“Writing well means never having to say, ‘I guess you had to be there.”
Jef Mallett
[Quote supplied by the Quotations Page]
I just want to toss this one out to Ken, Susan and Hope, whose true stories (well, in Ken’s case, true-ish) make me laugh and cry. I am still reading blogs, even if I’m not posting much myself at the moment!
![[del.icio.us]](http://images.del.icio.us/static/img/delicious.small.gif){kind=small}
After featuring that lovely cushion with that interesting I’TS, how could I not smile when I saw a report about soft toy alphabet blocks with worrying misspellings? [See this article in the Guardian.] I especially like the YATCH – even more worryingly, when I tried searching the BBC News website for an article about this, using that spelling, the search brought up a few ‘real’ instances of it…
At least Morrisons are withdrawing all the blocks now (after some pushing) and offering refunds. I wonder if I can get someone to buy that cushion for me, and then take it back with a complaint about the error?
(Hey, I wonder if I can get the price of dishes in restaurants refunded by complaining about the typos on their menus? My latest favourites being pavalova and banoffe.)
Yep, I’ve back-dated this post. I did have it ready to go on the 1st, just forgot about it.
The Glasswright’s Progress and The Glasswright’s Journeyman, Mindy L Klusky. Borrowed copies, first reads.
Not bad fantasy novels, though some of the secondary characters are much more interesting than the apparent protagonist – not that that’s especially unusual.
I, Claudius, Robert Graves. BookMooched copy, first read.
It took me over 3 weeks to read this (putting it down a few times to read other things), and I can’t remember the last time it took me so long to read a (fiction) book – probably back in primary school! The first part was a bit of a slog as it took me a while to get the hang of the style; I really enjoyed it once I got into it though. Even if some of the place names tripped me up either because they were translated out of the Latin I already knew them in, and likewise for personal names which weren’t always the ones I was most familiar with.
I’m saving Claudius the God for my Italian holiday later in May…
Children of the Storm, Elizabeth Peters. Library book, first read.
The library is running out of these. I may have to put in some requests. I’ve recommended them to my dad as well…
When Will There Be Good News?, Kate Atkinson. Library book, first read.
This is another of the Richard and Judy Book Club books for this year, but it was one I would have read anyway since I really like Kate Atkinson’s stuff. I liked her more whimsical earlier work better, but this is still good.
The Dark Mirror, Juliet Marillier. Library book, first read.
A not-bad fantasy novel based around real historical people (set in 6th century Scotland).
A Fantasy Medley, edited by Yanni Kuznia. Own copy, first read.
I’ll be reviewing this some time soon – it’s a collection of four fantasy stories by Kelley Armstrong, Robin Hobb, Kate Elliott and C E Murphy.
Voice of the Gods, Trudi Canavan. Borrowed copy, first read.
The final part in the trilogy The Age of Five and a pretty good conclusion.
Total for April 2009: 8 + 0 re-reads
Ongoing total for 2009: 73 + 2 re-reads
