Category: MEME

book blogger hop

~ winstonsdad ~ 3 Comments

Hi all this is second blog hop I put down for I mainl review translated fiction on the blog ,look forward to meeting some new bloggers as I hop around blogs ,all the best stu and winston .

favourtie book – rings of saturn W G Sebald

bloggiesta weekend

~ winstonsdad ~ 10 Comments

taking part in bloggiesta over weekend heres what i ve in mind to do

ON BLOG –

  • UPDATE BLOGROLL
  • UPDATE 52 READS LIST
  • WRITE POST FOR BLOOMSDAY ON JUNE 16
  • GENRAL TIDY UP CHECK EVERYTHING UP TO DATE MAYBE

IN BLOG COMMUNITY –

  • FIND SOME NEW BLOGS
  • COMMENT ON AT LEAST TEN NEW BLOGS 
  • OFFER HELP TO PEOPLE

ALSO IF ANY ONE CAN HELP WITH HINTS AND TIPS WELCOME ,STU

A picture to sum up my reading

~ winstonsdad ~ 10 Comments
the pack Joseph Beuys

This installation from 1969 by the great german artist Joseph Beuys sums up my reading I think fairly well ,adventurous ,different mainly post second world war .Beuys like to push the boundaries of the art world ,asking for berlin wall to be raised ,to give berlin better prospective was on thing he asked for ,he used lumps of butter in exhibits just thrown to ground ,he was a gunner in bombers in the second world war ,he lived in Kleve in Germany for a long time which is the same town I lived in ,he also did a number of pieces for the 4 yearly documenta city-wide art event in Kassel that i also have seen .So like Beuys I m always searching for new voices to express my reading .

this is a meme from Simon at stuck in books i ve just found his blog recently

100th post

~ winstonsdad ~ 14 Comments

Some triva bits for 100th post –

  1. I am tall over 6ft
  2. I m married
  3. I ve owned two dogs Winston and much missed Merlin my first dog
  4. I grew up with cats Siamese and moggys
  5. I love coffee
  6. I don’t drink milk or cream
  7. I know makton (sign language for learning disabilities )
  8. best day ever my wedding day
  9. Worst day losing Merlin
  10. Best work day getting life story of person i support published
  11. I own over a 1000 cds
  12. I  have a large book buying habit
  13. I live in a small house
  14. I lived in germany
  15. Favourite bookshop barter books alnwick
  16. Missed book shop peak books Chesterfield
  17. Favourite book cover english patient first paperback cover
  18. favourite album cover unknown pleasures -joy division
  19. favourite film wings of desire
  20. favourite tv comedy fraiser
  21. favourite tv show band of brothers
  22. I own over 40 Dylan albums
  23. I love holidays in Algarve
  24. I love to visit art gallery’s
  25. I don’t drive
  26. I suffer from dsypraxia
  27. I m very forgetful
  28. I ve a photographic memory
  29. Favourite holiday honeymoon in Torquay
  30. Soulmate my wife
  31. I love to cook
  32. I m untidy
  33. First album brought paul hardcastle (sad i know )
  34. first good album brought housemartins london o hull4
  35. I read the times every day
  36. I get T.L.C every week
  37. longest book read don deillo underworld
  38. My father reads thrillers and westerns and reads loads more than me
  39. My wife likes true life books
  40. I m fairly shy

there a bit more about me and last meme post for a bit ,Thanks for all making me welcome to blogging .stu

why winstonsdad ?

~ winstonsdad ~ 8 Comments
winston

 

winston

 

When I started the blog last year i pondered various names for it and ended up with winstonsdad ,which i must admit doesn’t immediately say it’s a book blog .Well to explain Winston is my lovely dog ,he was a rescue puppy found on the streets of Sheffield at a few weeks old .he was a huge puppy and a naughty puppy as he chewed me out of house and home ,biting the stair tables and even the ear of my teddy I’d had as a baby ,but this passed and he grew up ,now six plus years later he tends to sleep most of the day and loves going for walks along the canal ,where he tries to take a dip most of the time .this leads to a guilty pleasure confession I love dog books like Marley and me ,walking Ollie ,they always  upset me if there is an unhappy end but just enjoy hearing other dog owners stories . 

marley and me walking Ollie

 

walking ollie

LISTS ,LISTS

~ winstonsdad ~ 2 Comments

Up late feeling a bit random so going to do couple of lists .-

Last ten library books borrowed

  1. life a user manual by Georges Perec -french modernist
  2. you face tomorrow by Javier Marias – new spanish voice
  3. a private affair by Beppe Fenglio – post war italian classic
  4. the house of hunger by Dambudzo Marechera -zimbabwean writer that died to young
  5. that awful mess on the via Merula by Carlo Emilio Gadda -murder and philosophy in one novel
  6. Niels Lyhne by Jens Peter Jacobsen -Danish classic
  7. alphabet of the night by Jean-Euphele Milce – Hatian novel about a jewish shopkeeper
  8. piano by Jean Echenoz -new french writer a bit like prisoner
  9. the labyrinth of solitude by Octavio Paz – book about being mexican
  10. the shadow of a smile by Kachi a. ozumba – english based Nigerian

a wide choice there .

5 favourite places

  1. Elie fife where my gran lives ,long beaches and peace
  2. Aran coast Donegal -spent a lot of my youth around her with my father who is from Derry peat fires and rockpools
  3. Torquay -where i spent my honeymoon with my darling wife
  4. Chesterfield i love where i live and place i first met my wife at the station
  5. Alnwick Northumberland -lived here for a few years wild countryside and peace oh and largest secondhand bookshop in uk lol

i love countryside and peace ,most of all sharing time with my wife in these places .

10 random i pod tracks –

  1. had a dream about you baby – Bob Dylan -down in the groove
  2. in a future age – wilco -summerteeth
  3. dazed and confused – led Zeppelin -song remains the same
  4. ready for the floor -hot chip -made in the dark
  5. the band played waltzing Matilda -the pogues -rum sodomy and the lash
  6. ceremony -new order -retro(disc1)
  7. last post on the bugle -the libertines -the libertines
  8. blue in green-miles Davies -kind of blue
  9. tears of rage -the band -music from big pink
  10. stretch out and wait -the smiths -world won’t listen

hope it is an insight into me a bit ,stu

books that defined me

~ winstonsdad ~ 4 Comments

i decide to do this meme post after reading a brilliant post by Claire at paperback reader ,the rules where as follows –

1.Go to your book cases

2.Choose books with your eyes closed

3.Choose ten at random ,use all of your bookcases or piles of books

4.Use the book to tell us about yourself where and when you got them ,who got them for you ,what the books say about you etc .etc….

5.Have fun be imaginative .doesn t matter if you ve not read them all

6.Cheat (i choose 14 )

Book one travels with a donkey in the Cevennes by R L Stevenson ,i got this about ten years ago ,from Chesterfield’s great flea market .I have always enjoyed travel books and also Stevenson’s books this is a lovely book and gave me a great couple of days reading ,ot is from the 30s and show my love of old books

Book two poems of Rimbaud (everyman pocket edition) apart from reading mainly novels poetry has always been a great love i got this book in a small independent bookshop that was open in Alnwick in 94 when i brought this sad to say the shop has long gone Rimbaud is one of france greatest poets alongside the like Baudelaire ,my old school teacher turn me on to poetry reading us poems by Keats Yeats and  Lawrence ,i ve read about two-thirds of the poems but always think a book of poems is for life

Book three the bad seed by william march this was a chance buy in Alnwick wonderful barter books got this shortly after it opened i had a feeling it had something to do with nick cave giving his band the name the bad seeds not sure if its true still but it is about a death and a psycho so it might of done ,i do impulse buy some times it pays sometimes it doesn t ,this time it did william march won the national book award with this in 1955 .

Book four Walt whitman selected poems (penguin popular poetry ) i brought this on a day in Leeds with my step mother shortly after seeing dead poets society where whitman features heavily in the plot line ,i love these poems like the film itself there is something about america of this time Thoreau, whitman,Melville and Emerson are all favourites of mine

Book five Saki shorts (phoenix) i have a few Saki collections one of my earliest memories is at my grandparents looking at there shelves and always be amazed by the name Saki when i was old enough i read them ,my grand mother was a english teacher and loves turn of century fiction saki is ther one of the best short story writers his stories make me laugh  ,he is surely due a revival at some point ,reading his stories bring back memories of great summers around the east neuk of fife with my brother and grandparents .

Book six in the heart of the sea Nathaniel Philbrick i got this because of the connection to moby dick ,and sad to say never read it i will now place it back on tbr pile as it had got shelved away in a bedroom ,adventure stories was a great passion in my teens from Willard price on to jack london ,then Melville .The sea has always drawn me and i love boats but have not sailed much except through books

Book seven the rebel Albert Camus ,my father brought this book for me when i lived in germany in the early nineties .a phone call for books and some promptly came a surprise at my father’s choice as he tends to read pulp thrillers and westerns ,Camus ‘s prose are lovely and was a great companion when i was in germany ,i remember been sat by the Rhine reading this book as the boats drifted by

Book eight the leopard Tomasi di Lampedusa this is one of my around the world reads for this year ,looking forward to reading it then watching the film to compare them .It is a perfect example of why i choose to do the round the world challenge to increase my own knowledge of world lit and strength my love of translated fiction .It will also remind me of my late grandfather who fought in italy but after the war spent nearly every summer there on holiday

Book nine white teeth Zadie smith i got this when it came out in paperback in Sheffield ,it seemed to encapsulate a start of the twenty-first century in our fair land pre 9 11 it is a truly great book and one i feel sure i will re read at some point ,it also mark the emergence of a great new talent in Zadie smith ,i spent a lot of time recommend this book to people

Book ten essays George Orwell ,this collection was a present from my parents ,they know of my love of Orwell and this collection is so diverse i spent christmas to new year reading it .reading Orwell was my first introduction to politics in writing as a thirteen year old reading animal farm ,over the years i ve read most of his books and think i will always go back to him

what do your books say about you?

does every book have a memory for you ?