Week 4 - 6 books down, 46 to go!

It's been a bit of an odd week - really busy both at work and in the evenings. This has cut severely into my reading time - grabbing 10 or 15 mins over breakfast or before bed. However, have managed to finish another book. It's Confessions of a GP, by Benjamin Daniels (a pseudonym), which I have read as an Ebook on my Kindle. This has turned out to be a great book for my hectic week as it has really short chapters, each giving an incite into the daily routine of a GP and his thoughts on everything and anything that he comes across from the many hundreds of patients that he has seen in his time as a doctor (from medical school through to GP-dom), as well as thoughts on how to improve things within the NHS! We flit from care in the community, to a woman obsessed with Tom Jones, to STD's and sore knees - with the odd smattering of people who are just lonely and need a bit of a chat. Bringing to light the random, unexpected, and sometimes dangerous nature of being on the frontline for people who GP's only tends to see when they are not at their best! A very interesting read - funny, tragic, thought-provoking ... it's all there. If nothing else, it serves to remind you that GPs are human beings with their own lives, loves, likes and dislikes. I'll certainly remember that the next time I visit my local surgery.

The stats bit:
Length - 560 kbs (Ebook); 336 pages (standard print).
Price I paid - £2.99 (Amazon Kindle Shop).
Other formats available in - print; audio cassette; audio CD; audio download.

Week 3: 5 books down, 47 to go!

Yes indeedie, another book tucked under my belt this morning. The 5th book to be completed is Restless, by William Boyd (on audio). This is a gripping tale of a young Franco-Russian women, who is sucked into the life of a wartime secret agent, but who can never really leave the "spy" behind her. The past and present come together when she reveals this other life to her grown up daughter - who then has to question everything she ever thought she knew about her mother. This was a great read - in audio form the narration by Rosamund Pike is pitch-perfect - and gathered pace the further into the book you went, sucking you in so that you just wanted to keep on reading. From the very opening quote from Marcel Proust, your brain starts ticking over and wondering where this book is going to take you. Well worth the journey ... I might have to read more by Mr Boyd!

As a special treat - here's the opening quote from Marcel Proust to get your head round ...

"We may indeed say that the hour of death is uncertain, but when we say this we think of that hour as situated in a vague and remote expanse of time. It does not occur to us that it can have any connection with the day that has already dawned, and can mean that death may occur this very afternoon. So far from uncertain. This afternoon, whose timetable, hour by hour, has been settled in advance. One insists on one's daily outing ,so that in a months time one will have had one's daily ration of fresh air. One has hesitated over which coat to take, which cab man to call. One is in the cab, the whole day lies before one. Short, because one must be back home early as a friend is coming to see one. One hopes it will be as fine again tomorrow, and one has no suspicion that death, which has been advancing within one on another plain, has chosen precisely this particular day to make its appearance in a few minutes time."

The stats bit:

Length - 10 hours 15 mins (Audio); 336 pages (standard print).
Price I paid - £0.00 (free from Audible via a newspaper offer).
Other formats available in - print; audio CD; Ebook (Kindle).

Day 20 - slowly but surely

Restless, by William Boyd (audio) is fairly bowling along now - loving the intrigue of the "mother as spy" part ... really getting into the characters and trying to imagine my own mum dropping such a bombshell on me! Maybe not such a far-fetched idea, as she has admitted to smuggling a few pounds of butter over the border (can't tell you where) on her bicycle in her youth (can't tell you when ... don't know what the statute of limitations might be for such a heady crime).

Meanwhile, The Path of Daggers, by Robert Jordan (print) is taking a little while to get going. I'm hoping that it's just because it's quite a while since I read the previous book in this Wheel of Time series, as opposed to the book itself - I will persist - though I'm, already on page 68 and our hero(?) Rand Al'Thor - or the "Dragon Reborn" to Wheel of Time fans - hasn't made an appearance yet! I think I just need a good run at it - some books are like that. Here's hoping.

Day 19 - it's all slowed down!

Oh dear, I think I have been a prophet of my own doom! Got so excited that I was ahead of target last week ... as they say ... pride comes before a fall. I seem to have veered straight out of he fast lane onto the hard shoulder. I've had a busy few days - having committments in the evening on top of work that my reading windows have been very small - mostly confined to last hing at night where I can barely get more than a couple of pages under my belt before I snooze away. This was particularly the case two nights ago when my eyes were too tired to read, so I popped on my audio book - but kept drifting off, emitting little snores. Despite the repeated elbows from my dear hubby, I had to give up - as I kept having to rewind back to pre-snooze! Not that the audio book I'm reading is dull - far from it - it's called Restless, and it's by William Boyd. I'm really enjoying it so far. It's about a mother finally letting her daughter into her confidence that she was a spy prio to and during the second world war. So, part memoir, part family saga, its flitting between the mother in her spying days, and the daughter as she reacts to each new revelation. I've also just started The Path of Daggers, by Robert Jordan in print - this is Book 8 of The Wheel of Time series. This fantasy series follows the epic adventures of a lowly country boy who, it tunrs out, will either be the saviour, or the destroyer of the world. Magic, strange beasts, disparate strangers thrown together to form unlikely alliances, plots, love and many a fight ... all the classic ingredients of a fantasy adventure story. I have been reading this series over the last couple of years and am persisting with it as I hate to start anything without finishing it. And so, onwards, work is calling so I must flee.

Day 15 - I'm on a roll!

Status update - 4 books completed, 48 books and 50 weeks to go.

Feeling a little smug as I'm ahead of the game at the moment - though there are some chunky books in my "to read" pile, so it's probably just as well I am! Had an epic read this morning (Saturday), listening to the wind lashing the treetops in the garden and the gentle snores of hubby who seems to have a touch of sleeping sickness today! So, took the opportunity to keep going, and complete, Dancing Backwards, by Sally Vickers, which I read in PRINT format.

My big sister gave me this for Christmas and, having never read anything by this Liverpudlian author, I had no preconceptions or expectations before picking it up. This is the story of Violet Hetherington, an ex-poet, who we travel with, both in the present and the past, while she's on board a transatlantic cruise heading to New York. Each passing day reveals more about the reason for her voyage, and offers a chance for a deeper understanding of who she really is and a chance to recapture a friendship she had lost many years ago. It may be a read pitched more to the female of the species, but I still recommend this as a book you won't regret spending a few hours with. PLUS, I now know the origin of various phrases such as footloose, chock-a-block, and "let the cat out of the bag".

The stats bit ...

Dancing Backwards, by Sally Vickers
Length: 264 pages (print); 6 hours, 46  mins.
Price I paid: £0.00 (Christmas pressie).
Other formats available: Audio CD, Audio Download, Ebook (Kindle)

Day 13 and 3 books down (49 to go)

Finished my first ebook last night, and it was a very quick read - Fup, by Jim Dodge. This is as unusual tale of a whiskey drinking ninety-nine year old granddaddy called Jake, his fence-building grandson, Tiny, and how their lives are heavily influenced by Fup, the duck they raise from a bedraggled chick. Definitely NOT a children's fable, it has great set pieces and touching moments of humanity among all it's characters, no matter how feathery or not they are! I won't ever be able to think about a drive-in movie without thinking about this book - where everyone turns out to be a film critic whether they talk or quack. Can highly recommend this tale that will make you laugh, consider your mortality and view mallards in a brand new way. An absolute peach - you won't regret spending an hour with these three, and even though you might only spend a short time with them - they'll stay with you longer than many others you meet!

So, onto the stats:

Length - 133kbs (96 pages in print).
Price I paid - £1.00 (special offer from Kindle).
Other formats available - print.

Status: 2 books down, 50 to go!

Just finished The Girl Who Played With Fire, by Stieg Larsson (paper format). This is the second in the Millenium Trilogy written by this Swedish journalist by trade who tragically died before his books took the world by storm. Featuring Lisbeth Salander - the type of heroine that you probably wouldn't want to meet on a dark knight - and Mikael Blomkvist, a journalist with ideals (no, really!) and quite a gentle nature. Two oddballs thrown together in the first book are found to be poles apart at the beginning of this one. Whereas The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (the first book) takes Mikael as its focal point, Played With Fire definitely puts Lisbeth centre stage. Now we get a chance to learn more about the mysterious, social outcast, with a penchant for everything your mother would hate! Featuring such delights as the sexual exploitation of women, corrupt officials and a fair smattering of violence, the action can be ferocious in places, and not for the faint hearted - but if you want a genuine thriller that takes you in unexpected directions, then this is the one for you. I am a big fan of thrillers and crime fiction, and it takes a lot for me to be completely taken by surprise, but this one definitely did - even to the extent where I emitted a verbal "ooh" on a couple of occasions. Am really tempted to dive straight into the final part, but maybe I need to get my breath back first.

Onto the stats ...

Length - 569 pages in print (audio edition 20 hours, 51 minutes).
Price I paid - £0.00 (Borrowed from my husband).
Other formats available - ebook, audio CD, audio download, large print.

Day 10 - how work cuts into your reading

Bleugh - first day back at work after an extended break over Christmas. Not a happy bunny for two reasons - first ... I'M BACK AT WORK ... second ... NO TIME FOR READING! Have missed my slow transition from sleep to being ready for the day ahead, which, for the last couple of weeks has meant a lengthy read! If I'm going to get 52 books in 52 weeks, then I'm going to have to try and instill some discipline and routine into the day. Once back at work, reading in bed at the end of the day doesn't result in much reading ... as I tend to start snoozing pretty quickly no matter how much I'm enjoying the book.

However, all is not doom and gloom. I have started a new audiobook - RESTLESS, by William Boyd . It's the first audiobook I've read with a female narrator (Rosamund Pike) and I'm impressed so far, but it's early days.

What about the other books? Well, I've nearly finished the Stieg Larsson - once I get within 100 pages of the end, I get slightly obsessed and find it hard to focus on anything else but the book.  Haven't yet started Fup on the Kindle, but will do once I find out how Lisbeth Salander ends up. Onwards!

Day 7 ... one week in!

So, the pressure has been on over the last couple of days - the end of the week was looming and I hadn't finished a book yet! Luckily, I've been off off work and was having a couple of days in London. So, what's lucky about that - well, train journeys are a GREAT excuse for reading an audio book, so that gave me a boost. Also, I've never been able to sleep in ... whereas, I'm married to someone who more than makes up for my lack of zeds. So, audiobooks are a boon in the early morning in the time between the pair of us becoming fully conscious. I just pop my earphones in and away I go - only adjusting the volume if the snoring gets too intrusive!

Okay, enough preamble - I'm pleased to report that I haven't fallen at the first (as feared), but have finished my first book of the year ... cue drumroll ... The Elephant to Hollywood, by Michael Caine (format AUDIO).  This autobiography of one of our favourite actors is full of big films, big names and, perhaps surprisingly, big heart. We hear how Maurice Micklewhite, a boy from the Elephant and Castle in war torn London transformed into the massive movie star of Alfie, The Italian Job, and, very much to his own surprise, is still getting work in the movies some 50 years later in Harry Brown, and Inception.

Listening to the man himself take you through his life with it's loves, heartaches, successes and failures, felt very intimate. I laughed out loud quite a few times (getting some odd looks on the train in the process) - and when Michael makes himself laugh too and chuckles along with you, it's absolutely irrestible. Really enjoyed this, and I already know that I'll be reading this one again when I need to feel warm and fuzzy!

Onto the stats ...

Length - 10 hours, 20 minutes (or 416 pages in paper).
Price I paid - £7.99 (Audible download on a year's subscription option).
Other formats available - print, ebook, audio CD.

Day 2: Two books started ...

Despite an overnight trip to my big sis's, I have already started two books - the Steig Larsson, and the Michael Caine autobiography.

I'm pleased to report that so far, it's so good ....

Our heroine, Lisbeth Salander, in The Girl Who Played with Fire has already seduced a teenager, lived through a tornado and managed to rescue a battered wife - all of which she has done while on a relaxing holiday! If this fast pace continues, it's going to be hard to keep up.

Michael Caine, on the other hand, has already made me laugh out loud a couple of times, and snort with amusement a couple more. Having Mr Caine tell me his own story directly into my ears almost feels like he's just having a quiet chat to me over a cup of tea. Can't wait to keep going to find out how much Hollywood gossip there is on offer ... so I won't. Now then "Maurice", where were we?