Christine at Bookishly Boisterous started this meme – try it! You might like it! (It’s not just for bookish blogs)
1. I missed this week’s Top Ten Tuesday meme which was all about reading resolutions. Given that I didn’t complete any of last year’s resolutions (with the exception of no.7 which involved buying more books), I didn’t even bother this year. However this is probably a good opportunity to mention War & Peace. I’ve never read it. I bought a copy. 2014 could be the year.
The image above is taken from the edition of War & Peace that I probably should have picked (if you’ve never seen the Cozy Classics series for babies, then quick).
2. Last year one of my resolutions was to not go mad on NetGalley, as I am wont to do. Toward the end of the year I showed some restraint but in December I had a click-frenzy. And the result of that came flooding into my inbox this week – ARCs of lots of excellent titles including All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr, The Virgins by Pamela Erens (with a cover testimonial by John Irving*), The Blazing World by Siri Hustvedt and The Lemon Grove by Helen Walsh. So, that’s my reading sorted until March.
3. This is why I love blogging. And books that generate dialogue.
4. The Year in Books Ahead – how good is this? Bookmark it!
5. I get Twitter crushes. This week’s is Maps are Amazing.
6. Took the whole family to see Grease on stage. Yes, I know every single word. Yes, I’ve seen it (the movie) countless times (my tech-advanced cousins had a video player in the 80s. We watched it on replay, for days at a time). No, I never get tired of it.
The song I love most now was my least favourite when I was ten. Clip below.
Fun fact – my high school did Grease as their musical production one year. I had a skirt with a poodle on it. I know you’re probably jealous.
7. Heading to the beach soon. Although we have a television at the beach house, the reception is terrible. We use the time to catch-up on any movies we might have missed (actually, we miss all the movies) and watch a whole series of something.
Now I’m not very good at committing to watching whole series (or book series for that matter) but in the past we have watched some good ones – Entourage, Teachers, This Life, Mad Men and North Square. I’ve also indulged in Gossip Girl and Grey’s Anatomy and make no apologies about the fact that I loved those series. So readers, I need suggestions** for this holiday. A friend has already recommended Breaking Bad (apparently I’m the only person in the world who hasn’t seen it) – what else should I watch?
8. My baby (who is six) has a wobbly tooth. It’s her first ‘naturally’ wobbly tooth (she’s had four emergency dentist trips, two as a result of a skateboard and one from swinging on a monkeybar – her front teeth have been chipped and loosened but miraculously stayed in her head). The tooth fairy is officially on the homestretch in our house.
9. And lastly, you will not read a better blog post about a sandwich (in fact, a Wrong and Irresponsible Sandwich).
“This is the kind of food that has a little voice, a voice that whispers bi-polar messages. I know I was being bad… bad bad bad as I marched into this very childish and guilt-laden sandwich, an addiction that defies all logic. At first it hits you with a crunch from the candied caramel surface, then the sugar melts into a happy swirl of creaminess, butteriness and salty porky-ness and goes down like shame. It tastes so right wrong… so irresponsible.. so un-adult-like.”
*is it just me or is Irving doing lots of testimonials lately?
** no Game of Thrones or any fantasy series. Sorry, it’s just not my thing at all.