A Year In Books - January 2015

It's so tempting to leap aboard every blogging band-wagon with gay abandon, I read so many interesting and varied posts, and think how fun they sound. But posts take time to write, and I do want to try and keep my blog primarily-craft-and-especially-crochet focused. Plus, if I joined in with every linky-up thing I would spend all my time blogging and not doing any actual doing. And that would mean not crocheting. And that would be Not Good.

The theme though that I do constantly find myself thinking about is The Year In Books organised by Laura at Circle of Pine Trees. I've often seen posts linking back to this, usually with eye-catching photos of book covers positioned at jaunty angles. I do some of my reading on my kindle and just assumed that photos of it would just be really duuuuuulllll ....

.... however I was blog-hopping this morning - as you do - and read this post by Shelley at The Little House In The Corner - another lovely crafty crochet homey blog. Shelley provided me with a solution to the boring kindle photo - arrange the kindle artfully on a pile of colourful crochet! Genius! Simple genius, but genius nonetheless. Why had I not thought of this before ? And now there's no stopping me from blogging about books, so here we go .....

As a child I devoured books. I couldn't get enough of them. From Enid Blyton to Lewis Carroll, Anna Sewell to Judy Blume, I'd read anything. I continually had books on loan from the library, and asked for them for birthdays and Christmas. My reading continued through school, whilst at university and during my office-working life (not actually AT work I hasten to add), but nowadays life seems to have got in the way of reading much. I'd like to rectify this, so hopefully joining in with A Year in Books will give me that push that I need to get back on board the reading train.

✿

I'm being stupidly over ambitious and aiming for 3 books a month. Yes, yes, I know I'm running before I can walk, but let me explain. My three books a month fall into these categories:

1. The Sookie Stackhouse series by Charlaine Harris, given to me over a year ago for Christmas by a friend.
2. Charity shop purchases - I keep buying them and not actually reading them.
3. Kindle backlog - again I keep buying them and not actually reading them.

I'd like to read one from every category every month. And inspired by Shelley I thought it might be fun to have, as"props" for the photos, whatever crochet projects I'm currently working on.

So, a bit more detail about the books I've chosen for January. From the Sookie Stackhouse books, I'm just finishing the third, Club Dead, and this month I plan to read book 4, "Dead to the World". They sound a bit grim don't they. They're actually surprisingly cheery, and a very light read. Think chick-lit with a southern vampire twist. The stories are all centred on Sookie Stackhouse (no surprises there) who lives in a version of today where Vampires have "come out" as it were, and live openly in day to day society in normalcy if not harmony with people. Each book is a story in itself, although each does contain minor references to previous books. 

I probably wouldn't have chosen these for myself. I'm not a huge fan of vampire tales, but I had read Stephanie Meyer's Twilight series and my friend knew I'd enjoyed them (the films not so much). As with the Twilight books, I would say that the Sookie Stackhouse series is probably more favoured by the late teenage market, however some of my favourite books would be aimed at that market too, Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy being a perfect example, so I think its ok for an - ahem- 40-something - grown adult to enjoy them too :)

Dead to the World is pictured next to some yellow solid grannies, squares for a Top Secret Project for the Little Peeps, unfortunately I've built up its part too much and they're expecting a colossal crochet play arena or something. They're going to be disappointed. Oh well.

✿

From my charity shop backlog I'm going to give "A Girl Named Disaster" by Nancy Farmer a go. This looks the meatiest of my 3 choices, and it's for that reason that I'm most looking forward to it. According to the blurb (that's what my Little People call the synopsis on the back :)

"Nhamo is an unloved and unwanted orphan who determines to leave her village rather than face a hateful marriage. Alone for the first time in her life, she paddles upriver towards Zimbabwe in her canoe."

Hmmm. Better get the tissues handy. I love books like this. Books that transport you to another place, another climate, another culture. Books that immerse you in a world radically different to that in which you live day to day. Can't wait to get into this one.

A Girl Named Disaster is shown with a backdrop of Autumn Blanket, yes I know it's not been autumn for ages, but who cares ?!.

✿

Finally I've chosen something a bit lighter from my kindle - "The Great Christmas Knit-Off" by Alexandra Brown, on a recommendation from Clare at Summerhouse by The Sea. (Thanks Clare!). Clare took part in A Year in Books last year, and this was her December read. Despite having 3 billion (ok, 108) books already on my kindle, I bought it last week (when it was technically still Christmas), and yes I know that buying a new kindle book does not reduce the backlog. Must try harder next month.

The Great Christmas Knit-Off will be a bit of light-hearted fun, I hope. And let's face it, with a title like that it has to be entertaining. 

The Great Christmas Knit-Off is shown nestled in a very very variegated scarf which is a very very nearly finished very very late Christmas present, in fact for the friend that bought me the Sookie Stackhouse books. Ooooh nice link back to the top of my post there :) How convenient :)

✿

Must dash, lots of reading to do :)

xxxxxxxx