Sigh

I wish that I was better at blogging…

World Book Night

I am very excited about World Book Night.  I’m also a little stumped.  I will have 48 copies of The Blind Assassin to give out in Southampton (as we’re visiting friends that weekend) and I want to gift them to strangers in a flourish of literary love instead of just wandering round trying to get people to take them.  I have, however, no ideas.  I’ll probably just install myself in a pub and hand them out until they’re gone.

Is anyone else a WBN giver?  What are you giving and how are you doing so?

Free books!

Well, it’s January and as usual the first task of the new year was to re-organise my bookcases.  As I work in publishing and live in a one-bed attic flat, this is no mean feat, but I have been completely ruthless with myself and have sent three large bags of books to the charity shop round the corner.  Still, my four bookcases are entirely chock-a-block – thank goodness that I got a Kindle for Christmas, which should reduce my acquisition of physical books, at least a little.

During my book rampage I found duplicate copies of three of my all-time favourite Hodder & Stoughton books.  The duplicates are different editions, but space constraints mean that I can’t justify keeping them – so I want to share them with you.  I’ll send one of the books to the first three people to comment (please specify in your comment if you want a particular book – first come, first served).  Make sure that you include your email address so that I can email you to ask for your postal address.

The books are:

1. The Book of Lost Things, John Connolly.  Signed hardback edition.

2. The City of Thieves, David Benioff.  1st edition paperback.

3. The Poison Tree, Erin Kelly.  Proof copy.

Procrastination

I had set aside today to re-read what I’ve written so far of my novel, decide if it’s salvageable, and plan my next steps.  It’s 4pm and I have done nothing but eat soup and faff on t’interpipes.  Why am I procrastinating so?  I WANT to write this novel, so why aren’t I?  I’m a little bit daunted at the prospect of re-reading everything that I wrote, and I’m a bit scared that it’s all going to be awful.  But it might not be.  I won’t know until I bloody knuckle down and read the damn thing.  As soon as I post this entry, I’m opening the first chapter.  I am.  I AM.

This evening, I have been mostly…

…baking quite a lot of sugar cookies…

…knitting a teeny tiny baby sock…

…and debating the student fees issue with two of my best friends.  There is so much in the media about it at the moment that I don’t really know what’s true or not, but I do think that it’s such an incredibly complex issue that it’s always going to cause controversy.  I personally believe that higher education is a right, but one that you have to earn.  By that I mean that finance, social class, age, or any such factors should not prohibit anyone from going to university, but entrance to a degree should be earned through hard work and good grades.  We’ve become a society that expects degrees for many jobs that would be much better prepared for through vocational training or good old experience and that teaches young people that university is the next logical step after school.  University is not for everyone, and a society that thinks that it is runs into trouble – like higher education becoming too expensive for it to be accessible to those that want to continue their learning.  Knowledge is so important that it should always be available, but it should also be respected.  I don’t really know where this leaves me on the issue of the impending university fees, except to say that something definitely needs to change.

Books I loved in 2010

Ten books that I read and loved in 2010, not in any particular order, not necessarily published this year (some not even published yet).

The Poisonwood Bible – Barbara Kingsolver

Ghostwritten – David Mitchell

White Cat – Holly Black

The Passage – Justin Cronin

American Wife – Curtis Sittenfeld

The Silent Land – Graham Joyce

Sisters Red – Jackson Pearce

The Gate at the Stairs – Lorrie Moore

Daughter of Smoke and Bone – Laini Taylor

Room – Emma Donaghue

This has been the year that I have “discovered” (or learnt to appreciate) YA and crossover fiction.  Having said that, I’ve been reading a lot of books for younger readers as research for my new role, and I’m now itching to get back to something that challenges me a bit more.  I’ve read some fantastic books by amazing YA authors, such as Lauren Oliver and Laini Taylor, but I can’t pretend that they’ve not been a bit of a brain-holiday.  I’ve had a lot going in the latter half of this year and I think that my reading has reflected that.

I’ve become a more accepting reader this year.  At university, I used to dismiss certain genres out of hand, but I’ve since learnt that I can enjoy books from genres that I wouldn’t have thought that I would as long as they’re fantastically written.  I just can’t forgive bad writing.  I think that’s why I don’t read a lot of crime or any chick lit – the readers of that genre want different things from a book than I do (namely, plot driven pace that often sacrifices characterisation, sense, and good prose), so the majority of the books deliver what the fans want, which makes sense.  People often think that I won’t read crime, which isn’t true, I’m just wary of it because the mass of the genre doesn’t appeal.  Erin Kelly’s The Poison Tree is a crime novel that absolutely blew me away with the quality of the prose and the zeitgeist that it captured.  Similarly, I don’t think that I’ve ever read a sci-fi novel, but that’s not to say that I never will – I’m just waiting for one that might meet my exacting standards…  I’m less of a literary snob than I was at the start of the year, but I still demand quality from the novels that I read.

What have you read and loved this year?

‘Tis the season

And now that it’s 1st December, it really is.  All those humbugs who’ve been intent on dampening my Christmas spirit for the last week of November can pop a mince pie in it, because the first door is open on the advent calendar and it is now officially okay to be merry.

My enthusiasm for Christmas can vary from year to year, but this is definitely a year when I’m full of Christmas cheer.  My gift knitting is well underway, my spreadsheet of presents and recipients isn’t looking too daunting, and I have a shopping day planned.  I am Organised and it is Good.

Snow strikes!

You would think that London would be used to snow by now – this is the third year that we’ve experienced ‘freak’ weather conditions.  A few flakes, though, and transport grinds to a halt.  I’m now happily wrapped in my slanket in my cosy flat, but I’m worried about the Seldom Seen Husband, who faces an almighty journey from Canary Wharf whenever it is that he finishes in the office.  That boy works too hard.

Still, I can’t help but love the snow.  It’s so pretty.   Not practical, granted, but very pretty.  And what better excuse for staying at home of a wintry evening and knitting all those Christmas presents that I should be catching up on…

Jellyfish – loves you!

Sorry for the seemingly random quote, but this song just gets stuck in my head.

I made this for my mum way back in March for Mothers’ Day and I just found the photo on flickr, so I wanted to share.  This was a lot of fun to make.  The body was a fairly easy bowl shape, with a little frill.  The tentacles were the really creative bit, deciding what yarn to use and how to arrange them.  I just couldn’t stop making tentacles!  It’s definitely a good stash-busting project.

In which Christmas teddy has both of his arms

I was expecting this bear to be bigger than he ended up, but I guess that’s what happens when I use an entirely different yarn and needle size than is advised in the pattern.  I just had to turn this Regia Softy sock yarn into a teddy bear, though – what yarn could be more perfect?  Of course, it would have made equally snuggly socks, but my sock ennui still continues, over a year since I made my last pair.  I keep thinking that maybe I want to make a pair of socks, but then I remember that once I’ve made one, I have to make another one – exactly the same.  I don’t have all that much patience as a knitter; once I’ve completed a challenge, I want another one.  I don’t want to do the same thing twice.  I know that I’m not alone in this – the term Second Sock Syndrome was not coined just for me.

Anyway, back to teddy.  I used this pattern from the knitty.com archives, which is a lovely little pattern, but it does have some hurdles.  Firstly, the body and head are knitted in the round as one piece, so when it comes to turning them the right way out, with the purl side outwards, it’s mighty tricky to fit the head through the tiny gap of the neck.  There’s no other way to turn him the right way out, so I employed brute force and I was worried for my stitches.  Then, when I got to the legs, the instructions were to pick up stitches from the bottom of the body and knit in the round for each leg.  Had I done that, though, the lovely fluffy purl side would have been inside with no way to turn the leg the right way.  I had to modify the pattern to knit the legs separately and then join them as seamlessly as possible to the body.  Other than that, this is a lovely, quick knit.  I was a little unhappy with the arm placement when I first attached them, so I decided to go back and re-place them so that little bear wasn’t pointing all over the place.  They’re still a bit wonky, but I’m pretending that that’s part of the charm…