Tag: Blog

Books

Book 111: Howards End is on the Landing – Susan Hill

Geoff W

Every book blogger should read this memoir at some point. I don’t remember when I first came across the title but it’s been in the back of my mind to read for quite some time, but funnily enough never made it to my to-be-read list. (Book bloggers, this may be contentious, but if you don’t want to read the post at least check out a quote on book bloggers and modern reading in the middle of the post and the following paragraph.)

This is one of my ‘take a break from challenges and read whatever I want novels’ and so counts for nothing other than a great book and a good source for future books to read. (If you read Howards End is on the Landing, be prepared for your to-be-read and to-be-re-read lists to grow dramatically.) Prior to reading this novel I knew nothing about Susan Hill, but having finished the novel I feel like I know her a little better, or could at least hold a conversation with her. There is something very intimate about publicly sharing your list of 40 books you would keep if you could only keep 40 for the rest of your life.

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Random, Updates

Lunch Break Interlude III

Geoff W

Like I said on the last Lunch Break Interlude barely two weeks ago.  It never fails that if I post a regular update something else awesome comes along that I want to share.  So lucky for you dear blogging world  I don’t have a set schedule!

After all the hullabaloo (aka my What about Anne Brontë? series here, here and here) I realized I didn’t have any clue where my copies of Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre are and I tried to find three editions of those two and any Anne novel but couldn’t find separate editions 🙁  Instead I splurged and spent most of my remaining Amazon gift cards from Christmas/Birthday on a nicer collection and a gift for Tom to the right. The book contains Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre and Agnes Grey.

On a completely different note, and the REAL reason for this post, last week Claire over at Word by Word (direct link to the post) posted about Tagxedo. Tagxedo is an awesome program you can enter a blog address or any amount of text and it will create a designed tag cloud for you. Mine is below.

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Updates

March 2012 Update

Geoff W

Found at http://socialsistersblog.wordpress.com/2012/01/12/blog-update/It has been some time since I last did a monthly update and I guess that’s because I didn’t have much to share.  I’ve been reading books and working and that’s about all I’ve done over the past few months so there wasn’t much to say other than my reviews, so on to the various updates!

The Oddness of Moving Things
Last month was my most successful month ever! It’s not a lot compared to some of the sites out there, but I had over 1100 unique views in the month and I was excited.  I remember when I started and I was getting 75-100 views each month!  So THANK YOU, everyone who reads and comments and for all the other wonderful book blogs out there who inspire me to change things on here, read different books and interact with the awesome book blogging community!

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Books

Tea & Books Reading Challenge 2012

Geoff W

I clearly should not have even looked at the first two challenges I did, because I have found another. Thankfully all three help to clear my to-be-read list and bookshelves. This challenge I found through Grace at Books Without Any Pictures.

This challenge, the Tea & Books Reading Challenge, is hosted by Birgit at The Book Garden. The challenge idea comes from C.S. Lewis’ quote “You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me.”

I am participating at the Earl Grey Aficionado level (six books) even though I’ve already have eight titles I could easily (and probably will) read.

The rules are fairly simple and straight forward, but they are below:

  • The challenge will take place between January 1st and December 31st 2012.
  • You can join any time between now and early 2012.
  • You have to pick a level, though you may “upgrade” to the next one at any time. In this case just drop me a line, so I can change your previous level.
  • You don’t need to list your books ahead of time, though I won’t object if you do. I’m definitely curious about your book choices for these challenges.
  • The books you choose may crossover into other challenges.
  • Both physical and eBooks are allowed, though personally I feel that especially the Tea & Books Reading Challenge is more fun with real books.
  • Reviews of the books read are not mandatory.

You can read the full rules and see who else is participating by clicking the blog link in the picture. The books I’ve decided to read are listed on my 2012 Challenges page.

Updates

Lunch Break Interlude I

Geoff W

We interrupt your regularly scheduled…— “Regularly scheduled,” what’s that?

I’ve done this once before, “way back” in August, and thought it was time for another quick one as I had so much new info to share that I didn’t want to wait until the next monthly update. Aside from my lack of humor, I’ve been busy with Thanksgiving and work, but I wanted to give a quick update with a few notables. (This may end up being my December update, if I’m too busy/lazy to actually post one).

  • The blog has gone through yet another re-design (as in I clicked the change theme button – and it was hard work), partially because I wanted to create a banner at the top – so check out the main page: www.geoffwhaley.com.
  • I started a photoblog: The Journal of the Movement of the World. It was inspired by all the 365 Photo a Day challenges, plus the title comes from another book! I’m probably most excited about the archives page because of the collective look at all the photos over time. [Update 01.27.12 – temporarily suspended until I can actually put some time into it. More than one blog was overwhelming.]
  • Last week I attended the Somerville Public Library book group Books into Movies and it was interesting. We read Friday Night Lights and I’ll have a review posted by Wednesday at the latest. (I haven’t quite finished reading it yet.) Next month is Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, which I’m excited about re-reading especially before the Hollywood version of the film comes out.
  • I splurged on books again this past Saturday, but don’t feel too guilty as I was supporting a local business on Small Business Saturday. I’ll have that list in the December monthly update.

And to close this brief interlude of your day, my friend Alie (not a blogger yet) went on a trip to Italy over Thanksgiving and brought back this awesome photo to the left. It is of the Italian promotional sign for Christopher Paolini’s Inheritance. I particularly like the other book signs in the back which show it’s definitely not in an English-speaking country, in case you missed the yellow strip across the top.

I love seeing international covers and foreign language editions of novels I’ve read. I actually have versions of Harry Potter in French and Spanish as well as complete British and American collections of the seven novels and the Tales of Beedle the Bard. At one point I had a British copy of one of the Dan Brown novels because I was stuck in the airport long enough to need a new book, but no idea where that went.