Not sure what happened last week.
I didn’t publish a single post and left a writing project deserted on my desk.
It got quite hot.
My “actual work” days changed.
Other people happened.
This, it appears, is enough to completely throw me of my particulars and whereas other people would just cross and circle alternative days in their diary, I sat staring at my computer, worriedly twiddling my thumbs going:
“Ok, so I’m at work on Wednesday, which means I’m not writing on Wednesday like normal, which means I feel I have to do more than I can mentally handle on Monday. I’ve had adequate time to shuffle my mind around, but knowing this only makes the fact I haven’t even more looming and monstrous. It is very bright and strained outside and sunlight does appear to make me ill and pathetic. Think I might just work on nibbling my quicks instead this week…”
Deplorable quick nibbling
So, yeah – not great.
But this is a new week and even though the sun is still prodding at the corners of my eyes with its painfully sharp hate-sticks, everything else is as normal as it can be. So, onwards!
First things first, as I didn’t post my usual weekly #bookadayuk round-up yesterday here it is, all Monday-like instead:
The topics for July 2014
July 21st – The novel you expected to hate, but turned out you loved
A question I can answer easily as I am in fact still reading it – Bridget Jones’s Diary by Helen Fielding. God, I thought I knew EVERYTHING there was to know about this book, so omnipresent was it when it (and then it’s film version) was released. I don’t want to say it was an age thing, as I’m sure women my age were picking it up and reading it when it came out, but I would roll my eyes at any mention of this “irritating, self-obsessed 30-something”.
What a tit.
So, inspired by its inclusion in Hadley Freeman’s “Ten Awesome Books” (Be Awesome) I picked it up in a charity shop in Aviemore. And I am ABSOLUTELY loving it! Bridget has been a complete revelation, and like with actual humans who exist, I guess the moral of this story is – base your opinions of fictional characters on your own experiences of them. I’ll definitely be blogging about this more when I’m finished, which will be in the next half hour if my current reading pace is anything to go by.
July 22nd – The novel you most like to give to friends
Not a novel as such, but a book that was given to me and restored my soul so much I have taken up the baton and started passing it on myself – This is Water by David Foster Wallace. Many people are terrified of those three names spoken together, uttering them can send people into shivering, sweating fits as they remember tangled hours trying to get through Infinite Jest.
But forget about that, get a copy of this (or become my friend, OR go here) and you will get a dazzling, rousing, deeply affecting taste of how exceptional a writer he was, and what an utter loss to words his death is.
The students in that hall must have walked out on air.
July 23rd – Favourite novel with an exotic background
Now, I’m not entirely sure what “exotic” means in this context. Never really having been abroad a trip to Dumfries and Galloway can fill me with splendid feelings of exotica. Also, as I bibbled on about above, I’m not much of a sun-lover and this is reflected in my choice of reading materials which are usually set in cloudy places with a chance of torrential, emotional downpours.
When I hear “exotic” or “sun-kissed island” or “beach read”, my mind just takes me to Lord of The Flies by William Golding. Not a book you can enjoy with an umbrella-bedecked cocktail maybe, but about as exotic as I get.
July 24th – A book that reminds you of your English teacher
As I said on Twitter, I have a whole post brewing for this so I shall leave it for now and get back to you, needless to say, it’s a memory not exactly all Dead Poets Society.
July 25th – Book that is your guilty pleasure
I probably will hand this one over to The List by Joanna Bolouri, even though “guilty pleasure” seems a harsh way to describe it! However, its not a book my friends would have expected in my paws that’s for sure (“Hannah’s reading a pink book…is she…happy?“) and it was only when I had finished it that I clapped over it for a while, bleating on about how much of a riot it is! Rude, raucous and hilarious!
July 26th – The novel you wished you written
As a very frustrated writer who barely makes it past Chapter One of ANYTHING she writes my answer to this is:
ALL OF THE BLIGHTERS!!!!!!
July 27th – For National Parents’ Day – the best/worst parents
You know what’s coming don’t you…
If you have been following my #bookadayUK round-ups you are probably almost certainly going to skip this selection and go back to reading about cats against women against feminism. So, with that in mind, I’ll just put up a picture and shuffle away on my completely unoriginal heels…
