Tuesday 1 July 2014

JUNE 2014 READING LIST AND PICK OF THE MONTH

Well I doubt I could have a worse month's reading, if I had been abducted by aliens or forcibly renditioned by the CIA and summarily deposited down in Guantanamo Bay. Thankfully neither of those things happened, but my reading sucked nevertheless.

Work and life issues contributed; mainly work and the World Cup hasn't helped, but in general for a month or six I have been in a slump. I guess I'll have to read my way out of it, forgetting any challenges and targets for now.

I haven't finished a book in 3 weeks and couldn't even complete one short 1963 read for a single book challenge over at Rich's blog Past Offences. Sorry, Rich!

No point beating myself up about it and in reality who gives a flying whatever, if I read 3, 13 or 30 books in any given month?

June's reads were as follows;

Nic Pizzolatto - Galveston (5)

Phil Hogan - A Pleasure and a Calling (4)

Mark Kotting - Teach Her (4)


Book of the month  Galveston by Nic Pizzolatto

5 star beauty!
Roll on July!






16 comments:

  1. Col, you can't do worse than me. I skipped the World Cup for even the second most exciting sport in the world (the first being chess) is not worth staying up well past midnight, IST. I don't even know which countries are playing.

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    1. Prashant, the times haven't been too bad for UK viewing mainly 5pm and 9pm kick offs. I miss the first half of the early games (work) and watch the first half of the second games, before going to bed unless it's an exciting game.

      I can't really regard chess as exciting, perhaps because I've never learned how to play it! (Too late now I reckon!)

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    2. Col, I have been playing chess since the time my dad taught me the game when I was in first standard (grade). I couldn't agree more with the late US chess prodigy, Bobby Fischer, who famously said, "Chess is life." Contrary to common opinion, I find chess totally relaxing and a stress buster, not to mention getting a kick out of defeating a worthy opponent. I don't think it's too late to learn how to play chess; it's relatively easy. I don't bother too much with the various openings and gambits.

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    3. Prashant, I think my leisure time is stretched now as it is, so I will shelve any thoughts of learning just yet!
      How many books or films have you seen or read where the evil scheming genius is a chess master or keen player!

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    4. Col, good question and a blog post material. Meanwhile, I recommend Katherine Neville's debut novel, a thriller, THE EIGHT, which is set around chess. You'll like it.

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    5. Cheers I'll look up the KN book.
      I liked the chess match in the Harry Potter film, whichever one it was!

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  2. Col - Sorry to hear you had a bad reading month. As you say though, the truth is that it doesn't matter whether you read 3, 30, 300 or none in a given month. Hopefully next month will go better.

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    1. Margot, I have too many books housed for my appetite to disappear (permanently - I hope not!), but the malaise has kind of effected my enthusiasm for blogging and web-surfing and commenting (and smiling!)
      Time to shake it off!

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  3. We all have slumps Col, I'm sure your mojo will return. I must admit my own reading has felt like a chore over the past couple of months as I agreed to be a judge for an award - 40+ titles to read and while some were outstanding others were...mot - though even the worst probably weren't bad enough I'd swap the time for being dropped in Guantanamo - orange is so not my colour :)

    I haven't read your pick of the month though now I have a bloody Glen Campbell song going round in my head - thanks for that :)

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    1. Bernadette - ouch 40 seems a big ask, so rather you than me.

      I think you need to post a selfie in orange of course on your website, so we can be the judge! Apologies for GC doing the rounds in your head. Perhaps it won't go until you've read Pizzolatto! Cheers

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    2. I *like* that song... :-)

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    3. Hmm... you may be in a minority on here!

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  4. That World Cup has a lot to answer for. Though in my case it means more reading, as other persons in the house are distracted and busy the whole time.... I'm quite enjoying the peace and quiet, though I'm sure I'll be happy to go back to normal when it's all over.

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    1. Moira less than two weeks and it's over, though at least now there are rest days as well.

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  5. I think we are one of the few households that (almost) totally ignored the World Cup. I liked the Google doodles and listened to the comments at work. My reading goes up, yours goes down. I wonder if there is a pattern there.

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    Replies
    1. Tracy, hopefully I get back into it in July - but not at the expense of yours!

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