Carrying on to the 100

Categories: uncategorized

Date: 26 November 2011 17:58:45

For those who remember my post on Mike Gayle's To Do List I thought I would give an update; including discussing some of my latest reading in my 100 books in a year challenge.

First off progress on the list about 2 months or one sixth of the way through the project. Well number 6 - making bread with the breadmaker we were given is becoming a semi-regular occurance. Can't remember the last time I bought a loaf although failing miserably at finding the mix Third Party actually liked to make some glutton free stuff she could eat. Number 19 send off my candidating application has also been ticked off as has going to the Baltic to see the Turner Prize exhibition. Other mundane bits have also been ticked off or I am making progress on them.

Number 37 which was carry on with Bible in a Year and catch up with bits missed did happen sort of but then I ended up on a camping trip in London where I ended up leaving the bible in a tent. As I still having my notebook telling me what I had read from it I may resume in the new year after advent. So that one will be a sort of fail but I could recover, sort of.

Anyway back to the books. There are a couple of different strands going on at the moment. The first appears to be picking up paperbacks at the station to read on a train instead of getting to a cinema to see an American being an English character. The first one of these books (and number 6 on the list) was One Day by David Nicholls. In case anybody has not read it or seen the film I'm not going to spoil it suffice to say I so get why it has been a huge best seller and if you've not read it I would recommend it. I Don't Know How She Does It by Allison Pearson (number 8 on the list of books read) and this was a book which really suprised me. I had sort of heard about it because of the film and I wasn't sure but then I read it and I thought I love this. The book is set in the world most commonly associated with Richard Curtis films on one level but it has stuff within it that resonates with anybody who has ever been a working mum who has been faced with the realities of that life. By the end I had a feeling that was unfamiliar to me but one which I needed to feel - a confidence that I had made the right decisions for the right motives when it came to being a mum. I was also more concerned than ever to make sure in these last precious few months I am there for Third Party a bit more than perhaps I have been lately. Occupying, etc are important and worthy activities but I have a daughter who will be flying the nest in a few short months and I want to be able to share some time with her before that happens. Today for example we got the Telegraph and Guardian and enjoyed just chilling out over them with some hot chocolate and cream - I had been planning to go and listen to Ann Morisy in Newcastle and visit the Occupy Newcastle lot whilst up there but this was somehow me thinks a better use of the day.

Book 7 of the hundred also linked to number 107 on my list - join the SCR bookgroup. That one is ticked off and this terms book was Palace Walk by Naguib Mahfouz. This was not an easy read but it was a very worthwhile one which had a very contemporary ring to it despite being set nearly a century ago. Ok the English are gone but the plot themes of conflict and the issues around patriarchy and Islam v. secularism are very real.