rather disappointing match to say the least, he mentioned the writer Laurence Sterne, and the fact that, after the poor bloke had popped his clogs, grave-robbers dug him up and sold him to a surgeon for an anatomy lecture. Thankfully, someone in the audience at the lecture recognised the author, so he wasn’t dissected.
I bring this bit up as it sounded familiar to me already, a fact I had already discovered from a previous book, and I have a feeling I know about Sterne’s body being dug up from when I read Stiff, by Mary Roach a couple of years ago! I can definitely recommend Mary Roach’s books, by the way. I have also read Gulp by the same writer, and have a couple more of her books in to read so might get around to those at some point this year.
That is one of my magnet boards, the Manchester Chinatown one is the latest addition as I bought that this afternoon. The lifeboat and Conwy Castle magnets were bought in Wales in June last year along with the 30 books that came home from that particular short break, lol! The Gretna anvil magnet was from my trip to Scotland in August last year, and the Irish ones from Dublin were acquired back in February 2020.
I did mention that I was going to review some of the OCs, didn’t I? I’m looking at the three that have stalled a little bit – Arsène Lupin, I Named My Dog Pushkin, and Thinking On My Feet. Those haven’t been progressed for a while and I am thinking I might pause at least a couple of them and return to them some time later to see if they hold my attention better then.
I have, after all, got eight books on the go. One hardback, six paperbacks, and an ebook on my Kindle. Pausing three of them, at least for a while, cuts it down to five. I could, maybe, work them back in when I get others off the OC list, although I already have another book in mind for when I’ve finished True by Martin Kemp. You won’t be terribly surprised to learn that Chief Bookworm intends on disappearing down an 80s music rabbit hole on the autobiographies front!
So, that’s about it for now, really. I’ve got reading to get on with and, as you know, a few cross-stitched bookmarks on the go as well, so when I have significant progress to report on one or both fronts, I shall be back to waffle on at you once again, lol! Oh, and there might well be a poem for you! Until the next time, take care and Happy Reading!
Joanne x x x
Books mentioned in this blog entry…
- The Tiger Who Came to Tea – Judith Kerr
- True – Martin Kemp
- Arsène Lupin, Gentleman Thief – Maurice Leblanc
- Prince Philip’s Century – Robert Jobson
- Ole – Ian Macleay
- Face It – Debbie Harry
- I Named My Dog Pushkin – Margarita Gokun Silver
- Britain By the Book – Oliver Tearle
- Seashaken Houses – Tom Nancollas
- Thinking On My Feet – Kate Humble
- Life’s What You Make It – Phillip Schofield
- Stiff – Mary Roach
- Gulp – Mary Roach
Joanne's Bookshelf 