Bloggery

Tuesday 20th Sep 2011

Lucinda Corby

Here we are again..Lucinda opens our new site blogging account

How exciting….a fresh, clean, brand new blog just for me. It’s like starting a new exercise book on the first day of term. With that in mind, I vow to look after this blog, not lose it, and fill it with fab things - all in my bestest handwriting.  I hope you like the look of the new website – we’ve all been working very, very hard to get it just so. But don’t fret, we’ve been reading voraciously too, in our constant search for top titles. My latest little foray was to read half the Booker Shortlist - you know how it is, you start one and then are intrigued to see how the others measure up. I can honestly say that I got lucky with the three that I picked (more of that below)
 
For those following my reading year efforts, you may remember that I set myself the rather intensive challenging of working my way clockwise round the lower ground floor shelves of the shop, section by section. In this fashion I intended to approach subjects I have thus far been blissfully ignorant of. It’s been a revelation and so for anyone else who finds themselves in front of the non-fiction shelves and haven’t the foggiest where to start, I’ve now got a couple of recommendations up my sleeve! 

1) "Twelve Steps to a Compassionate Life" by Karen Armstrong
2) “Black Mass” by John Gray
3) “Uncommon Danger” by Eric Ambler
4) “Thirteen Things That Don’t Make Sense” by Michael Brooks
5) “Mythologies” by Roland Barthes
6) “The Craftsman” by Richard Sennett
7) “Bruges La Morte” by Georges Rodenbach
8) “A Month in the Country” by JL Carr
9) “The Castle of Crossed Destinies” by Italo Calvino
10) “Travels with My Aunt” by Grahame Greene
11) “The Sense of An Ending” by Julian Barnes
12) “Half Blood Blues” by Esi Edugyan
13) “The Sisters Brothers” by Patrick de Witt
 
One reading challenge isn’t nearly enough though, so I am continuing to wend my way through “Ulysses” - an exercise which has proved to be both demanding and rewarding (particularly rewarding when discussed over a nice pint). Oh – and the Marvellous Monday Book Group’s discussions will also appear here, whenever I am sat in the facilitator’s chair. Happy reading!