My Green Book of Quotes

Carin, from A Little Bookish got me thinking about quotes in one of her coffee chats a couple of weeks ago. When I am reading, I rarely stop to think of quotes or to write them down, but this time it’s going to be different. Why? Because half an hour ago I decided that I was going to write them down in my little green book of quotes.

To mark the beginning of My Green Book of Quotes I thought I’d share one with you. I’d noted this one down a while ago and only just lately come across it.

It was a usual midday university scene, but as I sat watching it with renewed attention, I became aware of something. In his or her own way, every one I saw before me looked happy. Whether they were really happy or just looked happy, I couldn’t tell. But they did look happy on this pleasant afternoon in late September, and because of that I felt a kind of loneliness new to me, as if I were the only one who was not truly part of the scene.

- Haruki Murakami (Norwegian Wood, p. 103)

 [I wrote happiness instead of loneliness which I only just noticed typing it out!]

I used to keep a hand written record of my books and things in an A4 sized notebook, but I’ve transferred that to Goodreads. This blog is another way I have to remind myself of my reading journey. Yet, it occurred to me – even though I have my Ereader… how much I miss something hand written, something accessible whenever, where ever and real. My hand writing isn’t so good but maybe in many years time I will appreciate looking through a book of quotes and seeing what I felt was relevant at the time, or what marked something out in me as important or interesting.

I have never been one to keep a personal diary, what would it consist of? I got up, I did exactly the same as I did yesterday: nothing special or out of the ordinary. However, I have always thought that things like these – quotes, book reviews, reading records… are still a sort of personal journal or diary of sorts because how it reflects on you at the time.

Does anyone else keep a hand written record of what they read, or anything like that. In this digital age, everything seems to get done on a computer screen – even reading!

I didn’t read the same things ten years ago as I do today, and in ten years from now, who knows what I’ll be reading? With each experience in life, will my reading change – will certain passages mean more or less to me as they did then? Can I track my life through books and quotes? My kind of internal journal as it were – from my subconscious.

Review Ratings

Back when I started this blog I decided upon a five star rating system and explained it here. At first I was quite happy with my system. I like ratings as they help you record how much you liked it or not so you can look back down the line and see what you thought of the book at the time. They are also useful for other people, in that it gives them a general idea of how much you liked the book and they help colour the review.

Yet, lately I have been feeling confused. Five stars is sometimes not enough because I could give two different books four stars but still like one of them significantly more then the other. I have been thinking that I should change my rating system for my blog. For the last few reviews deciding upon a rating has been very difficult and quite uncomfortable.

However, I have no idea how I want to change it, because I still feel as if I need some kind of visual representation if how I feel about a book. Perhaps I should move the rating to the bottom of the review rather then at the top, like I have seen in many other books? Then it would put less of a relevance on the rating itself.

Or maybe I should rate books out of ten rather then five, because there is not enough leeway with five stars. On the other hand, that feels too complicated and will have me thinking even more about how many numbers award the book.

Perhaps I should replace stars with words? Or perhaps a wordle of words I would use to describe it? Or maybe colours? Something that just represents my feelings on a simple, visual level.

This for example? Just a simple wordle containing some adjectives that relate to how I feel? I think I’m starting to sway towards this idea. Choosing a star rating would be easier perhaps but it’s also fairly restrictive.

I’m still contemplating. I started this blog post not really knowing what I was going to say, or decide on other then to discuss a change of rating system. I feel that after coming back from my unexpected blogging break, that I wanted to change the way I review books because it was one of the things that was causing me some frustration.

I’m in the mood for refreshment and turning over a new leaf. Is anyone else going through some blog refurbishments?

Writing the Blog

Image thanks to Wordle

How do you write your blog?

I’m just sitting here wondering, how do other people write their blogs and what do you get from it? We all have different methods of going about things. Lately I have been going through some Writer’s Block, or Blogger’s Block and whatever I say just comes out as a mangle – well I suppose to me anyway. Maybe it’s a kind of Writer’s dysmorphia where everything I put down looks like it’s been written by a semi-literate five year old. Fortunately I am getting back on track but unfortunately I have a small pile of uncompleted and need-to-start blog posts that I need to write including the last two Harry Potter review blogs so apologies for the higgle-de-piggledy-ness of it all!

So, dear readers, I have some questions for you all:

1. Do you plan each blog post before you even start writing it? If so how – on a piece of paper or on your computer?
2. Do you take notes whilst you are reading purposely to help with writing your review?
3. Do you have a special format for writing reviews so they all have a similar structure to them all?
4. Do you write a lot of blog posts in advance or do you just write them and then publish them the same day?
5. What do you do when you just can’t think of anything to write – have you found some books harder to review then others?
6. What inspires you when writing a blog post?
7. Do you try to aim for a certain style, or voice or do you just let whatever is inside you flow naturally? Casual as opposed to a more formal essay-mode style?
8. How long does it typically take you to write a blog post? Do you post it immediately or later?
9. Are you using Blogger or Wordpress – or anything else? What made you choose that service over the other? Have you used any other blogging websites other then the one you’re using now?
10. Where do you write it? Do you use a blog editor like Scribefire or Windows Live Writer? Do you save the initial body to a Word document or do you just write and edit it online?
11. How has your blog changed since you first started it?

To answer my own questions:

1. I don’t sit down and plan everything I post but I often write and re-write it as I go. I’m a pretty rotten planner – never really been able to because I need to see something in its shape before I can really decide what I want to do. So often the first thing I do is just write something fairly rough out and then go back through it and fill in the gaps.

2. No but I often think I should. Sometimes if I leave a review too long and I lose the immediacy of my reaction to the book. Notes would help me jog my memory about how I felt.

3. No, I also think I should try and structure my reviews more. I’ve never been very good at structure because I’m not very good at planning. I usually try to add structure in after I’ve written it – by re-editing it, moving paragraphs around when I float from one thought to the other.

4. No I don’t really – well, yes and no. I have several drafts I’m still writing but I don’t have any completed ones ready and waiting to be posted.

5. Some books are easier to review because I have more to say about them but some books I find hard – because I don’t like talking too much about them due to spoilers. Some books I just plain enjoyed but didn’t resound too deeply with me. If I’m going through writer’s block then I try to write something else, something fresh. If I just sit there trying to force myself to write something it never comes out how I want it. I tend to go off on tangents and ramble a lot and that causes me to lose my way.

6. Inspiration comes from the books I’m reading, other blogs and lately chatting on twitter to all the other bloggers. I really love twitter and it’s a great way to connect with people, plus very interesting to just watch conversations between people.

7. I don’t write formally, but I do try to have a more open, conversational style I suppose. When I’m communicating on message boards etc I even add in a lot of the ums and ers because I tend to just let my fingers type whatever is in my head. On a blog I suppose I might edit those out and I round them off a bit because in the end, a blog is more self indulgent and I am writing with the aim that it’s going to be read.

8. It can take anywhere between half an hour to a couple of hours – but then I might write it in spots and spurts throughout the day or I might sit for a solid amount of time to write it all out.

9. I chose Blogger because it was the one I knew about and it seems the easiest. I did sign up to Wordpress who at the time had a better choice of themes and customisations but it felt complicated and I was used to Blogger.

10. I use Windows Live Writer myself but there are others like Scribefire which you install to your browser and you can just hit F8 and it will pop up however you want it – full screen in another tab or split screen so you can blog and browse websites without switching between tabs. I liked Scribefire but had problems with the titles coming out mangled when I published. I admit I haven’t really used it much since because Windows Live Writer I just find so much easier. It’s a programme that you install to your computer and I find it so much easier to use. I like how you get a full screen to write in rather then that annoying little box.

11. My blog’s only been around for about three months now. Before I used to take part in more memes like the blogger hop and that but I’ve cut down on those now a bit mainly because otherwise it’d all be just too samey. I have a little bit more confidence now and not bothered about making a post every day. I’ve met some fantastic bloggers out there and it’s great feeling more part of the community. I kinda have more of a ‘feeling’ for my blog now and less floaty. How it’ll be in a year’s time though is anyone’s guess!

So how do you write your blog and one last question… what does your blog mean to you?

Unputdownables’ 48 Hour Readathon

I had good fun taking part in this, more fun really for following the book blog chat on twitter and feeling like I was reading with people in some joint effort. I didn’t really get much read over the weekend as I was hoping. I think the moment I try to set out to read a lot I go slower then planned, but I did read about 282 pages over the weekend, and for such a slow coach as myself, I’m going to pat myself on the back.

I mentioned in my previous blog post what I have been reading – I am still reading Trespass by Rose Tremain which I’m actually really enjoying and if I hadn’t been trying to read like a cheetah, I might have read less like a snail and finished. But there you go! That serves me right for impatience.

Over July I finished off Magic Kingdom, then stormed through the whole Harry Potter series and chomped through Eight Days of Luke by Diana Wynne Jones and The Housekeeper and the Professor making up a total of 9 and a bit books which is pretty damn good for me. All together that is 3920 pages. I wish I could do that more often but as I said, I am a snail. I am more molluscan then avian, I should have chosen a different theme for by blog then being ‘The Book Coop’.

I still have to complete my review for The Housekeeper and the Professor (five stars, loved it, magnificent, read it!) never mind the two remaining Harry Potter books. I’m feeling very overwhelmed all of a sudden! So apologies for not being able to link to them at the moment.

I find the problem with being a British/European blogger is that the vast majority of people I know through blogs, Twitter, Goodreads come from the USA which means that I miss out on some of the activity unless I try to exist in all three time zones within the US as well as my own time zone… it is all rather exhausting to say the least. I am a bit of a night owl I admit, but when I wake up the next day I am rather too groggy and the old brain takes a little while to get back into gear – usually waking up in the late evening when I should be getting to bed early.

However, this is what I love about the internet – how international we all are and we can get to know each other even though we’re sitting on opposite sides of the world. How else could I sit down and read here – knowing that someone else, was doing the exact same thing with a different book, but for the same purpose – somewhere around the other side of the world? Not just between England and the USA, but across different parts of Europe and Asia too.

People criticise twitter for various reasons – dumbing down of society, trivialising communication, etc. That might happen on other people’s twitter feeds, but I certainly haven’t noticed it. I feel so much more connected via twitter – with the whole world. It’s like a massive group chat across the globe where everyone is invited. It connects people, it doesn’t trivialise or divide. It is not full of inane text language, in fact it probably helps people to become more articulate because each word has to be considered.

Anyway, I’ve really enjoyed taking part in this, especially the #bookblogchat which I wish I could have taken more part in. Only trouble is, the more time I spend staring at twitter, less reading I get done! I think Wallace from Unputdownables is scheduling another blogger chat like this in August though so I shall be keeping a watch out for that. 

I did sit down and read my heart out, I didn’t bother trying to multi-read because I’m no good at that and never have been and it never works so I don’t. I just sat down in the knowledge that others were doing the same and read my 282 pages feeling very happy. I have read so much over the past month and it’s made me more then eager to read more and more and more and try to get this dread TBR pile down to something respectable again.

I do wish I’d picked up the non-fiction I tried multi-reading with though, I really need to get back into that. Natasha’s Dance by Orlando Figues is very good and very interesting and it’s really making me want to pick up another Russian. So that is my one regret that I didn’t find time to read a few pages of that in the least.

I hope everyone else that took part in this had a lot of fun and got a lot of books read, or just sat down and read, read, read and enjoyed their wonderful book. I love reading, I love giving myself to a book and I love it when a book receives me whole heartedly and completely. It’s the best ever of feelings.

The Big Fail

You know that uhm… book ban I was telling you all about and how I’d lasted five weeks and all that rubbish? I was probably in my seventh or so week which for me is actually not that bad. Admittedly I was getting a bit big for my boots, boasting I could go into a bookshop unscathed and that I wasn’t even really feeling the pangs.

I failed. I joined the book ban over at 25 Hour Books which meant I was supposed to give up books for the month of June and well… here I am. I fell off the wagon. I purchased books from Waterstones.

I shouldn’t have gone in, I know, I know. I am weak. I am stupid. I kidded myself that I could be strong, that I could cope being in a bookshop without buying. I’d done it before so why not now? I have no excuses really. Apart from the fact they were playing some truly atrocious music that made it hard to really look at a book. So I just bought them so I could look at them later. Had they not been playing that awful music, I would probably have spent a few minutes looking through the books and been satisfied with that. As I couldn’t concentrate for more then five seconds though and I couldn’t be satisfied by a brief perusal, I had to leave with four tucked under my arm.

The products of my failure:

Twenty Years After

The Vicomte De Bragelonne

Louise De La Valliere

by Alexandre Dumas

 

This completes my Three Musketeer collection – I already own The Three Musketeers and The Man in the Iron Mask. I have been desiring these three for a long time and thought that once I get around to re-reading the Three Musketeers I would get these from the library… well when I saw them in the shop, in one of my favourite editions (Oxford World Classics) and all together… I couldn’t resist myself.

I

  The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa

This one realy isn’t my fault… it’s the Japanese Reading Challenge's fault for making me want to read more Japanese literature. Anyway, isn’t it just the most beautiful cover? It looks really good as well, I almost fell into reading it yesterday, but of course I have to finish reading Harry Potter first. It might be my next one… maybe.

 

 

I also received a book from Liz, over from Consumed by Books because she had heard of my recent obsession with anything Japanese.

 

 The Private Papers of Eastern Jewel by Maureen Lindley

You can read Liz’s review here. I’m looking forward to reading this hopefully soon…

I’m becoming very excited about my TBR (which is now towering at 419, oops) seeing as I have been on a long break from it and I have been thinking hard about what I want to read next.

 

After Harry Potter I want to read a Diana Wynne Jones because Jenny’s Books is holding a Diana Wynne Jones week at the beginning of August, which I hope to be part of because I absolutely love this author, as you may already know going by the amount of times I’ve mentioned her in this blog.

 

I’m not entirely sure what I’ll be reading – I hope I’ll have finished Harry Potter by then but I really would like to read another Diana Wynne Jones book. Maybe I will read The Dark Lord of Derkholm or Archer’s Goon or whatever takes my fancy. I have so many yet to read – I can’t bare to be finished with them all. 

 

 

And then I will probably read The Housekeeper and the Professor, as I mentioned earlier. I’m also in the mood for a bit of historical crime so I’m thinking of He Kills Coppers by Jake Arnott.

After that I don’t know what I’ll be reading… I don’t really like planning too far ahead, even though I find myself doing that lately. I am a mood reader – I say I’m going to read one thing and it takes me until the year after to actually pick it up. So don’t be too surprised if you don’t see a review for any of these books for a long while yet.

As for my ban – well I’m back on it I guess… hopefully I can whittle the TBR down a bit before I have another moment’s weakness.

 

That Old TBR

Well, as you know I do go on about my TBR pile. I have however updated my page bar and if you go here you will see a big list of books. Those are all the books I own to read – apart from the ones I have hiding under my bed that keep turning up in the strangest of places.

Anyway – it seems that I’m not the only one banning myself from books. It seems to be some sort of a contagious disease amongst bloggers because over at 25 Hour Books, Tara is hosting the Book Ban. Well, I’ve already been on one for the past 5 weeks so I’m an old hand at this not-buying-books thing. If you haven’t read my previous post on this subject then you can do so here. I also talked about some of the oldest books in my TBR here.

   So I’m going to be officially joining Book Buyer’s Anonymous (click the picture) to help me through June because I’m sure I’ll be needing it to survive another month.

I must now confess to you – I am actually receiving a book soon. Liz over at  Consumed by Books offered me a book she thought I’d be interested in and the book ban went out of my head and I said yes. Well, it’s a free book kinda, so it doesn’t really count… So now that THAT is out of the way let us move on.

My issue is space and money – I could do with the extra pennies and I have no more space. I don’t really want my books living in boxes if I can help it.

Anyway so please look through my TBR up there and let me know if there’s anything spectacular on there that you think I ought to know about. If you think you’ve got too many books join the ban and good luck!

The Harry Potter Readathon

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone

 

This boy will be famous. There won't be a child in our world that won't know his name. There will be books about him, he will be a legend.'

Minerva McGonagall.

 

 

Along with Becky from Escapism Through Books I am re-reading the Harry Potter books from start until finish. She’ll probably finish way before me though, as I’m a slow poke. I’ve just finished The Philosopher’s Stone and about to move onto the second one – well I will when I finish this blog post.

I have not read these books since the Deathly Hallows came out and how long ago was that? Long enough to be without Harry Potter and to think I used to read this series at least once every year – when I was younger even more, over and over and over and over again. I was a Harry Potter child – I grew up with him ever since I read the first book back in 1998 when I’d have been 12 or 13. Ever since then I waited for the next book to come out each time feeling that rush of pure happiness every time I opened up another Harry Potter book for the first time.

Of course, now that is all over – I know what happens at the end, I know the fates and fortunes of all the characters. I remember each time I finished one that I’d be dying to read the next immediately after – between books three and four there had only been a year’s wait but the three year gap that it took her to write The Order of the Phoenix was probably the longest three years in my life. To make it short – just like the millions of others out there I absolutely adored Harry Potter and I still do.

The only difference now is that I feel a little emotional reading it for the first time – from beginning to end whilst knowing the whole story. Ten years is a huge chunk of your life especially starting from that sort of age – these books feel like a part of me, I’ve turned the pages so many times through so many different ages. I’ve seen Harry grow up, I’ve got to know him and his friends and fallen in love with Ron many, many a time.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone started it all. It isn’t really the most exciting books in the series – but it’s the very first one and it has something special – because the first moment I read it, I knew, I just knew I had something special. I hadn’t been at all aware of all the hype at the time, my dad had bought it for himself to read and then I inherited it off him. I wanted mainly to know why an old codger like my dad would be doing reading a kid’s book. So I never had any expectations about it – it was just a book.

I don’t really know what to say about this. I have never actually reviewed Harry Potter, it’s just such a part of myself that I can’t express it.

I wonder if I’d have enjoyed them had I not read them when I did – had I let the hype effect me. Would have have gone in thinking the book was going to be spectacular and then been unimpressed? Would the hype have turned me off? Perhaps now it would have – I’m not too sure. I’d probably have been so fed up with hearing ‘Harry Potter this’ and ‘Harry Potter that’ along with the whole Hollywood machine. Publishers have also I think started to pay YA books a lot more attention since Harry Potter, knowing they can turn it into a great money spinning machine. I’d probably have been put off by that and maybe more influenced by any negative reviews. Maybe, I don’t know. I don’t think it would have been the same had I not started them as a child, barely even a teenager.

I think what makes Harry Potter magical is that it is a world you can believe in – you can imagine getting an invitation to Hogwarts. It is criticised for not being unique enough – but then what is? It isn’t the individual parts that make it good – but it as a whole. Every generation of children need something like Harry Potter – Narnia is too dated and Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy is a little too heavy for younger children. Harry Potter is unique – in that it captures the imagination of children in ways not many other books have done before especially not so much in recent years.

It covers many familiar themes – good vs evil, love vs. hate, death vs. life, friendship vs. enemies. I think within Harry Potter, hopefully picked up by it’s young readers are lessons about love and acceptance of others despite their differences. That death is not a bad thing – as Dumbledore himself said it is the next great adventure – but the fear of death, or not being allowed to die is in fact, much much worse. It teaches you the love of life – loyalty of friendship, standing up for what is right and good – and fighting against bigotry. Which is why I have little time for all that mumbo jumbo about how Harry Potter is full of evil witch craft and is potentially harming your children by teaching them a load of hocus pocus. If those bigots actually read Harry Potter they might actually learn a couple of things.

Well, that’s a rant I don’t really want to get into. Not liking Harry Potter is one thing and personal opinion, campaigning that it’s devilry, full of Satan worshipping and whatever other rubbish is aimed at it is another thing altogether.

I think the strength of Harry Potter lies in its familiarity. Wizard school, robes, wands, potions – all those kinds of clichés that others might try to avoid are used by JKR to create a world that feels like it already exists. I think personally, the best, most magical books are the ones that feel like you already know that world exists. It pops into your imagination so quickly and so smoothly, but yet it different to anything else you have ever read before. It becomes so real that not believing in it becomes difficult. I think even the most inane things about Harry Potter would become immediately interesting. It all comes down to the small little details – the histories, the magical items and things and just wanting it to be real.

It’s amazing to think that Harry Potter really does exist in millions of people’s imaginations. That the people who initially started reading them as children might have children of their own by now. That it was enjoyed not just by the children, but by the parents, children and grandparents as well and so for once – children got to actually share a book with their parents on a completely equal level of enjoyment – not just a children’s book the parents read with the child – perhaps enjoy but not quite so much. For ten years he existed in everyone’s hopes and dreams – in their joint imaginations. Young people read Harry Potter over and over again and pored over pages for clues about what would happen next. They analysed it, wrote essays about it – read it over and over.

It might not be your typical literary novel that you dissect in English class – but you know it got children reading and not just reading – but analysing a book on their own, not because they had to in school – usually some book that could have been interesting had you not had to write fifty essays about the same mundane thing. Harry Potter got people reading between the lines and talking. When, since The Lord of the Rings came out, has that ever happened?

I realise now I am rambling. I could never write a review for Harry Potter – I don’t know if I’ll be able to. It’s too difficult – Harry Potter isn’t just a series of books to me it’s part of my make-up, it’s what makes me love reading. It’s that feeling of being in love with a book, lost in a book, being so, so, so happy just being able to read them and feel that feeling again no matter how often I read them.

These books are my friends, they live in my heart and just thinking about it all makes me quite emotional. When I speak of Harry Potter though, I can’t speak of it just by looking at one book individually, but as a whole. I may try to write some sort or review, maybe a review of feelings then anything else – but I can’t say what is good and bad about each individual book and treat them in such a way. Just like I can’t read one book without reading all the others one after the other. I can’t just re-read the first book then wait a bit and read the second some weeks down the line. I have to read it now and carry on until I get to the end.

I have probably succeeded in repeating myself several times and making little sense. Anyway, I’m on a Harry Potter readathon and I’ve been wanting to do this for a long time. So goodbye for now – and Happy Independence day to all you Americans over across the pond.

Review Ratings

I read an interesting blog entry over at Shannon Hale’s blog about ratings for books which got me thinking about how I choose my rating. Mostly it got me thinking about whether I should give it any kind of numeric rating at all and just leave it to the review.

Hale asked some questions at the end and even though the post is a bit old, I thought seeing as I’m a fairly new blog, just leaving its nest I though I’d answer them.

1. Do you find that the anticipation of reviewing the book has changed your reading experience?

It makes me be a less passive reader. Before I joined Goodreads I always used to keep a hand written log of books I read – I gave them a star rating and a short review – usually a few lines. Now, since joining Goodreads I promised myself to review every book I read – more then a paragraph. Knowing others would be reading them I put more effort into them.

Reviewing a book is part of the reading process for me, it helps me to digest a book and I think it is very important to do so. Otherwise I am just reading it and then what happens to the book? It disappears to the back of my memory. That’s why I started making a log of books in the first place because it meant that I would remember each book I read. After a few years, looking back through it, even though much was illegible scrawl it really helped because I could see that – yes I liked that book and I could read what I liked about that book. There were my initial thoughts written down straight after finishing and it is that little bit of a memory I might have otherwise forgotten.

Writing reviews for Goodreads though, and now this blog has made me a more active reader – I am thinking about what I would like to mention in my review as I read, I am trying to notice more things and digest my feelings. I want to be involved in my reading, in the books that I read. It greatly effects how I read.

2. Are you rating the book even as you read? Or do you wait until the end to sum it all up?

I usually do have a rating playing at the back of my mind, maybe this does distract me from reading it if I’m constantly thinking about how good it is (or isn’t)? I think it is harder to simply enjoy a book now because I feel that I have to justify it afterwards.

3. Does knowing you'll be reviewing it (or rating it) publicly affect which books you pick up in the first place?

Hmm, yes and no. I don’t choose not to read a book because I don’t want to review it, or because I want to review it in particular, but being more involved in the books I am reading does make me want to read different kinds of books and makes me less patient with certain types of fiction I might have read before I started reviewing. I like more involving books in the recent years.

Thinking more about it, looking back I have picked up less dud books – maybe this is from reading reviews and also, maybe it is because I just enjoy books more now because I put more effort into reading them.

4. Does the process of writing the review itself change how you felt about the book?

I don’t think so. It does make me reflect more, but I wouldn’t say it changes how I felt. Reading other people’s reviews might change how I feel – especially if they noticed something I did not which may change my entire outlook on the book.

5. What is your motivation to assign a rating to a book and declare it to the world?

I have always assigned a rating even before I declared it to the world. I find other people’s ratings of interest and use myself and now that I’m ‘declaring it to the world’ I feel like I’m a much more active reader. Reading isn’t about locking yourself away in a dark room with a light – it’s as social as many other past times and it is good to be able to share your experiences and opinions with others.

I don’t think that ratings are on their own useful, which makes me wonder if I should use a numerical rating on this blog? On websites like Amazon and Goodreads it is much easier to put the ratings together as a whole – and see your friends’ ratings alongside each other.

On a personal level, a numerical rating gives me closure and I like looking back some years later and seeing how much I liked it. A rating is like a place mat in my memory.

Are numerical ratings on blogs as useful as they might be on Amazon or websites like Goodreads?

6. If you review a book but don't rate, why not? What do you feel is your role as reviewer?

My role as a reviewer – difficult one. Am I a reviewer? I consider myself more a reader then a reviewer. I just happen to write a review afterwards. Reviews are more important then ratings. Everyone will have different ideas on the value of each star and the meaning. I explain what mine mean here.

I have always found it difficult whether to rate between how much I enjoyed a book and literary merit. Should I detract a star because I thought it was badly written in parts even though I really enjoyed it or should I not? Bad, irritating clumsy writing does bother me but I can look over it depending on other factors.

I personally love really good characters and so I lean more towards more character driven books then anything else.

Writing this entry makes me think of a much more simpler question to ask myself:

Why do I read?

• Entertainment?
• Escapism?
• To learn something different?
• Intellectualism?

I think it is a mix of all of these – but mostly because I find reading entertaining. The days of required reading are over – I choose what books I read to simply enjoy them. I read so I can be taken out of my world and taken into another one – into a life I don’t know about to learn about them. Books can take you back, and forwards through time – they also help you understand different people and put you in someone else’s shoes so you can share their experiences – and not be confined to your own. You can learn so much from reading books – I mean fiction, not just non-fiction.

I do not read a book simply for its literary worth – that isn’t to say of course, that I’m not able to appreciate it. So overall, I think I rate on how much I enjoyed a book rather then trying to define it by its literary merits.

I still find it hard to rate though – it’s so very subjective and sometimes it just doesn’t reflect at all how I felt. Sometimes I want to change the rating of a previous review because of a more recent one. Should ratings stick once you’ve made them – at the moment I’ve been reading a lot of fantasy and so they are comparing to each other in my head. I find my scales are being readjusted in my head. Maybe I need to award more then five stars or will that make it harder still?

How does everyone else rate? What kind of a scale do you use and what does each actually mean to you? What do you look for in reviews and how does the rating affect you?

My Dad

Happy Father’s Day to all you Dad’s out there, hope you’re having a brilliant day!

I am taking the old man out tomorrow to Yo-Sushi tomorrow, to celebrate. Unfortunately I’ve caught a stinky cold and so won’t be giving him any hugs or kisses as I’m sure he doesn’t want this as a present. Isn’t it just sod’s law that I get a cold (in summer) right now? Not last weekend, not next week but this week. Just typical!

So my dad – what is there to say about him? He is a quiet man who prefers giving over receiving. One of my fondest memories as a child was coming home from school and finding the video of Disney’s Peter Pan left on the TV. It hadn’t been my birthday or anything he just bought me this video and left it for me to find without saying a thing. I hadn’t even known who it was from until I asked. And that’s just who he is and it really is something I have always remembered because it was just a gift. There was no ceremonious handover as usual when you buy someone something. He hadn’t even really wanted thanks, he just wanted to give. It’s remained a fond memory for me, I don’t think I ever forgot that whenever I watched Peter Pan. Sometimes it is just the little things that really count – not the big generous offerings other people think is so kind that become a sort of obligation to be thankful for – just a little unexpected thing.

Dad is also a reader, he likes anything from classics to non-fiction. He is also the bloke who got me into Harry Potter bizarrely, thanks Dad! One of his favourite books is The Piano Tuner by Daniel mason.

 

Goodreads Description: On a misty London afternoon in 1886, piano tuner Edgar Drake receives a strange request from the War Office: he must leave his wife, and his quiet life in London, to travel to the jungles of Burma to tune a rare Erard grand piano. The piano belongs to Surgeon-Major Anthony Carroll, an enigmatic British officer, whose success at making peace in the war-torn Shan States is legendary, but whose unorthodox methods have begun to attract suspicion. So begins the journey of the soft-spoken Edgar across Europe, the Red Sea, India, Burma, and at last into the remote highlands of the Shan States.

 

This particularly interested him (and myself) because he was born and brought up in Burma, and his mother was from the Shan states.It is told from a slightly dreamy point of view – of a naive Englishman who has never had much of an adventure and he becomes caught up in a strange, beautiful and intoxicating world he knows so little about. It is beautifully written and very visually descriptive.

This was my random gift to him one day quite a few years ago after I found it in the supermarket. I only read it myself just over a year ago. Since then my aunt has read it and also my mum so it’s been around the family for a bit!

At the moment he is reading The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society recommended by that same aunt – myself and my mum who has also read it. I love it when books get passed around between us.

So Happy Father’s Day dearest Dad! I’m looking forward to tomorrow and just hope this cold clears up soon so we can enjoy our meal.

New Design

I feel like this owl at the moment. It is 2am and my eyes are just about to cave in on themselves.

You know in my Bloggiesta wrap up post I said that I was happy with my design etc..

Well as you can see I changed it. Only I’m not sure if I like it… or loathe it! I wish you could choose your own background rather then one they make for you. Big improvements on what Blogger was before in terms of self-customisation but it’d be nice if we could upload our own backgrounds as well… in an easy to-do fashion that is. Unless of course I’m missing something big. (Possibly…)

Anyway, 2am I’m knackered and grouchy. Really, I just wanted to get a snazzy page bar that changed when you put your mouse over it.

Not sure if I like my banner. During Bloggiesta I discovered that my talents in Paint.net or any photoshoppy programme are absolutely delusional. I still like my owls and really should try to keep to a bird theme, but… gah!

Anyway, so love it, hate it? Don’t give a…?

The Book Ban & General Bookie Ramblings

So, you’re probably going to find this a little strange… but I am abstaining from buying any more books. The long and the short of it is that I need to save the money and I need a hammer and chisel just to get a book out of my bookcase.

I’ve been saving money up for father’s day, on the 20th of this month to take my Dad out for a meal. We went to Brighton last month to meet my sister and had a meal in this fantastic sushi restaurant called Yo Sushi, only to find one has actually opened up nearby so that’s where I’m going to take him. It’s going to be expensive but I don’t care.

The space problem however, is the thorn in my toe. I have 417 books in my bookcase unread. I am a little obsessed with my TBR pile. One part of me thinks I really should try to have more read then unread, that I don’t need any more books. And the other half of me likes to cultivate this little TBR into a fully grown monster.

Is there anything better then walking into your room knowing you have all of these books yet to read? That’s a rhetorical question, of course there isn’t. Sometimes I look at them and feel my heart swell a little because it is exciting. There are hidden treasures amongst that 417, the hidden gems: books that are so magnificent, they transcend all my other books put together. Will I find a book I love more then I Capture the Castle or Shogun?

I haven’t bought a book in… three weeks. This is probably a first for me in a long time. For months I was having a slow trickle of books seep into my bookshelf, mostly from charities and second hand hops. Then I discovered The Book Depository and developed Random Clicking Disease (hearby known as RCD) where I went around clicking on “Buy” and then “Proceed”.  Then every few days a week, for a whole month I was receiving glorious little white packages through my letter box. 

I have also developed a slight taste for certain types of books. I’m British, but I love books that come from the USA they are much nicer to feel, to touch and to smell. For example, I love Modern Library paperbacks which are available here but we don’t have a very big selection. Now thanks to Book Depository I find it much easier to buy the edition I want.

My copy of Any Human Heart is the “Vintage International” edition from the USA. 

(Left hand side is the American edition I have, right side the British)

Which do you prefer? Personally I think the cover of the American edition is much more suitable to the story then the British one which doesn’t give me a feel of the book at all. The protagonist Logan is a writer who often wrote articles for newspapers and magazines – and took a great interest in the art world. (Look closely and you’ll see that not only is the American edition in the style of an oil paining, but is also on an easel). Whereas the English version… what does that tell you apart from the time setting and that lots of people are in a rush crossing the road with umbrella's?

Anyway, I see this blog post is getting massively derailed, by myself of course. I’m sorry, I cannot help it when I start musing over books I just tend to get a bit carried away.

My 417 books I think have addled my brain a bit. My point was actually that my book obsession, that has funded my 417 full bookcase has actually reached new levels, in that I’m now purposefully hunting down books by their edition and how soft and beautiful their pages are.

Surely, a book is a book right? It is not as if I am buying myself a hardback as I only tend to buy paperbacks. The fact is, and I admit it myself: I’m obsessed.

I love books from Vintage with their red spines and prefer Oxford World Classics with their white spines over Penguin Classics black. 

As I was saying, my self-induced book ban – it’s difficult. I find myself having nightmares that I keep getting the wrong books through the post and not the ones I wanted. Or I dream I will never find another book ever again – they’ve all disappeared or something along that vein. 

So this means no In My Mailbox memes from The Story Siren for me. My wish list, however, is currently growing and growing and growing. I just hope that when I finally do cave in (not that I will of course) I don’t have a sudden attack of RCD and buy everything on my Book Depository wish list. 

It doesn’t help that I keep finding books I haven’t included in my catalogue over at Goodreads and in my handy Excel spreadsheet (more about that obsession later). So of course that number never seems to go down it just goes up and up and up and I’m not even buying any books! It’s chronic.

So will I be able to last until the 20th without buying a new book? Well I’d watch this space…