Dewey's 24-Hour Readathon: Hours 0-4

 

Good afternoon readers, read-a-thonners, and anyone else who might have dropped by accidentally!  It's that time again - Dewey's 24-Hour Read-a-Thon starts at 1pm today (that's London time) and runs through until 1pm tomorrow (clue's in the name), and I'm going to be here and updating (hopefully) for as many of those hours as I can stay awake.  All the info on signing up and start times for different time zones is on the website, along with the infectiously enthusiastic Dewey blog, so just click the link to find out more!  As always, I've spent the last couple of days amassing a pile of potential reads - reasonably short books, with snappy chapters, an interesting premise and, most importantly for those 3am looking-through-a-fog moments, decent sized print - and a delicious heap of potential snacks.  I AM READY.

I'm setting myself a tentative goal of 500 pages for the day, which seems to be roughly my limit in these 24-hour readathons.  I'm also planning to 'read for charity' again, and match the donation to what I've read.  Sooo, for the readathon in which I read Wesley, about a woman raising and living with an injured baby barn owl, I adopted a barn owl from The Barn Owl Trust at the end.  This time around, if I read a Deric Longden book, I could pick a cat charity; if I read The Virgin Suicides, I could donate to MIND... you get the idea.  I'm not working so I don't have a lot to give, but I've not spent too much this month and I really like the idea of making the readathon count, so I'M DOING IT ANYWAY.

 

Over the day I'll be updating here on the blog, starting a new post every four hours just to keep things tidy (maybe less if I fall asleep or something - but I'm hoping to cram plenty of updates, photos and challenges into each post!), and also over on Instagram.  If you don't follow me already, my handle's @derbyshirelass87, and the readathon hashtag is... #readathon.  Nice and easy to remember!  If you're blog hopping, do feel free to leave your update links in the comments so I can return the visit at some point and cheer you on right back.  :)

 

 

~ Kick-off ~

 

Good morning, afternoon, night, or whatever time it is where you are!  It's 1pm here in England, I've just finished devouring a pile of toast and a cup of tea... so let's get cracking!

 

1) What fine part of the world are you reading from today?

A sporadically sunny Derbyshire, smack bang in the middle of England.  More specifically, in my bedroom, where I'll probably be alternating between my bed (comfy, lots of natural light) and my reading nook (because there should be less likelihood of me falling asleep for six hours there).

2) Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to? 

 Ummmmm.  Well, I've picked out quite a hefty stack to choose from, because I know that if I finish a book at 3am it's important to have ALL THE CHOICES so I don't stall, but... maybe the Deric Longden book, A Play on Words?  It's been ages since I read one of his, and just the first page made me snort when I flipped through it, which always bodes well!
 

3) Which snack are you most looking forward to? 

I'm cooking a Goodfella's deep pan pepperoni 'n' pepper pizza later, which is always delicious.  And I bought peanut M'n'Ms.  And sometime tonight I'll probably have a giant bowl of Frosties and a YouTube break, because ALL THE SUGARY GOODNESS.  Oooh, oooh, and I bought Rocky Road bites!  All the snacks, basically.  ALL OF THEM. 

 

4) Tell us a little something about yourself! 

I never know what to say for this bit.  No wonder I'm so good at job interviews.  Ummmm.  My favourite ice cream is proper toffee fudge, with those little bits of soft toffee in it. I'm a total cat lady and will probably be joined by one or all of ours at some point today.  One of my favourite movies is Psycho and it worries my mum that I frequently describe Norman Bates as 'sweet'.  I love having houseplants and flowers in my room and have gotten quite good at not killing them.  IS THAT ENOUGH THINGS? 

5) If you participated in the last read-a-thon, what’s one thing you’ll do different today? If this is your first read-a-thon, what are you most looking forward to?

I didn't participate in the last readathon, I don't think, just because October's a bit of a squiffy time for me to be messing up my sleep (potential for SAD, existential despair, uncontrollable weeping etc).  It's definitely not my first rodeo though, so I'm just going with my usual set-up - setting my phone alarm to go off every hour, switching to juice and water and lighter snacks overnight so I don't mess up my stomach too badly, taking part in a few challenges, stalking around Instagram, MAYBE EVEN READING A BIT OMG.  Hopefully it'll go okay!

 

 

~ Hour 1 (2pm) ~
I've been reading:  The Suicide Shop by Jean Teulé
Pages read this hour:  27

Pages read altogether:  27

Mini challenges completed:  2 (including the intro meme)

The menu:  Nothing this hour!

In six words:  A lively and oddly charming start.

 

Thoughts:  I'd heard that this book was strangely warm and amusing, despite its bleak title, and so far I'm racing through it!  It's about a family running a suicide shop - everything you need to end your life right! - and their despair at their youngest son, the disgustingly sweet and cheerful Alan.  At the moment he's standing in a corner with sticking plaster over his mouth with a frown drawn on, so none of the customers can see that he's smiling underneath.  It just wouldn't be good for business, would it?!

 

MINI CHALLENGE: Our Bookish Childhood

Hosted by Readage: Snapshots from a Reading Life

 

For this challenge we have to share five books (and the experiences of reading them) from childhood!

 

1.  The moment I first learned to read silently, sitting on our big old green sofa with a copy of The Wishing Chair by Enid Blyton.

2.  Finally picking up Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, thinking it didn't sound like a book for me at all - then getting about four pages in and being hooked for life.

3.  First reading That Moment in Anne of Green Gables and sobbing my socks off for the first time over a beloved character dying.

4.  Cutting and pasting coloured circles in class to make our own versions of The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

5.  Reading Matilda for the first time and desperately wishing I could go to Miss Honey's cottage for tea and bread and jam too!

 

 

 

~ Hour 2 (3pm) ~
I've been reading:  The Suicide Shop by Jean Teulé

Pages read since my last update:  30

Pages read altogether:  57

Mini challenges completed:  2 (including the intro meme)

The menu:  Nothing again - I'm super thirsty though!

In six words:  MY MUM KEEPS INTERRUPTING ME.  GLEEFULLY.

 

Thoughts:  I'm sailing through the book at a good clip - the print's pretty big, and the story is quirky and blackly humorous, which always goes down well!  Now if only I could persuade my Mum that it isn't, in fact, hilarious to keep wandering in to look out the window and raid my snack stash every few minutes, I might really get going with this thing!  :)

 

  

 

~ Hour 3 (4pm) ~
I've been reading:  The Suicide Shop by Jean Teulé

Pages read since my last update:  33

Pages read altogether:  90

Mini challenges completed:  2 (including the intro meme)

The menu:  Mug of tea; Graze summer berry flapjack

In six words:  This book is a wonderful surprise!

 

 

 

~ Hour 4 (5pm) ~
I've been reading:  The Suicide Shop by Jean Teulé
Pages read since my last update:  35

Pages read altogether:  125

Mini challenges completed:  2 (including the intro meme)

The menu:  Nothing this hour - I'm starving now though.

In six words:  Broken out the eye drops already!

 

Thoughts:  Well!  I reckon I'll finish my book in the next hour, other stuff allowing.  I have to say, I suddenly had the most tired and aching eyes in this hour, I ALMOST put my head down to nap for a few minutes, just to lose the burn.  Then I remembered that I bought some eye drops recently, specifically for exactly this type of tired-eye burniness, and ALL WAS SAVED.  I'm now absolutely starving, so I'm going to wander off and stick a pizza in the oven I think.  Can't have a readathon without pizza!

 

 

I'll be starting a new post for the next four hours, so I'll see you there! 



March: What I Read

American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis (4*) - FINALLY, I HAVE CONQUERED THE BEAST.  Yes, fifteen years after my teenage self combed through this book for 'good bits' and nearly lost her lunch, my adult self read it in its entirety and to her surprise, rather enjoyed herself!  This book is not going to be for everyone, or even for most people.  The eponymous Patrick Bateman's relentlessly monotonous cycle of brand names, outfit descriptions, expensive restaurants, pill-popping and bed-hopping will put many off before they even GET to the torture, murder, sadism and frenzied cannibalism - but actually, I ended up finding the repetitive detail quite soothing, and found that not only did this shallow everyday rhythm counter the (incredibly) graphic scenes beautifully, but it also allowed Bateman's black humour and moments of sudden wisdom and humanity to shine through with unexpected brightness.  I got quite fond of him by the end - like somehow as reader and character we had been through the wringer together, each inside the other's psyche - and I still can't quite work out how much of his narrative was 'real' or whether some interactions and moments were purely the product of his increasingly desperate mind.  Now I'm going to allow myself to revisit the (much tamer and more obviously funny) movie, and my mastery of this novel will finally be complete!

Little House in the Big Woods (Little House 1) by Laura Ingalls Wilder (4.5*) - I'm waaaay behind on Bex's 2016 Little House readalong, so this month I finally picked up the first book to get started - and it was wonderful.  Set in the early 1870s in Wisconsin, it's an autobiographical year in the life of four year-old Laura's pioneer family - Ma, Pa, Mary, Laura and baby Carrie - and their log cabin in the woods.  What really struck me was how connected the family is to its surroundings: how the shifting seasons are enjoyed; how the natural world is respected and seen as something to coexist with, not conquer; and how each meal, each foodstuff, each item for the house is carefully planned and created from scratch, often with help from Laura's wider family.  It's a wonderful antidote to modern living, with charming illustrations to add to the reading experience, and I loved every minute.  It's a rose-tinted tale to be sure, and it lost half a star for a couple of slightly muddled descriptions of the objects and processes Laura observed - but they were minor gripes.  Roll on book 2!

Brooklyn by Colm Tóibín (4*) - I'm not a massive reader of historical fiction, but when the film buzz first arose (with a bunch of my favourite actors attached to the project) it really whet my appetite for this one.  It's the story of a young Irish girl, Eilis, who travels from Enniscorthy to Brooklyn in the 1950s to start a new life full of expanded opportunities and interesting people.  The novel explores her growth from a timid girl to a poised young woman, and the way she is torn between her Irish roots and American lifestyle.  It's written in a slightly detached tone, and the ending was a bit too abrupt for me (albeit realistic), but I loved Eilis's journey and the many little details that brought her experiences to life, whether it was the rough crossing to New York, working in a department store, Christmas at the local parish hall, or spending the day at the beach with friends.  A compelling, subtle little novel that didn't rock my world, but made me very glad I picked it up and gave it a chance.  Just one word of warning - don't (re)watch the movie trailer if you plan to read it; it spoils (and therefore ruins) one of the most important plot points of the whole novel!

P.S. I watched the movie last night and it was BEAUTIFUL.  The music is to die for, it streamlines some of the fussier strands of the original, and the slight air of detachment in the novel gives way to a deeply emotional screen adaptation that ends on a perfect note.  My only issues with it were that some of the key characters lacked the depth and spark they had on the page, and it skipped over most of the novel's romantic scenes that served to heighten the stakes in Eilis's dual lives and make the necessity to choose between them all the more poignant.


Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell (4*) - Yup, I finally read it - which is good, because I was starting to feel like the last person in the universe to pick it up, and it's been on my shelves for TWO AND A HALF YEARS already.  I didn't like it as much as Attachments, but I appreciated the slow-building and refreshingly joyful nature of the relationship between Cath and Levi, and I loved Reagan's sass and Mr Avery's dry wit (I was imagining him as Stanley Tucci all the way through!).  The focus on the Simon Snow fandom brought back some great Potter memories, and given my Carry On purchase last week it's probably a good thing that I preferred Cath's fanfiction to the 'real' Simon book excerpts peppered through the novel.  Overall I think it was maybe a little longer than it needed to be, but it finally succeeded where Anna and the French Kiss (and others) failed for me - it's a fun, bookish college novel full of interesting and multifaceted characters and different types of relationships and issues, and has a self-awareness and charm that help to excuse its more clichéd moments.  Bring on the next Rainbow! 


It's Kind of a Funny Story by Ned Vizzini (5*) - This book's been on my radar for the longest time (you know how much I love a good mental health novel) and HOORAY, it was so worth the wait!  First of all, let me say that it's quite refreshing to read one of these stories from the perspective of an average guy; not a painfully innocent or shy boy, or a kooky girl, but a regular, testosterone-driven, vaguely worldly fifteen year-old who likes video games, pot and jerking off.  Craig's description of his five days in a mental hospital, which he checks himself into after a long battle with depression and a night of suicidal crisis - is not only pithy, warm and very realistic (it is drawn from Vizzini's own experiences), it is also, as the title suggest, really kind of funny.  It's filled with wonderful characters and it's possibly the most relatable mental health novel I've read yet; I've scrawled so many notes and hearts and stars in the margin to mark passages to go back to next time I need to feel that I'm not alone and that other people have had the same weird thoughts as I'm having.  I also watched the movie adaptation, which is quite faithful to the book and put a big smile on my face by the time the credits rolled.  Highly recommended!

Gold by Dan Rhodes (4*) - This is an odd little book.  Nothing much happens, and yet it completely won my heart back in 2009 with its mixture of small-town characters, gentle charm and earthy British flavour.  It opens with three friends - short Mr Hughes, tall Mr Hughes and Mr Puw - chatting idly in their local pub.  Septic Barry is sitting across the room with his band, and Mr Edwards is pulling pints behind the bar.  All is as it should be.  And then a Japanese-looking girl walks in, orders a pint and sits down in the corner.  "Welcome back," everyone says.  But who is she?  Every year she arrives in this little Welsh coastal town and stays for a fortnight, alone, walking and drinking and reading.  Why is she here?  The book meanders through each day of her stay, adding little by little to the quirky tapestry of the town and the people in it as their stories unfold, and reaching deeper into Miyuki's life back home.  It's funny and delightful and strangely beautiful, and I loved reconnecting with it - and its sweetheart of a protagonist - all over again!

Biblioholism: The Literary Addiction by Tom Raabe (4.5*) - Another reread for me - and one I would wholeheartedly recommend to a large swathe of my fellow book lovers, be they LibraryThingers, GoodReaders, bloggers, BookTubers or just die-hard lifelong readers.  It could have been written for us - or by us, for that matter!  In short, this is a comprehensive guide to biblioholism and all the various quirky traits and habits that go along with it.  It is evident that Raabe is 'one of us' and he drives right to the heart of our affliction with humour and insight.  Alongside chapters on book buying, reading, collecting and storage, he also includes a hilarious alternative history of the book and a section on the extremes of bookish behaviour - eating books, stealing them, burying them and even destroying them.  With a wealth of interesting and amusing examples of biblioholic behaviour drawn from literature and history, this is a definite keeper for me - and I was delighted to find that when it came to the self-help-esque quiz (just how bad DO you have it?) I had actually increased my score a few points since my last reading; I can now rest assured that I'm still on my chosen path to eventually dying happily under a collapsed bookcase.  Good to know.  :)

 

 

Aaaaand that was my March...  Hope you all enjoyed your reading this month too!

My first few reads of 2016

 1.  Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie (4*) - Probably don't need to say much about this one, right? Classic vintage children's fare: a charismatic yet dangerous young main character, a small army of assorted children, lots of adventures, some dubious attitudes towards women and Native Americans, a dose of tongue-in-cheek humour and plenty of magic. I actually really enjoyed it!

 
2.  Knots and Crosses (Rebus 1) by Ian Rankin (3.5*) - I've never read any Ian Rankin before, but I liked this! I especially liked John Rebus - an old-school British smoking, drinking, book-loving, slightly unstable detective - and the way Edinburgh became a character in its own right, from the bright touristy areas right down to the sleaziest bars and most dangerous neighbourhoods. The story itself wasn't the height of excitement, but it was only the first in a very successful series so I think I'll read on, see where the characters go from here.

 
3.  Zoo by James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge (4.5*) - Now, THIS one had me glued to the pages. It's an eco-pocalypse thriller in which the natural behaviour of animals across the globe starts to shift, including their hunting and feeding habits, and there is a corresponding rise in brutal attacks on humans. Jackson Oz, a young biologist, has been monitoring this for years, but as things escalate it becomes a matter of international importance to finally get the message into the public eye and try to work out what's causing the change. It's been made into a TV series, which I haven't seen yet, and I found the book gripping, infuriating, suitably shocking in places, and oddly plausible.


4.  Very British Problems Abroad by Rob Temple (2.5*) - I really like the VPB Twitter feed (hilarious AND relatable!), sailed through the first book, and then a TV series arrived, and now here's a 'Brits on holiday' book. To be honest all of the above could probably be enjoyed by anyone quite reserved, socially anxious, polite and well prepared - though being British definitely helps. This took me only an hour or two to read, and once again there are some dud entries and some silly editorial slips that really shouldn't be an issue in a book this easy to comb through, but it was fun!

 
5.  21st Century Dodos: A Collection of Endangered Objects (and Other Stuff) by Steve Stack (3*) - Another British-skewed humour book that could probably be enjoyed by other people too, at least in part.  This one is about objects and concepts on the verge of going extinct (or already long gone) in our modern life: mix tapes, dial telephones, milkmen, Opal Fruits, half-day closing, 10p mixed bags of sweets, chocolate cigars, Smash Hits magazine, Woolworths... Things I don't remember at all, things I must have only ever come into contact with as a tiny child, perhaps at my grandparents', and things that lasted all the way into my early teens and beyond and now wear the rosy halo of nostalgia for me too. Lovely.
 

6.  Newtown: An American Tragedy by Matthew Lysiak (4.5*) - Oooh, now, this one's a difficult one to talk about, especially knowing how many of my readers live in the US. As a Brit who, like most people here, has never even SEEN a gun that isn't being worn by a soldier outside an army barracks or by armed security in an airport, mass shootings are one of the few areas of life where America, so similar to us in so many ways, suddenly seems like another planet. I found this book fascinating, sad, respectful, compelling and gratifyingly well-balanced. It tackles Sandy Hook from multiple angles - the children and their families, their teachers, the Lanzas, the events of December 14 2012 and the subsequent days in Newtown - before looking at the roles of various elements such as mental health care, media, gun control and community, and the way these elements continue to impact on EVERYONE involved, from those at the heart of the shooting (victims and survivors) out into the town and beyond to the rest of the country. It was hard to read at times - so much loss, pain and rage - and sometimes I had to stop because I was in tears or just needed a breather, but I thought it was an excellent account and surprisingly fair and objective, albeit written in a slightly overblown style that betrays its author's tabloid newspaper roots. Definitely the best book I've read this year so far.

Aaaand that's my reading year so far!

Bout of Books 15: Monday

The Bout of Books read-a-thon is organized by Amanda @ On a Book Bender and Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal.  It is a week-long read-a-thon that begins 12.01am Monday, January 4 and runs through Sunday, August 10th in whatever time zone you are in.  Bout of Books is low-pressure.  There are challenges, giveaways, and a grand prize, but all of these are completely optional.

For all Bout of Books 15 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog.

- From the Bout of Books team

********

~ MONDAY ~

Books I've read from:  21st Century Dodos: A Collection of Endangered Objects (and Other Stuff by Steve Stack; Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie; Knots and Crosses (Rebus 1) by Ian Rankin

Pages read today: 135

Books finished today:  Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie

Running total:  1 books; 135 pages 

The menu:  Blueberry muffin, mixed tinned fruit and coffee; lasagne and sweetcorn; Graze punnet with dried mango, pineapple and coconut; vanilla rooibos tea; toasted muffins with butter and honey; Terry's chocolate orange minis

Today #insixwords:  My best reading day in MONTHS!

11:30am:  Well.  I nearly started reading at about 12:30am this morning because I COULD NOT SLEEP - but turns out, I couldn't read either (because SLEEPY) so that idea quickly went out the window.  I've kicked off my readathon at a PROPER TIME with a chunk of 21st Century Dodos by Steve Stack, breakfast, and now more dodos with a cup of tea in my new FAB mug, because nostalgia breeds more nostalgia.  Topics covered so far today have included blackboards in schools, 'answers on a postcard', half-day closing and fish and chips wrapped in actual newspaper.  Oh, and you know when you used to buy a CD in Woollies or something, and you had to take the empty case to the desk and they disappeared into a labyrinth of drawers to find the disc in its little cardboard case?  Yeah, that.

 

 

3:50pm: Okay, so I got distracted eating lasagne and watching YouTube videos.  I turned my laptop off until then though, and read a couple of chapters of Peter Pan.  I'm really loving it now I've settled into the style and the sudden surreal moments, though it's still frustrating me that Wendy basically does nothing but darn socks and talk about babies.  No "I'M RED-HANDED JILL!" in this original incarnation, nope - because who needs piracy when there's laundry to be done?  NOBODY, THAT'S WHO, NOW BE A DOLL AND GET THE DINNER ON.

 

 

 

8pm: I decided to turn my laptop off again and not turn it back on OR have tea until I'd finished Peter Pan - so that's what I did.  That's my first completed book of the year as well as my first of the readathon; I had about 100 pages left this morning, or a little over half the novel.  So NOW I can read something new, and also treat myself to Disney's Peter Pan on DVD when I go to Tesco tomorrow, if their Disney collection is still there post-Christmas. 

 

I definitely have mostly positive feelings about the novel, although it kept veering off into knowledgeable diatribes about the nature of girls, and into strangely affectionate racist discourse on the hunting abilities of the redskins, and at one point into a seriously Oedipal moment that directly placed Peter as husband and son to Wendy and made it sound like she was doing naughty things to him to calm him down when he had nightmares.  (I scrawled the page number in my review notes with 'WTF?!' next to it.)  Still, it feels really good to have finally read it; it's such an iconic story, it was a big part of my childhood in its various movie forms, and it's one of the books that's been on my TBR shelves the very longest, since I was only a tweenager or so I would think.  Hooray!  (Or should I say, 'Oh, the cleverness of me!'?)

 

I might sign off here for the night actually, and go make some supper (I'm having toasted muffins and honey and a mug of tea, yummy), then sit and read a new novel for a while before bed.  I have to go to the dentist tomorrow morning, something I hate hate HATE, so the more I can distract myself this evening the better chance I have of actually sleeping tonight.  I'll come back tomorrow to finish off my stats and all the jazz, and get a post up for Tuesday's reading!

 

 

 

Quote of the day:  "Not the pain of this but its unfairness was what dazed Peter.  It made him quite helpless.  He could only stare, horrified.  Every child is affected thus the first time he is treated unfairly.  All he thinks he has a right to when he comes to you to be yours is fairness.  After you have been unfair to him he will love you again, but will never afterwards be quite the same boy."
- from Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie

A Book a Day in July: 25th-31st

It's time for my last Book a Day post, based on a Twitter project called #BookadayUK, where bookish types tweeted their responses to a series of daily prompts.  Talking about the books here on the blog instead means I haven't had to worry about the 140-character limit, and I've been able to group days together; click on the links to read my answers for Days 1-6, Days 7-12, Days 13-18 and Days 19-24.  This post also contains the second 'lucky dip' day, in which Doubleday invited prompt ideas and then Tweeted the chosen question on the day itself.  :)

 

Here we go!  And don't forget to head over to Twitter to see what other people have been recommending...

 

 

July 25th: Book that is your guilty pleasure

I don't have guilty pleasure reading - just pleasure reading (or not-such-a-pleasure reading, as the case may be).  For the sake of this question, however, I'm going to assume 'guilty pleasure' means froth and fun, something light and super-easy to read when you need a pick-me-up.  This is actually quite seasonal for me; in summer my go-to is something like Jenny Colgan's 'food novels', and in winter maybe the Hannah Swensen mysteries by Joanne Fluke (also food-related, with Hannah running a cookie café and all!).

 

 

July 26th: The novel you wish you'd written

It's got to be the Harry Potter series, hasn't it?  It made reading cool, got kids immersed in books, changed people's lives, spawned massively popular tourist attractions, moved onto the big screen...  Just about everybody in the entire world knows the name of the Boy Who Lived, and it all started with one woman having an idea on a train, writing in cafes and a dingy Edinburgh flat, with no money and a baby daughter sleeping beside her, bringing this epic magical story into the world.  Amazing.

July 27th: For National Parents' Day - the best/worst parents in fiction

Ooooh, this is a difficult one!  I think the 'best parent' award has to go to the iconic Atticus Finch from To Kill a Mockingbird (my double review).  He's a hero in every sense, and perfectly treads the fine line between helping Scout and Jem find their way in the world and allowing them to work things out for themselves.   The 'worst parent' award is trickier, but in the end I went for Eva Khatchadourian from We Need to Talk About Kevin.  Not only did she play a significant part in turning her son into a monster by quite blatantly detesting him from birth, she THEN had a second golden child and fawned all over her, rubbing her lack of affection in Kevin's face every day for years.  Ugh.  Special mentions go to Margaret White from Carrie (my review) for being a crazy child-beater, and Mr and Mrs Wormwood from Matilda, who quite frankly just shouldn't have been allowed to reproduce.

July 28th: Favourite animal character
I'm going properly old-school with this one: I absolutely adore little Plop, from The Owl who was Afraid of the Dark by Jill Tomlinson.  He's a baby owl who gets frightened when his parents go off hunting every evening, so he goes on an adventure to find out all the cool things about night-time.  He meets all kinds of people and creatures, and by the end he isn't scared any more!  Our teacher read us this book in Year 2, and when it came into the shop nearly twenty years later it was so lovely reading it again and looking at all the beautiful illustrations.  :)

 

July 29th: Favourite likeable villain
Shiiiiiit.  Another prompt where I just can't settle on an answer!  Okay... I'm going to have to go with Dexter Morgan, from the Dexter series by Jeff Lindsay (my review of the first book), because 'serial killer who channels his instincts into destroying bad guys and has a wonderfully playful dark sense of humour' is about as likeable-villain as they come.  Outside of Tom Hiddleston's Loki anyway, and he doesn't count because FILM.

 

July 30th: LUCKY DIP - A book you've been inspired to read by #bookadayUK
For the first time, I actually don't have a single thing to contribute to this one!  To be honest, I haven't been keeping up with the Twitter feed that diligently, apart from occasional days when I've checked out other people's responses for inspiration.  It's been more fun being reminded of characters and books I already love, and books I definitely want to read sometime, rather than discovering new ones.

July 31st: The book that reminds you of someone special
I'm going to mega-cheat on this one, because I have three that immediately spring to mind.  The Life of Birds by David Attenborough was a Christmas present when I was a little girl because I was always mad-keen on birds and loved the TV series; my mum is a life-long Attenborough fan, so every time I see this on my shelf I think of her.  Dolphins by Jacques-Yves Cousteau was actually her book when she was younger and is now mine, and really speaks to my love of the ocean and sea creatures; I actually seriously considered pursuing marine biology at one time!  And finally, The Forsyte Saga by John Galsworthy, which my dad bought for me on a birthday trip to Scarthin Books years ago, where he let me loose for several hours and bought me a pile of books at the end as my birthday present.  I loved this TV series (with Damian Lewis and Rupert Graves), sailed through the novel, and the Wordsworth edition of the book is about the only one that keeps all three volumes of the saga together so I still have the same copy on my shelves all these years later.  Every time I see it, it reminds me of that birthday!

 

If you've enjoyed all this, the good news is that #BookadayUK has been taken up for another month, this time by the Siobhan Dowd Trust.  Check out their Twitter feed or follow the project hashtag to join in for August!  The first prompt is "most arresting opening line"...

Aaaand that's it!  I hope you've enjoyed my #BookadayUK posts this month!
 

A Book a Day in July: 7th-12th

It's time for my second Book a Day post!  As you may recall from the first instalment, this is based on a Twitter project called #bookadayUK, where bookish types can tweet their responses to a series of daily prompts.  After it proved a success in June, it was taken up by Doubleday UK, who have continued it into July.  Talking about the books here on the blog instead means I don't have to worry about the 140-character limit, and I can group a few days together.  Onwards!

 

Here we go!  Feel free to leave your recommendations in the comments, and head over to Twitter if you fancy taking part in the original project...

 

 

July 7th: Most chocolatey novel - it's National Chocolate Day!

Well, this one's a no-brainer.  The clue's in the title - it's got to be Chocolat by Joanne Harris!  I'd already fallen in love with the film (and still prefer the movie, I think) but the book has more of a magical feel, and the descriptions of food (especially chocolate!) are just mouthwatering.  Definitely not one to read without a stockpile of sweet treats on hand to indulge your cravings...

 

July 8th: Favourite Great War novel

I don't think I've ever read one, though I've definitely got a couple on my shelves, including All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque, which I've heard is amazing.  I have read novels set in World War II though, my favourite of which is probably Atonement by Ian McEwan.  That book ripped my heart out, stomped on it and gave it back, and had a bit of everything in there - romance, family, war at home and abroad...  Robbie's narrative, in particular, was so evocative of the endless days of fear and exhaustion as the army retreated to Dunkirk - it was amazing. (My review)

 

 

July 9th: Most irritating character in a novel
Absolutely no contest here - it's got to be the vile Dolores Umbridge from the Harry Potter series.  I just... ugh.  I hate her so much that I literally can't watch Imelda Staunton in anything else now without feeling a wave of revulsion.  But it's a different kind of hate to, say, Voldemort.  With him it's like, "Whoah, this guy's terrifying... I'm just gonna be over here hiding in a corner."  With Umbridge I felt more like when I was at school and a really nasty teacher would humiliate someone in class for no reason.  Definitely more a "THAT BITCH NEEDS TO GO DOOOOOOWN" kind of thing.  All that pink!  All those little coughs!  All that sickly sweet malevolence!  NOOOOOPE.

July 10th: Novel with the most memorable picnic for Teddy Bear's Picnic Day!
The Malory Towers books by Enid Blyton - and most other Enid Blyton series, to be honest!  I particularly remember that whenever parents came to visit the school, there would always be amazing picnics.  Sometimes the girls would go out with their families and friends for a picnic on the clifftop somewhere, or there'd be a Strawberry Tea held at the school for everyone to enjoy.  Let's face it, all Enid Blyton books are MADE by the picnics - bottles of ginger beer, hard boiled eggs with twists of salt, apples, slabs of cake and gingerbread, thick slices of bread...  Okay now I've made myself hungry.

 

July 11th: The book that made you cry
Ohhhh, I'm a real book crier.  One of the worst offenders for me has to be Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows...  I mean, I knew going into it that it was probably going to be bad, but I ended up having my heart ripped out over and over again as the pages went by.  I sobbed and sobbed, and then sobbed some more, and I gave myself a crying headache, and had to take naps because I'd exhausted myself.  **SPOILERS** The losses with the strongest emotional ties got me hardest - Fred, obviously, because of leaving a twin brother and a close-knit family behind, and Lupin and Tonks, lying side by side in the Great Hall.  I think that one was bad because they'd finally found happiness, they'd got baby Teddy, AND you didn't see them die, it was just one more wretched twist of the knife at the end as the battle's full body count was revealed.  OH JO HOW COULD YOU?!  Anyway, this is the reason I haven't reread all the books yet, and also why I haven't seen the Deathly Hallows movies.  I need to be feeling strong before I go there.  :'(

 

July 12th: Novel that best conjured a place for you
This was quite hard to choose, but I think the most recent example would probably be The Shining by Stephen King.  Because the Overlook Hotel is pretty much a character in its own right, King brings it alive so that you can almost smell the dankness of Room 237, the liquor in the bar and the wintry leaves of the topiary in the grounds; you can hear the dull echo of sounds in the corridors and the cold howling of the wind outside...  That hotel's definitely going to take some beating as far as vivid settings go. (My double review)

 

That's everything so far!  I'll be back soon with more...