vivdunstan

Had a very long dream just now, where Martin and I went into a secondhand bookshop in St Andrews - this made up secondhand bookshop in South Street (not the real one as was!) is a recurrent thing in my dreams, at least until now. And this time they were closing down and had a "Pay £15" at the door, then get as many books as you want for no extra cost deal. So I got dozens of books. History books, computing history ones, gamebooks, children's fiction, an amazing bound Dickens, so many Gaelic books, and so much more. It was a very good dream 😜

Crikey I so wanted to type 2024 there haha!

I've got off to a flying start this year, partly with 2 books that were hang overs from before, but also a quick read for my book club. But then I also quickly read 3 other books that had been hanging around for too long, and I wanted to pass on to charity shops. I'd previously started reading a couple of them.

1. An Academy for Liars by Alexis Henderson
2. Don't Touch My Hair by Emma Dabiri
3. Days at the Morisaki Bookshop by Satoshi Yagisawa
4. Egyptian Myths: Meet the Gods, Goddesses, and Pharaohs of Ancient Egypt by Jean Menzies
5. Tutankhamun: The Treasures of the Tomb by Zahi Hawass
6. ABBA: The Treasures by Ingmarie Halling and Carl Magnus Palm

An Academy for Liars is a dark academia book, with rather a lot of violence and gore added to the mix. It was ok, but I had to push to keep reading it to the end. 3/5 stars.

Don't Touch My Hair by Emma Dabiri was an incredible insight into the experience and history of black hair. A strong 4/5 stars.

Days at the Morisaki Bookshop was another 3/5 star read for me. Ok, mostly, but a rather odd writing style, and an unexpected and lengthy shift away from the cosy bookshop setting mid way through. 3/5 stars.

Egyptian Myths by classical historian and YouTuber Jean Menzies was an entertaining and informative text, full of striking large format illustrations from Katie Ponder. I did find the order and structure a little confusing in places, but I learned a lot. 4/5 stars.

Tutankhamun: The Treasures of the Tomb is a large format coffee table book, filled with huge photographs and details of many hundreds of items from Tutankhamun's tomb. The items chosen are a selection carefully curated by Zahi Hawass, and it's not exhaustive. But for what you did get it was jaw dropping, including multi-page folding out large photographs. Both Martin and I were stunned by parts. 5/5 stars.

ABBA: The Treasures is a large format squidgy book telling much of the story of ABBA in photographs, reminiscences, and reproductions of paper ephemera connected with them, tucked into folders inside that you open up and work through the contents of. It's a nice book, but a rather narrow perspective on their life, focusing mainly on some of their 1970s international tours, which one of the authors accompanied them on. I did feel that I was missing out on the wider story. But the folders of paper ephemera were a delight. I was particularly amused by the customs list, for the Australian tour I think, including a "piano accordion". 4/5 stars.

Finished loads more books, and just wrapped up my 50th book of the year. I'd set a very modest Goodreads reading goal of 25 books this year. I knew I was intending to read a lot of lengthy books. But I've more than doubled it.

Among the new books, Steeple Chasing was a fun glimpse into church architecture, history and people. Though probably overlong. It did feel like a slog after a while.

Of course I reread Roger Zelazny's Halloween delight! And enjoyed it as much as every year.

Clanlands, by two Outlander actors (one also a hobbit) was fun, and often really insightful into Scottish history. But overly blokey for me.

Mario's Butt was an entertaining perspective on video game characters and design. Though an easier read for those games I was familiar with, having played myself, or watched Martin play.

The Insomniacs After School manga series continues to be enchanting. I already have the next two volumes in hand, ready to continue reading.

Travis Baldree's followup (well more a prequel) to Legends & Lattes was fun, but didn't quite hit the high spots of his earlier book. But a charming fantasy setting, with added bookshop content.

( earlier books... )
1. Steeple Chasing: Around Britain by Church by Peter Ross
2. A Night in the Lonesome October by Roger Zelazny
3. Clanlands: Whisky, Warfare, and a Scottish Adventure Like No Other by Sam Heughan and Graham McTavish
4. Things I Learned from Mario's Butt by Laura Kate Dale
5. Insomniacs After School (manga) volume 4 by Makoto Ojiro
6. Bookshops & Bonedust by Travis Baldree

Had a lovely trip there today. Our hopes were to get to Toppings bookshop, lunch at the Cheesy Toast Shack at the East Sands, then the Wardlaw Museum (University of St Andrews) for their Alien Worlds temporary exhibition. We managed all that, plus bonus ice cream at Jannettas. All despite the Lammas Fair being partly underway. My Blue Badge helped me park despite that. Home now. I will be felled tomorrow and Sunday after this. But so happy I made it. St Andrews is a very special place for both my husband and me.

Here are some photos from the day.

Current reading. It dropped on my Kindle at midnight, though I was asleep soon after. Now three chapters through, and enjoying it. It's book 5 in Deborah Harkness's "A Discovery of Witches" series of books. I also have a signed copy coming from Toppings. I'm not going to rush reading it, and will savour it.

Going to start a running list of these, in case any of the titles interest others. Happy to answer questions. I'm expecting a modest list of books read this year, so this list isn't going to get gargantuan.

1. Wenceslas: A Christmas Poem by Carol Ann Duffy
2. The Children of Hurin by JRR Tolkien
3. The Incomplete Framley Examiner
4. Once Upon A Tome: The Misadventures of a Rare Bookseller by Oliver Darkshire
5. The Stardust Thief by Chelsea Abdullah
6. The Art Thief by Michael Finkel