My goodness! It's been FOREVER since I posted here. It's not because I haven't been reading - I read every day - but things have been a tad busy.
Lately I've been in a lot of bookstores. And recently there was the Vancouver Book Fair and Word Vancouver too! I have so many books waiting to be read - it's time for a reading weekend. Since it's also time for Dewey's 24 hour Readathon, 12 October 2013, I'm signing up.
Just finished reading C. J. Sansom's Sovereign (2006). The only unsatisfying thing about that book for me was that at 653 pages, it's too short!
For the Readathon I expect to be reading both The Aroostook War of 1839 by W.E. (Gary) Campbell (2013) about the "oft-forgotten" occupation(s) of the Aroostook River Valley1 (Maine/New Brunswick border) and The Baghdad Railway Club by Andrew Martin (2012) - poles apart, I know.
Now I've started up a Facebook page for our Lower Mainland Vancouver BC Canada Bookcrossing group too, so look for me there.
1Seriously, had you ever heard of this War before? Here are just a couple of on-line references.
The Border Dispute: How the Maine-New Brunswick border was finalized, The Upper St. John River Valley website, Chip Gagnon: http://www.upperstjohn.com/history/northeastborder.htm
"A Young Soldier's Account of the Aroostook War", The Story of Maine: http://www.mpbn.net/homestom/p13soldierswar.html
eicuthbertson's Book Blog - Thoughts on reading, on books or articles or the occasional poem I'm reading, and some shameless promotion of BookCrossing activities! as well as of the authors, books, bookstores, and libraries that I love.
Thursday, October 10, 2013
Sunday, January 22, 2012
My Reading Right Now - How and What
This week's bus book has been The End of the Line by Stephen Lagault. This is a mystery set in western Canada in the 1880s right on the Canadian Pacific Railway construction line and featuring Durrant Wallace, a North West Mounted Police Sergeant who's usually on lighter duties due to his past injuries. This is apparently the first in a future series.
The author, Stephen Legault's, website: http://stephenlegault.com
For Christmas though I was given a Kobo e-reader so I've been reading e-books on the bus too. (My Kobo's name is now Flo.) Most won't be surprised that the first book I bought was by Minda Powers-Douglas, the cemetery enthusiast extraordinaire behind The Cemetery Club website and Epitaphs Magazine. (This is just recently available as an e-book; I do already have a 'paper' copy.)
Next I bought another of her books to add to the Kobo, Translating Tombstones. I have this at home, but why not an e-book too? It could prove useful someday when Flo and I are in a cemetery and I'm peering at a new-to-me symbol.
Next, since Kobo Flo will let me read .pdf files, I loaded a number of other useful genealogy e-books already on my computer into her. Many of these are on Minnie, my netbook, too, so I can easily refer to them when teaching or answering questions.
My more recent purchase though was not to do with cemeteries at all and showed me how helpful Flo could be. Sometimes I really, really want to read a book - right quick! That was the case with Baking as Biography: A Life Story in Recipes by Diane Tye. Here's a review by Kerry Clare.
But when I checked local stores, no one had a copy available. But yes, I could download it right away and start reading. Excellent! (And yes, I ordered myself a real copy too.)
Funny though - when I eagerly opened up the book on the Kobo, I realized that the book is - backwards! Funny, and still readable, but could be very annoying.
So I did write Kobo customer service who told me to delete the book and reload it. Had to look up to find out how to delete and guess what? The 'help' section in my Kobo is also backwards.
I replied to Kobo customer service but - no reply yet.
I'm not too discouraged with the e-book idea, however the Kobo customer service thing is: Sad :-(
The author, Stephen Legault's, website: http://stephenlegault.com
For Christmas though I was given a Kobo e-reader so I've been reading e-books on the bus too. (My Kobo's name is now Flo.) Most won't be surprised that the first book I bought was by Minda Powers-Douglas, the cemetery enthusiast extraordinaire behind The Cemetery Club website and Epitaphs Magazine. (This is just recently available as an e-book; I do already have a 'paper' copy.)
Next I bought another of her books to add to the Kobo, Translating Tombstones. I have this at home, but why not an e-book too? It could prove useful someday when Flo and I are in a cemetery and I'm peering at a new-to-me symbol.
Next, since Kobo Flo will let me read .pdf files, I loaded a number of other useful genealogy e-books already on my computer into her. Many of these are on Minnie, my netbook, too, so I can easily refer to them when teaching or answering questions.
My more recent purchase though was not to do with cemeteries at all and showed me how helpful Flo could be. Sometimes I really, really want to read a book - right quick! That was the case with Baking as Biography: A Life Story in Recipes by Diane Tye. Here's a review by Kerry Clare.
But when I checked local stores, no one had a copy available. But yes, I could download it right away and start reading. Excellent! (And yes, I ordered myself a real copy too.)
Funny though - when I eagerly opened up the book on the Kobo, I realized that the book is - backwards! Funny, and still readable, but could be very annoying.
So I did write Kobo customer service who told me to delete the book and reload it. Had to look up to find out how to delete and guess what? The 'help' section in my Kobo is also backwards.
I replied to Kobo customer service but - no reply yet.
I'm not too discouraged with the e-book idea, however the Kobo customer service thing is: Sad :-(
Saturday, January 14, 2012
A New Year - New Books
Although I certainly haven't been writing much, I have been reading, believe me. And since it's a snowy day here today in Vancouver, BC, Canada, I'm hoping to read this day away.
What's on my side table for this weekend?
The Archivist's Story by Travis Holland (London: Bloomsbury, 2007). This is a novel set in 1939 Russia. Author Isaac Babel is in Lubyanka prison; a young archivist is assigned to incinerate Babel's last stories... Found at my favourite place for new books, and an independent book business, Black Bond Books in Surrey, BC. To be truthful, I picked this one up only because of the title; not many novels about archivists.
Click here for one brief biography of Isaac Babel at the Author's Calendar (written by Petri Liukkonen) and here for Babel's wife, Antonina Pirozhkova's, obituary (written by William Grimes; published in the New York Times, September 22, 2010). She spent much of her later life retrieving and ensuring his literary legacy.
The Nightmare: A Mystery with Mary Wollstonecraft by Nancy Means Wright (McKinleyville, California, USA: Perseverance Press, 2011).
Noticed this at Vancouver Public Library. Now how could I pass a mystery featuring Wollstonecraft up?
And for something quite different,
Cartographies of Time: A History of the Timeline by Daniel Rosenberg and Anthony Grafton (New York, USA: Princeton Architectural Press, 2010). According to the New York Times, this is an "eye popping" book. Certainly looks so! See a few of the book's images here as selected by the NY Times. Found on holidays in Kelowna at Mosaic Books, another great independent book shop. Look for it if you are travelling in the Okanagan this year.
What's on my side table for this weekend?
The Archivist's Story by Travis Holland (London: Bloomsbury, 2007). This is a novel set in 1939 Russia. Author Isaac Babel is in Lubyanka prison; a young archivist is assigned to incinerate Babel's last stories... Found at my favourite place for new books, and an independent book business, Black Bond Books in Surrey, BC. To be truthful, I picked this one up only because of the title; not many novels about archivists.
Click here for one brief biography of Isaac Babel at the Author's Calendar (written by Petri Liukkonen) and here for Babel's wife, Antonina Pirozhkova's, obituary (written by William Grimes; published in the New York Times, September 22, 2010). She spent much of her later life retrieving and ensuring his literary legacy.
The Nightmare: A Mystery with Mary Wollstonecraft by Nancy Means Wright (McKinleyville, California, USA: Perseverance Press, 2011).
Noticed this at Vancouver Public Library. Now how could I pass a mystery featuring Wollstonecraft up?
And for something quite different,
Cartographies of Time: A History of the Timeline by Daniel Rosenberg and Anthony Grafton (New York, USA: Princeton Architectural Press, 2010). According to the New York Times, this is an "eye popping" book. Certainly looks so! See a few of the book's images here as selected by the NY Times. Found on holidays in Kelowna at Mosaic Books, another great independent book shop. Look for it if you are travelling in the Okanagan this year.
Sunday, November 6, 2011
LibraryThing - ReadaThing - November 2011
This weekend I'm reading and reading...surprise!
But, I'm doing this as part of LibraryThing's November 100 hour ReadaThing.
My weekend books, both from my TBR shelf:
Built of Books: How Reading Defined the Life of Oscar Wilde by Thomas Wright (this seemed an appropriate choice),
and
Water Ghosts by Shawn Yang Ryan.
But, I'm doing this as part of LibraryThing's November 100 hour ReadaThing.
My weekend books, both from my TBR shelf:
Built of Books: How Reading Defined the Life of Oscar Wilde by Thomas Wright (this seemed an appropriate choice),
and
Water Ghosts by Shawn Yang Ryan.
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Dreaming of Library Tours and Books, Books, Books...
Great idea!
Joan Wickersham describes a public tour of private libraries in Concord, Massachusetts, USA, in her article, On The Shelves, October 7, 2011, Boston.com
This tour featured six libraries, apparently personal ones, and was sponsored by the Friends of the Concord Free Public Library This is an idea that could be developed in Vancouver, British Columbia, for sure, and I'd sign up quickly. I'd also love to see a tour developed for local specialized libraries. There's a number of those here.
A tip of my hat to the New England Historic Genealogical Society's The Weekly Genealogist (Vol. 14, No. 42) which mentioned this article.
The author, Joan Wickersham, blogs about books and more at: www.joanwickersham.com
Joan Wickersham describes a public tour of private libraries in Concord, Massachusetts, USA, in her article, On The Shelves, October 7, 2011, Boston.com
This tour featured six libraries, apparently personal ones, and was sponsored by the Friends of the Concord Free Public Library This is an idea that could be developed in Vancouver, British Columbia, for sure, and I'd sign up quickly. I'd also love to see a tour developed for local specialized libraries. There's a number of those here.
A tip of my hat to the New England Historic Genealogical Society's The Weekly Genealogist (Vol. 14, No. 42) which mentioned this article.
The author, Joan Wickersham, blogs about books and more at: www.joanwickersham.com
Canada Reads - True Stories - Top 40
The CBC's Canada Reads - True Stories Top 40 books have been chosen. This year, it's non-fiction only.
I can agree handily with some of these - And No Birds Sang by Farley Mowat, The Last Spike by Pierre Berton, Paper Shadows by Wayson Choy, Mordecai by Charles Foran (notice a pattern here?) but if Louis Riel: A Comic-Strip Biography by Chester Brown doesn't win, I likely will be very unhappy (again). Some may be surprised I'd say that.
Chester Brown's graphic biography of Louis Riel isn't perfect - he missed one of the 'best moments' in Canadian history, I think - and overall the academic and political emphasis on Riel has sometimes obscured the aspirations, actions and fate of his contemporaries, but Riel's is a story that resonated all across Canada during his lifetime and certainly at the time of his death, and has found expression ever since.
I've found in talking about this book that many younger-than-me Canadians know little if anything about him, or about the Northwest Rebellions. Shame! The appeal of a graphic historical biography to those who won't pick up a weightier looking book can't be underestimated in my opinion - Canadians will read this, if it's widely promoted!
One of my copies of Louis Riel is circulating throughout Canada as a BookCrossing book. Keep an eye out for it or, better yet, get yourself to an independent book shop and pick up your own copy.
I can agree handily with some of these - And No Birds Sang by Farley Mowat, The Last Spike by Pierre Berton, Paper Shadows by Wayson Choy, Mordecai by Charles Foran (notice a pattern here?) but if Louis Riel: A Comic-Strip Biography by Chester Brown doesn't win, I likely will be very unhappy (again). Some may be surprised I'd say that.
Chester Brown's graphic biography of Louis Riel isn't perfect - he missed one of the 'best moments' in Canadian history, I think - and overall the academic and political emphasis on Riel has sometimes obscured the aspirations, actions and fate of his contemporaries, but Riel's is a story that resonated all across Canada during his lifetime and certainly at the time of his death, and has found expression ever since.
I've found in talking about this book that many younger-than-me Canadians know little if anything about him, or about the Northwest Rebellions. Shame! The appeal of a graphic historical biography to those who won't pick up a weightier looking book can't be underestimated in my opinion - Canadians will read this, if it's widely promoted!
One of my copies of Louis Riel is circulating throughout Canada as a BookCrossing book. Keep an eye out for it or, better yet, get yourself to an independent book shop and pick up your own copy.
Monday, August 22, 2011
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