ZZZZzzzzzz

After pondering about it for a while I have now decided to put the blog on hold.
I am going to allow it to have a little rest and hibernation... wishing I could do the same for myself.

As of today I had two more finished books to deduct from the total, bringing it to 127.
Oh, and then let me not forget the one my mum brought over from Holland and the other 5 I bought while she was here.

Thus I end up on a very respectable 133.

In it to win it

Once more I did not win the lottery this weekend so I will have to go into the office again tomorrow. I'll give it another few weeks but I am sure my lucky ticket is out there... somewhere. It just has to find me. When it does, bookshops of the nation beware!

On the reading front things are going ok. Finished a ghost story one yesterday (review to follow) and started a new one as well. It's my second Patterson one and I have a funny feeling Mr Patterson and me are never going to be bosom buddies. Not sure why? Maybe by the end of the book I will have figured it out. Anyway... must get on.

PS: secretly planning a book buying trip for next Saturday but don't tell anyone!

Swap

A week ago I did something I normally never do... I swapped a book I was reading for another one! Reason being that I sort of had the feeling I knew how it was going to end before the story even really got started. I got to page 72 and realised that this was not the book I wanted to be reading. So... I decided to do a swap. I swapped Ludlum for King and I am much happier for it! King got me hooked at page 10 and made me want to keep reading... Ludlum did not. It may be a sad truth but there it is. Not sure if I will ever finish Mr Ludlum. I will keep him on the shelf for now and see how it goes. But King has definitely got me hooked!

One further point to mention is that my fridge is exhibiting some weird behaviour. It is no longer OK according to the little thingy inside the fridge. It seems to be on a lot and seems to be saying the temp inside is too high a lot... even when it has been closed all night and I come to open it in the morning it sometimes tells me it is not OK. Will have to see how it goes.... but not now as Mr King is calling.... IT is waiting...

All done

After a glorious few weeks holidaying in NL I have returned with a renewed energy for reading books and a few new acquisitions as well. I also now have a few nice snacks that I can munch my way through and a brand new bear called Aloisius.

Books to be read: 137
New jobs to be started on Monday: 1

Duh

I just realised that I completely forgot to update the scores on the doors... and after all that effort to catch up.
So, for those who have not yet given up... 
After Dorothy there were 136 left to read.
After Sleath there were 135 books left to read.

Finally.... after Agatha I am now left with 134 books left to be read.

Fun in the Sun

Only a short post this weekend...
I do have three books to review but... well... what can I say? There were dishes to be done and laundry, and the weather was nice so I opted for going out rather than staying in.

The back has been getting better (finally!!!) so I hope to have more time to do the reviews over the next few weeks. If the coming weekends are going to be any like the one I am having it means I am up as 7 anyway so even with the normal household chores to be done it may leave me some time to catch up..... again...
Just to give you a taster... The delights coming up are related to food, crime and creepy stuff. Variation is the spice of life!

More soon..... promise!!

Back into the swing of things

It seems that lately I have just not been finding the time to read. Not even in the evening in bed!! But.... now that work has begun again in earnest with the first full week of this year I am slowly starting to get back to normal and am picking up my reading again. 
I still have a ghost story one to finish off and am already thinking about what to read next. Not sure yet what I am in the mood for. I think a quick read is in order but who knows hat will happen between now and finishing the final 40 pages of my book.

Another Batch has landed

I got some extra gifts this week in the shape of three more orphan books that were escorted to my house by my Christmas visitor. There is still lots more to come where they came from! It's a good thing that from the ones still residing in Holland there is a very easy way to determine which ones I have actually read and which ones are still to be read. I used to be a spine cracker and gave up the habit about 10 years ago. Therefore all the ones that have a cracked spine have been read and all the ones that are still pristine(-ish) have not.

These additions bring the new total of books to be read to: 145

I'm off to catch up on some reading!

Dental stress

I have to admit that I have bought another 2 books.

In my defence is was a compensation buy to ease the stress brought on to my first visit to the dentist in 10 years. I had a bit break one of my teeth so really had no choice but to go and see a dentist. I had been quite skillful over the years in avoiding it but as I did not want things to get worse I had to bite the bullet (pun intended). Now I have actually had the first visit it turns out that things are not as bad as I thought they might have been. I have to have another visit to see if the dentist can fit a new filling where it has broken off, get a scale and polish done and another xray of one of my teeth as there may be an issue with it but.... apart from that it was not too scary. Hopefully the new filling will be okay for a while at least otherwise we may need to consider other options.... and they may involve more drastic measures.

Now, back to the books.

The one I am reading now is proving to be a bit of a challenge and is taking me a long time to get through. Only about 30 pages to go now so hope to finish it soon and get on to a more interesting one.

Further news, I have a new job which will start on 2 December! Well done me! Might have to treat myself to something nice...

Books to be read: 149

Happy Accidents

When walking along the city market yesterday I happened to go past the bookstall and found that they had closing down sale on. So, I now have another 3 orphans to nurture at home. I thought I had been quite restrained in buying three! In fact, I think I have been positively brilliant in not buying more than 3. Maybe I should go and treat myself? Let me think.... what could I possibly get for myself that would make me feel good about myself???

Books to be read: 152

International orphans

Having come back from a short holiday I now have three more orphan books that have made their way across the Channel. Only one more crime one and the others are totally different. In due course they will appear on here reviewed and everything.... with bells on.

Off to focus on my documentary on the rise of Hitler now, cannot stop long....

Books to be read: 151

Epic fail

so.... no updates eh... yeah I know. I have royally slapped myself on the wrist!
This time it wasn't the back but the weather that was too blame... it has been hot hot hot and I have been busy soaking up some of the sun, staying cool and trying not to let hay fever get the better of me. It seems to be particularly bad this year!

I am going to have to start these reviews soon as I realise I am beginning to forget the story lines for some of them. Hoping to get round to them soon though.
Also hoping for some rains as well so my hay fever will easy off... just an hour or so will do. Fingers crossed!

Still 156 to be read and no new books bought!

Time flies

Apologies for not updating the blog for this long. Time seems to be speeding along and I am lagging behind big time!
I have to say that starting a new job has had some influence on me not updating as frequently as I would have liked to. With any new job there have been many news things to learn, many new people to meet, a whole new area of expertise to get used to..... It's draining.
I have been struggling through some books though and still have 5 left to review but I also have to confess I have bought some more. There are 4 more bought ones and then some more new arrivals in the shape of books from my secret stock at Mum's. 8 More books have arrived at mine, courtesy of the Godparents that came over for a visit.
At the end of the last post the number of books read was 144. Adding the ones I bought (4) I come to 148. Adding the ones that arrived from Mum's (8), brings the new total to: 156.... (I am leaving the ones I have read but not reviewed out of the equation as I will deduct them as I go along). Only recently I was feeling all good about myself for reading so much. Now.... oh dear, back to square one. Guess I have to keep reading to try and keep on top of things.

I hope to make a start on the reviews this weekend so stay tuned. For now, I am off to watch a documentary on Atlantis and then on to read whilst chilling in bed.

Books to be read: 156

Scary Business

I know... it's not even Sunday and I am at it again. I kind of had to.. trying to clear the backlog before I finish the next one (only 20 pages to go on my language one)... don't want to have things stacking up do we? Ahem..... yes, well....


#### SPOILER ALERT ####

Strangers - Dean R Koontz
Yep, another one from the "No 1 Bestselling Master of Menace".
If I had to break this one down into a few key sentences they would be: several people are scared but do not know why. They go on a mission to find out what happened and then it all comes back to them. Also involves a Government cover up and an alien space ship. What's not to like? Koontz sets the scene and introduces all the players. Connect the dots and then delivers the grand finale. Simples, to quote a famous Meerkat.
As I said, the book starts with painting the picture of the main characters who are all scared but do not know why. We have Dominick Corvaisis who is sleepwalking and ends up barricading himself in his own house afraid that someone or something is going to get him. He is a writer and relatively new to it. It seems our Dom has been through a few changes recently and he has never really stopped to think why. He has a "loyal Sidekick"-friend who advises him on what to do and ends up playing a small pat in all of it too. 
Then there is Ginger Weiss. A successful doctor from a Jewish background who is so capable of handling herself it makes you almost envious of her. She initially gets seriously scared of black gloves and has no idea why. She ends up so unable to cope that she as to go and stay with her boss for a while to get her balance back.
Next up is Ernie Block. Good old solid motel owner Ernie. He has a doting wife and a motel to run so he does not have time to get scared. Yet he is... of the dark. He is sure something is there and he keeps feeling he should get away. Oh, and then there is that spot by the highway....
Another day sees us meet another character. This time it is Father Brendan Cronin he is having some major issues keeping the faith and would probably even go as far to say as that he lost it completely. He is not sure why but it is just gone.
As if all these are not enough to get to grips with we now meet Jack Twist. A master criminal who used to be in the army but decided that after the army left him why should he care. Well he does care, about his wife who has been in a come for years. But that is all he cares for, all he lives for, all that makes him feel good and alive. Not even the most daring of crimes does that for him nowadays. What is it all worth if you have no-one to share it with anyway?
There are some late stragglers (Sandy and Ned) to be added to the list of those affected but they almost seem like a by product of the whole thing... just some more people whose story Koontz has to explain to file some more pages. They do not add anything to the story and it almost seems that they just happen to be affected as well and just happen to live near Ernie. The serve the convenient purpose of being an extra pair of hands in the final plan. Someone had to hold up that door and cook the dinner. Oh, and let us not forget Jorja and her cute moon obsessed daughter Marcie. Cute kid Marcie just keep her away from doctors.
Someone who is connected to the story but not completely involved is a really interesting character called Father Stefan Wycazik. God's very own little trouble shooter. The kind of priest you believe could probably blow up the Hoover dam as well as preach the living daylights out of Sunday Mass. He is a powerful man and an honest one. He is Father Cronin's boss and he tries to do the best for his charge in finding his faith again. He also serves as a very handy vehicle to move the story along in the right direction and to help us gather some vital clues.
Bit by bit you find out some clues to the story that connects these people. There are some mysterious pictures that some if the cast receive , Ginger goes as far as to undergo regression therapy (which does not end well for the therapist) but mostly it is their memories that draw them to the same place where the great reveal takes place. Some weir stuff happens along that way to. Father Brendan becomes a bit of a healer and hen there is this obsession with the moon for some of the characters. Through no small amount of freakish coincidences all the pieces to the puzzle get puzzled together. one by one the characters find out where they need to go and then what happened to them while they were there. Naturally this is partly thanks to some government agents who managed to grow an conscience somewhere between taking part in the cover up and participating in the events several months earlier. There is also the obligatory mad general with delusions of... well who knows really. Once the characters end up at the same place.... the pace where it all started. Things pick up the pace and there is wild driving, shooting, escaping and running around involved before we finally get to find out what has really gone on. I will not bore you with the details but as I said there is a government institution nearby and you did not hear it from me but conspiracy is rife over there in Nevada.
I thought is was a good read but it did seem to have a lot of characters to get to know and I have to say I did win a bet with myself about who was going to end up with who and I am really chuffed about that! However, in the end the "what happened to them" seems relatively small to the amounts of people you have had to meet to get to it. There were so many bits that had to come together and it was spread over so many characters that is almost seems to lose its impact. You wonder who brought what to the table again and where did that little bit of info come from. I would not be surprised if there are parts of the riddle that actually did not come from anyone. I never would have remembered!
Koontz' characters are nice enough and although stereotypes they are entertaining and fun to be around for 700 pages or so. What the book did do is draw me in. Its fault may be the amount of characters but the clever thing is that each of them remembers something different in a different way about what happened to all of them and you kind of need all of them to help you piece it together. What it also did is make me want to do was get to the end of it. I stayed up till about 1.00am to finish it one night because I just had to know how it ended. Partly because I just wanted it over with, partly because I wanted to see if the bad guys really died and the good guys really lived... most of them do.

Title: Strangers
Author: Dean R Koontz
710 pages
Headline
ISBN #0-7472-3516-3

Books to be read: 151

At long last

Finally I am able to sit down and do a little update... It has been long in the making and long overdue. I have been busy with work, keeping my back moving and flexible and holidaying. 

Mum and I had a really good holiday last week. I have managed to get a few more nice bits and pieces for the house and some new clothes as well. Some more good news is that after about 7 months my back is finally getting better. It seems that two extremely painful sessions with the Sports Masseur were all that was needed to get my muscles to pay attention and fall in line with the rest of my body again. It is amazing what you can do to remedy muscle pain by using a tennis ball and a sturdy wall.

On the book front I only have one more book buy to report. I blame my mum for this one as she kept dragging me into second hand bookshops everywhere we went and telling me to have a little browse around and take as much time as I wanted. I was bound to cave in and duly did in the Willen Hospice Bookshop in Stony Stratford. This means that the grand total of books to be read now stands at a lovely, whopping 151.

My current reading: slowly making my way through The Seeds of Speech, all about language creation and acquisition. 

Books left to review: 2 but I am afraid they will have to wait until Sunday. 

Book themed outing for  Saturday: British Library for the exhibition on Crime Fiction... cannot wait!!!

Little Orphans

I have some new little orphans to take care of!! One of my colleagues from work was moving and need to cull some books. I got first refusal and am now the proud owner of some lovely new books. I have had them sitting on the sofa for a week or so as I do not want to frighten the others ones on the bookshelf with a sudden influx of newbies. I think I will try to introduce the newbies today and see how they get on with the old guard.
My friend calculate that with the amount of books I now have waiting to be read it will take me about 4 years to read them all... if I do not buy any new ones in the meantime... yeah right... like that will happen?!

I have read another book but as the weather is really nice today and I have just spent a good hour or so trawling through my emails my back is starting to give out so I will have to do the review next week. Might have finished another one by then too!? I am reading a DeanK one at the moment at they are usually a quick read.... everyone is scared in this one so far... bit weird?

Number of new orphan books: 34
Books to be read: 150.... nice round number.... lovely.....

Things are stacking up

After another weekend of relaxing and reading another book has bitten the dust and I now have 4 left to review. I plan to get them done next weekend..... all things being equal. I am hoping that some of them will not take that long to review. But more of that next week.

In the meantime, I have been going to the gym every other day and things are looking up. I get less pain and it is easier to do the exercises. My physio has given me easy and hard days and strangely the hard days are the easier ones. I have less stress on my back and my muscles seem to be settling down so things are looking up.

Another thing I want to mention is my discovery of Foy Vance. Irish singer songwriter with a soul, a voice that cuts through you and a great lyricist. One of my favourite lines is "it doesn't take a whole day to recognise sunshine... true and simple. I got two of his albums and they are very different and this is a good thing!

Book wise at the moment I am reading something different from my normal fodder so it will be interesting to see how I get on with it.

Revisiting the past

After the week from Hell I am now almost back to my normal self again.

Why the week from Hell?? Well, my back muscles deciding to play me another trick. They collectively decided that they were going to go on strike and no amount of painkillers was going to move them. At one point I am sure I heard them chant "we shall, we shall, we shall not be moved". Anyway.... my physio decided that acupuncture might help. during it I was fine. 2 Hours later I felt like I had been hit by a truck and run over... twice. I am now slowly starting up the exercise again and the muscles seem to be holding up. I can even sit down long enough comfortably to read a few pages. This is a good thing as the present book I am reading is about 700 pages. I am just over halfway through it now and it is proving rather good. It is not your typical Stephen King book but pleasantly different.

Good news... no new books bought!

New additions to the home

Although I am doing really well in not buying any books this week I still ended up having more of them in my house than last week's reported total. A colleague at work has been tidying up his cupboards and found some more orphan books for me to home..... 18 more actually!! This brings the running total to a staggeringly lovely 117 books to be read.
And he good news is.... I am not done yet! I remembered that I got some money from mum over Christmas and it would be rude no to spend it. Although I did buy some sensible new walking shoes today I thought that some of it might go on books. I only have a little list I am wanting to buy... maybe I should start looking into joining bookaholics anonymous for real?

The one I am reading now is going really well. Cannot say that it really does what it says on the tin but it is really interesting none the less. Will probably have finished it by next week.

One other thing that made my day today: I noticed that the National Library in London has an exhibition on about the history of crime fiction. That is going to be worth a visit... once the weather improves and the snow clears.

Final purchases

The other week my last purchase arrived. Umberto Eco... it is going down as my first second hand purchase from Amazon and as it has now arrived in my house it is going to have to be added to the list of books to be read. That list is actually in balance as I finished one as well. 
Bought one: 102
Read one: 101
I vaguely remember the days when I worried about getting over 60.... that seems like a distant dream now. Will I ever get below 90? 
I have told myself that Eco is the last book I will buy this year but as it is only early December that might be a bit of an ambitious task to set myself. I will have to wait and see how I go. Bookshops are dangerously omnipresent, relapses are not unknown to me and the evenings are long and dark.

Work and my sacroiliac joint have kept me busy and in pain respectively so I have not had much chance to update this blog over the last week or so. But.... physio is going well and work is...well, work and still busy but I should have some more time soon to let you know what I thought about The Hogfather... I will say this for it, I really love Death in this one!