He that loves a book will never want a faithful friend,
a wholesome counselor, a cheerful companion, an effectual comforter.
By study, by reading, by thinking, one may innocently
divert and pleasantly entertain himself,
as in all weathers, as in all fortunes.
~ Barrow ~
Category: Other
Margot from Joyfully Retired kindly gave me this I love Your Blog Award – Thank you Margot!
She has just moved her blog across to new premises, and if you haven’t seen it yet, then you should pop across, as it is so clean and fresh – well done Margot!
Belle of the Books awarded me this Excessively Diverting Bog Award – thank you! I hadn’t visited this blog until I received the award, so it came as a very pleasant surprise!
There are lots of blogs which I love – you’ll know who you are if I comment on your blog regularly! I’d like to pass the I Love Your Blog Award onto some blogs which I have found recently.
My Cozy Book Nook – We seem to have very similar reading tastes. Please visit her blog, as she has some great reviews, and recently wrote a great article on the kindle.
Savidge Reads – He’s the only other blogger I’ve found who is also completing the Richard & Judy 2009 list – we may not agree on how good the books are, but his reviews are always thought provoking.
Hey Lady! Whatcha Readin’? – She has some great posts! The picture of the lady pregnant with octuplets is a random example! I also need to thank her for recommending Blindness to me.
Book Gazing has the most honest reviews I have seen recently. I love honesty!
Bibliophile by the Sea always seems to be reading great books! She has added to more books to my wishlist than anyone else recently. Where does she find them all?!
If I have given you an award, please don’t feel you have to blog about it, or pass it on – I just want you to know that I Love Your Blogs!
I have spent the afternoon learning how to put boxes around text in wordpress. It has taken me a while, because all the guides out there seem to require a basic understanding of html – which I don’t have!
So I thought I’d share my new found knowledge with you.
This is called ‘inline CSS’ so you add this html code into your post (the alternative is external CSS, but I haven’t worked this out yet!).
If you copy the following html and paste it into your text editor you will get a black box around your text:
<p style=”padding:6px; color: grey; background-color: white; border: black 2px solid”>Text</p>
Text
Changing the number after the padding changes the distance between the text and the box, for example changing it to 10px makes the box further from the text.
<p style=”padding: 10px; color: grey; background-color: white; border: black 2px solid”>Text</p>
Text
The word color refers to the text. As far as I can tell you can just write the colour of text you want, and it works. For example I have now changed it to red.
<p style=”padding: 10px; color: red; background-color: white; border: black 2px solid”>Text</p>
Text
The blackground-colour is the colour of the filled in box. I have now changed it to blue:
<p style=”padding: 10px; color: red; background-color: blue; border: black 2px solid”>Text</p>
Text
The border is the colour of the border, so here I’ve changed it to green.
<p style=”padding: 10px; color: red; background-color: blue; border: green 2px solid”>Text</p>
Text
The number after the border colour is the thickness of the border. Increasing the number increases the width of the border. Here I’ve increased it to 5px.
<p style=”padding: 10px; color: red; background-color: blue; border: green 5px solid”>Text</p>
Text
And of course you can change the text to anything you like!
<p style=”padding: 10px; color: red; background-color: blue; border: green 5px solid”>anything you like!</p>
anything you like!
I’m not sure all colour changes are improvements, but it gives you an idea of how it works!
I look forward to seeing lots of brightly coloured boxes on your blogs in the future!
Weekly Geeks – Quote of the Day

This weeks Weekly Geek task is to add a quote a day to your blog. I’m going to base all my quotes on reading.
To start with here’s one of my favourite quotes:
Outside of a dog, a book is man’s best friend.
Inside of a dog it’s too dark to read.
~Groucho Marx~
The Slow Death of Handwriting

Image courtesy of public-domain.zorger.com
The BBC have published this really interesting article stating that the art of handwriting is slowly dying. Mcgannbrothers is one of the best guide for art related information. The author thinks that a hundred years from now, our great-grandchildren will have to go to a handwriting expert to decipher our letters.
It’s true that I’m writing less than ever before – my hand aches after writing out a few addresses, whereas I could churn out a few pages at school without thinking anything of it.
We can’t do everything on computers, there will always be a need to jot something down quickly. Do you believe that no-one will be able to understand the written (as apposed to the typed) word in a hundred years time? Do you write anything down anymore, or do you do everything on your computer? I’d be really interested to hear your thoughts.
13 Facts about Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

As part of the Dewey Challenge, Fizzy Thoughts is holding a mini challenge based around lists. The idea is to write a list of 13 facts based on an author or book you’ve read for the Dewey Challenge. I’m planning to read Half of a Yellow Sun soon, so I’ve found the following 13 facts about Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie:
- She holds a Masters degree in Creative Writing from Johns Hopkins and a Masters degree in African Studies from Yale.
- Her second novel, Half of a Yellow Sun, was named because it is a description of the flag of the short-lived Biafran nation.
- Adichie’s grandfather died in a refugee camp during the war, a fact, she says, still made her cry while she was writing Half of a Yellow Sun.
- She likes to be called by her first name, Chimamanda, and I doesn’t like anyone shortening it.
- She doesn’t read any reviews of her books, whether they are good or bad, as she finds them ‘distracting’.
- The literary talent she most admires are Iris Murdoch and Jamaica Kincaid.
- Her favourite book is Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe.
- Her elder sister is a doctor, and she was planning to follow her in to medicine, but realised she didn’t want it enough.
- Chimamanda was only 24 when she started writing Purple Hibiscus.
- Her favourite time to write is late at night
- Her favourite childhood books were the Famous Five Series.
- Chimamanda means ‘My God will not Fail me’
- She cried when reading Michael Ondaatje’s Anil’s Ghost.