Stuck-in-a-Book's Weekend Miscellany

Time for a weekend miscellany, I think you'll agree, what with it being the weekend and all. I've been tidying my books lately (for which read: moving them around the room in the futile hope that this will create more space, and shoving all non-book items under my bed, in drawers, or at the bottom of my wardrobe). Anyway, it has revealed that I have thirteen books that I've read, waiting to be reviewed... all will hopefully be revealed soon, but for today I'm going to give you a few great reviews and some interesting bits and pieces.

1.) I always love it when new blogs start up, especially ones which show the promise that Open a Book does - Geetanjali writes some very persuasive reviews, such as this one on Watership Down, and she's also keen to find a Reading Challenge to adopt - if you have any good ideas, go here and help her out.

2.) My friend Katie has set up a baking blog, so pop over and visit if you're a fan of baking...

3.) There can be few more delightful blogging experiences than seeing a beloved book being appreciated by a much-admired blogger.  Recently I've had that pleasure two-fold, since both Eva and Rachel have recently reviewed one of my favourite novels, The Love-Child, on my 'recommendation'.  (Those inverted commas are for the pressure I exerted upon Rachel, which was akin to harrassment.  Eva went and surprised me by reading it, unpressured!)  Click on their names to read their very wonderful reviews of this exceptional little book.

4.) I think I'm going to address the Literary Merit vs. Readability debate in another post, mostly because I haven't decided what I think and will need to ramble on a bit to find out.  But go and prepare yourself by reading Simon S's post here, and join in the flourishing debate in the comments box.

5.) And finally the annual 24 Hour Readathon is running in memory of Dewey [thanks for telling me about this, Jackie], and although it's rather more hours than I could cope with , do pop over to Sasha's blog and see what she has planned.  It's pretty ambitious!

I had intended to feature some recent books too, but this feels like enough to be getting on with.  Perhaps next weekend I'll just do a round-up of books which have found their way to me in the past few weeks... for now, enjoy a bit of clicking around the blogosphere!