Growing up, I was never allowed to have posters on my wall and because of this I have a special fondness for nice posters. When I came across these one I pretty much fell in love and knew I had to share.
Postertext reproduces the text of the book, arranging the words to show a key event from the book. Posters already created include Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, Moby Dick and Alice in Wonderland – with more coming all the time. I can’t decide which one I like best…
Dear Musing Monday-ers,
If you’re a regular here at JOMP I’m sure you’ve noticed that my posts have becoming fewer and fewer over the past few months. Since finishing up at uni, and now finding work (yay!) I’ve found that my reading time – not to mention my blogging time – has all but dried up.
I’ve tried to ignore it, thinking that it would magically return to be, but sadly I don’t think it’s going to. So it’s with great reluctance that I’m putting JOMP on indefinite hiatus. Not to worry though, because Musing Mondays is returning to it’s original home over at Should Be Reading – head on over there now as of this week.
I’ll still be around and blogging on my general/crafting journal here – I can’t help myself, I don’t want to leave the book blogger world entirely. I can also be contacted directly via twitter.
I’ve loved blogging with all of you and hope to continue chatting with you in one form or another.
Love,
Rebecca
If you’re reading this because you think you might be [a half-blood], my advice is: close this book right now. Believe whatever lie your mum or dad told you about your birth, and try to lead a normal life.
Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief – Rick Riordan (1)
I’ve been most quiet on the blogging front of late, as I’ve found regular work at the local high school, but I thought I’d take the chance to tell you all what I’ve been up to. Why? Because this week I’ve been working in the library!
I’m teaching at my old high school, so though I’m English trained, and don’t actually start my library training until next month, they’re being very kind to me and letting me cover for the librarian when she’s away. I’m coming to teaching with mixed emotions (let’s just say my childhood ideals were quite neatly dashed), but my days in the library are … *sigh* wonderful.
The librarian is very enthusiastic in her duties and so the library is a lovely one to work in with quite a nice little community of readers among the students with whom I’m becoming acquainted.
I’m very much looking forward to tomorrow when the “Reading Cafe” meets tomorrow. This is like a reading club that the kids can apply to, and they meet of a recess and lunch and have a hot chocolate and a biscuit as they read. I’m playing host tomorrow and so am very excited (wish I had this at school!). Now, off to pick what book to take with me…
Philip D Armour Elementary School
(how cute is this library?!)
Today’s MUSING MONDAYS post is about movies based on books…
What happens when you see a movie based on a book/story, especially one you’ve not read? Do you feel the need to track it down and read it?
PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT with either the link to your own Musing Mondays post, or share your opinion in a comment here (if you don’t have a blog). Thanks.
If I know a booky-movie is coming up I try to make sure I read it before it comes out, but sometimes I just don’t have the time or it sneaks up on me.
Last night we went to see the new Robin Hood and, after being hit multiple times for my gleeful bouncing, I left that theatre in full RH mode. I wanted to read the stories, I wanted to do some research on the time period; I basically went into full book/movie mode.
I was just wondering if this was just me?
Today’s MUSING MONDAYS post is about the war books
Do you have to carve out time in your day for reading (due to work and other obligations), or does your reading just happen naturally? (Question courtesy of MizB)
PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT with either the link to your own Musing Mondays post, or share your opinion in a comment here (if you don’t have a blog). Thanks.
Normally, I’d say no, I don’t have to set time aside for my reading. I was/am unemployed and act as a carer for my mother and so spend a fair amount of time in doctors waiting rooms etc. So my reading was done mostly in 10 minute increments, but I was usually guaranteed two or three of these sessions every day.
This past month I’ve managed to find some casual teaching work near to my home (man oh man I want to die – I feel like I haven’t slept!) and so POOF! there went my reading time! I think I’ve read maybe 20 pages in the past three weeks.
I’m sure it’s all a process, learning to find that balance, but who knows, I may have to set aside some time!
Teaser Tuesday is hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading.
Life at The Burrow was as different as possible from life in Privet Drive. The Dursley’s liked everything neat and ordered; the Weasleys’ house burst with the strange and unexpected. (37)
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets – J.K. Rowling
Today’s MUSING MONDAYS post is about the war books
Do you frequent second hand book stores? Have you ever bought a book home only to find anything interesting within their pages?
PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT with either the link to your own Musing Mondays post, or share your opinion in a comment here (if you don’t have a blog). Thanks.
I’ll confess, I’m asking this question, purely so I can share this story. It made my week and I just wanted to tell you all.
About a year ago, a friend and I went into the city and did the Town Hall book shops – Kinokuniya, Galaxy Books, Kings Comics, and Elizabeth’s Bookshop. It was a great day and I was very happy to come home with my little pile of finds. Among them was a copy of Neil Gaiman’s Fragile Things which I’ve been reading on and off ever since (I like to make short stories last).
This week, I was flipping through it trying to find something for my brother when I found … this:
Absolutely the best second-hand book find ever! Especially since I only paid $10 for the book in the first place!
I’ve decided the best way to catch up would to just do some mini-reviews over the week or so.
Ariel – Sylvia Plath
81 pages; published 1965
This was my first exposure to Sylvia Plath, which I was rather surprised about – you’d think I would have come across her in one class or another. I absolutely LOVED Plath; I adored the beautiful melancholy of all her poems. Favourites from this collection include: The Applicant, Lady Lazarus, Tulips, A Birthday Present, and Years. 4/5
Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood – Rebecca Wells
356 pages; published 1996
From the first time I saw this movie I was a huge fan – and when I learned it was based on a series of books, I very quickly tracked down the first one Little Alters Everywhere. This is the second in the series, and the one the movie was based on – though if you’re a fan of either the book or the movie I’d highly recommend reading the rest. Told through a series of interconnected stories, Divine Secrets throws you into the deep end of a family and leaves you to move with the eddies that constantly churn between them. 5/5
Teaser Tuesday is hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading.
If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you’ll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but i don’t feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth. In the first place, my parents would have about two haemorrhages apiece if I told anything pretty personal about them. (1)
The Catcher in the Rye – J.D. Salinger
Today’s MUSING MONDAYS post is about the war books
With yesterday being Anzac Day, I thought I’d ask a theme question this week. Are you a reader of war books? And if so, do you have any favourites?
PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT with either the link to your own Musing Mondays post, or share your opinion in a comment here (if you don’t have a blog). Thanks.
I am a fan of war books, actually – though I hesitate to use the word ‘fan’ when the subject matter runs to the horrific.
I think the first war-time book I ever read, or at least can remember reading was Anne Frank’s Diary of a Young Girl. I read it while still in primary school and it was the first time I really started to understand what war meant on an individual level – up until then war had simply been a concept talked about during history.
I have also enjoyed John Boyne’s The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, Morris Gleitzman’s Once, and Geraldine Brook’s March – but these are just the ones I can think of off the top of my head. I’m sure you’ll all remind me of the ones I’m forgetting.
They went with songs to the battle, they were young. Straight of limb, true of eyes, steady and aglow. They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted. They fell with their faces to the foe. They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old. Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning, we will remember them.
Teaser Tuesday is hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading.
She seems so cool, so focused, so quiet, yet her eyes remain fixed upon the horizon.
You think you know all there is to know about her immediately upon meeting her, but everything you think you know is wrong. (207)
Fragile Things – Neil Gaiman
Today’s MUSING MONDAYS post is about the ‘best’ books'.
Last week I had you all to suggest your top 5 books – and I was surprised by just how different all your choices were! There’s no real question this week, except to look over the list and consider it. Do you agree with the choices? Is it more worth of a “Best Book” title?
PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT with either the link to your own Musing Mondays post, or share your opinion in a comment here (if you don’t have a blog). Thanks.
Books that had more than one vote were listed first, then they were listed alphabetically by author.
| To Kill a Mockingbird | Lee, Harper | 6 |
| Pride and Prejudice | Austen, Jane | 3 |
| The Chronicles of Narnia | Lewis, C.S. | 3 |
| The Time Traveler's Wife | Niffenegger, Audrey | 3 |
| Harry Potter (series) | Rowling, J.K. | 3 |
| The Book Thief | Zusak, Markus | 3 |
| Little Women | Alcott, Louisa May | 2 |
| Hunger Games (series) | Collins, Suzanne | 2 |
| The Shining | King, Stephen | 2 |
| Anne of Green Gables | Montgomery, L.M. | 2 |
| Lord of the Rings | Tolkien, J.R.R. | 2 |
| The House of the Spirits | Allende, Isabel | |
| Sense and Sensibility | Austen, Jane | |
| Hasse Simondochter | Beckman, Thea | |
| The Manual of Detection | Berry, Jedediah | |
| The Moon Below | Bickmore, Barbara | |
| Fahrenheit 451 | Bradbury, Ray | |
| Jane Eyre | Bronte, Charlotte | |
| Arthur (series) | Brown, Marc | |
| A Scandalous Freedom | Brown, Steve | |
| Cold Saddy Tree | Burns, Olive Ann | |
| Enders Game | Card, Orson Scott | |
| Gifted Hands | Carson with Cecil Murphey, Dr. Ben | |
| Kushiel's Dart | Carey, Jacqueline | |
| Graceling | Cashore, Kristen | |
| Death Comes for the Archbishop | Cather, Willa | |
| The Canterbury Tales | Chaucer, Geoffrey | |
| Seventeenth Summer | Daly, Maureen | |
| The Maze Runner | Dashner, James | |
| Loose Change | Davidson, Sara | |
| Life is So Good | Dawson, George | |
| Libra | DeLillio, Don | |
| Great Expectations | Dickens, Charles | |
| Going Too Far | Echols, Jennifer | |
| Invisible Man | Ellison, Ralph | |
| Middlesex | Eugenides, Jeffrey | |
| One for the Money | Evanovich, Janet | |
| The Great Gatsby | Fitzgerald, F. Scott | |
| The Likeness | French, Tana | |
| Outlander | Gabaldon, Diana | |
| American Gods | Gaiman, Neil | |
| Memoirs of Cleopatra | George, Margaret | |
| Old Yeller | Gipson, Fred | |
| Lord of the Flies | Golding, William | |
| An Abundance of Katherines | Green, John | |
| Looking for Alaska | Green, John | |
| Paper Towns | Green, John | |
| The Boleyn Inheritance | Gregory, Philipa | |
| The Eden Diet | Hancock, M.D., Rita | |
| An Eye for an Eye | Hannon, Irene | |
| Switch | Heath and Dan Health, Chip | |
| Catch-22 | Heller, Joseph | |
| Losing the Moon | Henry, Patti Callahan | |
| Goblin Quest | Hines, Jim C. | |
| Never Let Me Go | Ishiguro, Kazuo | |
| Fire and Hemlock | Jones, Diana Wynne | |
| The Phantom Tollbooth | Juster, Norman | |
| Nancy Drew (series) | Keene, Carolyn B. | |
| Mountains Beyond Mountains | Kidder, Tracy | |
| The Unbearable Lightness of Being | Kundera, Milan | |
| She's Come Undone | Lamb, Wally | |
| The Girl Who Played with Fire | Larsson, Stieg | |
| The Girl with a Dragon Tattoo | Larsson, Stieg | |
| Devil's Bride | Laurens, Stephanie | |
| Shutter Island | Lehane, Dennis | |
| Shoot the moon | Letts, Billie | |
| Dare to Dream | Littauer, Florence | |
| The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks | Lockart, E. | |
| The Light Princess | MacDonald, George | |
| 16 Lighthouse Road | Macomber, Debbie | |
| Daughter of the Forest | Marillier, Juliet | |
| Son of Shadows | Marillier, Juliet | |
| The Necklace (series) | Martin, Kay | |
| Esther: It's Tough Being a Woman | Moore, Beth | |
| Sula | Morrison, Toni | |
| The Forgotten Garden | Morton, Kate | |
| Mozart's Sister | Moster, Nancy | |
| Cat on the Edge | Murphey, Shirley Rousseau | |
| The Last Surgeon | Palmer, Michael | |
| First to Die | Patterson, James | |
| Sunday at Tiffany's | Patterson, James | |
| The Adoration of Jenna Fox | Pearson, Mary E. | |
| Life as We Knew It | Pfeffer, Susan | |
| Boneshaker | Priest, Cherie | |
| His Dark Materials (series) | Pullman, Philip | |
| The Lightning Thief | Riordan, Rick | |
| Ride the Wind | Robson, Lucia St. Clair | |
| The Sparrow | Russell, Mary Doria | |
| The Forest of Hands and Feet | Ryan, Carrie | |
| Once an Arafat Man | Saada, Tass | |
| Walk Away the Pounds | Sansone, Leslie | |
| Romeo and Juliet | Shakespeare, William | |
| Frankenstein | Shelley, Mary | |
| Beneath a Marble Sky | Shors, John | |
| The Corner | Simon, David | |
| I Capture the Castle | Smith, Dodie | |
| The Changeling | Snyder, Zilpha Keatly | |
| Raven Stole the Moon | Stein, Garth | |
| East of Eden | Steinbeck, John | |
| The Grapes of Wrath | Steinbeck, John | |
| Shiver | Stiefvater, Maggie | |
| The Help | Stockett, Kathryn | |
| These Granite Islands | Stonich, Sarah | |
| The Hobbit | Tolkien, J.R.R. | |
| The Thief | Turner, Megan Whalen | |
| It's All Too Much | Walsh, Peter | |
| Tipping the Velvet | Waters, Sarah | |
| Brideshead Revisted | Waugh, Evelyn | |
| Uglies | Westerfield, Scott | |
| A Certain Slant of Light | Whitcomb, Laura | |
| To the Lighthouse | Woolf, Virginia | |
| My Enemy's Cradle | Young, Sara | |
| The Pigman | Zindel, Paul |
Today’s MUSING MONDAYS post is about the ‘best’ books'.
There’s been some discussion on my blog this week about what should or shouldn’t make a ‘best' books’ list. What elements do you think lands a book in that ‘best’ category? Think of your top 5 best books and tune in next week to see the collated list.
PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT with either the link to your own Musing Mondays post, or share your opinion in a comment here (if you don’t have a blog). Thanks.
Okay, I know I asked the question, but can I take it back? It’s too hard!
I suppose for me, for a book to put into the ‘best’ category, it needs to be well written, have a good story, characters, be original … but that seems obvious.
When it all comes down to it, I guess the ‘best’ books are the ones that , once I’m finished, I just HAVE to go tell someone. My book friends, my non-reading family, the cat – anyone who’ll even pretend to listen.
On the other hand, there’s something to be said for an old favourite. I’m not likely to run to Wendy and say “Oh my gosh, I just read Little Women, you HAVE to read it!” I’ve read it a hundred times, I know she already loves it, so there’s no need – but this doesn’t diminish it’s status high on my ‘best’ list.
So I guess it’s a bit of both.
I can’t say that I read as much as I would have liked this readathon – my time being punctuated by some good old fashioned family interruptions – but I had fun all the same. I do so enjoy the dedicated reading time the readathon affords.
I had no real aims except to try to meet last years results (which I did not) and get through some books from my tbr pile (which I did).
I’d like to thank all the AMAZING cheerleaders who came to visit over the past 24 hours – you’re all the best cheerleaders I ever did see!
