Genny's Hymn to Books - Last Verse

Discussie75 Books Challenge for 2011

Sluit je aan bij LibraryThing om te posten.

Genny's Hymn to Books - Last Verse

Dit onderwerp is gemarkeerd als "slapend"—het laatste bericht is van meer dan 90 dagen geleden. Je kan het activeren door een een bericht toe te voegen.

1gennyt
Bewerkt: jan 11, 2012, 2:05 pm

Welcome to my fifth - and surely final - thread for this year. I was hoping not to have to start another one, but the previous thread has got overlong.

I never got round to posting any of my Portugal holiday photos on that previous thread, so here are a couple now, with a few more in the following posts:


A walk at sunset by the lagoon and along the beach.
(Praia do Anção, near Vale do Lobo - “Wolf Valley” - on the edge of the Ria Formosa nature reserve (pine forests and lagoons), Faro, in the Algarve

Currently (actively or reasonably actively) reading:

The life and death of Mary Wollstonecraft - Claire Tomalin - actually, I've stalled on this one - hope to get back to it after Christmas.

I’ve managed a full review of some of the books I’ve read this year; for others I’ve just summarised at the end of the month what I’ve been reading, with possibly a very brief description of the book. Others still are simply listed here in threads 2 and 3 where the complete list of 2011 reading is kept. LT has recently added a ‘book haiku’ field on the work page, so I may try that format for reporting on my reading in future if I can’t manage a full review.

Earlier threads can be found here:
Verse 1
Verse 2 and
Verse 3
Verse 4

Third and final thread from 2010 is here
And here's what I wrote about myself on the Introductions thread.

I've also got a (much shorter) thread going in the Orange January/July Group which you can find here.

I'm expecting to read about 120 or so books in total this year, having passed the 75 goal last month.
A ticker to keep track of things (Revised Goal Completed)




I'm also continuing to list book acquisitions as well as what books I've been reading. The ratio of books acquired compared to book read continues to be embarrassing...

2gennyt
Bewerkt: jan 11, 2012, 2:07 pm

More pictures from Portugal:

Algarve villa architecture – light and shade and blue skies.

Books read November-December 2011

November
102 Detection unlimited - Georgette Heyer - finished 1.11.11
103 On books and the housing of them - W E Gladstone - finished 8.11.11
104 Strong Poison - Dorothy L Sayers - finished 10.11.11
105 Between the Assassinations - Aravind Adiga - finished 17.11.11
106 Five Red Herrings - Dorothy L Sayers - finished 19.11.11
107 The Devil's Star - Jo Nesbo - finished 24.11.11
108 The Mill on the Floss - George Eliot - finished 30.11.11

December
109 The Plague of Doves - Louise Erdrich - finished 2.12.11
110 Missing - Karin Alvtegen - finished 4.12.11
111 The Hiding Place - Corrie ten Boom - finished 10.12.11
112 My friend Maigret - Georges Simenon - finished 16.12.11
113 Divinity Road - Martin Pevsner - finished 17.12.1
114 The Country of the Pointed Firs - Sarah Orne Jewett - finished 17.12.11
115 The Treehorn Trilogy - Florence Heide - finished 24.12.11
116 Mr Campion's Falcon - Philip Youngman Carter - finished 26.12.11
117 The strummings of a long distance folk singer - finished 28.12.11
118 Empire of Liberty - David Reynolds - finished 31.12.11
119 Peggy Guggenheim - Paolo Barozzi - finished 31.12.11
120 North and South - Elizabeth Gaskell - finished 31.12.11

3gennyt
nov 17, 2011, 8:19 am



Tiled walls and street names in Loulé.

Books read January-October 2011

January
1 The White Witch - Elizabeth Goudge - finished 3.1.11
2 Come dance with me - Russell Hoban - finished 5.1.11
3 The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch - Philip K Dick - finished 8.1.11
4 84, Charing Cross Road - Helene Hanff - finished 21.1.11
5 The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street - Helene Hanff - finished 22.1.11
6 Beyond Black - Hilary Mantel - finished 22.1.11
7 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen - finished 27.1.11
8 Roman Blood - Steven Saylor - finished 29.1.11

February
9 Flowers for the judge - Margery Allingham - finished 5.2.11
10 Moon Tiger - Penelope Lively - finished 17.2.11
11 Native Tongue - Suzette Elgin - finished 18.2.11
12 Wyrd Sisters - Terry Pratchett - finished 23.2.11
13 A Glass of Blessings - Barbara Pym - finished 25.2.11
14 The Ghost of Thomas Kempe - Penelope Lively - finished 26.2.11

March
15 The murder in the vicarage - Agatha Christie - finished 4.3.11
16 Jar city - Arnaldur Indridason - finished 8.3.11
17 Hypothermia - Arnaldur Indridason - finished 9.3.11
18 Bruno, Chief of Police - Martin Walker - finished 10.3.11
19 Dissolution - C J Sansom - finished 11.3.11
20 The Moving Toyshop - Edmund Crispin - finished 12.3.11
21 The China Governess - Margery Allingham - finished 17.3.11
22 The Eyre Affair - Jasper Fforde - finished 26.3.11
23 Whose Body? - Dorothy L Sayers - finished 26.3.11
24 Clouds of Witness - Dorothy L Sayers - finished 29.3.11
25 Murder in Mesopotamia - Agatha Christie - finished 30.3.11

April
26 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen - finished 3.4.11
27 The Murder of Roger Ackroyd - Agatha Christie - finished 4.4.11
28 The Homeward Bounders - Diana Wynn Jones - finished 5.4.11
29 The Help - Kathryn Stockett - finished 9.4.11
30 Pyramids - Terry Pratchett - finished 11.4.11
31 Mr Campion's Lucky Day - finished 13.4.11
32 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon - finished 18.4.11
33 The House in Norham Gardens - Penelope Lively - finished 19.4.11
34 Fingersmith - Sarah Waters - finished 27.4.11
35 Fire and Hemlock - Diana Wynne Jones - finished 28.4.11
36 Journey into Joy - Andrew Walker - finished 28.4.11

May
37 Lost in a Good Book - Jasper Fforde - finished 2.5.11 - TIOLI off TBR pile
38 Southern Discomfort - Margaret Maron - finished 4.5.11 - TIOLI off TBR pile
39 Shooting at Loons - Margaret Maron - finished 7.5.11 - TIOLI birds
40 Unnatural Death - Dorothy L Sayers - finished 10.5.11 - TIOLI repeating vowels
41 Mr Campion's Farthing - Youngman Carter - finished 13.5.11 - TIOLI off TBR pile
42 Bury Your Dead - Louise Penny - finished 14.5.11 TIOLI library
43 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee - finished 16.5.11 - TIOLI birds
44 The Deep Range - Arthur C Clarke - finished 17.5.11 - TIOLI library
45 Andromeda Veal - Adrian Plass - finished 20.5.11 - TIOLI off TBR pile
46 Mr. and Mrs. God in the Creation Kitchen - Nancy Wood - finished 21.5.11 - TIOLI outsize books
47 Dark Fire - C J Sansom - finished 24.5.11 - TIOLI set in London
48 The Shape of Water - Andrea Camilleri - finished 28.5.11 - TIOLI repeating vowels
49 Like Water for Chocolate - Laura Esquivel - finished 31.5.11 - TIOLI Mexican author

June
50 Guards! Guards! - Terry Pratchett - finished 6.6.11 - TIOLI ! in title
51 Remnant Population - Elizabeth Moon - finished 11.6.11 - TIOLI new-to-me author
52 Sea of Poppies - Amitav Ghosh finished 18.6.11 - TIOLI flowers on cover
53 Pies and Prejudice - Stuart Maconie - finished 21.6.11 - TIOLI fact/fiction
54 A dedicated man - Peter Robinson - finished 22.6.11
55 Go the f*** to sleep - Adam Mansbach - finished 27.6.11
56 The thousand autumns of Jacob de Zoet - finished 29.6.11 - TIOLI name beginning Z

July
57 A short history of nearly everything (Audiobook) - Bill Bryson - finished 1.7.11 - TIOLI guilty book
58a The tale of Mr Todd - Beatrix Potter - finished 1.7.11 - TIOLI re-read childhood book
58b The Tailor of Gloucester - Beatrix Potter - finished 2.7.11 - ditto
58c The tale of Mrs Tiggy-Winkle - Beatrix Potter - finished 4.7.11 - ditto
58d The tale of Peter Rabbit - Beatrix Potter - finished 5.7.11 - ditto
59 Miss Marple and the thirteen problems - Agatha Christie - finished 8.7.11TIOLI typeface-only cover
60 The Death Maze (Audiobook) - Ariana Franklin - finished 9.7.11
61 The Enchanted April - Elizabeth von Arnim - finished 11.7.11 - TIOLI title ending with middle name initial
62 The Jewel Seed - Joan Aiken - finished 12.7.11 - TIOLI juvenile fantasy
63 Just My Type - Simon Garfield - finished 12.7.11 - TIOLI typeface-only cover
64a The Tale of Tom Kitten - Beatrix Potter - finished 13.7.11 - TIOLI re-read childhood book
64b The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin - Beatrix Potter - finished 13.7.11 - ditto
64c The Tale of Mrs Tittlemouse - Beatrix Potter - finished 13.7.11 - ditto
64d The Tale of Jeremy Fisher - Beatrix Potter - finished 13.7.11 - ditto
65 The Body in the Library - Agatha Christie - finished 15.7.11 - TIOLI typeface-only cover
66 Purple Hibiscus - Chimananda Ngozi Adichie - finished 20.7.11 - TIOLI woman-authored prize nominated
67 Waterbound - Jane Stemp - finished 21.7.11 - TIOLI YA fantasy
68a The Tale of Two Bad Mice - Beatrix Potter - finished 19.7.11
68b The Tale of Timmy Tiptoes - Beatrix Potter - finished 18.7.11
68c The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies - Beatrix Potter - finished 21.7.11
68d The Tale of Johnny Town-Mouse - Beatrix Potter - finished 29.7.11
69 The Moving Finger - Agatha Christie - finished 22.7.11 - TIOLI read a book you should borrow from person below
70 The Outcast - Sadie Jones - finished 25.7.11 - TIOLI 'hot' author
71 The Inimitable Jeeves - P G Wodehouse - finished 27.7.11 - TIOLI title words consecutive alpha order

August
72 Eats, shoots and leaves - Lynne Truss - finished 2.8.11 - TIOLI same syllable challenge
73 And then there were none - Agatha Christie - eBook - finished 3.8.11 - TIOLI same syllable challenge
74 Lord Peter views the body - Dorothy L Sayers - finished 7.8.11
75 Gladstone: the making of a Christian Politician - Peter J Jagger - finished 8.8.11 - TIOLI biography challenge
76 August Folly - Angela Thirkell - finished 9.8.11 - TIOLI read with a friend
77 O Pioneers! - Willa Cather - finished 10.8.11 - TIOLI title word sounds like alphabet letter
78 Sisters of Sinai - Janet Soskice - finished 12.8.11 - TIOLI biography challenge
79 The Old Man and the Sea - Ernest Hemingway - finished 14.8.11 - TIOLI word sounds like letter
80 The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club - Dorothy Sayers - finished 16.8.11 - TIOLI friends read
81 Eric - Terry Pratchett - finished 22.8.11
82 Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury - finished 26.8.11
83 Devil May Care - Sebastian Faulks - finished 29.8.11

September
84 Arms of Nemesis - Stephen Saylor - finished 6.9.11
85 Sovereign - C J Sansom - finished 14.9.11
86 Moving Pictures - Terry Pratchett - finished 18.9.11
87 Life Class - Pat Barker - finished 20.9.11
88 Started Early, Took My Dog - Kate Atkinson - finished 21.9.11
89 Knots and Crosses - Ian Rankin - finished 26.9.11
90 Ethan Frome - Edith Wharton - finished 28.9.11
91 Cue for Treason - Geoffrey Trease - finished 30.9.11
92 Falling Man - Don DeLillo - finished 30.9.11

October
93 The Return of the Soldier - finished 6.10.11
94 Mapp and Lucia - E F Benson - finished 12.10.11
95 The Terracotta Dog - Andrea Camilleri - finished 13.10.11
96 The Gospel according to Jesus Christ - Jose Saramago - finished 16.10.11
97 Reaper Man - Terry Pratchett - finished 16.10.11
98 The Age of Innocence - Edith Wharton - finished 18.10.11
99 Frankenstein - Mary Shelley - finished 26.10.11
100 The theatrical tapes of Leonard Thynn - finished 27.10.11
101 Linger awhile - Russel Hoban - finished 29.10.11

4gennyt
Bewerkt: jan 8, 2012, 4:15 pm



A miscellany

Books acquired during 2011

I've already significantly overshot my target of a maximum of 100 new books into the house this year. I really don't need to buy any more for the rest of the year... But I know my weakness... I have set a new limit of 270, so if I go carefully for the remaining month and a half, I may manage to stick to this.




In this list of acquisitions, the numbering does not include library or other loaned books as these are not permanent additions to the collection, but I'll still list them here.

January
1 A Glastonbury Romance - John Cowper Powys - READING
2 Sir Thursday - Garth Nix
3 Lady Friday - Garth Nix
4 Just my type - Simon Garfield - READ
5 Beowulf - transl Heaney - READING
6 Everyday Easy Chicken - Andrew Roff (cookbook)
7 84 Charing Cross Road - Helen Hanff - READ
8 Unnatural death - Dorothy L Sayers - READ
9 Vulnerable communion - Thomas E Reynolds
10 The Bodleian Murders - Jane Stemp
11 Mr Ives' Christmas - Oscar Hijuelos
12 Murder in the mews - Agatha Christie
13 Death comes as the end - Agatha Christie
14 Miss Marple and the thirteen problems - Agatha Christie - READ
15 Murder in Mespotamia - Agatha Christie - READ
16 Remnant Population - Elizabeth Moon READ
LIBRARY: Purple Hibiscus - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie READ and returned
LIBRARY: Native tongue - Suzette Haden-Elgin - READ and returned

February
17 Love lies bleeding - Edmund Crispin
18 The two heroines of Plumplington & other stories - Anthony Trollope
19 Jar City - Arnaldur Indridason - READ
20 Framley Parsonage - Anthony Trollope
21 The Greek Myths - Robert Graves
22 Moon Tiger - Penelope Lively - READ
23 The earth hums in B flat - Mari Strachan
24 Phineas Finn - Anthony Trollope
25 Can you forgive her? - Anthony Trollope
26 Arms of Nemesis - Stephen Saylor READ
27 Dry bones that dream - Peter Robinson
28 Innocent graves - Peter Robinson
29 The seven dials mystery - Agatha Christie
30 The house at Norham Gardens - Penelope Lively - READ
31 The ghost of Thomas Kempe - Penelope Lively - READ
32 A stitch in time - Penelope Lively
33 Always coming home - Ursula K Le Guin
34 The Help - Kathryn Stockett - READ
35 Good omens - Terry Pratchett

March
36 Christian roots, contemporary spirituality - Lynda Barley
37 Community value - Lynda Barley
38 Five little pigs - Agatha Christie
39 The murder at the vicarage - Agatha Christie - READ
40 Lord Edgware dies - Agatha Christie
41 Hand in glove - Ngaio Marsh
42 Journey into Joy - Andrew Walker - READ
43 - Fingersmith - Sarah Waters - READ
LENT: Sovereign - C J Sansom - READ
44 Shade's Children - Garth Nix
45 John Diamond - Leon Garfield
46 The labours of Hercules - Agatha Christie
Music from Taize Vol 1 - Jacques Berthier (Replacement of missing Music/Hymn book)
47 Whose body? - Dorothy L Sayers - READ
48 Snow Crash - Neal Stephenson
49 The mists of Avalon - Marion Zimmer Bradley
50 Daughter of earth - Agnes Smedley
51 The return of the soldier - Rebecca West - READ
52 Intervention - Julian May
53 The homeward bounders - Diana Wynne Jones - READ
54 Detection unlimited - Georgette Heyer - READ
55 The hanging valley - Peter Robinson
56 Clouds of witness - Dorothy L Sayers - READ
57 Glimpses of the divine - Gemma Simmonds
58 Stations of the resurrection - Raymond Chapman - READ
59 The thousand autumns of Jacob de Zoet - David MItchell - READ
60 Started early, took my dog - Kate Atkinson - READ
61 The broken sword - Poul Anderson

April
62 The murder of Roger Ackroyd - Agatha Christie - READ
63 The unbearable lightness of scones - Alexander McCall Smith
64 Wednesday's child - Peter Robinson
65 Reconnecting with confirmation - Peter Maidment
66 A necessary end - Peter Robinson
67 A dedicated man - Peter Robinson - READ
68 Past reason hated - Peter Robinson
LENT Revelation - C J Sansom
69 The history of Danish dreams - Peter Hoeg
70 From the holy mountain - William Dalrymple
71 Summer cooking - Elizabeth David - Reading
72 The white tiger - Aravind Adiga
73 Depths - Henning Mankell
74 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
75 The scent of the night - Andrea Camilleri
76 Restless - William Boyd
77 Divinity Road - Martin Pevsner - READ
78 Samuel Pepys: the unequalled self - Claire Tomalin
79 A murder on the Appian Way - Stephen Saylor
80 Set in darkness - Ian Rankin
81 Dead souls - Ian Rankin
82 A thousand splendid suns - Khaled Hosseini
83 Mervyn Peake - John Watney
84 Hildegard of Bingen - Fiona Maddocks
85 All passion spent - Vita Sackville-West
86 Murder must advertise - Dorothy L Sayers
87 The unpleasantness at the Bellona Club - Dorothy L Sayers - READ
88 Grave mistake - Ngaio Marsh
89 City of the mind - Penelope Lively
90 Next to nature, art - Penelope Lively
91 Judgement Day - Penelope Lively

Acquired May-July 2011

May)
From my sister's church book sale
92 Loyalty in Death - J D Robb
93 The Liar - Stephen Fry
94 Sheepfarmer's daughter - Elizabeth Moon
95 The riddle of the sands - Erskine Childers
96 Franny and Zooey - J D Salinger
97 A perfect spy - John le Carre
98 The history man - Malcolm Bradbury
99 Like water for chocolate - Laura Esquivel READ
100 The True Darcy Spirit - Elizabeth Aston
101 A dubious legacy - Mary Wesley
102 Fatherland - Robert Harris
from Amazon marketplace/eBay
103 The female man - Joanna Russ
104 Up jumps the devil - Margaret Maron
105 Home fires - Margaret Maron
from public library
The haunting of Hill House - Shirley Jackson returned unread
Bury your dead - Louise Penny - READ and returned
from eBay
106 Parker Pyne investigates - Agatha Christie
LT London meet-up - from Persephone Bookshop
107 Flush: a biography - Virginia Woolf
from The Lamb Bookshop
108 La's orchestra saves the world - Alexander McCall Smith
109 Melted into air - Sandi Toksvig
110 The price of love - Peter Robinson
Chaucer's Canterbury Tales - Marcia Williams (picture book for a gift)
111 Mr and Mrs God in the Creation Kitchen - Nancy Wood - READ
from Oxfam bookshop, Bloomsbury
112 The wandering fire - Guy Gavriel Kay
113 Selected poems - U A Fanthorpe -Reading
114 The Virago book of Victorian ghost stories - ed Richard Dalby
115 The weather in the streets - Rosamond Lehmann
116 Precious bane - Mary Webb
from second-hand bookshop, Sheffield
117 Invitation to the waltz - Rosamond Lehmann
118 Guards! Guards! - Terry Pratchett READ
119 Moving Pictures - Terry Pratchett READ
120 Reaper Man - Terry Pratchett READ
from Amnesty bookshop, Newcastle
121 Lucy Gayheart - Willa Cather
122 A lost lady - Willa Cather
123 The republic of love - Carol Shields
124 The heaven tree - Edith Pargeter
125 The tenderness of wolves - Stef Penney
(Loan) A place of secrets - Rachel Hore

June
126 Lord Peter Views the Body - Sayers (ebay) - READ
127 Ordinary Thunderstorms - William Boyd (ebay)
128 Newcastle: a short history and guide - Frank Graham (eBay)
From market bookstall
129 The Time Traveler's wife - Audrey Niffenegger -
130 Our Spoons came from Woolworths - Barbara Comyns (VMC)
131 Thirteen moons - Charles Frazier
From church Summer Fete
132 The life and death of Mary Wollstonecraft - Claire Tomalin Reading
133 The hungry tide - Amitav Ghosh
134 Brooklyn - Colm Toibin
135 Life Class - Pat Barker READ
136 Frequent Hearses - Edmund Crispin
137 Eats, shoots and leaves - Lynne Truss READ
138 Diary of an ordinary woman - Margaret Forster
139 In the kitchen - Monica Ali
140 The hare with amber eyes - Edmund de Waal - (Gift)
from Oxfam bookshop
141 The time of the hero - Mario Vargas Llosa
142 The time traveller's guide to medieval England - Ian Mortimer
143 The Pyramid: the Kurt Wallander stories - Henning Mankell
144 The emigrants - W G Sebald
145 Austerlitz - W G Sebald
from Scope charity shop
146 Clan of the Cave Bear - Jean M Auel
from Amazon marketplace
147 Mr Campion's falcon - P Youngman Carter - READ
from Oxfam shop
148 The enchanted April (VMC) - Elizabeth von Arnim READ
149 A sudden wild magic - Diana Wynne Jones
from Bookmooch
150 Poseidon's Gold - Lindsey Davis
151 Soul Music - Terry Pratchett -
152 The magic toyshop (VMC) Angela Carter
153 Rebecca (VMC) Daphne du Maurier
from Audible - free download
154 Go the F**k to sleep (Audiobook) READ
from eBay
155 Jane Fairfax - Joan Aiken
156 Eliza's daughter - Joan Aiken
157 The last slice of the rainbow - Joan Aiken
158 A bundle of nerves - Joan Aiken
159 The winter sleepwalker - Joan Aiken
160 The Jewel Seed - Joan Aiken - READ
from Amazon (new)
161 Presiding like a woman - ed Nicola Slee - Reading

In July:
AbeBooks

162 Quicksilver - Neal Stephenson
Audible subscription
163 The death maze - Ariana Franklin - READ
eBay
164 The Tale of Mr Tod - READ
The Tale of Mrs Tiggy-Winkle - READ
The Tailor of Gloucester - READ
The Tale of Peter Rabbit - READ
Oxfam Gosforth
165 Indemnity Only - Sara Paretsky
166 Killing Orders - Sara Paretsky
167 The age of innocence - Edith Wharton READ
ebay
168 The moving finger - Agatha Christie - READ
169 The case of the sleepwalker's niece - Erle Stanley Gardner
Gosforth Library
The water's edge - Karin Fossum
The old man and the sea - Hemingway READ
Sisters of Sinai - Janet Martin Soskice READ
Oxfam Gosforth
170 The world's wife: poems - Carol Ann Duffy
ebay
171 The Wolves of Willoughby Chase - Joan Aiken (replacement copy)
172 The memoirs of Sherlock Holmes
173 The body in the library - Christie - READ
174 The tale of Squirrel Nutkin - B Potter - READ
The tale of Mr Jeremy Fisher - READ
The tale of Mrs Tittlemouse - READ
The tale of the pie and the patty pan
Gift
175 Mr Golightly's holiday - Salley Vickers
Bookmooch
176 Eric - Terry Pratchett READ
ebay
177 The tale of Timmy Tiptoes - READ
The tale of Pigling Bland
The tale of Johnny Town-Mouse - READ
The tale of two bad mice - READ
178 The tale of the Flopsy bunnies - READ
Appley Dapply's nursery rhymes - READ
179 The other British Isles - Christopher Somerville
Bookmooch
180 O pioneers! (VMC) - Willa Cather READ
181 The ladies of Lyndon (VMC) - Margaret Kennedy
182 Dead right - Peter Robinson
183 Their eyes were watching God (VMC) - Zora Neale Hurston
ebay
184 Crooked House - Agatha Christie
185 Duet of Death - Hilda Lawrence

August acquisitions
Library
And then there were none (e-Book) - READ
Devil may care (e-Book) - Sebastian Faulks - READ
Cue for treason - Geoffrey Trease - READ
Bookmooch:
186 One by one in the darkness
Oxfam Chester
187 Portuguese for Travellers READ/used
188 The Wind Changes - Olivia Manning
Gift: Advices and Queries (The Religious Society of Friends)
Gladstone's Library - new, discounted
189 The Coffin Trail and
190 The Cipher Garden - Martin Edwards
Erddig Hall Book Shop - used books
191 The Janissary Tree - Jason Goodwin
News from Nowhere Bookshop, Liverpool (new books at sale prices)
192 Muhammad: prophet for our time by Karen Armstrong
193 An Open Heart: practising compassion in everyday life by the Dalai Lama
194 Martin Luther King by Geoffrey Hodgson
195 The Guardian Book of the Countryside
Oxfam Bookshop, Liverpool
196 Frost in May and
197 The Lost Traveller - Antonia White
198 Walking Naked - Nina Bawden
199 Up the Country: letters from India by Emily Eden
200 The Border Trilogy by Cormac McCarthy
201 Shadows in Bronze by Lindsey Davis
Blog giveaway
202 The swan thieves - Kostova
Bookmooch:
203 The transit of Venus - Hazzard
204 The little stranger - Waters
205 Raven black - Cleeves
206 Norwegian Wood - Murakami
207 Ethan Frome - Wharton - READ
208 The giant, O'Brien - Mantel
209 Superior Saturday - Nix

Greenbelt bookstall:
210 Theodora: actress, empress, whore - Duffy

September acquisitions
Barter books:
211 My next bride - Boyle
212 Year before last - Boyle
213 The ballad and the source - Lehmann
214 The matriarch - Stern
215 The brimming cup - Canfield
216 The lying days - Gordimer
217 Sapphira and the slave girl - Cather
218 The rector's daughter - Mayor
219 Poor Caroline - Holtby
220 Five red herrings - Sayers - READ
221 Last seen in Massilia - Saylor
222 Stone's fall - Pears
223 Watership Down - Adams
Library:
Mapp and Lucia - E F Benson - READ and returned to the library
Txtng: the gr8 db8 - David Crystal
Birthday present:
224 Sidetracked - Henning Mankell
Bookmooch:
225 Devices and Desires - K J Parker (not the P D James book of the same title)
226 Small gods - Terry Pratchett
227 We were the Mulvaneys - Joyce Carol Oates
Amazon marketplace
Every man in this village is a liar - Megan K Stack - (new copy) - to give to my god-daughter but not yet given, and I may read it first...

October acquisitions
Amazon marketplace:
228 Faceless Killers - Henning Mankell
Bookmooch:
229 The old man and me - Elaine Dundy - another VMC
230 The Hiding Place - Corrie ten Boom - READ
Oxfam shop:
231 Bury my heart at Wounded Knee - Dee Brown
232 1066 and rather more - Huon Mallalieu
233 The revolt of Owain Glyn Dwr - R Davies
234 A feast for crows - George RR Martin (still need to find books 1-3)
Library:
The devil's star - Jo Nesbo - READ and returned
My friend Maigret - Georges Simenon - READ
The terracotta dog - Andrea Camilleri - READ and returned

November acquisitions
Library:
Plague of Doves by Louise Erdrich - READ
Missing - Karin Alvtegen (Ebook) - READ
Bookmooch:
235 Union Street - Pat Barker
236 Blaming - Elizabeth Taylor
Amazon marketplace:
237 Between the Assassinations by Aravind Adiga - READ
Oxfam shop:
238 Falling into Glory - Robert Westall
239 The Maid of Buttermere - Melvyn Bragg
240 Oscar and Lucinda - Peter Carey
241 Thud! - Terry Pratchett
242 The museum of innocence - Orhan Pamuk
243 Babbitt - Sinclair Lewis
244 In pursuit of the English - Doris Lessing
245 The good terrorist - Doris Lessing
246 On Green Dolphin Street - Sebastian Faulks
247 On Chesil Beach - Ian McEwan
248 Slinky Jane - Catherine Cookson
249 Jennie - Paul Gallico - I think I read this years ago
250 Inside the whale - George Orwell
251 Watchman - Ian Rankin

ER book:
252 The Treehorn Trilogy by Florence Heide, illustrated by Edward Gorey. READ

Garden Centre Gift Shop
253 Practical Calligraphy

Amazon marketplace
254 Spices, slat and aromatics in the English kitchen - Elizabeth David

Bookmooch
255 Books do furnish a room - Anthony Powell

Mind Charity Shop Newcastle
256 The clever woman of the family - Charlotte M Yonge (VMC)

Amnesty Bookshop Newcastle
257 The pure in heart - Susan Hill
258 Revenger - Rory Clements
259 High Stakes - Dick Francis
260 Opening Night - Ngaio Marsh
261 Death in Holy Orders - P D James
262 The prime of Miss Jean Brodie - Muriel Spark
263 I could never be lonely without a husband: interviews - Djuna Barnes
264 High Albania - Edith Durham (VMC Traveller)
265 Jane Austen: a life - Claire Tomalin
266 The way I found her - Rose Tremain

Lit and Phil Library Book sale - mostly for 33p each
267 Roma - Steven Saylor
268 Restoration - Rose Tremain
269 Doors open - Ian Rankin
270 Venetia - Georgette Heyer
271 The convenient marriage - Georgette Heyer
272 Diana of the Crossways - George Meredith (VMC)
273 The doves of Venus - Olivia Manning (VMC)
274 The careful use of compliments - Alexander McCall Smith
275 The city and the city - China Mieville
276 Devoted Ladies - Molly Keane (VMC)
277 The swan in the evening - Rosamond Lehmann (VMC)
278 The way of an eagle - Ethel M. Dell (VMC)
279 Testament of experience - Vera Brittain
280 The Gabriel hounds - Mary Stewart
281 Touch not the cat - Mary Stewart
282 A dance to the music of time III: autumn - Anthony Powell
283 The redbreast - Jo Nesbo
284 Last act in Palmyra - Lindsey Davis
285 Witch hunt - Ian Rankin

Newcastle Winter Book Festival bookshop
286 Stotty 'n' spice cake: the story of North East Cooking - Bill Griffiths
Hook into the Past: the story of mat making in North East England (a gift, not to keep!)
287 100 island poems of Great Britain and Ireland - James Knox Whittet

Scope Charity Shop, Gosforth
288 A social history of the Diocese of Newcastle - W S F Pickering

December 2011

Amazon marketplace
289 Chasing Goldman Sachs - Suzanne McGee

Kindle Store
290 North and South - Elizabeth Gaskell (Ebook) - READ

Bookmooch
291 Les fleurs du mal - Baudelaire
292 Frenchman's creek - Daphne du Maurier (VMC)
293 The Arpino assignment - Geoffrey Trease

Oxfam Shop, Gosforth
294 How to read church history, Vol 2 - Jean Comby
295 The tortoise and the hare - Elizabeth Jenkins (VMC)
296 Things fall apart - Chinua Achebe

Received as Christmas gifts
297 God's Philosophers - James Jannam (Virago Secret Santa gift
298 The siege - Helen Dunmore (Virago Secret Santa gift)
299 Garden florals - the V & A museum
300 A book of hours - Meredith Hooper
301 Peggy Guggenheim Collection - Paolo Barozzi READ
302 Shark's fin and Sichuan pepper: a sweet-sour memoir of eating in China - Fuchsia Dunlop
303 A game of thrones - George R R Martin
304 A clash of kings - George R R Martin
305 A storm of swords part 2 - George R R Martin

5cushlareads
nov 17, 2011, 8:28 am

Fantastic photos of Portugal Genny. That pool looks very enticing, especially since it was -1 here this morning...Did you buy any ceramics?

6gennyt
nov 17, 2011, 8:34 am

#4 Yes, I bought one small olive-serving dish. I thought the pictures of sunshine and beaches might be a welcome break from the winter weather many of us are about to experience.

Mind you, you will soon be switching to spring-going-on-summer as you swap hemishperes, won't you - that will be quite a shock to the system, but a pleasant one I hope!

7lauralkeet
nov 17, 2011, 8:36 am

Wow, love those photos, Genny!

Since this is the last verse of your hymn, every time I visit your thread I will imagine something very celebratory with four part harmony, soprano descant, and lots of embellishment by the organist.

8Donna828
nov 17, 2011, 9:00 am

Nice new thread you have here, Genny.

I love the variety of Portugal pics... Sunsets, beaches, pottery, pools, architecture, etc. Your lists of books read and acquisitions isn't too shabby either!

9calm
nov 17, 2011, 9:04 am

Lovely photos Genny and great book lists.

Dropping off a star:)

10gennyt
Bewerkt: nov 17, 2011, 1:15 pm

Welcome, Laura, Donna and calm!

I like your suggestions for descants and organ embellishments, Laura. I've just belatedly added a link from my old thread which expands on the hymn theme a bit more.

Glad you like the photos, Donna. There was not much where I was staying except empty beach, blue sky and white villas patterned with shadows, so a lot of my photos look very similar - but a trip one day into a local town and the market gave a bit more variety. I love taking pictures of different colours, textures and effects of light and shade. Since I was holidaying alone (and don't like asking other people to take pictures of me) there are no pics of me except a few I took of my own long shadow in the late afternoon sun!

Thanks for the shiny star, calm, and I'm glad you approve of the photos and the lists!

11souloftherose
nov 17, 2011, 2:48 pm

Found your new thread Genny (I think I'm humming one of the parts to Bach's Magnificat in my head as I post).

Love the Portugal photos - the colours seem so fresh and vibrant. I've never been but Dan has family living there at the moment and we should really go and visit them at some point.

12scaifea
nov 17, 2011, 3:57 pm

Many thanks for sharing the lovely pictures! I like the pottery in particular. Nice new thread you've got here!

13BLBera
nov 17, 2011, 4:26 pm

Beautiful photos Genny. I am impressed at how many of the books you acquired in 2011 you have actually read. I am also impressed by your willingness to count. Despite my intentions of having a "year of reading from home," I did buy a good many -- but I'm not brave enough to count.

14qebo
nov 17, 2011, 5:31 pm

I love the tiles!

15PaulCranswick
nov 17, 2011, 7:16 pm

Genny lovely photos complete with mystery footprints in the sand!
Good idea to put all your purchases on the thread too - I wouldn't be so brave especially as mine extend to over 600 already - if SHE-WHO-MUST-BE-OBEYED found it....!

16tymfos
Bewerkt: nov 17, 2011, 8:40 pm

Such lovely photos!

I now have you starred again!


glitter-graphics.com

17-Cee-
nov 17, 2011, 9:31 pm

Well, Genny, it was worth the wait! Such gorgeous photos...
It all looks so relaxing and just what you needed :)
I'll be looking at these pictures every time I come here! Thanks!

18ChelleBearss
nov 18, 2011, 9:07 am

Hi Genny! Your pictures are wonderful, looks like a good trip

19lit_chick
nov 18, 2011, 7:15 pm

Genny, I absolute love your holiday pics. So glad you posted. Portugal goes on to the list!

20HanGerg
nov 19, 2011, 7:17 am

Just want to add my praises for the lovely photos - as one keen photographer to another, I think you have a great eye for composition. I love the first photo in particular, with it's horizontal stripes of features and the detail of the plants in shadow at the front. Great job!
The weird part of my brain that takes satisfaction in cataloguing (I know that, on LT especially, that isn't considered weird, but I always find it a weird trait in myself, as in many other regards I can be quite a disorganised, what-the-heck kind of person.) Anyway, the point is, I'm loving the idea of recording all the books you acquire over the course of the year, where you got them from, whether you read them that year or not. I think that will be a really fun addition to my thread for 2012!
I haven't actually been as organised as Janet and joined Bookmooch yet, but I have got as far as collecting together all the books I could put on there - alas it's not a very big pile at the moment as I had a trip to the charity shop with some quite recently. I'll let you know what success I have when I do eventually join!

21avatiakh
nov 19, 2011, 10:36 pm

I also want to heap praise on your Algarve photos, I was there about 4 years ago and also took a lot of photos, I feel inclined to browse through them again.
I'm also on Bookmooch though don't use it that much as most users don't want to send out of the US and the cost of postage prevents much mooching from Australians. I have lots of points so I should work on my wishlist.

22Chatterbox
nov 19, 2011, 11:35 pm

Love the photos! My fave is probably the first in message #4...

Especially enjoyed the pics of the tiles, which I just couldn't get enough of. Bought two v. old ones in Lisbon (18th century) from a little antique shop. In fact, my glass of water by my bed is resting on one now... (not fancy -- just blue on white)

23arubabookwoman
nov 20, 2011, 12:01 am

What gorgeous photos--and what a beautiful place you spent your vacation in. It looks very relaxing and timeless.

24ronincats
nov 20, 2011, 12:31 am

Love the photos, Genny!

25LovingLit
nov 20, 2011, 1:54 am

WOW fantastic photos of the buildings in shadow and blue sky.
*starred*

26gennyt
nov 20, 2011, 12:06 pm

Hello to all lovely visitors - Heather, Amber, Beth, qebo, Paul, Terri, Claudia, Chelle, Nancy, HanGerg, Kerry, Suz, Deborah, Roni and Megan - and thanks for your nice comments about my photos.

#25 Megan, I've seen so little blue sky this year, I just loved that intense blue colour against the white walls of the buildings!

#24 Thanks, Roni - you'd have liked the pots - lots of beautiful decorative patterns.

#23 Deborah, it was a pretty relaxing place to be - partly because I was miles from anywhere without a car, so couldn't do too much rushing around visiting tourist sites.

#22 I like that one too, Suzanne - the sun was in just the right place behind that interestingly shaped villa as I set off for an evening walk... I loved all the tiles too. Even the new villas (which was mostly all there was where I was staying) used decorated tiles for the villa name/number, and when I had a trip into Loulé, the nearby market town, I saw fabulous tiles everywhere on the walls and some floors too. I wish I'd bought one or two myself from the pottery stall on the market - though they mostly had bowls and plates as shown in my photo - newly done for the tourist trade, rather than genuine old antique ones like yours.

#21 Whereabouts did you stay, Kerry? Re Bookmooch, I find it pays to have a huge wishlist - that way you maximise your chances of getting something eventually, even with more restricted sources.

#20 Thanks, O fellow photographer HanGerg! (Sorry, I don't know your real name or perhaps you prefer to keep it hidden?) I do enjoy playing around with photography. It's one advantage to holidaying alone - I can stop as often as I want to take a shot without annoying a companion. And digital helps because you can take so many duds to get the one perfect shot! Listing the book acquisitions at the top of my thread is a recent thing for me; I've tended to confess to and list purchases as I go along, but I wanted to see how they accumulated. The info is all there in my catalogue anyway, but it's easy to pretend I haven't bought quite so many, or not to notice how many of the newer arrivals I'm actually reading... Good luck with Bookmooch when you do get round to joining. If you are prepared to send some overseas and earn yourself three times the amount of points that way, you'll soon have plenty of points to start spending on more books. I find that if I send surface mail overseas it is not too expensive (unless the book is really heavy) and it works out good value for money that way.

#19 Go for it, Nancy! On the basis of one brief holiday, I can certainly recommend it - at least I'm keen to go back again myself one day...

I didn't get to see much of 'old' Portugal where I was staying - I decided to book this holiday rather on the spur of the moment, knowing nothing about the country, and it turned out that where I was staying, in the Algarve (on the southern coast) was on the edge of a rather expensive low-rise new development very popular with holiday-making golfers and tennis players, as well as on the edge of a an extensive pine forested nature reserve that tucks around the town of Faro. This was fine when it came to relaxing and (as it was off-season) being on a near-deserted beach or by a near-deserted pool, doing lots of reading; it was not so good for finding out lots about the local culture and history, but then I guess it was not that sort of holiday. I was in an appartment and had a half-board deal, and could have eaten all my lunches in the hotel restaurant also, but I preferred to make picnics to take out or eat in my appartment. The hotel shop sold take-out supplies in the form of bread, ham, cheese, eggs, milk - but no fruit or veg or alcohol.

Not having a car, and there being no local public transport, I walked for an hour one day in the sun along a dusty, pine-tree-lined road to reach the nearest shops - mostly expensive designer outlets, but thankfully also a supermarket and a café or two where I sat and had an ice cream and a beer - and then walked back again, carrying my fruit and veg - and bottle of white port for aperitifs - in my backpack. Nobody else was on foot - it's a resort built around cars. But my slow journey gave me time to enjoy the colours, smells, sights and sounds - including the scent of pine and many flocks of birds (jays, I think) flitting through the pine forest - and time to stop and take photos as mentioned above. My trip to Loulé was my only other trip further afield, and where I did get to see some older buildings, including a castle, and got a bit of a glimpse of an ordinary market town on a busy Saturday, with plenty of local people as well as tourists. I visited the gypsy market (where I bought a belt, a wallet, and an olive pot) and the food market, where I mainly took photos of all the colourful sights and stalls full of exotic (to me) fish, fruit and veg.

To get to Loulé I got a taxi, and had a very interesting conversation with the woman taxi driver about the state of the Portuguese economy (after Greece and Italy, it is the next most vulnerable in Europe at present). She spoke of the massive cuts being implemented at present, which are proving a shock and a sudden reversal in a population the majority of whom have only recently left behind a simpler traditional lifestyle and embraced modern consumerism. Staying in luxurious and relaxing surroundings in a holiday villa complex in an area populated largely by English ex-pats (the only other people I saw on foot were English people out walking their dogs in the evenings) you don't get any sense of any of these issues.

27gennyt
nov 20, 2011, 12:32 pm

#18 Thanks Chelle, it was a great trip - see message above for some details...

#17 Thanks for being patient, Claudia! And I'm glad you thought the pictures were worth the wait.

#16 Thanks for the star, Terri. Hey, do you realise, with the new feature of being able to create continuation threads (after 200 posts) that automatically keep the stars intact, we will no longer need to say such things as 'found you and starred you' since we should not lose each other in the first place when a continuation thread is started? Let's see if it works...

#15 Ah, Paul, you spotted one of my few appearances in my own photos. I'm only there in footprints, or as a shadow, like this:



or in a feet-only view, like this!



And here's one more photo which doesn't show any part of me, but I just love the pattern the pine branches make against the sky in the warm afternoon sunlight.



And did you say 600 books this year, Paul! How on earth did you manage to slip so many past SWMBO? That figure makes my total look very half-hearted!

#14 They were wonderful, qebo!

#13 Thanks Beth. I'm not sure whether to be reassured that I've read a fair few of this year's acquisitions, or worried because it means there are so many of last year's and the year before's still unread... I commented on someone else's thread recently that I'm hoping to try to limit new acquisitions next year to 60 in total, which is roughly half what I read in the year. As I have over 400 tagged 'TBR' currently lined up at home, I am in no danger of running out.

#12 Thanks Amber. The pottery was great. I've dabbled a bit in making pots myself in the past, but mostly with plain glazes or very simple decoration, nothing so elaborate and colourful.

#11 Which part do you sing, Heather? I can take the alto... And if you (Dan) have relatives in Portugal you really should go and visit! Whereabouts do they live?

28PaulCranswick
nov 20, 2011, 12:41 pm

Wow Genny you should pass the photo on #27 to William Peter Blatty for the cover of a summer version of his Exorcist series! (only kidding Rev!)
My 600 hundred is edging towards 700 given my exertions this weekend (another 32 all told!) shh..SWMBO is coming.....(She is far more scary than your holiday snaps!!)

29lit_chick
nov 20, 2011, 1:20 pm

Wonderful post at #26, Genny thanks for that. So informative about Portugal, its vulnerable economy and fairly recent transition to modern consumerism.

30Chatterbox
nov 21, 2011, 6:58 am

yes, right up until the 70s and into the 80s, Portugal was one of those countries that relied on its expat workers to help its economy, then it became one of the "tiger" countries on the periphery of the Euro, which are now those in trouble. Sigh.

I remember discussing the accession of "GSP" (Greece, Spain & Portugal) in high school in '78 or '79 and my teacher voicing concern about how to integrate trade policies of very disparate political cultures. And this was long before monetary union was ever envisaged! The UK's decision is looking smarter all the time.

Genny, if you want history in Portugal, Lisbon is great and Coimbra supposed to be even better, as it wasn't levelled by that massive 18th century earthquake.

31souloftherose
nov 22, 2011, 6:39 am

#27 I generally sing alto too so we might need a few other participants to make it work. I thought you might ask where Dan's relatives lived when I posted that and I don't know! Facebook tells me Monte Estoril which seems to be quite near to Lisbon.

32tymfos
nov 22, 2011, 9:07 am

27 Good morning, Genny! I just discovered the link for a continuation thread at the bottom of my thread. I did not know that was coming! When it appears, is it a signal that you should start a new thread, or simply that you may? I usually view 250 as the magic number for the "thread police." As I'm too busy to post much this week, I was hoping to perhaps stretch my thread to the end of the month -- or at least to Sunday for the start of Advent.

33gennyt
nov 22, 2011, 10:54 am

#32 Terri, it's a may not a should. It appears when a thread reaches 200, but there's no reason not to continue to follow the 250 rule as a guide if our threads are not too unwieldy and slow to load. I'm sure you can hang on till the end of November!

#31 Good old Facebook! Well, that sounds like a future holiday plan... And yes, we'd better find a few Sops, Tenors and Basses to join us in a rendition of some Bach!

#30 Yes, I was aware of the huge earthquake of 1755, I think initially from reading Candide - but until visiting hadn't taken on board the consequences - the Algarve was badly hit as well as Lisbon, and now very few buildings remain from before that time. And now, thanks to your mentioning it, I've just wasted spent half an hour looking up Coimbre, and hotels there, and flight or even train options for travelling there, and wondering when I can afford (time and money-wise) another holiday...

#29 Thanks Nancy. I had hoped to post a daily 'diary' kind of update on my thread while I was actually there, describing my impressions etc while they were still fresh, but I'd managed to disable the 'flash' facility on my mobile phone so I could read threads but not post anything while I was away. So I had to make do with belated recollections in tranquility instead.

#28 Scary?! My snaps are not scary! Well, apart from those feet...

Reading wise, I've finished a few books in the last couple of weeks which I've not yet managed to report on/review. In brief, these are:

- On books and the housing of them - thanks to Heather for drawing my attention to this short essay by W E Gladstone on a question dear to all our hearts: how to store our growing collections of books...

- Strong Poison - I needed to read this next in the Lord Peter Wimsey series this month (a re-read, this one) in order to be able to then read the following one, Five Red Herrings, to fit thecumulative next-in-series (no. 7) for the TIOLI challenge. So that's two Wimseys this month - I've been deliberately rationing them quite slowly apart from this month.

- Between the Assassinations - Aravind Adiga: this one was for my book group last week. I'd not yet got round to reading Adiga's first (and Booker winning) novel The White Tiger though I have it on my shelf. I'm keen to get to that one now after reading his second book.

And for current reading: I'm still working my way through, and immensely enjoying, The Mill on the Floss. Continuing to read it from my mobile phone, I'm loving the way I can get it out anywhere when I have a spare 5 or 10 minutes, and am continuing to highlight many passages that are striking me for their content and expression. I'm 65% of the way through, and reading about 5% a day according to the Kindle app's way of measuring it, so at this rate I should just finish within the month.

Also currently reading my first Jo Nesbo: The Devil's Star, which needs to be back in the library by Friday. Should manage that. I'm supposed to be continuing the Mary Wollstonecraft biography, a chapter or so a day, but actually haven't picked that one up for a couple of weeks. Was enjoying it, and hope to get back into it before the month ends.

34souloftherose
nov 22, 2011, 2:14 pm

I've just started Five Red Herrings in order to get a shared read and get myself back on track with the Wimsey series.

35sandykaypax
nov 22, 2011, 2:36 pm

Thanks for posting your beautiful Portugal pics, genny! A lovely thing to see on a chilly, rainy day here in Ohio!

Sandy K

36vancouverdeb
nov 22, 2011, 3:37 pm

Oh such beautiful pictures of Portugal, Genny! Wow! Thanks for posting them! We had winds of 80 km/ hr over night and a lot of rain -so this is lovely!

37vancouverdeb
nov 22, 2011, 3:38 pm

Ohhh let me add that I really enjoyed The White Tiger a couple of years ago - I'm sure you will too!

38Trifolia
nov 22, 2011, 4:03 pm

Hi Genny, lovely pictures from Portugal! And I also loved The White Tiger. I thought it was rather unusual.

39lit_chick
nov 22, 2011, 5:42 pm

The White Tiger eluded me. I think I need to give it another go. I've read so much positive about it here at LT.

40HanGerg
nov 23, 2011, 7:30 am

I'm another with White Tiger on the shelves, just waiting to be picked up. I'll have to move it up a few slots on the TBR pile!

41kidzdoc
nov 24, 2011, 3:25 am

I'm slowly catching up on threads, Genny. Your holiday photos are fantastic, and make me want to visit Portugal ASAP. I may steal your idea of posting the books you've acquired, along with those you've read, as it might help me to cut back on new books that I get next year.

42Ygraine
nov 24, 2011, 6:26 am

I've finally caught up with you after far too long away from the internet. It looks as though you've had a lovely holiday.

On Books and the Housing of Them seems like an intriguing little read. I may have to investigate that one.

43DeltaQueen50
nov 24, 2011, 3:29 pm

Hi Genny, just stopping by to catch up. Your holiday photos are gorgeous, Portugal has long been a country I would love to visit.

44jolerie
nov 24, 2011, 7:36 pm

Starred Genny!

45LizzieD
Bewerkt: nov 24, 2011, 9:32 pm

Genny, there's no way I can catch up, but I do very much appreciate your visit last week. The holiday photos are wonderful. Thank you for letting us enjoy them! I am also admiring your organizational prowess. I did start listing my acquisitions, but I'm too chicken to put them all together. I also have to go back and check the ones I've actually read.
I'm trying to get into Five Red Herrings too. It's the only LP book that I really don't care for. Stasia and I were going to read the novels and the short stories in order, but I have wimped out on the SSs. I really don't care for them much even when they are by DLS and deal with LPW. And, like Nancy and Hannah, I own The White Tiger and am forcing it to wait for me. If only I were not enjoying the LBJ bio so much, I could free up time for something else. As it is, when I get back to concentrated reading, I'll likely pick up volume 2 which is equally as big. Ain't life grand?

46-Cee-
nov 25, 2011, 8:33 am

Hi Genny,
Just love looking at your photos! They are quite creative/expressive/serene/striking... I keep looking at them and thinking I should plan a trip to Portugal (for maybe 2021).

I loved Mill on the Floss - though I read it a long time ago and perhaps should re-read. Maybe I will set a goal to re-read 12 favorites in 2012. ooooo! I should do that.

Have also been eyeing The White Tiger and will wait for a few reviews to cross my path.

47ronincats
nov 25, 2011, 11:26 am

Just checking in to say hi and see what you're reading. Be well!

48TheTortoise
nov 25, 2011, 11:29 am

>46 -Cee-: bahzah, I ditto Mill on the Floss. I recently heard a radio version and thought I must read that again. The ending is a bit of a downer but I love the writing.

Alan/TT

49gennyt
nov 25, 2011, 3:12 pm

Hello, kind visitors!

Re The White Tiger which several of you have commented on, I'm hoping it will be at least as good as the Assassinations book, maybe better. Between the Assassinations is a sequence of short stories, all set in the same fictional town in South India over a period of years. The writing and the range of characters were interesting, but because the format was short stories, it was slightly frustrating since just as I'd be getting to know a character, the story would end and a new person would be introduced. The White Tiger is a novel rather than short stories, so I hope to find similarly interesting writing but a more sustained development of character and plot.

#48 Welcome, Alan, glad to find another fan of MotF. I have some idea of the ending from general cultural references I guess, though I've never read it before - but don't know what happens in between. Am loving the writing too.

#47 Hi Roni, nice to see you.

#46 Claudia, thanks for your varied adjectives to describe my photos - I'm glad they are providing some inspiration. Did you really mean 2021, or was that a typo for 2012?

#45 You are welcome, Peggy. As for book acquisition listing, it's one of my ways of procrastinating about writing reviews: I can update my thread with something at least! Five Red Herrings won't be one of my favourites, for reasons which I hope to comment on when I do write a review, but it grew on me.

#44 Thanks for the star, Valerie!

#43 Hi Judy! Portugal is certainly well worth a visit...

50LovingLit
Bewerkt: nov 25, 2011, 3:30 pm

I really like your pine tree with sky in behind it photo, it makes me think of lying in the dappled shade on a blanket and reading a book.

ETA: I just about made it to Portugal, the truck driver who gave me and my friend a lift was going there, but we had to get off at Toulouse to meet our friends. I sometimes think it could have been fun to throw (even more) caution to the wind and just go to Portugal! It looks amazing.

51gennyt
nov 25, 2011, 4:45 pm

#50 Hi Megan - yes, there's something very special about dappled sunlight filtered through trees... Hitching a truck ride across France (if not beyond) sounds quite an adventure.

#42 Hello Katie! The Gladstone thing is a short and interesting read, available as a free e-book (which is a little ironic as its subject matter is the problem of housing the growing number of physical books in a collection.

#41 You are welcome to steal the idea, Darryl - but so far it has not worked for me in terms of helping me to cut down! I've just been out today and acquired a whole lot more... But if I continue this next year, it will at least help me to see whether I'm keeping to my proposed limit of 60 for the whole year.

#37-40 I'm glad to hear that you both enjoyed The White Tiger, Deb and Monica. Hannah and I will have to read it soon and see what we think - but Nancy, you are entitled to your less favourable view and needn't feel obliged to do a re-read because others liked it more. Unless you've run out of other books to read, of course!

#35, 36 - I'm glad my sunny photos are providing an oasis from the cold and wind and rain, Sandy and Debs. Though perhaps oasis is the wrong word, since that's about water in the midst of too much sun, rather than sun in the midst of too much wet!

#34 I wonder how you are getting on with Five Red Herrings, Heather? Keeping up with all those bicycles and train time-tables?

52gennyt
nov 25, 2011, 6:13 pm

My typing is slow today because I have a plaster on my left index finger where I cut myself (not too deeply) through the nail while preparing dinner, and it is making me strike two keys instead of one half the time. I may have to remove plaster or I shall never manage the updates I want to make this evening. Temporary solution: put another plaster around the first one, to neaten up the dressing.

I have had a very bookish day, full of unexpected delights and an embarrassingly large haul of books.

It all started when I went to the High Street to catch a bus into the city centre, to go to the city library to return a book due back today. I had no loose change to buy my bus ticket, so decided to call into a charity shop first just to buy one book and get some change. I chose the charity shop that I visit less often, which usually has cheaper books but a less good selection - I really didn't want to spend more than £1.50, otherwise I'd still not have the change I needed for the bus. But I found the shop had put up its prices, and there was nothing much I wanted - until I discovered an unusual and rare hardback book on the history of the local Diocese for £3.50 - a bargain, but I then had to go and buy a snack from another shop to generate my change!

Library book duly returned a while later, I was thwarted in my unnecessary attempt to take out more books because I discovered I didn't have my library card. Turns out I left it at the branch library. But while asking at enquiries about this, I stumbled across a Winter Book Festival! There are speakers and events in several venues across the city - including a whole day on crime writing tomorrow with among others Ann Cleeves, and Martin Edwards giving a talk on the Golden Age of detection. I wish I'd known about this sooner, I'm not sure I'm going to be able to make any of the talks/readings, as tomorrow I'm meant to be working.

Anyway, what I had stumbled upon was the festival bookstall featuring a number of small local publishers as well as discounted books connected to some of the speakers. I bought three new books there for £18, one or possibly two of them as gifts:
Hook into the Past - a delightful illustrated social history of the local craft of rag rug (proggy mat) making - for my step mother who is crafty.
Stotty 'n' Spice Cake - subtitled 'the story of North East cooking' but this is not a collection of local recipes so much as an exploration of the local dialect and traditions connected to food and cooking. Probably keeping this one for myself.
100 Island poems - an anthology of poems about/written on the many different islands around the coast of the UK. For a gift probably, though I may dip into it first myself.

This would have been a good haul for the day... But while in town I could not resist checking out the Books for Amnesty shop, which usually has an interesting range, including Viragoes. I was hoping to find a nice Virago Modern Classic or two to send to my VMC Secret Santa recipient.

I was not disappointed. I came away with 11 books in all (for £16) including one original green VMC (to remain secret), one Virago Traveller (High Albania), and a Virago book of interviews conducted by Djuna Barnes. Also 5 crime books for £3, (Revenger by Rory Clements, Death in Holy Orders by PD James, Opening Night by Ngaio Marsh, High Stakes by Dick Francis, The Pure in Heart by Susan Hill - and a Rose Tremain (The way I found her), Claire Tomalin's biog. of Jane Austen and last but not least a nice early Penguin copy of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (I was just saying on another thread that I'd never read any Muriel Spark). Oh, and on the way to that shop I passed another charity shop where I found a Charlotte M Yonge VMC (original green) for £1.50.

That should really have been enough for one day, but I'd noticed that within the Winter Book Festival programme there was a library sale taking place at the Lit and Phil. This is a marvelous local institution, a subscription library - The Literary and Philosophical Society "was founded early in 1793 as a ‘conversation club’, with an annual subscription of one guinea. The subjects of the conversations - and the books that supported them - were wide-ranging, but religion and politics were prohibited." It has existed as a subscription library to this day, though the subs at £80 are a bit more than one guinea these days. I have not joined because I can't really justify the expense when the City Library is free, but I am tempted from time to time just because it is such a fascinating place, and they do organise interesting lectures and classes (though these are open to non-members).

So today I discover that they have an annual sale at this very time, and I had to call in. What bargains! I spent £11.50, but that included £1 entrance fee and £2 for a Lit and Phil cotton bag to carry home some of my spoils. So £8.50 on books - for a total of 23, since the general and crime fiction was being sold at £1 for 3 books!

I'm not going to list them all there (they will eventually go onto the list at the top of the thread), because this post is long enough already, and in fact several of the books are duplicates which I've bought to give away Bookmooch (at that price, a good investment that will earn me some points for future acquisitions). But the haul did include 5 VMCs (2 original green), a nice additional sprinkling of crime novels, a couple of Georgette Heyers and a couple of Mary Stewarts.

Having now four bags full of books to carry and no spare arms to add more, it was time to catch the bus home, though I stopped for a coffee first and (surrounded by my real tree book haul) read a bit more of Mill on the Floss from my mobile phone!

At home, this week's edition of the Church Times awaited me. This normally languishes in its plastic wrapper and remains unread, as I find myself more interested in my latest book than in the rumblings and grumblings of church politics. But today I opened it promptly, as it contained a 16 page supplement of Christmas Books - reviews and suggestions for Christmas gifts. In the main paper there is an editorial extolling the value and virtues of reading:
It is hard to underestimate the benefits of a good book, especially, perhaps, one on an un­familiar topic, and we encourage readers to be catholic is their choices for themselves and their friends. An apposite recom­mendation is one of the best acts of friendship, particularly when the closure of bookshops is effectively killing off the art of browsing, and exposure to new authors and subjects is hard to come by. And the act of reading itself — the stillness of the body, the quiet withdrawal from distraction, the opening oneself up to new thoughts and experiences — is, perhaps, nearer to godliness even than cleanliness.
A suitable note on which to end this over-long update on my book-filled day. Total books out: 1; total books in: 39 - of which, 7 to be given away, so 32 additions to the collection. Now, to find time to read some of them...

53BLBera
nov 25, 2011, 8:15 pm

Genny: What a lovely day you had. I love the quote about reading.

54-Cee-
nov 25, 2011, 9:04 pm

Holy Cow! What a day! You'll sleep well tonight. I expect that you are deep in slumber right now. :)
Great haul and exercise!

Anyway, #46- that was no typo. I DID mean 2021 - ten years from now. :(
I'm thinking by then, if I am still living and mobile, I may get a chance to do some traveling again.

55sibylline
nov 25, 2011, 9:47 pm

Genny -- what a day you have had!!!!!!

56ronincats
nov 25, 2011, 10:12 pm

My goodness, what a great haul! You really cleaned up today.

57DeltaQueen50
nov 26, 2011, 12:24 am

Sounds like you had a perfectly lovely day, Genny.

58PaulCranswick
nov 26, 2011, 4:00 am

Genny my own spendthrift ways are put to shame. Great picaresque day trawling and finding a great selection of books in sometimes the most unexpected of places. Would love to have all those types of shops to rummage around in. Well done!

59calm
nov 26, 2011, 5:26 am

What a lovely unexpected day of book acquisitions. Very nice Genny!

60avatiakh
nov 26, 2011, 5:36 am

Sounds like a most wonderful day, you did good.

61gennyt
nov 26, 2011, 6:23 am

Hi Beth, Claudia, Lucy, Roni, Judy, Paul, calm and Kerry. Yes, it was quite a day, and not at all what I'd intended to do most of it. I was meant to be doing my tax return. Funny how that keeps getting put off. Actually, it's not funny, I really need to do it, but when it comes to my day off I hate the though of spending it going through receipts and expenses...

Well, today will be a quieter day, lots of work to do - emails, phone calls, preparation, writing, visits... Must close the LT tab on my browser and try not to be distracted until I've finished for the day.

62gennyt
nov 26, 2011, 7:12 am

Currently reading Plague of Doves by Louise Erdrich for the Native American challenge on TIOLI. My (library) edition has VERY tiny print. I don't usually notice small print, so this one must be especially bad, or else my eyes have suddenly deteriorated.

63elkiedee
Bewerkt: nov 26, 2011, 8:04 am

UK readers might like to know that Last Man in Tower by The White Tiger's author Aravind Adiga is today's 99p Kindle deal of the day.

64BLBera
nov 26, 2011, 8:33 am

I'll be interested to hear what you think about Plague of Doves.

65katiekrug
nov 26, 2011, 10:20 am

Lovely book haul, Genny! I love days like that where the stars just seem to align :)

66brenzi
nov 27, 2011, 2:36 pm

What a fabulous haul Genny and what a wonderfully bookish day you had. I have to copy down and do something with the It is hard to underestimate the benefits of a good book quote. Must file that away for future use. I also loved your pictures from Portugal, just lovely and I'm sure you had a lovely time.

67cameling
nov 27, 2011, 5:46 pm

Nice haul, Genny. Where I live, the small independent bookstores are few and far between (hence I really felt for Meg Ryan in her role as a small bookstore owner in the movie You've Got Mail) because they face such competition from the big superstore of Barnes & Nobel (and previously, also Borders). I miss the little bookstore that used to be in my town. I loved it because while they may not have as large a range of books as the superstores, the staff were great at remembering your reading preferences and volunteering recommendations.

68gennyt
Bewerkt: nov 28, 2011, 8:01 am

Thanks for visiting, Caro, Bonnie, Katie and Lucy.

Just a quick note to say that I have a lot of personal and work deadlines converging at present (my own work appraisal to prepare for, a difficult colleague's revised working agreement to talk through and agree with her, a very overdue tax return to complete so that I can then make a start on claiming my work expenses which I put off for months - it has now become financially unviable to put off claiming them any more...) so I fear I must force myself to avoid the wonderful respite that is LT until I've got through these tasks. So I should really not be posting here or on anyone's threads until I've caught up with myself - trying to use LT as the carrot/reward!

So tell me off if you see me on here, unless I can give a positive update about the completion of these tasks!

69scaifea
nov 28, 2011, 8:33 am

Hopefully you won't read this for awhile (because you'll be working!), but I'm sending you hard-working, productive vibes. Good luck, and hope to see you back soon!

70LovingLit
nov 30, 2011, 1:47 am

>52 gennyt: laughing at your attempts to "only get one book and only because I need change for the bus".
And then you ended up with buying 39!!??$#?!?! Too funny :)

71Soupdragon
nov 30, 2011, 2:17 am

Hi Genny. Just catching up and admiring your photos of Portugal and your enviable book hauls. And that supplement from Church Times extolling the benefits of a good book was just perfect!

72tymfos
nov 30, 2011, 2:22 am

52 Wow, Genny, that was quite a bookish day indeed!

73souloftherose
nov 30, 2011, 2:32 am

#52 Ow, sorry to hear about your finger. I enjoyed the story of your bookish day. Your book acquisitions sound lovely - all those VMCs!

#68 Ugh, I hate appraisals - hope you manage to get those and your tax return done.g

74HanGerg
nov 30, 2011, 9:56 am

Glad to see you haven't been here in a while Genny. In the nicest possible way of course! : ) I am also using LT as a refuge from things I should be doing. In my case yet more job applications. Ok, I'm going to follow you're example and set to work.
Just to say, loved the account of your accidentally book-filled trip into town. That sounds like my idea of a fun day.

75ChelleBearss
nov 30, 2011, 10:13 am

Hi Genny! Hope the tax return is going well!

76markon
nov 30, 2011, 10:35 am

I'm slooowly catching up on threads, and wanted to say thanks for the great Portugal photos! Looks like it was a restful and eye-soothing vacation.

Good luck with the appraisal and taxes.

77AnneDC
nov 30, 2011, 3:44 pm

Just stopping in to admire your Portugal photos (gorgeous) and your latest acquisitions. I am hoping to finish The Plague of Doves by the end of the day.

78-Cee-
nov 30, 2011, 4:00 pm

Good woman, Genny! You are getting your chores done!

You are gonna feel soooo much better! ;-)

79KiwiNyx
dec 4, 2011, 5:58 pm

Hi Genny, just popping in to say Hi!

80LizzieD
dec 4, 2011, 7:22 pm

Well, Genny, you seem to be very virtuous! I think that even I would gladly get some things done and stay away from LT if I had had the Book Odyssey that you had! I loved reading about it though, and wish you some quiet hours to get into your new finds!

81gennyt
Bewerkt: dec 5, 2011, 7:23 pm

Hello everyone - just a brief update:
Awkward colleague's review process begun - more to be done but not just yet
Paperwork for my own review completed and sent off - only 4 days late - ready for meeting on Wednesday

THat's two out of three. Tax return still NOT done.
Not a lot of reading going on, but I did finish The Plague of Doves a day too late to fit into the November TIOLI, and have e-read my first book by another Swedish mystery writer, Karin Alvtegen - Missing.

Have meetings all day, and a funeral and several other meetings to prepare for tomorrow - may not be back for a while again!

82scaifea
dec 5, 2011, 7:08 pm

Good Luck with all those chores, and hope to see you back around soon!

83sibylline
dec 5, 2011, 8:39 pm

You're getting there....... you can do it!

84JanetinLondon
dec 6, 2011, 6:55 am

Hi. Just saw some beautiful snow pictures on the Guardian website and I am assuming you have something similar, as several were up your way. I hope it is all beautiful, and not annoying.

85gennyt
dec 6, 2011, 7:26 am

No snow here - just blue sky and sunshine at present (and COLD) - long may we stay snowless, pretty though it is!

86JanetinLondon
dec 6, 2011, 10:34 am

Wow, you must have just missed it - pics were in Hexham and Cowslip, both near-ish to you, no?

87souloftherose
dec 6, 2011, 12:15 pm

Good going on the to do list Genny. December must be pretty crazy in the vicar business...

88gennyt
Bewerkt: dec 6, 2011, 1:31 pm

#86 Hexham is about 25 miles away, but further west and heading into the hills so they tend to get worse weather. I don't know where Cowslip is.

Now I've gone and looked up the Guardian pictures, and they show Allenheads, which is near Hexham - but actually way, high up in the North Pennines, as is Cowshill, Co. Durham which is quite close by (I hadn't heard of Cowshill, but I know of Allenheads and nearby Allendale). It's a wild, bleak, exposed area where there used to be a lot of lead mining and not much else going on - apart from a ski slope these days. I'm not surprise they've got snow up there already, but down here near the coast and in the city I hope we'll be spared rather longer.

#87 Thanks Heather. Actually, the problem with December is that there is all the usual business to be getting on with, that has nothing to do with Christmas itself, but everyone is so frantic with extra things because of their own pre-Christmas parties, school concerts, shopping etc etc, that it gets quite hard to fit things in. We had a funeral today, which was fine; but another funeral has come in for next week, and there was only one slot in the whole week when the church was not being used by four local schools for their carol services or umpteen rehearsals for the services. It's a bit mad. At least I don't have to sit through all the rehearsals!

89JanetinLondon
dec 6, 2011, 5:38 pm

Ha ha, my slip - Cowshill, of course. My late mother-in-law lived near there, so we spent a few summer holidays in that area to be near her. Glad you have been spared so far.

90-Cee-
dec 6, 2011, 9:25 pm

Hi Genny!
I see you are super busy - good luck fitting all in!

Now, your Christmas gift to yourself - completed tax return! ;-(
If I ever get to England I don't want to visit you in jail!

91Whisper1
dec 6, 2011, 10:10 pm

I love visiting your thread and seeing the incredible photos of your travels.

All the best to you!

92lit_chick
dec 10, 2011, 12:38 pm

Hi Genny, just passing the word that the threads are up for North and South group read. Everyone is welcome!

North and South (Non-Spoiler Thread)
North and South, Chapters 1-26 (Spoiler Thread)
North and South, Chapters 27-52 (Spoiler Thread)

I’ve also added the threads to our group’s wiki page.

93FAMeulstee
dec 12, 2011, 5:48 am

hi Genny
thanks for posting your Portugal photos, I loved those in msg 2 with the white of the buildings, the shadow and an incredible blue sky!

94gennyt
dec 12, 2011, 1:44 pm

Still procrastinating about tax return, while being very busy with loads of other stuff. I am off to cook dinner, and will endeavour to come back and force myself to look at the accounts and piles of receipts etc one more time - then I can feel free to enjoy LT again!

95sibylline
dec 16, 2011, 11:36 am

Hope you are successfully tackling all those awful stacks of paper! My deepest sympathies.

96lit_chick
dec 16, 2011, 11:56 am

Oh, groan, the paperwork nightmare! I'll echo Lucy with My deepest sympathies.

97tymfos
dec 16, 2011, 8:37 pm

Another sympathetic echo, Genny -- I hate paperwork in general, and especially when it involves taxes or anything related to the government!

98LizzieD
dec 16, 2011, 11:02 pm

I have to say that I don't so much mind organizing my stuff as I mind reading the instructions that are written in some language other than English even though they use English words. My sympathies!!!

99lit_chick
dec 18, 2011, 1:43 pm

Genny, just read your review of Sea of Poppies. Fabulous! Thank you : ).

100-Cee-
dec 18, 2011, 2:01 pm

Cheering you on, Genny!
You can do it!
Getting the taxes DONE! Woot!

101brenzi
dec 18, 2011, 2:43 pm

Taxes! Bah humbug. In a sane world, since the government knows exactly how much you make, they would just send you a bill. Here's your bill. Deduct and include verification of any donations or other deductions you may have. That's what I call a short form.

102gennyt
dec 18, 2011, 3:09 pm

Thanks for all the sympathy and cheerleading re taxes etc. I have now managed to claim my very overdue working expenses (I'm meant to claim them monthly but I always forget to do it, and have just claimed 13 months in one go!). Still have a bit more gathering together of info (it's all in there somewhere) in order to complete the tax return, and then I can relax and get on with Christmas, and get properly back into LT again before this group's year comes to an end.

#99 Nancy, I'm glad you liked it. Are you doing the current group read of Sea of Poppies? I really must get round to reading the second book - I had it from the library almost as soon as it was published, but didn't get to it fast enough, and someone else requested it so it had to go back.

103lit_chick
dec 18, 2011, 8:40 pm

#102 Not reading Sea of Poppies presently, but it's on my list and, and I'm anticipating a wonderful read in 2012! What's the second book?

104LizzieD
dec 22, 2011, 8:36 am

Hi, Genny! I see that you're very busy this Christmastide, and we want you back being busy here!
Nancy, the second book is River of Smoke, and I'm another one who is looking forward to it a LOT! Genny, I remember how envious I was that you already had it from the library, and then you didn't get to read it. That's bad. I'd rather be envying you.

105gennyt
Bewerkt: dec 22, 2011, 10:22 am

Hello Peggy, thanks for answering Nancy's question. Sorry for being absent - it's because I promised myself I'd get my tax return done first before spending my usual hours per day on here, and I still haven't done it: as usual any other task seems more interesting or pressing, and in recent days Christmas preparations have been intruding.

Today I'm meant to be catching up on some final work-related preparations, including a rehearsal for our readers at the two services of lessons and carols on Christmas Eve. I also have to write a sermon for that occasion (the same sermon gets repeated at the second service - I pity the choir members and others who are attending both services having to listen twice, though choir members have their tried and tested ways of getting through sermon boredom...).

Tomorrow being Friday is my day off, so that will be my final chance to check the status re gifts, do last-minute shopping to fill in any gaps, and perhaps get some cards written and parcels made up to send to the people I won't be seeing (usually they don't get posted till well after Christmas Day). Who knows, when all that is done, perhaps I shall spend the Eve of Christmas Eve completing my tax return!! Perhaps not... but it would be good to get it out of the way before Christmas.

106lauralkeet
dec 22, 2011, 11:29 am

>105 gennyt:: re: "the Eve of Christmas Eve," my mother used to call that "Christmas Adam" because you know, he allegedly came before Eve.

Genny, even though Christmas brings you many "professional" commitments, I hope you are still able to carve out a bit of time to enjoy this festive season!

107cushlareads
dec 22, 2011, 2:59 pm

Genny, I just wanted to say hello and Merry Christmas - I know it is one of your busiest times of year and I hope you decide not to do your tax return on Christmas Eve and read instead!

108-Cee-
dec 22, 2011, 8:56 pm

Hi Genny!
Busy and exciting time of year = work for you. Do you love it? or no?
Hope you get a chance to relax and enjoy :)

>106 lauralkeet: "Christmas Adam" LOL love it!

Merry Christmas!

109DeltaQueen50
dec 22, 2011, 10:31 pm

Hi Genny, I just wanted to drop by and wish you the best for the holiday season.

110ronincats
dec 22, 2011, 11:19 pm

Hey, Genny, I know what you mean about putting off the tax thing. I cannot help myself from waiting until the absolute last minute.

111JanetinLondon
dec 23, 2011, 6:14 am

#106 - lol re Christmas Adam from me, too - this one could stick.

112lauralkeet
dec 23, 2011, 8:17 am

My mother the comedienne. Who knew? LOL.

113LizzieD
dec 23, 2011, 10:24 am



Merry Christmas, Genny!

(I'm off to enjoy Christmas Adam!)

114avatiakh
dec 23, 2011, 2:56 pm

Merry Christmas Genny
I hope all your paperwork is now under control and you can enjoy the next few days.

115ronincats
dec 23, 2011, 5:53 pm


Merry Christmas, Genny!

116brenzi
dec 23, 2011, 10:21 pm



Merry Christmas Genny!

117-Cee-
dec 23, 2011, 10:24 pm



Peace and Merry Christmas, Genny!

118tymfos
dec 23, 2011, 11:13 pm

Merry Christmas, Genny!

119Chatterbox
dec 23, 2011, 11:17 pm

Merry Christmas!! What a great haul you got -- I'm looking forward to seeing the full list of new book additions up top!!

And I'm sure that sermon boredom will be minimal...!

120PaulCranswick
dec 24, 2011, 12:12 am

Genny - I expect you will be busy today so I'll get in early... have a lovely christmas and a wonderful 2012 and beyond. It has been a pleasure getting to know you in 2011 and I look forward to continuing to do so in 2012. Will be humming a few carols to myself in Johor Bahru late this evening in moral support.

121calm
dec 24, 2011, 7:54 am


glitter-graphics.com

Genny - hope you have a wonderful 2012

122Soupdragon
dec 24, 2011, 8:01 am

Merry Christmas, Genny and a relaxing new year!

123ChelleBearss
dec 24, 2011, 11:03 am

Merry Christmas Genny!

124katiekrug
Bewerkt: dec 24, 2011, 2:30 pm

Merry Christmas, Genny!

125richardderus
dec 24, 2011, 2:32 pm



mistletoe smooches!

126phebj
dec 24, 2011, 2:33 pm

De-lurking to wish you a very Merry Christmas, Genny.

127souloftherose
dec 24, 2011, 4:12 pm

Merry Christmas Genny. I hope everything goes smoothly re church services tomorrow and that you can put your feet up afterwards.

128kiwiflowa
dec 24, 2011, 4:32 pm

Merry Christmas Genny!

129Smiler69
dec 24, 2011, 4:46 pm



Wishing you all the very best Genny!

130gennyt
dec 24, 2011, 7:21 pm

It's gone midnight here, so for me officially it's Christmas! The 'worst' is over, work-wise: three services on Christmas Eve (one for the little children, and two big carol services). I've shaken hands at the church door and wished 'Happy Christmas' to over 800 people, until my hand and throat were both getting a bit sore. Then home to a much needed drink, a late dinner and some final decorating of the house. Still some presents to wrap but that can wait until tomorrow. One more church service in the morning, then I shall spend the rest of the day (once presents are wrapped and starter is prepared) with friends nearby.

I'm about to put the baby in place in the crib. Here's a picture of the one from the Posada (the travelling crib which we pass around the parish, staying a night in a different person's house each day during Advent, until Christmas finally arrives). I think the figure next to the baby in the crib is a sheep - it's hard to tell so close up from that angle.



Happy Christmas to all visitors if you celebrate this feast! And happy holidays to all who have time off at present - with friends or family, and hopefully with a good book or three also!

131kidzdoc
dec 24, 2011, 7:23 pm

Merry Christmas, Genny!

132AMQS
dec 24, 2011, 7:54 pm

Merry Christmas to you, Genny, with best wishes!

133sibylline
dec 24, 2011, 10:12 pm

Merry merry and have a beautiful day tomorrow Genny!

134qebo
dec 25, 2011, 9:29 am


Merry Christmas!

135drneutron
dec 25, 2011, 11:34 am

I sympathize! We're both musicians in our church - two services last night and one longer one this morning. I'm really feeling Christmas-y this year, though!

136lauralkeet
dec 25, 2011, 11:36 am


Merry Christmas!

137HanGerg
dec 25, 2011, 1:41 pm

Warm Christmas wishes from Hungary, Genny!

138brenzi
dec 25, 2011, 10:34 pm



Merry Christmas Genny and all the best to you in 2012.

139AnneDC
dec 26, 2011, 2:10 pm

Merry Christmas Genny and I hope you've found some time to relax and be peaceful.

140cushlareads
dec 26, 2011, 3:06 pm

Merry Christmas Genny! I hope you've had a peaceful Boxing Day.

141gennyt
dec 28, 2011, 6:35 pm

It's the end of the fourth day of Christmas, and I have just about recovered from the exertions of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. I've not managed to read a lot in the past few days, as I was so tired I kept falling asleep over the same paragraph. But I'm hoping to get another couple of books finished before the end of the year - if I can read three more, my total for the year will be a nice round number: 120.

As usual I have fallen behind in reporting on books read, let alone reviewing them. I have managed to read my two Early Reviewer books, one (Divinity Road) very overdue - so now all I need to do is get them reviewed. I will aim to give at least a brief monthly summary for the rest of the books I've read since the last update. I must find a way of keeping these more up-to-date next year! I still need to add to the catalogue, and then to my acquisition list at the top of this thread, my large haul of books from a few weeks back.

Before this year is properly over, next year seems to be starting up already! I've joined the 2012 group, and got my new thread reserved, but nothing on it yet until 1st January. I'm contemplating setting up some categories also, in the 12 in 12 group. I would aim to read 6 books each in 12 different categories, which would be a total of 72, which means that (assuming I'll manage to read about 100-120 books again next year) I'll have a bit of lee-way and won't have to fit every single read into one of the categories. The categories include some of the "I really should read more of x" variety (non-fiction, theology) and some of the "I'll be reading this anyway so I'd like a challenge to put it in" variety (Viragos, Orange/Booker shortlisted). I came up with an initial list of challenges a month or more back - I need to review that and then set up the 12 in 12 thread once I'm happy with it.

My book-related aims for next year - apart from reading itself - include limiting my acquisitions to 60 books in the year (ie about half the number I expect to read, rather than more than twice the number as has been the case this year). Another aim is to get on with cataloguing my collection: I hope to manage at least 40 volumes per month. The first aim will help with the second aim - if I'm not having to add so many newly-acquired books to the catalogue, I'll have more time for going through the existing collections.

I have had several books for Christmas - and I hope a few more to come when I visit my sister over the coming weekend...
From my Dad and step-mother: Peggy Guggenheim, a short memoir with a lot of photos of her art collection (I spent a month in Venice in 1986 working at the Peggy Guggenheim gallery so that will bring back some happy memories), and Shark's Fin and Sichuan Pepper - another memoir, about Chinese food and culture - looks fascinating and fits one of the January TIOLI challenges. From friends, a book of floral patterns from the Victoria and Albert Museum together with a DVD containing the same designs. Not much text in this one!

Best of all my Christmas books so far are my two Virago group Secret Santa gifts from my LT wishlist: The Siege by Helen Dunmore, which I first heard about from Stasia, and God's Philosophers, the book about medieval science which Janet was reading earlier this year.

This was meant to be a very quick update before I have an early night. Well, it's not quite so early now, but it's time to retire with (another) good book!

142gennyt
dec 30, 2011, 7:29 am

All new book acquisitions now added to the catalogue, though not to the top of this thread yet. I was up until very late last night finishing that task.

Now I'm hurriedly packing and off to collect the Car Club car so that I can drive down to my sister in Lincolnshire to spend the New Year weekend with her and with another friend. I still have a lot of end-of-year catch up stuff I want to do on my thread - but I will have New Year's Eve to myself to do that as my sister and family are going out to a party which I'm happy not to have to join in!

So I will be doing some final catching up on my own and other people's threads from my sister's, before moving over to start up in the the new 2012.

Dear visitors, if I don't get to visit or comment on your thread before the end of the year, may I wish you a happy 6th day of Christmas and a very good, book-filled New Year!

143souloftherose
dec 31, 2011, 9:08 am

Hope you have a good New Year Genny and manage to catch up on stuff as well as get some rest.

I'm very impressed that you worked at the Peggy Guggenheim gallery! I'm not very good with modern art but I did do a brief visit some years ago and wasn't quite sure what to make of it all (which is my standard reaction to modern art).

144calm
dec 31, 2011, 4:08 pm



See you in 2012

145ronincats
dec 31, 2011, 5:50 pm

Making my final tour of the 2011 threads, before going to my own and posting yearly statistics and a Happy New Year to all, before creating my 2012 thread. Guess what I'll be doing tomorrow? Do you know that Richard already has over 100 messages over there?
I've loved reading your thread this year, Genny, and look forward to 2012.

146KiwiNyx
jan 1, 2012, 5:43 pm

Happy new year and I'll see you on the new threads.

147gennyt
Bewerkt: jan 8, 2012, 4:35 pm

I've finally got round to doing some updating of this final thread from 2011.

I've added the remaining acquisitions for the year - including the large haul of books which was the result of that one day in November when I went a bit mad! - onto the end of Post #3, and find that I acquired a grand total of 305 books in 2011!

I've tried to note when I've read these - and the total number read of those acquired this year comes to about 80. But 15 of these were library books and thus not counted in the running total, so therefore only 65 of the 305 books added to my shelves have so far been read. One fifth!

As I read a total of 120 books this year, and 100 in 2010, I clearly have enough reading matter for the next two years at least with all the unread books on my TBR from this year alone, not to mention all those waiting to be read from previous years.

Hence the plan, for 2012, to drastically reduce my book-acquisition. I will not be going on a total book-buying ban, because I know that is unrealistic, and there will be books I need to get for book groups etc which may not be available from the library. But I am aiming for a total of 60 in the whole year (that is, counting books I buy, ER books, gifts and other permanent additions to the shelves, but not library books or other loans). 5 new books onto the shelves per month... Though I may not spread them evenly through the year: if the book sale at the Lit and Phil is an annual event, and I can get so many good books at 3 per £1, I should save up most of my quota for November!

148gennyt
Bewerkt: jan 11, 2012, 3:18 pm

Still finishing up over here. As usual I have got very behind with reviews or even reporting of books read, although I maintain the complete list at the top of thread. The last monthly summary was for October.

Here's what I read in November and December:

November
102 Detection unlimited - Georgette Heyer - 3.5 stars (reviewed here).
103 On books and the housing of them - W E Gladstone - 4 stars - eBook
104 Strong Poison - Dorothy L Sayers - 4 stars - Re-read
105 Between the Assassinations - Aravind Adiga - 4 stars - Book Group read
106 Five Red Herrings - Dorothy L Sayers - 3.5 stars
107 The Devil's Star - Jo Nesbo - 3.5 stars
108 The Mill on the Floss - George Eliot - 5 stars - e-Book/Folio Society edition at different points

December
109 The Plague of Doves - Louise Erdrich - 4.5 stars
110 Missing - Karin Alvtegen - 3 stars - eBook
111 The Hiding Place - Corrie ten Boom - 4.5 stars
112 My friend Maigret - Georges Simenon 3.5 stars
113 Divinity Road - Martin Pevsner - 4 stars - Early Reviewer book
114 The Country of the Pointed Firs - Sarah Orne Jewett - 4.5 stars - eBook
115 The Treehorn Trilogy - Florence Heide - 5 stars - Early Reviewer Book
116 Mr Campion's Falcon - Philip Youngman Carter - 3 stars
117 The strummings of a long distance folk singer - Robbie Teague - 2 stars
118 Empire of Liberty - David Reynolds - 4 stars - audiobook
119 Peggy Guggenheim - Paolo Barozzi - 2.5 stars
120 North and South - Elizabeth Gaskell - 4.5 stars - eBook

Having reached my 75 goal in the summer, I'd estimated I'd read roughly 120 books by the end of the year. I must admit that in order to end up with that nice round number, I did squeeze in a couple of short ones during December.

149gennyt
Bewerkt: jan 11, 2012, 2:48 pm

Summary and statistics

November:
7 books read
2 borrowed (library), 5 acquired this year (but an alternative edition of one of them I've had for several years)
2 e-Books, 5 real paper books (but one book I read in both e-Book and paper form)
6 fiction, 1 non-fiction
0 audiobooks
1 re-read
3 new-to-me authors
4 British authors, 1 Indian, 1 Norwegian
1 translated
3 female authors, 3 male
genres: 4 mysteries/crime fiction; 1 contemporary fiction; 1 19th century classic; 1 non-fiction pamphlet

150gennyt
jan 11, 2012, 2:47 pm

December summary and statistics

12 books read
3 borrowed (library), 2 acquired pre 2011, 7 acquired in 2011
2 Early Reviewer Books - trying to catch up before the year's end
3 eBooks, 1 AudioBook, 8 real paper books
8 fiction, 4 non fiction
genres: crime/mystery 3; 19th century classics 2; contemporary fiction 2; memoirs 2; history 1; Christian autobiography 1; children's 1
0 re-reads
11 new to me authors!
5 British authors, 3 US, 1 Swedish, 1 Dutch, 1 French, 1 Italian
2 Translated works
6 female authors, 6 male

151gennyt
jan 13, 2012, 5:49 pm

As usual, taking far too long and going into more detail than is really necessary, here is a summary and analysis of all the books I read in 2011.

120 books read in total;16 of these were re-reads.

Fiction: 106; non-fiction: 14

Genre breakdown:

Fiction
Crime/Mysteries: 42, of which
‘Golden Age’ mysteries: 22
Contemporary crime: 14
Historical mysteries: 6
General and literary fiction: 17
Children’s/YA: 12
20th century classics (including VMCs): 8
Fantasy: 8
19th century classics: 6
SciFi/distopian: 5
Humour: 5
Historical fiction: 3

Non fiction:
Biography/memoir: 5
Books about books: 4
History: 2
Religion, Travel/social history, Language: 1

Author breakdown:

Books by female authors: 66 (44 different authors)
Books by male authors: 54 (39 different authors)

Total different authors read: 83
Of whom living: 47; dead: 36 (several died during 2011)
Authors new to me: 49

Authors by whom I read more than 1 book:
Dorothy L Sayers 7
Agatha Christie 7
Terry Pratchett 6
Beatrix Potter, Margery Allingham, Penelope Lively, C J Sansom 3
Margaret Maron, Adrian Plass, Youngman Carter, Russel Hoban, Helen Hanff, Jane Austen, Stephen Saylor, Arnaldur Indridason, Jasper Fforde, Diana Wynn Jones, Andrea Camilleri, Edith Wharton 2

Nationality:
UK:79
USA: 25
Icelandic, Italian, Indian: 2
Canadian, Spanish, Mexican, Nigerian, Portuguese, Norwegian, Swedish, Dutch, French: 1

Where I have read multiple books by particular authors, that is mostly because I’m reading a series or sequels. The exceptions are Penelope Lively, Russel Hoban, Jane Austen, Diana Wynn Jones and Edith Wharton.

Source and format breakdown:

Own books: 94 (of which 80 acquired this year, 14 in previous years)
Library books: 22
Other loans: 4

All traditional paper books apart from:
eBooks: 8
Audiobooks: 5

152gennyt
Bewerkt: jan 13, 2012, 5:52 pm

Reflections on the statistics

Female/male split is roughly what I expected. A good number of new-to-me authors in there. Very anglo-centric: an even higher proportion of UK authors than I expected. I’m not surprised that American authors are the only other large category, but I was surprised that I read only one Canadian book this year.

Interesting that I have read more living authors than dead, though multiple books by several dead authors probably more or less closes the gap. When asked to list favourite living authors, the first names that spring to mind are all dead, but there are clearly plenty of living ones to choose from – though not all of these are destined to become favourites.

Non-fiction is not quite as low as I feared – average of just over one a month. Categorising by genre is a bit arbitrary, because some books are impossible to classify and others could easily sit in more than one category. I notice that the only fantasy I’ve read this year is comic/satirical fantasy (Pratchett) and Fforde’s alternate reality which is also tending to the humorous side. Surprisingly little historical fiction, but several of those I’ve assigned to contemporary/literary fiction have historical settings and could have been called historical fiction, and I've read quite a few historical mysteries too. Mysteries/crime/detective stories have been my main light reads between heavier tomes - surprised that I've read quite so many though.

I have only managed to complete one book on religion all year! And that was a short book of art, poems, meditations and prayers. This is a sign of how much reading has been my leisure/escape from work responsibilities, leading me to neglect the shelves full of theology books which sounded so very interesting when I bought them. In the years before religion was my work, I read books about religion very frequently! (That was when I should have been reading about medieval manuscripts; and when I was meant to be revising for my finals I read all the novels of Hardy; there is definitely a pattern here of reading as avoidance…).

153gennyt
Bewerkt: jan 13, 2012, 6:03 pm

Best reads of 2011

Discounting re-reads, and in order of reading, here are my 5 star reads for 2011:

Non fiction
Sisters of Sinai

Fiction
Bury Your Dead
To Kill a Mockingbird
The Gospel According to Jesus Christ
The Mill on the Floss

Children's
The Treehorn Trilogy

The following got 4.5 stars (this stars business is so subjective - I am tempted to change the rating on some, especially when I see what I gave to other books which I also liked; but I'll not start tinkering now!).

Non fiction
84 Charing Cross Road
The Hiding Place

Fiction
The Help
Sea of Poppies
The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet
Started Early, Took my Dog
Ethan Frome
Mapp and Lucia
The Age of Innocence
Plague of Doves
The Country of the Pointed Firs
North and South

Children's
The Ghost of Thomas Kempe

154lit_chick
jan 13, 2012, 7:57 pm

Loved your reflections on the year's reading, Genny! Wow, your detail is impressive! Still chuckling over "there is definitely a pattern here of reading as avoidance.". Well, of course - that goes without saying in my world! Of course, if I'm really wanting to avoid, I'll do just about anything!

155AnneDC
jan 13, 2012, 10:57 pm

Genny it's nice to see you are still finishing up your 2011 thread. I'm still pondering what to do about reviews I never got around to.

156gennyt
jan 16, 2012, 3:42 pm

Nancy and Ann - thanks for your posts here. I think I'm just about done now in 2011 - the chance of me getting any of those overdue reviews written are slim, and if I do, I think I'll post them on my 2012 thread rather than here.

So if anyone else is visiting, do come over and join me on my 2012 thread, where (only 2 weeks late), I've finally got settled in and ready to go!