Travellin' Penguin

I enjoyed reading this meme by Booker Talk (here) so much I decided it would be fun to do it. I used book titles that are currently on my shelf.

Booker Talk has completed this for a few years now and I always enjoy reading her answers. She credits it to the blog post of What Cathy Reads Next (here). I had fun with this.

So, here we go!

In high school I was: A Misalliance by Anita Brookner

People might be surprised by: A Plague of Caterpillars by Nigel Barley

I will never be: A Shropshire Lad by A.E. Housman

My fantasy Job is: Fossicking for Old Books by Anthony Bruce Marshall

At the end of a long day, I need: A Reading Diary by Alberto Manguel

I hate being: a Femme Fatale by Guy Maupassant.  

I wish I had: A Garden like a Nonno by Jaclyn Crupi

My family reunions are:  Funny Ha, Ha by Paul Merton

At a party you’d find me with Grandmothers by Sally Vickers

I’ve never been to Hotel de Luc by Anita Brookner

A happy day includes: A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway

Motto I live by: Reading the World by Ann Morgan

On my bucket list is: Hindoo Holiday by Joe Randolph Ackerly

In my next life, I want to have: A dozen Dogs or So by Patrick Chalmers

 A little end of year fun.

 

I have spent the last two days at home deciding what to do with my reading and blogging next year. I listen to A Good Read podcast almost daily on BBC’s Books and Authors. Harriet Gilbert has hosted it for several years and is still going. Each episode consists of her and two guests with a range of backgrounds. .

Each person picks a book then the three people read all three books and the 30 minute podcast has them discussing the books for about 10 minutes each. What I like about it is the complete variety they read. Could be a selection of poetry, a children’s book, a crime thriller, a Booker prize winner and all things non fiction. Once in a while a participant puts up a text book!

They are very good at staying on task and the listener learns what three people think of three books. They have no idea what everyone will pick until they receive the book. Completely random outside their own selection. I have collected some recommendations from this show.

I have decided to really focus on my very large assortment of books I have at home.

The other thing I have embraced is the BookBuddy app. You can scan your books or manually add them. BookBuddy is free but I got BookBuddy Pro. It is $2.00 a month with a 10 day free trial. Pro lets you input more books but the best thing after easily scanning all 1000 of my books yesterday (yes, I removed all of them from shelves, cleaned shelves, scanned them all and reshelved) is it has a random selector. You hit the little icon, and it tells you what book has been picked.

I have a very eclectic assortment of books. Everything from current literature to classics to graphic to mystery to popular (airport reads) plus much more. I even scanned my cookbooks.

I need to get serious about the TBR pile so I will not be reading according to mood. I’m going to use the random selector and if a book comes up I will read it. If I decide I don’t want to read it, it leaves the house.

Once a book is read, for the most part, it will leave the house. The only books I will pick up outside of the house will be for reading group. That could either be a book or a Kindle or an audible.

I have quite a few cook books and to make it fun, if a cookbook comes up randomly I must make a recipe from it and share the results with you.☕️🥮

I also have many kindle books I have gathered over the years. I will choose them randomly too. So the plan will be:

1. Book club book must be read
2. Random selection from BookBuddy
3. Kindle
4. Repeat
5. I might do a few challenges and memes as they arise if they sound good but no commitment.

Last year I wasted a lot of time on social media. Binging on streaming services, etc. I am a terrible binger if involved with a show. My resolution is to read. I feel better mood wise when I read. I also don’t eat as much reading as I do watching tv.

So clean slate.

More rules.

1. If I pick a book of short stories I will choose one and talk about it.

2. Poetry? Will choose three poems to talk about.

3. Coffee table type book or photography book I will share photos from it and mention something about the topic.

What I want from 2025 is a healthier lifestyle for mind and body. Much more reading. Less streaming, less social media. More participation with other bloggers. I need to sharpen my brain. I need to keep my mood up. 2024 was often sad for a number of reasons and as Harris and Walz said in the American election: I’m not going back.

I will continue to share travel and photography as it happens but getting back to books more.

Now having said all of this I will randomly choose the first book for 2025 (drum roll):

This will make you laugh. This is the book that was selected randomly a minute ago:

How apt is that. Now I have to find it on my shelf and I’ll let you know how it goes.

Happy New Year everyone. I am looking forward to all the posts that go up at end of year.

I hope everyone is coping as Christmas approaches. Personally we don’t celebrate it anymore. Yes, we do a couple of Christmas activities with friends but no cards or decorations or gifts. I feel now, at an advanced age, it is more catching up with a few friends who elude us during busy times of the year. It is also a time to sit back, have some quiet times and relax from other activities. That includes a pile of unread books. Of course if one has children in their life, it is much different, but with only dogs and cats it is easy to have quieter times.

I also feel the loneliness of times gone by, childhood memories when our loved ones were living. I think of all those people whose families have gone and it isn’t the happy, gleeful time for those left, that the media portrays.

Enough of my holiday thoughts.

This week has been a fairly smooth and productive week. I have begun the book group’s February read by Alexis Wright, Praiseworthy. I am doing a read/listen version of it. I am enjoying the narration by Jacqui Katona, an Indigenous woman from Western Australia. She is better known as as a woman who along with Yvonne Margarula, another Aboriginal woman, who stopped a damaging uranium mine at Jabiluka, land traditionally owned by the Mirrar people and at the heart of Australia’s largest national park.

She has a perfect voice for this amazing book. I will admit it can be a difficult book to follow at times. There is so much in the 700+ pages. I love the writing and the characters are really interesting but I admit there are many parts of the story I can’t get my head around. The story is complex but I think once our book group really dives into it I will understand much more of it. So I persevere and find the read/listen method really helps.

The blurb-

Last night I went to St David’s cathedral with a couple of friends and listened to Christmas Carols. I’m not a huge fan of carols I have listened to for 7 decades but there were some I was not familiar with that I enjoyed. The orchestra was lovely. There were a few soloists including a young boy who was brilliant and I can never go past a good pipe organ with the acoustics of a cathedral. It was a pleasant evening.

Earlier in the week I was contacted by some photography friends who invited me to join them for an early morning shoot at the dog beach. We spent two hours with dogs and their owners getting action shots. We then posted them on google photos so the owners could access them. It was a beautiful summer morning and the dogs were bursting with energy. I will share a few photos below. A few of you may have seen them already on Instagram. I will be posting more as I edit them out of camera.

That is the week that was….so to speak. I hope all of you enjoy the holidays, no matter how you celebrate and here’s looking ahead to 2025!