Stuck-in-a-Book's Weekend Miscellany

This weekend miscellany malarkey seems to have settled into a blog, a book, and a link. Sorry that 'link' doesn't begin with 'b', that would have been pleasingly alliterative... any b-synonyms for 'link', let me know... Also, I've been using this weekend frivolity to try out all the fancy colours which Blogger offers me. I do hope this doesn't offend any more delicate senses...

Anyway, here goes.

1) This week there are two blog posts I want to point out, as I couldn't narrow it down to just one. Elaine at Random Jottings writes about Light Relief in the form of PG Wodehouse and Betty Macdonald's The Egg and I. Like Elaine, I've bypassed The Egg and I dozens of times in bookshops, but I know that next time I'll snap it up. To quote Elaine:

And then I turned to The Egg and I another title to join the distinguished list of Books I used to Shelve Regularly when I was a Librarian and turned my nose up at (sorry for the appalling grammar) and recently given to me to read by a friend who said ' Cannot believe you have not read these Elaine'. She also was staggered I had not read Mapp and Lucia. I do like to keep my friends on their toes.

Oo, I've never noticed that 'quotation' function before. That'll come in handy.


The second blog post is this one from Simon at Savidge Reads - mostly I just like the fact that it has pictures of bookshelves. (The one above is actually one of my own, taken last year.) But he also asks from where we inherit our love of books - parents? grandparents? teachers? nowhere? The comments make for fun and interesting reading.

And whilst I'm posting blog links, I happened upon one of my own sketch-based posts which I'd forgotten about, and which made me chuckle... narcissistic, much? It's from the days when most of my sketches involved my Stuck-in-a-Book self-portrait.

2) Icon Books emailed me a little while ago, wondering if I wanted to review any of their books. Not my usual sort of publisher (they're non-fiction publishers, for a start) but I looked through their Literature section, and they sent me a couple. I've got Shakespeare on Toast: Getting a Taste for the Bard by Ben Crystal (any relation of David?) and Nobel Lectures: 20 Years of the Nobel Prize for Literature Lectures edited by John "Did Cruella de Ville Dye Her Hair?" Sutherland. I'll be interested in the former, though it's preaching to the converted - but I'm really looking forward to the latter. Just a shame it was published too early for Doris Lessing's speech.

3) Graduating from university, or simply seeking a new job? I was sent a link to the 50 Books You Should Read Before Entering The Real World - click here - though it has little in common with my own 50 Books You Must Read But May Not Have Heard About. (Speaking of which, it's ongoing, and in no order, but hasn't been updated for a while... I'm always open to ideas about obscure books which should make the list). The list has lots of books related to jobs and finances etc, but also a section on Fiction and Memoirs. The only one of those I've read is the much-overrated The Catcher in the Rye... but that shouldn't put me off the rest.