I am so happy! I have just been identified as one of the best book blogs in the UK!
I made it to number three in the list of the top ten UK book blogs!
Thank you all so much for reading and commenting on my blog – you have made it what it is, and I am really grateful.
This week’s Weekly Geek task is to talk about travelling via books. I thought it would be interesting to compare where I have actually travelled, with my virtual travel through reading and see if there is a correlation.
So here are the countries I have visited:
and here are all the countries I’ve read about in the last year:
create your own visited country map
There are some similarities, but I was struck by the differences. I have never been to India, but I have read 5 Indian books this year. Japan and China are also favourite book settings for me, although for some reason I haven’t read any Chinese books in the past year – I do have one coming up soon though.
My main reading deficiency is in South America. The only book I read from this continent in the last year, and possibly the only one in my whole life, was The Bride From Odessa by Edgardo Cozarinsky. I am going to try to seek out some more South American books in the future.
Can anyone recommend any South American books?
I often read other people apologising for not blogging, as they haven’t read any books recently, but I often find that the best posts aren’t book reviews. I prefer cherryscustomframing to check about latest books.
Here are some ideas for blog posts you can write at any time:
Can you think of other great ideas for blog posts?
I think I had swine flu this week without even realising it!
I have just been talking to a friend who is a doctor. She was telling me about how her husband has swine flu. He has a slight fever, headaches and aching limbs, but isn’t feeling that bad. I had this earlier in the week! I felt a little bit rough, but took a few paracetamols and battled on, as you always do when you have two children to look after.
Swine flu is a real talking point in our town at the moment, as there have been a quite a few confirmed cases. Everyone is really worried, but like everyone else I assumed it was much more serious than my doctor friend now confirms it is. It is a much milder disease than normal flu at the moment and most people don’t even realise they’ve had it.
I think I must have caught it on my trip into London for Simon and Kim’s Book Group! Have any of you who attended this group also had these symptoms?
It is quite ironic that I was reading my Flu
Is swine flu in your town?
Have you had it? Are you worried?
I keep finding myself ending reviews with the words “this would be a really good book club choice”. So I have decided to start a new series of posts about books which are a good starting point for a discussion.
This week I’m going to concentrate on books which raise parenting issues. These books may appeal slightly more to woman who have had children, but I’m sure everyone will enjoy the books and be able to bring their own opinions to the table.
Issues Raised
Should another child be brought into the world to save an older sibling’s life? Is the happiness of one child worth sacrificing to improve the life of another? Who has the ownership of a child’s body parts?
Positives
Easy to read, and gripping all the way through.
Negatives
It has been around a while, so many people might have already read it. The film has just been released, so they might have seen that too!
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Issues Raised
Are children born bad, or is a naughty child a result of poor parenting? Is the parent at fault if a teenager commits a crime? The cause of high school shootings.
Positives
Well written and thought provoking.
Negatives
It is a bit long.
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Issues Raised
Are children born bad? Is it right to concentrate on the ‘bad’ child at the expense of the other siblings.
Positives
Short book.
Negatives
Slightly dated.
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Issues Raised
Is slapping ever justifiable? Who is responsible for disciplining a child?
Positives
Gives a male view of the world. Controversial and thought provoking. This will start a debate!
Negatives
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Has not been released in all countries yet.
Is a bit long.
Contains graphic sex and abusive language.
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Issues Raised
Difficult mother – daughter relationships. Cultural identity.
Positives
Easy to read.
Negatives
I can’t think of any!
Can you think of any more great books to start a discussion on parenting?
Have you read any of these for a book club? Did they go down well?
Coming soon – The best book club reads … on old age.
The Blog Improvement Project task this week is:
We have to take a look at the 12 types of blog post below, and over the next three weeks, try to write as many of these different kinds of posts as we can.
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The 12 Types of Blog Post
A Link Post – share link (or series of links) your readers might find interesting
A Short Post – less than 200 words
A List Post – simple as it sounds, a list of some sort
An Opinion Post – take an event, news, or another blog post and share your opinion on it
A Poll or Question Post – post a poll or ask your readers a specific question for feedback
A How-To Post – You’re an expert in something; big or small, share how to do it
A Long Post – more than 700 words
A Review Post – self-explanatory, I think 🙂
A Definition Post – show your expertise about a topic related to your blog
NEW: A Personal Post – something that’s going on in your life, related to your normal blog topic or not
NEW: A Resource Post – you know a lot about something, share the sites/books/tutorials you go to on that topic. This is similar to a link post, except these links should be related in some way and be useful for other people who want to know about the topic.
FREE SPACE – a type of post of your choice (that is not the same as one of the previous posts)
I loved doing this task last time, but it was really hard work. I’ll do my best to complete the list, but I could do with your help. I need some inspiration for the How-To Post and the Resource Post.
Is there anything you’d like to know how to do?
Or anything that you think I might be able to find out for you?
