Good evening, fellow Bookworms!
Chief Bookworm is back with yet another blog, and congratulations to Sweden on winning last night’s Eurovision Song Contest in Liverpool! Loreen’s win means she’s only the second person to win the contest twice, having previously won in 2012. She shares the record with Mr Eurovision, Johnny Logan, who won twice for Ireland with “What’s Another Year?” in 1980 and then “Hold Me Now” in 1987.
As you can see, there has been Eurovision chocolate! That’s actually Mum’s bar of Eurovision Dairy Milk, but I have one as well. The UK didn’t do so great last night. Need to get back to having the sort of acts representing us that we had last year in Sam Ryder. In fact, I think maybe he should give it another go in a year or two. Especially if we do want to go back to hearing the magic words “Royaume Uni douze points!”
On the book front, however, it has been a good weekend, very productive, and TWO of the Ongoing Concerns have now been finished, meaning that I have read three books so far in May and 26 so far this year. The Goodreads Challenge target has now been increased from 25 books to 30 books.
You can see some of my book journal pages above. The first of the book bingo cards is filling up nicely, especially with two finishes in the last three days, and you can see I’ve filled another OC Progress spread. As I will have to start two new books in the coming week, that will fill my OC Progress list up for April’s setup and I can then start on May next time I finish a book and need a replacement.
The finished books are Breakfast of Champions, by Kurt Vonnegut Jr, which I finished on Friday, and then Not for Me, Clive, by Clive Tyldesley, which was finished earlier today.
With finishing Breakfast of Champions, it means that I have read a book first published in the year I was born, that novel turns 50 this year as I did last month. Towards the end of it, there was a character called Eddie Key, and he was supposedly a descendent of Francis Scott Key, the guy who wrote the lyrics to The Star-Spangled Banner.
Funnily enough, when I was still reading The Secret Library, by Oliver Tearle, he mentioned that the full name of the author F. Scott Fitzgerald was Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald, so he had been named after the lyricist of the USA’s national anthem!
The melody is actually an old English tune, “To Anacreon in Heaven” but Key put the words to that tune for the US anthem. For anyone nerdy enough to want more facts about national anthems, check out Republic or Death! by Alex Marshall, in which he goes around the world in search of interesting stories behind various countries’ national anthems. Some of you, who have been following this blog for a number of years, will remember that I read this book back in 2020.
Isn’t that a fab postbox topper?! Apparently, inside the lighthouse, there is a plastic bottle with fairy lights in it. Very clever!
Before I get on to the books I have in mind to start now that I’ve got another couple off the OC list, we need to look at the remaining Ongoing Concerns and give a progress report. Ticket to Ride, by Tom Chesshyre, which is my current ebook on my Kindle, is 50% read, so I am aiming to have that finished by the end of May at the latest.
Days Like These, by Brian Bilston, is currently 38% read. As I said in a previous blog, it should be around 42% read by the end of May and should reach the magic 50% milestone on 27th June, so not too long to go until that gets to the halfway stage.
Prince Philip’s Century, by Robert Jobson, is 25% and that has now been joined at that particular milestone by Ticket to the World, by Martin Kemp, which I have been reading this afternoon. Lakeland, by Hunter Davies, is 12% read, so that’s all the OCs done for now.
Before I go any further, I said in the last blog that I needed to show you my July setup in my book journal, as I’d shown you the circus theme in the general journal but not done the corresponding month in the book one, so here goes… get your buckets and spades, lol!
There you go! Hit the Hut is the theme for July in my book journal! A seaside theme with beach huts and a quote from My Sand Life, My Pebble Life, by Ian McMillan which was one of my Ongoing Concerns earlier this year!
From the sands of time to Hands of Time, by Rebecca Struthers, watchmaker and doctor of horology, which has recently been serialised on BBC Radio 4 as their Book of the Week, and it’s yet another book that has been given this honour by Radio 4 that I fancy reading. Given that I have some gift cards which I got for my Big 50 last month, it is likely that this is one of the books I will purchase from either Waterstone’s or W H Smith’s.
So, what have I chosen to start for my next books? There are two vacancies on the OC list, and they will be filled by Beauty Tips from Moose Jaw, by Will Ferguson, which is about his travels around Canada, and, closer to home, Sea Fever, by siblings Meg and Chris Clothier, which is a “seaside companion” book set here in the UK.
And there you have it! I have updated you on pretty much everything I made a note to tell you about, and will be back soon enough with yet more book-related waffle to bring you, plus the usual random nonsense, lol! In the meantime, take care and Happy Reading!
Joanne x x x
Books mentioned in this blog entry…
- Breakfast of Champions – Kurt Vonnegut Jr
- Not for Me, Clive – Clive Tyldesley
- The Secret Library – Oliver Tearle
- Republic or Death! – Alex Marshall
- Ticket to Ride – Tom Chesshyre
- Days Like These – Brian Bilston
- Prince Philip’s Century – Robert Jobson
- Ticket to the World – Martin Kemp
- Lakeland – Hunter Davies
- My Sand Life, My Pebble Life – Ian McMillan
- Hands of Time – Rebecca Struthers
- Beauty Tips from Moose Jaw – Will Ferguson
- Sea Fever – Meg and Chris Clothier
Joanne's Bookshelf 