Good evening, fellow Bookworms!
It certainly is a good evening for me given that my lads enjoyed a 2-0 win away to Leeds this afternoon – yay – and also a lot of progress has been made on the book front this week just gone as you can probably tell from the above photo from my book journal! Don’t worry about deciphering my handwriting as I will go through some of those books as I go along.
Four books have been polished off this week, three of my Ongoing Concerns, plus a book of sheet music, so this blog will focus on that and what on earth I am going to read next as I have a few vacancies on the Ongoing Concerns list given all the progress made.
This time last week, my February total was 2 books meaning that I’d read 7 thus far in 2023, but as of today, my monthly total is now 6 books read, meaning that my total for the year is 11 and I have already had to increase my Goodreads Challenge total from 10 books to 15 books!
Before I get on to my finished books, though, we have the long-awaited news that Bashaw is the most readerly community in Alberta for the 4th year in a row! They have retained the trophy pictured above awarded in the annual Read for 15 event, so well done to Liz Craig and all her fellow bookworms in Bashaw!
Let’s now have a shufty at what I’ve been reading, and the first finish this week was The Man Who Tasted Words, by Professor Guy Leschziner, a really interesting read that was on my Kindle. Finished it earlier than expected… was at the 75% stage and was reading a bit more, thinking that there’s still a fair bit left to read on my Kindle in midweek, but when I got to 78% it came up with the “you have finished this book” bit! The remaining 22% was basically acknowledgements, footnotes, glossary and the index! So, I would have to find something else to read on the way home from Old Trafford…
Next finish was My Sand Life, My Pebble Life, a rather lovely little book by Ian McMillan, which I really enjoyed. Quite amusing at times, too. A book I might possibly reread in the future, I may certainly dip into it at times and possibly quote from it.
On Thursday, the music world mourned the loss of the legendary Burt Bacharach who passed away at the age of 94 after 7 decades in the music business. Watching the tributes to him, I noticed that one of the many songs he’d written (or co-written) was “I Just Don’t Know What To Do With Myself” most famously recorded and performed by the late great Dusty Springfield, so that is why The Very Best of Dusty Springfield ended up on my books read list! Sheet music doesn’t go on the OC list, but I do include it on Goodreads and my own lists of books read.
After that musical interlude, it was back to the notorious OCs, lol, and I can now report that Dead Wake, by Erik Larson, about the sinking of the Lusitania, is now a finished book! I’d originally started it in 2015, it was a book club book for the Waterstone’s Deansgate book club, although I was in a reading slump at the time so hardly any of it got read in the 100th anniversary year of the liner being torpedoed.
I picked it up again five years later, July 2020, and at least got it over the line as far as becoming an Ongoing Concern goes, in fact I got it to 15% that summer, but then the next time I resumed it was November 2022 and took it from 15% to 25% before putting the OCs to bed for their winter nap at the end of that month! However, I did start back on it on 7th January and finished it yesterday, 11th February, so it really picked up and I enjoyed it. Would certainly consider reading some of Erik Larson’s other books.
Another shufty at my book journal, although that is now a bit out of date, as Proust and the Squid is now 72% read! That means the yellow square for the 67% read phase is now coloured in and we are not far off the 75% mark! I hope to get that book finished in the coming week, that is one of my aims for 13th to 19th February.
Will be having one of those busy spells at the end of this month and start of March, so this might explain why I am quite keen to get a fair bit of reading done now! Charles: Heart of a King is now 36% read so that has hit the one-third-read milestone, and Dark Tide, by Stephen Puleo, about the Boston Molasses Disaster of 1919, is now 25% read. Days Like These is currently 12% read but that is a year-long project, as you know – a poem a day for the year, so that will not hit 25% until the end of March.
Actually, when I was reading what I have read of Dark Tide so far, the gigantic tanker in which the molasses were stored, was built in 1915, the year the Lusitania was sunk, and it makes reference to the events featured in Dead Wake as it was thought, at the time, that the sinking would cause the USA to enter the First World War, but it didn’t. They didn’t join until 1917. A significant percentage of molasses were used to make industrial alcohol and a lot of that was used in munitions and sent to the Allies for the war effort.
So, yet again, there is some crossover in Chief Bookworm’s books!
It wouldn’t be one of my blogs without a post box topper these days, lol, so here we have a soup kitchen topper from Ealing, London. I love how there is even knitted steam coming from the bowl of soup and mug of tea!
We need to have a look at what is likely to become an Ongoing Concern in the coming week as I have a few vacancies! The ebook will be The Secret Life of Books, by Tom Mole, which I actually started on my Kindle on Wednesday night coming home from our 2-2 comeback draw against Leeds United at Old Trafford – yes, we have just played the same team home and away in the league in back to back matches!
The home game should have been played in September, but it was not long after the Queen died, so all police resources were in London for the state funeral and the game was postponed, and the Premier League managed to fit it in on 8th February, four days before the return fixture at Elland Road, which took place this afternoon and which Manchester United won 2-0 with late goals from Marcus Rashford and Alejandro Garnacho.
The ebook is 4% read, but a book becomes an Ongoing Concern when it gets to 10% read, so it will get to that and join the list in the coming week. I have two more vacancies, and I have decided that one of them will be Beyond the Wand, the autobiography of Tom Felton who played Draco Malfoy in the Harry Potter films.
(As I have finished 6 books in February already, I have coloured in this month’s segment in my monthly wheel. I just need to write in the total later this month.)
The other will be Spanish Steps, by Tim Moore – I’ve read and enjoyed a couple of his books previously, namely Nul Points, in which he meets all those who failed to receive a single vote at the Eurovision Song Contest, and French Revolutions, in which he gets on a bike and attempts to cycle round the route of the Tour de France, albeit at a rather more leisurely pace than the world’s top cyclists!
In Spanish Steps, Tim acquires a donkey and is attempting the Camino, the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela, which you may recall me mentioning some time in 2021 as Daniel, the vicar at St Thomas’ in Pendleton, did the Camino. Not with a donkey, though, in his case! So, given that I know someone who’s done the Camino, and I’ve enjoyed Tim Moore’s books already, it made sense to give this one a whirl!
That pretty much brings me to the end of tonight’s blog, as I will be settling down to watch Match of the Day in a bit, so until next time, take care and Happy Reading!
Joanne x x x
Books mentioned in this blog entry…
- The Man Who Tasted Words – Prof. Guy Leschziner
- My Sand Life, My Pebble Life – Ian McMillan
- Dusty: The Very Best of… – Dusty Springfield (sheet music)
- Dead Wake – Erik Larson
- Proust and the Squid – Maryanne Wolf
- Charles: Heart of a King – Catherine Mayer
- Dark Tide – Stephen Puleo
- Days Like These – Brian Bilston
- The Secret Life of Books – Tom Mole
- Beyond the Wand – Tom Felton
- Spanish Steps – Tim Moore
- Nul Points – Tim Moore
- French Revolutions – Tim Moore
Joanne's Bookshelf 