Happy Halloween

The lovely Mrs F, from Fennell Books, who I’m lucky enough to call friend, posted a well timed blog entry this morning about a ghost story from Susan Hill, the writer of The Woman In Black.

The book, Printer’s Devil Court, sounds interesting, so I decided to order it on Kindle and read tonight, just because you should be a little bit scared on Halloween.  But when I went to Amazon to order it, I found a different one that I liked the sound of.

So tonight I will be scaring myself with The Man in the Picture by Susan Hill.  It’s set in Cambridge, and on the college walls of an old Professors' rooms hangs a picture.  On a cold winter’s night the Professor tells the tale of the picture, which you should never ever stare into.

I've got the chills already.

Challenge ahoy!

Last year I was going to set myself some reading challenges, but because of everything happening at the time, I pretty much abandoned the blog and the challenges.  Reading was pretty fundamental to my emotional recovery, but the burden of a commitment to a challenge felt like it was too much to bear.  As life has started to settle I've been more active with the blog again, and beginning to feel like I’m ready to challenge myself.

For a long time now I've wanted to start studying English again.  It’s been nearly 25 years since I sat my GCSE’s, which was the last time I studied English, but I have often wished that I’d had more confidence to pursue it further.  How I ended up studying Sociology is a lesson in how-not-to-follow-your-dreams. 

I had hoped that moving to a city focused almost singularly on education I would be able to finally get back to studying again.  Would you credit it – I have not found a single part time GCSE or A-Level English course anywhere in the area, and I think I've checked every 6^th Form or college in a 30 mile radius.  I've obviously got to be a little creative, hence my new November challenge!

Oxford University (I’m such a traitor), have posted lots of podcast lectures on iTunes University, along with a whole host of other universities across the globe.  There are numerous courses on works by Shakespeare and so on, and I will get to those eventually, but I thought I’d start with one lecture series based on a favourite book – The Hobbit.  I downloaded it quite a long time ago and unfortunately can't find it online again, but as soon as I do I will edit and post the link.

My November Challenge is to read The Hobbit again while listening to the lecture series.  The way it seems to work is that I’d read a few chapters and then listen to the associated lecture.  I might want to then re-read those before reading the next chapters.

I think that is probably achievable in a month, providing I don’t get too distracted.

Bonus – The courses I've looked at are all free of charge!  Imagine that, university classes from the top universities across the world for free, and I don’t have to sit an exam or write a dissertation.  Magic.

Book Club - A Free Read month

My new book club was due to read The Book Thief this month for discussion in early November, but following the mishaps of the last meeting where the book was not distributed to group members from our local library it was decided that The Book Thief would be delayed til next month for discussion in December.  Instead this month would be a ‘Free Read’.  That is to say we read whatever we want and then talk about our chosen books with the group when we meet.

Unfortunately I can't make it to the next meeting and I'm quite disappointed.  I was looking forward to talking about the books I've been reading, Not to mention as well that although I have been a member of the book club for three months, I have yet to actually attend a club meeting!

The concept of a free reading month for a book club had never occurred to me, but on reflection seems quite obvious.  I think it’s going to be a really interesting month, and I'm quite upset to not be able to go.  Though it is the WI book group, I think based on their list of selections so far they’re not just reading Catherine Cookson and Maeve Binchy.

Here's what I was going to talk about as my October reading (and why)...

The Darling Buds of May by HE Bates

The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
Down The Rabbit Hole by Juan Pablo Villalobos

The astute among you who have also read my recent posts, will realise that at least two of these were read a little while ago.  Sneaky I know, but what I hoped to understand by this little bit of canny maneuvering was how far I can push the boundaries when selecting books.  Would they be open to a little experimentation in reading?  The latter two are both quite controversial, and both absolutely excellent!

Maybe another time.

Is it too early to plan your Christmas book list?

I’m a sucker for books, everyone I know gets it.  If you're here reading, maybe you are too.  As a child I always got book tokens, and would happily receive them this year too, if anyone were so inclined.  Yet those who buy for me don’t often buy me book related items for birthdays and Christmas, even when I have a wish list full of books.  Last year I had to say 'Buy me books!'.

A friend of mine runs Christmas UK website and last night/this morning he posted lots of photos on facebook and his website of Selfridges Christmas displays, it's one of his that I've included above.  I love that they’re using books this year in so many of their displays, and that is really my inspiration for my dream Christmas present…

I should like to receive a hamper containing a good bottle of wine/champagne, some chocolates and whole hoard of good books.  I'm working on deciding what books to have on my list right now.

Have you got a Christmas book list yet?

Author Event - Juan Pablo Villalobos

Recently I posted a review of Down The Rabbit Hole by Juan Pablo Villalobos (JP), and I promised an article about the Author Event that Mr B's hosted.  It's been more than a year, and I'm afraid I've been a terrible procrastinator what with all the upheaval in my life in the last year or so.  But at last here it is...

A little over a year ago I went to Mr B's for my second reading spa (if you ever go to Bath you should arrange one - They're FANTASTIC!! Or if you're short of cash as I usually am, you can pop in for a lovely chat). As it happened I had selected a day where they had scheduled an Author Event for Juan Pablo Villalobos who had released a new book.  So I thought 'why not?' and booked myself a place, and prepared to spend a day at the bookshop.

The event was split into two halves, the first half being a discussion around Down The Rabbit Hole, and the second about his new book 'Quesadillas'.  I should have written notes soon after, as I've now forgotten much of what was said, but I do remember my impression of JP was of a highly intelligent man who loves reading and writing.  He writes honestly about the violence and corruption in Mexico, and I am eagerly anticipating his third novel.

I'm afraid that I should have taken notes, but here are some of the Random Things I Remember:

He has themes for all the names of characters in his books.  The names of characters in Down The Rabbit Hole are all based on animals.  In Quesadillas the names are from Greek mythology, and if I remember rightly the next book the names have something to do with France (but don't rely on my memory).

He has degrees in literature, and though he is from Mexico he has lived in Spain and now lives in Brazil.

He rewrote/edited both Down The Rabbit Hole and Quesadillas seven times (I'm fairly sure).

He was very funny.  Quite charming too.

He said we could call him JP.  Maybe to save himself the torture of us trying to pronounce Villalobos :-)

I have yet to read Quesadillas, but will definitely be looking out for his books in the future.