LiberryDwarf

April 4, 2011

Meme Monday – Book Meme

Filed under: Books, Memes — liberrydwarf @ 2:12 pm

[taken from here]

1. What new book coming out soon do you plan to buy?

I almost never buy books new…I do know we’ll be getting the next Harry Dresden the second it comes out though. (Warning: spoilers for previous book in link!)

2. What upcoming book are you dying to read?

A Dance with Dragons. Like every other Game of Thrones fan. (At least, still holding on to hope and assuming it’s still upcoming…)

3. What series is a must read for you?

The Dresden Files. Discworld. Also, sadly, the Stephanie Plum books too…

4. What new author have you found so far in 2011?

New-new, or new to me? New to me = Many. None mind-blowing, from memory. I never know who’s new-new, but I haven’t been impressed with any first-timers I’ve come across yet. ‘Oldies But Goldies’ have done the trick for me this year…

5. What little known author are you a fan of?

I’m probably way-off about who’s little-known and who’s not. I don’t suppose Markus Zusak is particularly well-know outside Australia, but I thought The Book Thief was masterful…

March 21, 2011

Meme Monday: Book Excerpt Meme

Filed under: Books, Memes — liberrydwarf @ 2:24 pm

Book meme (from here amongst other places)
– Grab the nearest book.
– Open it to page 56.
– Find the fifth sentence.
– Post the text of the sentence in your blog along with these instructions.

“Baptiste must have answered him satisfactorily, for he nodded, then dismissed them with a curt word and a gesture of his head”.

– “Beasts of Burden”, Wild Cards vol.IV “Aces Abroad”, edited by George R.R. Martin.

 

I’m giving the Wild Cards volumes I hadn’t tried before a read – perhaps spurred on by recently watching “Heroes” and missing season 1 when it was novel and cool. Wild Cards seems to retain that feeling without getting too tired – I think maybe because so many different writers are involved?

Anyway, in “Aces Abroad”, a delegation of the American Aces and Jokers already established in the earlier books are travelling to other countries in search of Ace and Joker experiences there. In this story, “Beasts of Burden”, they’ve gone to Haiti where a mysterious evil Joker has kidnapped some of the group to make them his slaves…

March 11, 2011

Friday Weekly Wrap-up: Fantasy, Frozen Treats and Family

Filed under: Books, family, Food — liberrydwarf @ 8:27 pm

The week that was!

One Good Thing: I have rediscovered and started re-reading Jim Butcher’s “Harry Dresden” books. I’d have to say, for my money, definitely best paranormal/urban fantasy books out there, haven’t yet disappointed by devolving into the usual pornographic drivel that these things usually do. And laugh-out-loud-awkwardly-on-the-bus enjoyable!

One Bad Thing: They’ve closed the Cold Rock Ice Creamery near my place! And in summer! Booh, shame on  you!

One Thing I Learned: My awesome mother-in-law was back in the country for a whirlwind 4-day visit, so we caught up and I learned lots of things about my husband as an infant – you know, the kinds of things that are probably very genetically relevant that men have absolutely no clue about? It was good to clear a couple of things up and get some idea of what to expect from that side of the gene pool. (Plus, she bought little vests, hooray!)

February 28, 2011

Meme Monday: Book Meme

Filed under: Books, Memes — liberrydwarf @ 5:50 pm

(from kalafudra as usual)

The book that’s been on your shelves the longest.

My books don’t usually have a long shelf-life, constant turnover… I think we took some of the Willard Price Adventure books I used to read when I was about 10 years old when we helped my mother move, if you don’t count the intermission it would be them.

A book that reminds you of something specific in your life (a person, a place, a time).

I remember reading The Illuminatus Trilogy the year (well, four or five months) I lived with my father. I remember feeling really uncomfortable about it, because he absolutely loved it and wanted to discuss every plot detail, and I just thought it was weird and wasn’t really into it.

A book you acquired in some interesting way.

I bought my copy of Dragons of Autumn Twilight from a tiny English Language second-hand bookstore in Athens which was so much like I later discovered Black Books to be that it’s quite uncanny.

The book that’s been with you to the most places.

I’m not entirely sure that it’s the same copy, but I have taken The Complete Sherlock Holmes with me to the UK and to more than one local/interstate beach holiday.

The most recent addition to your shelves.

I think it was Midnight Louie’s Pet Detectives anthology.

Your current read, your last read and the book you’ll read next.

Last =Plum Lovin’ by Janet Evanovich

Current =The City Who Fought by Anne McCaffrey & S.M. Stirling

Next =Monsters from the Id by Anthony L Abraham

All from BookMooch mooches, which usually dictate my reading patterns. I read quite quickly, so this doesn’t seem to inconvenience anyone too much.

February 16, 2011

Wednesday Weekly Links

Filed under: Books, games, Librarian, movies, music, Nerds, News Articles — liberrydwarf @ 8:25 pm

Here are this week’s linky treats. Enjoy!

Movies

The Top 5 Library Scenes in Movies

Music

Amanda Palmer discusses her new music business model – you give her $5000, she plays you a concert. No tickets, no middleman. The future of music?

TV

“Jersey Shore” versus the new up-and-coming UK version “Geordie Shore” (collective shudders…)

Books

The most popular books of 1983 (a very good year, if I do say so myself!)

Other

Proof that libraries have been trying daggy things to be more popular for over 50 years…

The Best of the Chronicle” – true gems from the local paper from the country town I grew up in.

January 7, 2011

Friday Wrap-up: Horticulture, Hamilton and Hot Air

Filed under: Books, family, Nature — liberrydwarf @ 6:08 pm

The week that was! (And I’m enjoying doing very little at the moment, so it’s a bit tricky!)

1) One Good Thing: We’re not under flood waters or anything here on the outskirts of Brisbane (though we’re at the bottom of an easement so the front yard does become a bit of a lake at times!) but we finally had 2 dry days in a row and got the front lawn mowed. For, like, the first time in a month. I no longer expect Tarzan-yodeling neighbours in loincloths every time I go out to take the rubbish to the bin 🙂

2) One Bad Thing: I guess it’s my own fault, but I keep reading Anita Blake novels and being morosely disappointed by the complete lack of character progression and anything interesting happenning at all. (This week it was The Harlequin, which someone else swore to me was “kind of a bit cooler than normal”.) Maybe I should go back to Harry Dresden novels. I’d welcome any suggestions!

3) One Thing I Learned: my aunt taught my brother and I a different diaphragm breathing technique (she said as a punk singer and a pregnant lady we’d probably both benefit for different reasons!) It was funny, but all of a sudden it WORKED, where years and years of singing lessons hadn’t taught me a thing about breathing. Now if only they’d taught me decent pitch…

December 27, 2010

Meme Monday: Yet Another Book Meme

Filed under: Books, Memes — liberrydwarf @ 4:09 pm

(pinched off NewGradLibrarian)

1. Do you remember learning to read? How old were you?
I don’t remember learning to read – Mum tells me it was quite early – four, I think? I do clearly remember reading Asterix comics at around 6 or 7 years old…
2. What do you find most challenging to read?
Old Sci-Fi and Mystery. (Pre-1970’s). Where the type’s that funny font, the pages are yellow and heavy, and the proof-reading is pretty much non-existent.
3. What are your library habits?
I use the public library for kid’s books for my Scout group. Almost never borrow for myself, except for non-fiction (cookbooks, and recently some pregnancy books) as I have far too much unread fiction at home…
4. Have your library habits changed since you were younger?
I think my library use decreased as my income increased 🙂 Or my free-time-while-library-is-open time decreased. I used to be at the school library every afternoon in highschool, and the public library pretty much every second weekend.
5. Has social media changed your reading life?
I do a lot of trading – things I have and have already read for other things I’m looking for, completing series and things. I think that’s probably broadened what I read, but pretty much killed my library use. Blog/forum posts etc have also given me too many new book ideas!
6. What percentage of your books do you get from new book stores, second hand books stores, the library, online exchange sites, online retailers, e-books, other?
I buy almost nothing new – pretty much everything is from online exchange or online retailers like BookDepository, or a serendipitous find at a second-hand book fair or stall. Haven’t gone down the eBook path – I like my books nurseable, flick-through-able and able to accompany one in the bath 🙂
7. What are your pet peeves about the way people treat books?
I’m terrible with them, so not in much of a position to judge…
8. Do you read for pleasure or for work?
Books – for pleasure. For work, mostly articles or blog posts. I have yet to come across anything in a professional book that hasn’t been horribly outdated and useless 🙂
9. When you give people books as gifts, how do you decide what to give them?
Other authors they’ve liked, genres they tend towards, topics we’ve discussed over the years. I try not to give things I loved, as that’s no guarantee they’ll love them too, and if they don’t it might be a bit awkward…

December 8, 2010

Wednesday Weekly Links

Filed under: Animals, Australia, Books, I.T, Kittens, movies, music, TV — liberrydwarf @ 9:56 am

Here are this week’s linky treats. Enjoy!

Movies

The 15 Worst Films of 2010 (which I proudly have seen none of!)

TV

Promising new ABC TV show – billed as “Gay Big Bang Theory”. (Of course it’s ABC so it’ll have 6 episodes and then lose funding because it’s not on commercial TV…)

Books

Five Sci-Fi Childrens Book Mashups

Music

Other

Let’s all make fun of iPhone spelling mistakes

 

November 15, 2010

Meme Monday: The BBC Top 100 Books

Filed under: Books, Memes — liberrydwarf @ 8:39 am

The BBC believes most people will have read only 6 of the 100 books listed here. Bold those books you’ve read in their entirety.  Italicize the ones you started but didn’t finish or read only an excerpt.

1 Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen

2 The Lord of the Rings – JRR Tolkien

3 Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte

4 Harry Potter series – JK Rowling

5 To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee

6 The Bible

7 Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte

8 Nineteen Eighty Four – George Orwell

9 His Dark Materials trilogy – Philip Pullman

10 Great Expectations – Charles Dickens

11 Little Women – Louisa M Alcott

12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles – Thomas Hardy

13 Catch 22 – Joseph Heller

14 Complete Works of Shakespeare

15 Rebecca – Daphne Du Maurier

16 The Hobbit – JRR Tolkien

17 Birdsong – Sebastian Faulk

18 The Catcher in the Rye – JD Salinger

19 The Time Traveler’s Wife – Audrey Niffenegger

20 Middlemarch – George Eliot

21 Gone With The Wind – Margaret Mitchell

22 The Great Gatsby – F Scott Fitzgerald

24 War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy

25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams

26 Brideshead Revisited – Evelyn Waugh

27 Crime and Punishment – Fyodor Dostoyevsky

28 Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck

29 Alice in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll

30 The Wind in the Willows – Kenneth Grahame

31 Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy

32 David Copperfield – Charles Dickens

33 Chronicles of Narnia series – CS Lewis

34 Emma -Jane Austen

35 Persuasion – Jane Austen

36 The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe – CS Lewis (given #33, why is this here??)

37 The Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini

38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin – Louis De Bernieres

39 Memoirs of a Geisha – Arthur Golden

40 Winnie the Pooh – A.A. Milne

41 Animal Farm – George Orwell

42 The Da Vinci Code – Dan Brown

43 One Hundred Years of Solitude – Gabriel Garcia Marquez

44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney – John Irving

45 The Woman in White – Wilkie Collins

46 Anne of Green Gables – LM Montgomery

47 Far From The Madding Crowd – Thomas Hardy

48 The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood

49 Lord of the Flies – William Golding

50 Atonement – Ian McEwan

51 Life of Pi – Yann Martel

52 Dune – Frank Herbert

53 Cold Comfort Farm – Stella Gibbons

54 Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen

55 A Suitable Boy – Vikram Seth

56 The Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafon

57 A Tale Of Two Cities – Charles Dickens

58 Brave New World – Aldous Huxley

59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time – Mark Haddon

60 Love In The Time Of Cholera – Gabriel Garcia Marquez

61 Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck

62 Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov

63 The Secret History – Donna Tartt

64 The Lovely Bones – Alice Sebold

65 The Count of Monte Cristo – Alexandre Dumas

66 On The Road – Jack Kerouac

67 Jude the Obscure – Thomas Hardy

68 Bridget Jones’s Diary – Helen Fielding

69 Midnight’s Children – Salman Rushdie

70 Moby Dick – Herman Melville

71 Oliver Twist – Charles Dickens

72 Dracula – Bram Stoker

73 The Secret Garden – Frances Hodgson Burnett

74 Notes From A Small Island – Bill Bryson

75 Ulysses – James Joyce

76 The Inferno – Dante

77 Swallows and Amazons – Arthur Ransome

78 Germinal – Emile Zola

79 Vanity Fair – William Makepeace Thackeray

80 Possession – AS Byatt

81 A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens

82 Cloud Atlas – David Mitchell

83 The Color Purple – Alice Walker

84 The Remains of the Day – Kazuo Ishiguro

85 Madame Bovary – Gustave Flaubert

86 A Fine Balance – Rohinton Mistry

87 Charlotte’s Web – E.B. White

88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven – Mitch Albom

89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

90 The Faraway Tree Collection – Enid Blyton

91 Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad

92 The Little Prince – Antoine De Saint-Exupery

93 The Wasp Factory – Iain Banks

94 Watership Down – Richard Adams

95 A Confederacy of Dunces – John Kennedy Toole

96 A Town Like Alice – Nevil Shute

97 The Three Musketeers – Alexandre Dumas

98 Hamlet – William Shakespeare

99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – Roald Dahl

100 Les Miserables – Victor Hugo

 

That makes 36. And only one I didn’t get all the way through. In my defence, I was 14, it wasn’t my copy, and I was on holidays and couldn’t take it home with me.

How about you?

November 10, 2010

Wednesday Weekly Links

Filed under: Books, movies, TV, Words/Language — liberrydwarf @ 2:57 pm

Here are this week’s linky treats. Enjoy!

Movies

Duchovny spreads rumours (in French, mind you) of a third and final X Files Movie

A brief history of the alien invasion movie

Harrison Ford threatens an Indiana Jones 5 (despite the fact that April Fools Day is still months away!)

Books

JK Rowling says she’s not done with Potter yet... (paving the way for “Harry Potter: The University Years” adult fiction hopefully! *winks*)

Other

20 Awesomely Untranslatable Words from Around the World

 

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