In my last post, I shared how I had high hopes for November. And I did. I won’t say that my hopes were dashed, but I didn’t achieve everything I wanted to achieve. But that’s ok, it was a good month anyway. Mainly, I didn’t finish the novel I started […]
I have high hopes for November. For a start it’s National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), the time of year when I make sure I get a bit of fiction writing every day – more or less. It’s the month when at some point, I realise that I am well behind […]
Move around! Work / think/ play in different surroundings. In an office: have you got access to different areas? Move around! In public transport: do you always tend to sit (or stand!) in the same spot? In the city: do you often use the same parts of the city? And […]
Start the day reading. Set some time aside if it makes you happy. It’s food for the soul. You don’t need to be learning, just enjoy it. You don’t even need to know why you’re enjoying it, though it’s fun to wonder why: Is it the style, the plot, the […]
First, a small confession, or at least, something you might want to know about why I read non-fiction. It’s not always to learn what the author thinks I want to know. Or at least, not to take notes on what they want me to take from the book. I read […]
It took me a while to watch the film – I thought it would be violent and superficial, but I remember enjoying it A LOT and being surprised by the quality of the acting and script. Fast forward many years later, and the book has appeared on my radar through […]
I often avoid “inspirational books” but I heard so many people I respect recommend Elizabeth Gilbert’s ‘Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear‘, that I decided to give it a go. I found Gilbert’s story fascinating, especially her reflections and experiences after writing Eat, Pray, Love (which I haven’t read by […]
I’d already read The Little Village School and so I knew I was in for a sweet read when I downloaded Over Hill and Dale by Gervase Phinn. Gervase Phinn was a school inspector and this series of books, he weaves anecdotes together to create beautiful stories that have […]
I call this type of books “cozy reading” – they’re not hard work too read, they usually don’t shake me emotionally and I know some of the characters are going to make me feel warm. And I always laugh when I read Muriel Spark and enjoy her social commentary. ‘A […]
I love crime stories, detective books and spy novels. I’ve read quite a few of Stella Rimington’s novels featuring Liz Carlyle and so it was about time that I found out more about the author herself. So here are my favourite quotes from ‘Open Secret: The Autobiography of the Former […]
The first book I read by Stephen King was his non-fiction ‘On Writing’, which is quoted in every single book on writing. (I wrote about it here.) Following that, I decided to start reading some of his fiction, to see how he applied (or not) his own advice. I’ve liked […]
Books have just been accumulating in my Kindle. I finish them, I want to recommend them, write a little bit about them and share the passages I’ve marked. But it just never happens. I finished this book such a long time ago, and it’s still sitting in my device, waiting… […]
