March 2022

March. Fun fact – or, at the least, fact – I was born on the 42nd anniversary of Joseph Stalin’s death. I didn’t know it at the time of course. Unfortunately it was also the 42nd anniversary of Prokofiev’s death, the 32nd of Patsy Cline’s (who died in 1963 at just 30 years old) and

My Favourite Speech in Shakespeare

I have quite recently – as in: moments ago – come to the conclusion that my “desert island book” would be a “complete works” of William Shakespeare. Hardly, I know, the most original choice. Any edition, I suppose, would do. But I’d be more than content to stick with the one I have now; a

Are You a Cruciverbalist?

There are certain joys in language. One of them, for example, is discovering the meaning of a word you don’t know with reference to other words (or etymology). If you have never seen Season 20, Episode 6 of The Simpsons, when Lisa becomes a ‘cruciverbalist’, you might not know what that means. You could easily,

What I Talk About When I Talk About Favourites

I think, in my quest to post more frequently, that I am going to aim for three posts a week – on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. I will not, of course, feel obliged to only post three times a week, should the mood strike me.  I had no idea what I’d be writing about today

Dogs, Mine to be Precise

“If you don’t have a dog – at least one – there is not necessarily anything wrong with you, but there may be something wrong with your life.” – Vincent Van Gogh* It is a scientific fact that anyone who has a dog would rather be talking about their dog than anything else. The slightest

Six Future Rereads

Despite being embarrassingly behind on my reading this year, and knowing that can only be remedied by actually reading, I have become expert at putting off today what I can do tomorrow – and tomorrow and tomorrow. Thus, instead of reading, I present this post. Procrastination aside, a constant threat to my reading plans, to

A Quick Thought

You’ll frequently hear a book described as “hard to put down” or “unputdownable”. For many books that’s a hell of a compliment – you’re compelled to keep reading. This can be true of both fiction and non-fiction. But, I had not even finished the introduction to my current read – Why the West Rules –

“The Bookworm’s BookTag!”

IdleEmma , at ‘Rambles by the Puddleside’, by way of open invitation – the best kind of invitation, tagged me in this. IdleEmma chose the following questions, and of “the rules” my favourites are “Don’t feel bound to these rules” and “Have fun!”.  1 – What book from your childhood would you like to re-read

On Adaptations

Is the desire to write inversely proportional to the inclination to do so?  It might be for me, or it might not. I don’t know. I disappeared for a while – I last posted in May (or the start of June). There’s a sensible reason for this: I branded myself as a book blog and

A to Z of Books

Question: did you read that as “ay to zee” or “ay to zed”? Or some other strange way… “ah to zuh” perhaps? Anyway, I gather this is some sort of A – Z book doo-da. I just saw this on Classical Songbird and decided to do it myself. I loved the way Teresa explained the