Sunday 1 January 2012

IMM/Mailbox Monday/Happy New Year and stuff

It's 2012! Oh joy and happy times and stuff (frankly, it can't really get much worse than 2011 was for me, so I'm approaching the new year with cautious optimism...) Anyway, I came not to talk about it being all new year-ish and stuff, but to show off books to you! The books I'm referring to are the ones I got for Christmas, obviously, and, well, let's just dive right in:
Look, a big ole stack of books! I do so love piling up books and taking pictures of them, possibly because I'm the epitome of cool. I'm not sure. But that must be it. Anyway, so, from the top to the bottom, I got:
Shakespeare: The Life, The Works, The Treasures by Catherine Alexander- this was a present from my sister, and I've flicked through it and it looks kind of awesome- there are all kinds of copies of official documents like the birth and death records that have Shakespeare on them, programmes from various productions of his plays, and loads more stuff. This is especially useful since I'm taking part in Shakespeare Reading Month this month (more about that later), so hopefully I'll be able to gain some knowledge to dazzle everyone with!

Moomin Volume 2 by Tove Jansson- Everyone's (my) favourite comic strip, in the form of 4 stories featuring Moomintroll and the whole gang. I got Volume one for my birthday, so at this rate I'll have all five volumes by April 2013!

The BUST DIY Guide to Life by Laurie Henzel and Debbie Stoller- This is literally the most exciting book ever- BUST is my favourite magazine and I've wanted this book for the longest time! It's already convinced me that I should travel alone, and that I am physically able to take up running (not that I'm going to, obviously...) so god knows what else I might discover from it! I forsee it being taken down from the shelf practically daily though. Also, look how pretty!

How To Be A Domestic Goddess by Nigella Lawson- I like Nigella. I have none of her recipe books. This looked like a good one. And that's pretty much the whole story behind this book folks!

Vegan Pie In The Sky by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero- I'm not a vegan and I don't even like pie that much, so this book shows what two really well written recipe books (Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World and Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar) and one film (Waitress) can do to my brain! It is fully awesome though.

This is a Call: The Life and Times of Dave Grohl by Paul Brannigan- The best sign that this is actually going to be a good biography is that there is a picture of the author actually with Dave on the inside cover. That means they've met, at least, which is more than can probably be said for the other Grohl biographies I've read (well. They weren't that bad. But they weren't exactly revelatory.) So yeah, exciting stuff!

Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg: The Letters- Books of letters are the only acceptable invasion of privacy into the lives of dead people, or at least the only ones I will read. Also, they're almost always utterly interesting, and since I'm already fascinated with the Beat poets, this should be a good'un.

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte- My very first Penguin Clothbound! It's too exciting. Plus, this was the classic I already had that most needed replacing, so that's definitely a positive too. And look how pretty!

The Brooklyn Follies by Paul Auster- I haven't read the Paul Auster book I got for my birthday, but never mind that! Here's a new one! Yay!

Thinner by Stephen King (as Richard Bachman)- The next Stephen King book that I have to read. So, you know, glad I've got that one sorted. Phew!

Twas a Christmas of books, and that's the truth. It was pretty fab.

And anyway, now for the 'stuff'. As I've already mentioned, January is Shakespeare Reading Month (hosted by Allie at A Literary Odyssey, but I've decided that it should be a worldwide thing so I'm using that title slightly more universally...) and I'm so excited about it that I might [insert weird thing here]. I don't really have a massive plan for it, but I definitely want to read Othello because I think it's a big gap in my Shakespeare reading, and I also kind of want to read The Taming of The Shrew, just because of Ten Things I Hate About You. But, clearly more importantly, I'm going to watch Ten Things I Hate About You (and clearly then gush about it), The Lion King (which is based on Macbeth  HAMLET [I knew that!], I'm reliably informed) AND Romeo+Juliet, because who can get enough of young Leo? Plus, you know, it's really sort of great. And that's pretty much how that's going to go down!

The only other thing coming up this month (I'm nearly done, I swear!) is my one year blogoversary! (I really hate that word, can we change it?) I literally have no idea what I'm going to do for it, but I might possibly be persuaded to give a book away (Little Women, anyone?) and it's wholly probable that I'll bake a cake, even though I won't be able to share it with the people who make me love blogging so much. But oh well, there'll still be cake for me!

Oh, AND (I was lying before about being nearly done) Alice at Reading Rambo is hosting a readalong of Norwegian Wood this month, so you'd best go over to her blog and sign up so you can be part of all the hilarity that a Reading Rambo readalong involves (it's possible that applies only when you're reading The Help. But we shall see!) And now I'm really done! Have fabulous 2012s everyone!

P.S. A very late edition to the mailbox- I got the Penguin Clothbound edition of Little Women in the post the other day (this isn't at all a late edition, but I wrote this on like Wednesday, so this is later... and now I'm wishing I hadn't added this at all!) with some Christmas money, so that's a very, VERY exciting addition to my life too!

17 comments:

  1. Yay books! That Penguin book is beautiful

    I don't think I'm going to officially sign up for the Shakespeare challenge although I might try to read something Shakespeare this month. Or watch some Shakespeare-y stuff.
    PS, Lion King is like Hamlet.

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  2. Nigella is my favourite chefs, I have none of her books, to learn how to cook is one of my new years resolutions... I think I may pick that one up!
    The Penguin cover is so beautiful.
    Happy reading.(:

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  3. I'm a bit intrigued by that Vegan Pie in the Sky book myself. My mother-in-law is becoming a part-time vegan, and I'm thinking of follwing in her footsteps, though on a small scale. Maybe pies could be my gateway food.

    P.S. I love that bedding!

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  4. @Red- SHIT! I knew that too! Changing it imminently! Go go Shakespeareness! Although I'll probably read Shakespeare, say some really ridiculous things about whatever I've read and make everyone think I'm a retard (as if they didn't already with the whole Lion King MESS! hehe).

    @Ria- I love Nigella too! I'm excited about my recipe book, I might have to make something from it soonest! Also, yay penguin clothbounds :)

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  5. @Cassandra- Maybe you could just make vegan pie anyway, and since we all know vegan calories don't count, you can have at least two slices at a time! :) The bedding is my sister's I'll let her know you like it (her bed has the best position for light in basically the whole house)- it's from ikea and I don't think it was too expensive if you wanted to get some!

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  6. Yay BOOKS!! I didn't pile my books up for my IMM. I hadn't done one in awhile and there were too many. I just ordered my first clothbound...Anne of Green Gables. One of my childhood faves that, like your Bronte, needed replacing.

    I'm excited to see how your vegan cooking turns out.

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  7. Yay books indeed! Yay your first clothbound! Yay a new year! I'm so excited to make some vegan pies- they've made it sound super complicated in the book, but it's just pie... how hard can it be? (famous last words...)

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  8. You've gotten me totally interested in the BUST DIY book. Hmmmmmmm. Also, the Penguin books are all GORGEOUS, but they are books I already have and cannot justify buyiiiing. Oh, the tragedy of life.

    Wow, it's 2012. And damn, that readalong starts soon. But we've got over a week to read some trifling amount of pages of NW, so all is well. I really hope I can find appropriate gifs for posts...

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  9. I can't say that I've heard of these books other than Shakespear and Wuthering Heights... I'll be looking for your reviews on these in the future to get a better sense of them. Great haul this week. Happy New Year!

    My IMM

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  10. @Reading Rambo- the BUST book is soooo good- there are already about a million things I want to make from it, plus it has really good practical life advice. It's awesomeness incarnate. I also own the Penguin books, but I don't caaaare because I neeed them (just, over a long period of time and mainly for my birthday and stuff). I live for your gifs, so you'd better find good ones! hehe

    @manda-rae- happy new year to you too!

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  11. What a fantastic stack of books! That Wuthering Heights cover is gorgeous!

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  12. AWESOME!

    I've never heard of Bust, but that book looks super-cool and helpful. And I looooove that copy of Wuthering Heights, so pretty!

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  13. I love that copy of Wuthering Heights. I just may have to see what other cloth bound editions they have. They are really gorgeous!

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  14. Bust sounds like a great motivator. Thanks for the heads up -- I need to check it out.

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  15. Wow, you had a great Christmas! I bet my son would like the Shakespeare book too.

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  16. @Sarah- there are SO MANY useful things in it, as well as many many things I want to make- such a good investment ;) (I want to make everyone in the world buy it hehe)

    @DCMetroreader- Yes! Do! Yay Bust!

    @Everyone- PENGUIN CLOTHBOUNDS ROCK! :D

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