The Sunday Salon: Buying Books, Eep!

I have a confession to make. In the last six weeks I have bought six books. I'm currently 1/3 of the way through a 1001 days challenge to complete 101 goals and some of the goals are to try not to buy any books I can't read by the end of the challenge and to get to less than 100 To Be Read books at the end of Day 1001.

I think I can still achieve my goal.

The books I've bought, I've devoured.

There was Singled Out by Virginia Nicholson which disappeared in a couple of long train and bus journeys. There was The Time Traveller's Guide To Medieval England by Ian Mortimer - I damn near inhaled that one while I was flying to Ethiopia last week. The other books are a travel book detailing a trip down the Yangtse River, a list of 1001 things to do in Britain (reading it for ideas for next summer's exploring), a non-fiction book detailing a scandal from the 1920s and a collection of Guy Browning's columns (funny essays on how to have a nap etc).

At the same time I am steadily making my way through my already owned books to make pleasing dents into my TBR stacks. I'm pretty pleased with where I am likely to be at the end of the year... so I might buy another book or two to celebrate. I just won't go crazy. ;)

Hugs and shiny new pages,

Ms Alex

Book Review - 8/10 - Singled Out by Virginia Nicholson

When life hands you different, get different.

Category: Modern British History

Paperback: 432 pages

Publisher: Penguin (5 Jun 2008)

ISBN-10: 0141020628

ISBN-13: 978-0141020624

Inspired/Suggested by: A book that has been on my wishlist for ages, I was merely waiting for it to come out in paperback. The first time I saw it in paperbook was while in Edinburgh with work, perfect as I needed something to read on my train journey home. :)

Synopsis: In 1919 a generation of young women discovered that there were, quite simply, not enough men to go round, and the statistics confirmed it. After the 1921 Census, the press ran alarming stories of the 'Problem of the Surplus Women - Two Million who can never become Wives...'. This book is about those women, and about how they were forced, by a tragedy of historic proportions, to stop depending on men for their income, their identity and their future happiness.

My thoughts: This was an interesting look into a topic that is never taught at schools etc in history courses, but the decisions these women made or didn't make affected us and go on affecting us all today. Education, pensions, legal rights and business all had to change to accommodate these women and the lives they created. This study does have flaws, in places it is thin in source material to back up it's suggestions, but for the most part it is a fascinating look at forgotten documents and interviews with ordinary women who realised they just weren't going to get the chance to do what they grew up expecting to - whether they had wanted that future or not in the first place was irrelevant. The sections of the book that were strongest were those which tried to show what the reality of a girl working in a London typing pool was like - I found the figures of how little money working women were trying to live on and just how desperate their existence was heart-rending to read. I hadn't imagined it was a sunny, easy life but I hadn't realised that a large chunk of the population of working women were struggling to keep themselves fed and clothed sufficiently.

I already quoted one of my favourite passages but here's another interesting snippet to whet your appetite:

'The Daily Express ran a headline: 'Problem of the Surplus Women - Two Million who can never become Wives'. The Daily Chronicle responded, 'No such thing as a Surplus Woman'. The Daily Mail rejoined the debate by asserting that 'the superfluous women are a disaster to the human race.' (page 29, along with a picture of one lone man being hunted by packs of ravenous surplus women)

Have you read this book? What did *you* think?

A quote to make the heart soar

I'm sat on a sofa in the foyer of the Hyde Park Picture House, a gorgeous, old, gas-lit cinema in Leeds (www.hydeparkpicturehouse.co.uk). I'm working as a volunteer at the Leeds Film Festival, answering questions, distributing and collecting ratings cards to the audience etc. I'm sat in the foyer as I've seen the film currently showing. And because the book I'm reading is fabulous and I don't want to miss an opportunity to read more of it.

The book is Singled Out by Virginia Nicholson and it deals with the women who never married or became mothers because the men they might have married died in the trenches in WWI. It's a fascinating look at the way the social imbalance of 'surplus' women changed British society. There'll be a full review when I finish it.

For now though I just want to share a great quote from one of the women mentioned in the book. Beatrice Gordon Holmes carved a life for herself as a businesswoman in the 20s and 30s in the financial markets of London. Looking back on her life at the age of fifty nine, she wrote:

'Have I ever been in love? Always. In love with life, people, projects, things, thought. Always in love. Always some star on the horizon.'

Such an inspiring attitude I just had to share it. :)

Hugs and movie tickets,

Ms Alex
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

24 Hour Read-a-Thon: The Final Tally

Final figures then.

I've bookcrossed 19 books.

I've passed on 2 Akoha cards.

I've read 1733 pages from the following books, which I'll do full reviews of when I get a chance over the next couple of days.

A Walk In The Woods by Bill Bryson (only part read)

Boating For Beginners by Jeanette Winterson
The Consolations Of Philosophy by Alain de Botton
Thirteen by Sebastian Beaufort
Santa: A Life by Jeremy Seal (only part read)
Everyman's Poetry: Lord Byron
Binary - Andy Warhol's Dracula by Kim Newman and The Vaccinator by Michael Marshall Smith
Raw Spirit by Iain Banks
A Time To Keep Silence by Patrick Leigh Fermor
Hamlyn Juices and Smoothies
A Walk Around The Snickelways Of York by Mark W. Jones
Stockholm by Bryony Lavery

I could have read a lot more short books but I really enjoyed the mix of books I read today. In the end I think I read for 20 hours and was awake for 23 hours. I think that's pretty good going. But now my eyes ache and I am very, very sleepy.

I wrote four posts throughout the day:
The first has my full list of books
The second has a picture of the sign I had up when reading in town
The third talks about my experiences of bookcrossing and reading in town
The fourth continues with talk of reading in the Art Gallery and then is a live blog of my afternoon and evening

I'm rather glad the clocks go back tonight in the UK, I could use another hour in bed.

Thanks again to all those who cheerleaded here, on Twitter and on LJ. It's been great fun. :)

Hugs and bookmarks,

Ms Alex

24 Hour Read-a-Thon - Post The Third (Live Blogging)

13:10 I'm back home now for the rest of the day. I'm just updating my bookcrossing and Akoha profiles and then I am going to update this post to tell you all about the excellent time I had in Caffe Latino and the Art Gallery and all the reading I managed to do. :)

13:35 All bookcrossing registered books updated on my profile - 19 books released this morning. Not bad considering the weather was *horrendous* and there were very few dry places I could leave books as I wandered about Leeds. Made up for it by leaving a pile of books in Caffe Latino (the staff were very interested in which ones I'd leave!) and scattering books throughout the Art Gallery during the two hours I was there. :)

Earlier when I was in Caffe Latino I was able to read a little more of Santa: A Life by Jeremy Seal but it wasn't what I fancied reading, so I switched to Everyman's Poetry: Lord Byron which was just the thing while I warmed up and curled up on the sofa.

Between 10:00 - 12:00 I was in the Art Gallery. I started scattering books the minute I got there since there were quite a few people milling about. I had a look at the Surrealism exhibit which had some nice like African style pieces by Desmond Morris, the author of The Naked Ape, who is apparently a very well-respected surrealist painter too. Something I never knew. After reading downstairs in a room I fondly call the Chocolate Box (nice, Victorian artworks in it) for a while I wandered upstairs to find a warmer spot. Scattering books as I went of course.
 
I had two fabulous conversations while upstairs in the Gallery.
 
One was with one of the guys working in the gallery who took The Consolations Of Philosophy off my hands and an Akoha card to boot. We talked about bookcrossing, the Read-a-Thon and books in general. Then he came back a bit later to ask me all about my 101 goals in 1001 days. :)
 
The other was with a lovely Spanish lass who noticed me scattering a book and came to say thank you for letting her know about bookcrossing, she'd seen one of the books downstairs and had actually written down the words 'www.bookcrossing.com' and 'Akoha?' on the back of one of her hands to find out more later. There really is nothing like finding another person who 'gets' the idea of passing stuff on randomly. Since she was beaming from ear to ear I gave her the Make Someone Smile Akoha card. :)
 
In between the conversations and bookcrossing I actually managed to finish the book of Byron's poetry and read one of the stories from Binary - Andy Warhol's Dracula by Kim Newman and The Vaccinator by Michael Marshall Smith (The MMS story, it's quirky and very silly).
 
I'll work out the page count in a second and put up a new total for pages read/time reading. I'm really enjoying myself. :)

14:15 So far I am up to 1079 pages and I've read for about 11.5 hours.

14:20 I'm now reading the Newman story from Binary - Andy Warhol's Dracula by Kim Newman and The Vaccinator by Michael Marshall Smith and will follow up with Raw Spirit by Iain Banks, a book I am re-reading before I pass it on.

15:30 I was distracted by a surprise visit and stopped to jabber and grab a hug or three for an hour.

16:00 A shower and some food and I'm a little sleepy. Time for a nap.

17:15 Finish the Newman story and pick up Raw Spirit. I have a bookmark in Raw Spirit on page 104 from the last time I put it down so I'm just going to try and finish the last 250ish pages...

18:30 Just updating what I've read so far:

A Walk In The Woods by Bill Bryson
Boating For Beginners by Jeanette Winterson
The Consolations Of Philosophy by Alain de Botton
Thirteen by Sebastian Beaufort
Santa: A Life by Jeremy Seal (only part read)
Everyman's Poetry: Lord Byron
Binary - Andy Warhol's Dracula by Kim Newman and The Vaccinator by Michael Marshall Smith
Raw Spirit by Iain Banks (just about to finish this!)

1426 pages in total so far!

19:50 Finished Raw Spirit eventually. Another short book finished as well - A Time To Keep Silence by Patrick Leigh Fermor. All about going on silent retreat, was on my mind after a conversation yesterday. Next up a juices and smoothies recipe book.

20:20 Rhubarb and custard smoothies??? Ick. The ones involving ginger, bell peppers and peaches are far more to my taste!

20:50 Finished the smoothie book (was always going to be a short read!) and now I'm reading A Walk Around The Snickelways Of York by Mark W. Jones which is also a short book with lots of drawings and maps. Think I'm going to listen to an audio book for a bit after this, David Starkey's Monarchy (From the Middle Ages to Modernity). I'm starting to get really tired. I've only slept an hour or so since I started and I spent most of this morning carrying all those books around town in the rain!

22:00 Still reading the snickelways book, it's lively, entertaining and very informative. It's a walking guide to a 3.5 mile walk around the alleyways and passages of York city centre and it's printed in the style of Wainwright's walking guide - quirky handwritten notes and hand-drawn maps. I really want to do this walk now, maybe on a week day in November if we get good weather.

22:10 'If at this stage you feel the need to explain your apparent eccentricity to other citizens, show them this book. It's the only rational explanation for irrational behaviour.'

22:50 I guess that whatever I read next will be my last book of the Read-a-Thon so I've picked Stockholm by Bryony Lavery, it's a play so easy to read and very quirky in it's dark sense of humour... It's about a relationship that is breaking apart and leaving the two lovers confused and uncertain about each other and the future. And yes, it's funny.

24 Hour Read-a-Thon - Post The Second (Live Blogging)

08:45 Here's a round up of what I've been doing for the last 3.5 hours.

05:00 - 06:00 I gathered together all of my books that are currently listed as available and put them in one rucksack. The one I normally use when I go camping. It was *heavy*. I then packed another bag with books for reading, my sign, some fruit and a bottle of water. Then I picked both of them up, teetered under their weight and staggered off into the dark, rainy dawn to catch a bus into town. I left A Walk In The Woods on the bus - it was a heavy hardback. :)

06:00 - 07:00 Found a good spot in the train station to curl up and read. I continued with Thirteen by Sebastian Beaufort which I'd started on the bus after finishing The Consolations of Philosophy by Alain de Botton.

07:00 - 08:00 I finished Thirteen much quicker than I thought I would, it's not very engaging so I was skim-reading by the end of it. I then decide to move on to Santa: A Life by Jeremy Seal. As I am digging around in my bag for the Santa book I realise that I am being watched by some of the station staff. A lot of them. It makes me uncomfortable. After about twenty minutes of being blatantly stared at I decide to head off to my office, grab my laptop and make my way to Caffe Latino where I can get a smoothie and wifi.

08:00 - 09:00 I walked from my office to Caffe Latino on The Headrow scattering books as I go. By now it is raining solidly so I am looking for sheltered window ledges to leave books on since anywhere else is going to be too wet. My plan to leave the coffee shop to read on the Town Hall steps at 09:00 is cancelled in favour of staying here until the Art Gallery opens. Set up the laptop, update my bookcrossing profile.

09:15 Here's some stats. So far I've read:

A Walk In The Woods by Bill Bryson

Boating For Beginners by Jeanette Winterson

The Consolations Of Philosophy by Alain de Botton

Thirteen by Sebastian Beaufort

I've read a total of 804 pages according to Amazon (I only read 100 pages of the Bryson) which seems crazy. I am a fast reader though so allowing for Amazon counting things like the copyright pages etc, it must be about right. I've read about 7.5 hours so far, allowing for blogging and moving around. With that damn heavy bag of books. :)

24 Hour Read-a-Thon: Time To Leave The House

I'm updating my bookcrossing available books list, packing a bag full of books and oranges and charging my phone and batteries for my camera. Time to head into the city in a little while. Be good to have a change of scenery I'm getting too settled and cosy here. :)

Going to take a lot of very thin books to read and all of my available books to scatter...

24 Hour Read-a-Thon - Post The First (Live Blogging)

00:01: Okay, so I'll be live blogging the first four hours or so of my Read-a-Thon. Yesterday I posted a picture of the books that I'd highlighted to read for this challenge but not all the titles could be read. So I'll start putting together a list for you now...

00:25 Here's the finished list:

A Tale Of A Tub by Jonathan Swift
The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery
Goodbye Again by Peter Cook and Dudley Moore
Medea and Other Plays by Euripides
The Astrological Diary of God by Bo Fowler
Mary Reilly by Valerie Martin
Taking Off Emily Dickinson's Clothes by Billy Collins
Raw Spirit by Iain Banks
The Kiss And Other Stories by Anton Chekhov
Boating For Beginners by Jeanette Winterson
253 by Geoff Ryman
Hamlyn Juices and Smoothies
Architecture: A Crash Course by Hilary French
Opera: A Crash Course by Stephen Pettitt
Thirteen by Sebastian Beaumont
The Death Of Ivan Ilyich And Other Stories by Leo Tolstoy
Everyman's Poetry: Lord Byron
Timaeus and Critias by Plato
Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde And Other Stories by Robert Louis Stevenson
A Walk Around The Snickelways Of York by Mark W. Jones
The Rainy Moon And Other Stories by Colette
A Walk In The Woods by Bill Bryson
Christmas Books by Charles Dickens
Collected Stories by Vladimir Nabokov
Santa: A Life by Jeremy Seal
The Birds And Other Stories by Daphne du Maurier
Sexing The Cherry by Jeanette Winterson
This Diary Will Change Your Life 2009
Birthday Letters by Ted Hughes
Binary - Andy Warhol's Dracula by Kim Newman and The Vaccinator by Michael Marshall Smith
Glory by Vladimir Nabokov
American Scream: The Bill Hicks Story by Cynthia True
Window-Box Allotment by Penelope Bennett
The Consolations Of Philosophy by Alain de Botton
The Servants by Michael Marshall Smith

I aim to read some or all of the 35 books above in the next 24 hours. :)

00:30 I'm starting with A Walk In The Woods by Bill Bryson since it's a hardback and the thickest book in the pile. Time to start reading. Back in a bit.

01:45 I'm 100ish pages into A Walk In The Woods, I'm going to move onto something else since this is the blandest thing I've read in a long time. It's not good, it's not bad... it's just bland. I could finish it but I've got so many other books calling for my attention that it can be added to the pile of books to be bookcrossed later when I am scattering books in the city centre.

01:50 I'm adding another 7 books to my pile:

No Love Is This by Tracey Sinclair
What We Talk About When We Talk About Love by Raymond Carver
A Time To Keep Silence by Patrick Leigh Fermor
Ex Libris by Anne Fadiman
A Pike In The Basement by Simon Loftus
Bellwether by Connie Willis
Stockholm by Bryony Lavery

Stockholm is one of my favourite plays, I suddenly realised that more plays would be a good thing since dialogue is easy to read.

So that's 42 books on the pile, 1 already knocked off.

01:55 Okay, time to start reading Boating For Beginners by Jeanette Winterson. :)

03:30 I finished Boating For Beginners, it's dated badly and isn't as funny as I remember but the ideas are still quirky and memorable - God created from ice cream for example.

03:40 Now I'm reading The Consolations Of Philosophy by Alain de Botton... I'd forgotten there are photos and images in this book so it's a very quick read!

24 Hour Read-a-Thon Around Leeds

That's a photo of the two piles of books I am planning to focus on during the 24 hour read-a-thon that I'm starting at 00:00 tonight.

It's a mix of short stories, short novels, essays, a recipe book or two, poetry books, a couple of anthologies and the excellent 253 by Geoff Ryman which tells the story of 253 passengers on a London Tube train in 253 words each. I'll probably end up dipping into my main To Be Read stacks as well.

I'm taking part in the read-a-thon because I've committed myself to reducing my To Be Read pile to less than 100 books by 29SEP2011 and I'm trying to read everything I own to meet that target. But just reading for 24 hours might not be so very interesting to do or blog about so I've been thinking about how to stay motivated throughout the day and how I might combine this reading challenge with my other 101 goals in 1001 days.

Here's my plan:

00:00 - 04:00
Reading at home, aiming to finish a couple of books. Will be listening to music and scrobbling it for this goal.

04:00 - 05:00
Depending on the weather I am going to try and read down at the 12th century Cistercian abbey ruins that are opposite my house as the dawn comes in. If it's too cold or raining then I will go read at my dining room table. I've lived in my shared house for nearly three years and never read a book at the table. :)

05:00 - 06:00
I'm going to pack up a load of bookcrossing registered books and catch a bus into town, reading on the bus of course.

06:00 - 07:00
Reading in Leeds train station. I'll be giving books and chocolate away if I can (which will enable me to use Akoha cards for this secret, stealth goal).

07:00 - 08:00
Reading in Leeds City Market. Doesn't really matter if it rains - I'll find an outside stall that's not in use and hide under it's shelter.

08:00 - 09:00
Blogging in Caffe Latino, I'm thinking this will be a chance to get warm if it's a cold morning.

09:00 - 10:00
Reading on Leeds Town Hall steps. People watching. :)

10:00 - 11:00
Reading in Leeds Art Gallery. One of my favourite places to read even before it was directly connected to the Central Library building next door.

11:00 - 12:00
Reading in Leeds Central Library. Had to include it, it's a second home to me. :)

12:00 - 13:00
Walking home, listening to audiobooks. My bag should be considerably lighter as I will have bookcrossed about twenty books by now. The bookcrossed books count towards this goal. I will also have been scattering non-business cards for this goal.

13:00 - 15:00
The official UK start time is 13:00 so everyone else who's participating in the read-a-thon should start being active. Cheerleading, blogging, updating my bookcrossing profile and commenting. The comments will count towards this goal.

15:00 - 17:00
Sleep, food, shower to re-vitalise me.

17:00 - 19:00
Work on one of the mini-challenges which should hopefully have started to appear on blogs of those taking part in the read-a-thon.

19:00 - 21:00
Cheerleading, blogging, commenting.

21:00 - 23:30
Last push to finish as many books as possible.

23:30 - 00:00
Wrap up post on the blog. Collapse into bed/text-induced coma.

Musing Monday: The 24 Hour Read-a-Thon

Today’s MUSING MONDAYS post is about the read-a-thon…

Are you planning on participating in the upcoming 24 Hour Read-a-thon (either as a reader or cheerleader)? Have you made any preparations for the event? And, veterans out there, any tips you’d like to share with the newbies?

Yes, I'm joining in for the first time. I'm going to be reading, blogging and cheerleading. :)

The UK start time is 13:00 on Saturday 24OCT but that's impractical for me - so I'll run my read-a-thon midnight to midnight instead. I'm trying to read or re-read everything I own by the end of my 1001 day challenge and get my To Be Read stack down to less than 100 books... this 24 hours of reading should help make a dint in the piles. :)

I'm going to put a list of books I am aiming to read up tomorrow but I'm going to try and read a mix of plays, poems, short stories, essays and shortish novels. I also aim to live blog as I cheerlead and find out about the mini-challenges on the day.

Mad but fun I think.

Hugs and bookstacks,

Ms Alex