TSS: Blog reading

It’s Sunday once again. This week has been crazy for me. I’ve attended several college open evenings and I’ve also been doing work experience at one of my local libraries (I still have another week to go). It’s been an eye-opening experience that’s probably deserving of a longer post someday when I get round to it.

To be honest, there’s rather a lot of things that are deserving of posts that I just haven’t written about…I think a concentrated effort to my act together is in order?

In fact, I’ve already started on that by rearranging my book blog subscriptions. I subscribe to more book blogs than all other blogs combined (and that’s quite a few!) so keeping on top of them is a nightmare. I know I’m guilty of feeling that I’ll never be able to read every entry and therefore not bothering, but I also know that I need to read book blogs because otherwise, I’d never have anything to read!

The solution I’m trying out is to have one folder for my favourite book blogs, which I plan to read every day. All the others have been divided into folders for each day of the week. There’s currently a large backlog, but hopefully, I should be able to work through it and also keep on top of new posts.

What about you? Do you have a strategy for dealing with book blog buildup?

Monday Musings: Reading Music

Today’s MUSING MONDAYS post is about reading music…

Do you listen to music while reading? Does this change if you’re reading in or out of your house? Do you have a preference of music for such occasions?

I sometimes listen to music and other times not. I have a thing about only listening to music when I’m by myself in my room (with rare exceptions), so that’s the only place I listen and read at the same time, though I do often like to read downstairs in the lounge (though strangely, reading is another thing I don’t like to do in private).

As for what I listen to, it varies. Probably most often is the radio, which means that I’m mostly listening to adverts, I suppose…haw haw haw. I sometimes put a CD on (Maximo Park pretty much live in my CD player, but I also have a lot of Einaudi which is great for reading with). I do use my MP3 player, but I find it harder to have music as background music if it’s being piped straight into my skull through earphones, so that tends to be for when I’m doing other things that don’t require as much concentration.

(Having written that, I’ve just thought that I often use my MP3 player when I’m doing my homework…oops?)

What about you? Do you listen to music as you read?

Illness, and blog aims

So I’ve missed out on a few days of BBAW, which is something of a shame. Unfortunately, I’ve been under the weather somewhat and I’ve spent the last few days lying in bed or staring at a television screen while guzzling cold and flu tablets. I’m glad to say I’m feeling a lot better today, but I’ve missed out on some of the fun and now I have a feedreader backed up rather too many entries.

Thank you so much to all those who commented on my interview with Deb and my other posts! It means a lot and I’ll get round to reciprocating that ASAP.

Today’s BBAW meme is to write 50 words or less about what you love most about your blog and then 50 words or less about where you hope to be in a year’s time. This is a really good one for me as I’ve been thinking a lot this week about where I could go with blogging and the things I could do. BBAW has given me a lot of inspiration and I now have a lot more ideas about what I’d like to do in the next 12 months and I’ll probably write a post on it fairly soon.

And so, without further ado, it’s onto the meme:

What I love most about my blog is looking back at entries I wrote a while ago and seeing what I thought about books at that time and how time has changed my recollections.

In 12 months’ time, I’d like to be posting more often, commenting more on other people’s blogs (and generally more involved in the community) – and reading a lot!

BBAW – Blog recommendations

Today (as probably everyone reading this post already knows) is the start of Book Blogger Appreciation Week! Today’s meme is to share favourite blogs that perhaps didn’t make it to the shortlist. First, though, I’m going to kick off with a list of new blogs I’ve discovered from reading other people’s recommendations (though I’m sure there’ll be more to come!):

• Fresh Ink Books
• Breaking the Spine
• The 3 Rs Blog
• Devourer of Books
• At Home with Books
• Reading Proust in Foxborough
• Life and Times of a ‘New’ New Yorker

And now for a few of my favourite book blogs:

• The Bluestocking Society – if I had to count how many books I’ve read or wanted to read after seeing them on Jessica’s blog, I’d have to borrow a few extra hands ‘cos I haven’t got enough fingers. She also does amazing work on the Book Blog Guild.
• The Book Lady’s Blog – a few people have already mentioned the hilarity of Rebecca’s Adventures in Bookselling series and I have to agree. I also love how chatty she is and her posts never fail to interest me.
• The Boston Bibliophile – I don’t share all of Marie’s tastes (I’m not interested in graphic novels, for example), but her reviews are always interesting and I’ve picked up a few books I wouldn’t normally have gone for after reading them.
• Restless Reader – not maniacally active, but it was the first book blog I started to read and for that reason, it deserves a place in this list.

Share your recommendations here or in the comments!

Musing Mondays – Publishing House

Today’s MUSING MONDAYS post is about publishing houses …

Do you have a favourite publishing house — one that puts out books that you constantly find yourself wanting to read? If so, who? And, what books have they published that you’ve loved? (question courtesy of MizB)

Publishing houses have absolutely no effect on what I choose to read. Many of the books I read are from reviews online, and I don’t often see the book cover or know who the publisher is before I actually get a copy. I pick up a lot of books in charity shops too, but it’s the title that has the biggest effect on whether or not I choose to pick it up and the blurb that decides whether or not I actually read it.

What about you? Do you notice or care about the publisher of a book?

TSS on Monday

Okay, so I really should’ve got myself organised and done this yesterday when I meant to, but I didn’t. I’ve been away (a week on a narrowboat on the Leeds-Liverpool canal) so it’s time for a holiday reading wrap-up.

I read 7 books while we were away, which sounds like a lot, but you get a lot of time to read when you’re not doing locks! Here they are:

• Morvern Callar by Alan Warner
• Memoirs of an Invisible Man by H.F. Saint
• The Rotters’ Club by Jonathan Coe
• Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café by Fannie Flagg
• Marabou Stork Nightmares by Irvine Welsh
• Kissing in Manhattan by David Schickler
• Anonymous Lawyer by Jeremy Blanchman

I also read about half of The Chelsea Girl Murders by Sparkle Hayter but gave up on it.

In Skipton, we visited a bargain bookshop (much recommended – take a look if you’re ever there, it’s right on the high street) and I picked up a couple:

• Anonymous Lawyer, as I said – a book made up of the blog and emails of a fictitious hiring partner at a major law firm
• American Gangster by Mark Jacobson
• The Girl Who Stopped Swimming by Joshilyn Jackson
• Nice Girls Finish Last by Sparkle Hayter – another Robin Hudson mystery. I bought this before I started The Chelsea Girl Murders, and I’m getting rid of it unread, but it was only 99p so I can’t feel too bad about it.
• The Next Accident by Lisa Gardner – I enjoyed The Survivors’ Club, so hopefully this should be another good mystery/thriller.
• True Crime by Jake Annott

For once, I remembered to write down some notes about the books after I read them, so I’ll be posting some reviews soon.

Musing Mondays: Covers

Today’s MUSING MONDAYS post is about book covers…

We all know the old adage about not judging a book by it’s cover, but just how much sway does a book cover have when it comes to your choice of book – whether buying or borrowing? Are there any books you’ve bought based on the cover alone?

Book covers don’t really hold much sway with me. A good deal of the books I read I end up with without even having seen them: I’ll read a review online and then mooch it or reserve it at the library. When I’m buying books, I tend to go for the titles as I find them much more intriguing than the covers. I find pictures very difficult to interpret (reading Maus was incredibly hard for me; no wonder I’m so bad with graphic novels) so I tend to stick to the text. I’d be just as happy if all books had plain white covers with black writing, except for the fact that they’d be harder to find on the shelf (though it would look a lot neater, you have to admit).

I do occasionally look up books after having seen the covers, but very rarely, and even then if I don’t like the title, I won’t look it up, and if the synopsis doesn’t interest me, I won’t go for it. All that artwork is wasted on me!

What about you? Do you judge books by their covers?

Musing Mondays: TBR pile

How many books (roughly) are in your tbr pile? Is this in increasing number or does it stay stable? Do you ever experience tbr anxiety in the face of this pile? (question courtesy of Wendy)

Well, my physical TBR pile takes up two shelves: one jam-packed and with books on top (I arrange my TBR pile by genre, but I have a disproportionate number of murder books) and one with a little more space on. I also have a total of 82 books in my bookmooch wishlist/save-for-later list, plus another few lists floating around with probably about another 20 books on them each.

My lists are definitely increasing, but the amount on my TBR pile is actually fairly stable. I put this down to rarely reading anything that’s not come from it – I don’t reread much, and I have very limited access to public libraries so I don’t tend to get much from there.

Do I face anxiety? Oddly enough, no. I know that I’m working through the pile, and I know that I’ll never read most of the books on my lists, but those books aren’t staring at me so I can happily forget about them. If I did somehow manage to buy them all, though, then I might be reduced to a quivering heap on the floor.

What about you? Do you get anxious about how many books you have on your TBR pile?

The Sunday Salon

It’s been a funny week for reading. I’ve started 3 new books this week (and can’t remember what else I’ve been reading) and haven’t really gotten very far into any of them. Here they are:

You Shall Know Our Velocity by Dave Eggers is absolutely excellent so far. In a nutshell, it’s the story of two men who travel – or try to – around the world giving away – or trying to – a huge sum of money. I read A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius and loved it for the amazing writing style, and this is just as good if not even better. I haven’t got particularly far into it, though, because I decided to stop reading it last thing at night because it kept me up for hours thinking of all the places I’d like to travel to. A silly reason, but it’s true.

My edition of The Bonfire of the Vanitites by Tom Wolfe has a much less interesting cover. I’ve really read only the first four or five pages, and mean to read more but last night I was seized with a desire to pick up a mystery, so chose Booked to Die. I’ve not read much of this one either, but it looks like it’s going to be one I’ll really, really enjoy. Tomorrow is a bank holiday, and while I have a very long list of things I should be doing, I’m pretty sure I’ll manage to find some time for reading, and I’ll be continuing with these three.

Disappointments

One of the reasons I rarely participate in bookish memes is that I never remember to take part until I’ve seen everyone else’s posts, by which time it’s too late. Having read a couple of people’s answers to this week’s BTT, though, I’m inspired to add my views, even though it’s Saturday. So, here goes:

Which is worse?  Finding a book you love and then hating everything else you try by that author, or reading a completely disappointing book by an author that you love?

Out of those two, a completely disappointing book by an author I love is much worse for me. I prefer to read new authors, rather than sticking to old favourites, and so in order to have carried on reading the same person’s work, I have to like them a lot. Reading disappointing books by authors I like always feels a bit like a betrayal.

However, I’d argue that an author you expect to be good and turns out to be terrible is even worse. I’m thinking of Douglas Coupland. I read a synopsis of Girlfriend in a Coma and excitedly ordered it from the library, convinced it was going to be brilliant. One book later, it turned out to be mediocre. Undeterred, I recently read The Gum Thief, which turned out to be just as boring as you’d expect a book about office superstores to be (though if I’d expected it to be boring, I probably wouldn’t have read it). I still have Jpod waiting for me on my shelf, but I’m not sure now whether or not to bother with it – two disappointments is enough for me, I think.

An example of the first disappointment given is Christopher Brookmyre. I read The Sacred Art of Stealing and if I made a list of my favourite books – and I’m sure you fellow bibliophiles can empathise with how difficult that would be – then it would probably be in it. After reading it, I stocked up on his books in a charity shop and have since read Quite Ugly One Morning, Not the End of the World and One Fine Day in the Middle of the Night and they’ve all failed to be anywhere near as good as The Sacred Art of Stealing. I still have Country of the Blind, A Tale Etched in Blood and Hard Black Pencil, Boiling a Frog and All Fun and Games Until Somebody Loses an Eye, but unfortunately, I’m expecting that they’re going to be the same.