Good evening, fellow Bookworms!
Welcome to yet another book blog as we reach the halfway stage of March, and significant progress has been made with most of the Ongoing Concerns! With the exception of one book which has been at the 51% read stage for a while, all the others have been progressed to some extent, to the point where even my least-read book is now at the 25% read stage and my most-read book is at 75% read so heading for a finish shortly!
Yes, Britain By the Book, by Oliver Tearle, is now three quarters of the way through and thus it shouldn’t be long before that becomes my second finish for March and my 12th for the year. That one is on my Kindle, so it’ll be my first ebook finish of the year, although I wouldn’t mind getting a paperback edition so I can underline stuff and put little markers in on the pages where some of the really good bits are, as there are a lot of them!
For example, the part about Fleet Street in London – Fleet Street isn’t just about where the newspapers are printed. Did you know you could have gone for a Cheeky Nando’s on Fleet Street back in the late 1600s? Mind you, in those days, a Cheeky Nando’s would have involved having a coffee, reading the papers and discussing current affairs with the other clientele, rather than filling your face with peri peri chicken, as the location was Nando’s Coffee House!
Before we plod on with the other progress reports for the OCs, I thought I would post the above which I saw on Farcebook recently. I feel there is too much fixation on authors. It’s all very well to take an interest, but it feels like some people are obsessed with those who write books rather than focusing on the content of the books themselves!
I know what some authors look like, and I have met a few, but I don’t know what others look like. Do I care? Nope! Their gender, colour, nationality, belief system and choice of partner are an irrelevance to me. I’m interested in what they have written about!
If it’s fiction, is it a genre I like? Does the plot sound good? Is it a story I’d want to read? Is it a real page-turner that I would resent having to put down to do other stuff?! If it’s non-fiction, is it an interesting subject matter? Is it factually accurate and as up to date as possible? If I didn’t previously know about that topic, does it make me want to find out more about it? Those are the things I want to know when it comes to books!
Quite a lot of books interest me, usually at the same time as each other, which explains why I have a few Ongoing Concerns on the go at any given time! It means I can usually find one that suits my mood!
Anyway, the above photo kinda relates to the previous blog as I was wittering on about Berlin on Friday because I’d bought a book about the Stasi, the former East German secret police, and was talking about my city break in Berlin in 2012, and how the parts of the city that were in East Germany still looked Communist, as though they were still on the other side of the “Iron Curtain” and funnily enough, in one of the games of Kryss I was playing on my iPad at the time, and finished later that night, what a coincidence… the words IRON and CURTAIN right next to each other! You couldn’t make this up…
Also, I realised, after I had blogged, that I had my Berlin t-shirt on that day, and one of my magnets on the OCs board is of the Brandenburg Gate! Still think it’s totally mad that one of my word games decided to get in on the act with Iron Curtain, lol!
Back to the Ongoing Concerns now, though, as we have dealt with the 75% read book, but we have three which are at the halfway line – although I doubt they’re gonna score a goal from there like a certain Mr Beckham did against Wimbledon at the start of the 1996-97 season!
We currently have two books in joint second place, both of which are 52% read. Those are My Mess is a Bit of a Life, by Georgia Pritchett, and I Named My Dog Pushkin, by Margarita Gokun Silver. I feel those won’t be too far away from being finished soon, hopefully before March is over. Arsène Lupin, Gentleman Thief, by Maurice Leblanc, is at 51%, and has been for a bit, but now that I’ve made progress with some of the other books and helped them along, I may resume that one again soon.
Thing is, apart from my ebook, I have spent the last day or two focusing on the books that had not been read much, they were only at 10% or perhaps 13% read at one point not too many days ago, and I figured they needed some assistance, so these next three have made significant progress..
It’s a Love Story, by Shirlie and Martin Kemp, is now 35% read. That was a Christmas pressie from my friend Sarah the other year, as some of you may recall if you’ve been reading my blogs for a while. I have acquired some more new followers of late, though, and now have 160 followers in total, so thank you very much for subscribing to this waffle!
This leaves two more books to mention, with Elementary, by James M. Russell, at 26% read and Seashaken Houses, by Tom Nancollas, at 25% read, so none of the Ongoing Concerns are less than a quarter of the way through now, which is a great position to be in, book-wise, when you have quite a few books on the go at any one time as I do, lol!
So, those are all the Ongoing Concerns, the Seven OCs of Rhye, as it were, to amend a Queen song title a little, lol! Actually, at the end of that particular Queen song, I love how you hear “Oh I Do Like to Be Beside the Seaside”!
This blog has been an update regarding the OCs, so that’s pretty much it for now, except that my iPad has now gone onto the next song in alpha order and thus I am listening to “Seven Tears” by the Goombay Dance Band, which was a UK number one 40 years ago in 1982, pop pickers!
No, I still can’t believe 1982 is that long ago, before you ask, lol! It is, though. Especially given that I was just a 9 year old kid back then, in the juniors at primary school. Now, I’m a middle-aged old fart in my late 40s, working for my local council, and wondering where the time went and how could the 80s possibly be so long ago?!
Even the 90s aren’t all that recent anymore, which is an even more shocking fact to get my head around! I also realised I’ve been going to footy matches now for just over 30 years, and I’ve seen some dodgy referees in that time, but last night’s man in the middle… let’s just say that even the visually-impaired skiers in the recent Paralympics had better eyesight than that numpty! Ronny very helpfully indicated that perhaps the ref ought to book an appointment at his nearest optician’s…
Don’t get me started on the away team, though… falling over every 3 minutes. These are supposed to be fully-fit professional sportsmen, and yet they were displaying a ridiculous lack of balance! I didn’t fall over that much even when I was little and I have a genuine medical condition which meant my balance was pretty shite when I was young, so what’s their excuse for it?! They were diving more than Tom Daley!
Anyway, that’s about it for now! I will be back again with more waffle and more book updates soon enough, but until the next blog, take care and Happy Reading!
Joanne x x x
Books mentioned in this blog entry…
- Britain By the Book – Oliver Tearle
- My Mess is a Bit of a Life – Georgia Pritchett
- I Named My Dog Pushkin – Margarita Gokun Silver
- Arsène Lupin, Gentleman Thief – Maurice Leblanc
- It’s a Love Story – Shirlie & Martin Kemp
- Elementary – James M. Russell
- Seashaken Houses – Tom Nancollas
Joanne's Bookshelf 