One of the books I'm currently reading is Nick Hornby's Stuff I've Been Reading; this book is essentially a collection of his book reviews from The Believer magazine. I'd not come accross this publication before, but have since added it to the long list of things that I need to keep an eye on. At the start of each mini essay Hornby does something ingenious, he lists the books he has purchased and those he has actually got around to reading during that month. Now, with many apologies to Nick, I am going to be 'alf-inching' this idea just a little bit. If I'm honest I probably buy fewer books than I recieve as proofs or a.r.cs (What can I say, I love my job!) so in future, once a month I intend to make a list of books I have purchased, books I've been sent gratis, books I've requested, and books that I have actually got around to reading. If nothing else this should prove an interesting record for myself, especially as I'm not totally convinced that anyone else is actually reading any of this gumpf that I'm busily tapping away here :).
So far this month I have been busily picking my way through the fantasy and sci-fi section trying to make up for all the things that I've yet to dip into. I have plans for a fair few more books from this section over the coming months, so have a full reading schedule lined up. Annoyingly having picked up a couple of these books, I discovered that in fact they were the better known sequels to lesser known first books..... this can at least be seen as a valid excuse to buy more books.........
In other news, I was somewhat tickled pink to be described as a 'Book Blogger extrodinaire' by someone who works for one of the major publishing houses. I'll name no names, but will just say that the fella in question is routinely pestered for books by me, and (almost) never fails to deliver the goods. It is helpful that he works for a large publishing group, which has a number of excellent smaller publishers under it's umbrella. I think it can be certain that he will continue to be pestered by me for as long as I have eyes to read lol. He is also rather handy when it comes to dishing out contact details for other handy individuals and it was in one of his introductions to another publisher that he used the BBE description listed above. All I can say is that he is a star and I am endlessly grateful for the books he sends out to me.
Something else I have discovered over the last couple of days is a book which reads like the sequel (or sister-companion), to the wonderful Hundred Year Old Man who climbed etc etc etc..... the slightly more catchy 'Little Old Lady who Broke All the Rules' by Catherina Ingelman-Sundberg. The title says it all really, so far I'm about a quarter of the way through and my main thought is that scandinavian old folks homes must be overrun with geriatric daredevils just itching to get their zimmer frames out on the road and cause some havoc. So far it is a hugely enjoyable book very funny and well worth getting hold of it you fancy something similar to THYOM....
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