Getting rid of my books- a thought.

My bookshelf, originally uploaded by benjibrum.
I desperately need to thin down my collection of books.
I can’t look for a new place to live & forever wonder “Will there be enough room for my books?”.
I’m also a bit loathed to just dump a few hundred books onto a charity shop, so here’s the idea:
How about I [...]

Get John Wyndham on the Birmingham Walk of Stars

I’m a huge fan of John Wyndham.
Born in Knowle, Warwickshire, he spent most of his childhood in Edgbaston.
The Birmingham Civic Society website says that he doesn’t have a blue plaque in the city to celebrate his connection to the city, which is pitiful.
There is already a short, stubby cul-de-sac named Wyndham Road in Birmingham. I know [...]

The great Birmingham/Greenbelt takeover.

Birmingham Bull, originally uploaded by Nik Sibley.
You may or may not have noticed my involvement with Greenbelt festival over the last few months. I’m their literature coordinator, and it’s a joy and a pleasure to be involved with a group of highly switched on and creative people.
As part of the literature programme I seem to [...]

Short story: The Bookseller

Rackim Wonn worked quietly and happily in his bookshop. He was never happier than stacking and restacking the shelves.
Each week he would completely reassign the order of the books he sold. This week would be the order in which the books came into the shop, next week the emotional impact he felt the book would [...]

Booker Challenge: 3 to collect.

3 reservations have come in at once.
Eeek!
Colm Toibin- Brooklyn.
James Scudamore- Heliopolis.
Ed O’Loughlin- Not untrue not unkind.
This means I can pop rereading all the Harry Potter books to one side & crack on with the challenge.

Man Booker Prize Challenge- Day 2

A progress report & a challenge to you.
In my bid to read all the books on the man booker prize list I’m currently still waiting for my local library to tell me if they’re going to let me reserve all the books in one go. I’ve had an email back to my email telling me [...]

Ten Book Questions.

This isn’t the usual ten rubbishy questions people get asked about books. These are taken from the Observer. Oh Yes. No Richard & Judy Shame for me. Oh no. (Even if my book group do keep on picking their books. At least we won’t have to endure their strangelhold on the book industry any more.)
1) [...]

Book ‘em Danno!

I saw this list on a friend’s blog so I thought I’d copy it and see how many of the books I’ve read. (The ones in bold are the ones I’ve read- and yes, I’m aware there’s a couple of glaring ommissions!)
1 Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings – JRR Tolkien
3 [...]

7 things you may not know about me.

Bruce Lawson chain-lettered Michael Grimes (aka Citizensheep), who in turn chain-lettered Nicky Getgood who chain lettered me into blogging about the 7 things you may not know about me.
1) I get synaesthesia.
It’s a “condition” which means that sometimes I get things a little muddled. Particularly before bed or early in the morning I “see” sounds. [...]

Bitesize Books: Walden.

One of the greenbelt book club books is Walden by Henry David Thoreau.
Here’s where I wrote about it: http://www.greenbelt.org.uk/blog/2009/04/passionate-about-books-seeks-similar/
Today I found that you can have books sent to you in handy bite sized chunks by email.
So every day for the next 114 days I’m going to read Walden.
I’ll let you know how it goes.
You can [...]

A love affair with books.

I got to write again for the Love affair with books.
http://www.joyfuljubilantlearning.com/joyful_jubilant_learning/2009/04/a-field-guide-to-getting-lost.html
It’s such an honour to do, Rosa & the Joyful Jubilant Learning community are amazing with their comments & suggestions.
Writing these always makes me feel like I should write more book reviews.

WXWM reading list.

On Saturday I gave a talk at wxwm about story telling & how we tell stories online.
(I also talked about cake, death & clouds)
I thought I’d give a reading list of stuff that got me to where I was on Saturday evening. Some of it I talked about, some of it passed through my brain [...]