Christmas is a time for giving and what better gift to a lover of words than a good book, or two, to curl up with.
I received a variety of different book gifts -
I love cookery books and I was delighted by the gift of Mums Recipes Two,
a cookbook with some interesting recipes which helps raise funds for MUMs.
The main focus of MUMs is to help reduce maternal and infant deaths in Malawi. The first volume raised £100,000 and there are now three volumes. You can find out more about them and the project http://www.mumsrecipes.org/
Michelle Lovric's The Undrowned Child was another present, and I am looking forward to this trip to Venice
.
I'm not at all sure what it is about or if it is something I can engage with, especially at the moment when I am trying to keep my head clear until my current work in progress is completed.
So it may have to wait on the shelf for a bit,. On the other hand I am curious to find out about all this strange layout. I feel as if it is a challenge..... so watch this space!
I also gave some books as gifts and among those were
Gillian Philip's Firebrand
Lob by Linda Newbery
So, what bookish gift did you give or receive this Christmas?
Dead Boy Talking (Strident Publishing) 'will knock you off your feet with the speed of its delivery and the raw, tough realism..' The Bookette
Writing for Children (A & C Black) ideal reading for all aspiring and newly published writers
For younger children the Hamish McHaggis series (GW Publishing)
Follow Linda's blog - Bookwords - writingthebookwords.blogspot.com
Visit her website -www.lindastrachan.com
9 comments:
I gave my father a recently published book of jokes. He collects these. As a former conjurer he used many as "patter" and he likes to find new jokes. It is great hearing him chuckle and sometimes roar with laughter as he reads it in the evenings. He gave me a book voucher because he thinks I am old enough to choose my own! :-)
I was also given "Puzzled - secrets and clues from a life lost in words" by David Astle. I have yet to seriously look at this but it appears to be about the intricacies of crossword puzzles. I do not do crossword puzzles but the book looks fascinating.
I gave 'A History of the World in 100 Objects' based on the Radio 4 series to my brother-in-law (the book is fabulous). Philip Pullman's 'Four Tales' and Deborah Devonshire's 'Wait For Me' went to my mum. Keith Richard's memoir 'Life' went to my music mad dad. I received 'Vintage Knitwear for Modern Knitters' from my sister and treated myself to 'Unhooking The Moon' by Gregory Hughes.
I received a brilliant mixture of non-fic and YA and adult fic, including "Firebrand" (which was top of my list!), Heaney's translation of "Beowulf" and Kate Mosse's "Winter Ghosts". We bought the eldest (12) "The Hunger Games" and Ally Carter's second Gallagher Girl book, and the little one (7) got a big pile of Horrid Henry from my MIL and Morpurgo's "Kaspar, Prince of Cats" and "The Children's Miscellany" from us. She's driven us all mad reading random bits from the Miscellany ever since!
Ooh there are some very lucky people this Christmas if they woke up to find Firebrand in their stocking. I got erm... 8 books this Christmas.
I gave quite a few too. I got the first two Young Samurai books for my brother because he is obsessed with Japan and he read Percy Jackson this year and loved it. He hardly ever reads so I want to harness this new found enthusiasm.
I got Firebrand too - can't wait to start reading it!
I gave Small Bint Tabitha Suzuma's Forbidden and 50 Philosophy Ideas; I gave Big Bint The Midwich Cuckoos (John Wyndham) and A Dodo at Oxford (Philip Atkins and Michael Johnson); I gave my dad MI6: The History (Keith Jeffery); a friend got Dr Johnson's Dictionary of Modern Life (Tom Morton). No-one bought me any books because they're scard to :-(
Linda - I have looked at House of Leaves and Harry has even read most of it! It is very, very weird, whether to look at or read. Hmmm...
Yes N, not sure whether just to look at it or read it... curiouser and curiouser!
Aww Anne, wot a shame! Tell them you'll be even scarier if they don't even try...
but in some ways I can understand, it can be difficult to find just the right book for people at Christmas.
That's why it is so interesting to see what people give and what they get!
I got a Kindle! So far I have downloaded some "free" books and some from amazon's Christmas sale, subscribed to one of my favourite SF magazines (Asimov's), and downloaded a few free samples of others I've been tempted to buy but haven't got around to finding in the shops yet...
And from an author's point of view, it's going to be really great for "research reading" - history books, etc - since you have the ability to search digital texts once you've downloaded them.
Of course, giving books is different. I'd always give a print copy as a gift, especially one with a beautiful cover or illustrations, but for my own reading I think I'm a digital convert!
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