Currently Browsing: Thoughts
Oct 26, 2009
What happened????
Hello… Remember me? I’m that person who used to read lots and lots of books and then would write reviews about them which were hopefully interesting and intelligent, always personal, and generally timely…i.e. shortly after I finished the book. And then…I vanished. I have had to apologise on my other blogs as well. Over the summer, things just got away from me – life and work... read more
May 27, 2009
The Time Has Come…
Most of you would probably notice that I have been less diligent with my book blog recently than I have been in the past. I always post reviews for books I have been asked to read and review on time, whether for virtual book tours or when I have been specifically asked by a book publicist. But with my other reading (of which I have been doing a lot) I seem to have let my writing slip. I have mentioned this... read more
Feb 10, 2009
I’m so Sloooowwww!
No, I am not slow at reading. On the contrary, I have already read 10 books in 2009, and I am heading comfortably towards my 75 book goal for the year. No, what I am slow on is writing my reviews up in my blog? What on earth has happened to me I wonder? I think there are several issues. Firstly, I have been super busy with work. Because I work with social media, it means I am at the computer all day, every... read more
Jun 27, 2008
Any Book You Want in the Time It Takes To Make Coffee
I was reading about this – the Espresso Book Machine – recently and I have to say that I am completely blown away by this. Blackwells have announced that they are going to be installing these amazing machines in 50 of their stores across the UK and after watching the video of how they work, I just can’t wait. I love browsing around Amazon and tracking down books which you are unlikely to... read more
Apr 8, 2008
A mere 3000? How can that be enough?
I found this article recently, which estimated as an aside that an ‘extraordinary’ reader, who manages to finish an average of a book a week, will only be able to read about 3000 books in their lifetime. I calculated that at a book a week for approximately 57 years, so starting at the age of 13 and living (and reading) through until 70 years old. 3000 books… Goodness. Is that... read more
Mar 28, 2008
It Isn’t The Death of The Book Quite Yet
There is much talk nowadays about books going the same way as music, and electronic book readers replacing traditional paper books. Because of the iPod revolution, very few people are still buying CDs (or records…remember them?) and along with the changes have come the battles over copyright, illegal downloads and file sharing. An article that I recently read in Business magazine suggested that what... read more
Mar 10, 2008
What makes a great book review?
I am breaking away from my regular list of books because I have been thinking quite a lot recently about what makes a great book review? There was an interesting, albeit somewhat controversial article in the February 2008 Prospect Magazine called Critical Condition by William Skidelsky which discusses the demise of the book review in both Britain and the United States. In the article, Skidelsky pointed out... read more
Feb 12, 2008
Reading Challenges and LibraryThing
Just to take a quick breather from my reading list, I wanted to post about two more things which are taking up my time… The first is LibraryThing – originally, being somewhat anal about recording things, I had catalogued all of my books using a pretty fabulous piece of software called Book Collector from collectorz.com. The reason I loved this was that I could just plug in my ISBN number and in... read more
