That Was 2023 Part 2: May to August. From Charlie’s Coronation to the Chester Trip.

Good evening, fellow Bookworms!

Welcome to part two of the review of the year, and I can’t believe how near to Christmas we are now. Next Sunday is Christmas Eve! The following Sunday will be New Year’s Eve, but I will do my last blog of the year before then. Anyway, I have done the pressie wrapping today, and it was Mince Pie Sunday for Mum – she has made 78 mince pies.

So sit back, relax after your festive preparations and enjoy a look back at the second helping of annual review. This time we’re looking at May to August and the books I read in those months, plus stuff that happened during that part of the year.

As with last week’s blog, I will not be listing the books at the end of the blog as there are too many to mention, so I will just highlight titles and authors as I go along. Let’s get in the time machine and head back to May when the bunting was up for the Coronation…

Right then, May started off with yours truly on unclebiotics due to an infection, so I couldn’t have any booze while celebrating the Coronation on 6th May as Charles and Camilla were crowned at Westminster Abbey and we got an extra bank holiday on 8th May.

Four books were finished in May, first to be polished off was Not Cool, by Jules Brown, which was about him travelling through Europe during a heatwave, lol! Next up was a book that was published the year I was born, that book being Breakfast of Champions, by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. I had it in my mind to do this, read at least one book this year that was turning 50 as I was, and I have done it.

I became an Admin of A Cup of Tea Solves Everything on Farcebook in May so I was finally able to do what I’d wanted to do for years – boot all the spammers out of that group and make it purely about tea again! It had been plagued with spammers for years, posting any old crap and it was annoying the hell out of those of us who wanted it to be for its proper purpose, but it is definitely tea only now! I put the kettle on and had a brew to celebrate!

Not For Me, Clive, by Clive Tyldesley, was finished in this month, as was Ticket to Ride, my second Tom Chesshyre book of the year and the first of his about trains, but not the last, lol!

Liverpool hosted the Eurovision Song Contest on behalf of Ukraine, and it was won by Sweden whose singer Loreen won the contest for her second time, thus putting her up there with Mr Eurovision, Johnny Logan, who won twice for Ireland back in the 80s. Pulp had a post-box topper made of them, and the band later met their yarn-based lookalikes, but there was sad news from the world of music as we lost the legendary Tina Turner, who passed away at the age of 83.

A tennis-themed postbox topper in June to mark the start of Wimbledon, and post-box toppers were very much making headlines in this month as there was even a programme, “Yarnbombers” on the BBC about groups of avid knitters and crocheters who make postbox toppers and other yarn-based decorations in their local areas. It followed in particular a group of yarnbombers in Wales who were making their creations for the Coronation in May.

Early June saw me in town but my iron level was a bit too low to give a pint of O positive to the Vampires on that occasion. I did, however, read Marcus Rashford, by Maria Isabel Sanchez Vegara, while I was pootling around W H Smith’s so that was the first of five books I read in June. Lakeland, by Hunter Davies, was my next finish and the first of several books about the Lake District that I have read this year.

Following on from reading my first Jules Brown ebook the previous month, I read Don’t Eat the Puffin on my Kindle during June. I then read Ticket To the World, by Martin Kemp, and the fifth book for this month was This is Not Your Stone, by Brett J. Cole, which I read via Facebook, so I am classing it as an ebook.

I was also very happy to discover, in June, that catarrh pastilles were back in Boots again! Yay! Regular followers will no doubt know that I have my ENT issues, and was not a happy bunny for a while when I couldn’t get hold of any catarrh pastilles, either Boots or Potter’s Pastilles. I did get some Olbas ones which put me on, but then the Potter’s ones were available again online and then, to my delight, the own brand ones were back on the shelves in Boots! Yay!

We got a new doorbell in June as the old one, which had sounded a bit drunk at times when the battery ran down, conked out completely. I enjoyed Glastonbury on the telly, particularly the Arctic Monkeys, Guns ‘n’ Roses and Sir Elton John, but we lost former footballer, Gordon McQueen in this month, aged 70.

Days Like These, by Brian Bilston, my ongoing reading for the year, reached the halfway stage towards the end of June, 50% read.

Right, July now, and hold on to your hats, we’ve got a lot of reading matter to get through as I read ten books that month! I was also participating in the Monton Festival as a member of the Mancunian Singers, my first gig as a member of the choir! My niece, Charlotte, was also performing at the festival, as part of the Anthem Music School set.

While I’m on the subject of singing, before I get on to the books, I’d just like to put it out there that the Mancunian Singers are looking for new members of all singing voices, soprano, alto, tenor or bass, and we will be resuming for the new year on Thursday 4th January 2024. We meet in the church hall of Monton Unitarian Church, on Monton Green, from 8:15pm to 10pm on Thursday evenings so if you live in or near Monton and fancy a good sing on a Thursday night, please feel free to come along in January!

Right, enough advertising, time to get on with the books and first up for July was Beauty Tips from Moose Jaw, by Will Ferguson, which I finished on 1st July – appropriately enough as it meant I had finished a book about Canada on Canada Day! Sea Fever, by Meg and Chris Clothier, was next up, then Prince Philip’s Century, by Robert Jobson was polished off after I found it in the book chest.

After that came The Perfect Golden Circle, by Benjamin Myers, one of my rare fiction reads, but a good ‘un – it is set in the summer of 1989 and is about the crop circles that were making headlines that summer in the year Chief Bookworm was sitting her GCSEs and leaving high school, and never needing to use the formula A = pi r squared ever again, ha ha! I have no idea why my brain still retains that information as I’ve not needed it since I last had to do any maths! In 2024, that will be 35 years ago!

Another photo from the Monton Festival, this was my niece singing with Anthem Music School. They were performing before our choir.

Back to the books, and next up was Slow Trains Around Spain, by Tom Chesshyre, the first of two train-related books by this writer that I read in July. Then it was a spot of poetry, Gold From the Stone, by Lemn Sissay, then the joint autobiography of Pepsi & Shirlie, It’s All in Black and White.

Hands of Time, by Rebecca Struthers, was next, and I really enjoyed this one, which was one of those books I have bought and enjoyed because it had previously been a BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week and I’d listened to an abridged reading of it before “Sailing By” and the Shipping Forecast. She is a watch maker and repairer and her book is a fascinating history of timekeeping and of watches in particular.

My other train-related book by Tom Chesshyre was next to be finished, and that was Slow Trains to Venice, before I reached double figures for July with Bizarre England, by David Long.

Postbox topper to mark the 75th anniversary of the National Health Service. July also brought with it some free wine – yay! One bottle was from choir and the other was from La Turka, and it was the church summer fair at the end of July and Mum and I did well on our stall. I would particularly like to thank Siobhan who bought an absolute LOAD of crime thrillers!

Performance poet, Dr John Cooper Clarke was given the Freedom of the City of Salford in July, but it was a month in which we lost news reporter, George Alagiah, and two from the world of football on the same day, former player and manager, Trevor Francis, and former player Chris Bart-Williams, aged only 49. He had played under Trevor Francis in the 90s when they were together at Sheffield Wednesday.

And so to August, in which five books were finished off, I was on more unclebiotics early in the month, so I had to stick to mocktails when Mum and I went on our short break to the Lake District, the now-annual visit to Bowness on Windermere during which I stocked up on fudge and Kendal Mint Cake to the surprise of absolutely no-one, lol! We even went to Kendal for the day and visited the gift shop at the Romney’s factory where the mint cake is made!

Safety in Numbers, an anthology of poetry by Roger McGough, was the first book finished in August, followed by Treasure Islands, by Alec Crawford – this should not be confused with the classic novel, as this book is non-fiction and is about diving for valuable bits from shipwrecks off the coasts of islands, and does not involve any pirates, parrots or treasure chests, lol!

Kendal History Tour, by Billy F. K. Howorth, was next up, a result of our recent trip to the Lakes and the home of the mint cake, lol! After that, I read Itchy Feet & Bucket Lists, by Emma Scattergood, who was on a world tour with her husband during 2019-2020. They are Aussies, and they had managed most of their tour before the pandemic, and after they had been here in the UK, they were sailing back home to Oz by way of a cruise and they did manage to get back home before Australia locked down due to coronavirus but the cruise itinerary had to change a little as parts of the Far East had already shut down so they couldn’t stop off there on their way back down under.

Fifth book finish for August was Wham! George & Me, by Andrew Ridgeley, a really good read and it brought to an end a chain of autobiographies linking Spandau Ballet, Pepsi & Shirlie and Wham!

Mum and I went to Chester towards the end of August for another short break. Thankfully, I wasn’t on any unclebiotics this time so I could have a drink, lol! We had afternoon tea at the Chester Grosvenor Hotel and the above photo is only half of the epic fish butty that was part of my deluxe gentleman’s afternoon tea! This particular sandwich was a crispy fish fillet in a bloomer with mushy peas and tartare sauce. It was HUGE!

The trip to Chester also meant that my travel journal was full! I have prepped my orange Oops a Daisy “Into the Wild” journal to be my next travel journal for future jollies and short breaks. I also decided, in August, to start up a choir journal to keep a record of what songs we have sung at rehearsals.

August is of course this blog’s anniversary month, 14th August marked my 13th year of typing and publishing this waffle, ha ha, but over the years, as my blog has become a teenager, albeit without the zits, it has managed to attract a loyal following, so thank you to all 173 of you for reading this vaguely book-related nonsense around four times a month on average!

Oh and, before we leave August and return to the present day, there’s the matter of two of my former colleagues from my civil service days, Colin and Steve, winning the jackpot on Pointless! Apologies that the photo is a tad blurred, but I had to pause my Sky+ box and take a photo on my iPad. These two guys were amongst my workmates during my ten years of working in town at Albert Bridge House. Not only did they win the jackpot, they won a bonus for getting three pointless answers in the final!

Days Like These reached the 67% read stage right at the end of August.

Right, so that now brings us neatly back to 17th December and so we only have September to December to go, so what will happen is that I will fit in September to November before Christmas, and then do December in a blog after the 25th so that if there are any books as pressies, I can mention those and I can bring you up to date on this month.

So, the next part of the review will include three months of events and books, and there might even be a quiz! I came up with something a month or so ago, a quiz about music and events from 1973, so I might include that so you can see how much you know about half a century ago when Chief Bookworm was born, lol! It is traditional to have a quiz at Christmas, after all! So, until the next blog, take care and Happy Reading!

Joanne x x x

No book list as it would be way too long, lol!

Four Finished Books, Monton Festival, Science Theme and Charlie Watts’ Book Collection…

Good evening, fellow Bookworms!

Was going to blog last night but it was too hot to do so, back to being the Costa del Salford once again, lol! Therefore, we’re now 10 days into July, and wishing a very happy 69th birthday to Neil Tennant from the Pet Shop Boys – regular followers of this blog will know I’ve been a huge PSB fan since I was 14 so Neil and Chris get regular mentions!

Got some more music news for you in this blog, but more to do with myself and my niece Charlotte, so that’s coming up later, but I have quite a bit of book news tonight as I have already finished FOUR books this month! We had a finish on 1st July, when I polished off Beauty Tips from Moose Jaw, by Will Ferguson. Appropriately enough, I finished this travel writing about Canada on Canada Day!

Any post box toppers in this particular blog are to mark the 75th birthday of the NHS, which was on 5th July – I am particularly impressed with whoever it was who knitted or crocheted that ambulance in the photo above!

I didn’t blog the first weekend of July as it was so soon after the June Review, but the other reason that I didn’t was the Monton Festival which took place on 1st July, and both my niece and I were very busy! First up, Charlotte was performing with Anthem Music School, and then it was the turn of the Mancunian Singers, including yours truly!

Then, on Tuesday, Charlotte had her Grade 2 piano exam and got the results on Friday – she passed with Distinction! Well done to our Young Adult Bookworm! She’s nearly a teenager, so not junior anymore. Reuben’s still a Junior Bookworm, though.

Seriously, is it really nearly 13 years ago that I became an auntie?! She definitely takes after me with her love of books and her music. Maybe one day she’ll be headlining the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury?!

As I said earlier, there have been four books polished off so far this month, so what else came off the OC list besides the Will Ferguson book? Next one to become a finished book was Sea Fever, by Meg and Chris Clothier, and then Prince Philip’s Century, by Robert Jobson, came off the OC list and went on the Goodreads Challenge list. That made it 35 books and I have had to increase the target to 40 books.

The fourth book to be finished so far this month was the brilliant novel by Benjamin Myers, The Perfect Golden Circle, which I really loved!

I know when a lot of people mention historical fiction they usually refer to novels set a seriously long time ago, for instance those set in the days of Henry VIII, but I would like to make the case for historical fiction also being about novels set in the more recent past, such as the latter end of the 20th century – books set in the 1970s or 1980s for instance, and Myers’ book is set right at the end of the eighties when I was sitting my GCSEs and leaving high school.

1989 is now a long time ago! When I was leaving school and the crop circles were starting to appear in fields and on the news, the Berlin Wall was still up for a few months yet. Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia still existed, as did East Germany and the Soviet Union. The charts were full of Stock, Aitken and Waterman productions, plus loads of dance and house music by the likes of Soul II Soul, Black Box and Technotronic.

So, with so many finishes, we need fresh books on the OC list, don’t we? Hands of Time, by Rebecca Struthers, is 11% read, as is Gold from the Stone, a poetry anthology by Lemn Sissay. Bizarre England, by David Long, one of those miscellany-type books, is 10% read. I have also started Treasure Islands, by Alec Crawford, which is the true tales of a shipwreck hunter, but that one was only started earlier today and has not reached the 10% read stage yet. I’m sure it will do soon enough!

Of the OCs with more progress made on them, Days Like These is currently 53% and Slow Trains Around Spain is now 51%. I was making progress with that one last night, and as Tom Chesshyre is going around Spain, he was at the top end of the country and not far from Santiago de Compostela, so he mentions the Camino and also the forests of eucalyptus trees, probably the exact same ones that Tim Moore mentions in Spanish Steps and calls them the VapoRub Forests, lol!

The other OC is It’s All in Black and White, by Pepsi & Shirlie, and that one is currently 14% read. I plan to get a move on with that one during the course of this week.

While we’re back on music, it was on the news that the book collection of the late great Charlie Watts, drummer of the Rolling Stones, is being put up for auction, and it includes quite a few signed first editions, most notably The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald. As with David Bowie, who was also known to take an extensive library of books with him on tour, it seems Charlie Watts did likewise and loved a good read when he wasn’t busy keeping the beat for Mick and Keith to strut their stuff!

And now some peeks into my book journal, lol, as I have set up September in that journal and have gone with the theme of “She Blinded Me With Science” which was a hit for Thomas Dolby back in the 80s! Across the monthly set-up I have included different aspects of science – chemistry (which was Dad’s area of expertise), physics, mechanics, ecology and a bit of space exploration!

In my general journal, it kinda ties in with science as I’ve gone with a theme of retro video games, so there’s definitely computers and technology! I have started on the set-up for that one but not quite finished it yet. Hopefully, I’ll be able to give you a shufty in my next blog so you can see all the pixellated pals from old-school computer games!

Before I finish, I just want to say muchas gracias to David de Gea who has left United after 12 years in goal at Old Trafford. In that time, he has won the Premier League (2013), FA Cup (2016), League Cup twice (2017 and 2023) and the Europa League (2017), has kept countless clean sheets, won the Golden Glove, and was voted Sir Matt Busby Player of the Year four times during his stay at OT, including 3 seasons on the trot! I do hope there is an opportunity for him to come back to OT so we can give him the proper goodbye he richly deserves. Quite frankly, he should be given a testimonial match given that he was with us for over a decade!

While we’re on fantastic former United goalies, best wishes for a continued and speedy recovery to the absolute Legend that is Edwin van der Sar, who was rushed to hospital at the weekend, while on holiday in Croatia, with a bleed on the brain. His condition is currently stable.

Well, I think that is about all my news for now, we’ve covered pretty much everything – books, music, football, stationery, and some post box toppers to mark the 75th birthday of the National Health Service. I will be back with yet more waffle soon enough, lol, but until then, take care and Happy Reading!

Joanne x x x

Books mentioned in this blog entry…

• Beauty Tips from Moose Jaw – Will Ferguson
• Sea Fever – Meg and Chris Clothier
• Prince Philip’s Century – Robert Jobson
• The Perfect Golden Circle – Benjamin Myers
• Hands of Time – Rebecca Struthers
• Gold from the Stone – Lemn Sissay
• Bizarre England – David Long
• Treasure Islands – Alec Crawford
• Days Like These – Brian Bilston
• Slow Trains Around Spain – Tom Chesshyre
• Spanish Steps – Tim Moore
• It’s All in Black and White – Pepsi & Shirlie
• The Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald

Cave of the Swimmers

Good evening, fellow Bookworms!

Thought I should get a blog in. Especially as I have more book finishes to tell you about and another milestone has been reached in the Goodreads Challenge!

Yes, I have reached the 40 book point! I have finished off both The Secrets of My Spectrum, by Callum Knight, and Cuneiform, by Irving Finkel & Jonathan Taylor, so I have read 40 books so far this year and, as we are in August, it averages out at 5 books a month at the moment!

I wanted to get that done as I’ve got yet another of those busy spells coming up and also the Paralympics start next week, opening ceremony on Tuesday 24th August, so I will probably also be distracted by that until 5th September when it’s the closing ceremony, lol! As it’s in Tokyo, like the Olympics were, it’s the same time difference, and hopefully some overnight medals for Team GB as there were a week or so ago!

So, with two more books safely on the “books read” list, what’s still being read? Black Coffee Blues, by Henry Rollins is still an Ongoing Concern, as is Splash! by Howard Means, which I have now started. As it mentions the Cave of the Swimmers in Wadi Sura, which is now, ironically in one of the driest places on Earth, lol, Means says that this cave is also mentioned in the novel The English Patient, by Michael Ondaatje, which I did start reading some years ago now.

I have found my copy and it seems it was 15% read at the point that I stopped – probably distracted by another book knowing me, lol, so I am now going to resume it. I have had a bit of a skim up to where my bookmark is, so I can resume from there.

With one book mentioning another, this could well be the start of yet another rabbit hole, although there are still other books, linked to the whole bread and Gilgamesh theme, which I intend to read. I have The Buried Book, by David Damrosch, which is about the loss and rediscovery of The Epic of Gilgamesh, and I also have Myths from Mesopotamia, translated by Stephanie Dalley, so we’re not quite done with the king of Uruk just yet!

This photo is 10 years old now – my niece when she was just a year old, but clearly a bookworm even at that young age. Charlotte is 11 now, but still very much a bookworm, and her brother Reuben also enjoys a book or two, particularly if they’re about dinosaurs!

I don’t think there are any quiz answers to give you, are there? Pretty sure any quizzes were resolved in the last blog entry. That’s not to say there won’t be a quiz in this one, lol!

Just been thinking about Splash! I had thought, at first, it was quite a random choice of book, which it was in a way, but given that some people do swim in open water, including seas, it does kinda tie in with some of the weather and shipping books I read earlier this year. Certainly, there is a connection with The Channel, by Charlie Connelly, as he makes significant mention of those who have swum, or at least attempted to swim, the English Channel, as well as mentioning people who crossed that waterway by other means.

I know they say you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, but I have to say that I WAS attracted to Splash! by its cover! You have to admit it is a good ‘un!

Definitely a cool book cover, and I just had to get a bookmark with a big wave on it, it seemed right for a water-related read!

Right, time for a quiz. If you get all the answers right, the first letter of each answer will spell out something I’m rather partial to – other than books, I mean, lol! The clues are book-related, though, as you can see!

1. The Book of _____ – illuminated manuscript on display at Trinity College Dublin.
2. Book spotted by my sister when we were in Dun Laoghaire – ________ for Babies.
3. Substantially-sized works of fiction.
4. Kept by Adrian Mole or Bridget Jones, for example.
5. Self-penned books, often by celebrities.
6. Half of my degree – the study of plays, poetry, novels, etc…
7. Country where I was on holiday when I discovered the joys of Attention All Shipping.
8. Tony Hawks famously went around this country with a fridge…
9. Book by Bill Bryson about the UK, _____ From a Small Island.
10. Russian author famous for War and Peace, Leo _______.
11. The _______ in the Rye, novel by J. D. Salinger.
12. Brian Bilston asks this device what there is to know about love.
13. Kensuke’s _______, children’s book by Sir Michael Morpurgo.
14. According to Douglas Adams, 42 is the answer to the question of Life, the Universe and __________.

Right, so that should keep you going, lol! I will give the answers in a future blog, certainly before August is out, and any books mentioned in the quiz questions will be listed at the end of that blog, as I did when I was doing the Blockbusters Gold Run quiz a few blogs ago.

I think, for now, though, that we have come to the end of another blog, so before I declare this entry closed and call upon my followers to reconvene next time I publish something, lol, I shall just say the usual – take care and Happy Reading!

Joanne x x x

Books mentioned in this blog entry…

• The Secrets of My Spectrum – Callum Knight
• Cuneiform – Irving Finkel & Jonathan Taylor
• Black Coffee Blues – Henry Rollins
• Splash! – Howard Means
• The English Patient – Michael Ondaatje
• The Buried Book – David Damrosch
• The Epic of Gilgamesh – Unknown
• Myths from Mesopotamia – Unknown (trans: Stephanie Dalley)
• The Channel – Charlie Connelly

Granada Reports

Good evening, fellow Bookworms!

United are at home to Granada in the Europa League, and have taken an early lead on the night, 1-0 after just six minutes thanks to Edinson Cavani, so we lead 3-0 on aggregate. As well as being a place in Spain, Granada was the name of the ITV region here in the north-west of England, and our regional news was called Granada Reports, so that explains the title! I think the Spanish town had a name for entertainment, which is why it was chosen as our regional channel’s name.

Anyway, big news, as I have finished Our Daily Bread by Predrag Matvejević, and so I have already reached 20 books so far this year and have had to increase my Goodreads Challenge target yet again. I have moved it up to 25 books.

Had a croissant this morning as part of my breakfast, which got me wondering if a croissant was a pastry or a bread, only to find it’s kinda both things! It’s flaky like certain pastries are, but it also has a leavened dough, so that’s clearly a bread thing!

I’ve also made a bit more progress with Recipe for Life, by Mary Berry, so that one is now 12% read and thus has officially become an Ongoing Concern! If they reach the 10% read mark and I feel they are going to be worth continuing, they become an OC. Even Mary gets in on the act on the bread front, mentioning her mum’s bread and butter pudding and providing the recipe for it!

However, I am not done with the ebooks about wheat-based comestibles, lol, and am 13% of the way through Bread: A Global History, by William Rubel, from the Edible series of books about food and drink, and I am 11% of the way through Loaf Story: A Love Letter to Bread, With Recipes, by Tim Hayward.

We’ve had a lot of books about weather and a lot of books about bread, lol! I include the Shipping Forecast books in the weather section, as shipping bulletins are specialist weather reports. The Wrong Kind of Snow, another weather book, is an ongoing thing throughout the year, as some may already know.

Half-time: Manchester United 1 Granada 0

I was looking at what else I had got on my Kindle, and thought I had The Epic of Gilgamesh on there, but it seemed it was just a guide to the epic rather than the book itself, so I have ended up getting the Penguin edition as an ebook which should have the actual epic after the introductory section. It’s an epic in poem form, from Mesopotamia some time around 3000 BC. It has been translated, or perhaps deciphered would be a better word, from Cuneiform writing on clay tablets.

I downloaded a novel called The Gown recently, historical fiction by Jennifer Robson. It’s set in 1947 at Norman Hartwell’s fashion house and is about two ladies who are chosen to work on the wedding gown for Princess Elizabeth.

There’s Hungry, by Grace Dent and My Last Supper, by Jay Rayner, on there, so more food-related stuff and more Jay Rayner – I have already read some of his books this year, ones in which he details his less than wonderful dining experiences as a restaurant reviewer. My Dining Hell is especially funny if you’re after a good laugh!

I have seen reading as pleasure since I was very little and first learning to read. I think that does help as it gets you through those times when you might have to read something a bit boring for school, lol! Most of the books I read at school were OK, though, not too many that weren’t my cup of tea, thankfully. Mind you, I would try them again now as an adult to see if I like them as a middle-aged woman more than I did as a teenage girl.

One that didn’t grab me when I was at school was Elidor, by Alan Garner, and another was The Gun, by C. S. Forester. Part of me kinda hopes I will find them in charity shops, and maybe I will now those are open again. It would help a good cause, and also it would mean the books are reasonably cheap, as I don’t really want to risk forking out too much for something if I’m going to end up thinking it’s still as dull as I thought it was in the mid to late 1980s when I was at high school, ha ha!

Ooh, we’ve got One for the Books, here by Joe Queenan, which is actually an Ongoing Concern, as it’s at the 10% read stage. A book about books, but I am not doing a list of all the books he mentions in it – I did that for Dear Reader, by Cathy Rentzenbrink, at the start of this year and it took time to go through the book again to list all the books she had mentioned!

Who knows where the reading adventure will take us? I think I blogged, earlier in the year, about some travel-related books, travel within the UK, which I thought I might move on to after the weather and Shipping Forecast stuff, but as things have turned out, I have ended up reading books about bread! Not that I won’t get on to the travel books, but there could be another very random change of direction after the bread books when it comes to subject matter!

If United could get another goal, that would be great. I know we are 1-0 up tonight and 3-0 up overall, but another goal for the Reds this evening would make things more comfortable.

I know I have mentioned some books where I have been partway through for some time, including My Side, by David Beckham, and The Snowman, by Jo Nesbø, but there is also Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, by Louis de Bernières, which I have had for absolutely ages, since the mid 1990s when it came out, and I have read a large chunk of it, but need to resume it! 47% read, so very nearly halfway, but as I’ve not read it since 1995, should I try to recap where I’m up to before resuming it?

The book was published in 1994, the year I turned 21 and graduated from university, but my edition is from the following year.

We have a second goal, an own goal by someone called Vallejo, in stoppage time and that is it – the final whistle has blown. Manchester United 2 Granada 0. United win 4-0 on aggregate and are through to the Europa League semi-finals where we will play AS Roma.

I think that is probably about all for now, except to say that I will have my first jab on Sunday lunchtime! Second one will be due in early July. On Tuesday they started accepting those of us aged 45 or over, so eventually managed to get booked after the website crashed a few times, lol! All us forty-somethings wanting to get jabbed! Anyway, until next time, take care and Happy Reading!

Joanne x x x

Books mentioned in this blog entry…

• Our Daily Bread – Predrag Matvejević
• Recipe for Life – Mary Berry
• Bread: A Global History – William Rubel
• Loaf Story – Tim Hayward
• The Wrong Kind of Snow – Antony Woodward & Robert Penn
• The Epic of Gilgamesh – Unknown
• The Gown – Jennifer Robson
• Hungry – Grace Dent
• My Last Supper – Jay Rayner
• My Dining Hell – Jay Rayner
• Elidor – Alan Garner
• The Gun – C. S. Forester
• One for the Books – Joe Queenan
• Dear Reader – Cathy Rentzenbrink
• My Side – David Beckham
• The Snowman – Jo Nesbø
• Captain Corelli’s Mandolin – Louis de Bernières

The Weird and Wonderful World of Chief Bookworm…

Hello again, fellow Bookworms!

Happy Weird Pride Day! Apparently, today is the day for any of us who have ever been told we’re weird. Weirder than Weird Al Yankovich, that kind of weird, lol! Being random counts as weird, doesn’t it?! It’s certainly a branch of weirdness, I would have thought. Anyway, for all my fellow “odd ducks”, this is our day, so I hope you enjoy the blog, and I will return to the themes of difference, weirdness and randomness during my witterings today, along with tales of masking tape, cross-stitched bookmarks, lava, and an eleventh finish for the year…

Plus any other random blatherings, lol!

Well, as you can see from the photo, I have replenished my stock of low-tack masking tape for my cross-stitch projects! To say I was getting down on it was an understatement. I had mentioned in a previous blog that it was running out. When I was still on annual leave, on Monday, I looked in supermarkets for it, but to no avail.

However, when Mum was out shopping the other day, while I was working from home, she had a thought – The Range is an essential shop, so is allowed to open, and they have craft and DIY stuff, so we went after I had finished work the other night, and, unlike poor ol’ Bono, I found what I was looking for, lol! It was among the DIY stuff rather than the arts and crafts, but those sections are near each other. I stocked up by buying three rolls of it, might as well, and got some other crafting items as well while I was there! Epic Win!

As I had this new masking tape, I was now sorted for my stitching projects, and the above photo is a clue to my latest bookmark! It’s a lot further on than that now, in fact just needs a border and tassel.

Talking of borders and tassel, I have been sorting those out, and the bookmarks that were nearly finished in previous blogs have now been finished!

So, now you can see the Cubes, Pac Man and ghosts, and the Shipping Forecast bookmarks – they are done and ready to be put into service in my reading matter! Not sure which books they will be used in yet, though.

Talking of books… as expected, The Channel, by Charlie Connelly, was finished the other night, so I have now read 11 books so far this year. As with the two previous books of his, I really enjoyed it and there is overlap between that one and both Bring Me Sunshine and Attention All Shipping.

Going back to the Weird Pride thing again, for a moment, this is it with me and books… I think a lot of other readers would find my tastes to be weird. They’re certainly very different.

We have previously been over why I won’t even attempt horror novels – I don’t like having the living crap scared out of me, so those are a non-starter. OK, people might understand that, but I am pretty sure that they would find me weird for not bothering with either romantic fiction or crime fiction much. I don’t rule those genres out completely, but they’re certainly not ones I gravitate towards in general. Other readers are racing through the latest thrillers, and there’s me, reading books about the weather and the shipping forecast, lol!

Cosy crime might not be too bad, and I enjoyed The Red House Mystery, by A. A. Milne, a few years ago for the book club we used to have at Waterstone’s on Deansgate, and I have recently purchased The Thursday Murder Club, by Richard Osman, as that does sound pretty good, but I don’t really fancy anything too grisly for the same reason that I avoid horror stories!

Having said that, I do own The Snowman, by Jo Nesbø, which is rather dark Scandinavian crime fiction, and did start reading it some years ago, getting some way into it before another book must have distracted me or I went into a reading slump. I reckon I am a good way into it should I wish to resume it. I also have a copy of Sirens, by Joseph Knox, which is a crime novel set here in Manchester, so I guess the local interest would be the thing for me with that one – recognising any places he mentions in the plot.

Random moment here, lol, and I guess it’s sort-of crime-related, as I am pretty sure that false advertising is a crime! If you play any games on tablets or phones, I’m pretty sure you’ve seen what I am about to mention… those mini games that get advertised when you watch a video in order to get some extra points or coins in whatever game you’re playing… I’m talking about the lava, water and treasure games…

See example above. I think this sums up what I’m wiffling on about… these games… pull the rods in the right order or you fail. These things are not part of the actual games if you download and play them, which, quite frankly, is false advertising, as I said, and shouldn’t really be allowed! However, what really grabbed my attention, possibly because Mount Etna is erupting again at the moment, is the lava in these games!

Anyone else other than me think the lava is completely illogical?! Where has it come from? I see no volcanoes in the background, active or otherwise! Even if there was a volcano, how has a small portion of lava made its way to that chute? Most puzzling of all, though, is the question of why everything in the game isn’t on fire! You cannot contain lava! It is liquid fire, essentially, and burns up everything in its path!

Look, I know a fair bit about volcanoes! I have done since I was about 7 or 8, back in the early 80s, when my dad let me come down to watch a programme with him late one night, an Open University one, probably, and I was fascinated! I have since stood on one or two volcanoes while on my holidays (vacations), including Mount Etna, so I know about lava, and the damage volcanoes do when they erupt, thus these silly games bring out my inner Mr Spock and make me want to exclaim “That is illogical, Captain!” when I see one of these things and the lava hasn’t set the building alight!

Couple of books about volcanoes, real life ones, lol, that I read some years ago, and would recommend… Volcano in Paradise, by Phil Davison, about the eruption in Montserrat in the mid 1990s, and Surviving the Volcano, by Stanley Williams, about his survival of the eruption of Galeras in Colombia in 1993.

I can also recommend Violent Volcanoes, by Anita Ganeri, from the Horrible Geography series – that’s a bit like the Horrible Histories books, it’s in that style, and really good – not just for kids, although you will find it in children’s non-fiction.

I also have a copy of Krakatoa, by Simon Winchester, but I’ve not got around to reading that one yet.

On a geological bent, while we have been discussing volcanoes, their activity is caused, of course, by tectonic plate movement, which kinda brings me on to footy, as watching tectonic plates move would be more interesting than the tedious 0-0 draws my team has served up of late, lol! They need to find their shooting boots! 26 years ago today, it was the 9-0 demolition of Ipswich Town, but I would have settled for just a 1-0 win last night instead of yet another 0-0 snore draw!

Back to the cross-stitch now, and the photo of Freddie… as you can see, I have added to this now, and also put my initials and the year at the bottom, under Mr Mercury, although I hadn’t added those when I took that photo. I now just need to finish it off with a border and tassel. Not entirely sure what theme I will have for my next bookmark, lol, but certainly in a stitchy mood of late. Once again, though, it highlights the random nature of the things that interest me or inspire me to make bookmarks! Patterns, retro video games, the Shipping Forecast and music… all celebrated in bookmarks!

I have a book on one of my piles called Is This the Real Life? The Untold Story of Queen, so I can always start that and use my Freddie bookmark when it’s finished! The book is by Mark Blake.

Going back to the whole weirdness and randomness topic, I’ve always been different, I guess. Difference was selected for me, really, given that my thyroid decided, when I was born, that it couldn’t be arsed doing the job it’s meant to do for my body. So, I may as well be different in other things, too! How can you expect conventional from anyone whose body isn’t completely conventional?! You have to accept at least a bit of difference!

However, I do like some things that are popular, the football club I support, for example, and the music I like is not unpopular, so it’s not always about niche or cult things. I would love to know, from anyone who knows about those kind of things, why people have the different tastes and interests they have. That would be interesting!

I kinda understand hobbies and activities, as those are often based on our ability, or lack thereof, in certain activities. That explains why I shy away from physical recreation, but will gravitate towards choirs or other musical ensembles! But, what makes people like what they like when it comes to things like genres of music, or films, or TV shows? Or even YouTube videos?! Why do some people binge-watch a mini series on Netflix while I watch music quiz videos or wood-turning videos on YouTube?

What’s around at the time, especially when you’re young, often influences music, but there’s still a lot to choose from. For instance, I grew up in the 1980s, I was a teenager in the latter half of that fantastic decade for music, but what made those around at the time go for different kinds of music? What made some go for soft rock or “hair metal” bands? What made some go for house music or hip hop and rap? What made me, and others like me, go for synthesizer groups? What was it in me that saw me end up as a fan of the Pet Shop Boys and Erasure during the course of 1987?

If there’s anyone out there whose specialist subjects include why humans develop their different tastes in music and telly and other matters, please could they get in touch and let me know the hows, whys and wherefores? Ta very much!

Talking of asking for help… if anyone has any suggestions for which of my Chunky Monkeys I should attempt, please get in touch! Please comment on the blog. If you’ve read any Hugh Jass chunky books that you would recommend, especially the five I have mentioned, please say so! Or even if you didn’t enjoy them, I would still appreciate your views on the matter. We had The Crimson Petal and the White, by Michel Faber, Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, by Susanna Clarke, Shantaram, by Gregory David Roberts, The Pillars of the Earth, by Ken Follett, and The Priory of the Orange Tree, by Samantha Shannon.

Those were my shortlisted books. However, if you have any better suggestions, please mention them and I will give them some thought. I have a few other chunky monkeys, so I might have something in already if you recommend it.

That’s probably about all for now, but I like to think it was nice and random and thoroughly in keeping with Weird Pride Day! I will be back with more similarly random nonsense soon enough, but for now, take care and Happy Reading!

Joanne x x x

Books mentioned in this blog entry…

• The Channel – Charlie Connelly
• Bring Me Sunshine – Charlie Connelly
• Attention All Shipping – Charlie Connelly
• The Red House Mystery – A. A. Milne
• The Thursday Murder Club – Richard Osman
• The Snowman – Jo Nesbø
• Sirens – Joseph Knox
• Volcano in Paradise – Phil Davison
• Surviving the Volcano – Stanley Williams
• Violent Volcanoes – Anita Ganeri
• Krakatoa – Simon Winchester
• Is This the Real Life? – Mark Blake
• The Crimson Petal and the White – Michel Faber
• Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell – Susanna Clarke
• Shantaram – Gregory David Roberts
• The Pillars of the Earth – Ken Follett
• The Priory of the Orange Tree – Samantha Shannon

Bookmarks, Goals and Lists…

Good evening, fellow Bookworms!

Couple of bookmarks there, one nearly done and the other well on the way. Not sure what to do with Pac Man and the ghosts – do you think it needs a border? Still pondering on how to finish that one off. The one with the cubes will have black floss on it eventually, but I am doing the other colours first.

One week of February left after today. So far this year, 10 books read, and one bookmark fully completed – the lighthouse one which is being used in Sandettie Light Vessel Automatic, by Simon Armitage.

Current read on my Kindle is The Channel, by Charlie Connelly, and that is now 15% read. As I have said already, the Shipping Forecast gets mentioned, particularly sea area Dover, and when he talks about his early morning swims, he mentions the inshore area from North Foreland to Selsey Bill.

Talking of Selsey Bill, that gets mentioned in the lyrics of a song. It’s from the 1980s, but can you guess where “I’ve even been to Selsey Bill” comes from, song-wise? Another clue: it’s a song by a band I have seen in concert a few years ago. As usual, answer at the end of the blog.

I have put a few more books from Dear Reader on the list on List Challenges, so we are getting there bit by bit. One of the books she mentions is A Little Life, by Hanya Yanagihara, which regular followers of this blog will know is a book I read back in 2016, and the book which caused me to have an epic Book Hangover after I’d finished reading it! There is nothing little about A Little Life, especially not the size of it, lol! 720 pages. Well worth it, though!

We interrupt this blog to bring you a goalflash…

Manchester United 2 Newcastle United 1. Daniel James 57 minutes. 🙂

What was I about to mention before my lads went back in the lead? Ah, yes, historical fiction, and a book that I saw someone mention on Facebook earlier today, A Single Thread, by Tracy Chevalier. I might check that out. Chances are that I will probably enjoy it, as I loved Girl With a Pearl Earring and The Lady and the Unicorn, by the same author.

With regard to the footy, Marcus Rashford MBE had opened the scoring for us on 30 minutes, but the Geordies had equalised 6 minutes later, so that’s where we were at before I started this blog, and it was 1-1, but it’s now 2-1, and I hope my lads can now go further ahead.

Another goalflash, ladies and gentlemen…

Manchester United 3 Newcastle United 1. Bruno Fernandes (penalty) 75 minutes 🙂

Excellent! Nice one, Bruno! Two-goal cushion while I get on with this blog. Got a bit of annual leave coming up, next weekend will be a long weekend for me as I have booked this coming Friday off (26th Feb – Ole’s birthday) and then 1st March as well. Then it won’t be too long until Easter, and then my birthday after that, when I will be 48. Only a couple of years to go to the Saga and Sun Life spam, lol!

(For those outside the UK, Saga is holidays (vacations) and Sun Life is insurance, but they’re both for people aged 50 or over, hence my jokes that I’m now only a few years away from receiving spam from these companies, ha ha!)

Full-time: Manchester United 3 Newcastle United 1. 🙂

Looking at the List Challenges lists, the list for books mentioned in February is currently at 69 books, the list for all the books mentioned in 2021 is currently at 147 books, and the Dear Reader book list is at 137 books. My list of books read this year is at 10 books and my new target is 15.

Wow! Where is this place?! Somewhere I need to live, lol! It’s obviously either a library or a bookshop, but it is clearly a place I need to visit!

Obviously I am in a stitchy mood of late, hence the bookmarks. I may as well use one of my hobbies to make something that comes in handy for one of my others! The latest two are just from stuff on Pinterest. The cubes pattern is broader in reality, but I am just doing a narrow section of it to serve as a bookmark. I like stuff like that, where I can just inprovise on a pattern. I choose suitable shades of floss from those I have available to me. I may have to get some more low-tack masking tape soon, though. I don’t think I’ve got much left and it’s what I use to stop the aida fraying.

Not got a lot else to mention, really. My shoulder feels better now, though. Dunno what happened yesterday, must have pulled something, I guess, but my left shoulder really hurt! Painkillers and some ibuprofen gel have done the trick.

Before I finish, though, I need to give you the answer to the quiz I set earlier. The line “I’ve even been to Selsey Bill” is featured in the song “Driving In My Car” by Madness. How did you get on? I actually have a book by that band – Before We Was We: The Making of Madness, which I need to get around to! Still on Bit of a Blur, though, as far as music autobiographies go.

I’ll be back before February is over for the monthly review, if nowt else, but until then, take care and Happy Reading!

Joanne x x x

Books mentioned in this blog entry…

• Sandettie Light Vessel Automatic – Simon Armitage
• The Channel – Charlie Connelly
• Dear Reader – Cathy Rentzenbrink
• A Little Life – Hanya Yanagihara
• A Single Thread – Tracy Chevalier
• Girl With a Pearl Earring – Tracy Chevalier
• The Lady and the Unicorn – Tracy Chevalier
• Before We Was We – Madness
• Bit of a Blur – Alex James

Not Suitable For Southampton Fans!

Good evening, fellow Bookworms!

Blogging during a match again, folks! If United could please make the most of having a numerical advantage on the pitch by sticking the ball in Southampton’s net, that would be much appreciated! Our opponents were reduced to ten men after just two minutes with Jankewitz getting a straight red card on his Premier League début for a dreadful tackle on McTominay…

Indeed, we have a goalflash to bring you…

Manchester United 1 Southampton 0. Aaron Wan-Bissaka 18 minutes. 🙂

Excellent stuff! Let’s add to that, lads! You get plenty of goals against the Saints while I waffle on about books, lol! In the meantime, while I keep everything crossed for my lads to increase their lead, welcome to yet another blog, and our first one for February 2021. My friend sent me the cartoon, and I thought it was good. Also, as you will find out, I am resuming a book about the history of gays in music, so it was kinda relevant! Oh, hello… looks like we’ve doubled the lead…

Manchester United 2 Southampton 0. Marcus Rashford MBE 25 minutes. 🙂

Nice one, Rashy! On the book front, as I wiffle on and on between football updates, I have a List Challenges list you can partake of. No, it’s not the Dear Reader one just yet, I’m afraid, although I am now halfway through putting the books on that list as I think I mentioned in the previous blog, but I have done a list of all the books I mentioned in January. I am still doing the list for the year, so you won’t see that until the end of December, obviously, but I had the idea of monthly lists of mentions, so I have done a “Books mentioned in January 2021” list and have created an empty list ready for this month’s book mentions.

Oh, and it’s all going Pete Tong for our visitors…

Manchester United 3 Southampton 0. Jan Bednarek (own goal) 34 minutes. 🙂

Got some progress reports on the Ongoing Concerns, and you might notice that a book from previous years is back on the agenda… yes, Breaking Down the Walls of Heartache, by Martin Aston, about how music came out, is back on the list of books being read, and 28% of the way through it now, and United are well in control of this match…

Manchester United 4 Southampton 0. Edinson Cavani 39 minutes. 🙂

Ooh, hang on Mum’s just shouting that it’s going to VAR but we might have a penalty… nope, not a penalty, but we do get a free kick.

Sadly, we didn’t score from it. On with the Ongoing Concerns, then…

Bit of a Blur, by Alex James, is at 21% and Cockfosters, by Helen Simpson is over halfway now, at 58% read. That one is a book of short stories, as I have mentioned, but most of my reads tend to be non-fiction, and the half-time whistle has just gone at Old Trafford, so I can get some more blogging done between the goals, lol! Obviously, I don’t mind, though. Good to see the lads boosting our goal difference.

Half-time: Manchester United 4 Southampton 0. 🙂

In recent blogs, of course, I have mentioned a lot about Charlie Connelly, and read two of his books last month, Bring Me Sunshine, and the re-read of Attention All Shipping, but it was when I was reading the first of these, on my Kindle, that he mentioned that Seathwaite, in Cumbria, is the rainiest inhabited place in Britain! Cumbria is England’s most mountainous region, which helps account for soggy Seathwaite, which is only 8 miles from Keswick.

Soggy Seathwaite, during a storm in the sixteenth century, was the site of a major discovery – graphite, which is how the Lake District has also become famous for the production of pencils, and Keswick is the location of a pencil museum, which I want to visit next time we get the chance, particularly as it boasts the world’s biggest pencil! Apparently, it is 26 feet long! That’s approximately 7.8 metres long if my sums are correct.

Second half is under way now…

Chief Bookworm does the maths… 26 feet… 1 foot is 30 centimetres, so 26 x 30 = 780 centimetres, thus 7.8 metres. That’s a bloody massive pencil, though, however you wish to measure it, lol!

Not the most practical item of stationery, though, and you would need an equally large pencil sharpener too, ha ha!

Dear United, another goal would be nice. Just saying…

Looks like they’ve taken the hint…

Manchester United 5 Southampton 0. Anthony Martial 69 minutes. 🙂

* sings * Tony Martial came from France, English press said he had no chance. Fifty million down the drain… Tony Martial scores again!

Manchester United 6 Southampton 0. Scott McTominay 71 minutes. 🙂

This is pretty epic! All goals so far have come from different players. Five of ours and an own goal by one of Southampton’s lads. If we can get at least another, BBC Sport will have to start getting the brackets out and writing the number in words after the numeral… “Match of the Day” is on later, that’s going to make pretty good viewing!

How about a seventh goal, United?

I’ve read seven books so far this year, talking of seven. I only actually need three more in order to publish a List Challenges list, so that is why I set my Goodreads Challenge at 10 books, although as I get near to or reach double figures, I will change that one. There are also seven books in a certain historical fiction series, of which I did read the first book a few years ago, but I could re-read it and continue with the series this time round.

I am, of course, referring to the Shardlake series by C. J. Sansom, of which I have read Dissolution. The remaining books are Dark Fire, Sovereign, Revelation, Heartstone, Lamentation and Tombland.

Southampton are now down to nine men! Jan Bednarek has been sent off, and United have a penalty… which has been scored… BBC Sport needs the brackets now! (See photo)

Manchester United 7 Southampton 0 Bruno Fernandes (penalty) 87 minutes 🙂

Manchester United 8 Southampton 0 Anthony Martial 90 minutes 🙂

Southampton will be pretty relieved that the final whistle has now been blown! It equals our Premier League record victory from 1995 when Ipswich Town made their fruitless trip to Old Trafford. To be fair to the Tractor Boys, though, they still had their full set of eleven men on the pitch. Southampton shot themselves in the foot early on from a disciplinary point of view and were down to ten men after a couple of minutes, and then made it even worse for themselves at the end by being reduced to nine!

I know I’ve blogged during matches before, but never during one which has developed into an out and out landslide victory! I wasn’t blogging way back in the 90s when we thrashed Ipswich. Also, I was at the match anyway. As we can’t go to games at the moment, I decided to chance blogging and it’s been a case of sneaking some words in and trying to discuss books between goal alerts! Then it just got crazy at the end and even Word Press couldn’t cope and I had to save the draft on my iPad as it was going a bit doolally!

Well, I’m going to settle down in front of the telly soon to watch highlights of our demolition of Southampton, so until I blog again, and get down to more of the nitty-gritty on the book front, take care and Happy Reading!

Joanne x x x

Books mentioned in this blog entry

• Dear Reader – Cathy Rentzenbrink
• Breaking Down the Walls of Heartache – Martin Aston
• Bit of a Blur – Alex James
• Cockfosters – Helen Simpson
• Bring Me Sunshine – Charlie Connelly
• Attention All Shipping – Charlie Connelly
• Dissolution – C. J. Sansom
• Dark Fire – C. J. Sansom
• Sovereign – C. J. Sansom
• Revelation – C. J. Sansom
• Heartstone – C. J. Sansom
• Lamentation – C. J. Sansom
• Tombland – C. J. Sansom

Lighthouses, Memes and More…

Good evening, fellow Bookworms!

It is indeed a good evening – had a lovely roast dinner from Blacksticks again, United are through to the 5th round of the FA Cup, and I have finished off my 5th book of the year, as I have just reached the end of And Now, the Shipping Forecast, by Peter Jefferson. Also, I now have 131 followers of this blog, so thank you all very much for following and for the likes!

On this day, 24th January 1999, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer scored the winning goal for Manchester United as my lads came from behind to beat Liverpool 2-1 in the 4th round of the FA Cup at Old Trafford…

22 years on, 24th January 2021, Ole has managed his United team to a 3-2 victory over the Scousers at Old Trafford in the 4th round of the FA Cup! We will be at home to West Ham United in the 5th round next month.

Only a week of January left now. 5 books read so far this year. Will I get a sixth read? My re-read of Attention All Shipping is currently at 40% so that is the best bet if I am going to get another read, although there is also Cockfosters, by Helen Simpson, which is a book of short stories, and I am a fair way into that.

Just been adding some books to my Goodreads Challenge – realised I hadn’t put the weather or shipping ebooks on, so I had to try to figure out the start and finish dates with the help of recent blogs, lol! As I said, five books read already this year, so I am already 50% of the way to my current target of 10. Will probably change the target as I go along. It was set low in case I want to read any big, chunky books, like historical fiction for instance – those books can be right chunky monkeys!

I’ve not forgotten that I was putting the books mentioned on Dear Reader on a list. That has been started and I will resume that and put some more books on there. However, there is an update for you regarding the list of books for this blog… as regular followers no doubt know, I am a big fan of List Challenges, and I create lists relating to this blog. Every year, I do a list of every book that I mention on these blogs during the course of that year. Already, the list for books mentioned on here during 2021 has reached 80 books, which is 2 full pages!

This is also why I only set my Goodreads Challenge target at 10 books – because you only need ten items to publish a list on List Challenges, so I feel that as long as I meet the minimum requirement for List Challenges, that will do. As I said, it would take the pressure off if I chose to read a particularly chunky book and it took me a while to finish it.

No, there’s no escape from them on here, folks! I love the Bernie memes, so there’s gonna be one or two on this blog! This one has a Photoshopped Bernie sitting behind the Pet Shop Boys. There’s one witb Prince coming up later…

I was gonna mention lighthouses, wasn’t I? The one in the photo at the top is our very own lighthouse here in Monton, at the side of the Bridgewater Canal and our medical centre! The light does actually work, although it is only ever switched on every now and then for special occasions. It’s purely decorative, as the speed limit on the canal is 4 mph and there’s little danger of any water-based vessels getting into any difficulties that would require a lighthouse!

In music, there was the group, The Lighthouse Family, who hailed from the north-east coast, and had a couple of notable hits in the 90s with “Lifted” and “Ocean Drive”, but I also wanted to give a mention to a song from the late 80s, a bit of a one-hit wonder called “Birdhouse in Your Soul” by They Might Be Giants. It’s sung from the perspective of a nightlight, but that light is obviously facing a picture of a lighthouse as one of the verses starts as follows…

“There’s a picture opposite me, of my primitive ancestry, which stood on rocky shores and kept the beaches shipwreck free.”

On TV, there was obviously “The Adventures of Portland Bill“ which I have mentioned in a recent blog, but I also wish to mention that, here in the UK, “Fraggle Rock” had a coastal setting. I understand that different versions for other countries had a mad inventor and his workshop on the other side of the rocks, and that there was a hole that led from the Fraggles to the workshop. However, in our version, the hole in the rock led to the living quarters of a lighthouse, and it was the lighthouse keeper who was the human star of the show in the UK, and who had the dog, Sprocket.

In literature, there is obviously To the Lighthouse, by Virginia Woolf, but there is another, probably less obvious connection between literature and lighthouses, but that connection is the Stevenson family from Scotland. Robert Stevenson and his family were lighthouse builders, and Robert was hugely responsible for the building of the Bell Rock Lighthouse. However, his grandson is also famous – he is, of course, Robert Louis Stevenson, author of Treasure Island!

In the book that I finished earlier this evening, Peter Jefferson was also mentioning the issue of false danger lights which would get ships into trouble rather than keeping them out of it, and said that this issue is mentioned in Jamaica Inn, by Daphne du Maurier. He also has a bit of a family link to Ms du Maurier as his copy of Jamaica Inn had belonged to his grandma, and when it was passed to him he found both a handwritten postcard and part of a typewritten letter, both from the author!

Jefferson also mentions some lighthouses that have been converted to hotels, or that have gone on the market for people to buy, including one in Anglesey, North Wales, which is often visited by a pod of dolphins. However, in foggy weather, with poor visibility, there is a foghorn that goes off every 45 seconds, so that might deter potential buyers, lol!

There are 150 working lighthouses around the whole of the UK and Republic of Ireland. Also, there are 27 no longer in use, and one listed as “disused”. However, there are also several in Ireland that are neither listed as working or as not working – are these Schrödinger’s Lighthouses?!

Anyway, moving on from lighthouses, working or otherwise, lol, I have also made a start on Bit of a Blur, by Alex James, as I got a copy from a charity shop a while ago, and it has been mentioned in the shipping forecast books due to “This is a Low”, so there is some connection to our main theme.

Actually, there is still a lighthouse link – my bookmark which I am currently using in Bit of a Blur, is one featuring the Monton Lighthouse!

I was thinking, just now, about some of the Ongoing Concerns I started in 2020 which need resuming, and thought perhaps Dead Wake, by Erik Larson, would be fairly relevant as it was about the sinking of the Lusitania.

There were a couple of novels I didn’t get around to starting, but both would feature journeys by sea. One was English Passengers, by Matthew Kneale, and the other was We, the Drowned, by Carsten Jensen. Not that I haven’t read anything set at sea, but I think the most recent fiction which met that criteria was possibly Jamrach’s Menagerie, by Carol Birch. There is also, of course, the one Booker Prize winner that I have ever read and enjoyed, and that was Life of Pi, by Yann Martel.

As you can see, this is the latest reading from my barometer app, and we are now back in the thousands! 1,000.83 hPa is still low pressure, but is heading in the right direction. Readings have been “rising slowly” as they would say late at night on Radio 4 when they go round the coastal stations. Obviously, I live inland, not near the coast, but there is a station at Liverpool, Crosby, which gets mentioned, and the barometer reading for that one is usually fairly similar to what it says on mine when it’s time for the Shipping Forecast, usually either a little bit higher or little bit lower, but not by much.

So, on with Attention All Shipping, and The Shipping Forecast, as we continue with the weather and shipping themes, and The Wrong Kind of Snow will continue during the course of the year. Time for Match of the Day on BBC1 now, though, so I might be a tad distracted with our 3-2 victory over the Scousers! Therefore, it’s probably best if I call it a day and get this published. More waffle coming up soon enough, lol, but until next time, take care and Happy Reading!

Joanne x x x

Books mentioned in this blog entry…

• And Now, the Shipping Forecast – Peter Jefferson
• Attention All Shipping – Charlie Connelly
• Cockfosters – Helen Simpson
• Dear Reader – Cathy Rentzenbrink
• To the Lighthouse – Virginia Woolf
• Treasure Island – Robert Louis Stevenson
• Jamaica Inn – Daphne du Maurier
• Bit of a Blur – Alex James
• Dead Wake – Erik Larson
• English Passengers – Matthew Kneale
• We, the Drowned – Carsten Jensen
• Jamrach’s Menagerie – Carol Birch
• Life of Pi – Yann Martel
• The Shipping Forecast – Nic Compton
• The Wrong Kind of Snow – Antony Woodward & Robert Penn

A Hazy Shade of Winter

Good evening, fellow Bookworms!

Back again for another blog! Not sure how long this one will be, but it’s because I need to give you an answer from last year, and I just realised, last night, after I had published the damn blog, that I had forgotten that I had set you a little puzzle from my final blog entry of 2020. Oops!

I had been mentioning “Britain’s Favourite Novels” which had been on Channel 5 during the Christmas holidays, and had given you some clues as to the novel voted number one on the list, saying that it was a book I had studied at school, and that the author of the said novel was featured on our current Bank of England £10 notes. So, to put you out of your misery, the answer was Pride and Prejudice, which was written by Jane Austen. How did you get on?

Today’s little teaser is the blog title – it’s a song, obviously, but who originally wrote and recorded it, and for a bonus point, lol, which all-girl band did a cover version of this song in 1988? I shall try to remember to give the answers at the end of this blog!

Anyway, I mentioned that I had started up the lists for this year, so the Joanne’s Bookshelf list of books mentioned in 2021 has 16 different books on it at the moment, the ones I mentioned in yesterday’s blog, and will no doubt have a few more added to it later, lol, but the list of books I have finished so far this year now has two books on it, as I polished off Post Office, by Charles Bukowski, which I quite enjoyed.

As to the other book, Dear Reader, I have started up a list, as I hinted I might do, which lists all the books and book series that Cathy Rentzenbrink mentions in her book. I need to put more on there, so it’s nowhere near done yet, but I will let you know when I have put all the books on and published the list so that you can have a go at checking off which books you have read from the many books she mentions.

I have actually registered for the Goodreads Challenge. Have set the number very low, at ten, as that is all you need on List Challenges in order to publish a list, but what I can do is change the target number as I get near to it or reach it. No idea how this year’s reading will pan out. At the moment, in tier 4, not much else to do other than read, lol, but as the year goes on, I’m hoping more and more of us get the jab and then something vaguely resembling “normal” will start to return. However, when there are other things to occupy my time, like being able to go back to footy matches, for instance, the reading could easily drop off, so we shall take the reading targets a bit at a time.

I think that’s partly why I got myself to sixty books last year. I’ve done it. A nice big amount, especially after only managing 20 in 2019, so I don’t care anymore! As long as I reach double figures each year, I can publish on List Challenges, which is very liberating, as it means that I could read some really chunky books, such as fantasy novels or historical fiction, and still have read enough books by the end of a calendar year to be able to publish the list!

As I have said before, challenges do tend to skew readers towards shorter books in order to get as many read in a year as possible. This is unfair on big books! They get left on people’s TBR lists and ignored year after year because they are chunky monkeys and the reader wants to get to however many books in a year as they have set their hearts on, and I know of bookworms who read 100 or more in a year.

I take a look at some of the books on my infamous TBR list and they are big books and I cannot lie, lol! Have you seen the size of The Priory of the Orange Tree, by Samantha Shannon? It’s bloody enormous! A chunky monkey if ever there was one! I have the hardback and it is massive. You could cause serious concussion if you were to hit someone on the head with that book! I also have it as an ebook, as I am not going to want to lug my physical copy around with me if I do start reading that novel.

Talking of ebooks, that brings me onto our photo at the top of my blog and an author I have previously enjoyed. Regular readers who have followed my blogs for some years may recall that I went to Mexico in 2013, a special holiday that year as it was my Big 40.

While I was in Mexico, chilling on beach beds and working my way through the extensive cocktail menu, as one does, I was also doing some reading, and one of the books I found at the resort was Attention All Shipping, by Charlie Connelly, which is a journey around the Shipping Forecast. I was enjoying this so much that I brought it home with me as I hadn’t quite finished it by the time Mum and I were heading to Cancun Airport and then flying back home to Manchester.

Anyway, I was on Facebook earlier this evening, on the book group I created back in 2008, I’d Spend All Day in Waterstone’s If I Could Get Away With It, and one of the members posted a photo of a book they were about to start, and it was Bring Me Sunshine, by Charlie Connelly, about the British weather. I was nearly tempted to call this blog The Many Facets of Fog, which is the title of chapter 17, and it made me laugh when I was reading the contents list, but I thought I would stick with my original decision to name this blog A Hazy Shade of Winter instead. That’s not to say that it won’t be used in a future blog, though!

Cockfosters, the book of short stories, by Helen Simpson, is now 42% read, so that one is coming along nicely. The thing about short stories is that I could read one story, go away and read another book altogether, and then return for another story. It will be read eventually, but could be spread out. I’ve also got True, by Martin Kemp, to get on with, and there is the matter of resuming books from last year or even previous years.

Also, as I have set my challenge very low, there is the thought that I could resume or start one of the many chunky monkeys – the big books with loads of pages to get through. I could even tackle the Shardlake series of historical fiction books, by C. J. Sansom, even if that might mean re-reading Dissolution to start with. I did read that one, but it was a few years ago, so I probably do need to start again if I am to then follow it up with the other books, Dark Fire, Sovereign, Revelation, Heartstone, Lamentation, and Tombland. The latter of those is a particularly large hardback, probably on a par, size-wise, with that Samantha Shannon book I was on about earlier, lol!

Then again, we are only on 3rd January, so there is loads of time ahead of us in 2021 to consider a series of chunky historical fiction novels and also get some other books read as well. One Hit Wonderland, by Tony Hawks, for example. I think I mentioned him towards the end of last year, as I had bought that book at a charity shop in Swinton just before our current lockdown, and had previously read and loved Round Ireland With a Fridge.

One Hit Wonderland focuses on the fact that Hawks and his mates, under the name of Morris Minor and the Majors, had had a UK top 5 hit with “Stutter Rap (No Sleep ‘Til Bedtime)” in early 1988, which reached number 4 in the charts and was essentially a comedy song parodying the Beastie Boys and other rap bands of their ilk, but had not had any further chart success since then, making them a one hit wonder. A friend has thus given Tony the challenge of having a chart hit anywhere in the world within a two year deadline. This book came out around 2002, my copy was from 2003, so I am guessing the two years were at the start of the noughties.

I am pretty sure that “Stutter Rap” is actually on one of the NOW LPs of the late 80s, actually! Indeed it is – just looked it up, and, as I thought, it is on NOW 11 which was released in the spring of 1988, 21st March to be exact, so I was 14 nearly 15 when that album came out. That will be 33 years ago come the springtime, so no wonder I feel old, lol!

Talking of 1988 and songs from 33 years ago, it brings me back to the bonus question from the teaser I set earlier, so now would be a good time to give you the answers, wouldn’t it?! I wrote about “A Hazy Shade of Winter” and asked who wrote, recorded and performed the original version, and who had a cover version of it in the charts in early 1988? It was originally written and recorded by Simon & Garfunkel, and the 80s cover version was by The Bangles. How did you get on?

Well, that’s about it for now, I think. All answers given to all quizzes, so no outstanding ones to give you, lol! I’m back in work tomorrow, well, working from home, obviously, but it will be my first working day of the new year. I will be back sooner or later with more book news, but until next time, take care and Happy Reading!

Joanne x x x

Books mentioned in this blog entry…

• Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen
• Post Office – Charles Bukowski
• Dear Reader – Cathy Rentzenbrink
• The Priory of the Orange Tree – Samantha Shannon
• Attention All Shipping – Charlie Connelly
• Bring Me Sunshine – Charlie Connelly
• Cockfosters – Helen Simpson
• True – Martin Kemp
• Dissolution – C. J. Sansom
• Dark Fire – C. J. Sansom
• Sovereign – C. J. Sansom
• Revelation – C. J. Sansom
• Heartstone – C. J. Sansom
• Lamentation – C. J. Sansom
• Tombland – C. J. Sansom
• One Hit Wonderland – Tony Hawks
• Round Ireland With a Fridge – Tony Hawks

With Logs on the Fire and Gifts on the Tree…

Good evening, fellow Bookworms…

“With logs on the fire and gifts on the tree, a time to rejoice in the good that we see.” Those are your lyrics for the last blog lyrics quiz before Christmas! Let’s see how we get on… Answer coming later, all I will say for now is that it’s from a festive chart-topper here in the UK back when I was a teenager…

‘Twas the Blog before Christmas, and all through the house… oops, sorry, Chief Bookworm is stirring, and there isn’t a mouse, lol! Just me and my usual waffle, with some mention of books. I know we did the review of the year on Sunday, but I have since finished Skipping Christmas, by John Grisham, so that’s 53 books read this year with just over a week of 2020 left, and I am currently over a third of the way theough Festive Spirits, by Kate Atkinson, which is a book of 3 seasonal short stories.

I bought that one last year, very likely from Waterstone’s, and £1 from every copy was going to Sightsavers. The John Grisham book was bought on t’internet. Will definitely be reading it again, as I will also be doing with Hogfather. Two books to become seasonal re-reads.

I certainly plan to blog between Christmas and New Year. Firstly, I’m off on 30th and 31st December, so I need something to do, ha ha, and, secondly, you’ll need to know the final total of books read this year, which books I may have given others, and the List Challenges list will need publishing so you can see how many different books have been mentioned on these blogs during 2020. Put it this way, it’s a decent-sized list. No, it’s not like the massive one I published in August, not that long, lol, but it’s still sizeable.

I hope you can tell I’d been to the salon – had a perm yesterday evening, so Chief Bookworm is all curly for Christmas, lol! Was a bit of a numpty and forgot to take my phone to the salon, but then that gave me the chance to get on with Skipping Christmas, and I got a lot of it read at Monton Hair and Beauty, and then finished it off at home afterwards.

That’s enough festive reading matter mentioned for now, though, as we need to give some serious thought to what might get read in 2021. There will certainly be some Ongoing Concerns resumed, and I’m thinking that Sapiens, Dead Wake and Gould’s Book of Fish will be amongst them. Those three are quite chunky, so there will be some shorter OCs resumed, too.

Probably Blanket, by Kara Thompson, from the Object Lessons series of books. It’s pretty short, only 132 pages and a small-sized book from the physical point of view. Also, blankets are much needed in the winter, so even if I resume it now, it makes logical sense if I’m still reading about blankets in January.

Looking at a pile of books, I can see one of them is The Beach Hut, by Veronica Henry, and I started that and got some way into it a year or so ago, I even made a cross-stitched bookmark with a beach hut on it, so it needs resuming at some point. However, I don’t really see that as a winter book, as you can imagine! Not that it won’t get read in 2021, but if I did resume it, it wouldn’t be one for the immediate future, more like in the spring or summer.

I can also see Manchester, England, by Dave Haslam, a book I acquired and started reading some years ago, lol! It’s one of my signed books, actually. Met him at an event at Waterstone’s on Deansgate around the time the book was out, and he signed it. That one needs resuming. It’s basically the history of Manchester in terms of it being a city that loves entertainment in general, although a lot of that entertainment is of the musical variety!

My edition of Manchester, England, was published in 1999! The year United did the Treble and our current manager put the ball in the Germans’ net in Barcelona! It was also the year I started work in town as a civil servant at the Disability Benefits Centre, pretty much around the same time that United did the Treble. I started the job the day after we won the league. Then it was the FA Cup Final at the end of that first week, and then I had to take unpaid leave (I was a casual at the time and hadn’t built up any leave as I had just started) to go to Barcelona for the Champions’ League Final. Best night of my life!

I think the book signing was either in 1999 or 2000, I was working in town, and still living at my previous address, and there were still four of us at home back then, Mum, Dad, me and Ellie! Shows you how long ago I got that book, doesn’t it, lol! It was a joint event, as Miranda Sawyer was also there signing copies of her book, Park and Ride, which I still have somewhere, although I don’t have a clue whereabouts it is. It could well be in one of my wardrobe units or in the book chest in the garage. I will probably find it one day when I’m trying to find some other book, as that’s how things work round here, lol!

Let’s go back to some more books that were started before I went onto the festive reads. I’ve got a LOT of Ongoing Concerns, but if I focus on those I mentioned earlier – Sapiens, Dead Wake, Gould’s Book of Fish, and Blanket, and also resume these three, it would get seven books off the list! The three I’m about to mention are The Optician of Lampedusa, by Emma Jane Kirby, Tau Zero, by Poul Anderson, and Being Mortal, by Atul Gawande.

Let’s not forget that I also have some unfinished business on my Kindle, so I will need to look at some of the Ongoing Concerns of the ebook variety too, lol! There was The Disappearing Spoon, by Sam Kean, A Strange Manuscript Found in a Copper Cylinder, by James de Mille, and Breaking Down the Walls of Heartache, by Martin Aston.

I do have that latter one as a physical book as well, but it’s big and chunky, so having it as an ebook made sense. It’s why I have a few other Chunky Monkeys as ebooks as well as physical books, for instance A Little Life, by Hanya Yanagihara, and The Priory of the Orange Tree, by Samantha Shannon. That one is HUGE, so when I finally get around to attempting it, at least I have it on my Kindle as well as a physical edition!

I do need to tackle more of the Chunky Monkeys, which is one of the big reasons that I stopped doing the Goodreads Challenge. I feel that skews you towards shorter books so you can get more read in a year, and it’s fair to say a lot of book challenges are like that. What I like about List Challenges is that the minimum number of items you can list in order to publish a list is ten things, so essentially, as long as I get into double-figures, that’s OK!

Someone needs to do a chunky books challenge! Perhaps the “I Like Big Books and I Cannot Lie” challenge, where you read the larger, thicker books on your TBR lists. This would be particularly beneficial for those who enjoy either historical fiction or fantasy fiction, as both genres are known for large books! Talking of the chunkies, I’ve got Fall of Giants, by Ken Follett, on top of one of my book piles, and I think I did start that a year or two ago, so I could attempt that one in the coming year.

If we have any more lockdowns, going for the chunky monkeys might be a wise strategy on the reading front, lol! I think the current age group for being vaccinated is the 80s and over, so it’ll be a while yet before it gets to those of us in our late 40s, thus I’ll need some good books while I wait to get the call-up! Even in April when it’s my next birthday, I’ll still have a couple of years to go to the Big 50.

Talking of which, I know it’s a year or two off, but I have things in mind for 2023. Chief Bookworm’s Half Century needs some special book-related events on the blog. Obviously, more about that nearer the time, but one idea is for me to read at least some books that were published in the year I was born, so that the books will also be 50 years old in that same year.

At this point, I think it is fair to say that this is the final blog before 25th, and I think that’s about all for now, except to give you the answer to the lyrics quiz, which was “Mistletoe and Wine” by Sir Cliff Richard, and it was Christmas number one in 1988. So, with that done, it just remains for me to wrap this up and wish all my followers a Merry Christmas! Until after we’ve opened our pressies, take care and Happy Reading!

Joanne x x x

Books mentioned in this blog entry…

• Skipping Christmas – John Grisham
• Festive Spirits – Kate Atkinson
• Hogfather – Sir Terry Pratchett
• Sapiens – Yuval Noah Harari
• Dead Wake – Erik Larson
• Gould’s Book of Fish – Richard Flanagan
• Blanket – Kara Thompson
• The Beach Hut – Veronica Henry
• Manchester, England – Dave Haslam
• Park and Ride – Miranda Sawyer
• The Optician of Lampedusa – Emma Jane Kirby
• Tau Zero – Poul Anderson
• Being Mortal – Atul Gawande
• The Disappearing Spoon – Sam Kean
• A Strange Manuscript Found in a Copper Cylinder – James de Mille
• Breaking Down the Walls of Heartache – Martin Aston
• A Little Life – Hanya Yanagihara
• The Priory of the Orange Tree – Samantha Shannon
• Fall of Giants – Ken Follett