Book Meme Chapter Four

Favourite book of your favourite series

A book that reminds you of home

That’s right, I’m scrapping the ‘official’ meme question and instead using the far less superior (but easier to answer) 30 Day Book Challenge found on a social networking site. There are a couple of reasons for this. I haven’t even finished the Hornblower series, or Mortal Engines. I may come across a book out of them that I like the most. As for LOTR/ Harry Potter, I can’t really decide there, either. Added to that is the fact that I actually haven’t read any of the series mentioned for a long time, and seeing as my memory is not the best, I was thinking that something I had read not too long ago would work.

Initially I thought I might review Mockingjay, which is my ‘favourite’ of The Hunger Games trilogy, and one I have read fairly recently. The only thing was that this wasn’t my favourite series. Don’t get me wrong, the fast, heart pumping action was brilliant, but the love triangle was like a soggy cold sponge in comparison. And, I hated Peeta.

I decided that it was extremely difficult to judge individual books from a series, but rather, how all the books work together as a whole. So for Chapter Four I have decided to use an alternative question.

Chapter Four – A book that reminds you of home

I am in love with my home – the Isle of Wight. Even though we may be small and behind the rest of England by twenty years, there’s something quaint in the quiet and close communities, and I often get asked if I feel compacted. I do, in a good way. I relish in the fact that we are such a small community, that people say hello to me and ‘my, how you’ve grown’ even though I don’t know who they are. I like the fact that someone will do something scandalous (scandalous on the island is nothing like something scandalous on the mainland and the rest of the world, apart from that time we had the million pound drug haul)  and you will know about it the next time – like the time a got a warning slip from Southern Vectis, the island’s bus company, about not staying in my seat on the school bus (I had been caught by CCTV) and my parents knew about it before a letter came home because my aunty is friends with the main boss man. I didn’t like the fact that my mother forced me to write an apology letter and hand it to the bus driver on the way back from school, though.

The book I have chosen got me through a time when I was feeling particularly homesick in second year. The very name of the author comforted me, and reading his words, I could almost feel as if I were home again.

Here is my review from Goodreads:

WARNING: I am going to be totally biased with this author because, well, I love him so very, very much.

I picked up Alone on a Wide Wide Sea from my shelves yesterday. I chose to read it because I wanted to read it, and it wasn't one of my obligatory books.

I had looked at it in the shops, seen the diagrams of boats, the maps - this immediately appealed to me. And that fact that it's written by one of my favourite authors of all time helped, too.

The book was in itself amazing, truly inspiring. I loved the poignant journey of Arthur across Australia. Morpurgo brought every sense alive. The themes in the book were actually quite adult, beyond the '11-12 year old' readers sections. Slavery, oppression, religion, gambling, death, suicide...it's all there. What is perhaps most amazing is the constant referencing to literature - London Bridge is Falling Down, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. I cried, I laughed. I just was so absorbed in this book. It took me just this morning to read it. That's the magic of a book like this. I haven’t read anything all the way through, from just picking it up one morning, for a long, long time. It was also the first time I honestly cried at a book for ages, too.

I didn't really like the second part as much as the first, but that's maybe because I like the way Morpurgo can suck you into history, and so when he writes as if in the present, it jars, somehow.

I have grown up with this author - ever since primary school and The Butterfly Lion I have constantly been touched by his writing. I could only ever wish to write as he does, to touch people the way he does.

He's the person I would really like to meet, if I could choose anybody.

To expand on the point of growing up with the author – this is why any of Morpurgo’s books reminds me of home. The sheer memories I have on reading and re-reading War Horse, The Butterfly Lion and The Wreck of the Zanzibar are ones that are filled with a golden aura of innocent childhood, when I didn’t really have to worry about much except growing up. I felt I could completely relate to the things that Morpurgo writes – he was writing from a  landscape that was similar to the rolling hills of the island, and of Cornwall, which I have visited with my family often. He taught me magic was to be found in every thing and his stories fed my imagination. Morpurgo is probably one of the reasons I wanted to write stories in the first place.

Reading Alone on a Wide Wide Sea as a twenty year old I found that the magic had not been lost. Not only was Morpurgo conjuring hills and animals, he was conjuring the sea: the sea that forms an extremely important part of my home life. I could relate to the characters and I even imagined some of them as faces from home.

No matter what age you are, it is easy to get completely lost in Morpurgo’s words. He is a master story teller, and he is also my teacher. He reminds me of home.

I noted that he would be the person I would most like to meet. The opportunity has arisen – he is at Bath Children’s Literature Festival in October. Alas, I shall be off to Prague the next day, so I do not know if I will be able to meet my hero.

Three Books

Holly's book

David's book

Wave - Inspired by Maggie Hambling

The Book of the Dragonborn

For The King, Dovahkiin

for the sake of Skyrim

for our land, for our home

for Hrothgar's blood

for the Nords, for the Gods

for the sole single son

Dovahkiin, our king

Will dawn with fire!

Book Meme - Chapter Three

Taken at the brilliant Imagine Books, Weymouth

 Chapter Three 

 Favourite Series

From the shelves in Compass Books, Dartmouth

 The Hornblower books by C.S. Forester

Admittedly, I haven’t quite finished this series yet, but I would say it is one of my favourites. I always want to read on after I have finished the last word – read the next book, to be at sea again.

The Hornblower series is my favourite. It’s special to me because it’s about the sea, and I love every swash-buckling second of Forester’s prose, the humanity, the conscience of the characters. Hornblower is a solid man, but at the same time more human with every book he appears in.

Here is a review I wrote for Goodreads about the latest Hornblower book I read, The Happy Return:

Another winner from Forester. His first Hornblower book is presented with flair and compassion. Hornblower has never been such a human in the skin of an other-worldly entity – harsh, but only because he needs to succeed, for others, as well as himself – it is after all, his duty: ‘They love him not for anything he does or says, but for what he is.’ (p.212, Bush)
Beneath his lion like front he faces as much insecurity as the next man – the thought of mutilation – or indeed, of hair-loss – makes him sick. Forester guides the reader through Hornblower’s physical and mental struggles at sea on the Lydia. The battle scenes are, heart pounding episodes which made me smile with the thrill: the more emotional scenes and information at the end of the book are just as moving as the destruction of a ship, the blood running on the decks.
As always, there is humour to be found among the canon shot and splinters – ‘Almost at his feet lay young Clay, sprawled upon the deck, but Clay had no head. [Hornblower] noted this as an interesting phenomenon.’
Forester likes to include snippets of the century they were in and this lends to a deeper and more believable narrative: ‘There was a madman called Wordsworth of whose revolutionary opinions in literature Hornblower had heard with a vague horror.’
Again, I may be biased, but this book was spectacular, and I cannot wait until I am back at sea with Horatio Hornblower.

Reading Forester is something I enjoy thoroughly – to be at sea with Hornblower again is all I think about, when I’m missing the Island and haven’t seen the island since Christmas.

It is also a fantastic television series, with the ever so tasty Ioan Gruffudd. I imagine Gruffudd’s Hornblower when I read the books, except that he’s a lot more stern, hard and mean within the pages.

Writing like this really makes you appreciate the amount of work and dedication that goes into a series. Hornblower is a fantastic representation of a man who follows his duty. I haven’t read other naval historical fiction, but after reading about Hornblower’s adventures, I can’t see how a man like William Lawrence, of Naomi Novik’s Temeraire series, was taken seriously as a naval captain during the Napoleonic wars.

I love Hornblower so much I was even considering writing about it for my final year dissertation.

There are several series I have considered for this chapter, including the obvious Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings. Another fantastic series, in which I only have one book left, is Philip Reeve’s Mortal Engines. The sheer amount of imagination is truly fantastic, and although the books are aimed at children, adult themes resonate throughout.

Any series you think I should get into?

Instead of eating and finishing an assessment, I...

....tried my hand at Japanese style bookbinding.

Japanese bookbinding uses 'stab sewing' to bind single leaves together. It can be quite decorative. (See end of post)

Now, I'm terribly aware that this is probably the messiest thing you've seen me post - but I did make it out of scrap paper. (From print outs from my third year project, coincidentally, about books) It also has fluorescent orange endpapers. *Shiver*

But I'm pretty pleased with the result, and the sewing wasn't as complicated as I thought it would be.

I made a right mess with the beginning and start knot. But I was practising a new technique - never intending to make things completely perfect.

 

The only thing with sewing like this is that, although it looks great, you do lose quite a lot of margin, and can only open it a certain amount without bending the board too much.

Here are some examples of neater and quite frankly beautiful books sewed in the Japanese style. 

Japanese Journal by aalenfae

Japanese exercise books by nekogriz

handmade book 25 by darkest-red

 

Maybe I could bind my own dissertation like this....(!)

...now to cook some dinner!

Spoilers

I love Doctor Who, and when I saw River Song’s journal I knew I just had to re-create it.

http://www.onecobble.com/2011/09/23/making-river-songs-journal/

 

Last summer I was very lucky to receive a whole load of bookbinding materials from Roger Trise. Included with all the tools and things (see post 'A bookbinder's cigar box') I got some small rolls of book-cloth. I used the most beaten up and ‘Tardis blue’ cloth form the bunch and tried to make something that resembles River’s journal of Spoilers. I also used some of the paper that Roger gave me.

I made the book and cover in the normal way, and then cut out the elements for the ‘Tardis’ effect from thin card, gluing them on. Here is a template I used:

http://tardisbuilders.com/index.php?topic=2514.0

 

Then I glued the book-cloth over the top, pressing my bone folder into all the grooves.

After that, I got a charcoal pencil and did some outlining in black. Then I sanded down some areas for more of a 'worn' effect.

The charcoal kept on coming off on my hand, so I covered the whole thing in glue, which as well as making it shiny, helps to keep it strong.

For endpapers I bought a dove-grey colour, and used a light blue ribbon as bookmark.

This was also the first time I have used headbands, and adding them to the spine immediately made the book look a lot more neat and professional than any of my others.

I completed the book by adding a book plate and tying it with red ribbon.

I made it for my friend, Abbie, who loves Doctor Who. She received the package on her birthday. When she finally opened it after a few tantalizing hours after she told me she’d got it but hadn’t opened it she said that she ‘squealed’ and thought it was amazing.

I am ridiculously proud of this. Although it’s not perfect, at least Abbie still knew what it was meant to be!

This has been the first time I have used pretty much everything that a bookbinder should use, and it was really fun!

 Next project? 

I have some black book-cloth. So naturally, I'm thinking something like this:

http://gamerant.com/elder-scrolls-5-skyrim-best-disappointment-sieg-66060/

Book Meme – Chapter Two

A Book You’ve Read More Than Three Times


Unfortunately, the only books I have read more than three times are books that got me through school and angsty teenage years. They include possibly every book by Michael Morpurgo, Anthony Horrowitz, and J.K. Rowling. I haven’t had the time to read the more ‘adult’ books on my shelves (a considerably small selection) over again, but there is a reason why I do keep them. I keep them because they are good enough to be read again, and I will enjoy them again. My outlook on life may have changed since the time I first read them. I may understand something that my younger self didn’t.

There are books I haven’t touched or considered looking at again – the charity shop cheap fantasies, the books that actually belong to my brother. I would quite like to read T.C. Boyle’s The Tortilla Curtain again. This was really an incredible read, and I loved every minute of it.

    
Shamefully, I would like to re-visit Stephanie Meyer – because I read her before everyone else did, and I want to see if university has actually taught me anything about bad writers. Heck, if I hate them, maybe I can make them into pretty book art. 

I think I’ve read this book more than three times. Well, three times, at least.

Tamar by Mal Peet

 
 I haven’t read this book in an awfully long time, but I remember loving every second of it. It was my first WWII story that wasn’t Michael Morpurgo, and although aimed at young-adults, it could very well fit into the adult section in a bookshop, too. I have a strange fascination for the world wars, heightened even more by watching War Horse (now there’s a book I’ve read about twenty times!) and I’m currently chugging my way through Birdsong. I intend to read Tamar again, over and over and over.

 



Other books on my shelves I want to re-read:

·        Elizabeth Chadwick – The Greatest Knight

·        Helen Dumore – The Siege

·        Holly Black – Tithe

·        Alison Croggon – The Pelinor Quartet

·        Eleanor Updale – Montmorency Quartet

·        Charles Dickens – Great Expectations

·        Hugh Cook – The Wizards and the Warriors

·        Vikas Swarup – Q&A

·        Ann Halam – Siberia

·        Eva Ibbotson – Journey to the River Sea

·        Elizabeth Golding - The Little White Horse

Basically, all of these:

From June 2011 - My shelves change round a hell of a lot so some of these books aren't there any more - oh, and there's no space on the ends, either.