Books Are For Everybody

Is there such a thing has having too many books? Because Lord knows i love my Dad, but he thinks books  are a big fat old waste of time ( boo to him, he's such a toad ). He'd much prefer to watch a movie or listen to music. I like both those things aswell, but i'd love to have even more books than i already have crammed into my tiny bookshelf. Just as i'm happy to watch my favourite films over and over again, so do i enjoy revisiting my favourite books.And i'm hoping to instill this love of books in Flynn. I have to say, he's already a bit of a book lover - he has at least 20 board books ( so he cant rip the pages! ) which are a mix of story books ( like " Spot Goes To The Beach " ) and educational books. And, even at the tender age of 15 months, he already has his favourites that he loves to have read over and over again. Flynn is quite happy to grab a book, climb up on someones lap ( usually mine or Micks ) and read a story. I try to be overly animated with my voice to keep him interested, exaggerating animal noises or putting extra oomph into that " Peekaboo! " or " Wow! "...


And i've found another small person who appreciates my reading skills - our nephew Curly ( who shall thus be named for his curly mop, and because i dont know whether his mum is big on me talking about him on the net ). On our last visit to Nannies house, Curly came over to visit too and sat down on Nannies lap and listened while i read Flynns all-time favourite book, " Elmo: Puppies " :

Its a cute little book, written in the style of the " Elmo's World " tv show ( Flynn looooooooves Elmo! ) and has lift-the-flaps. And, you guessed it, its all about puppies. Anyhoo, Flynn loves both Elmo and puppies so its no wonder this is his favourite book, and i think little Curly enjoyed it too. I got about halfway through and all of a sudden he's kicking his legs on Nannies lap and do his darndest to get out a "woof woof! ". He looked so excited and joyous i've been inspired. See, Curly turns one this weekend and rather than buy him some plastic toy he'll either never play with, that he'll grow tired of in a week, or that will break....Mick and I have decided to buy him some books. Funnily ( and sadly ) enough, his mum and dad dont strike me as the type to sit and read to him but just seeing his little face light up while listening to " Elmo:Puppies " I just know if theyre willing to take the time, he'll love some books for his birthday.

What about you? Do/did you read to your children regularly as babies and toddlers? Do you like to give books as gifts?

Cuckoos and Elephants

As you may have heard before, i consider myself a 'reader'. Perhaps not a voracious reader, but i do like to read for half an hour before bed most nights, and quite often will pack my book in my handbag and read during my lunch break at work. Knowing this, my very thoughtful workmates bought me a gift voucher for my birthday, to be spent at a local bookshop, and thanks to them, i've been able to read two great books in the past month: " Water For Elephants " by Sara Gruen and " One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest " by Ken Kesby.

Somehow i missed all the hype over " Water For Elephants " when it was first released but had heard recent mumurings about a movie version being made....so when its cover caught my eye in the bookstore, i thought it was better late then never to jump on the " ...Elephants " bandwagon. Or circus train, as it were - set in the American South during the Depression, " ... Elephants " is the story of a young (almost ) vet who finds himself caught up in all the drama of a travelling circus ( the Big Top, the backlot, naked dancing girls, surly midgets, love, hate, trust...and an elephant ). I thought it was really well written, and the dynamic between the main characters really kept me involved. I cant say that the casting of Robert Pattinson as the lead character Jacob has me overly enthused, but i think Reese Witherspoon as Marlena will be absolutely spot on.

And then there was " One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest ". I'd seen the movie years ago but it never occurred to me to go out and read the book - until i saw it amongst the Classic Penguin selections ( As an aside, i love the Classic Penguin concept - classic reads for $9.95? I've probably bought at least 8 so far....love! ). I thought seeing as it had been a while since i'd watched the film, i'd read the book and then do a refresh of the movie. I really enjoyed the book - i think you get a much better sense of just how calculating Nurse Ratched is from the book, than you do from the movie. In the movie yes, she seems cold, but not much more than that - in the book, she's portrayed as a real bitch who lauds her power over the men on her ward. You really hate her, and i dont get that from the movie. What you do get from the movie is a brilliant performance from Jack Nicholson - having seen the movie first, i couldnt help but picture him as Randall McMurphy when i was reading the book. Verdict? The book wins out over the film...but only just.

Now all i have to do is wait till " Water For Elephants " is released as a motion picture in May, take my mum along ( its totally going to be a mum/daugher, sisters, girlfriends kind of movie... ) and then do the whole book vs movie thing with it too....

Suggestions - Please?

Alright - this one is going to be short and sweet. Its more of a call for suggestions than it is a post - not a cry for help, but a steer in the right direction. Its also not any of the drama you may be imagining. See.... i need you guys to suggest some great books to me.
I was given a gift voucher to a book store for my birthday. I bought " Water for Elephants " by Sara Gruen and " One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest " by Ken Kesby. In the month since my birthday i have read, and loved them both. ( I've also re-watched the film version of "...Cuckoos Nest " and it was just as awesome as i remembered. Jack Nicholson is a revelation. Go watch it if you've never seen it. I'm also planning on taking my mum to see " Water For Elephants " when its released later this year.... ). I'm now re-reading " To Kill a Mockingbird " ( just because i adore the book and its about due for another reading ) but after that....i'm at a loss. I cant afford to buy new books at the moment so dont suggest anything to recent but...

What great reads could you recommend? I'll give almost anything a go ( not too keen on personal biographies, though i wont entirely dismiss all non-fiction ) as long as its well written, and has an involving storyline. So....suggest away people!

Books!Books!Books! - How Many Have You Read?

So.... i came across the meme on Kylie's page over at A Study In Contradictions   and i thought i'd play along. See, apparently the BBc has published a Top 100 booklist ( i'm not sure of what the list actually is tho - best books ever in, like, history? Bestsellers? Who knows... ) and they've come to the conclusion that the majority of people have only read 6 of the 100 books listed. Really? Only 6?
The aim of this game is to highlight in bold those which you have read, and italicize the ones you started but didnt finish, or have read parts of.
Feel free to play along!

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen ( one of my top 5 favourites.. )


2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien


3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte

4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee (also a top 5 pick )
6 The Bible

7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte

8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman

10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens

11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott  ( i read this when i was 11ish - i would love to revisit it now )
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy

13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare ( i've read " Romeo and Juliet " and " Taming of the Shrew " )

15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier

16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien

17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk

18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger ( i have to admit though for all its hype, i wasnt really a fan... )

19 The Time Traveler’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot

21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell

22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald

24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy

25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams

27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky

28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck

29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll

30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame ( started this as a kid - i dont recall ever finishing it )

31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy

32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens

33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis

34 Emma -Jane Austen ( This is my current read - i'm halfway through and i gotta say Emma is not a likeable character at all... )
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen

36 The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe - CS Lewis

37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini

38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres

39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - A.A. Milne

41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown

43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving

45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins

46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy

48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood (One of my Top Ten)

49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding

50 Atonement - Ian McEwan ( loved the book, loved the movie... sooooooo want Keira Knightleys green dress! )

51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel

52 Dune - Frank Herbert

53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons

54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen

55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth

56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon

57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens

58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck

62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov

63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold

65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas

66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac

67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy

68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie

70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville

71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens

72 Dracula - Bram Stoker (read this earlier this year and really enjoyed it )
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett

74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson

75 Ulysses - James Joyce

76 The Inferno - Dante

77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome

78 Germinal - Emile Zola

79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray

80 Possession - AS Byatt

81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens

82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell

83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker

84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro

85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert

86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry

87 Charlotte’s Web - E.B. White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom ( its kind of short, but its really ...well...good. Inspiring good. )

89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton ( read some of the books as a child, but not all of them )

91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad

92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery

93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks

94 Watership Down - Richard Adams

95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole

96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute

97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas

98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare

99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl

100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

Lamb - and Zombies?

So - i'm not sure if i've mentioned this before, but i love reading. I love being able to sit down after my dinner, after Flynn has gone to sleep, after Mick and I have caught up on each others days, and get in half an hour with a good book. When i had my time entirely to myself, i was known to be able to curl up with a book and finish it over one weekend. I'm not sure where i got this love from - my mum doesnt read much and my dad keeps professing ( tongue in cheek ) that reading and books are stupid.

All that aside, i just had to tell you about the last two books i've read - neither are remotely related, but both were entirely awesome. First up we have " The Hour I First Believed " by Wally Lamb:

I'd read Wally's two previous books - which is what recommended me to this one in the first place - but i wasnt quite prepared for the emotional shock to the system this book would have on me. Its uses the real life event of the Columbine High shootings as the cornerstone of one mans search for what is " real " in his  life - facing the lies of his past, the pain of his present and the unknown of his future. I'll admit that the last few chapters of this book had me in tears and i dont remember any other booking ever having that physical effect on me before. The weight of the themes in this book was heavy indeed, but left me feeling so much lighter for having shared the protagonists journey.

In contrast, i've just this morning finished " Pride and Prejudice and Zombies " by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith.

                                                            

This was too awesome. The original " Pride and Prejudice " is the quintessential literary classic that everyone feels like they should read, or should have read, or has lied about reading ( truth be told, i've read it, own it and love it ) so when i finally got the chance to read this mash up of classic Austen and zombies, i jumped at the chance. Verdict? Its like the original " Pride and Prejuice " only blood-thirstier. Which is to say that it retains all the charm of the original story, the same witty banter between characters, the same fiesty tomboy-ish Elizabeth and same haughty Mr Darcy - only most of the characters are trained in martial arts and kill the undead in their spare time. Far from detracting from the original story, i think anyone who has attempted Austen's version and found it too " old fashioned " to get through might enjoy this zombified version, and might want to give the old version a second shot. And whats even better ? I hear its being made into a movie!

So what about you all? Are you big readers, and can you recommend any good reads?

What Am I Reading?

Head on over to Kylies place at A Study In Contradictions to find out. I'm todays guest blogger in her Favourite Book series so if you interested in what i consider to be a good book, stop by and check it out!
Also, thanks to those of you who have voted for me in this weeks Blog This! challenge - looks this week could be my week in the " winners " circle!

Love-ly Distractions

So - i've been thinking: its been a rough couple of weeks for me, what with itchy skin, then appendicitis and abdominal surgery, and just in the past 4 or 5 days i've developed some pretty strong pain in my lower back and hips. I dont want to complain too much because a bazillion women have been pregnant before me, and apparently the back and hip pain is pretty damn common.... but hey, knowing all that doesnt make it any less annoying. However, in the spirit of loving my pregnancy, and loving my body, and loving my life i thought it might be nice to set down a list of 5 things that i'm loving right now ( and are distracting me from the twinges in my back and hips. Stupid twinges. )

1. Facials: and we may aswell count massage in this category aswell. I've just came back from having an organic facial and upper body massage this morning and i have to tell you - it was bliss. Anybody who has ever had a professional facial or massage is feeling me on this, and anyone who hasnt - well, you people are missing out. If you can get past the fact that a stranger is touching you in a somewhat intimate way ( and sometimes in somewhat intimate places... ) then an hour set aside for a massage is the perfect " me " time. I'm thinking i might go once a month from now til the bubba arrives.


2. Shemar Moore : Need i say anything but - look at him ? Yes, i'm in a committed and very loving relationship with Mr Gil but Mr Moore over there is a nice little piece of " look, but dont touch " eye candy. You know how when you're in a relationship each partner gets to have a " list " ? The list of fantasy partners that they would theoretically be given a free card to sleep with if you had the chance ? I havent told Mr Gil yet, but Shemar Moore is totally on my list. Gimme, gimme... gimme, gimme Moore!


3. Garlic : Hello, pregnancy cravings! Rather than crave icecream with pickles or chocolate coated onions ( or any other disgusting concoction you can come up with .... ), i've been craving garlic. Specifically garlic bread, but meals with a good garlick-y component will suffice. I've heard that too much garlic in the third trimester will give me heartburn. And i've also heard that a lot of heartburn gives you a baby born with a lot of hair. So best i can figure is:
Garlic + 3rd tri = heartburn = fluffy headed baby.
Whats wrong with that ? If its a fluffy headed boy, i am so styling his hair up like Wolverine!

4. Reading: So simple, but something i dont always take time out for. Of course i've been reading a lot on pregnancy lately - pregnancy and parenting magazines, health care guides, pregnancy specific websites - but i'm talking more about books. Novels. Literature. I went through a major love affair with reading this past December/January : i knocked over " Pride and Prejudice ", " Jane Eyre ", " Perfume: The Story of a Murderer " and " Everything is Illuminated " all in that two month period and then i took a brief break before starting " Lolita ". It was a great book, but when it was finished the passion for devouring books had vanished. Well - its back baby! I finished " Sense and Sensibility " last night and now i'm on the prowl for the next great literary adventure....

5. Naps - the naps are soon to dry up ( seeing as i'm allowed back to work next week ) but for the last fortnight or so they've been a blessing. Everyone loves a good nap right ? People who say they dont need them or think napping is lazy - poo to you! Naps are a great way to spend a lazy winter afternoon when your home alone, plus they have restorative powers. At least, thats what i'm sticking with!