'Bout This Blogger

I've seen this mini-questionnaire doing the rounds recently, and so now it's my turn.

The 'Bout This Blogger tag comes from Cait at her newly-reinvented blog Paper Fury. I've just discovered Cait thanks to this meme, and she is brilliant. You guys must check out her blog if you haven't done already.

1. Why did you start blogging? Because of Anne of Green Gables. I tried to find online forums to discuss my favourite book series, but the comments just didn't go into enough depth for my liking, and were mostly about the adaptations anyway. So I set up my own space to witter at great length and depth and hope that it might prompt a discussion or two somewhere along the way.

2. What’s the story behind your blog’s name? When I was a kid, before I'd even started primary school, I had already got myself a reputation - somehow - among the teachers as "Katie Who Can Read." I could read, I can read, I've never really stopped reading since I was three years old.

3. How many designs have you been through since you started blogging? (Pictures! We demand pictures!) I'm on my second blog design, one of the Blogger templates customised a bit, because my web design skills are non-existent. Windows Live Writer (which I only really use if my internet connection is playing up, because it messes up the formatting when I come to publish) has kept my old background. I started off with this rather ugly, old-timey brown wallpaper look which made me think of a Victorian study (or maybe 221B Baker Street) but later decided to brighten it up with some cheerful peachy-orange stripes. Pretty and girly without being too pink. 

4. Have you ever switched blog platforms? What made you move? If you haven’t ever changed…why?
Many moons ago I had a personal blog on Xanga (does anyone remember that?) but for the book blog I'm happy with Blogger. I used to have a separate blog for TV and movie reviews, but I didn't give that enough attention so I brought those posts over to join the book reviews.

5. How long does it take you to write a post? What’s your postly process like?
As I read or watch things, I make notes in a notebook. I plan my posts rather like I used to plan academic essays: I make a list of bullet points, then expand them into paragraphs. Usually I'll open my post, stare at the screen, check Twitter, check Tumblr, try to come up with a first sentence, check Twitter... check Tumblr... Often I start in the middle, when the bullet point notes get longer and ramblier and turn into full sentences. Beginnings and endings are always hardest. How long it takes depends on how much I have to say and how much I procrastinate. It doesn't take that long once I settle down to actually do the writing.

6. Have you ever been super nervous about a post? Why?! What was it?
Most recently, my review of Kindred was a bit nervewracking. This is an amazing, thought-provoking book that will linger for a long time. I had many thoughts and feelings about Kindred, but as a white girl living in a probably 95+% white part of England, I worry that I don't have much authority to write about issues of race, and I don't want to say anything ignorant or insensitive. Similarly, any book about other Very Serious Issues that I have no personal experience with, but which can be painful to other people who might land on my blog. I'd hate to inadvertantly belittle or trample over anyone's personal experiences.

7. Do you have a blogging schedule?
Hahahaha no. Lately my blogging has been far too infrequent. I write my Sunday Summaries quite regularly, and occasionally take part in Top Ten Tuesday, and I try to balance out book reviews, TV or film reviews, personal updates and meme or list posts,

8. Do you tell people In-Real-Life about your blog? Their reactions? Occasionally, but not often. They might read it!

9. Top ten blogs you read/comment on the most! Go! Go! I don't always comment - one of my blogging resolutions for next year will be to comment more - but I read every post from the following:

Ellie @ Book Addicted Blonde
Hanna @ Booking in Heels
Laura @ Devouring Texts
Bex @ An Armchair By The Sea
Charlotte @ Lit Addicted Brit
Melbourne On My Mind
Ellie @ Lit Nerd
Alley @ What Red Read
Sarah Says Read
Ellie (yes, another Ellie) @ Curiosity Killed The Bookworm

10. If you could change/improve things about your blog, what would they be?
I'd like to write more often, at least twice a week and aim for three: at least one review and one personal or meme post.

15 Day Book Blogger Challenge: Day One/ Bout of Books

Hi everyone. Apologies for the lack of updates recently. There are some reviews due: Dorothy Koomson's latest book, The Rose Petal Beach, and the latest installment in Simon Pegg, Nick Frost and Edgar Wright's "Cornetto" movie trilogy: World's End, but they are still in note form or lost in the labyrinth of my brain. They are coming, though!

It seems I've only just finished the last readathon, but Bout of Books 8.0 kicks off in just under three weeks, on Monday 19th August. The rules are the same as before: read as much as you can, when you can, where you can, and blog about it. I have been very busy buying up ALL THE BOOKS in the last couple of months, so I really, really, need to read as many as possible before unread books take over my house completely.

The Bout of Books read-a-thon is organized by Amanda @ On a Book Bender and Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal. It is a week long read-a-thon that begins 12:01am Monday, August 19th and runs through Sunday, August 25th in whatever time zone you are in. Bout of Books is low-pressure, and the only reading competition is between you and your usual number of books read in a week. There are challenges, giveaways, and a grand prize, but all of these are completely optional. For all Bout of Books 8.0 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. - From the Bout of Books team.

In the meantime, I've signed up for the 15-day Book Blogger Challenge, as hosted by Good Books, Good Wine, my aim to complete the 15 blog posts before the beginning of Bout of Books. 

Day One: 15 book-related confessions

1. I really ought to buy an e-reader, but can't stand the thought of it. Yes, my book piles are taking over my room, I acquire them faster than I cull them, and shelf space is a thing of the past. But as far as I'm concerned, book-buying is an art. It involves the leisurely perusals of the bookshops (if I visit a different city, it is a matter of principle to check out their Waterstone's,) the bond with the bookseller who raves about your favourite author with you, tells you without looking the author of that book you can't quite remember, the coming away from town with a bag of books, a guilty conscience but a sense of immense satisfaction. You can't replicate that with a click of a button. 

2. Maybe I am just a hoarder of books. I love their physical presence, how they look on my shelves (erm, and stacked in every corner so I can never find what I'm looking for!) 

3. There are lots of my books I will probably never read again. I acquire them so fast, that there is little time for rereading - only the absolute favourites get reread, and the occasional one I liked the first time around. But I hang onto them, most of them, because I don't know which that "occasional one" will be until I want to read it again.

4. I'm getting impatient for my friend's 3-year-old twins to learn to read. My other friend tells her it's okay, that just because I was known as "Katie Who Can Read" before I started school, doesn't mean that there is anything wrong with them if they can't read until they're 4 or 5, or that they won't become book lovers. She was a late reader and is as much a devourer of books as I am. I have to be reminded of this when my brain wants to shout at them, Just hurry up and read already! (I suspect I am a terrible person.)

5. I genuinely believe that reading makes you a better person. It engages your imagination and empathy, so that you understand how people might think, feel and react, who have had different experiences, different personalities, different lives. Reading a book helps you to understand what it might be like to be the person you might have nothing to do with if you met them in real life. 

6. I am a compulsive book-buyer. This is probably not an original confession on this challenge. I try very hard to restrain myself. I have given up buying books for Lent, I have given myself a limited book budget, I have tried all sorts of things, but once I start buying ALL THE BOOKS, I find it very difficult to stop. I've been quite restrained for the first 5 months of this year, but in the last 2 months, I have acquired, mostly bought but some borrowed or given to me, over thirty books. 

7. I think someone should set up a home for shabby books. Some of my books have suffered by either being dropped in the bath, being carried around in my bag all day every day, having ink spilled on them, and in one instance, grass-stained from being chucked across the garden. I don't always treat my books very well, but if they are single-read books, they are in no condition to be resold, even in a charity shop. But I can't just throw them in the bin. I cannot do it.

8. I have three copies of Anne of Green Gables. One is the large hardback two-in-one given to me for my 8th birthday by my parents. Then, there is a nice 100th-anniversary paperback, which fits in a handbag. Then there is a Puffin Classics, tattered, second-hand edition, for reading in the bath. If I get any more, then I will have to start collecting in earnest, and because of a competitive streak in my nature, will feel obliged to match Hanna's Pride and Prejudice collection.

9. Sometimes I am almost scared to start a book I've been waiting a long time for, or a reread of an old favourite. It's like, if I don't savour the reading experience, if I don't enjoy it enough, if I don't read it in the right place, at the right time, it will be RUINED FOREVER. You only read a book for the first time once, so you have to make the experience perfect. (But the rereading? Silly Katie.)

10. I still have all my old Enid Blytons in a box under my bed. When I was in my early teens, I retired them up to the loft, but a couple of years later I had to retrieve them to reread Five on a Treasure Island, and I know I will never be able to part with them. On a related note...

11. I really hate the modern editions of Enid Blyton's books. Not only have they been updated to change shillings to pounds, but the covers are ghastly. I much prefer the style from when I first started reading them.

 

1990s

2010s

12. I don't like the phrase "TBR (To be read) Pile." I prefer to say "To-read." Because for me, the journey is as important as the destination - the reading experience, not just reaching the end.

13. For me, romance is a thing to be endured for the sake of the story. Possibly I am bitter and jaded, but I don't very often get mushy over characters falling in love. "Shipping" and "OTPs" leave me cold - mostly. There are exceptions, however.

14. If I see someone reading on a bus, train or other public place, I will not rest until I know what they're reading. That is the other reason I don't like e-readers.

15. I wrote my first "novel" at the age of ten. It was called "First Time At Abbey School," and was a blatant rip-off of Malory Towers. I wrote it in pencil in a green Lion King exercise book, and probably ought to type it up for posterity, before the pencil fades to be illegible. 

Top Ten Tuesday: Books I read before I started book blogging

Hello dear readers! Apologies for the lack of recent reviews or posts. There's not been a lot of reading happening lately, and most of what I have been reading has been rereading of old favourites. But this week's Top Ten Tuesday prompt got me thinking about my old favourite books, from the days before I started my book blog. I'm not going to include any of the books that are still favourites and as such have been reviewed on rereads, so I've found it interesting to think back over the books that I used to love, and those which are really due a reread.

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted at The Broke and the Bookish

1. The Book Thief - Markus Zusak

I wrote about this on my (now deleted) personal blog, but all I could find to write was "JUST READ IT!" The Book Thief shows a little girl growing up in Germany during World War 2, but in a unique twist, the author is Death. This does not make the book a morbid read, but Death's matter-of-fact tones really highlight the beauty and tragedy of the story in an understated way. (I really have to reread this!)




2. A Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens

When I finished my degree, I realised I'd hardly studied any Dickens in the entire three years - a shocking state of affairs! Though it took me a while to get into the book the first time - so many characters, and it takes a bit of time to figure out how they fit together, who are the main characters and who is in a supporting role - by the time we got to the French Revolution scenes I was hooked. I was holding my breath with worry for some of the characters and completely stunned by the well-known twist ending. This book left me with a serious book hangover.

3. The Bitterbynde trilogy - Cecelia Dart-Thornton

Long before the trend for fairy-tale retellings came the Bitterbynde trilogy from Cecelia Dart-Thornton. Though very, very verbose, the series, beginning with The Ill-Made Mute draws on ancient Celtic mythology and well-known fairy-tales to weave a rich, uncanny tapestry, opening a little window onto a dangerous fairyland.

4. Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier

The main reason I initially read this book was because my Cornwall-based friend from university assumed I'd read it and I didn't have the heart to disillusion her. It was well worth it - an eerie, suspense-filled novel of a young woman haunted by the memory of her husband's first wife. I find myself reminded somewhat of Jane Eyre.

5. I Capture the Castle - Dodie Smith

"I write this sitting in the kitchen sink." How can you not love a book which opens thus? I Capture the Castle is a quirky story of family, growing up and falling in love, and has been made into a film starring Romola Garai and Bill Nighy. 

6. The Elenium trilogy - David Eddings.

Fantasy always has to come in trilogies, doesn't it? This was the first high fantasy I read after Lord of the Rings sucked me into the genre, and I fell in love with it. I later read Eddings' Belgariad series, and maintain that whichever Eddings story you read first will be the one you like best - because he has one story, one set of character archetypes, which he used many times in different ways. Recently I tried to reread the series, and alas, the years were not kind. The fantasy-names felt made-up, the archaic speech felt fake, the plot full of cliches. The Elenium was saved a little by humour and likable characters, but maybe it's not fair to include The Elenium in a top ten of anything. Still, it played an important role in helping me fall in love with fantasy.

7. Interview With the Vampire - Anne Rice
I read this as a semi-gothic student, little knowing quite how far its brooding protagonist would set the standard for angsty, self-loathing vampires everywhere.

8. Night Watch - Terry Pratchett

This is perhaps one of the darkest books in the Discworld series, but also the best. Les Miserables crossed with Life on Mars - except this was published before Life on Mars. This is one of the City Watch sub-series, but with a twist, because Sam Vimes is caught in a magical storm and sent thirty years back in time, when Ankh Morpork was a much more dangerous place, and it's up to Vimes to sort out the mess, tutor his younger self, and minimise the damage, when all he wants is to get home to his wife and unborn son. Truth! Justice! Freedom! Reasonably Priced Love! And a Hard Boiled Egg!

9. Eve Green - Susan Fletcher

A simple story about family and the past, which I found at just the right time. When Eve Green is expecting her first child, she returns to the Welsh village where she grew up. The story is told in flashbacks to the summer when another little girl went missing, as Eve pieces together the secrets that have been kept from her, and the forgotten memories. Eve Green is a quiet novel, but a cosy read. 

10. The House at Riverton - Kate Morton

Kate Morton's books seem to follow a particular formula: two stories, separated by many decades but linked in some way, a big house, forgotten secrets and family mysteries. The link in The House at Riverton is an elderly woman (in the present day) who used to work at the house as a maid, at the time of a young man's suicide. Tangled up in the story is the relationship between three young people: the man and two sisters, and the novel is reminiscent of Ian McEwan's Atonement. It may be an unpopular opinion, but Riverton is the novel I'd hoped Atonement would be but wasn't. I read the entire 600 or so pages in a single lazy Saturday. I couldn't put it down.

Top Ten Tuesday: Trends

I love lists, and the ladies at The Broke and the Bookish offer the perfect opportunity to put on my list-making hat and ponder important matters related to all things bookish with their feature: Top Ten Tuesdays. Today they invite us to think about the trends in publishing that we’d like to see less or more of:


Less

1. Interchangeable Magical Boyfriend Creatures. The vampire who falls in love with a high school girl. Or the werewolf who falls in love with a high school girl. Or the fallen angel, or faery, or ghost, or zombie… you get the picture.
2. Misery Memoirs. I’m sure it’s cathartic to write about an awful childhood, and am outraged by some of the things people get away with,  but I hate the emotionally manipulative way these books are marketed, deliberately tugging at the heartstrings with pictures of sad-eyed children, titles that all contain “Mummy” and “Daddy” and taglines about “helpless little boy/girl.”I feel this approach cheapens the very real experiences of those who wrote the books, and I also find it quite disturbing that people bulk-buy true stories about child abuse.
3. Decidedly Dubious Mills and Boon titles. Things like The Greek Tycoon’s Reluctant Mistress, or The Spanish Billionaire’s Bought Bride, or Wedded for Revenge, or Blackmailed Into His Bed. I don’t read the books myself, but these titles don’t suggest healthy male-female relationships!
4. Celebrity “auto”biographies and ghostwritten novels. If You Only Live Once as Katie Price suggests, why is this her fourth life story?
5. Love Triangles. Call me old-fashioned, but it seems to me that if it’s not obvious which of two suitors you want to spend your life with, are you really committed enough to either?

More:


I find it harder to think about what trends I’d like to see more of, because the best book are those that are original and stand out from the crowd. That being said, I’d like to see:

1. Amazing story-telling. J. K. Rowling always amazes me by he complete mastery of her story world, her complex plot strands that she never dropped even a minor subplot.
2. Dark, mysterious stories that aren’t specifically fantastical, but aren’t easily explained away either.  (For example, Sarah Waters’ The Little Stranger.)
3. Non-romance-based stories in which the protagonist is either single all the way through, or happily settled all the way through the story.
4. Page-turning adventures and mysteries. When you have no idea what is going to happen next, but just have to read “one more chapter” to find out.
5. Strong, stand-alone stories. I do like some series, but many stories go on too long. I’d rather reach the end and wish for more, than get more and be disappointed or bored.

It's Friday! Let's talk literary lovers.

It's a beautiful day here on the Isle of Wight, and I've spent the last two days in the garden with my nose in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, being lucky enough to have a four-day weekend this week. (Hurrah!)

Despite my crazy to-read list (which I swear has a life of its own and is possibly breeding without my help) I've been back in the bookshops again - quite aside from when I've been working! - and invested in four new YA books: Paranormalcy, Ballad, Amy and Roger's Epic Detour and What I Saw And How I Lied. I've made a start on Amy and Roger, but I'll give these books more attention when I've finished the Potter series.

At GReads, Ginger asked:

Mr and Mrs: Who are your favourite book couples?

Firstly, I have a confession to make: I'm not a big fan of the mushy stuff. (Shocking, I know!) For the most part, romance in books is a thing to be tolerated as long as it doesn't get in the way of the plot. So I don't tend to get excited about most couples. A lot of books are full of lovable, funny, lively or sweet characters who pair up and make each other happy. But for me, it takes more than that for me to think of them as "a couple" rather than "two characters who fall in love with each other." There has to be a special dynamic between the characters, people who complement each other. Their relationship is almost like a third character itself, where together they are stronger than each person apart. Which is not to say that either character is nothing without the other! If you've got two non-characters, then you get a non-relationship.

I think it's quite rare to find that kind of special relationship in modern teen fiction, probably because there is such a prevalence of love triangles. As I once tried to explain to a former Creepy Stalker trying to ask my advice on which of two girls he ought to ask out: if there's any question about it, if it's not obvious, then surely neither one is right to be with right now. That's my take on it, anyway.

So, who are those literary lovers whose relationship is so strong it softens even my hard heart? 

Exhibit A: Anne Shirley and Gilbert Bythe, from the Anne of Green Gables series. They meet when Anne is eleven years old, and Gilbert makes a very poor first impression when he makes fun of her red hair, causing her to smash her slate over his head. Anne doesn't speak to Gilbert for years after this insult. Yet he's always present in her mind, as an enemy and a rival in school, even though she might protest her indifference to him. They become friends eventually, however, and it's quite clear that Gilbert thinks Anne is something special. But to Anne, Gilbert is just a very dear friend - or so she thinks. But he will keep appearing in her thoughts and getting in the way when she's trying to daydream!

[Anne's "home o'dreams"] was, of course, tenanted by an ideal master, dark, proud and melancholy; but oddly enough, Gilbert Blythe persisted in hanging about too, helping her arrange pictures, lay out gardens, and accomplish sundry other tasks which a proud and melancholy hero evidently considered beneath his dignity.

Bless her, she's in love and she doesn't even realise it! The great thing about the Anne series is that it doesn't just end with the happily-ever-after of a typical "romance," but shows them through their engagement living apart, married life and onto their own children, their love staying strong through good and bad times, and even when they might not necessarily be feeling "in love."

Exhibit B is drawn from the Bard himself: Benedick and Beatrice, the original love/hate relationship from Much Ado About Nothing. Both swear that they will never marry, show disdain for the opposite sex and put all their energy into trying to score points off the other - but they are so perfectly suited. No one else can match them in wit, and I have the impression that their surface antagonism hides a real enjoyment from their banter and wordplay with each other. It doesn't take a lot, really, for them to be persuaded into love with each other. To quote C. S. Lewis: "They were so used to quarreling and making it up again that they got married so as to go on doing it more conveniently." Here's their first scene together, as portrayed by Kenneth Branagh and Emma Thompson.



Runners-up:


Arthur and Molly Weasley - Harry Potter series. Ron's parents have been married for over twenty years and brought up seven children, and it is quite clear that Molly wears the trousers in the family. An angry Mrs Weasley is not a sight anyone likes to see up close, and Mr Weasley appears to be a typical hen-pecked husband, but the couple have a real love for each other which shines through, even when Mrs Weasley is shouting at her husband again for meddling with the muggle technology that he is so fond of. 


Sam and Sybil Vimes - Discworld novels. When we first meet Sam Vimes, Captain of the City Watch, he is an angry, cynical drunk who is going nowhere. Lady Sybil Ramkin - is a jolly-hockey-sticks type of noblewoman who dresses in her scruffiest clothes and looks after sick dragons. She is a sensible, motherly woman who is able to stand up for herself and her loved ones, maybe a toned-down version of Molly Weasley. It's clear that Sam and Sybil need each other. Vimes is too forceful a character to allow himself to be wrapped around his wife's finger, but she can firmly but gently persuade him to do things he doesn't want to, when no one else can. It is Sybil, and Vimes' love for her that saves him from the darkness inside himself.

Finally - a late addition to my favourite couples list - Faramir and Eowyn - Lord of the Rings. We don't get to see much of them together; in fact they don't even meet until near the end of the book. Eowyn is always described as a cold, strong, beautiful woman; she's full of love for her country, Rohan, as much courage and skill on the battlefield as her brother, but always she is forbidden from proving her worth because she is a woman. She is in love with warrior king Aragorn - or in love with the idea of him - and full of despair for the future. Then she meets Faramir, who does not view her with condescension, but respect and admiration for a remarkable woman. He offers her hope, and when she allows herself to fall in love with him, she is able to let down her guard without worrying about looking weak. Both know what it is to carry all of the burdens of their family and none of the glory - Faramir, though a respected soldier and wise, clever man, was always overshadowed by his elder brother Boromir. This is a marriage of equals, and the scene in which they realise their love for each other has always made me go a little bit swoony inside.

Top Ten Tuesday (Customised)

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted by the girls at The Broke and the Bookish blog, for those literary list-lovers out there. This week's subject is The Ten Biggest Jerks In Literature: bloggers' most hated male characters, whether designated villains or anti-heroes. I missed the female equivalent a week or two back, so instead I'm listing the five male and five female characters I think would most benefit from a good smack.

May contains spoilers

Male:

5: Bob Ewell - To Kill A Mockingbird. Ewell is a disgusting piece of work; an abusive, cowardly slob of a man who covers up violence with lies, threats and more violence. He is the catalyst for the major events of the novel, going after the helpless and innocent because he is too afraid to challenge those who can protect themselves.

4. Mr Casaubon - Middlemarch. Mr Casaubon marries Dorothea Brooke early on in the novel, attracted by her beauty and intelligence, then spends the rest of his life grudging the virtues that first caught his attention. He can't stand that she might disagree with him, and is fiercely jealous of any other man who might look her way. Even after his death, he stands between his wife and happiness.

3. General Tilney - Northanger Abbey. What a snob General Tilney is! He is keen for his son to marry young, innocent Catherine when he believes her to be an heiress to a fortune, but the minute he discovers that he has been deceived, he practically throws her out of his door, sending her home unaccompanied, without money or chaperone with no concerns for her safety. Catherine concludes that, though she may have let her imagination get carried away with her about Tilney's dark and secret past, "in suspecting General Tilney of either murdering or shutting up his wife, she had scarcely sinned against his character or magnified his cruelty."

2. Edward Cullen - Twilight. Edward, Edward, Edward, what do the girls see in you! Sneaking into a girl's room to watch her sleep without her knowledge is not romantic, it is creepy! Does the word "stalker" mean anything to you? That's just the tip of the iceberg, but what makes it more worrying is the number of girls - and grown women - who claim that the sparkly vampire has spoiled real men for them.

1. Angel Clare - Tess of the D'Urbervilles. Although Angel isn't the real villain of Thomas Hardy's novel, he provokes more anger in me than the smarmy Alec D'Urberville for his sheer hypocrisy. You do not confess your guilty secret to your new wife and let her forgive you, then abandon her when she admits the exact same thing. Slimeball.

Women:

5. Luce - Fallen. Other contenders are Bella of Twilight and Nora of Hush, Hush for sheer drippiness and the "I Can't Live Without My Sparkly Boyfriend" attitude that is a brilliant checklist of How Not To Act When Dumped. But Luce is worst of all because her conviction of being "In Love" with Interchangeable Magical Boyfriend Creature Daniel, comes after minimal interaction with him, which is aggressive, abusive or indifferent on his part. But she "feels a connection with him." So that's all right, then.

4. Aunt Elizabeth - Emily of New Moon series. She gets better as the series goes along, but when a recently orphaned little girl comes to live with her, Elizabeth makes it is quite clear she is not wanted. And she only agrees to let Emily, a writer to her core, continue her education to High School, if Emily will refrain from writing fiction. This may not sound much, but to someone like Emily, writing is not just a hobby. It is an essential part of life.

3. Aunt Read, Jane Eyre. Another unwilling adopter of a lonely orphan, but where Elizabeth was just old-fashioned, Aunt Read is nasty. A bully, and mother to other bullies, she makes sure Jane knows that she can never be worth anything.

2. Mrs Norris, Mansfield Park. Yet another aunt of the same type, Mrs Norris puts Fanny in her place as the poor relation dependant on her wealthy family, making sure she knows she is second best, and chiding the timid, good girl for being a nuisance. A nuisance? Fanny Price? I'm sure she doesn't know the meaning of the word.

1. Dolores Umbridge, Harry Potter and the Order of the  Phoenix. The Umbridge Woman makes the fifth Harry Potter book hard work to read, and is the reason that this is my least favourite book of the series. A mixture of cutesy-poo and sadistic, Umbridge sneaks her power into everything that makes the world of Harry Potter so magical, and breaks it down - or attempts to - a bit at a time. I don't even love to hate her - she is too horrible even for that.

Miscellaneous Friday Update

Hi everyone. I'm sorry for the sparseness of updates in the last few weeks. I've been spending a lot more time out of doors than usual while the weather's been good. I've even been in the sea - not to be recommended. The weather was hot, but the sea had not warmed up much, and it was painfully cold, with huge, surf-worthy waves. I've also got sunburnt shoulders - ouch!

When I wasn't on the beach or in the garden, I've been interviewed by the website Gatekeeper's Post about my reading and reviewing habits, and  have been contacted by a couple of people offering me free review copies of books. Now, I know a lot of bloggers receive free books for publicity, but until now I've only reviewed books I've bought or borrowed myself, so it's quite exciting for me.

Richard and Judy Book Club 2011 Winner:

I've been reviewing some of the Richard and Judy book club recommendations since Christmas. This book club has given a lot of publicity of many modern classics, such as My Sister's Keeper, The Lovely Bones and The Time Traveller's Wife. This year I thought the books I reviewed were a very average bunch, the only ones of note being Room by Emma Donoghue, which was also featured on the TV book club and shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, and Major Pettigrew's Last Stand. Yesterday the winner was announced as You're Next by Gregg Hurwitz, one of the three I haven't read. My outspoken colleague described it as "the only decent Richard and Judy book I've read, but it's a bit gruesome. Very gruesome. You might not like it." Not having read it, I wouldn't be able to say, but nevertheless, well done to Mr Hurwitz.

The books for Richard and Judy's Summer Reads have already started coming into the shop. Again, I will aim to read and review about half - especially if they are BOGOF.

My 2011 Richard and Judy Book Reviews:

Room - Emma Donogue

The Postmistress - Sarah Blake

This Perfect World - Suzanne Bugler

Hothouse Flower - Lucinda Riley

Major Pettigrew's Last Stand - Helen Simonson

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (part 2) trailer:

Fourteen years after the publication of the first Harry Potter book, and ten years after the first movie, there is not much time left until the story is complete. The last installment of the film trilogy is to reach the cinemas in just a couple of months, and the first trailer was released yesterday. It looks terribly exciting, and I can't wait to see it, but it will be sad when there are no more installments to come. The book was published just after I finished university, but was still living in my student house, and, far away from people who might spoil the story for me, I took my time to read and savour the last chance of reading a Harry Potter book for the first time. I must remember to take tissues with me; there is one moment in the book that is so heartbreaking, that was so unexpected, that I think I can't bear to watch it. A second or two of that scene is shown in the trailer. Be warned: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is ruthless and devastating, but a wonderful piece of storytelling, and I look forward to the film adaptation. The films have been getting better and better with each chapter. Deathly Hallows part 2 should be amazing.

Listen to that music at the beginning! The theme tune that was so magical and quirky and twinkly in the first film, slowed down to something ghostly and mournful. It's hard to realise this is the same series. I could talk about this trailer scene by scene, but I shan't.

Coming Soon:

This year, after watching my to-read pile grow and grow, divide into two piles and breed, I determined to give up buying books for Lent. As well as a few rereads of Pratchett, Gaiman and Montgomery, and a couple of books borrowed from the library, I calculate that I reduced my pile by ten books during that time. Yesterday - payday - after work, I went down to the rival bookshop, the first time I'd been in there since the World Book Night event, and bought some more books to add to the pile: Stories edited by Neil Gaiman and Al Sarrantonio, Skippy Dies by Paul Murray, The Woodcutter by Reginald Hill and Witch Light by Susan Fletcher. I've also borrowed The White Queen and The Red Queen from a colleague, and am slowly working my way through Sebastian Faulks' Charlotte Gray.

TGIF at GReads

Today Ginger asks: "Stand Alone vs. Series: what's your stance?"




Thinking as a writer, I prefer writing stand-alone stories. I start out with characters, a situation, write their story and solve their problem. Once I've brought them to their "happy-ever-after," (or not) I'd rather leave them there. I don't like "sequelitis," when the perfect resolution of the first story is undone to create enough plot for the second, as often happens in films and books. I say it's best to bring a story to its natural conclusion, and then stop. If you have enough story for a series, then by all means write it! I love the Harry Potter books, and Anne of Green Gables - although the later books aren't as good as the first, a combination of sequelitis and the author running out of plot and interest. But I do wonder if a lot of stories - especially fantasy and Young Adult - are being drawn out across three or four volumes for the sake of it. Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series is the prime example. I read up to book 5, and the story seemed no nearer a resolution than it was in the first book. Jordan died a few years ago, leaving his story to be finished by someone else, and I wonder if the end was in sight even then. I think there were originally going to be ten books in the series, then twelve, now we're on volume 13 and still not finished. I'd like to read more series of stand-alone books featuring the same characters, rather than the multi-volume sagas that are in fashion at the moment.

2-in-1: Blog Hop & Top Ten Tuesday

It's been a long time since I've participated in any blogging memes, and today I've decided to make up for it by doing two in one post.

The Book Blogger Hop

hosted by Jennifer at Crazy For Books.

Usually a weekend thing, last week's Book Blogger Hop has been held back until today, when we are asked:

"Outside of books, what is your guilty pleasure?"

I have to confess that just lately I've been watching Glee. (I hang my head in shame.) I saw the first two episodes when it was first shown on UK TV but didn't get into it at all, but then when series 2 came on I got hooked! I usually end up shouting at the screen (usually at Rachel) and making snarky comments, but I keep coming back for another episode.



Top Ten Tuesday:

This is the first week I've taken part in the Top Ten Tuesday hosted by the girls at The Broke and the Bookish although I've been reading other people's posts regularly. I love lists.

The Top Ten Books I'd like to see made into Movies:

1. Rilla of Ingleside by L. M. Montgomery. The last book in the Anne of Green Gables series, this is  about Anne's six grown-up children when the First World War strikes. After the wonderful TV adaptation of Green Gables by Kevin Sullivan, the book series and the films parted company so that the film version of Anne at the time of the First World War has nothing in common with the book. Rilla of Ingleside would work quite well as a stand-alone story, because the focus is on Anne's teenage daughter Rilla, rather than Anne herself.

2. The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters. I suspect it is only a matter of time with this one, as it is the only book by Waters not to have been adapted into a TV drama (The Night Watch will be on our screens later this year.) Done well, it would make a creepy and atmospheric historical horror film.

3. Bitten by Kelley Armstrong. As its title suggests, this is a werewolf story, the tale of the only female werewolf in the world, Elena Michaels, who just wants to live a normal life but who is drawn back to the "pack" and the former lover who betrayed her. I heard rumours of an adaptation a few years back, but nothing seemed to come of it.

4. Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman. This is a bit of a cheat, as the story was a TV drama before it became a novel, and not a bad one for a BBC low-budget programme, but with modern special effects and a bigger budget, it could be even more amazing. But a film is nothing without its cast and I don't think anyone could replace Patterson Joseph as the Marquis de Carabas.

5. Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett. Sky One made such a great job of Hogfather that I would love to see them make the "Watch" books into two-part dramas to the same standard. I put Guards! Guards! down here specifically, but I would expect it to be followed up by Men at Arms, Feet of Clay...

6. Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett. Can you see a theme developing here? And the great thing is that this one is not wishful thinking, but being adapted for a four-part TV series. Neil talks about the project here.

7. The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde. The Thursday Next books are a literature nerd's treat, set in a parallel world where it is possible to hop in and out of books and - if you're not careful - change what happens within the pages. In The Eyre Affair, Literary Detective Thursday has to rescue Jane Eyre, who has been kidnapped by an evil mastermind. There could be some trouble with an adaptation, however, as there are some scenes that can work only with text, such as someone communicating through footnotes. Difficult.

8. Malory Towers by Enid Blyton. I don't think these books would work very well as a film series - too episodic and not eventful enough - but it could be a nice after-school series a la Tracy Beaker or the Blyton's Famous Five that was made into a CITV series when I was about ten.

9. Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver. This was the big young adult novel of last year, about a girl who is killed in a car accident, before waking up to find it being the morning of the same day. A cross between Groundhog Day, The Lovely Bones and Mean Girls, Before I Fall is a wonderful book that would look great on the silver screen and appeal to teenagers and adults alike.

10. What Katy Did by Susan Coolidge. Although old-fashioned, the Katy series is a girls' classic to be compared with Little Women and Anne of Green Gables, but I don't think that it's ever been adapted for the screen.

Book Blogger Hop and Trial By Jury/Pirates of Penzance, Gilbert and Sullivan

The Book Blogger Hop

It's Friday again and time for the Book Blogger Hop. The Hop is a quick and easy way to find out what other book blogs are out there, and to find out a little about the people behind them. The Hop is hosted by Jennifer at Crazy for Books, and if you visit her site you'll find a question to answer and lots of clicky-links to all this week's Hoppers' blogs, all in one place. Simples!

"Do you ever wish you would have named your blog something different?"

Actually, yes I do. Katie's Book Blog may tell you what the blog is about, but it doesn't have much personality to it, and there are plenty of other Katies out there with book blogs. I wish I'd used a bit more imagination when I started blogging. I've also included reviews of film and TV, so it's only mostly about books. Perhaps a title with "Story" in it would be more appropriate. Still, at least I won't be able to look back in a couple of years and groan, "what was I thinking to come up with such a cheesy name?!" as I have done in the past.

Theatre: Trial by Jury/Pirates of Penzance, Gilbert and Sullivan

The last couple of months I haven't been able to read and write as much as I'd like as I've been in rehearsals for a double bill of Gilbert and Sullivan: Trial By Jury and Pirates of Penzance. As you can imagine, trying to fit rehearsals for two shows into the same space as the usual one has been a lot of hard work and quite stressful at times. Two weeks ago it seemed that these operettas would never be ready for an audience! But credit to all involved, each rehearsal was noticeably better than the last and at last on our dress rehearsal we were informed by our patient but pernickety Musical Director that it was going to be a "really good show."

We're setting Trial in the modern day, despite it being about a trial for Breach Of Promise Of Marriage. I've been cast as the Counsel for the Plaintiff, originally a man's part. I'm loving the part, as - for a change! - there is no giggling, swooning or screaming involved - I just get to power-dress and glower over a pair of glasses. I'm looking forward to seeing the DVD of the show as I miss much of what is going on, either because the character is studiously ignoring everyone else's disgraceful behaviour, or because the judge - a red-faced drunken buffoon - sits behind me.

Ruth and the Pirate King

Pirates is set more traditionally in the late 19th century - you really can't do anything else, with its particular finale - and that means (for the ladies) big, heavy dresses and sun-bonnets. It may look very pretty but get very hot and uncomfortable under the stage lights. The pirates are a fearsome crew of scoundrels with plenty of scars, swords and "arrrr!" - and Ruth, the "piratical maid-of-all-work" seems to take great pleasure in her make-up, with stick-on warts, blackened teeth, a mono-brow and Johnny Depp-style beads dangling from her bandanna. The woman's only supposed to be forty-seven years old. Evidently a life of piracy does not suit her. And she does not suit a life of piracy. Anyone who has read Swallows and Amazons knows that you just can't have a pirate named Ruth. Pirates should be ruthless. (Though, bless 'em, they do try to get rid of her with Frederic. And besides, they're pretty useless pirates. For one thing, they don't drink rum, but sherry!)

A policeman and
Ma-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-ay...bel
relax at the bar.

Pirates is probably the best-loved and most accessible of Gilbert and Sullivan's operettas - probably because pirates make anything more interesting! It has some wonderful songs that everyone is familiar with, notably the Major-General's song, "A Policeman's Lot is Not A Happy One, and "With Cat-Like Tread" (The tune of the chorus, "Come, friends, who plough the sea..." is one I've known all my life without knowing what it was.) The heroine, Mabel, has some ridiculously over-the top "warbles" that I always thought marked her out as being a bit of a spoilt princess - thankfully the director agreed, and this is how she is being played.

This is my favourite part of the show, as performed with great energy by the Australian Opera.

Mabel and Frederic

We usually have a problem in our company finding enough men for the shows - notoriously, last year's The Sorcerer, which involves pairing off the chorus after a love potion is put into the teapot, ended with each man marrying two wives! If you know Trial by Jury, you'll know that this is Not Allowed - it is Burglary [sic]. This year, as well as having a big enough men's chorus for policemen AND pirates, AND to pair off with all the ladies at the end, we even had a young tenor to cast as Frederic, a rather important role to get right as the plot revolves around his twenty-first birthday. (Except it isn't - he was born on February 29th in a leap year, which means that he is a little boy of five!)



"Paulette" and "Michelle"

So far there have been two performances and aside from a few muddled words and missed entrances, it seems to have gone pretty well - certainly better than the pessimists were predicting a couple of weeks ago. Tuesday was the dress rehearsal, and that day we had the local paper's photographer in, so the actors who played the Pirate King and Major-General Stanley were in those costumes through Trial. Wednesday, opening night, I walked into the theatre clubroom to see their Trial costumes for the first time. There they were, in their wigs... skirts... handbags. How was I going to keep my Mrs Grumpy Face act up looking at that? Couldn't they have given me some warning? But when it came down to it, I barely noticed, being too busy watching the musical director. In fact I think I stayed in character throughout Trial, despite a coatstand crashing down on me as I made my entrance. I glared at it and let someone else pick it up. In actual fact I was thinking, "Oh help! I don't know how to make this work in the scene. Let's pretend that didn't happen."

Two more days to go, three more performances, and then I hope I'll be able to get back to posting regular book reviews. In the meantime I'll leave you with a clip from another Australian production of Pirates - they seem to do the best! This song is originally from Ruddigore but is sometimes included in Pirates. After all, "this particularly rapid unintelligible patter isn't generally heard, and if it is, it doesn't matter." Enjoy!

The Book Blogger Hop 4/2/11

First of all, I have to apologise for things being a bit slow over here the last week or two. I'm in rehearsals for a double bill of Gilbert and Sullivan's Pirates of Penzance and Trial By Jury, which, along with work, doesn't leave much time or energy for reading and reviewing.

But I have just been paid, and yesterday I came home with a few more books to add to my ever-increasing to-read pile. From work: Dorothy Koomson's The Woman He Loved Before, which judging from the blurb sounds as though it could be a modern-day Rebecca. I also bought this week's Times recommendation - The Double Comfort Safari Club by Alexander McCall Smith, which I already owned, but which came with a free copy of the second Sunday Philosophy Club book, which I haven't read. Annoyed that Lauren Oliver's Delirium hadn't arrived instore, I went down to the other bookshop and bought it on a Buy One Get One Half Price with Maggie Stiefvater's Lament.

Plus three library books, four Richard and Judy Book Club recommendations and various books left over from previous splurges. I intend to make up for lost time in March.

Hosted by Jennifer at Crazy For Books 

"What are you reading now and why are you reading it?"

I have two books on the go at the moment: Middlemarch by George Eliot, which I have been reading, on and off, for several months now. I'd been meaning to read it since seeing the beginning of the BBC adaptation a few years ago, and am enjoying it, but have been quite daunted by such an enormous volume and reading only a bit at a time. This last week, though, I've sped through the second half and am nearly finished. It'll be strange when I've finally finished it.

I'm also reading Lauren Oliver's Delirium, which was released in the UK yesterday. Before I Fall was one of my favourite books of 2010, one I bought without any prior knowledge of after being drawn to it in the bookshop. There's been a lot of rave reviews from those lucky enough to get advanced copies, and a lot of excitement from book bloggers, and I wanted to read it now! Expect a review in the next couple of days.