Libra Libris

I've heard many, many good things about Legacy by Susan Kay, and now All Things Royal... is giving away a copy to one lucky person! Unlike many book competitions, this one is open to entries from outside the US and Canada. Details here.

I can't believe how long it's been since I've updated this blog. I had the excuse of being busy in January when we had a funeral, farewell parties for my husband who was just about to start a new job, and a trip to The Gambia, but since then I've just been supremely lazy. I have, however, done a lot of reading! I think I'll have to build up my blogging confidence with memes since I'm very self-conscious even online (this blog was meant to be a way of overcoming that, but it doesn't work if I avoid it!).

My husband, who is much better at coming up with things to say than I am (and is considerably more literary), has a review of Doris Lessing's The Golden Notebook featured on Vulpes Libris.

"On this evening in the middle of World War II, a serenade is about to begin. It's minutes away. If you listen closely you can hear a window scraping open, a fresh reed being inserted into a woodwind's mouthpiece. The music which started everything and on which, you could say, my entire existence depended, is on its way. But before the tune launches into full volume, let me fill you in on what has happened these last eleven years." --Jeffrey Eugenides, Middlesex

Today’s MUSING MONDAYS post is about library books…

Do you have a system for borrowing out books from the library? Do you know what you're going to borrow before you get there? How often do you borrow out books?


I always come across books I want to borrow when I'm at work, but because I work in an academic library, they're almost always non-fiction and I end up keeping them out for a year without ever reading them. As a library employee and a library school student, I'm a little embarrassed to admit that I use the public library very infrequently. I like to own books I like (or think I might like), so I only borrow books which are prohibitively expensive to purchase or non-fiction books that I'll only need to use once. I used to really love public libraries, and I still do in theory, but our library is very noisy and chaotic, which is great for some types of users, but not really the sort of place I'd like to spend a lot of time. I've been there a few times recently to borrow manga(because I'm hesitant to pay £6.99 for a book I can finish in half an hour, especially when there are so many in each series and I haven't found one that I really love), but I always have some idea of what I want to get when I go in. I do, however, tend to leave with more books than I had intended (and often can't find the books I did intend to get!).

I'm still reading The Quincunx by Charles Palliser. I'm really enjoying it, but I've done far too little reading this past week and far too much watching TV and wasting time online! Then again, at 1200 pages, I can't really expect to get through it as quickly as I would a shorter book. I also did manage to get quite a bit of coursework done today, so I shouldn't feel too bad, I guess. One thing I'm looking forward to about going back to work tomorrow is time to read on the bus to and from work.

Oxfam was having a book sale this weekend, and I was determined to get there early to see if I could pick up some good finds. While Oxfam is more expensive than other charity shops when it comes to used books, I find that their selection is usually much better (and oddly enough, the normal Oxfam shop has a better selection than the Oxfam Bookshop). I bought The Champion by Elizabeth Chadwick and The Red Tent by Anita Diamant for £1 each, and then found a copy of Son of a Witch by Gregory Maguire in the children's section (not in the sale, but for only £1.99). I later found a copy of Fingersmith by Sarah Waters for £1 at another charity shop. I'm really looking forward to reading all four books, although none were on my Amazon wishlist so I still haven't manged to reduce that!

I think I've decided on the challenges I want to undertake this year, so I'll be making separate posts about those over the next couple of days.

Happy New Year, everyone!

So … any Reading Resolutions? Say, specific books you plan to read? A plan to read more ____? Anything at all?

Name me at least ONE thing you’re looking forward to reading this year!

I really need to read more for my course in order to catch up since I've fallen so far behind, but I think I'll sweep obligation under the rug for now and only look at recreational reading! I'd like to do at least two challenges this year, but I haven't decided which ones yet. I'd like to read at least fifty books again, and I hope to get through a few when we're in the Gambia in a few weeks since I'm not a big beach person and I think we're only going to do a couple of excursions.

I can't think of a specific title I'm looking forward to reading, but I am looking forward to getting through some of the many, many books I own which I haven't read. I'm also looking forward to buying more books, though. I have £40 to spend on books at the moment and I'm not sure what to buy (my Amazon wishlist grows longer each day!). I think I'll have to go par down my list now so I can give it to my husband to order in any books I want which aren't in stock.

Below are all the books I read in 2008. I didn't read quite as many as I would have liked, but isn't that always the case?

1. Death du Jour - Kathy Reichs
2. The Bloody Chamber - Angela Carter (short stories)
3. Bones of the Moon - Jonathan Carroll
4. Kiss of the Night - Sherrilyn Kenyon
5. Death: The High Cost of Living - Neil Gaiman (graphic novel)
6. Death: The Time of Your Life - Neil Gaiman (graphic novel)
7. The Cat Whisperer - Claire Bessant (non-fiction)
8. Lucifer: Devil in the Gateway - Mike Carey (graphic novel)
9. Fables: Legends in Exile - Bill Willingham (graphic novel)
10. Lucifer: Children and Monsters - Mike Carey (graphic novel)
11. Preacher: Gone to Texas - Garth Ennis (graphic novel)
12. Deadly Decisions - Kathy Reichs
13. Case Histories - Kate Atkinson
14. Lucifer: A Dalliance With The Damned - Mike Carey (graphic novel)
15. Preacher: Until the End of the World - Garth Ennis (graphic novel)
16. Stardust - Neil Gaiman
17. Preacher: Proud Americans - Garth Ennis (graphic novel)
18. Preacher: Ancient History - Garth Ennis (graphic novel)
19. Lucifer: The Divine Comedy - Mike Carey (graphic novel)
20. Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Long Way Home - Joss Whedon (graphic novel)
21. The Other Boleyn Girl - Philippa Gregory
22. Preacher: Dixie Fried - Garth Ennis (graphic novel)
23. The Boleyn Inheritance - Philippa Gregory
24. Lucifer: Inferno - Mike Carey (graphic novel)
25. Preacher: War in the Sun - Garth Ennis (graphic novel)
26. Preacher: Salvation - Garth Ennis (graphic novel)
27. Preacher: All Hell's A-Coming - Garth Ennis (graphic novel)
28. Preacher: Alamo - Garth Ennis (graphic novel)
29. Smoke and Mirrors - Neil Gaiman (short stories)
30. Women Without Men - Shahrnush Parsipur
31. Once Upon a Time in the North - Phillip Pullman
32. The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
33. Twilight - Stephenie Meyer (children's/YA)
34. Fatal Voyage - Kathy Reichs
35. New Moon - Stephenie Meyer (children's/YA)
36. 84 Charing Cross Road - Helene Hanff
37. The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street - Helene Hanff
38. Grave Secrets - Kathy Reichs
39. The Six Wives of Henry VIII - Alison Weir (non-fiction)
40. Superior Saturday - Garth Nix (children's/YA)
41. Buffy: No Future for You - Brian K. Vaughan (graphic novel)
42. The Passion of New Eve - Angela Carter
43. The Graveyard Book - Neil Gaiman (children's/YA)
44. Eclipse - Stephenie Meyer (children's/YA)
45. Breaking Dawn - Stephenie Meyer (children's/YA)
46. The House of the Spirits - Isabel Allende
47. The Sunne in Splendour - Sharon Penman
48. The Host - Stephenie Meyer
49. Lucifer: Mansions of Silence - Mike Carey (graphic novel)
50. Lucifer: Exodus - Mike Carey (graphic novel)
51. Lucifer: Wolf Beneath the Tree - Mike Carey (graphic novel)
52. Lucifer: Crux - Mike Carey (graphic novel)
53. Lucifer: Morning Star - Mike Carey (graphic novel)
54. Lucifer: Evensong - Mike Carey (graphic novel)
55. Snow White, Blood Red - edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling (short stories)
56. The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins (children's/YA)
57. Bare Bones - Kathy Reichs
58. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
59. Here Lies Arthur - Philip Reeve (children's/YA)
60. My Year of Meat - Ruth Ozeki
61. Kingdom Hearts, vol. 3 - Shiro Amano (manga)
62. Trinity Blood, vol. 1 - Kiyo Kyujyo and Sunao Yoshida (manga)
63. Trinity Blood, vol. 2 - Kiyo Kyujyo and Sunao Yoshida (manga)
64. The Good Witch of the West, vol. 1 - by Haruhiko Momokawa and Noriko Ogiwara (manga)
65. The Good Witch of the West, vol. 2 - Haruhiko Momokawa and Noriko Ogiwara (manga)
66. Return to Labyrinth, vol. 1 - Jake T. Forbes and Chris Lie (manga)
67. Legend of the Dark Crystal, vol. 1 - Barbara Randall Kesel, Heidi Arnhold, and Max Kim (manga)

Overall, it was a great year of reading for me; though some books stood out more than others, I didn't read anything I disliked. Here are my favourite books read in 2008.

Best overall:
The Sunne in Splendour by Sharon Penman

I was captivated by the level of detail in this book, the rich characterisation, and the relationship between Richard III and Edward IV. I usually find battle scenes in novels incredibly boring, but Penman made the battles readable and emotional. I suspect that the truth about Richard III lies somewhere between Penman's vision and the Tudor version of the story, but I have to admit that my fondness for this novel nudged me a bit closer to the Richardian camp. I'm looking forward to reading more of Penman's books in the future.


Best children's/YA book:
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

I was pleasantly surprised by The Hunger Games, which I'd feared would be a rehash of Battle Royale. I felt that The Hunger Games had more humanity, though, and I think the dystopian future created by Collins has a lot of potential for development in later books. I loved the characters, especially Kat Everdeen, and the love triangle aspect, and I'm really excited to see where the second book will take the series.

Best non-fiction book:
The Six Wives of Henry VIII by Alison Weir

As usual, I didn't read many non-fiction books this year. I always find that I have to concentrate a bit more when reading non-fiction, and consequently, I read more slowly. The Six Wives of Henry VIII was very readable and often read more like fiction than non-fiction. I particularly liked the fact that the book didn't exclusively focus on one wife at a time; the sections ovelapped nicely, making the political and social timeline clear. I didn't find the Anne Boleyn portions of the book as negative as some reviewers seemed to have, but I did feel that Weir may have relied a bit too heavily on Chapuys as a source without taking into account his obvious bias against Anne Boleyn. I also wish Weir had included footnotes as some of her references are difficult to trace.

Best short stories anthology:
The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter

I can't believe I hadn't read this before. I thought that Carter's writing style captured the atmospere of old European fairy tales perfectly, and I liked the examination of the role of the female in fairy tales. "The Tiger's Bride" was my favourite of the stories, but there were none that I disliked.

Best graphic novel/manga:
The Lucifer series by Mike Carey

This was a difficult category because I didn't read any phenomenal graphic novels or manga this year. (This year marked my first foray into manga and I had no idea where to start which may help to explain why I haven't read anyhing spectacular yet.) The Lucifer series were probably the best comics I read this year. With both the Lucifer and Preacher series, I found the first few volumes a bit lacking, but they improved greatly towards the end. My favourite Lucifer volume was probably Exodus; I thought the Stitchglass Slide story-arc was really original and beautiful. I loved the characters of Spera (the fallen cherub) and Elain Belloc, but I found the exaggerated sexuality of most of the other female characters off-putting and a bit too comic booky.