A Wellies Day by AJ

AJ (the youngest) here.  Technically I am the youngest that mummy sometimes mentions in her blog, but they know the pecking order in our house and I am at the top.  In my family there is Mummy, Daddy, C - my 16 year old sister (she is really old) , M - my 13 year old brother (he's funny) and me!

My wellies on the right and my big brother M's boots on the left.
Mummy says she will have to label them (she thinks she is funny!)

When I woke up this morning Mummy said "It's a Wellie's day today!" 
I love my wellies.  It has been snowing overnight.

This is only my 3rd year of snow and as it only happens for a few days each year here in England I am still learning all about it.

C (my big sister) wanted to know if it was enough to close school but it wasn't. Apparently we need only a few inches of snow and trains stop running, schools close, the shops run out of bread and milk, oh,  and the council run out of salt.

  The grown-ups getting very excited about the snow.  For days before it comes that is all anyone can talk about.  I hear things like
"it's too cold for snow",
"they talk of 3 or 4 inches of snow",
"it's snowing, it is settling?"  
and "we better get extra bread and milk in".

When the snow does arrive it makes front pages of the papers and every news bulletin on the TV. We know it is snowing we can see it! The send news reporters out in the snow to show us the difference between Scottish snow, snow up North compared to our snow here in the East.

Look at this fab pic my sister C took last year in the snow.  You can see the snowball Daddy is throwing at her!

So I got to wear my wellies today. Hurray!  Even C put on a coat to go to school this morning.  Mummy is always saying to C that she should wear more clothes or she will feel it when she is older and Mummy should know!  Mummy wears more layers in the house than C does when she goes out.  Mummy mumbles that it is something to do with not being cool to wear a coat,  I say it is not cool but very cold not wearing a coat.

I am still poorly today.  This upper respiratory virus (I know I can use big words but hey when you have had asthma as long as me you get used to it) is taking me a while to get over. 

Mummy says she has her own seat at the doctor's surgery.  I told Mummy before we went in to see the Doctor that I was hungry but for some reason she didn't have a tuna sandwich in her handbag!  Mummy you need to be prepared.
Anyway, the Doctor was doing his usual checks when I get poorly and was listening to my chest with his stethoscope when he said
"I can hear your tummy rumbling",
to which I replied " I hungry, I need food." 
Mummy didn't know where to look.  I was only telling him the truth!


AJ

BBC - How many have you read?

This list is doing the rounds on blogs at the moment

The BBC believes most people will have read only 6 of the 100 books listed here.



Instructions:

•Copy this list.

•Bold those books you’ve read in their entirety.

•Italicise the ones you started but didn’t finish or read only an excerpt.

•Tag other book nerds.

•I highlighted the ones that I have but haven't read. They are probably in my TBR stack because someone said I should read them.



Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen

The Lord of the Rings – JRR Tolkien

Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte

Harry Potter series – JK Rowling

To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee

The King James Bible

Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte

Nineteen Eighty Four (1984) – George Orwell

His Dark Materials – Philip Pullman

Great Expectations – Charles Dickens

Little Women – Louisa M Alcott


Tess of the D’Urbervilles – Thomas Hardy

Catch 22 – Joseph Heller

Complete Works of Shakespeare

Rebecca – Daphne Du Maurier

The Hobbit – JRR Tolkien


Birdsong – Sebastian Faulk

Catcher in the Rye – JD Salinger

The Time Traveler’s Wife – Audrey Niffenegger


Middlemarch – George Eliot

Gone With The Wind – Margaret Mitchell

The Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald


War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams

Brideshead Revisited – Evelyn Waugh

Crime and Punishment – Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck

Alice in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll


The Wind in the Willows – Kenneth Grahame


Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy

David Copperfield – Charles Dickens

Chronicles of Narnia – CS Lewis

Emma -Jane Austen

Persuasion – Jane Austen

The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe – CS Lewis

The Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini

Captain Corelli’s Mandolin – Louis De Bernieres

Memoirs of a Geisha – Arthur Golden

Winnie the Pooh – A.A. Milne

Animal Farm – George Orwell

The DaVinci Code – Dan Brown

One Hundred Years of Solitude – Gabriel Garcia Marquez

A Prayer for Owen Meaney – John Irving

The Woman in White – Wilkie Collins

Anne of Green Gables – LM Montgomery

Far From The Madding Crowd – Thomas Hardy

The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood

Lord of the Flies – William Golding

Atonement – Ian McEwan

Life of Pi – Yann Martel

Dune – Frank Herbert

Cold Comfort Farm – Stella Gibbons

Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen

A Suitable Boy – Vikram Seth

The Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafon

A Tale Of Two Cities – Charles Dickens

Brave New World – Aldous Huxley

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time – Mark Haddon


Love In The Time Of Cholera – Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck

Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov

The Secret History – Donna Tartt

The Lovely Bones – Alice Sebold

Count of Monte Cristo – Alexandre Dumas

On The Road – Jack Kerouac

Jude the Obscure – Thomas Hardy

Bridget Jones’s Diary – Helen Fielding

Midnight’s Children – Salman Rushdie

Moby Dick – Herman Melville

Oliver Twist – Charles Dickens

Dracula – Bram Stoker

The Secret Garden – Frances Hodgson Burnett

Notes From A Small Island – Bill Bryson

Ulysses – James Joyce

The Inferno – Dante

Swallows and Amazons – Arthur Ransome

Germinal – Emile Zola

Vanity Fair – William Makepeace Thackeray

Possession – AS Byatt

Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens

Cloud Atlas – David Mitchell

The Color Purple – Alice Walker

The Remains of the Day – Kazuo Ishiguro

Madame Bovary – Gustave Flaubert

A Fine Balance – Rohinton Mistry

Charlotte’s Web – E.B. White

The Five People You Meet In Heaven – Mitch Albom

Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

The Faraway Tree Collection – Enid Blyton


Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad

The Little Prince – Antoine De Saint-Exupery

The Wasp Factory – Iain Banks

Watership Down – Richard Adams

A Confederacy of Dunces – John Kennedy Toole

A Town Like Alice – Nevil Shute

The Three Musketeers – Alexandre Dumas

Hamlet – William Shakespeare

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – Roald Dahl

Les Miserables – Victor Hugo


Not a great score but there are several on there that I plan to read .

Leave me a comment and a link to your list.

It's Friday...can only be Book Hop time!

Jennifer at Crazy for Books has already decorated for the festive season and has a new layout too!



From Jennifer
In the spirit of the Twitter Friday Follow, the Book Blogger Hop is a place just for book bloggers and readers to connect and share our love of the written word! This weekly BOOK PARTY is an awesome opportunity for book bloggers to connect with other book lovers, make new friends, support each other, and generally just share our love of books! It will also give blog readers a chance to find other book blogs to read!

The Hop lasts Friday-Monday every week, so if you don't have time to Hop today, come back later and join the fun! This is a weekly event! And stop back throughout the weekend to see all the new blogs that are added! We get over 200 links every week!!


This week's question comes from Sarah who blogs at Writer, Reader, Dreamer:


"What is your favorite book cover?"

I didn't even need to rack my brain to decide on this one. 

My favourite book cover is

A wonderful read and a beautiful cover. 

For those of you who took a break from blogging for Thanksgiving, have a look at my previous posting on questions and feel free to take part.

 

Question Time

My blogging friend Tracy over at



 is taking part in Four Questions Asked, Four Questions Answered tagIf you have not visited before, please go visit, you don't know what your missing! She has asked me the following questions.......


You are going to a fancy dress party - what is your costume of choice and why?

A glamorous 1940's film star.  Growing up I loved Saturday double matinee on the BBC.  All those black and whites starring Bette Davis, Audrey Hepburn, Katherine Hepburn etc.  Oh how I loved their hairstyles, makeup and beautiful dresses.


What is the oddest gift you have ever received/given?

I don't give odd presents as I am one of those mad people who will only give a present I would wish to receive.  It becomes a problem as I sometimes find it difficult to part with a gift because I love it so much.
The oddest gift I have received would have to be a book on massage and wooden massager.  I was a single parent at the time with no one at home to give me massage or vice versa.

Every Christmas morning we would eat tinned hotdogs for breakfast. A family we know ate a box of malteser chocolates in bed to celebrate a birthday. Do you have any holiday traditions? If not, what tradition would you like to start?

Very topical for me at the moment as my eldest children are too old for santa etc and over the last few years Christmas has really just become present giving and 'Sunday lunch'.  This year I am having to recreate magical Christmas big style as the youngest is 3 and knows all about Santa this year!

When I was at home as a child we would have to go to the kitchen and have full cooked breakfast and get dressed before we opened our stockings.  The longest breakfast of the year!! 
Every year we go to a neighbouring village where there is a street filled with lights for charity.  It is a wonderful sight (forget global warming this is for charity)

You find a time machine to which time in history would you travel and why?

Have always been fascinated with Victorian history. Not sure where I would want to land but probably some where affluent like a big country estate.

This invite is open to all....please take my 4 questions, below,  and post on your page with your answers.  Then ask your own 4 questions.  Remember to leave a comment below with a link to your four questions asked, four questions answered.

Here are my 4 questions....

1. What is your favourite 'pick me up' when you are feeling down?
2. What is your favourite book read in 2010?  If you don't read what was your favourite film or TV programme in 2010?
3. What is your favourite  food?
4. What smells or sounds remind you of childhood?

1977

Memorable years

Been having a few down days... we are in the middle of a recession, some very sad events have happened locally (one of those quite close to my heart), I turn on the TV and we get either murders, recession or Christmas ads.  I do find this time of year quite stressful generally due to the impending Christmas Shopping etc.

So, decided to look back thru my rose-tinted glasses at days gone by   

1977 ...........When I was 8 years old!

1977 was a memorable year here in the UK and one that sticks in my mind as a happy year. I was in my last year at Primary School. 

The Queen celebrated her Silver Jubilee.  25 years as Queen of England.  As an 8 year old this was so exciting.  A day off school,- 7th June,  and a street party.  My mum and neighbours applied to the local council to close the street off for the day for the celebrations as many streets in the country did.
 A neighbour, who was out of the country at the time, lent us her garage to have the buffet tea. We had a fancy dress competition and party games.
I don't think this country can re-create the community atmosphere again in 2012 for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee.

Red Rum won the Grand National at Aintree for the 3rd time.  As a child, living in a Horse Racing community, I didn't really have much interest in horse racing.  There was one horse race a year I remember sitting with the family watching - The Grand National.  Red Rum became a national hero.  This was the one race my Nana would have a flutter on. 

Star Wars was the blockbuster film was released in December this year over here.  I could not have imagined, at the time, that many years later my own children would be mad about The Prequal - Episode 1 - The Beginning.  Of course, my kids could not believe I knew some of the characters of the latest blockbuster. 
We also had Smokey and The Bandit, Saturday Night Fever, and Close Encounters of the Third Kind.  These were not films I saw until I was older.  Summer 1978 we got Grease fever!!

1977 was a year that many will remember as on 16th August, Elvis Presley, The King of Rock and Roll, died.  This was the first time I witnessed mourning on that scale.  I remember seeing the news reports of people flocking to Graceland.
Again I did not realise back then that my own son, now 13, would be a fan of Elvis.

On Tv we had

Opportunity Knocks which was the 70's version of The Xfactor.  We had never heard of Phone Poll rigging.

The National institution that is Cornonation Street which celebrates it's 50th year this year.

Emmerdale Farm which is now known Emmerdale.  Dropping the farm was fair, there is more bed hopping, family sagas, etc than farming these days.


Playschool,  for the younger viewers,  

Blue Peter, which is still going now

Tiswas with the Phantom Flinger, Chris Tarrant (Who wants to be a Millionaire ) and Lenny Henry

Doctor Who - I could never watch this as too scary.  Still cannot see the appeal it has for my kids today

and The Muppet Show - We loved Kermie and the gang.

My favourites used to be CHiPS, The A Team and Knight Rider, though I think these may have been early 80's before we got them here in England.

Do you have a memorable year in your childhood?

Book News

My own personal news is that I am reading again. 
I am still not over 84 Charing Cross Road and may be on the rebound but there is a book that
has caught my interest.
I don't want to say to much just yet as I am only on page 41 and it is early days!  ;)

I have not really posted on blogs much this week. No time for memes due to home commitments.  Been a very quiet week for me and so I thought I would share some.......

Other bookish news I have come across here in the UK.....


A grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund to the tune of £2 million has been awarded to renovate
Charles Dicken's house in Doughty Street, Clerkenwell, Central London.  The house has been a museum since 1925. 

The work is much needed in time for the Bicentenary of Dicken's birth in 2012.

                         ********************************************

The COSTA BOOK AWARD shortlist was announced this week

The Costa Book Awards recognise the most enjoyable books in five categories – First Novel, Novel, Biography, Poetry and Children's Book - published in the last year by writers based in the UK and Ireland.

The list can be found here

                         ********************************************

The Minstry of Stories

This is an exciting new project that makes me wish I was a child at school again just for this opportunity.

Nick Hornby - Author is setting up a creative writing school for children, aged 8 - 18, in the UK.  Based on the idea from Dave Egger's school in the USA. 

Take a look Ministry of Stories

Have you any news, bookish or otherwise to share?

Monday is here!

Today I am joining in with......




 Here is the space that should have my book meme favourites too, but I cannot go to the party today as I am having READER'S BLOCK and I would stand in the corner looking miserable!


Questions for Meet me on a Monday:


1. Do you eat Sushi? No, meat, fish and seafood should be cooked. Similarly, tea and coffee should be hot not iced. It's all in my mind!  :)

2. What kind of bath soap do you use? Whatever is on special offer in the Chemists, within reason.  I do love The Sanctuary collection from Boots The Chemist. 

3. How often do you talk to your Mom? Every day

4. What TV shows do you watch on a regular basis? The Soaps, Corrie, Eastenders, Emmerdale.

5. Did you start Christmas shopping yet? No,  December is not here yet!  I am hoping to do it all in a couple of trips to the shops this year.


I have a couple of questions of my own for all of you out there...


1. Book Bloggers...what are your reading plans for the week?


2. All bloggers....what are your favourite sources for extras on your blogs? (i.e. pics, apps, counters etc)


3. For everyone....what is your favourite way to accessorise an outfit day or evening?

My answers are

1. Reading plans to follow. I am on a forced book break after the wonderful 84 Charing Cross Road. Four books are going back to the library unread :( maybe I will get inspiration there :)

2. I have found these sites (please read the terms of use for these sites as they vary)
pic app
glitter-graphics
freedigitalphotos

3.  I am mad on scarves these days.  They are a 'not too expensive' way of jazzing up my black wardrobe.
I do like a little jewellery but keep this mainly for nights out as not practical when houseworking or with a toddler.

Some of my collection. 

My favourite, for now,  gorgeous imitation Peacock pattern. Have u noticed the animal theme happening here?

Enjoy ur Monday!

DizzyC

Alfie's Preschool choice

The Very Snowy Christmas by Diana Hendry
and Jane Chapman

A cute tale of Big Mouse and Little Mouse. 

Little Mouse goes outside to collect some Mistletoe to decorate for Christmas.  It begins to snow whilst he is out and this is the tale of his journey home and his over active imagination.

Very colourful and full of fun. The youngest and I enjoyed this bedtime story.

5/5 for us!

Other books I have come across that would make great Christmas presents for young children are

The Wombles - Elisabeth Beresford   (7yrs and over)

Classic Wombles have been given a makeover and brought back to life in a new set of books celebrating over 40 years of the creatures from Wimbledon Common, London who were our first Recycling  Heroes back in the 70's.

A Year in Brambly Hedge - Jill Barklem

Delightful 30th Anniversary edition containing the 1st four classic books.

The Paddington Treasury for the Very Young - Michael Bond

Paddington has entertained children for over 50 years.  This treasury has 6 classic picture books containing Paddington's adventures


DizzyC

Dizzy Sunday!

I am living up to my nickname today.  I am so Dizzy!

I don't know if I am coming or going. 

I get like this when I had too many things going on.......wait I always have too many things going on.

I have reviews I want to get up on my blog. 

I have neglected my reading journal and need to update that badly. 

I cannot get into a book.  Took 4 books from the library and cannot get into any of them.  Went to my TBR shelves and nothing takes my fancy. 

I am having readers block.  I blame my last book 84 Charing Cross Road.  I am not over it yet!  I still have such fond memories of the places it took me and the people I met along the way. 

Maybe I need a book free day before I jump back into another on the rebound.

I am off in search of the lunch bag again today.  Toys R us here we come.

Then my eldest son is parading with Air Training Corps in Remembrance Sunday Parade.  He has taken part before as a scout but this is his first parade with ATC.  We are off to watch the parade.

Enjoy ur Sunday, Folks!

Award time!

Thank you to Donna at Donna's House on the Corner for awarding me a Stylish Award

Please pop over to see Donna at her lovely blog.

This is a sexy looking award for my blog!

I won't bore you with 7 facts about me as I had done that recently so instead I offer.....

7 Dizzy thoughts I have had recently

1. I am starting to settle into my blog now. After a shaky start thinking I should be using my bloggy friends style of writing and worrying that many bloggers seemed to have professional looking blogs I have realised that each of those blogs started out just like mine.  It takes time to build up a great looking blog.  I realise I should stay true to who I am including my funny English accent and my style of writing as I speak.

2. I have a confession that has been on my mind for the last couple of weeks.  My dear partner  bought me a dishwasher.  I cannot enjoy the luxury of not having to wash up 4 or 5 times a day as I am still thinking about the water and electricity it takes.  The bonus I have is being able to read whilst the dishwasher is on.

3.  I am debating whether to start a handwritten diary.  This blogging has got me thinking that there are many thoughts, some too personal for cyberspace, that I really should write down to reflect on later.  I have been through many tough times and am having a tough time again now.  I am sure if I could reflect on those other tough times I could see my way through these.

4. I want to go back to college.  I am envious of my daughter who is choosing her options for Sixth Form at school.  I want to go back and take English Lit and Travel and Tourism!

5. I have taken on too many library requests.  I have a habit of wanting to read a book badly and then when it comes through I am not in the right mood for that book. That is the luxury of a TBR shelf, the books can sit there until I am in the right mood.   I have two at the moment that are going back unread.

6. I live in black. It drives my partner mad.  I just cannot bring myself to wear much colour.  What I wear gives me confidence.  I know the old saying that black is a colour to hide behind but black gives me confidence.  I do wear a few colour tops and jeans but most of my trousers and skirts are black.  Dressing up or down depends on how I feel not what the occasion is, to a certain degree.  Example : Going to a party, I may dress right up in heels and glitzy outfit or I may go in jeans and a glitzy top.  What others are wearing doesn't matter to me.  If everyone is in jeans and I am in skirt and heels I can be very confident because I feel good about how I look and vice versa.

7.  I still live in the town I was born in.  The furthest I have ever lived away from here is 7 miles.  I live 2 streets from the hospital I was born in.  I do need to get out more and see more of the UK and the world!

I am passing on to these lovely blogs..

whatchareadinbooks
jewelzfrontporch
kateslibrary
pettywitter
highheelsandbookdeals

enjoy ur weekend, Folks!

84 Charing Cross Road - Helene Hanff

84 Charing Cross Road and The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street. (1971)

Have been ranting about this novel ever since I picked it up!

How did I miss this wonderful read. 

84 Charing Cross Road contains letters written between Helene Hanff, a New York writer and Frank Doel, and other staff at Marks & Co Booksellers.
It began with a letter requesting books to be sent from the bookshop in London to Helene in the USA in 1949.  Over the years Helene and Frank's friendship develops to the point that Helene sends food parcels to the staff at Marks & Co during rationing and has requests to come and visit England.  The letters end in 1969 when Frank's wife still requests Helene to come and visit.  The lost art of letter writing is encaptured here.  Ordering books from Amazon is a world away from this.

There are some lovely references historical events over the years


The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street is a journal kept by Helene when she finally visits England in 1971. 
It is a detailed account of her time in London, Oxford and Stratford Upon Avon.  It reads like a tourist guide and I could identify with how excited Helene was to finally see the sights she had read about including Tower of London, St Paul's Cathedral, Shakesphere's birthplace.  I do envy the fact that she had been inside St Paul's. Something I still have to do. 

It also introduces the reader to some wonderful people she met whilst here, including the fab Joyce Grenfell.  84 Charing Cross did not appear, at the time to be a bestseller, but like Helene said it was what brought her to London and opened doors for her.

In the journal Helene has managed to highlight some of the differences between USA and UK folk and some of our strange UK customs that oversees visitors cannot understand.

One example that actually comes up in my previous posting (at the end as a P.s), The search continues, springs to mind about language difference.

She writes
Nobody over here  says "six-thirty" or "seven-thirty", they say "hoppossix" and "hopposseven". And 'in'  at home, is 'trendy' here and 'give it up' is 'pack it in'  and 'never mind' is 'not to worry'.

hoppossix and hopposseven -
half past six and half past seven.  We also say quarter past and quarter to the hour rather than 6.15 or 6.45.  We teach it in schools.

I am 'in' when I am home. I tell my kids to 'pack it in' when misbehaving and I still use 'not to worry'.  :)

I loved this book.

5/5 for me!


To find out more http://www.84charingcrossroad.co.uk/

The search continues....

http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/Image:Matt%20Banks

 How hard can it be to find a lunch bag for my 3 year old!

Postman Pat and Fireman Sam do not eat lunch from lunch bags it seems, So the youngest's lunch bag will not have either of his favourite characters on it.

I went into town this morning knowing that there were only 3 shops that may have lunch bags. The selection I had amounted to 4 different designs.  None suitable for a 3 year old.  I came home empty handed. 

Oh how I miss Woolworths! 

In these times of recession and shops closing it is getting much harder for me to support my local shops.
Only a year ago I pledged to support my local shops before I would turn to cyberspace for my purchases.

This is becoming a hunt for a needle in a haystack! 

I so want to buy local but when even items like children's clothes are difficult to find in town.  There are no nursery shops at all.  3 years ago I had to buy my pram over the internet! 
 
With little choice in town I turned to the internet.  I found a Cars lunch bag. Lovely!  Put in my order, when to checkout,  £7.99 for postage.  Yeah right!

The search continues  :(

HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT INTERNET SHOPPING AND THE LOSS OF LOCAL SHOPS?

P.S Just have to share this.... on the way to playschool, my 3 year old asked

"Mummy, what time is it?" 

Mummy's reply, "It's twenty-five past eight."

"No, it's One Pound!"  came the adamant reply from my 3 year old.

Think he has picked up my clock watching habit and we need to start learning days of week and time.  So far he understands Night and Day.

Remembrance Day 11/11

In Flanders fields the poppies blow



Between the crosses, row on row,


That mark our place; and in the sky


The larks, still bravely singing, fly


Scarce heard amid the guns below.






We are the Dead. Short days ago


We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,


Loved and were loved, and now we lie


In Flanders fields.






Take up our quarrel with the foe:


To you from failing hands we throw


The torch; be yours to hold it high.


If ye break faith with us who die


We shall not sleep, though poppies grow


In Flanders fields.




John McCrae 1915

Lest we forget

Whatcha reading Weds 10/11

Hosted by Busy Moms who Love to Read  Pop over and join in

This week's Whatcha Reading Wednesday Teaser works like this:


Type in the last two complete sentences on page 98.

Remember to alert any Spoilers


My book is a 2 part novel and page 98 is actually blank.  The 2nd part of the book starts on Page 101 so I will share the last two sentences of that page.

I'd written a book called 84 Charing Cross Road, and a few months after it came out in New York, a London Publisher named Andre Deustch bought it for publication in England.  He wrote me that the London edition would be brought out in the June and he wanted me there to help publicize the book.

84 Charing Cross Road/Duchess of Bloomsbury Street - Helene Hanff

It's Monday..What r u reading??

Hosted by Sheila at Book Journey

A fab weekly meme that will seriously increase your Book Wishlist!

I am reading 84 Charing Cross Road and The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street by Helene Hanff

I am so engrossed in this novel.  However did I manage to overlook this wonderful slice of social history spanning 1940's to 1970's.

I have just started The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street part of the book.

Bookish plans this week include....

* picking up library reserve Cider with Rosie by Laurie Lee

*continuing my search for Birth Year books for 1969 - I think I will extend this to authors born in 1969 too.

*continuing my search for Books set in England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland.

these are for a personal reading challenge I plan to start in the New Year.  I envy bloggers who take part in online blog reading challenges and feel like the only girl in the class not at the party.....I don't sign up for these challenges because if I know I am on a time limit I do not enjoy reading.  I need to go at my pace.

What are you reading this week?

Happy Reading!

Time to be sociable

Time to be sociable....
My washing and ironing is done and little one is having his nap.  I still need his daytime nap :)

The Book Blog hop at

Your blog should have content related to books, including, but not limited to book reviews to join this popular hop

This week's question comes from Vicki who blogs at The Wolf's Den:


"What are your feelings on losing followers? Have you ever stopped following a blog?"

As I only have a handful of followers at the moment I am hoping that my mix of book reviews, family stories, and dizzy thoughts are enough to keep my followers coming back for more!

I haven't deleted any blogs that I follow but some blogs seem to be inactive recently on my list.


Another popular hop I like to follow is hosted by Java at Never Growing Old




 If you are new here from the 40 and over hop don't let the title put you off, take a look around, it is not all Book talk!  

 Hosted by Lori from
DollyCas Thoughts
From Lori's site:

We depend on each other for book reviews, giveaways, encouragement, friendship, but how well do we really know each other? So that is what this meme is all about, getting to know each other.

WEEK 10 QUESTIONS


Did you vote on Tuesday?
I am in the UK

Where do you get news about what's happening in the world? (Newspapers, Internet, Local Television Stations, Cable News, etc.)
I like to watch the BBC News at breakfast, local news on the radio as and when I am out in the car and other news I get online.




Do you read in bed before you go to sleep?
I try to and would love to devote at least an hour each night in bed to reading.  Unfortunately, as many glasses wearers will know, my eyes get tired and it is a strain to read.  On the nights I can see to read I can fall asleep within half hour of picking up my book.


Enjoy your weekend, Folks!

    

The Friday Five

Follow the link here  Kates Library
The Friday Five is a feature  at Kate's Library where I share my top blog posts and/or articles I've read this week.


Monday I had a shout out on Confessions of a Somewhat Confused Scot 's lovely blog along with
Confessions from a paper bag  .......two great blogs to check out, folks!  So glad I found these blogs.

Tuesday I had a guest feature on Historical Tapestry about my Books for a Lifetime.

A First edition copy of  Wurthering Heights made record breaking news this week.  I did mention it on my blog and here is the link bbc news Norfolk UK

Closer to Lucy has a festive review of an old favourite brought up to date here Closer to Lucy/Christmas Carol Pop up Book

The UK Galaxy National Book Award catagory nominations have been announced here channel4galaxy-national-book-awards-2010


Enjoy the links and have a good weekend!

Christmas present hint

The other night I sent my lovely partner an email with a couple of photos of gorgeous rings I had seen online with the caption

Darling, a Christmas present that would make you very happy this year

the reply came back

£50 !


which meant £50 was his limit on a christmas present for me to which I replied


Darling u left a zero off that figure.


I am worth way more than £50 and I know u didnt mean it to look like £50.


I know you would like to spend thousands on me but you know I am not materialistic and £500 would be plenty.

Your ever loving partner and Mother of your child.

Books of a Lifetime - Guest post

Today I am guest posting at Historical Tapestry for their Books of a Lifetime feature.

Please pop over to Historical Tapestry and check out their wonderful blog!

You too could join in and submit your Books of a Lifetime via email to feature in a future spot.