Category: Updates

Updates

July 2011 Update

Geoff W

It has been seven days since my last post.

Since that last post I have attended a warehouse sale at Harvard Bookstore (mentioned in my last update) where I picked up six books, and picked up four additional books at the biggest Goodwill I’ve seen on our way home from Maine this past weekend!

In addition to this, I’ve read three additional books and started a fourth.  Books/Posts 19-21 will appear hopefully this week and 22 will appear early next week assuming I finish it sometime soon.  And they will be:

I don’t feel too guilty as I supported a local bookstore, a great nonprofit and picked up five books on my list (bolded below), and five I’ve either heard about or thought sounded fascinating, including a book by Paulo Coelho who I’m interested in reading more of since I read The Alchemist.  The books I picked up are:

And here is a picture.
 This is my Tom, my boyfriend.  He won’t be too happy about the picture, but I like the picture (and I asked first).  Not to mention I was trying to sneakily take the picture and failed miserably.

Most of the time when I say we, I mean Tom and I.  He’s not the biggest fan of reading, but he’s starting to realize how AWESOME books are. 😀  In the picture he’s finishing Mockingjay of the Hunger Games trilogy on my eReader (which he didn’t want to give back).

I know I drive him nuts by reading as much as I do (like not paying attention to him on long car rides or not noticing he’s at the airport to pick me up because it’s a critical moment in the novel :-D), but I’m slowly chipping away at his ‘non-reader’ status.  He will be happy to see that his orange obsession (the flip-flops) and Dexter (the leg and tail in the lower right) stayed in the picture.

And on that note – I’m signing off to start writing my backlogged posts.  I’ve almost surpassed last year’s posts and have plans to keep moving forward so that’s a definite plus.  If only I’d keep to my demand of not starting a new novel until I’ve posted the last…  Now to keep up the momentum…

Updates

Quick Update

Geoff W

This past weekend I flew home for my aunts wedding and had a bit of down time and read three books. I’ve not had time to just read in ages and it was luxurious! Over the next couple of days I will be posting my ‘reviews/musings’ of Machiavelli’s The Prince, Coelho’s The Alchemist and Moore’s Hero. While at home I picked up a copy of The Help by Kathryn Stockett, Emma Donoghue recommended it at her book reading for Room.

[I had this cool idea of incorporating the book covers like I do on each posting in this post (you know just a simple row of those I’d just read and those purchased, but clearly the images weren’t cooperating. I’ll come back and link to the posts when I’ve finally written them. I also have what I think is a brilliant idea of what I want my home page to look like, but I don’t have the technical skills to pull it off yet, but I will eventually!]

I’m steadily making my way through all those books I purchased last year at the Boston Book Festival, but on Monday after flying back to Boston we went to lunch and to Harvard Bookstore where I purchased a few books (yes, bad Geoffrey), but I spent less than $8 as they were remainders, AND I supported the Harvard Book store, shop local and all that jazz. I purchased Patricia Marx’s Him Her Him Again The End of Him, Brain Francis’s The Secret Fruit of Peter Paddington: A Novel (read the blurb it just sounds hilarious) and The Beautiful Miscellaneous: A Novel by Dominic Smith. This is a bad thing as Harvard has their summer warehouse sale this weekend and it’s been on my calendar for months and I will be going, but I’m going to try and limit myself to $20.00(ish). I’m also going to try and use the library more often, I should support the Somerville Library (even if it is slightly scary).

So stay tuned for the updates on all of these books and hopefully they’re published in a timely manner.

Culture Corner, Updates

Oh Hey, Big City Part 2…

Geoff W

As I mentioned on Tuesday, Marge Piercy would be reading at the Brookline Booksmith last night. Well after an hour and a half journey (no wonder I got off the Green Line as soon as I could), I managed to get to the reading on time.

Woman on the Edge of Time - Marge Piercy - SignedMs. Piercy read between 12 and 15 poems and they were all amazing, but perhaps it was her personality which shone through most. She started the whole reading off by putting a cover on the microphone and saying “practice safe-sex with microphones.” Not only was it hilarious, but it was genuinely adorable. This set the mood for her personality and her poetry. She was very quirky and it just added to her charm and presence. Half way through the reading she decided she was hot so paused and took her shoes off – it just made me smile. I’m not sure which poem was my favorite and if I had to choose one I’d probably say Deadlock Wedlock because of where my academic interests lie, but I really enjoyed, Football for Dummies, Collectors, One Reason I Like Opera, and Deadlock Wedlock.

The most interesting aspect, aside from the reading, was the crowd. I was the only male under 40 and was only one of maybe five. I was not in the least bit surprised there were that few (actually felt like there were a lot) because her main draw is feminists and women, even though her works cover much more. The only thing I found strange about the crowd was their responses to the poems. I’m not sure why it was, but they all sort of moaned/grunted at the end of the poems. I’m sure it was showing appreciation for the reading as Ms. Piercy asked all applause to be held after the first poem. It just seemed odd at the time.

I’m glad I went and I got a book signed for myself (seen above) and one signed for a friend in the UK. And I also met someone else who has the R2D2 Droid phone – kind of awesome!

Updates

Welcome 2011

Geoff W

Clearly I’ve done a bad job updating the blog over the last couple of months. Since I last updated, I have read:

(I fully recommend the Scott novels, they’re for young adults, but they’re quick reads and are a great random take on history.) I have also read Role Models by John Waters and am half way through Cider House Rules by John Irving. (Role Models and Cider House Rules will be books one and two of 2011 even though technically two of the Scott books are from 2011.

Thank you bookshelfporn.com

In total I read 52 books in 2010 and those are just the ones I can remember and tracked. I’m sure there were others and definitely a few more re-reads than I originally listed, but I did alright. I’m not really going to push myself this year, but I did set a Goodreads goal of 63 books to increase from last year (and the three to include the three I’ve already read this year). If you’re not on there you should be and add me! I finally deleted visual bookshelf from Facebook because the Living Social app had taken over and it was annoying.

My list of books to read is, as ever, increasing faster than I can read them and we’re currently at a grand total of 290, with another 15-20 easily to add to that list. I’ve managed to keep it under 300 and I will continue to do so.

I didn’t set any goals/resolutions this year, but I think staying in touch with family, updating this blog and being healthier are pretty standard goals of every year.

Updates

Happy Birthday to Me…and an update.

Geoff W

So anyone who has looked into this blog knows my goal was 50 books by the end of the year and that’s clearly not going to happen. I could have made it considering I didn’t read a book for nearly two months. With the four books I’m reading between now and Christmas my overall list will have actually made 50, but not on the blog. I’ll publish the full list on NYE and decide if I want to set a number or not for next year. I might just start reading and see where I go. Also, if you’re on goodreads you should add me!

Well today is my birthday and I’m sitting in a hotel room waiting for my mom to come pick me up. I’ll be sitting here for the next two hours at least and needless to say I’m still grumpy from the ridiculous delay from my flight last night. I got to the airport at 6 for my 8:10PM flight. When I arrived they told us it was delayed 20 minutes, which was fair enough. However, they did not tell us of another delay until 8:40 when they told us it would then be delayed until 10:30. We didn’t leave the runway until after midnight and I got to NC around 2AM. Needless to say I was not impressed with the lack of communication by the staff at the airport.