50 Book Challenge 2017 Part Four

I don't think I'm you, but maybe it's another sign of the 50 book thread normality standards, like the kindle hitting the face thing.

I never fully relax though until I'm completely sure that no pesky colleagues are tagging along / getting the same train, so I don't have to give up precious reading time talking to them and pretending to work.

Are you actually me?

altered I love how its not the weekend away that you're happy about but the kindle time ...

The Ann Cleeves Vera Stanhope books are on sale for 99p each on kindle just now. I'm enjoying her Shetland series very much, so am going to add to my digital TBR pile with the first of these.

Cheerful can't beat a work trip. I never fully relax though until I'm completely sure that no pesky colleagues are tagging along / getting the same train, so I don't have to give up precious reading time talking to them and pretending to work.

You've just reminded me that I am going away this weekend, alone, for the first time since having DCs. Five hours of kindle time on the train!

I may have said yes to a work thing that's going to mean a three and a half hour train journey there and back just for the reading time. I was all, "Do I really want to spend seven hours on a train for this?" Then went, "Hang on, seven hours alone WITHOUT CHILD. Holy crap, yes."

40. A Month In The Country - J.L.Carr What a little gem of a book. A young man, shell shocked after WWI is employed for a month under the terms of an old lady's will to uncover a mediaeval wall painting in a Yorkshire church. There, he meets another young man, also a war victim, employed to dig in the churchyard to find one of her ancestors. It's a bittersweet look at youth, happiness, love and healing. Absolutely charming. It did put me slightly in mind of Hardy but not as doom laden. I'm glad I had the paper copy rather than the kindle copy because it has the most lovely drawings and woodcuts on the cover and through the book. It made me very happy.

It was weird Cote because it definitely wasn't ghusl, he basically made wudu' but then instead of washing his feet washed his penis instead.

"When everything was done he picked up a swan-necked ewer and very carefully washed first his hands, then his mouth, his face, his neck and, lastly, his private parts."

Then he prays. No nose, ears, hair, forearms or feet.

"Reading The Janissary Tree which was recommended on here and I am quite enjoying. I am a bit puzzled about one thing though, which is why the main character would wash his privates while washing for prayer."

It's been a while since I read (and recommended ) this book so no sure when/how that happened, but it sounds like Ghusl, full ablution to be performed after sex, end of women's period, and touching a dead body. Since Yashim is a eunuch, I'm guessing that it happened after he touched a corpse?

YY to falling asleep and the kindle smacking you in the face. That's why I never get any books finished! Have been taking it to the park lately but as soon as I get into a passage DS throws sand in another kid's face or DD shouts that she needs to pee.

Completely understand about feeling robbed of reading time if someone arrives early. Had this at the dentist's office yesterday.

Reading The Janissary Tree which was recommended on here and I am quite enjoying. I am a bit puzzled about one thing though, which is why the main character would wash his privates while washing for prayer. I love the cooking references though and the descriptions of the city. Plus the bison grass vodka, of course.

I felt really uncomfortable reading A Little Life. I don't think that I am especially squeamish, it just felt to me like voyeuristic misery porn and that as a reader I was complicit.

There is also one character who was way too good to be true and I was constantly waiting for him to be revealed as a sociopath or a paedophile or something.

Yes! I'm normal! I knew it! I KNEW IT!!

Another one of the 50 Book thread "norm" here. In fact, I've just bought myself a kindle paperwhite as I was beginning to really hurt myself everytime I dropped my iPad (containing kindle app) onto my face. Thank you boss for the bonus and the resulting lessening in reading-related injury

15. The Leaving of Things Jay Antani which I really loved, although possibly influenced by the combo of my love of India and a reflection on how much I've missed reading about it. Loads of wonderful observations about food, behaviour, mannerisms, language and culture in this tale of Indian teen returning "home" from Wisconsin with his family.

16. Upstairs at the White House: My Life with the First Ladies J B West. Covering Roosevelt to Nixon, filled with details of what being a White House usher entails, to little details about each first lady. He finds something positive and admiring to say about each one, with a couple of unexpectedly gossipy bits about one or two (but not those you'd expect).

17. For Kicks Dick Francis. A re-read, but one I'd almost forgotten. Now have all his books on my kindle for whenver comfort reading is the order of the day

I'm in the loving camp for A Little Life and here's what I wrote on my blog at the time it was booked short-listed.

cote in my little bubble you all are...

I doubt if people reading 50 Books per year every year are quite what we would call "the norm" but I know what you mean

"A Kindle hitting my face is my signal to go to sleep at night."

I shall show this to my DH to prove that I AM INDEED THE NORM.

Still Been thinking about tips to fit in more reading. I always have my book/Kindle with me, OH regularly rolls his eyes as he sees me slipping it into my handbag!! But the main reason I have read lots more that this time last year is I have practically given up watching TV. Honestly there are only one or two things in a week I regularly watch. My OH has started working away from home in the week and he had the TV on constantly. Quite often head up to bed with dog and my book pre 9 o'clock these days!

It's a small thing but I have no regrets, I hadn't realised how annoying I'd find the adverts.

I may still be tempted.

If you go into your Amazon account Manage content and devices, click on Devices and find your Paperwhite, it will have Special Offers listed and give you the option to unsubscribe. It will charge you £10 to do this, which was the discount for buying it with the ads, but you will get Kindle specific screen savers again like pens, pencils, letters, typewriters etc but no Mark Twain.

You can pay to get rid of the ads? What?

best it took me a while to transition too; loved my old keyboard. Have adjusted and the Light and other functions are very useful, but miss the buttons and general styling. I paid to get rid of the ads as I couldn't take it, now it's pictures of the ends of pencils all packed together so tightly it makes me shiver (trypophobia) so might have done better with the naked men.

I had a new paperwhite for Christmas and sad to say I don't love it as much as my old Kindle Keyboard. I keep accidentally hitting the touch screen and flipping forwards or backwards a few pages and losing my place.
I also miss the engravings of Steinbeck, Mark Twain, Jane Austen etc that I used to get on the home page. Now I get ads for books I'd never read in a million years ( Forged in Fire - Seals in love! He put the woman he loved before all else. With pictures of over muscled half naked men).

Anyway. Book 39 Breakfast At Tiffanys - Truman Capote More a short story than a proper book but delightful all the same.

invisiblekitten I had the same feeling when Parents Evening was running on time for once. Any spare time is potential reading time, and other people just don't realise they're stepping all over it with their damned punctuality.

wilting I have done the one eye at a time thing, until I realise I am actually sleeping more than I am reading and it's time to give it up

I have dropped books on babies too, poetic let's hope it's not aversion therapy.

1.The Wolf and The Raven - Steven MacKay
2.The Hobbit - JRRR Tolkien (Audible)
3.Greenwitch - Susan Cooper
4.Child 44 - Tom Robb Smith
5.Fellowship of the Ring - JRRR Tolkien (Audible)
6.Into the Heart of Borneo - Redmond O'Hanlan
7.The No1 Ladies Detective agency
8.The Two Towers - JRRR Tolkien (Audible)
9.Crosstalk - Connie Willis (Audible)
10.The Forest - Edward Rutherfurd
11.Tom’s Midnight Garden - Philippa Pearce
12.1066 - Kaye Jones (Audible)
13.The Reformation - Edward Gosselin (Audible)
14.The Return of the King - JRRR Tolkien (Audible)

Thanks for all your condolence messages. Have book club next week, so have read it and highly recommend .....

15: Lion by Saroo Brierley
True story of a 5-year old boy Saroo who gets lost at an Indian station and boards a train alone. A day or so later, he ends up in Calcutta, not knowing his last name, or his home town, except it began with B. After living in the streets of Calcutta for a while, he is taken to an orphanage and eventually adopted by an Australian couple, and does well, but as an adult is drawn back to finding where he came from and tracing his family in India. With not much to go on, he spends months searching along the hundreds of train lines out of Calcutta for towns beginning with B on Google earth.
It's not misery lit at all, but very readable. Recommended.

I'm now reading the Wizard of Earthsea - a children's fantasy novels that is always on recommended reads - it's light but what I need at the moment.
I have "The Muse" on the go on Audible for my commute to work. Was slow going at the start and was on the verge of giving up to listen to one of the Harry Potters as one of my comfort listens, but have perservered and enjoying it now.

I love my Kindle. I had a paperwhite, and have recently moved to a Fire, so I can have my Audible on the same device as my Kindle books (I liked the idea of having all those lovely books-Kindle and Audible crammed into one device- like a virtual library in my bag) and it does do that, but as a reading experience the Paperwhite wins hands down. I gave my DD20 my Paperwhite, she loves it too.

Sorry wilting .

Another who loves their Kindle - I was most annoyed this morning, meeting a friend for coffee, arranged to meet at 9:45 in a particular coffee shop in town to give time to get there after the school run knowing I'd get there at 9:20 at the latest and time to read my kindle for a bit, but as I was halfway there I bumped into her having managed to drop her dcs and get a parking space. Had to pretend to be glad about losing nearly half an hour to myself with a brew.

Finding I'm not interested in reading anything I've downloaded and trying to find some more inspiration.