Bout of Books: Tuesday

~ Today's Books ~

 

 

~ Today's Statistics ~

 

Books I've read from:  A Book Addict's Treasury by Julie Rugg and Lynda Murphy, Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë

Pages read today:  49

Books finished today:  None  

Running total:  0 books; 66 pages   

Non-reading progress:  I've visited a few Day 1 updates via Twitter and a bunch from the Bout of Books linky, to say hi and generally shout 'GO READERS GO!' at them in a slightly manic style.  I finished my reading in a (relatively) timely manner to watch my first DVD of the week - the lovely Jon Richardson's new stand-up show Funny Magnet.  I've also done the Cover Love challenge - I had a look at the Guess the Cover one but since I didn't have the first clue about any of them I moved on fairly quickly... :P

Today #insixwords:  Need to stay OFF the internet!

~ Reading Notes ~

 

12 noon

Okay, so my first update is rather late today.  But it's the first day of my week off today so I started out with a looooong lie in, got up at 9:30am, and had about an hour to have breakfast, read a page or two and get ready before Mum and I headed off on our ONE definite errand for the week.  Actually it was kind of fun - Mum wants to try her hand at making her first ever patchwork quilt while she's off this week, so we went down to this converted chapel on the main road devoted to just that. 

 

They have an embroidery shop and tea room a minute's walk down the road too, and a wool shop in town, but I never even knew this patchwork emporium was here!  They have all these old-fashioned haberdasher's rolls of fabric, sewing equipment, quilting tools, books and wadding and patches, and they run courses, and all sorts of stuff, it's so cool!  We chose five different fabrics in dove grey, black, cream and deep red colours, and finally made it home some time later with a neat fold of each tucked into a paper bag.  This is Mum's first one, but if it goes well I might commission her to make an awesome green-themed one when we move and I have a new room to decorate!

 

 

2:00pm

I managed to read a little of A Book Addict's Treasury when we got home, with a mug of coffee and the remains of a chocolate fridge cake slice I bought aaaaages ago (y'know, those no-bake things that are pretty much just biscuits and marshmallows and cherries stuck in chocolate?  YUM!).  In case you've never heard of it, A Book Addict's Treasury is basically a book of extracts, from books and essays, related to books and reading.  Very meta.  I've stumbled across some lovely ones this morning, including a charming piece about reading in bed, by J.C. Squire - and how about this, from a letter from John Keats to his sister?

"Give me Books, fruit, French wine and fine weather and a little music out of doors, played by somebody I do not know."

If that doesn't immediately conjure a perfect vision of a summer afternoon, I don't know what does!  I've also visited a few blogs (admittedly, most of them were Top Ten Tuesday posts rather than Bout of Books, oops) and made my bed and generally Got Things Straight, so now I'm going to make another cuppa and get stuck into Jane Eyre I think!

 

4:45pm

Noooooo, I'm starting to get a headache!  I'm trying to head it off at the pass with buttered crumpets and coffee (shut up, I didn't have lunch, I'm allowed) so that I can keep reading!  I do have some better news: I HAVE actually been reading this afternoon, slumped on my bed like a giant slug.  I've read a chunk of Jane Eyre - her confinement in the red room and her subsequent recovery, poor little sod - and a few more pages of A Book Addict's Treasury, and now I'm done dripping melted butter everywhere I'm going to carry on for a while!  Hey, if the headache DOES end up being a problem, that would be the time to watch my first DVD, right?  So I win all round.  :)

 

 

8:00pm

Okay, so my new laptop's here and on and generally set up, but I have turned it OFF again because seriously... I'm not mucking about uninstalling things and reinstalling things and transferring files and all that crap on a read-a-thon evening.  NO WAY.  I've spent the last hour visiting some of the Day 1 posts and updates from the Bout of Books linky, and now I'm off to read for a bit longer before I stop for some DVD watchin'!  (Yes, I know I said I'd stop at 8pm for that, but I decided on stand-up comedy tonight so it won't be as lengthy as a movie...)

 

9:00pm

*Sighs dramatically*  Gosh, but Jane Eyre is so good.  One minute my heart is aching over the image of little Jane sitting in her dark, cold nursery by herself at Christmas, pouring all her love into a doll because she has no one else in the world, then the next I am all like "YEAH JANE YOU TELL MRS REED THE BIATCH", and then I get all English Literature Student and find myself thinking "Goodness, what a beautiful fiery emotional metaphor that will exquisitely become REAL when *SPOILER* there is fire happening later."  ANYWAY.  I have indeed read some more, and now my headache is threatening to make life a bit miserable so I'm going to go fetch CAKE and PAINKILLERS and a CUPPA, and watch Jon Richardson's stand-up DVD.  As many of you know, he made my Top Ten Weird Crushes over Christmas, and I had a filthy dream about him last night (probably after all the hot literary man talk going down yesterday, hehe) so I thought it was an appropriate choice for today!  ;)

 

11:00pm

Funny Magnet was brilliant - the perfect end to a day of reading and Being Around the Internet A Lot.  Yeah, Jon Richardson rocks.  I'd marry him tomorrow, if truth be told.  Imagine - not only is he a neat and tidy and generally good human being, but WE HAVE THE SAME APPROACH TO NEAT AND TIDINESS.  I wouldn't have to TELL him to put his slippers together by the side of the bed, or how to wash up without getting grease everywhere, or how to put cutlery away.  He may just be my dream man!  Okay bedtime.

 

 

 

~ Cover Love Challenge ~

Hosted by Ms. Buff

 

What’s your favourite cover?   Or what’s the funniest cover you’ve seen?

 

I'm sure I've seen plenty of horrendous and hilarious covers over the years, but my mind has gone COMPLETELY blank trying to come up with one to share!  I guess I'll have to choose my favourite covers instead...  I've talked about some of my favourite covers before - for Colin Tudge's The Secret Life of Trees, Lauren Kate's Fallen and Michelle Moran's Nefertiti, amongst others, so I thought instead of repeating myself, I'd choose my favourites from my most recent acquisitions.

 

I got this one - Walden by Henry David Thoreau - for Christmas from my lovely Mum.  I've wanted a copy of this book for a looong time, but I'd never seen one I really liked.  You know how you sometimes get a feeling that you're really going to connect with a book, so you want a nice edition to bond with?  Yeah, that.  Finally I came across this gorgeous Everyman hardback, with the striking black and white spine, and the beautiful trees on the front cover.  It feels so crisp and clean, and the colours are so purty!

 

 

I've also bought two of the Penguin foiled Fitzgerald books recently.  I bought Tender is the Night in the Penguin sale a couple of weeks before Christmas, and The Great Gatsby soon after when I realised how stunning they were!  They're quite small hardbacks, and they have these striking art deco matte covers with foil designs, each with different pattern, with a matching bookmark attached to the dustjacket at the back.  Sooooo pretty!

 

 

They're my favourite covers of the moment - what are yours?  If you've done this challenge feel free to leave me the link so I can come and laugh/cry/swoon over your choices later!