Never Too Old

I’m currently reading Flood and Fang by Marcus Sedgwick -  a novel aimed at children – and I am loving it.

It is like a sunny day in the middle of a snow-filled March (sounding familiar?) – I read quite a lot of Young Adult fiction, an awful lot of adult Urban Fantasy, a simdgeon of saucy stuff and the odd crime, thriller and horror and I love them all, but there is nothing quite like stepping back and picking up a piece of Children’s literature.

There is just something magic about it – the something that instilled in me the passion to read and to write – and for all it is well below my ‘reading age’ and not aimed at me at all, I love to read it.

I still happily read Brian Jaques Redwall books without a second thought and consider Children’s novels as ‘must reads’ just the same as anything else. Especially now I have two children of my own, granted they can’t read yet but they are both happy to sit down with books by themselves and point things out in the pictures and pretend to read them. They love story time and have favourite characters already (such as ‘Barry the fish with fingers’ or ‘Ba-weee!’ to Arthur) and I am hoping this will stay with them as they grow older.

I have a large amount of my old favourite children’s novels still (on my bookshelf in my old bedroom… sorry Mum & Dad!) and I hope that Tori and Arthur will love at least some of those as much as I did. But I want them to read everything – from my old Animal Ark collection and classics like Colin Dann’s Animals of Farthing Wood through to whatever is new and ‘cool’.

Will Tori discover Jaqueline Wilson and love her like all my friends did? Or hate her books like I did? Will Arthur read the Redwall novels and spend days pretending to be a woodmouse with a sword like I did? Will they love the Horrible Histories books and read each other Goosebumps stories at bedtime and give themselves nightmares?

I am looking forward to discovering new books and redicovering old ones with them – reading Harry Potter as a bedtime story, chapter by chapter. Sharing their school books and expanding my own library as we go.

But even if I had never had Tori and Arthur, you can bet your bottom dollar I’d still be picking up books like Flood and Fang because they are brilliant. Children’s literature is not something to be dismissed once you hit adulthood – it is magical and funny and clever and eye-opening if only you give it the chance. Remeber, you are never too old for books – any books.

March Reading List

So, what I read in February ended up being nothing like the list I said I was going to read in February, oops.

With that in mind, my books for March may be a little familiar on some counts:

Review book(s)

Lightning Rider by Jen Greyson

My book(s)

Lord Of The Changing Winds by Rachel Neumeier

The Son Of The Wolf by Jack London

Borrowed book(s)

Glass Houses by Rachel Caine

Flood and Fang by Marcus Sedgwick

Self-Published book(s)

Invisible by Lorena McCourtney

February Reading

For February my choices of book are:

My Book(s)

Doomwyte by Brian Jaques

Diary Of An Ordinary Woman by Margaret Forster

Borrowed Book(s)

Back To Blackbrick by Sarah Moore Fitzgerald

Self-Published Book(s)

Revenge Of A Band Geek Gone Bad by Naomi Rabinowitz

Invisible by Lorena McCourtney

Review Book(s)

The Holders by Julianna Scott

A Conspiracy Of Alchemists by Leisel Schwartz

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So, what are you reading this month?

January Reading

Having taken up the 52 Book Challenge again this year I need to average 1 book a week (obviously), which translates to 4 a month: in line with my other resolution, at least one of those books needs to be a self published one. Another thing I want to do is return some of the million books I have borrowed off other people and not read yet, so at least one book each month will be someone else’s. I may well sometimes tailor my reading to echo what I’m writing – call it getting to know the market (and competition) and also research. So don’t be surprised if I seem to be reading lots of myths, legends and fairy tales when I’m writing my short stories etc.

This month my choices are:

My Books

Days Of Blood And Starlight by Laini Taylor

Coldbrook by Tim Lebbon

Welsh Fairy Tales by William Elliot Griffiths

Borrowed Book

Trash by Andy Mulligan

Self-Published Book

Can’t Live Without by Joanne Phillips

~

So, what are you reading this month?

My Resolutions for 2013

Last year, I didn’t make any resolutions because I was almost positive that if I did, then I would fail. Let’s face it, that’s the story most years and last year I was in a precarious place and setting myself up for a list of failures didn’t feel like a wise thing to do.

This year things are different. So different, in fact, that I will be making two sets of resolutions: Unofficial Writer’s Club Resolutions and Resolutions I Intend To Keep But Probably Won’t. The latter are going to be just general life things whilst the former will involve writing and reading. I suspect I will have more success in my UWC ones…

Unofficial Writer’s Club Resolutions

Last week we held our final UWC of 2012 (‘we’ being Liberty, Caius, Taylor , Apollo and me) and spent it discussing our plans and aspirations for the coming year. Our ‘Resolutions’. It is our first meeting of the year tonight so fingers crossed we all start well by at least keeping our first resolution: Write a blog post about our resolutions.

My other UWC Resolutions are:

- Finish the first draft of Faerie Or No by the end of January. After November’s barrage of words December was a complete lull on the FoN front – I just couldn’t bear to look at it half the time. Now after a break and the madness of Christmas I feel ready to pick it back up and finish it off.

- Edit FoN and proof-read/help to edit Liberty’s project through February to April

- Self-publish a project as an e-book

- Submit a project to a publisher

- Write a short story collection of 10 stories (Paranormal/Mythological/Horror)

- Rescue, rewrite and finish my ‘Lexi and Beryl’ story (Mum will be pleased to see that one here, I’m sure)

- Write a story just for Tori and Arthur, starring their favourite toys

- Read 52 books in the year (one a week on average)

- Write a 100 word review for every book I read

- Read and write a full review of at least one self-published book a month

- Buy and read the following books: Bitterblue by Kristen Cashore, The First Confessor by Terry Goodkind, Ever After by Kim Harrison and The Order of the Scales by Stephen Deas. (These are going to be rewards for completing other Resolutions)

- Buy and read at least one graphic novel in 2013

Resolutions I Intend To Keep But Probably Won’t

These are going to be the fun ones, the ones that everyone makes every year, keeps up for about a week (if you’re lucky) and then forgets existed. Wish me luck!

The first few are actually tasks on my DayZero list that I haven’t done yet:

- Cook every recipe in the My Daddy Cooks book

- Finish the CareBear cross-stitch for Tori that I started before she was even born

- Come up with a keep-fit regime of sorts and stick to it for at least a month

The others are just random things that would be good if I could make them habits…

- Make sure the dining table is clean and clear at the end of every day

- Keep the kitchen surfaces tidy

- Take the kids on walks to the canal at least twice a month

Oh, and the last one -

BLOG EVERYTHING!

(I have a feeling that last one is going to be the most successful – if I fail at something I am just as likely to blog about it as I am if I succeed.)

So there you have it – my ideals for 2013. How about you – have you got any resolutions or goals for the coming year? Reckon you’ll keep them past January?

 

 

December Reading

How is it December already? Oh well, that means I have 31 days to read 6 books in order to hit my personal target of 52 books in 2012. Along with finishing the novel I started last month in NaNoWriMo (but turned out to be a story that needs more than 50,000 words to tell) and, you know, doing Christmas.

Better get my nose stuck in some books then hadn’t I?

I have already started A Perfect Blood by Kim Harrison – I picked it up when i finished my last November read but haven’t finished it so it will have to roll over into this month.

Along with that I intend to read:

The Christmas Mystery by Jostein Gaarder (A beautiful, beautiful book that makes a fabulous alternative to an advent calendar if you are after a non-chocolate option. It has a chapter per day for 1st-24th December.)

Caressed By Ice by Nalini Singh (Yes, another of her racy almost-beastiality Psy-Changeling novels. I’m a bit of a sucker for them, okay?)

The Firework-Maker’s Daughter by Philip Pullman (I remember this being a class reading book as a kid and enjoying it and fancy re-reading it to see if it’s as magical as my memory paints it.)

Lucy Gives It Up For The Boss by Jackie White (A free Kindle book. Clearly going to be porn. I don’t expect much from it to be honest.)

Every Other Day by Jennifer Lynn Barnes (I am a fan of her Raised By Wolves series so am quite looking forward to this one.)

*

I’m not going to bother with a reserve book because I’m going to struggle to squeeze all those in as it is. If I do read anything else it will probably be something I get for Christmas and can’t resist picking up. This is assuming I get any books for Christmas. I will be sad if I don’t.

November Reading

Having just looked up that we are in week 44 of this year and that I have only read 40 books since January 1st, I am starting to fear that I will fail at my target to read 52 books in the 52 weeks of 2012. I need to get a wriggle on!

With that in mind I am going to continue my (seemingly everlasting) struggle with Diary Of An Ordinary Woman in tandem with reading other books instead of ploughing through it alone. I will finish it. One day.

The books I am going to read this month are (hopefully):

Ballad by Maggie Stiefvater

Witch Baby And Me by Debi Gliori

A Perfect Blood by Kim Harrison

and if by some miracle they all vanish before the end of the month I will start Checkmate by Malorie Blackman (again, because I read the first 80 pages then stopped and now have no idea what was happening at all…)

Of course, all of this is on top of me trying to complete NaNoWriMo too. I am doomed.

October Reading List (& You Against Me by Jenny Downham – 100 word review)

How did I do in September…? Yeah… let’s not mention that shall we? No? You’re good with me not mentioning that I only read one book and don’t even know where one of the other books on that list even *is* currently? Great, I’ll keep quiet.

This month I am going to try my very best to read:

It Sucked And Then I Cried by Heather Armstrong

Diary Of An Ordinary Woman by Margaret Forster

 

and maybe Checkmate by Malorie Blackman if I manage to remember how to read.

 

The book I did manage to read in September was You Against Me by Jenny Downham which I rated 4/5 stars on Goodreads. Here’s my review:

Liberty lent me You Against Me with the words ‘You will love this one.’

I really wanted to love it but there was something that irked me throughout. I think it was the narrative voice of Mikey, the main male lead, which annoyed me. Something about it didn’t ring true.

However, the plot was clever and intriguing and kept me turning the pages even when I was struggling to connect with Mikey. The ending was more satisfying than I expected and the characters grew throughout the book in very realistic ways.

Worth a read but not the hype, I’d say.

September Reading List

Following on from the great Summer Flop my September list is effectively all the books I didn’t finish:

• You Against Me by Jenny Downham
• The Diary Of An Ordinary Woman by Margaret Forster
• Checkmate by Malorie Blackman

And my ‘if by some miracle I finish all of those’ book is It Sucked And Then I Cried by Heather B Armstrong

And along side all of those I’m proof reading a load of Liberty‘s writing and hopefully doing some writing of my own. And completing a Games Maker shift at the Paralympics and fitting in a trip to Leeds to see Caius and James…and, you know, housework…

Summer Reading Fail

I didn’t do very well on my Summer Holiday reading challenge  – I only finished 3 of them. I did start Generation X but gave up after 25 pages because the pretentious narrative tone and writing style annoyed me to the point where I couldn’t bear to carry on. I switched that book for You Against Me by Jenny Downham instead but am only 26 pages into it. I also stared The Diary of An Ordinary Woman by Margaret Forster which wasn’t on my list and again am on about page 25… there’s a theme here…

 

So, I haven’t even started one of my August/Summer books, gave up on one and started two entirely different ones. Not my greatest success story ever.

The books I read were really good though – It’s about time I read both Looking For Alaska and Forest of Hands and Teeth as they have been on my reading list for months!!

Hopefully next month my reading will stay a bit more on track. Maybe.