Life must be filled up

From debodacious

Rules: Use the first letter of your name to answer each of the following questions. They have to be real . . . nothing made up! If the person before you had the same first initial, you must use different answers. You cannot use any word twice and you can't use your name for the boy/girl name question.

1. Your name: Callmemadam
2. A four-letter word: Cart
3. A boy's name: Chris
4. A girl's name: Carol
5. An occupation: Croupier
6. A color: Cream
7. Something you wear: Coat
8. A food: Carrots
9. Something found in the bathroom: Colgate
10. A place: Cyprus
11. A reason for being late: Crashing out
12. Something you shout: Come on!
13. A movie title: Casablanca
14. Something you drink: Coke
15. A musical group: Caravan
16. An animal: Cheetah
17. A street name: Cheapside
18. The title of a song: Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window

Do this really quickly and it's like one of those psychological associations tests.

huskyteer has alerted me to Molesworth: the early years. This is the pre-Young Elizabethan incarnation of Molesworth in Punch and well worth looking at.

The Booker longlist was announced yesterday: yawn, yawn yawn. Those of you who do enjoy the Bookerthon, have fun if you possibly can. A hot tip for this year is David Mitchell’s The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet. I had a look at this in a bookshop and decided it was definitely not for me, but I’m one of many readers who couldn’t get through Cloud Atlas.

Daft eBay listings. These are not happy days for people trying to sell books on eBay, so why make it harder for yourself? Whoever, looking for a book, does a search for ‘good book’, ‘rare’ or, mysteriously, ‘3-D view’? Then you might try to get the title right. One seller repeatedly put up a book called Patricia, Perfect. The book is called Patricia, Prefect. You’d think the seller would notice on the nth time of listing? Another relisted book is called, allegedly, La Vaste Monde. That ‘La’ irritates me every time I see it.

Our town changes! I posted here about plans to build a new Waitrose on the site of our cricket ground. After much controversy, public meetings and votes for those living nearby, Waitrose got permission to build and began a charm campaign. Yesterday, ramblingfancy and I went for a scout round. There are several surprising things about this development. First, it was scheduled to open next Christmas and actually opened, complete with underground car-park, earlier this month. Secondly, it looks very like the original architect’s plans. Thirdly, the argument that local people would have greater access to what had previously been a privately owned site turns out to be true. Looking through huge windows, the view is of trees and grass all around. It was very odd to see the view reversed, as it were. The stock is what you would expect, the staff are new, keen and helpful and shopping there could not be a more different experience from trying to shop in the depressing Somerfield/Co-op we’ve had to put up with until now. Let’s see if the famous ‘Waitrose effect’ does revitalize the town as is hoped.

There’s a book meme ‘everyone’ is doing, which I’ve decided is too much like hard work as it’s called The Thirty Day Book Meme. I am very interested in other people’s efforts, though, as they all seem to write about books I’ve never heard of! The full list of questions is under the cut.
( questions )

This came from Bookish NYC

Do you snack while you read?
No, but I can’t eat on my own without reading at the same time.
What is your favorite drink while reading?
Tea.
Do you tend to mark your books while you read, or does the idea of writing in books horrify you?
I used to mark text books but never mark books now. Sometimes they bristle with little strips of paper because I can’t find the Post-its.
How do you keep your place while reading a book? Bookmark? Dog-ears? Laying the book open flat?
My sister *waves* has made me a lot of lovely bookmarks and they’re all in use as I tend to have several books on the go. I have a collection of items used as bookmarks collected from second hand books I’ve bought. They range from out of date currency to pressed chocolate bar wrappers. I'm a very clean reader and hate dog ears.
Fiction, nonfiction, or both?
Probably a ratio of one non-fiction to every nine fiction. I’m slightly ashamed of this.
Are you a person who tends to read to the end of a chapter, or can you stop anywhere?
I prefer books with short chapters, as I like to stop at a sensible place.
Are you the type of person to throw a book across the room or on the floor if the author irritates you?
I don’t think I’ve ever thrown a book.
If you come across an unfamiliar word, do you stop and look it up right away?
Probably. It annoys me to find a word I don’t know and I feel irritated with the author for using it: show-off!
What are you currently reading?
Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café by Fannie Flagg.
What is the last book you bought?
Jennings in Particular at the market. I’m sad; I already had the book as a reprint in a dustwrapper but this was a first edition.
Do you have a favorite time/place to read?
Bed, because it’s the only place I feel really relaxed. Unfortunately, I tend to fall asleep over the book.
Do you prefer series books or stand-alones?
Most books are stand-alones. There is a huge pleasure in starting a series and always knowing exactly what you’re going to read next.
Is there a specific book or author you find yourself recommending over and over?
Charlotte M Yonge, O Douglas.
How do you organize your books (by genre, title, author's last name, etc.)?
Series books are organized in the correct reading order. Other books have to take their chances of finding space on a shelf.
I’m adding another question to this, in the form of a poll.
[Poll #1570405]

This comes via Letters from a Hill Farm and others. You take the first line of the first post in each month and reproduce it. Mine is painfully predictable and gives no idea of the domestic upheavals which have taken place here during the year.

January 1st: The door to the sitting room in the cottage swings shut all by itself in a rather spooky manner. I bought a knitted dog doorstop.

February 2nd: The back of the cottage this morning with the house next door and the little snowy heap that was my car cropped out. Photo of snowy cottage. That was the day the builders moved in.

March 1st: A lovely, mild gardening day yesterday and here's the first tree blossom of spring. Photo of cherry blossom.

April 2nd: Getting this in the post today has gee-ed me up to finish the other things I'm making. Some yarn had arrived in the post. What's more, I've used it all!

May 1st: Someone kindly lent me The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley and I fairly galloped through it; could hardly put it down. My list of books read in April.

June 3rd: I was going to post today about Mary Portas and her doomed attempt to turn around a failing charity shop. Instead, I wrote about books to read during a heat wave. See, we did have some good weather.

July 2nd: Yesterday, I took my visitor to see my favourite garden, at Cranborne Manor. It was the hottest day of the year.

August 3rd: Obsession is a popular theme for fiction: one thinks of Before She Met Me by Julian Barnes or Ian McEwan’s Enduring Love. Start of a book review.

September 1st: I always feel sorry for people who say they ‘can’t read’ anything by Jane Austen, Dickens, To Kill a Mockingbird or whatever because the books were ruined for them by exam study. Start of a post linking to a list of world-wide required reading.

October 1st: This month has been heavy on crime and thrillers. Post on books read in September.

November 1st: First, many thanks for all the get well messages, which were much appreciated; sorry if I haven’t always replied. Oh dear! Led to yet another book list.

December 1st: A much shorter list this month; a good thing, due to not being flaked out on the sofa, ill. November's books.