To Munch

Photo is sourced from my camera. Click click.

I like reading books. Old books, new books, books about airplanes, books about geology, children's books... There's nothing like learning from a book. I like my gadgets too. I own a Kindle and it has changed how I read and improved the comfort of reading, but there will never be a replacement for opening up a really old book and smelling that bookish smell.

So here's a quick catch up of what's currently on my 'To Munch' list:

* The Cry Of The Go Away Bird -Andrea Eames
* The Oz Books- L. Frank Baum
* Mrs Beaton's Book Of Household Management- Isabella Beeton
* The Anubis Gates- Tim Powers
* The Somnambulist- Jonathan Barnes
* My Name Is Memory- Ann Brashares

And the list just keeps on growing! What's on your list right now?

The birthday.

Twenty five. Twenty-flooping-five. 

Me, post birthday celebrations on Saturday.

This is my new age and I sort of like it! Monday through Wednesday were more or less spent in a "getting to grips with being half way to thirty" stupor, but in the midst of the birthday blues I made a decision, a small one, but still a decision. I need to read more. I used to love reading and although I still read, it's become a bit of a chore and I'm not excited about it anymore. So to remedy this I've ordered myself a Kindle, 'cause you know how much I love new technology! 

When it turned up today it wouldn't fit through the letter box and my Mister didn't hear the doorbell, so it's been sent back to the sorting office! Now I have to wait 'til the morning to pick it up. 

*sulks*

There is an empty space where my Kindle should be...

While I wait for my ereader what thoughts do you have on books I should read? I feel like reading something a little whimsical; nothing too depressing. Is there anything out there you think I might like? Suggestions please! Old books or new. I'm not a fussy girl.

Currently reading...

(someone credited this to the tumblr home page...if you know whose work it is let me know <3)

Oh holy  moly, it's getting frosty here in Wales. My car was completely frozen when I left for work this morning. Yes you did read correctly. I have a job! Have I already told you that? Ah well, it's worth shouting  from the rooftops! Don't get too excited, it's not dream job material, but a job is a job.  Let's all jump up and down in unison.

I'm using my spare time more carefully now I don't have much of it left. Hopefully I'll be blogging more often now i've got a usb keyboard for my laptop. Yes, guys. My laptop is royally frakked. The upside of the situation is that I can sit on my bed with the laptop half way down it and me curled up all cosy with the keyboard, typing away without worrying that i'm going to burn the skin off my thighs or set fire to the bedspread...the latter has never happened but you never can tell.

This week i'm planning on catching up with my bedtime reading. First to finish is Stephen Fry's new autobiography, then Eat Pray Love, and after all that i'll start the monster of a book called Beginning HTML, XHTML, CSS and Javascript. 

Ignore the dozy look in my eye! Looks like it'll be good bedtime reading, sending me right off to sleep :P

What's on your bedtime reading list?

XOXO

EDIT: full of typos today...blame it on the new keyboard :$

read me.

Yesterday I had my head stuck in a book that I fell in love with when I was very young. I've been reading Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. I seem to have had a strange fascination with the story ever since I first saw the Disney version, then several television versions, and then when I was about 13 I read the book.

Looking back, I can't remember a time when I wasn't going to the library, reading aloud or even making up stories to entertain myself, but I can't quite remember if it was something I was encouraged to do or if it was purely a natural instinct. Hmm. If i think hard about it then i would say that my mum encouraged me when I was very young and then when was older I took it upon myself to read books, ones that were probably far too advanced for my age.

When I was about 10, I remember my brother studying Animal Farm. The cover was cartoony and I picked it up thinking it would be a nice story about animals that lived on a farm. Instantly hooked, I didn't really understand the book until 5 years later when I began to read it again for my own studies. Then at 11, I read 20 000 Leagues Under the Sea, Jane Eyre at about 13, and I went on and on for years reading books that shocked others to see me reading, but I enjoyed them. At some point I stopped and I have no idea why. I remember loving GCSE English and studying several plays. After that I stopped reading. Even during my degree, Creative Writing with English Literature, I resented having to read books. I didn't enjoy them at all any more. Since then I find it difficult to pick up any book and read it, but i picked up Alice yesterday and I love it all over again.

xoxo

PS. can't wait for the Tim Burton film to come out... March 5th 2010! I'll be counting down the days! :D

The ice cowl cometh...

Yey, Mr is home and my cowl is coming along nicely! It's currently about 40cm long and i'm knitting on straight sticks...yet again another project that requires a circular needle. Why are all the fun things to knit circular?! Suggestions for flat knitting projects are being taken below.

Oh my goodness I can not wait to finish the cowl and sew some vintage buttons on. I'm looking forward to spending an entire day picking through my vast collection and selecting the very sweetest ones.

The books in the background of the last photo are two that I'm currently reading and one that I carry every where with me.

1. I Am A Cat by Soseki Natsume- A series of stories written from the perspective of a cat...it's Japanese, okay!

2. Half A Yellow Sun by Chimanda Ngozi Adichie- Can't finish reading it as I know that one of the characters I love is going to end up dying or something equally as awful. I just can't bring myself to pick up the last chapter. I don't want it to end.

3. The Writers Yearbook- Ah my love, my friend! Was gutted when I split hot chocolate over it a few weeks back :(

Stay happy, my little bunny rabbits.

xoxo

P.S I'm completely smitten with the photo of the balls of yarn...

Love from Moominmamma

After spending the afternoon wondering aimlessly around the shopping centre not being able to buy anything as it's all too expensive, I decided to treat myself to a new book. Usually when I end up in a bookstore I go to one of three sections.

1. Cult fiction

2. Poetry 

3. Arts & Crafts

I browsed, not seeing anything interesting, but then I got dragged into the kids section. Okay, so I wasn't exactly dragged. Really, I was checking out the competition in writing children's books. But there it was...Finn Family Moomintroll by Tove Jansson, one of a series of stories. I think what I love about them most are the illustrations. Of course it helps that it's under £5...