Author: Jackie

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Other Richard and Judy Book Club

Richard and Judy Book Club Winners Announced.

The winner of the Richard and Judy Book Club 2009  is:

When Will There Be Good News? by Kate Atkinson

The result was announced at the Galaxy British Book Awards last week. The Gargoyle came in second, with December taking the prize for third place.

The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson

December by Elizabeth H Winthrop

I have to admit that I don’t agree with the result at all, only The Gargoyle would have made my top three, along with The Luminous Life of Lilly Aphrodite and The Suspicions of Mr Whicher. I’m not surprised to see When Will There Be Good News at the top of the list, as Kate Atkinson has a large following, and her book was an enjoyable read, but I didn’t expect to see December in the top three. All the reviews I’ve seen of it have been mixed at best, and I haven’t seen anyone raving about it.

I think that the main problem with this prize is that anyone can vote, whether they have read all the books or not. This means that it often goes down to how good people imagine the book will be, or how impressive the cover is. This means that amazing books like The Luminous Life of Lilly Aphrodite get over looked, as the cover doesn’t reveal how great the content is.

Do you agree with this result?

Do you think members of the public should be allowed to vote for book prizes if they haven’t read all the books?

I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Remember the Comment of the Week Competition! I’m looking forward to reading your comments!

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Other

The winner is……

The winner of my Buy a Friend a Book Week competion, winning my well-loved copy of Ingenious Pain by Andrew Miller is………

Madeleine from Books I have Loved

Congratulations!!

I hope that those of you who weren’t successful will try to find a copy of it somewhere else, as it is a really good book.

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Other

Booking Through Thursday – How many books do you read at once?

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For something different, I’m borrowing a question from … here! One of the very first questions ever at Booking Through Thursday. Back from 2005 when Laura owned the blog but, because it was so new, it didn’t get as many responses as it does now … so, why not revisit?

Here’s the question:

Some people read one book at a time. Some people have a number of them on the go at any given time, perhaps a reading in bed book, a breakfast table book, a bathroom book, and so on, which leads me to…

  1. Are you currently reading more than one book?
  2. If so, how many books are you currently reading?
  3. Is this normal for you?
  4. Where do you keep your current reads?

I try to only read one book at a time, but will often read one non-fiction and one fiction book together, as I find it hard to read non-fiction for long periods of time. At the moment I am reading three books, and listening to one audio book – see my sidebar. This is unusual for me, but they are all related to Gone with the Wind, so I am trying to read the relevant sections together.

I often read two fiction books at the same time, and this is due to the condition/value of the books. Every day I read in the bath, and so do not take hardback, or valuable books in there with me, in case I accidentally dropped them! This means you will often find one cheap paperback, and one new hardback in my currently reading pile.

My current reads can be found wherever I am! One book is normally within arms length, the other will be by my bed, or by my computer.

Do you ever read more than one book at once?  Where do you store your current read?

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Blog Improvement Project Other

My first week on Twitter

12065792511036325169gerald_g_chick_4_svg_medI finally signed up to Twitter last week, and have found it to be a very interesting exercise. I’ll admit that I didn’t really see the point of it initially. It had been described to me as being like the status updates on facebook, and although I enjoy reading my friend’s facebook updates, I didn’t see the point of reading updates from 100s of people around the world, even if they do happen to be famous.

What no one explained to me was what a good marketing tool it is. Since signing up I have found lots of great articles on the Internet, which I would otherwise have missed. This is because the great people I’m following on Twitter will send a message out whenever they find a post worth reading. I haven’t done this yet myself, as I’m a bit unsure of the etiquette. Is it OK to just tweet about any site I happen to find interesting? Or should I get their permission first?

I know that Twitter automatically converts urls which are over 30 characters to Tiny ones. Should I convert all the web-links I tweet into tiny ones, or only if they are too long?

I’ve heard about Twitter spam, but haven’t come across any yet. Has anyone had a spam problem there yet?

I have also learnt some new words. Did you know that a twoosh is a 140 character tweet? Or that a tweep is someone who follows you on twitter?  I have found this Twitter Dictionary really useful, as there are so many new words to discover.

I’ve enjoyed my first week, but am pleased that I am showing no signs of addiction to it. I just check it once or twice a day, and find it to be a great blogging tool, rather than the enjoyable waste of time I expected it to be.

My Twitter user name is farmlanebooks. If you’re a twitter user then you are welcome to follow me – I’ll try to add more useful tweets in the future. If you’re not yet signed up, then I recommend you give it a try, as it is not at all how I expected it to be.

Remember the Comment of the Week Competition! I’m looking forward to reading your comments!

Categories
Booker Prize

Offshore – Penelope Fitzgerald

Offshore won the Booker Prize in 1979.

From the back-cover:
On Battersea Reach, a mixed bag of the temporarily lost and the patently eccentric live on houseboats, rising and falling with the tide of the Thames.

I actually finished reading this last week, but haven’t written a review until now, as I was trying to think of constructive things to say about it. Despite having had a few days, and the help of the amazingly knowledgeable people over at the Booker yahoo group I am still no further towards my goal. The only positive thing I can say about this book is that it is very short!

This book has to be the most boring one I have ever read! The characters don’t annoy me as they are too dull, the plot is barely existent and the setting is dreary and lifeless. This has to be one of the only books that has failed to elicit any emotion in me other than pure boredom! I read all the words, but I didn’t care about a single one. It is not intellectually challenging, thought provoking or poetic. I can see no reason why anyone would like it, let alone why it won the Booker Prize!

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If you’ve read this book and can see any merit in it, then I’d love to know what it is!

Is this the worst Booker Prize winner? Or have I got worse ones to come?

What is the most boring book you’ve ever read? Can it possibly be as bad as this?!

Remember the Comment of the Week Competition! I’m looking forward to reading your comments!

Categories
Blog Improvement Project Other

Announcing: The Comment of the Week Competition!

2009bip-150x210This week the Blog Improvement Project task is to make your blog more comment friendly. After reading this inspiring post  (Thank you, for drawing it to my attention Kim!) 

 I’m launching:  

  

The Comment of the Week Competition!

The idea is that each week I will write a post highlighting the most thoughtful/inspiring/amusing comments I have received in the previous seven days.

To celebrate the first competition I will be awarding the winner:

 3 bookmooch points, or the choice of any book I have for sale on greenmetropolis.

I have about 200+ fiction books for sale on there, so there is some thing for everyone!

This competition is open to everyone in the world!

Comments can be added anywhere on my blog, and I will choose the best ones added between now and noon GMT on 13th April.

I look forward to reading all your interesting comments!

Good Luck!