Melodic Monday #5

Kate Bush - Wuthering Heights

I love Kate Bush's music, it's quite unique and this is her musical take on the Emily Bronte classic.

More books and improving my blog

Hello everyone. Turns out going away and making an effort not to cough through a theatre show and spending all day Saturday on my feet even though I had a bad foot didn't do me all that good. I've been lounging and coughing on a settee all week. But now I am getting better and will make an effort to post more regularly.

I had an hour in the largest bookshop in Europe which has 250 000 tomes in it's many floors (according to my guide book) which is Waterstones Piccadilly. My only slight gripe is the assistant who, while helpful, intially just said upstairs in response to my query concerning the location of the sci-fi section. It turns out it was only one floor up (very useful as I didn't have much time) but as there's 8 floors you can see how it could confuse me.

Never have I seen so many sci-fi and fantasy books in one place. I wish I lived closer. Though this is probably a good thing as I spent £50 in there in half an hour.

I bought:

1. Doctor Who comic: The Betrothal of Sontar.
2. Helix  by  Eric Brown
3. Geist and Spectyr  by  Philippa Ballantine (These two are the same series and came from the imported section)
4. Shadow's Son  by  Jon Sprunk 

I shall let you know what I think of them as I read them. First though I am ploughing through the third Game of Thrones books, which at the moment is memorable due to typing errors that crop up quite often.

Also, on a non-book note, I got to spend a morning in Camden market! I bought a corset for £5, and a great winter coat.

I've also added a small page about me. The only thing is I am unsure how to change the colour of that bar. It's pink and should not be so.

And I'm away....in a few days

Hi everyone, I'll get round to some long posts next week. I have a couple of ideas but as I'm away this weekend, real life stuff must take precedence. I have also picked up a cold.

I fear we shall soon have to mourn the passing of the "3 for 2" offer on books. Nowadays it's buy one get one half price. If you live in the UK, head towards your nearest WHSmith outlet for the 3 for 2 offer, and also, they do books for £1! Not even second hand shops sell books that cheaply.

At the outlet, I bought three Doctor Who books for what I thought was £3, then it turned out it was £2, as the 3 for 2 offer even covers those books.

Apologies for the rambly post, my head is a bit fuzzy. Back to normal (or at least coherent posting) next week.

Doctor Who and the Asylum

I recently read this adventure about the Second Doctor and the first time the Daleks were introduced to the Who universe. It was interesting to read about a more serious Doctor with a hint of his mischievousness that we see today.

Somehow, the Daleks seemed a lot more menacing on paper than they do on television.

The first episode of the 7th series aired on Saturday (yet I will not be able to watch it until Friday, so I am trying to avoid spoilers) and it was called Asylum of the Daleks which made me think of the song by Fun Boy Three.

Sophistique Noir's Monthly Theme: Someone Special

This is my post for Sophistique Noir's Monthly Theme: Someone Special.

I've chosen the author Anne McCaffrey as she was one of the first sci-fi authors I discovered and if I had to choose one author to take with me to a desert island it would be her. It helps that she has written quite a lot of books.

Growing up, my favourite time of the week was friday after school when we'd go over the road to the library and choose books to read for the coming week. I would usually go straight to the fantasy/sci-fi section to see if there were any unread books by Anne McCaffrey. At lot of my copies are ex-library ones.


Anne McCaffrey (1926 - 2011) wrote over 70 books and I own 29 of these. Not even my Terry Pratchett collection can match that. She's my go-to Author if I need something comforting or familiar to read.



This is part of my Anne McCaffrey shelf. Apologies about the lighting.

My favourite book is The Ship Who Sang, which is about a girl who is locked in her own body with an exceptional mind, and is built into a spaceship to become a brain ship. The book follows her adventures about the galaxy.





If you like fantasy/sci-fi and haven't read any of the books yet but would like to here's where to start:

If you like science-fiction, read The Ship Who Sang. According to wikipedia, the author considered this "the best story [she] ever wrote."

For a more fantasy-ish story, try Dragonflight. This is the first story of the Pern series which follows people who can bond with dragons and have to defend their planet from the red star in the sky.

Travelling and birthday books

I thought I'd share my essential travel reads, which couldn't be a kindle because I was camping plus I don't own one yet.

I love travel guides, they make me look forward to the trip even more. I chose the Thomas Cook edition mainly on size, the directions to attractions weren't great but it had lots of useful information in there.

I'm a little nervous when a plane is landing. My first ever flight was smooth and without turbulence, so I had a bit of a fright on the next flight when we landed with a bump. So now I use Sudoku to distract myself when the plane is descending, and I don't look at the ground coming closer either. It's getting a little better though.

Finally, a selection of Morse stories. I'm getting quite interested in crime-solving fiction, and short stories about Inspecctor Morse was a great book to dip into while I was away.

It was my birthday last month as well, and I received two books, Star Trek Voyager Comic book, and the complete Hans Christian Anderson collection.


Hope you're all having better weather than Wales. While I might be warm and I would love to be out reading in the garden, it regularly decides to rain while still being sunny.

I shall try and post again soon.

A quick hello...

This is just a quick hello; after a trip to Finland and a friend's wedding, I hope to keep to a more regular posting patterns.

I have a few ideas for posts lined up, and I shall post one later today (as it is now way past midnight).

Melodic Monday #4

Hi everyone, one last quick post before I leave for holiday.

Last week's song was of course written for the first Twilight film after the lead singer read the book.

This week we have Miley Cyrus - When I look At You

Apologies in advance...

Hi everyone.

I was planning to write a couple of posts before I went on holiday next monday, but it appears events have changed and i'm now away for the next couple of days. I'll try and post when I get back

Hope life is treating you well.

And quickly, I'm reading CSI: Killing Game. I love finding out how a crime is uncovered then solved. Does anyone else watch or read crime series?

Melodic Monday #3

With all the excitement of last week, I forgot to mention that the previous week's song, Nemo by Nightwish, contained the lyrics "..between the pages two and three" in the second verse.

This week's song is Decode by Paramore.

Comment with the literary link.

I was thinking of inviting other bloggers to participate possibly on a bi-monthly basis. Either way I will continue this weekly musical offering for the forseeable future.

Post-event: Red and Black Week

So Red and Black week is over. VictorianKitty, who runs the great blog Sophistique Noir, hosted a wonderful event, and I already have a couple of ideas for next year. Hello to my new followers as well, and thank you for looking in on my posts.

The past week almost makes me want to paint my room black with deep blood red bookcases, but after finding and turfing out three spiders in the last 10 minutes, (one of them was the size of my palm) that is not an option. I seem to have a sixth sense for spotting spiders in obscure corners, but that's not going to happen if they blend in too much.

Edit: Maybe I'm just having a creepy evening. A shadow just passed in front of the light, but there's nothing behind me.

This summer I'm going to, time and circumstances permitting, redecorate my room. As you may be able to see slightly from previous photos, the walls are currently pink courtesy of the previous owner. I moved in to this house 5 years ago, and the year after headed off to uni so it's never been corrected.

All the red and black creativeness has given me some inspiration, even if the colours will be different. I don't mind cold colours, as my posters will cover a significant part of the walls anyway, so I was thinking a blue or purple shade? My only requirement is that I can still spot spiders creeping up on me.

I'd also like to sand down and repaint my bookcases. I'd love to paint them black on the outside and a rich colour to coordinate with the walls on the inside. What do you think? If I do that, I'll definitely write a post about it.

On the downside, my books will have to be packed away. I think I may gradually and subtly clear space on the landing bookshelves in order to keep some aside for reading.

Red and Black Week: Printing on Ribbon

Welcome to my final post for Sophistique Noir's Red and Black Week.

Firstly, I have used two different tutorials from around the web to help me create my ribbons: Scrap 'n Doodle's post and this tutorial from As The Card Rack Turns.

This post is my attempt to follow the above instructions and produce something for myself (which of course will be red and black themed).


I used:

• White card (sturdier than paper so it won't buckle under your ribbon)
• Double-sided sticky tape
• Normal tape
• Sewing scissors and scissors you don't mind getting sticky (mine need regular de-gunking due to card-making)
• Cheap white cotton ribbon (30p/metre) for testing and red satin (45p/metre) for the actual printing. A metre is sufficient for one printed ribbon.
• According to the tutorials, cotton is better, but my local haberdashery didn't have much choice, and I wanted red ribbon.

I decided to find a quotation from Wuthering Heights to print onto my ribbon; I used wuthering-heights.co.uk to find a quotation about the moors, which I'd love to visit one day.


"There was no moon, and everything beneath lay in misty darkness : not a light gleamed from any house, far or near"

Wuthering Heights by Emilie Bronte

 
The text font is Monotype Corsica, and the size is 16. I also rotated it 90 degrees to the right in order to fit more words on the page.

(Or as I realised afterwards it might have been easier to switch to landscape. I prefer to just adjust the size so it matches the actual paper to give more accuracy)

I also created a reocurring star pattern for fun. If anyone else would like to use it, I would love to give you the word document, but I have no idea how to put it on my blog. Does anyone know if I can do this?

I first printed it onto my piece of white card to test it, plus it gave me the exact position the ribbon should be on the paper, and mark with a pencil which way up it goes.

(As you can see from my photo, I forgot to mark which way it came through the printer the first time.)

I placed the double-sided tape along the pattern, then the test ribbon (white cotton) on top, with a small piece of normal tape at either end to stop the ribbon ends snagging.


Make sure for your nice ribbon that the double-sided tape is slightly wider than the actual ribbon so the ink doesn't catch on the edge of the ribbon.


Once you're happy with the result, repeat with your final ribbon. If you'd like extra length, cut double the length of the paper and wrap one end of the ribbon neatly round the end of the paper, and tape the remaining ribbon to the back of the paper, again ending with a bit of tape to 'seal' the end of the ribbon.

 

Leave to dry so nothing smudges, then carefully peel it off.



Also, you can stick it down again and repeat the above steps if you want to print along the next length of the ribbon.



(Though the ribbon cannot overlap on the edge of the paper that goes into the printer first; my printer thought there was no paper and wouldn't print on it. Or alternatively as I've just discovered, print on a normal piece of paper and feed your ribboned paper into the printer before it closes.)



I'd also recommend printing your red ribbon and black onto white seperately, to avoid what happened to me (above right photo). Hopefully when I use the ribbon this won't be visible, but at least I'll know for next time :)

After I'd printed the first strip of stars, and the black writing on red ribbon, I changed the writing to red with a black background to print onto the white cotton.

You may also want to quickly sew the ends of the ribbon to stop fraying.

The black printing onto white ribbon turned out to be slightly grey, and it also smudged the edge of my red ribbon.

Otherwise, I'm quite happy with the result.

Please comment if something's unclear. If anyone decides to print their own ribbon, I'd love to see photos.

Red and Black Week: Diamonds and spades

My fourth entry for Sophistique Noir's Red and Black Week. I bought a dress last week, though I haven't had chance to wear it yet, and I thought the playing cards would fit well into the theme.

I saw this dress last week, and it was one of those "I have to own that" moments, when something just stays with you. Now I just need to find a time to wear it! I love playing cards and board games in general, so this is the perfect dress for me. I'm also on the lookout for accessories to match. I'd love to have earrings of all four suits to mix and match.


















I have various card games, but these are the three red and black ones in my collection. The black one is a game where you roll two mini pigs and score points depending on how they land. (I don't know the English name as it was bought in Belgium - Jeu de Cochons, or Het Biggenspel in Dutch so I guess "The Pig game").

I'm looking forward to the last day tomorrow, I have a crafty post planned. Looking forward to reading everyone else's entries!

Red and Black Week: Dalek

Welcome to my third contribution to Sophistique Noir's Red and Black Week. This was going to be a different post, but life got in the way, so instead you are treated to a photo of my red and black dalek, attacking a glue stick to give a sense of scale. He doesn't have a name yet, though I've had him since christmas, and he regularly trundles round my desk saying exterminate when turning a corner.

And to finish, here is a part of my Doctor Who book collection. There's a lot of black and the barest hint of red in there. (Apologies for the quality; it was either fuzziness or glare so I went for the former)

Red and Black week: Bookworm outfit

Did anyone else spot Stevie Wonder's black outfit with red and white during the jubilee concert last night? Even his glasses were black with what looked like red bats on the side.

Here's the only picture I could find (sourced from the Liverpool Echo website) where you can barely see the red bat. If you're in the UK, you can watch it on BBC iplayer.

So this is my second post for the Red and Black Week. I've decided to show one of my favourite tops.

This isn't a fashion blog and I'm afraid my sense of style doesn't match up to the great outfits I've seen while browsing the other blogs partaking in Sophistique Noir's event. This is just to show you the top.

I bought the bookworm top online from pindippy, a website of web series and 'stuff' run by Jessie Cave who is better known as Lavender from the Harry Potter films. It describes me perfectly, as you can see a little in the background. (There's also two rows of dvds but space is tight) It has a lovely feel, is ethically made according to the label, and as it's one-size fits all I didn't have the usual 'will it be the right size?' worry when ordering it.

Red and Black Week

I came across a post for Red and Black week on Stripy Tights and Dark Delights and thought I'd add my own contribution to the week-long event organised and led by Sophistique Noir.

So on a book-themed blog, what better way to pay homage to this lovely combination of colours than a red and black bookshelf. I own over 300 books, but in order not to subject you to an entire shelf of Stephenie Meyer whose covers are among my favourites due to their striking nature (a couple of her books still made it onto the shelf; one of them is the french version of Twilight) I hunted around for a variety.

I've included a photo below  in which most of the books are a little clearer; blame the unusually sunny weather here in Wales for the glare. I may pop down to the beach in a little while.

(The little red book is the Harry Potter book: Fantastic beasts and where to find them, and the slanted book is Lady Cottington's Pressed Fairy Book)

Are any of these books on your shelf?

Melodic Monday #2

I promise I have plans for a longer blog post. I can walk about my room again, but I still can't see surfaces so bear with me while I organise the chaos that is my room.

To recap this meme: Each Monday (I'll try to make it each Monday anyway) I will post a music video which will be in some way related to books. Some songs will be very obviously 'bookish', others might be a bit obscure. The link could be anything, something in the video itself, the lyrics, etc.

This weeks video is Nemo by Nightwish. One of my favourite songs by a favourite group. These guys are Finnish as well, which is where I'm going this summer! I'd call them melodic rock (I'm sure there's a specific word for their genre) Anyway, enjoy and try to spot the literary link.

If you want to take part:

• Post a music video that in some way links to the theme of your blog (or if it's a general theme, choose a subject)
• Link back to this blog in your post to say where the meme comes from.
• Comment and include a link to your post and I'll pop along and try to guess the link in your song.

Delain and unpacking

My room (and my brother's room which I'm using at extra storage space while it's empty) look like a bomb has hit them. I'm moved back from uni at the weekend, and somehow the wardrobes and drawers are already too full.

On the plus side, while searching for the envelope I need to hand my old house's keys in tomorrow I found my £10 voucher for Waterstones; another excuse to buy some more books, not that I often need one.

Saying that, I've managed to buy 10 books and two magazines over the past few days, I'll post a picture after I get back from my two day trip to uni.

In yesterday's song, the band's name is actually related to books. Delain is the name of a realm in Stephen King's series "The Dark Towers", and "The Eyes of the Dragon" is set entirely within Delain. I'll confess to not having read a Stephen King book yet; it's on my to-read list. I'd quite like to complete the challenge of reading all my already-bought unread books first.

Melodic Monday

I've seen memes on other book blogs, so I thought I'd try creating one.

Each Monday (I'll try to make it each Monday anyway) I will post a music video which will be in some way related to books. Some songs will be very obviously 'bookish', others might be a bit obscure. The link could be anything, something in the video itself, the lyrics, etc.

I shall leave it up to anyone to guess, otherwise I'll tell you in my next post.

Today's video is Get The Devil Out Of Me by Delain. (They're brilliant live, by the way)

Comment with what you think the link is.



If you want to take part:

• Post a music video that in some way links to the theme of your blog (or if it's a general theme, choose a subject)
• Link back to this blog in your post to say where the meme comes from.
• Comment and include a link to your post and I'll pop along and try to guess the link in your song.

Eurovision!

I love watching Eurovision each year. Usually I'll print off a scorecard to rank the countries, and then settle down for a three hour marathon of silliness and the odd catchy song.

Sweden definitely deserved to win. I loved the song, Euphoria by Loreen, yet the dancing is bizarre; it seems to be interpretation but only vaguely ties in with the lyrics. Check out the 'crab steps' at 0:55.

But wait.....this post has a link to books. Cyprus had a europop catchy song titled La La Love, sung by Ivi Adamou; not the best vocals but not the worst song on the night. And....... they are dancing on a table made out of books. Now I can't work out how this is relevant to the song apart from the backing dancers whose clothing may be based on school outfits. But here's the song for your enjoyment anyway (or not depending on your musical tastes).

Who was your favourite?

What I'm reading....

As far as predators go, I find Red Kites quite cool.

My university isn't far from a Red Kite feeding station, so last weekend as a revision break I went down to the site with my Mum. They feed the birds in the afternoon to encourage natural hunting in the morning, and there was a cafe (no trip is complete without something sugary and a cup of tea - in this case: cream tea)

Until about 30 years ago this beautiful bird was almost extinct, and it was fascinating to watch as many as 50 of the birds performing acrobatics in order to get some meat.

The book covers a brief history of Red Kites, their plumage, where you can find them, what they eat and some lovely pictures of the book. If you ever want to find out more about them, I'd recommend this book.

Exams...

The blog will be a little inactive till Sunday, as this is my final week of exams, and on Saturday I move back home.

It seems a little strange to some of my friends but I'm really looking forward to living back at home. I'll have my card-making supplies, which were too bulky to come to uni with me, and more importantly my books.

As my spending will be curtailed until I find a job, I'll use this as a challenge to try and read all my unread books. I have a habit of going into a bookshop and buying at least one book, which then gets slotted in and lost amongst the others at home.

So to conclude, I'll be writing more next week when life has calmed down. Enjoy the sunshine.

Question time

A chance for anyone who stumbles across this corner of the internet to comment....

Do you prefer physical books or e-readers? Will the latter be the death of the former?

This is what's on my mind at the moment...

A hit of sugar......and a visitor.

It's revision time, and I've succumbed to my favourite treat: Digestive biscuits covered in a generous blob of icing. I've always joked about being a sugar addict but according to this article it may be possible.

Plus....I appear to have had a visitor. No-one, as far as I knew, was aware of this blog so whoever you are, thank you for making me smile.

A picture is worth a thousand words?

I am a comic convert. They are a stereotype of geeks (and I don't like the negative implications of that word either, though I like the actual word - why not say geek and imagine a cool knowledgable cultured person?) and in the past i've thought they're nice for a quick read but not worth searching out.

Growing up I loved collecting Meg Cabot's books and my copy of Avalon High was well-loved. So when a sequel was announced, I duly bought it as soon as it came out.

Yet after reading the book in about half an hour, I felt disappointed and let down. The story didn't seemed to progress much, especially compared to the first book, and as a 16 year old whose only income was pocket money, £8 seemed a lot of money.

(Note: I have searched on the internet and it turns out there are two further 'manga' books that I missed after becoming disillusioned with the first.)

I spent my childhood devouring thick fantasies such as The Sword of Shannara by Terry Brooks, with the occassional glance at comics such as Peanuts, so maybe the attraction of this particular genre passed me by...

I have recently begun to read 'Vampire Knight' and I have now bought Volumes 1 to 5 and to my mind it is worth the money. It's a different slant to the now overhyped 'Twilight Vampire' and the characters are beautifully drawn. It's also interesting to read into the emotions and how the picture is set up to get the story.

I do read manga faster, but it's a nice experience to slow down and really look at the story. I'm looking forward to the upcoming Doctor Who/Star Trek Crossover Comic due out in October. Though a novel containing my two favourite series would be even better...

Naming a blog....

I've read many a time that choosing a blog name is important; I wanted to choose something book-related as this is what I wish to write about (among other things).

It appears many many people have got there before me and come up with brilliant and witty titles.
I visited this ranking site to see what was already out there and my favourite title on the list is Omnivoracious.
(I also googled potential names to see if someone already had that blog out there)

Nightwish are one of my favourite bands, and there you have my blog name, with the small change to mountains as.....there was already a blog with the song title.

If ever they made soundtracks for books, this would make a good "final charge to the death" song.

As for linking to books, although it doesn't include the specific word I hope it puts you in mind of a story set in a different world far far away....