Two New Books

Not two to have arrived by my own pen or fingers but, I collected these from the local Post Office this evening, after a little bit of spending at Amazon, earlier in the week (ironically, this follows the news this week that HMV have gone bust and also, that Blockbuster may be heading towards a similar fate). It’s kind of ironic also, that I’ve taken this photo against the backdrop of my laptop!

I recently e-mailed someone who was in the writing course that finished before Christmas (everyone’s e-mail address was included in the weekly writings from the our tutor). She seemed to welcome the message as I had asked about a book she bought in to share on our final day (that reminds me – I still haven’t shared the poem, of someone else, that I read aloud).

She chose to read maybe 1,000 words from the opening chapter in Italo Calvino‘s If On A Winter’s Night A Traveller and it struck me as the kind of tale that bites and really grabs hold of you. Just listening to the words being spoken aloud; it was compelling. I felt as if I could sit with this book and read through several chapters in a single afternoon or evening (usually, I aim for one, before placing marking the page). So, that was immediately added to my shopping basket and she also recommend The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks, which is apparently easier to read, if a little more ‘dark’.

Neither book is ‘novel-thickness‘ by my own judgement therefore, I’m confident I can get through each in reasonable time. Elsewhere on my bookshelf, I have Dan Brown’s Angels and Demons; purchased last April but still unopened!! 😛

So, with two books ready to purchase, I felt as if I still had some room to add more and, in the end, added three CDs to my list. One of those arrived with these books but, I’ll share that with you another time, once I’m in possession of the two I’m still waiting for. All I’ll say is that it’s one I’ve been curious about for the past twelve-months, since its release… It’s a female singer, unlike the artists and tracks I’ve previously shared on this blog… 😉

PS. Why don’t spellcheckers remind us that ‘Angles‘ can still be in correct… I’m glad I spotted this in the preview, before I hit publish! 😉