Books, books, books, and more books

This is me, outside Piccadilly Circus, carrying a Hatchard's bag and a new tote bag. Hatchard's is London's oldest bookstore. Both bags are bulging with books; however, I just thought I was picking a few books up here and there.....

It was unpacking through all yesterday and again this morning, that I came to a realization: I am a bookaholic. I went to the city that is the center of fashion, I was even on Regent Street, on Piccadilly, in and around Hyde Park, and did I buy any clothing? Nope. Nada. Nothing. I bought books. I bought a lot of books. I bought more than even I knew, until this morning when the last bag was finally unpacked and I found more books stashed away at the bottom. Here, forthwith (having spent 3 weeks in England, I now talk like a person straight out of a novel!), is my list of books bought during my holidays:

- Cats' Miscellany - Lesley O'Mara
- Stolen Child - Keith Donohue
- A Residence At the Court of London - Richard Rush *second-hand bookshop *diary
- A Quiet Belief in Angels - R.J.Ellory
- The Butcher of Smithfield - Susanna Gregory
- The Hollow Crown - Miri Rubin *second-hand bookshop ** history
- The Suspicions of Mr Whicher - Kate Summerscale *history - DONE
- The Complete Pollysyllabic Spree - Nick Hornby *essays - reading
- Not in the Flesh - Ruth Rendell
- The Uncommon Reader - Alan Bennett
- Serious Concerns - Wendy Cope *poems
- The Fabric of Sin - Phil Rickman - DONE
- The Cup of the World - John Dickinson *second-hand bookshop
- Fingerprints - Colin Beavan *second-hand bookshop **non-fiction
- Women's Rites, Women's Mysteries - Ruth Barrett *non-fiction
- The Grandmother of Time - Zuzanna Budapest *non-fiction
- Good Food Magazine's 101 One Pot Dishes - BBC Books *non-fiction
- Case Histories - Kate Atkinson
- Miss Pettigrew Lives For a Day - Winifred Watson (Persephone Books, thank you again Carl at Stainless Steel Droppings, for bringing this publisher to our attention!)
- Poetry in the Making - Ted Hughes *non-fiction, poetry
- Tea and Coffee in the Age of Dr Johnson - ed Stephanie Pickford *non-fiction
- Mean Time - Carol Ann Duffy *poetry
- The Hawk in the Rain - Ted Hughes *poetry
- A Plague on Both Your Houses - Susanna Gregory
- A Novel in Year - Louise Doughty *essays on writing
- The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society - Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows - A big shout out to all of you bloggers who mentioned this book in the months before Christmas, because otherwise I would have totally bypassed this book. It looks wonderful, about a group of book readers who correspond during Guernsey's occupation by the Germans in 1946. THANK YOU, MY GENTLE READERS!
- Un Lun Dun - China Mieville (it was out in paperback in England at least!)
- I Never Knew That About London - Christopher Winn. *Non-fiction. A historical guidebook to London. It's how I found out the history behind buildings in London. Who went where to church, who lived where, anything of note or of interest. Essential in my view. I wish I'd had this years ago! But then it wasn't out then...
- London's Strangest Tales - Tom Quinn *non-fiction. I've only peeked into it, but full of strange, quirky tales about eccentric people and laws. Again, essential for reading every night before exploring the streets of London the next day. Historical London especially comes alive, and if you are like me, and like to imagine what the streets and the city was like in times gone past, this book will help you imagine it.
- Beauty and the Beast - Max Eilenberg, illustrated by Angela Barrett. I had seen this book reviewed - I think on Endicott studios before it closed? somewhere online, and had been looking for this for quite some time. There, in the last bookstore I went into, on New Year's Eve, in a Borders off Charing Cross Road, I found it. It is hardcover, and the illustrations are gorgeous, moody and fantastical and full of wonder. I love it. It's a child's version with very grown-up drawings, and I wish I had had this growing up. It would easily have been my favourite book. I can hardly wait to read it to Holly-Anne, though I have to admit that I'll only be sharing it with her, I love it too much to give it away! It's a present for me!

So how many books was that? Er...30. I bought 30 books on my holidays!!! So in this new year of 2009, I proudly say that yes, I would rather buy books than almost anything else in the world!!!

To continue with the debate begun back in my post about what books to bring, to catch you up, here is what I did bring with me on Dec 15, on the airplane: Mistress of the Art of Death, and The Wood Wife. I did get a few pages of The Wood Wife read, but only 3 or 4. I just couldn't get into it. This period of not being able to settle down into it, or any other book I picked up, finally came home to me when I was in York on the weekend of Dec 19, and I was in the Borders bookshop, and I suddenly knew that I couldn't settle down because I had left Middlemarch half-read, and I desperately wanted to finish it! I looked around in the store for a cheap paperback copy, and they didn't have any. Only a hardcover version, which I wasn't going to bring back in my luggage! Then I found Phil Rickman's latest Merrily Watkins mystery in paperback, and I knew I could read it, and still hold where I was in Middlemarch in my mind. It's a trick I haven't used in ages, and one I learned long ago in university - how to stop reading at a point in a book and be able to pick it up some time later and finish it. It is a trick, because it involves many things for me, which includes thoroughly enjoying the book so I am immersed in it, and being able to contain the story in my head while I read something else. It just sits there in the background until I can get back to it. I can't do this with everything, and certainly if too much time goes by, I have to go back to the beginning and start over again. I think it is a trick that most of us who read, use, since so many of us have more than one book on the go! I am happy to say it worked this time, and Monday night, as soon as the kids were in bed, I read a few pages, and then more yesterday as I settled down into being back home. This means I will be able to continue with my updates!

The sad news is that I did not read much until after Christmas, so I did not complete any more books before the end of the year. I did finish The Fabric of Sin on Jan 1, so my husband said, why don't I add it to my 2008 totals? I said no, shaking my head. That would be cheating. I finished it today, so it counts for this year. So the good news is, it is Jan 7, and I have read two books already!!!

I will do book totals another day, I still have more putting away of things to do. I haven't written much about my trip yet because I am still getting pictures sorted and letting the trip settle in my mind. I will say that I love London, which I didn't quite know for certain until I realized that every time I was in the city I was taking deep breaths like I was breathing it in!

York, as always, was breathtaking for me. It is where I am most at home in the world. There is something about the view as I enter the city walls from the train station and see York Minster rising from the city centre, that makes me whisper 'home' to myself, every time I see it. The picture below was taken along the city walls (York still has its original city walls around most of the city). This is one of my favourite pictures so far:


So as soon as i get my favourite pictures chosen, I'll post some on here. For now, I hope you are enjoying some new books in this new year! And as soon as I can, I will be coming by to say hello and catch up on what you've been reading while I've been away, Gentle Reader....

It's good to be home!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Hello my gentle readers, from England! I have been without a computer for 14 days now, and have found my way to an internet cafe here in London so I can pop in and wish you all a very Happy New Year. I am having a fantastic time in England, having been able to do everything I want except connect with some blogging friends here. As we have no internet connection, I cannot download my photos until we get home next week, but trust me, I have taken many!!

London is amazing, as ever, and tonight I am - again - on Charing Cross Road - and the crowds are gathering to celebrate New Year's on Trafalgar's Square. My husband and I are not staying - neither of us enjoys crowds or drunkeness! - so it has been enough to see the Square prepared with large screens for tonight. The boats are getting ready on the Thames to blow their horns at midnight. My in-laws live in a tiny town further down the Thames estuary (in a not-so-nice English dockside town) where we will hear the large ocean-going freighters blow their horns also. I am quite eager to hear it for real, since I've only heard it over the phone so far!

When I get back, I will do posts over the next few weeks with some of the photos we've taken. It's been an adventure coming into London when we can, which has only been since Christmas, and often with the children. Today, for instance, we went by St Paul's Cathedral, and found one of the oldest existing pub in London, Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese, which was totally booked for New Year's work parties so we couldn't get in. But, I saw a sign that said that Dr Samuel Johnson used to eat their regularly, as did Charles Dickens later, and then I saw a sign pointing to Johnson's house, so off my husband and I went and we discovered Samuel Johnson's main residence on Gough Square (near Fleet Street) where he wrote the main part of his dictionary. The house is a museum now, and it was open today, so we ended up walking through it!

This brings home to me that for me, London is more about books, and the authors who wrote them and where they lived. It is an adventure to turn a corner here and see an ancient church now squeezed between modern buildings, and discover that Pepys went there (All Hallows by the Towers, the oldest surviving church in London), or St Bride Church, where Johnson regularly went. I have taken pictures of each, so look for photos later. It is as always amazing for me that I am literally walking in the same place that people in bygone times have walked. Johnson was there, 200 hundred years ago, at Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese pub, with his literary society, holding discourse. We found one of the houses Samuel Pepys lived in; he also watched the Great Fire of 1666 burning from the roof of All Hallows Church by the Towers. I love the noise, the bustle of this city, the fashions, the vulgarity of Picadilly Circus, the beautiful museums, the glorious architecture - St Paul's Cathedral is breathtaking - and above all, I love that this city, and this country, is the birthplace of my language, and the English novel and poetry and the words we communicate with.

I have 4 minutes left on my time here at the cafe, so - for now, have a very happy New Year's Eve and may 2009 bring each of you, my dear readers, all that you love and hold dear.

You should see the books I've been buying!!! I can't think of a better place to celebrate the New Year, in one of the oldest cities in the world. Happy 2009!!

Sunday Salon

I have been having so much fun on the Blog Calendar Advent Tour.. Bloggers are writing in from all over the world, sharing their Christmas traditions. And it's not over yet! There's another 10 wonderful days to go! However, we are leaving on our trip tomorrow night, so if I'm late with leaving comments, just wait, I will catch up.

Yes, that's right, tomorrow night I'm LEAVING ON A JET PLANE for England. *sigh* only one sleep to go! Yesterday we had our becoming a tradition Christmas get-together, with whichever family members are available. While here, my sister-in-law mentioned that Canadian Tire had a suitcase set on sale, after she saw the three sad bags we'd pulled up from the basement. So I went on the web, and there it was:


Almost enough for my books I'll be bringing back!!! Just kidding....I think....

My husband bought it last night, and now the cat is getting very upset and the kids are getting very excited and we, at last, are at the moment of truth: what exactly are we bringing, and why is there not a packing fairy? I need her!!

I will post again later, but a small child is bouncing on the chair, waiting for his turn on the computer, and I really, really, have to get some clothes near the suitcases now. I can't leave it for the last day! Packing fairy, where are you?

By the way, we had a very good Christmas meal yesterday, with ham in apple cider, new roast potatoes, two kinds of salad, steamed broccoli, and blueberry pie for dessert. Anyone for leftovers? Then we celebrated by watching the newly released Dark Knight after the kids were in bed....sadly ,our age told and all three of us adults remaining, fell asleep during it! Even me.

Middlemarch Update: Ha ha ha. You expect me to actually have READ anything this week, with the bus strike so one of my daily times for reading is taken away? I did! I did read something! However, I am only halfway through the book, and unless I have a sleepless night, it won't get done before I go, so I might be leaving it half-read. Page 319, Chapter 39. By now Dorothea is very unhappy in her marriage, Will madly in love with her, Lydgate and Rosamund are engaged, Mr Featherstone has died and left everything to a complete unknown - that was hilarious! except for Fred, who my fingers are crossed that he will stop gambling and take a decent job somewhere.

Maybe the packing fairy can come soon so I can have time to read, which in this week's Thursday meme, the question was, do you have enough time to read what you want? HA HA HA HA. As if!

My secret plan is to be up on the airplane reading, reading, reading while everyone sleeps!!! Shh, don't tell anyone. I'll let you know how the secret reading plan worked,on the other side of the pond.

Happy holiday preparations to all, and to all: READING TIME!

What do you take on a trip to read?

I'm back! By that I mean, our buses went on strike at midnight and I only take buses - neither my husband nor I drive; we had a major snowstorm yesterday and through the night, so my ride cancelled today, and I can't get to work; and the buses can only be legislated back to work by the federal government, who of course are suspended at the moment until Jan 27. What happens when things get difficult? I find my sense of humour again! Plus, I had lots of sleep - Sunday I ended sleeping for 2 hours in the afternoon - so I feel much better. All I can do is laugh, and count down the days until our trip and we are out of here!!!

Middlemarch Update: I think the excitement for our trip is reaching a crescendo because I find myself unable to concentrate on anything for long. I am still reading Middlemarch, but still have over half the book to go and am running out of time before we go. I'm on page 265, just ending Book 3. I do love it, I just can't seem to read for any length of time. I find myself thinking of what we still have to do, and mentally getting things sorted for packing - bring this, forget that, etc - and suddenly realize I'm staring at the page but not seeing it.

One of the many dilemmas facing me about what to bring is, of course, what books do I bring? So I thought I'd ask this question of you today: when you are going on a fairly long trip, what books do you bring? do you bring any? does size matter? Author? Kind of book? What do you bring with you on holiday?

So far, I have a shortlist of books I might be bringing, and my real question is, which one will make it on the airplane with me in my bag?
Susan's Shortlist
The Wood Wife - Terri Windling
In the Woods - Tara French
Mistress of the Art of Death - Ariana Franklin
Stalin's Ghost - Martin Cruz Smith

Do I bring a book that I really really want to read, that I would be devastated if my luggage got lost? I usually try to pack so that if my baggage does go missing - and this has never happened before, so it's more a 'what if' scenario - I'm not heartbroken. Or do I bring books that are easily replaceable?

I'm going to a country where most of the books I love to read are published anyway, so I don't really have to bring many. I will be buying books in England, this is not even a question, and my husband is just pleading that our luggage isn't overweight by too much on the trip back. So, my real question I end up posing to myself is, do I bring many books with us? I need 2 or 3, just as a safety blanket in case I can't get to Charing Cross Road right away. My in-laws do not have any novels, only a few cookbooks and bird-watching books. The idea of being caught somewhere with some time available for reading, and not having a book to hand, gives me the chills. That would not be a holiday! I'd be more stressed without a book to read, than I would be by bringing too many and not reading any of them!

So if you see me gazing out into space and I'm not catching a quick nap, I'm musing on what to pack. Thus, the trials of life in Ottawa today (strike, suspended government, a foot of snow) recede into the background. 5 sleeps until we leave for England!

I also confess here, Gentle Reader, that I love to travel. I like airports, and train stations, and bus stations, cars packed to the top of the interior with luggage and supplies, cruise liners, anything that goes somewhere. Going someplace different, seeing new things, and revisiting family and friends in far away places - there is magic in travelling, the potential for anything to happen, wonder and surprise. I am so excited by the idea of getting out of Ottawa!! And then, that we are going to England, which I love
as much as I love Canada,and have family and friends waiting for us over there - I almost cannot wait for this trip to start! Postings here might be a bit scarce in the next few days as we get ready, but I will be back, as often as I can, and also while we are in England. I have a plan, but it all depends on my in-laws computer, so I won't say anything yet. I will try to keep getting to the Advent Blog Tour as often as I can also. I am really enjoying this advent tour, it is wonderful to meet so many new bloggers and from different countries, and see all the different ways we greet the holidays.

And I will post again before we go. I can't leave you hanging with the question of what books I might be bringing with me!!! So please do let me know how you approach books and travelling, dear Gentle Reader. I hereby confess that I do bring too many books with me, and I can't recall any trip I have ever taken where I read ALL the books I brought. Only a few times do I recall wondering why I pack so many,though!

Sunday Salon - Brr, it's cold outside

It's a quiet Sunday here with us. We had a birthday party yesterday for the daughter, and made more cookies - this time decorating gingerbread cookies to hang on the tree. Daughter then received a little cookie making set of her own, so we will be making cookies today - this time chocolate chip cookies, so she can try it out. Otherwise, this is our last calm day before we leave for England in 8 days' time!

I'm really tired - I've already erased a post I started once here because it was too whiny, and then closed my eyes, so even though the sun is shining brightly, I think I need a rest. I need to be a bear today! A cold wind is blowing outside - literally, it is a North wind and our temperature is dropping rapidly as the day goes on! - and I think I am going to go curl up and maybe nap or read some more Middlemarch while I can. That's what cold winter days are for!

I'll be visiting blogs later for the Advent Blog Tour, I have some catching up to do there. I am really enjoying everyone's treats, and stories, and sharing of their Christmases with us. What a great idea, Kailana and Marg!

Happy Sunday reading, everyone!

Escape to a land far, far away......

Unfortunately, our trip to England is still 12 days away. At work, out of the blue, our management took away our funds for reclassification and even getting a proper job description because of the 'economic downturn.' Since my section is the lowest-rated in the entire department, and we are doing work that is higher-classed, this is a real blow. It's not the money, it's the respect, its' being treated as equals, it's the recognition that our work is valuable. So I got out of that meeting to have my husband call to say that our Governor General, who is our head of State in Canada, and the Queen's Representative, agreed to suspend our parliament. So instead of having an election called, or facing a vote that he would lose next week in the House, we have no parliament sitting at all, no work being done, no immediate reaction to the economic downturn which is finally being felt here in Canada. Most of all, it feels like our right to speak and be heard has been taken away from us, and it sets a terrible precedent for future minority governments here in Canada. We are supposed to be a democracy, but the PM refused to let the House tell him he had to act more quickly to deal with economic turmoil. They are all our elected officials, and he deserved their wrath if he couldn't come up with something to restore Canadians' confidence. I cried at work when the news broke about our government being suspended for the next 7 weeks.

Oh, and our bus transportation - which my family uses because none of us drive! - voted to go on strike next week. It's about 10 miles to my work from my house. There are times when I feel the world is about to go crazy, and this is one of them.

So I've mostly been listening to music tonight, which when all else fails and I am too disturbed or restless to settle down to read, I turn to. It soothes me and restores me. I'm finally discovering how to find my favourite songs on You Tube! Here are a couple of my favourites:

U2 Bad - various release dates One of my all-time favourite songs, one which I now know explains why I dream about Bono (he's on my side, helping me!) when I'm fighting zombies in my dreams - if you ilsten to the lyrics, he's letting go of the bad so he can be wide awake in his life.


REM "The Lifting" from the Album "Reveal" sorry, there is no live video, but this is a song I turn to over and over again. "once, you had a dream of oceans and sunken ships and memories of things you have never known, you have never known...." my anything is possible song!


Enya - the song I associate with her. Hmm, there's a theme about escaping here, isn't there?



Moby - Extreme Ways (with clips from the Bourne Trilogy) - I love this song, and my kids love to dance to it!


Nick Drake - Northern Sky. Now I'm feeling better. This is one of his happiest songs he ever wrote, and I love it. See? I'm smiling now. Thank the universe for music!

Now I can contemplate reading and talking about books, so......

Middlemarch Update: I have been reading Middlemarch when I can. I am so very much enjoying this book. I am delighted by the realism of the characters, by the different matches, the different kinds of falling in love - or fooling one's self into love - that Eliot is portraying. Most of the characters are very likeable, the exception being creepy Mr Bulstrode, the banker. I love the quiet setting of the town. This book is slowly exploring each character and their effect on one another, like ripples in a pond. One character's actions affects others, the neighbors gossip and affect Lydgate's and Rosamund's lives, people get sick, grow old, have dreams, and some come to fruition, some do not. One of the most delightful scenes is Mrs Garth teaching her children grammar in the kitchen while she is baking pies. It is intimate, a familiar setting, and utterly perfect in rendering 1829 merchant family life. Best of all? Mrs Garth's name is....Susan.
read: Page 250, Chapter 32.

Have a good night reading, everyone!

Dewey

Our book-blogging community lost a lovely, kind, generous, welcoming member, Dewey. I only found out a little while ago tonight.

Dewey was one of those special people whose generous nature came through her posts. She was came up with the 24 hour read-a-thons, Weekly Geeks, many giveaways, and she always welcomed anyone and everyone to the blogging community. Sooner or later she would find her way to your blog and say hello. For a better post, see Nymeth's here. They were doing this year's Christmas swap together.

Dewey's passing is making me realize how real this online community is, as real as our 'real' lives in the important ways - love, and caring, and listening, and of course, sharing in our love for books. If you read her husband's post (link is above), you will see that she had piles of books around the house. she loved reading, and sharing in anything possible that had to do with books, and she was so enthusiastic that she had bloggers lining up to do the read-a-thons!

Most of all, I think of her family. They loved her longest and best and most dearly, and I hope that the fact she is missed by so many people is of some comfort to them at this time.

A bright light has gone in our world, and I will miss her.