More and more books

At the weekend Dom and J-M were staying so we all went over to our favourite Charity Shop, Emmaüs. We had some clothes and odds and ends that we didn’t sell at the last Brocante (boot/garage sale) in September and J-M’s old TV.

Having handed in our donations we then went to the shop and proceeded to stock up with more ‘junk’, mainly books. My pile consisted of:

The Penguin Book of English Short Stories
The Second Penguin Book of English Short Stories
Angel Pavement by J.B. Priestley
The Centaur by John Updike
A Fanatic Heart, selection of stories by Edna O’Brian
Selected Poems 1957-1981 by Ted Hughes
Marlene by Marlene Dietrich
The Client and Playing for Pizza, two books by John Grisham

 Average price 1€ (1$32/£0.83) for each.

 While I was looking through the books when we got home, I found a voucher for a free aperitif at a Chinese Restaurant in Bordeaux – wonder if it’s still valid?

The funniest part was that I recognized the name written in the front of the first Penguin book. I also knew that that person was living in the North of France back in the 70s. One of the retired ladies who come to the house for English conversation has an unusual name and I know that her daughter studied English. When she came to the house on Tuesday I showed her the book and yes, it was her daughter. It was the year she went to London as an au pair. What a strange coincidence!

I have started with Playing for Pizza. I know nothing about American football. Surprise, surprise, I’m really enjoying it

Waiting room reading

I had to wait a long time at the rheumatologist’s this morning. I can’t believe that people can just sit and squirm with boredom for half an hour. I’ve always got a book in my bag. At the moment it’s “Women’s Wicked Wit” compiled by Michelle Lovric. 300 pages of quotes - and yes, as usual, I did laugh out loud. I’m still in the men’s section:

 Annie Proulx said “Listen if it’s got four wheels or a dick you’re goin’ a have trouble with it, guaranteed” and of course lots from Mae West “His mother should have thrown him away and kept the stork”

There are so many that I wish I could memorise.

 

ExposeYourBlog !: Contests !

I’m going to be boring and post this on all of my blogs. As we approach the second birthday of ExposeYourblog!, we’ve re-launched both the surfing and referral contests. All you need to do to win credits surfing is to be amongst the top five surfers of the day. Credits awarded are based on the percentage of blogs surfed, so the more you surf the more you can win – daily and weekly! The referral contest means that you can win credits for referring more members than anyone else daily and weekly. New members must activate their account by surfing and adding their blog. To get links, go to your “Tools” page and click on “My Downline”, scroll down and you’ll find banners and links that you can use to promote ExposeYourBlog!. Or you could write a post about why you enjoy surfing on EYB! and include a link in your post – just like I have.

Don and I are really proud of the blogs on EYB! There are blogs to suit all tastes and you’ll find excellent writing, art and pictures as well as members who interact with each other. We’re building a very special blogging community and hopefully members feel as if ExposeYourBlog! Is being run by real people who care about their members – which is true.

As always Don and I can be contacted via a PM in the forums (don = “Admin”, to contact me “Anji”), via a support ticket or email; forumadmin@exposeyourblog.com . We’d love to hear from you; feedback and ideas are always useful.

Something for the weekend

As if you hadn't got anything better to do
Brand name parodies and there's more

Rabbi Blue revisited

I needed a reasonably slim paperback to fit into my bag for waiting room duty. I picked up my copy of 'A Backdoor to Heaven'. My mum must have sent it to me when it came out in paperback in 1985. She knew how much I was missing his 'Thought for the Day' slot on BBC Radio 4.

It turned out to be perfect for waiting rooms; nice bite-size chapters. I think people must have thought me mad when I laughed out loud. I’m so glad I picked it up to read again: I got it when I first read it and I get it even more today. Anyone who has had/is having a struggle with faith should get hold of a copy and read it.

I just looked him up on Wikipedia and he’s in his early 80s. How did that happen?

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie

I recently found a copy of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark in a branch of the French Charity shop Emmaüs.  It was in English - as it happens they have quite a few books in English. 

Inside was a bookmark advertising James Thin Bookshops, a company which seem to have bookshops throughout Scotland.  I couldn't help wondering if Caroline had left it lying around somewhere on a visit to France.

I remember that it was dramatised on TV when I was quite young and I remember enjoying watching it, but would I enjoy the book?  Well dear reader, I couldn't put it down!  I was amused by the vision of life from the point of view of young girls on the edge of puberty.  They are troubled by the idea of sex and imagine all sorts of things, especally when they find out that their teacher (who is in her Prime!) had a lover who died during the First World War.  The book is only 126 pages long, which is much too short.

Paint