A new book list 2014

How often do you get those quizzes popping up on Facebook? If you're anything like me you're seeing gadzillions of them at the moment. 'How 80's are you?', 'Which character in Game of Thrones would you be?', 'What flavour ice cream would you be?' You get the picture. They remind me of those quizzes you used to get in magazines, where you'd follow the lines with yes/no next to them or get 'mostly a'.

I'll not tell you how many I've filled in as I may go down rather in your estimations.

I mainly get dragged into the book and film ones. 'How many of these classic sci-fi films have you seen? Our survey says most people have only seen 8%!' Well, I think, well well well, I must have seen loads. But my being conned into giving this exciting data away for free is not the point of this post.

The point is the book ones. I've been a bit short on things to read. I do have a few things I want to get round to, but I hate heading out for the train with no book. (I'm including electronic and paper in that.) So last time I did a 'How many ...' quiz I made a list of all the 'classic' books from the list I had in fact not read (minus a few 'modern classics' which looked rubbish). Then I did it again with the big list of science fiction books and now I have a healthy reading list which I can go to when I complete a volume and not have to flounder any for my next selection.

It's not set in stone. I can pick something else, but all these books are rated by quite a few folks, so at least some of them should be super, right?

Here is the full list.

2013 book list

Oh books, lovely books. In 2012 I keep a list of most of the books I read. I thought I'd do the same for 2013, but somewhere along the road I kinda stopped recording. So here is my list from the first half of 2013. After these I read a few more - including some travel guides. I like lonely planet for reading before you go. I don't find the guide books are great for specific restaurants as things change so quickly.

I really enjoyed 'Rivers of London'. It's an easy read and feels a bit like a cross between Neil Gaiman's 'Neverwhere' and China Mieville's 'Kraken'. Both of which are great 'urban fantasies' (although Kraken could do with a little editing in my opinion).


key:
(r) means that I'm re-reading a book from my bookcase
(book club) means someone else chose it


Pixel to Plate by Helene Dujardin (Tartelette)
Build a Business from Your Kitchen Table by Sophie Cornish & Holly Tucker
The House of Silk by Anthony Horowitz
Reamde by Neal Stephenson (kindle) - my first ebook, I read it on my Nexus 7 tablet
Death Comes to Pemberley by P.D. James
Distrust that Particular Flavor by William Gibson
Pattern Recognition by William Gibson   (r)
A Force to be Reckoned With: A History of the Women's Institute by Jane Robinson
Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton
The Dosadi Experiment by Frank Herbert
Clocks by Agatha Christie
Peril at End House by Agatha Christie
Ready Player One by Ernest Cline (r)
Gateway by Frederik Pohl
Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch
Interaction of Colour (50th anniversary edition) by Josef Albers

I also read (most of) 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami (I read books 1,2 and part of 3 but by then I didn't care what happened, so I stopped) and another book by Ben Aaronovitch. I'm reading a little bit less recently as I've not been well and it takes more energy to read than listen to podcasts. I might investigate some audio books this year.

Books, book, books

Let's talk about books.
I'm a big fan of reading. I find that I am transported to the world described in the story much more thoroughly than whilst watching films. I'm not reading the words on the page anymore, I'm actually there seeing everything happen. Until there is a typo. It feels like:

* * * TYPO * * *

Have you ever done that? Come across a spelling mistake in a book? I find it very jarring. I am yanked out of that world instantly and find myself looking a page. I wonder if that's why some people don't enjoy reading? Maybe it feels like hitting a typo... all... the ... time. If you never get into the flow I can see that reading a whole book would seem like a drag.

We've recently had a bit of a clear out. Our shelves were full, no, our whole house was full. of stuff. so we had to get rid of the things we weren't using and that meant a lot of books. Mainly books that we had read and probably wouldn't read again, or about things in which we are no longer interested.

It's sad parting with books. But many are hopefully finding new homes. We sent some to Amazon's trade-in programme and got some gift cards. Some went to charity and I gave a few to people at my work. The rest went to our local recycling centre where they will either be rescued or pulped to make more books.

Book list 2012

Last year I recorded all the books I read for fun. I wondered how many I'd get through and whether they would be new to me or mainly old favourites. Here is the full list from 2012. I've copied it from my 'Books tab' so that I can start filling that with 2013's list.

So assuming I remembered to write them all down I got through 35 novels, nowhere near my target of 50 (seems like I really slowed down in the second half of the year). 22 were new to me and 12 were re-reads. Ready Player One by Ernest Cline was one of my favourites and will probably appear in my re-reads list next year. 

What was your favourite from last year?

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What have you been reading? At the beginning of 2012 I decided that I would keep a list of all the books I read during the year. I wonder how many I'll get through? I'd like to find a book club too so hopefully I'll be reading some books I wouldn't normally pick up.

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It's August now and I've read 26 books this year. I think 50 would be a good target. I've joined and left a book club. I was reading books I didn't like, what's the point of that? Maybe I'll find another I like more.

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(r) means that I'm re-reading a book from my bookcase
(book club) means someone else chose it


The Flavour Thesaurus by Niki Segnit
The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson (r)
Virtual Light by William Gibson (r)
Idoru by William Gibson (r)
All Tomorrow's Parties by William Gibson (r)
The Dark Tower: Gunslinger by Stephen King
Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie (r)
The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery (book club)
Kraken by China Miéville
Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card (book club)
The Door into Summer by Robert Heinlein (r)
How to be a Woman by Caitlin Moran
Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein
Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Márquez (book club)
Lightborn by Tricia Sullivan
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (r)
The Technician by Neil Asher
The Traveller by John Twelve Hawks 
Death of an Expert Witness by P.D. James
Pure by Julianna Baggott 
Ready Player One by Ernest Cline 
Mockingbird by Walter Tevis
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
Burton and Swinburne in the Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack by Mark Hodder
Who Goes There? by John W. Campbell
Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne  (r)
Original Sin by P.D.James
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens  (r)  not all the Christmas books - the others are rubbish
Twilight by Stephenie Meyer  (r)
New Moon by Stephenie Meyer  (r)
Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer  (r)
Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer  (r)

Book club journal page

I've joined a book club. I said that I wanted to read something which I wouldn't normally choose and my wish was answered. The book for the February meeting was 'The Elegance of the Hedgehog', it was written by a French author - Muriel Barbery and translated into English.

It's quite philosophical and not an easy read. I had to look up at least ten words whilst reading it and I'd like to think my vocabulary is pretty good. I probably wouldn't have made it to the end if it hadn't been for the book club, but I'm glad I did, there was a lot more story towards the end.

I mainly enjoyed meeting some new people. They were very welcoming and had some great insights into the book.

I made a page in my scrapbook/journal about the meeting. It probably needs a bit more work, but I had fun putting it together. I'd like to keep a record of each book this way, though I don't how long I'll be able to keep it up.

Biscuiteering

Have you ever seen the Biscuiteers website? They make these fantastic iced biscuits that you can send through the post, kinda like sending flowers but more tasty. Their designs are pretty cool and even cooler, at the end of last year, they brought out a really nice book. It's called 'The Biscuiteers Book of Iced Biscuits'.

Its got lots of beautiful photos, recipes for biscuit dough and icing, useful tips and templates you can trace if you don't have any cutters!

So I chose it as part of my prize from the video competition.

Now. It turns out these are a little bit more difficult than your average cookie. Piping icing is not hard to do per se, but piping it neatly so you can tell what it is? That's another story! So here are some pictures of my first attempt at iced biscuits. I've got a long way to go before I'm at Biscuiteer level!

Macaron book

Happy New Year folks!

Check out this cool book Marc got me for Christmas. It's by one of the top chefs in the world of Macarons - Pierre Hermé. It's got loads of recipes for different flavours including tomato ketchup!

What's interesting is that the basic mix he uses is made with Italian meringue. The recipes I've tried have always used soft meringue. The main difference is that hot sugar syrup is added to the egg whites. Apparently this makes for a more stable meringue which won't deflate as much when you add your other ingredients. It does mean more washing up though and hot sugar...

There's one other issue. The whole book is written in French. Luckily although my spoken French is awful, my reading is okay. Hopefully I'll be able to decipher enough to give it go. Maybe not the ketchup ones.

Couture Sewing Techniques book

This is one of the books I got for Christmas. Although it's called Couture Sewing Techniques I actually found it a great introduction to the idea of couture in general.

For example, did you know that Haute Couture garments are pretty much all hand sewn? That really made me think. I always assumed you needed a machine to make clothes properly but you would actually have a lot more control sewing by hand.

The book explains the process that couture houses go through to fit clothes for each client - usually making a totally new pattern to flatter the individual figure! Then the author shows lots of useful techniques starting with hand sewing stitches and going on to different hems, bindings and fastenings.

I thought one of the most useful sections was about facings and backings and how they are used to keep the item in shape. This isn't really mentioned in most sewing technique books apart from a little bit about interfacing.

It does feel a little old-fashioned in places. Mainly I imagine because couture is now such a small industry most of the examples are historical and a lot of the clothes shown are kinda ugly not so inspirational.

I do like that this book has been written with home sewers in mind though. Everything is explained and there are photographs and diagrams where required. It's easy to see where you would be able to apply the techniques to your own work - even if it's not totally hand sewn.

Gothic Lolita Punk: Book review

I picked up this book the other day, Gothic Lolita Punk by 'ricorico'. It says it's 'A stunning showcase of cutting-edge work from the best Gothic Lolita artists working today.' I'm not so sure about cutting- edge but it's a nice collection of work.

It's got artwork by Kira Imai and Yoh as you would expect but what's cool about this book is the addition of 'step by step' sections by the artists. They have each taken one of their illustrations and shown the process by which they put it together.

Also as the book is a decent size (26 x 18.4 cm) you can see the details in the pieces which are sometimes lost when viewing on the Internet or in smaller publications.

The strangest thing about 'Gothic Lolita Punk' is the whole introduction is an interview with DJ SiSeN. I haven't got a problem with him and I even quite like some of the Industrial music he plays. Seriously though, one google image search shows his style is rather Cyber Goth. Some of what he says is interesting - about music and fashion not being as linked in Japan as it is in the west. So it's not that I disagree with what he is discussing - more that I'm not sure he was the best choice for this particular book.

It's a lot less exploratory than 'Japanese Goth' but it's also less serious. 'Gothic Lolita Punk' is a very accessible collection of Lolita artwork with added interest for artists or those interested in the artistic process.

Japanese Goth: Book review

Japanese Goth is the newest book from Tiffany Godoy author of 'Style Deficit Disorder: Harajuku Street Fashion, Tokyo'.

To be honest I'm still slightly confused about what the subject of the book is supposed to be. I understand that it's about art but there are hints that it was supposed to be specifically about its involvement with Gothic Lolita. Starting with a stack of Mana pictures even before the introduction by Novala Takemoto. There are also continued references to dolls and the 'dark side' of childhood; but if this is the case, why call it Japanese Goth? Did they just wimp out on the Lolita title? Was it due to a lack of understanding of the subject?

There are a couple of other problems I had with the book. Unfortunately some of the art has been spread over two pages - which means you miss the whole middle of the image unless you ruthlessly break the shiny black spine.

The other problem I had was specifically with this passage:

'Similarly there is also an awareness of the more primal urges or children, as intimated by the term "Lolita" which is used to describe this type of dress in Japan, while also being an overt reference to the temptress character of Vladimir Nabokov's novel about a man's obsession with a sexually precocious girl.'

Perhaps the author read the wikipedia entry rather than novel but 'Dolores' in the book is pretty much just a young girl taken advantage of by the main character. That's part of the point, Humbert is telling himself that she is 'tempting' him and 'coming on' to him, it's what makes it 'okay' in his mind.

Generally I think this book could have been improved by being a larger format with less words (creating a fantastic coffee table book) or having had a bit more research, become a more academic look at Gothic Lolita.

Having said that, the actual art in the book is superb. Juxtaposing artists such as Kira Imai with more darkly gothic imagery leads to a creative exploration of the Japanese dark/cute aesthetic which I personally find intriguing.

Sewing Techniques Book

I got a new book yesterday called 'The Complete Book of Sewing' its a DK one and has lots of step by step instructions. Not so much on how to make specific items but more about using different techniques.
Theres a section on doing different kinds of zips, altering patterns, different seams and hems and photos of each step.
Theres also a useful section on fabric types and what they are used for.
I think it will be pretty useful, I suppose you could find most of the information online if you really needed to, but don't you think it's nice to have a book sometimes?

Pattern Drafting

I am looking at drafting patterns today. I've got this book and it really seems to explain the basics of making a 'block' and then adapting it in different ways. I am going to try to use a drafting technique to make my skirts more flared. Also there is a bit about making puffy sleeves from normal ones where you cut the pattern into sections and spread them out. I'll try and explain that better later.