Month: May 2023

Top Ten Tuesday: Things That Make Me Instantly NOT Want to Read a Book

The Book Lover's Sanctuary27 Comments

This week's topic is an interesting counterpart to last week's list of things that automatically make me want to read a book... It would be tempting simply to invert those notions - what would turn me off a book? Unconvincing characters, inauthentic relationships etc... and yes that would be true. But a little bit of a cheat perhaps! That said, my wife came home from work yesterday with conjunctivitis which she has merrily shared, so my vision is a little blurred right now... tonight, I am not averse to the concept of a short cut! My other issue is that I do read widely and whilst I will offer some of the themes and tropes that may discourage me from reading a book, none of these will necessarily stop me from reading it. They may, however, make it an uphill job for the author to grab my attention. I wonder what examples of these I can come up with that I did read...

Top Ten Tuesday: Things That Make Me Instantly Want to Read a Book

The Book Lover's Sanctuary16 Comments

This is an interesting topic: I read so widely and eclectically (I think) that sometimes its hard to discern a pattern in my reading habits. And sometimes when I feel that there is a pattern, I consciously choose to read outside the pattern... But there are certainly some authors who draw me. So lets start there.

Top Ten Tuesday: Things Getting in the Way of Reading

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According to Jana, this week's theme has been lovingly stolen from A Cocoon of Books during freebie week and invites us all to share those things that get in the way of our reading. I mean we would all love to read a little more, wouldn't we, but that thing called life does just have the habit of getting in the way!

Book Review: Demon Copperhead, Barbara Kingsolver

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Whilst this is a shoe-in for all the literary prizes of the year - there is no doubting its profundity and energy, its anger and its literary mastery - I found it an incredibly challenging read, piling unrelenting misery upon misery on young Demon's shoulders, robbing him of every joy or success or moment of peace, with only the incredible power of the narrative voice to stave off the bleakness.

Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Recommend to Others the Most

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I'm not the sort of person to recommend books to other people. Of course not. *Ahem! Ok, of course I do. It is part of my DNA! I have been known, when browsing Waterstones and overhearing shop assistants offering up a book recommendation, to feel obliged to butt in and offer a different one. My blog is broadly speaking just a list of book recommendations. I have had long conversations with colleagues that never go far beyond "Have you read...? And you haven't read...? You should read..." It is, to be fair, pretty much part and parcel of my job as an English teacher, though - and that's my excuse!

Top Ten Tuesday: The First 10 Books I Randomly Grabbed from My Shelf

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I am going to rely on the computer to select the ten books for this list, taking out all the physical and human limitations on randomness - the fact that I would be least likely to pick books from low shelves because my knees ache.... I did show my class the other week my Calibre library of ebooks and they estimated how many I had. "Twenty, sir?" "Thirty-five sir?" They seemed flabbergasted - as if they could not believe so many books could exist - when I scrolled to the bottom to show the 3,006th book! Not all read, obviously. A lot of classics. A vast and overwhelming TBR in digital form! Let's see what I thought of this random selection, and whether I remember why I bought it... And why is this strangely nerve wracking?

Book Review: The Murderbot Diaries, Martha Wells

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A genuinely fun set of science fiction reads, featuring convincing world building and very capable plotting is elevated by a unique and compelling narrative voice in our favourite SecUnit: dangerous, compassionate, distant, a little obsessive and more than a touch neurodivergent.