Books About Books/Authurs/Biography/Autobiography

It will come as no surprise to anyone who knows me .... I love books. In fact the only thing I can think of better then books is a book about books.
Over many years I have come across quite alot of these and I tend to read them again and again.
Some are nice to  dip into every now and then and to use quotes from .
When searching for books about books that is a bit harder. It was not that easy to find these books for some reason or another. Below I am showing you the ones I found and loved so it will save you a little of the leg work that I had to endure . No doubt there will be a part 2 to this particular entry at some point but for now here we go.....................

A WONDERFUL BOOK OF QUOTES THAT I LOVE TO DIP INTO AND GIVE TO BOOK FRIENDS.

ANOTHER FAB BOOK ABOUT THE FAMOUS SHAKESPEARE AND COMPANY BOOKSTORE IN PARIS

THE WONDERFUL BOOK SHAKESPEARE AND COMPANY IS A GREAT BOOK ABOUT THIS FAMOUS PARIS BOOKSTORE AND IT'S HISTORY

TWO LOVELY BOOKS HERE:HOWARDS END IS ON THE LANDING  BY SUSAN HILL AND
84 CHARRING CROSS ROAD BY HELENE HANFF

ABOVE TWO ARE BY KATE CARLISLE

THE BOOK ABOVE MAY BE THE SIZE AND WEIGHT OF A CEMENT BLOCK BUT ESSENTIAL FOR ALL BOOK LOVERS.

DICTIONARY OF FICTIONAL CHARACTERS..SURE WHAT'S NOT TOO LOVE ABOUT THAT!!!

THE FABULOUS NOEL COWARD

A WONDERFUL COLLECTION OF DOROTHY'S POEMS ETC .PERFECT FOR ALL FANS AND THOSE WHO WISH TO KNOW HER MORE.

ALL THE FAMOUS DIARISTS FROM PEPY'S TO PLATH.. JAM PACKED WITH MEMORABLE DIARY PASSAGES.

THE BEAUTIFUL TROUBLED LIFE OF THIS WRITER TOLD IN THIS LARGE WONDERFUL BOOK.

AGATHA CHRISTIE...THIS IS FOR ALL FANS

ANYONE WITH A FONDNESS FOR HER MYSTERIES WILL I AM SURE ADORE THIS !!!

LINDA LEAR TELLS THE STORY OF BEATRIX. BEAUTIFUL BOOK.

                                                      ALAN BENNETT TELLS THIS HILARIOUS TALE OF ONE MEMBER ON THE ROYAL FAMILY AND HER LOVE OF BOOKS....FICTION.

My Desert Island Books

Ahoy there!!!!!


Ahhhh a desert island.. peace tranquility and uninterupted reading.
Okayyy the chances of getting stranded on a desert island are in fact very slim.. If it is a case that I do ever make it on to a deserted island .. remain stuck there for any amount of time and then get back to tell the tale I will in fact chew my shoe... .. or not...
I probably spend more time thinking about this then I prob should but let's face it alot of  us book types probably do the same at one stage or another.
A desert island ... what books would I take to read.... the mind boggles..
Okay I am guessing I will probably need some from every genre ..

OK let's go.... Overboard!!!!!.... I loved that movie( Goldie Hawn,Kurt Russell)



Children's/ya /awesome : Harry Potter series.. Do I have to explain this one?.... no.. did not think so.

Classics: Little Women.. Some strong female characters in this gem.. I will need some positive female role models if I am going to be on this island for a while and trying to survive while not going all girly( that was slightly sexist remark.. I apologise ladies) at night screaming at every odd noise.

Horror:The entire works of Stephen King... Those should keep me up at night, but that's ok as I can spend all night lying on the beach star gazing and wondering what on earth I was thinking bringing horror books with me at all when some great wilderbeast/rabies infected monkey could be lurking  behind some banana tree...

Dystopian:The Hunger Games: As bad as my situation may be while stuck on an island I am guessing it would be alot better then in the this book... At least if I am here by myself I won't be killing others to get out alive.This shall be my "go to" book should I start to feel fed up and want a nice " well if you think your situation is bad be grateful it is not like this" type book.

Romantic:  I think this is a bad idea .. who needs to be reading about romance when wandering  solo on an island..

Non Fiction: Helene Hanff's complete non fiction works. I could probably  go to the island with just her books and just be content with those.I could be daydreamiing about the streets of New York while on a sandy beach somewhere exotic( desert islands are always hot and exotic...well to me they are!)( I am not going to be stranded on no drizzly cold beach somewhere of the coast of Ireland where I will freeze my buns off while getting cold atlantic spray on my books... no sirrie.. If I am going to be stranded you can bet your Gucci sling backs it's going to be hot!!!

Thriller: It is not a book that I could fit in one particular genre as it covers a few. I would read Anna Dressed In Blood. It got me from the first chapter and the thrills just kept coming  after that.

Fiction: The Jane Austen Book Club or The entire works of Sue Grafton... I never read The Jane Austen Book Club until I had watched the movie and now I really enjoy!!!. Books about books, Sure whats not to love about that!!The Sue Grafton alphabet series is more wonderful then I can ever possibly describe : ..Kinsey Milhone.. PI .. Smart.. Gutsy... Fit.. Bookreader...fast food muncher..Catcher of bad guys... even if not on a desert island I would read these!!

Cookery: I can't imagine my diet is going to be very exciting while on the island so I pick a cookery book to look at all the pretty pictures.. I can imagine fruit and water are about as exciting as my diet is likely to be while there. So I pick this beauty..... And yes the recipes are as great as you can imagine they would be in here.

Planning a desert island must have list?
Have some favourite's that you have  already thought of ?
Leave them in the comments below me hearties!!!!! ( apparently I envisage Pirates there too ;0)

New Books/ Used/ Read This Week

Well at long last my books arrived. I ordered them weeks ago and the darn things took the scenic route getting to me. So.. as I was saying .. the goodies arrived.. they came in hardback ,paperback and holding on for life secondhand. I am no book snob I love them all equally..
I got a good mix of books here. Ya, Childrens, Adult, Ghost, Fairytale retelling etc etc. There was a good mix of several genres as you will see in the pictures below.
Can I first say how impressed I was with some of the covers. I know we get told to not judge a book by it's cover but let's face it most of us do. Who wants a (whisper) Ugly book on their shelfs to look at from now until eternity...not me that's for sure.. there has been a few exceptions every so often. Some of my older books and most favourite have very dull covers but I love them !!! ( Them, I forgive anything)
Now .. where was I.. Oh yes.. Beautiful covers this week. It is almost a shame to slip these between other books as the covers are so frickin beautiful. The detail and the work that went into them make the whole book seem more special even before you have cracked one of these babies open.

So, as those close to me know ,when I was a kid( not that many decades ago.. ok a couple..plus interest) I was a big fan of Enid Blyton.. I was very much into books about boarding schools and magic faraway trees and enchanted woods that my copies of my favourite Blyton books got many a battering though the years. I decided to replace them because it would be just my luck that they would go out of print like other favourites of mine. So I got the beautiful hardback editions below. Two names have been changed from the older books that I have . Fanny is now Frannie and Dick is now Rick.............no comment ...:0)

Don't you just love this cover. Esp if you are a fan of eerie... creepy type of covers. Anna Dressed IN Blood. It came this week. I tore through it.. Highly recommend this book!!! If you like a ya book with a good storyline that really packs a ghostly punch read it.!. One of the best Ya books I have read in a long time. It kept me on my toes. Another fab cover too. It is one of my favourites.

My reads for the coming weeks :

So that is my reading sorted for the next week or two. I hope you find some great books to read too xxxxxxxxx

Creepy Books And Mad Ass Killers

Every so often I enjoy a good bookish type scare... no I dont mean the times when I realise I have gone out sans book.I mean when you are reading a book.. perhaps at night time and just as it is getting good you realise you are entering goosebump territory... Yes folks meet "The Horrors".

When life is feeling a little blahhh then these are perhaps the books you want to put into your basket at the local bookshop when you need to give yourself a good jump start.
When I say jumpstart I do in fact mean a ruddy great fright!!!!!!

Now we all have different tastes when it comes to books so lets go through our options.

1= We have Vampires/ Zombies/ Trolls/ Imps/Fairies(the bad ones)( No pink glittery fairy dust here)

2=Psycho Killer Books... These are most unpleasant..generally likely to keep you up all night wondering what nut job may be trying to break into your house and kill you with a big axe.

3= Supernatural thriller/horror ... Well just about anything can and will likely happen in these books.You may as well just read these from behind the biggest fluffiest pink pillow you can lay your hands on ..

4= Hitchhiker books.. Now this may seem innocent enough but think about any film about hitchhikers you have ever seen and now rethink this choice.. there is always some mad killer  who for no apparant reason wants to remove your innards... well. perhaps he missed his favourite tv show or the local store was out of his favourite beer.. who knows....a whole host of peeps are likely to die in these books....

 5= Haunted house books.. Now only if you have been living under a rock your entire life will you not know about these ones.. Haunted house books are exactly that.. if you are expecting anything less then you may want to move on my loves..There will likely be one or more idiot people who decide to go into said house .. most likely at night time/ halloween . They will wander around all floors( normally cellar,1st floor, 2nd floor , attic) with a pathetic or overly confident friend (this is most likely the person that came up with the bright idea to come in here in the first place) then with a wonky flashlight that is  likely to die at some point they will walk around house as the mad ass killer trails them around as he has a little giggle to himself .... No amount of strange noises deter these soon to be victims until the last noise they hear which is likely to be a blunt object to the head.

6- Witches.. I am barely including these here as quite frankly witch books are not as scary as they used to be. When they started wearing high heels and make-up and carrying handbags well they loose some of their ability to scare the bejayyus out of me.

The Great Outdoors With Perfect Holiday Books

It is a sunny day here today...makes a change.....
I am tempted to grab an armful of books,sunglasses, and a chair and go outside where I rarely wander with my books due to a whole host of reasons.

1-flies
2-violent gusts of wind even on sunny days
3-Distractions....ohhh pretty butterflies....wonder who's tractor that is..... oohh aeroplane...
4-Blasted flies again
5- Dead flies squatting in my drink..... the buggers.....

So there I am book in hand as I swat flies with the other hand and try to remember the plot I am following in my book... ahhh the great outdoors.. nothing quite like it is there? We don't get enough sunshine over here so when we do get a nice sunny day we go into panic mode and out comes the flip- flops,sunscreen , shorts , and every other sunshine accessory you can imagine.

Summer days always get me in the mood for summer books.. You know the type.....
I want to read about villa's in exotic localtions.
Sailing on Lake Garda in Italy as I sit on a wobbly sun- chair in Ireland .
I want to read about sandy beaches and and the fictional lives of those in Italy,France, and then wondering over to America to Nantucket, Maine and places like that.
 Some of my favourite reading for this time of year have been the following books.:

Any Book by Adriana Trigiani(here is a few)

Then the first two books in The Sisterhood Of The Travelling Pants series.

Then some of these....The wonderful kate McCabe writes great holiday books.

Then try some of these

Now if all these don't get you into the holiday spirit try these...

I have read all these books except The Villa Girls and The House By The Sea. These two I am planning to read this week. Do you a favourite book that you like to read in the summertime ???
If so leave it in the comments below and hope you have a lovely sunny book reading day where you are xxxxxxxxx

Local Bookshops And Some Funny Kids.

Recently I went into a local bookshop. It was packed with tourists !! Great to see local buisness's doing so well in our present climate but not great when you are five foot nothing and coming up waist high on a few middle aged 6 foot  somethings stomachs.
I persevered none the less.. I thought I would lose some of these peeps if I went to the Ya section until the new release section quietened down.... but no.... darn my good taste the divils followed me....
So there I am, regretting carrying my big handbag ( it's the only one big enough for ,make-up, phone, book, perfume and all the rest of the junk I fill in it)...it becomes apparant that carrying a large handbag during a longgggg browsing session is a bad idea.. After the first half hour I do believe I may have gone a little lopsided... I added some books to my free hand and that evened things up a bit but things were jam packed in here!!
I took a wander around the kids section.. They have just about the best illustrated books there and of course it was quiet as usual. When I was there kneeling on the floor looking for a hard back edition of some Enid Blyton book I was joined by two kids ,a brother and sister as  far as I could tell. There Father looking at the baby books as the siblings began debating on good and bad books. As I flicked the pages of the book I was holding the little guy next to me recommended a nice book about a dead skeleton detective to his sister while explaining all the gross details of the previous book of this authurs that he had read,. The sister had her eye on a nice Jacqueline Wilson book full of friendship and wholesome goodness.. Well this guy was sooooo good at giving a good recommendation that his little sister put her book back on the shelf and picked up the  book he had been waving at her while singing it's praises. Their father shouts over that they are only allowed one book each and they had to hurry as they were leaving .. The little boy grabs a book of the shelf by the same authur as his sister and as he was walking off I heard him ask his sister for her book after she was finished. Apparently this little lad was collecting the entire series of books and was two way from the entire collection.With the help of his sister he now had them all.
I had to laugh ...He played his hand well. ...It is great seeing a love for reading in young people!!!!!

In My Mailbox This Week

Well hello my reading buddies. I hope your week has been good to you.
My book  week has been spent waiting on books to arrive and well only a third have shown up.
But enough about that lets get on with the books.
This week arrived...

The Sisterhood Of The Travelling Pants ( Book one and two) by Ann Brashares
Last Chance by Sarah Dessen
We Have Always Lived In The Castle by Shirley Jackson
A Season To Remember by Sheila O'Flanagan
The Weed That Strings The Hangman's Bag by Alan Bradley