I read a book (or two!)

I have been slowly and steadily reading these past few months. Every train trip (which are rare) allows me the opportunity for audiobook listening, and after my marathon Tour de France knitting, I felt the need to knit a bit less each day and spend some time reading an actual book!

And I managed to finish two books in quick succession, one on audio and the other on paper. It helped that the latter was Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - anyone who's read a Harry Potter book knows they are a fairly quick read! I have read it before, but with the last movie coming out, and all the advertising for it, I felt the need to revisit it. And enjoyed it just as much as the first time, perhaps more, because I wasn't reading it in such a hurry to find out what happened!

The audiobook was most enjoyable! Nella Last's War, a wonderful collection of the wartime diaries of Nella Last, an "ordinary" British woman who participated in the UK's Mass Observation Project (where the diaries are held). It was recently adapted for TV, called "Housewife, 49", which is how she headed up her first entry. The book gives an amazing insight into the experiences of women in the UK during WWII, the impact of rationing, and of course the impact of deaths and injuries to so many, not just those in the field of war, but also at home. Nella also displays amazing insights into the impact of war on women (not always approvingly) and has a real eye for detail and a way with words. The audiobook was read wonderfully by Carole Boyd. I found this book a real delight, and enjoyed it very much. I highly recommend it!

I read a book!

I read a book this month! Yes, that makes 2 whole books for 2011 (so far!). Heh!

(I am in the process of reading others though...)

It was this one:

Yes, a knitting book. But not just any knitting book, this one (a lovely christmas gift from Bells) is more like a ramble through Elizabeth Zimmerman's crazy amazing knitting mind, her fishing and other adventures with her "Old Man" and a bunch of pithy patterns for various knitterly goodness.

I already had the little green paperback edition of the Knitter's Almanac, but had never really read it, apart from bits of the February chapter, with the famed February Baby Sweater. But this edition, the commemorative edition, is a hardback with lovely colour photos of the patterns, along with the also-famous February Lady Sweater, and a lovely introduction from Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, who found a knitting soul-mate in EZ and this book in particular.

I'm really glad I've now read it all, not least because it's really entertaining. I can only aspire to the level of creativity (or unventing) of EZ, but at least I can knit her patterns. I especially like the blanket in the April chapter - it looks great knitted up in Noro (I assume) - and has such a clever construction.

I think it's a book every knitter should own, and I'd recommend the fancy version, even if you've already got the paperback!

Today I read a book!

I have always loved reading. And been a voracious reader. It's funny though, I don't remember my parents reading to me, all I can remember is always reading. If I had nothing else, then I'd read the cereal box as I ate breakfast. Backwards (I mean, I'd read the words backwards - either each word or each paragraph - not eat breakfast backwards. Because that would be weird).

As a child, one of my favourite things to do was to go to the local library every other Saturday morning with my dad, where we'd return a stack of books each and then borrow another stack of books. And of course at school English was one of my favourite subjects and I continued the reading through university with a major in English Literature.

And then I started knitting. And since then, I've all but stopped reading (but haven't quite stopped buying books!). I do sometimes listen to audiobooks, and I use audible.com. But true to myself, I've managed to buy a lot more audiobooks than I've actually listened to. So I've got a lot of unread books on my physical and internetty shelves, just waiting for that "one day". I've decided it's time to make that "one day" be every day, or at least every other day.

One of my new favourite places to read is in the backyard, when the yard is in shade towards the end of the day. I lug out a quilt, a book, the baby, and some baby toys and if I'm really lucky, I get a few pages in while Connor plays and watches the trees and the birds fly overhead (only the birds fly, not the trees, they don't fly. Because that would be weird).

Today I finished reading a book. Not the one in the photo, I'm still going on that. No, today I finished reading a trashy novel - one of my (not so) secret indulgences is the occasional trashy novel. Dead in the Family by Charlaine Harris, the 10th book in the Sookie Stackhouse (aka True Blood) series. Easy to read, relatively well-written (for trashy novels) and entertaining! I recommend the series if you like that sort of thing!

I'm going to keep a booklist in the sidebar, just out of interest. I'll be pretty happy if I can get a book, or maybe two, read each month. Not a lot, I know, but it will be more than I read last year!