Dreaming Novel Things: How To Prepare For The End Of A Beloved Series…

Great advice!

Dreaming Novel Things is a feature in which I discuss book related subjects, but in a creative way. I’ll use interviews, narratives and lists to talk about book trends, book opinions and bookish matters. If you have any book related subjects you’d like to see me discuss just leave me a comment below!

You wake up and it’s a normal day. You eat breakfast, brush your teeth and go on with your day like any other. You’re just coming back from your lunch hour (a little late because the line at Subway was ridiculously long) when the guy who sits in the cubicle behind you asks for the date.

You look at the calendar on your desk to check, slightly annoyed because no matter how many times you tell that guy to get a calendar he insists he doesn’t need one. Your finger searches the calendar and lands on today’s date…

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He Blinded Me With SCIENCE!

The Science Museum in London

Hello there, bloggy friends! Hope your weekend is going well. My weekend has been really nice.

Just a bit of background before I tell you about it. Mr. Buffy is a freelance cinematographer, so when work comes along, he pretty much has to take it. Well, work has been coming a long quite steadily (which is good) but a lot of that work has been happening on weekends (kind of sucky). With me working a 9 to 5 Monday through Friday job and him working something like 18 weekends in a row, we haven’t seen each other much lately. Ok, I’m being dramatic. It has only been 4 or 5 weekends in a row. It feels like a lot though.

Anyway, I was thrilled to find out that he was finishing up some work on Thursday night and would then have three days in a row where he didn’t have to work. Three days, people!

The obvious thing for me to do was to take Friday off so that we could spend them together. So I did. And we decided it would be fun to head into London for some sight-seeing and shopping.

Our first stop was the Science Museum. It’s been a few years since we last went there so off we went.

My favourite part was the space stuff. There were lots of rockets and space shuttle parts. There was even a small piece of the moon. There was a floor dedicated to genetics and what makes us who we are. There were a lot of interactive booths, mostly for kids, but we pushed them out of the way. We got to see what we would look like as elderly people. The software wasn’t really great. They pretty much just put lines on my face and gave me kinky grey hair.

I’m going to relish my role as a grumpy old lady!

The hubs pressed the button to see what he looked like as a baby and it was super creepy because it didn’t edit out his beard. I wish we had gotten a picture of that!

Anyway, after the museum, we went for lunch and then we went shopping and ended up at my favourite store: Forbidden Planet!!! I bought Wonderbook by Jeff Vandermeer because it’s gorgeous.

A must have for anyone who writes sci-fi or fantasy. and it was £2 off!

Like I said, it was a good day.

We spent Saturday at home together. We had a massive cleaning session and then chilled out. Oh and FYI to my male readers: DO NOT underestimate how attractive you are while you are cleaning the house. I’m just putting that information out there, free of charge. Do with it what you will.

So, that was my weekend. I hope yours was nice too!

Oh and here’s the video that inspired my blog title. This song runs through my head any time I think about the Science Museum.

Come back on Wednesday as I’ll have a book to talk about with you!

Book Bloggers Holiday Card Exchange 2013

I’ve just signed up to do this. Any other book bloggers out there interested?

Leeswammes' Blog

The Book Bloggers Holiday Card Exchange is organised by me at Leeswammes’ Blog and by Courtney of Stiletto Storytime. Last year, Anastasia of Birdbrain(ed) Book Blog passed the baton on to us. Anastasia is the originator and ran this very popular event for two years. Courtney and I took over last year and had another very successful event in which 80 people took part. (See here my “cards received” post from last year).

The Book Bloggers Holiday Card Exchange is an event in which book bloggers send each other a holiday card around the Christmas period (the end of December). This isn’t just for people that celebrate Christmas, though! Everyone is can join in the fun.

Info

1. Sign up for the exchange by November 29, 2013.

2. Emails with partner info go out December 4, 2013 (please check your spam folder if you didn’t get the email…

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William Shakespeare’s Star Wars as enjoyed by Leia on Halloween!

This blog post made my evening. I can’t stop smiling!

Book Jacket Letters

Just a quick note to wish everyone a HAPPY HALLOWEEN – my most favourite of all special days!

Thank you to Buffy for recommending William Shakespeare’s Star Wars – it’s hilarious and a perfect read for my Halloween Costume!

Go read Buffy’s review here:

• William Shakespeare’s Star Wars (storytimewithbuffy.wordpress.com)

Enjoy your trick and treating!

Libby

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Tell Someone “No”, Get Called a “Whore” – #StandingwithDNLee #batsignal

Well, if you haven’t heard about it yet, this happened…

Can You Survive the Zombie Apocalypse?

Gallery Books 2011

The choice is yours, and if you don’t survive, you’ve got no one to blame but yourself.

So, I was waltzing around town last weekend and decided to wander into the bookshop. Just for giggles. I wasn’t really planning on buying anything. (Yeah, right.) Anyway, I looked through the stuff that’s on sale but nothing really jumped out at me.  I went upstairs to the sci-fi/fantasy section and that’s where I found this gem. As you may know, I’m in a zombie kind of place in my life at the moment so I picked it up and had a closer look and this was my reaction: Omigod-it’s-a-choose-your-own-novel-for-ADULTS!!

And then I was really embarrassed because I was shopping by myself and I got a couple of looks.

Anyway, I bought it right away and took it home to tell my husband about it. He was out of town for the week so we were on skype and I had to show it to him. He was suitably pleased for me, but not quite as excited as I had hoped. Then he perked up because I suggested that I read it to him.

I’d like to take this moment to explain something. I’m no showboat, but I looooooove reading aloud. Personally, I think that my voice sounds ridiculous. When I hear it recorded, I cringe because I think that I sound like a cartoon character. My husband, however, thinks it’s sexy and he likes it when I read to him at night. (I’m trying not to read too much into the fact that my voice puts him right to sleep after a few pages…) Anyway, I love reading aloud because I like the way the words from a really good book roll off my tongue. There’s a rhythm to it and it’s much different hearing a book read than just reading it silently.

I thought that this one would be fun for us to read together because then we can see whether or not we make the same choices. I’m happy to report that, so far, we do. This is an important thing to find out about your partner. I feel confident that should the zombie apocalypse come to pass, we’ll be ok. We make a good team.

Anyway, we’ve started reading this book and it turns out that I was right. It’s really fun to read together. I get into it and start emoting. By the way, if you are the woman who lives above us, I would like to extend my sincerest apologies for the time I got a bit too excited and yelled “ZOMBIES! THE LIVING EFFING DEAD!” (Ok, ‘effing’ wasn’t actually the word used in the book, but I’m trying to keep it clean. Work with me, people.) I was also really proud of my newscaster impersonation. We haven’t made it through an entire story yet (apparently there are 50 different endings) but what we’ve read so far has been a lot of fun.

I actually don’t know how this book would stand up if I was reading it on my own. There are so many fragmented sentences, which is obviously used to create a sense of urgency and suspense, but I’m not a fan of that particular device. I don’t mind if there’s a sentence fragment here and there, but there are paragraphs full of them. So, I recommend that if you’re going to read this book, do so with a friend, family member or partner who will really get into it with you.

Since we’ve not made it through an entire story yet, I’m not sure how our choices affect the story. I used to read choose your own adventure stories when I was younger, but with some of them I noticed that if you consistently chose a certain option, you would get the same kind of ending. I’m not sure what the author has in store for us, but I’m looking forward to seeing whether or not we can survive.

On a completely different note, I found a very pleasant surprise the other day. In my Library Day posts I mentioned that I frequently walk to the Barbican Library during my lunch hour which is a 15 – 20 minute walk. Well, our office has moved to a different location. Luckily, I think that it might be a minute or two closer. That’s not the pleasant surprise, though.

I decided to go get some cash from the atm  during my lunch hour one day (which is right behind my building) and as I stood in the queue  I looked to my right and saw this:

I didn’t take this picture, btw.

My reaction: Wuuuuuuuuuuuut???

Yes, folks. This is the mythical branch of the Barbican Library that I knew existed, but didn’t know where the heck it was. And it’s RIGHT BEHIND MY BUILDING!!! Here’s the view onto the street from inside:

Nor did I take this one.

The atm is on the right where the dude in the business suit is standing. I’ll still shlep over to the Barbican from time to time, but if I’m having a really tough day at work, I can just take a short break and browse the shelves until I feel refreshed.This is truly exciting stuff.

No, really. This made my day ridiculously better.

On that note, I shall leave you. Let me know if you decide to read this book and whether or not you’re reading it with someone else. Ta ta for now!

Screw Statistics, I Like the Flags

Hello there, my friends. So, I haven’t finished a book lately and I’m wondering how I’m ever going to catch up. I’m only almost halfway through Under the Dome by Stephen King.

Such. A. Long. Book.

It’s really good, though. It’s one of those that would be un-put-down-able, except that I have to do things like eat, sleep, work and sustain relationships with human beings. And as much as I love to read, I’m not sure that I could read 880 pages in one sitting.

But, hey. It’s not a race is it? As long as I have other things to talk to you about, I don’t have to finish two books per week.

So, as I sit here with my strawberry/rhubarb peel-off face mask contorting my face and destroying free radicals, I’m going to talk to you about something that makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

Yep, you guessed it. The WordPress statistics page. (Wait…you didn’t guess that?)

Now before you start rolling your eyes and huffing and puffing, let me assure you that it’s not vanity that has prompted this discussion. I’m not about to proclaim my awesomeness by showing you how many people love me because I don’t actually care about the numbers. For those of you who don’t have a WordPress blog, I’ll tell you that WordPress gives us our very own statistics page which features a map and flags. WordPress compiles all of the views of your blog by country.

I can’t even begin to tell you how exciting this is to me. No, I’m not joking.

When I was a little girl, my parents got this huge atlas from National Geographic and I loved that thing so much. I would look at the world and plan all of my trips. Oh it was wonderful! I also went through an artsy stage of my life in my pre-teens when I used to draw a lot. I had this great idea once to draw a map of Africa and then draw the flags on each country so that they fit within the borders. I loved that picture so much and then I started doing Europe but then I got distracted and never finished it. Much like I’m doing now…

Anyway, I love maps and I love flags. I love that a group of people can be united under one piece of fabric. I must admit that whenever I see someone waving around the flag of their country, I feel a tiny bit jealous that it’s not my flag. (Unless it is my flag and then it’s ok.) So yes, I suffer from flag envy. I want all of them to be mine. Mwahahahaha!

Ok, so back to my statistics. Here is what my all-time statistics page looks like as of today:

Just look at all of those flags!!!! I was ridiculously excited to see this feature when I first started my blog. My husband sometimes gets random texts from me saying things like “I’ve got Viet Nam!” or “Sri Lanka is mine!”.

Please take this moment to feel a little bit sorry for him while I go peel off the strawberry/rhubarb mask.

Ok, I’m back and feeling refreshed. And tingly.

Where was I? Right, flags. Now, there are quite a few countries represented where I actually, physically know someone who lives there. There are also a few countries here who are represented by people I’ve met on my bloggy travels. But there are a few that I’m reasonably sure that I don’t know anyone either in real life or in the blogosphere. I find that fascinating.

I guess this was a really long-winded way of me saying that whatever country you are in right now, thank you for reading my blog. I appreciate you.

Is August over yet??

Hello, my friends. Please excuse the plaintive tone of my title, but August and I aren’t getting along. At all.

Those of you who have been keeping up with my blog will know that I’m feeling a bit stretched this month. Lots of stuff going on. I was doing really well with getting up early to work on my novel for a half hour every morning and doing my studying in the evening. Last week, I had a bit of a panic (as you’ll know from Wednesday’s post) and have decided to stop writing in the morning and to study instead.

This worked very well until Thursday.

Thursday, I started feeling dizzy and feverish so I decided to stay at home from work. I thought that I was feeling unwell because I’ve been burning the candle at both ends for the past few weeks and it finally caught up with me. Surely a day in bed would revitalise me and I would be back to work and study as usual the next day.

Alas, my bloggy brethren. ‘Twas not to be.

I woke up the next morning feeling worse. There was nothing for it but to head off to the surgery to see what could be done. The good doctor told me that I have an upper respiratory infection which was triggering my vertigo.

Fun stuff.

She gave me a course of antibiotics and something to quell the dizziness. So, I’ve spent the past couple of days feeling drugged and apathetic.

Not to worry, dear friends, but I’ve had this for company:

LM2 London market insurance principles and practices. Written and edited by Satan.

And I bet you thought I wouldn’t have a book to discuss.

Anyway. I’ve been taking my antibiotics and have been feeling marginally better. (Did I mention that my exam is next Friday???) Strangely enough, I feel that the material I’m studying is finally sinking in so I feel that I’ll do ok. I’m just being dramatic.

Speaking of drama, I have to tell you a quasi-related story. I was at the pharmacy waiting for my feel-better pills and I noticed a shady looking character who was wandering around. I couldn’t tell if he sounded drunk or just thick (it’s a mean thing to say but he was being needlessly rude to the staff). He was shuffling around aimlessly after one of the staff promised to help him after she’d put my prescription in.

I sat down to wait on the other side of the room from the counter and noticed him perusing the shelves. As I watched, he took out a little plastic shopping bag and started filling it full of stuff from the shelves.

Have you ever had one of those moments where you are absolutely certain that you can’t be seeing what you’re actually seeing? Where you’re frozen to the spot because surely there’s a reasonable explanation for what’s happening? Sadly, this was not the case.

Once it sunk into my thick skull that the guy was aggressively shoplifting whatever would fit in his bag, I looked to the staff to see if anyone had noticed and prepared to make my way to the counter if they hadn’t.

One of the staff had noticed and the man was subsequently confronted by a dainty, 5 foot-nothing woman. Ok, she was probably taller than that but he looked quite imposing as he tried to push past her. She wasn’t having it and at one point they were facing off right in front of me.

This is how I felt:

Unfortunately, my brain had switched itself from ‘feisty’ mode to ‘self-preservation’ mode. My first thought was that if the guy started swinging, he wasn’t going to hit this ballsy little woman. He was going to hit me. I was also thinking that if he was willing to steal in the broad light of the morning, he must be prepared to defend himself in some way and I wasn’t willing to be in the cross-fire and possibly get stabbed over some stolen boxes of decongestant.

Luckily, the situation was quickly diffused. The bag was handed over to the staff and the would-be shoplifter was ejected from the building.

I went home and crawled back into bed, which is where I’ll be if you need me.

Wednesday catch-up

Soooo, this is awkward. It’s Wednesday and I don’t still don’t have a book to tell you about. Do you know what this means? It means that I’ve been reading THE SAME BOOK for OVER a week!! Oh my days…

Luckily, I’m not behind on my Goodreads goal of reading 61 books this year. In fact, I’m still 11 books ahead of  schedule so we don’t have to panic. Yet.

Anyway, not having a book to talk about means that I’ll just have to talk to you about me. (Sorry…)

Something cool happened last Wednesday that I completely neglected to mention to you. I met one of my Goodreads friends, in person, for lunch! We struck up a friendship on Goodreads and it progressed to the point where we exchanged email addresses and would talk about our writing. It was really exciting having another writer that I really connected with and we bounced ideas off of each other. After getting to know each other through email and eventually facebook, we finally swapped writing. I can’t begin to tell you how huge of a step this was for me. Until that point, I hadn’t let anyone I wasn’t married to read my writing.

It turned out that she was visiting London last week. Of course it coincided with what is turning out to be the busiest part of my year, but we managed to coordinate schedules and have lunch. It was so much fun! I wished that I could have met her in the evening and had more time to talk, but I’ve really been pushing myself to study every night so we had to settle for lunch. But, even so, it was a lovely way to spend an afternoon and I’m really glad we both made the effort to meet up.

So, I’ve been studying like a crazy woman and none of it feels like it’s sinking in. There’s so much information in a such a small amount of time. Nine days until the exam. Yikes! I’ll be taking my exam at the same time with two of my colleagues and we’re all entering panic mode. One of them quizzed me on some of the information yesterday and I drew a complete blank. Not to worry, though. Four out of the nine days include a weekend, a Bank holiday and a study day. I should be ok.

I guess that’s every thing.

Before I sign off, I wanted to give a shout out to a few other bloggers I’ve been following. I’ve really been loving the atmosphere here on WordPress and have met some of the nicest people. So here are the top 6 people who have commented on my blog:

H. Anthe Davis http://warofmemory.wordpress.com/

ManofYesterday http://manofyesterday.wordpress.com/

Claudia McGill http://claudiamcgill.wordpress.com/

Revolution For Breakfast http://revolutionforbreakfast.com/

Erica Dakin http://theftandsorcery.wordpress.com/

Lindseysurratt http://swimlindsey.wordpress.com/

Please check out their blogs. They are readers, writers, poets and just really nice people. Oh, and they’re actually talking about books/writing. *Hangs my head in shame*

I guess now we’re all caught up. I will definitely have a book to talk about for Sunday. Thanks for sticking with me through these difficult times.

 

My Saturday of Culture and Geekiness

So, I don’t actually have a book to talk about this Sunday. Again. I’ve got about 2 weeks until I take my exam for work so, as I mentioned last week, that’s where all of my energies are focused. Urgh…

Anyway, I took an afternoon off from studying on Saturday to spend some much needed quality time with the hubs. We ventured into the vast wilds of London in search of culture and unadulterated geekiness.

Our first stop was the National Gallery. If you aren’t familiar with it, here it is: 

(I didn’t take this picture yesterday, by the way. We go here often. I don’t know why I felt the need to tell you that, but there you are.)

Here’s the view if you’re standing with your back to the National Gallery: 

We like to visit every now and then when we feel like we need some inspiration. There’s some really cool stuff in there. This time I felt like the impressionists were really speaking to me. Not literally, just so we’re clear. I just really felt drawn to them. Perhaps that style of art represents what my life is like at the moment: messy but beautiful.

I feel that I have to tell you that I know next to nothing about art. I like looking at it, but I don’t have anything profound to say about it. So, I bought postcards of these paintings to remind me of a couple that really moved me.

The Boulevard Montmartre at Night by Camille Pissarro (from National Gallery website)

A Wheatfield, with Cypresses, 1889 by Vincent van Gogh (from the National Gallery website)

After the National Gallery, we went to Forbidden Planet which is my most favourite shop in the whole world. It’s full of wonder, geekiness and so much win! We probably spent as much time there as we did in the National Gallery. No, I’m serious. We perused shelves full of comic books, many of which I’ve earmarked for Christmas. Then on to the books. *sigh* The books.

The past two weeks I’ve been such a good girl, studying hard like I should, but I can’t even begin to tell you how much I miss reading books for fun. Half an hour before bed each night is not even close to being enough time to read!  I’m suffering from withdrawal and an intense envy every time I see someone reading a book for fun. I must soldier on. Only two more weeks…

I’m sure that you can imagine, given the above information, how sad it made me to walk through the shelves and look at all of the books that I won’t be reading in the next two weeks.

Poor me.

However, I did treat myself to a sliver of awesomeness to dull the ache. Feast your eyes on this!

 

Now my oyster card can travel in style! (For those of you unfamiliar with the oyster card, it’s how we Londoners get around on the buses and underground.) I would have preferred a card featuring Lumpy Space Princess, but alas, they didn’t have one. This one is really amazing, though, as I do love Lady Rainicorn and it makes me smile every time I use it.

It was a lovely way to while away a Saturday afternoon.

Hopefully I will have a book to talk to you about on Wednesday. I’m halfway finished with one, so the outlook is positive.

Anyway, I must go study.