Category: Everything Else

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Graphic Novel Uncategorized

Fun Home – Alison Bechdel

Fun Home is the first graphic novel I have ever read, and although it is a very different experience to reading a book, I enjoyed it very much. I read Fun Home as part of the Dewey challenge. You can see her review here.

Fun Home has been described as one of the first graphic memoirs. It is basically a coming of age story, following one girl into adulthood, as she realises that she is a lesbian.  The book is well observed, and full of light humor:
 

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There were lots of literary references. I think bibliophiles will really appreciate this book, and the way that quotes from Oscar Wilde and Homer were used to sum up many of the feelings the characters experienced.

The title refers to the family funeral business, and I loved the insights into life surrounded by death:
 

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The book reveals the thoughts and feelings of a teenager discovering her sexuality, and so is sexually explicit in places. It contains some full frontal nudity, so avoid it if you are offended by this.

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This book was touching, intelligent and full of surprises. I recommend it to anyone looking for something a bit different.

stars41

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Other

Awards

iloveyourblog 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!

 

 

 

divertingBelle 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!

Categories
Blog Improvement Project Other

How to put boxes around your text – an idiot’s guide!

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!

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Other Weekly Geeks

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~

Categories
Meme

Booking Through Thursday – The Best Book You’ve Never Read

btt button

This week’s Booking Through Thursday question is: 

We’ve all seen the lists, we’ve all thought, “I should really read that someday,” but for all of us, there are still books on “The List” that we haven’t actually gotten around to reading. Even though we know they’re fabulous. Even though we know that we’ll like them. Or that we’ll learn from them. Or just that they’re supposed to be worthy. We just … haven’t gotten around to them yet.

 What’s the best book that YOU haven’t read yet?

I don’t like reading all the books by my favourite authors at once, as I like to savour  them. Sometimes, when I go through a stage of reading a few bad books in a row, I like to know that I can pick up a book knowing it will be great. These are a few of the books I’m most looking forward to reading:
  •  Half of a Yellow Sun – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
  • The God of Small Things – Arundhati Roy
  • The Post Birthday World – Lionel Shriver
  • The Night Watch – Sarah Waters
  • Outlander – Diana Gabaldon

I’m also really intrigued by The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson and Twilight by Stephenie Meyer, but I’m not convinced they will be in the same league.

Do you think I’ll enjoy all of the books in my list, or is there one lurking there that will not live up to my expectations?

I’d love to hear from you!

Categories
Other

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.