The Book Tower
debut novel coming soon

There’s a possibility that I might be renaming and moving this website as I’d like to use the domain name for something else I have in the pipeline. The problem is, I’ve really been having trouble trying to think of a new name. For about five seconds I thought about using Fully Booked, which ties in with my recent commitment to reading challenges. But I think this is (or was) a Saturday morning children’s programme, and I also think it’s a name I could quickly tire of.

Looking around, it appears to me that every conceivable name for a blog has already been used (I’m only counting the inoffensive and sane here). So if anyone can come up with any suggestions, I’ll be eternally grateful – and if I like anything so much as to actually use it I won’t rule out giving a small token of my appreciation…

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This is from Kate’s Book Blog. It’s all about the process of becoming a reader and our earliest reading experiences. Questions by Kate, answers by me.

Continue reading Early Reading meme

As I get deeper into Dominic Sandbrook’s White Heat I’m inspired to do various sixties-related things:

Watch episodes of The Avengers.
Listen to various classic albums of the decade – The Kinks are The Village Green Preservation Society is on in the background as I type.

I’m still only about a third of the way through this book. There’s a lot more on The Beatles as I plough on, although it’s clear that Sandbrook is a McCartney fan. And he doesn’t like Lennon. Commenting on The Fabs’ LSD intake:

Although McCartney and Starr, the more down-to-earth members of the band, were always rather suspicious, Lennon became a great fan. LSD suited his self-pitying, self-indulgent and pretentious personality…

At least he does try to redress the McCartney/Lennon balance, tipped more and more unfairly towards the latter since 1980, and I’m all for a straight 50/50 in this redress. They were equally gifted. Yes?

I’m racing to get through White Heat because I want to get on with Brave New World. I’ve read the first couple of chapters and it’s surprising how fresh the writing is. It reads to me like the sort of dystopian vision that Margaret Atwood would be producing now.

Brave New World is number one in my From the Stacks reading challenge. I’m also aware of my pledge to read a percentage of the 1001 Books in the next year. Managed to find a second hand copy of Lord of the Flies only this afternoon…

Continue reading Bits and Bobs

Here’s another interesting books meme from a site called Overdue Books.

If, like me, your shelves are overflowing with unread books so much that you’ve started to pile new ones up on the floor, then this could be for you. Before January 30, you must read five books that you already own. That’s books that are just sitting around unread; on shelves, on the floor, in buckets, wherever. For me, it’s a great exercise that’s going to hopefully prevent further Amazon purchases in the run up to Christmas.

But what five books to choose?

Brave New World – Aldous Huxley. Inspired by posts I’ve been reading over at The Bibliosphere. I dug out my copy and discovered a bookmark in place on page 84. I’m determined to see it through this time.

A Tale of Two Cities – Charles Dickens. I can’t work out why I haven’t read this one yet, but there you go.

What Maisie Knew – Henry James. I like James, but for some reason I’ve never progressed from Portrait of a Lady and The Turn of the Screw. Until now.

Walter De la Mare – Ghost Stories
I’ve had this on the shelf for years, and this is the best time of year for ghost stories. It’s kind of haunting me there on the shelf, so at last time to read.

Philip K. Dick – Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
One of those books you borrow, never read and never return. So time to read and return. I just have to remember who it belongs to…

I just hope I can do it. Not the reading, which I’m sure I can manage. No, I’m talking about the Amazon thing. I find something exciting about the mundane activity of ordering a book over the internet and then waiting for it. Waiting and then receiving that tell-tale brown box and tearing it open to inspect my latest buys (especially now that my postman has worked out where to leave my parcels when I’m at work).

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The answer to the recent literary meme is The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe.

Incidentally, Radcliffe’s novel is featured in Dr. Peter Boxall’s 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die. I had a look through the list and after a quick calculation I realised I’ve only read roughly 9% of the books listed. So I went back through the list and found ten books that I’ve promised myself to have read by this time next year:

Everything Is Illuminated – Jonathan Safran Foer
The Tin Drum – Günter Grass
The Bell – Iris Murdoch
In a Glass Darkly – Sheridan Le Fanu
Steppenwolf – Herman Hesse
Quartet – Jean Rhys
At the Mountains of Madness – H.P. Lovecraft
Titus Groan – Mervyn Peake
Lord of the Flies – William Golding (I know!)
The Lord of the Rings – J.R.R. Tolkien (I know, I know!)

I didn’t spend too long on my choices. I think I just need to get reading.

By the way, I wouldn’t say that this is the definitive list, but who can?

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