Not depressed or frustrated or anything, just...sad. I don't know if it's the weather (miserable, wet and grey) or the dream I had last night (I was lost and trying to find something or someone, I can't remember). It could be because it's Article 50 day today, or the fact that I'm reading a biography of Clover Adams and just reached the part ( Read more... )

Not a meme, or if it is, it's a Tumblr one, not Livejournal. I came across this list of 100 questions on Tumblr and thought it would be a fun way of making myself post more often. Or more than just book reviews and the occasionally fandom squee. So I'm going to try and do at least one a day, maybe more some days, maybe not at all on others, as Real ( Read more... )

Not a meme, or if it is, it's a Tumblr one, not Livejournal. I came across this list of 100 questions on Tumblr and thought it would be a fun way of making myself post more often. Or more than just book reviews and the occasionally fandom squee. So I'm going to try and do at least one a day, maybe more some days, maybe not at all on others, as Real ( Read more... )

I've been debating about setting a separate book blog for my reviews. Well, I say, 'debating' - what I mean is wallowing in a pit of indecision, half-heartedly thinking about it and then forgetting about it for days, paralysed by own web-skill inadequacies ( Read more... )

I read mostly non-fiction, predominantly history, and I find one of the most irritating things when reading history is the use of 'we' and 'our' when the author is writing about his/her own country. It jars me every time I come across it in the text. It completely makes a mockery of the concept of authorial objectivity and advertises the fact that ( Read more... )

Rodrigo Borgia was mentioned a fair bit in the biography of Isabella of Castile I just read, since he was Spanish and therefore a subject of hers, and cardinal and later Pope during her reign. I don't know very much at all about the Borgias, other than all the scandal, incest and murder and illegitimacy and so on, so I've now picked up a book about ( Read more... )

Pat Conroy died. So sad. He was one of my favourite authors. Only just the other day I was talking about how The Prince of Tides is one of my desert island books ( Read more... )

Asked by frelling_tralk:

This is quite an interesting question to have following on from yesterday's post about my Desert Island books. Because in many ways my favourite books have had an emotional impact on me, in that they've caused me to love them. But that's not how I interpret this question, I hope I'm not wrong.

♦ The Holocaust - Martin Gilbert
A review ( Read more... )

Asked by tsarinaOh boy, starting with the hardest question here ( Read more... )

We were having a discussion at work this morning about Dickensian, the BBC's latest drama mashing up a whole bunch of Dickens characters in a new story - and as you do, it led on to a conversation about Dickens and our familiarity with his books, characters etc. And me, I can't stand Dickens. Just loathe him. I find him smug, self-important, ( Read more... )