Booking Through Thursday – DIY (May 31)

This week Booking Through Thursday asks the following question:

If you could write a book, what would it be about, and why? (Though, of course, some of you already HAVE.)

This is not an easy question and I think that there are many of us who would want to write a book, but never get round to it for many different reasons.

I started writing one about 2 or 3 years ago, but more as a therapeutic exercise than any real desire to try and get it published. I wrote the introduction and put together a layout for the rest of the book. I also wrote parts of different sections and some summary notes, but that’s as far as I got. It centres around some things that happened in my life about 5 or 6 years ago and the way these things changed many of my outlooks on life for the better. It would be nice to finish it if only for myself and my family. I may get around to it eventually.

If I were to write a book for publication I’d love to be able to put together a book of Haiku with accompanying photography. I love the whole idea of Haiku and the discipline of writing them. I’ve written a few and I’d love to be able to work on improving them. I’d also like to improve on my photography skills. To be able to combine the two would be great. Maybe it’s something I can work on for the future. Even if it never gets anywhere close to the print stage at least it is something I can enjoy doing.

WWW Wednesdays (May 30)

To play along with this weekly book event, hosted by Should Be Reading, just answer the following three (3) questions…

• What are you currently reading?
• What did you recently finish reading?
• What do you think you’ll read next?

This week’s answers:

What are you currently reading? I am currently reading Silver by Andrew Motion. This has been a good read so far and I’m hoping to finish it soon. The story takes place 40 years after the events of Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island and is a return to the island by the children of the original characters to try to find the treasure left behind. I’m reading an ARC e-book, but it was released in Canada this week.

What did you recently finish reading? The only book I finished this past week was Goliath by Scott Westerfeld. It is the third book in the Leviathan steampunk trilogy and was a fitting end to that series. I enjoyed this series and am looking for other similar books or series to read. I posted my review on this blog at the weekend (read it HERE).

What do you think you’ll read next? As usual, my reading plans have changed. I got approved this week for a galley of Seraphina by Rachel Hartman. This book goes on release in July and I’ve heard so many good thing about it. So, I’m looking forward to starting it once I’ve finished Silver.

Top Ten Tuesday – Ten Books I Hope They Are Still Reading (May 29)

(This is a day late, but I started it yesterday and I like the topic so much that I didn’t want to miss out on sharing)

Top Ten Tuesdays is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. Each week a different topic is listed inviting the participants to come up with a list of ten things to do with the topic. This week’s topic is:

Top Ten Books Written In The Past 10 Years That I Hope People Are Still Reading In 30 Years

This actually proved to be much harder than I thought it would be, but I managed to narrow it down to 10 books that I have read, deciding not to include ones that have been called classics in the past 10 years, but which I haven’t read myself.

So here goes:

1. The Harry Potter series (J.K. Rowling) – I almost didn’t include these, because the first book came out in 1997. However, the series wasn’t completed until 2007, so I decided that qualifies the series for inclusion. These books are so entertaining and engaging that they will be passed down from generation to generation for many years to come.

2. The Book Thief (Markus Zusak) – this story is destined to become a classic. It has already won a number of awards. The unforgettable tale of Liesel Meminger and her love of books set against the backdrop of Germany during WWII is one that will not fail to touch the heart of many for a long time to come.

3. The Sisters Brothers (Patrick deWitt) – the tale of two brothers , Eli and Charlie Sisters, who are hitmen in the old West, is one that is well worth the read. Although the story is classic Western, the book is fresh and quite original. It is a funny, chilling, compelling read and will remain so for many years. It has a really cool cover as well!

4. No Country For Old Men (Cormac McCarthy) – this well-written, simple to read, but complex story of drug-running gone wrong and trying to keep what is not yours set between Texas and Mexico is one that is hard to put down once started. The movie based on this was great, but the book is far superior. It seems that everything McCarthy has written is talked about in high regard, but this is the only one I have read so far. If they are all at least as good as this one, then I have many great reads to look forward to!

5. The Invention of Hugo Cabret (Brian Selznick) – this is one of the most beautiful books written in the last 10 years. The combination of a well written story and hundreds of pencil drawings and photos makes this a mesmerizing book that is a real page turner from beginning to end. It is a very unique book that many, both young and old (myself included) have fallen in love with.

6. Never Let Me Go (Kazuo Ishiguro) – this book deserves to be read for many years to come. It talks about many important themes, such as love, friendship, and ethics, with an underlying disturbing reality that slowly comes to the forefront as the story moves along. It is destined to be a classic and is one that will also leave you with lots of questions to ask about your own life and attitudes.

7. The Hunger Games (Suzanne Collins) – I have only read the first book in this series so far, but I’m sure I’ll have the other two read soon. This series will have people reading it for years, because it already has people talking about it and taking sides as to the suitability of the content and so on. As usual, many of the critics haven’t read it themselves, but are going by the sometimes inaccurate picture that has been portrayed by others. The book hits on a number of important issues in the setting of a disturbing dystopian society that has at its centre an annual gladiator-type contest where a number of young people have to fight to the death. The book is a definite page turner and I am looking forward to reading the rest of the series.

8. The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet (Reif Larsen) – this is a very unique and brilliant book. I think it is oneof the most underrated books of the last 10 years, which is why I have included it here. It is about a 12 year-old genius who makes maps of everything and has colour-coded notebooks to keep track of his life. Through a misunderstanding he is invited to present at the Smithsonian and the book covers his cross-country adventures to get there, but also there is the story of his ancestors woven into it as well. I loved this book and many others will for many more years.

9. Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children (Ransom Riggs) – I expected to enjoy this one, but not as much as I did. The author uses a collection of unusual vintage photographs to help tell a spine-tingling fantasy adventure that can be enjoyed by both old and young. The ending leaves you wanting more and I think this could become a much loved series for long into the future.

10. The Percy Jackson and the Olympians series (Rick Riordan) – this series, about Greek gods and demigods set in our 21st century world, is a definite winner and well worth the read. Again, it is a series that can be enjoyed by young and old. Unfortunately, the movie of the first book is awful and doesn’t really reflect the main themes and characters of the book. Believe me when I say I’m not being picky for the sake of it. These books could have been made into a real blockbuster of a movie series. Skip the movie and enjoy the books instead.

Tune in Tuesday – Random Playlist (May 29)

Tune in Tuesday is a weekly music feature hosted by Ginger at GReads. It’s a great way to share some tunes that you enjoy and to spread some music around the blogosphere. If you want to take part in this feature just put it up on your blog and share the link at GReads. May is Random Playlists Month, when participants are invited to share a current random playlist.

So, I turned on my i-pod to random and these are the first five tracks that played:

Teaser Tuesdays – Silver (May 29)

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

This week’s teasers:

After half an hour of this, during which we skirted the edge of Spyglass Hill and began a slow descent towards the south-east corner of the island, our suspicions deepened. The ground here was more fertile, and we found large stretches of azalea, mainly red and purple, with a few thickets of nutmeg trees that mixed their spice with the aroma of flowers.

This is from page 166 of Silver by Andrew Motion. I received an e-book ARC of this last week and am enjoying it so far. It is a book about the return to the island from Treasure Island, this time by the children of the main characters from Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic. It is released in Canada today, although I think it has been out in other places for a few months. If you liked Treasure Island you will enjoy this one as well.

Macro Monday – Brushes (May 28)

(Macro Monday is hosted by Lisa’s Chaos)

paintbrushes

Our son has a school project to complete this week which will require these brushes. He has until Friday to construct a model of a Medieval castle. It is slowly coming together and looks as if it will be finished on time.

Musing Mondays (May 28)

Musing Mondays is a weekly book meme hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading.

This week’s musing asks…

If you come across an unfamiliar word, do you stop and look it up right away?

This is a good question to start the week with. Generally, I’ll keep on reading, because I can usually work out the meaning of the word from the context of the passage I am reading. Sometimes, especially if it is a textbook or something technical, I will get the dictionary out, because it might be more important in that particular case to get the meaning right. I’m usually not that far from a dictionary anyway. If I’m reading for fun and the word starts to bug me or distract from my reading enjoyment then I’ll give in and look it up.