What's the Story in Dalamory » books http://www.freda.org.uk Mon, 06 Feb 2012 16:37:04 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 Once a reader http://www.freda.org.uk/2011/01/15/once-a-reader/ http://www.freda.org.uk/2011/01/15/once-a-reader/#comments Sat, 15 Jan 2011 17:19:18 +0000 freda http://www.freda.org.uk/?p=4241 Continue reading →]]> Once a reader, always a reader – so the saying goes, and it is certainly true of me. Depending on my frame of mind I always have the appropriate book to hand; if not, I simply pick up another. Current books on the go:

Elizabeth the Queen Mother by Hugo Vickers Page30/375  (this is a second reading and makes light bedtime dropping off to sleep relaxation…..)

Encore by May Sarton, Page 158/332  (many readings and ditto above)

Forgotten Laughter by Marcia Willett, Page 30/375  (a library book billed as for those who like Rosamunde Pilcher – it hasn’t grabbed me yet.)

Life and Laughing my story, by Michael McIntyre Page 112/294  (lives up to the author’s gift for observational humour.)

War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy Page 378/1356  (as part of my winter blog readalong at dovegreyreader.)

The Gift of Years by Joan Chittister Page 82/222  (suits a slow, meditative pace – a recommendation from the blogging world.)

The above list makes me wonder about a Kindle Reader, though I don’t travel as much these days there are still the motorhome trips and visits to family and friends. However, I’m still at the stage of liking the look and feel of each book. When I feel in need of a boost I can pick up the Michael McIntyre volume and instantly sense the inward chuckle rising. If I’m wistful and feel that life is passing me by I go to my seat in the porch and pick up Joan Chittister. Tolstoy is for serious days, whereas the Rosamunde Pilcher un-look-a-like hardly gets attention at all. Bedtime reading alternates according to mood but must be non-fiction and soothing.

Are you a one book at a time person, or do you like to have a few on the go?

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]]> http://www.freda.org.uk/2011/01/15/once-a-reader/feed/ 12 Life as it is http://www.freda.org.uk/2011/01/13/life-as-it-is/ http://www.freda.org.uk/2011/01/13/life-as-it-is/#comments Thu, 13 Jan 2011 15:36:42 +0000 freda http://www.freda.org.uk/?p=4235 Continue reading →]]>

Readers of long-standing may remember the saga of the porch being built. In the end it took a total of 4 years. However, it is now one of my favourite places to sit and meditate or to read and watch the birds at the feeders.

The pheasant this morning sent me scampering for the camera. You can see the dank, dreary weather; I know the photo isn’t all that great but it gives a true picture of life at Dalamory just now. In the summer the sun shines right into the windows and lights up everywhere; in the winter it’s lovely to be warm inside and yet to have the sense of the garden all around.

As a follow-on from the discussion about care of the elderly and palliative care, you may like to look at a moving story here, where a woman called Amy Berman describes her experiences on being diagnosed with an aggressive form of breast cancer. It helps to give a fuller understanding of the dichotomy between health carers and those seeking the chance to make the most of the limited time they have left.

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]]> http://www.freda.org.uk/2011/01/13/life-as-it-is/feed/ 13 Books you have read http://www.freda.org.uk/2010/12/07/books-you-have-read/ http://www.freda.org.uk/2010/12/07/books-you-have-read/#comments Tue, 07 Dec 2010 16:05:31 +0000 freda http://www.freda.org.uk/?p=4093 Continue reading →]]> This list from BBC3 is going round the internet and facebook like a rash. I just can’t avoid it any longer, so here goes.

For Instructions:

• Copy this list.

• Bold those books you’ve read in their entirety.

• Italicize the ones you started but didn’t finish or read only an excerpt.

• Underline the ones you really want to read

1.The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien
2. *Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen *
3. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman – (copy on the shelf to read)
4. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
5. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, JK Rowling
6. To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
7. Winnie the Pooh, AA Milne
8. Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell
9. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, CS Lewis
10. Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë
11. Catch-22, Joseph Heller
12. Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë
13. Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks
14. Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier
15. The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger
16. The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame
17. Great Expectations, Charles Dickens
18. Little Women, Louisa May Alcott
19. Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, Louis de Berniers
20. War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy
 21. Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell
22. Harry Potter And The Philosopher’s Stone, JK Rowling
23. Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets, JK Rowling
24. Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban, JK Rowling
25. The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien
26. Tess Of The D’Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy
27. Middlemarch, George Eliot
28. A Prayer For Owen Meany, John Irving
29. The Grapes Of Wrath, John Steinbeck
30. Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland, Lewis Carroll31. The Story Of Tracy Beaker, Jacqueline Wilson
32. One Hundred Years Of Solitude, Gabriel García Márquez
33. The Pillars Of The Earth, Ken Follett
34. David Copperfield, Charles Dickens
35. Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl
36. Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson
37. A Town Like Alice, Nevil Shute
38. Persuasion, Jane Austen
39. Dune, Frank Herbert
40. Emma, Jane Austen
41. Anne Of Green Gables, LM Montgomery
42. Watership Down, Richard Adams
43. The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald
44. The Count Of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas
45. Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh
46. Animal Farm, George Orwell
47. A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens
48. Far From The Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy
49. Goodnight Mister Tom, Michelle Magorian
50. The Shell Seekers, Rosamunde Pilcher
51. The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett
52. Of Mice And Men, John Steinbeck
53. The Stand, Stephen King
54. Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy
55. A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth
56. The BFG, Roald Dahl
57. Swallows And Amazons, Arthur Ransome
58. Black Beauty, Anna Sewell
59. Artemis Fowl, Eoin Colfer
60. Crime And Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky
61. Noughts And Crosses, Malorie Blackman
62. Memoirs Of A Geisha, Arthur Golden
63. A Tale Of Two Cities, Charles Dickens
64. The Thorn Birds, Colleen McCollough
65. Mort, Terry Pratchett
66. The Magic Faraway Tree, Enid Blyton
67. The Magus, John Fowles
68. Good Omens, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
69. Guards! Guards!, Terry Pratchett
70. Lord Of The Flies, William Golding
71. Perfume, Patrick Süskind
72. The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, Robert Tressell
73. Night Watch, Terry Pratchett
74. Matilda, Roald Dahl
75. Bridget Jones’s Diary, Helen Fielding
76. The Secret History, Donna Tartt
77. The Woman In White, Wilkie Collins
78. Ulysses, James Joyce
79. Bleak House, Charles Dickens
80. Double Act, Jacqueline Wilson
81. The Twits, Roald Dahl
82. I Capture The Castle, Dodie Smith
83. Holes, Louis Sachar
84. Gormenghast, Mervyn Peake
85. The God Of Small Things, Arundhati Roy
86. Vicky Angel, Jacqueline Wilson
87. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
88. Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons
89. Magician, Raymond E Feist
90. On The Road, Jack Kerouac
91. The Godfather, Mario Puzo
92. The Clan Of The Cave Bear, Jean M Auel
93. The Colour Of Magic, Terry Pratchett
94. The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho
95. Katherine, Anya Seton
96. Kane And Abel, Jeffrey Archer
97. Love In The Time Of Cholera, Gabriel García Márquez
98. Girls In Love, Jacqueline Wilson
99. The Princess Diaries, Meg Cabot
100. Midnight’s Children, Salman Rushdie

Oh dear and I thought I read a lot. Back to the bookshelves.

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]]> http://www.freda.org.uk/2010/12/07/books-you-have-read/feed/ 6 Good day for shopping http://www.freda.org.uk/2010/05/01/good-day-for-shopping/ http://www.freda.org.uk/2010/05/01/good-day-for-shopping/#comments Sat, 01 May 2010 14:37:20 +0000 freda http://www.freda.org.uk/?p=3011 Continue reading →]]> Him Behind the Wheel wanted to order the third book in a trilogy, so he duly trawled amazon and found it for £3.79. You can get free postage and packing on orders of £15.00 so guess who volunteered to do the order for him and thereby enjoyed choosing books to get beyond the total?

Excellent day.

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]]> http://www.freda.org.uk/2010/05/01/good-day-for-shopping/feed/ 0 Luxury http://www.freda.org.uk/2009/04/03/luxury/ http://www.freda.org.uk/2009/04/03/luxury/#comments Fri, 03 Apr 2009 12:07:55 +0000 freda http://www.freda.org.uk/?p=2170 Continue reading →]]> My definition of luxury?
A whole shelf of books waiting to be read.
And six more have just arrived from Amazon, thanks to a recent birthday present.

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]]> http://www.freda.org.uk/2009/04/03/luxury/feed/ 2 Library Van day again http://www.freda.org.uk/2008/09/23/library-van-day-again/ http://www.freda.org.uk/2008/09/23/library-van-day-again/#comments Tue, 23 Sep 2008 06:57:41 +0000 freda http://www.freda.org.uk/?p=1862 Continue reading →]]> Library van day again today. That reminds me – I have finished four good books this month by new (to me) authors. Must update my reading page soon. There is nothing better than a good book, whether it be story, autobiography, biography, journal or travelogue. But somehow I cannot get to grips with Sci-Fi or Fantasy. They seem to me a bit like War and Peace – all strange sounding, unpronounceable names.

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]]> http://www.freda.org.uk/2008/09/23/library-van-day-again/feed/ 0 Taking aging seriously http://www.freda.org.uk/2007/11/27/taking-aging-seriously/ http://www.freda.org.uk/2007/11/27/taking-aging-seriously/#comments Tue, 27 Nov 2007 06:12:46 +0000 freda http://www.freda.org.uk/?p=1540 Continue reading →]]> It occured to me that whenever I wanted to learn how to do something new, I always bought a book about it This used to be cause for much hilarity amongst friends and family. (After all, how does one learn to paint, sew, climb, do yoga, whatever…without first trying it?) Anyway, I am now sixty three and facing the hard facts about aging. So I decided to get serious about it, and have sent away for six books from various places in the world.

If I am still writing then you will know I am still doing it. Aging I mean.

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