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Showing posts from March, 2010

Could you recommend a book ?

Recommendations. Can you resist them ? I think I have an innate inability to NOT resist when something is recommended to me, no matter who is the recommender. Well, not everything. Films, TV programmes, music, restaurants, holiday destinations, shops – with these I can listen to someone extolling the virtues of the item or place in question then forget about what they have said, but with books … no chance. Suggest that I would like a particular book or that you like it yourself, and regardless of whether we have anything in common or not, I am likely to seek it out. If not actually buying the book then certainly searching the library for it. Needless to say this has resulted in me reading and owning a multitude of books that I may not necessarily have chosen myself, but feel obliged to read because someone suggested it. Of course, sometimes this is a great blessing as I might have otherwise missed out on a great read, but sometimes it seems like a mania that I have. Amazon (thou

Happy Spring Solstice

Today, in astronomical terms, is the beginning of Spring here in the Northern Hemisphere - 22 September in the Southern Hemisphere. This is when the sun crosses the equator on its journey toward the Tropic of Cancer or the Tropic of Capricorn. Spring lasts until the start of summer at the summer solstice. Apparently the moment when spring begins does not correlate exactly with changes in weather which we usually take as the change of seasons. Temperatures in the daytime lag behind the energy delivered to earth by the sun by several weeks as the earth and sea take time to warm up. (thanks and reference to Wikipedia for my apparent scientific knowledge on this) It’s a good feeling to know that the days are now lighter for longer and that we can look forward to some sunshine soon, even if not right now at the official beginning of Spring. Today in my part of the country the sun is struggling to get through cloud and the ground is soaked after a day of rain yesterday. (I was told that it

May I renew these books, please ?

I have just been reading a news article about a library book that has been returned after 45 years. "Quatermass and the Pit" was borrowed from Dinnington library in 1965 and posted back just this month. There's clearly some interesting story behind where the book has been all this time and I hope the "returner" gets in touch with the library to explain. This made me think of my library book borrowing habits and of how easily I could in fact have a book on loan for 45 years - with no interesting story behind it. It's not that I let them get overdue on purpose.It's more likely because I have so many books "on the go" at once. This must be something to do with having a short memory span or plain lack of concentration - it's certainly not that I am super good at multi-tasking. I am only happy if I have a pile of books on the bedside table, on the floor beside the bed and in various other piles on tables and other places around the house. Per

Gremlins in the blog system or have I lost some HTML?

I am not sure what has happened to the font on the posts on this blog. I am not even sure whether it's my computer that's showing some text to be extra large and some extra small, some black, some blue etc. I suppose that it's excusable that I don't know if it's only my computer that's showing this as one does not normally read one's own blog on someone else's computer - unless one is editing it or purely narcissistic (must spell check that) Anyway, for whatever reason, I apologise and would be grateful if anyone would let me know if this is a blog problem or computer problem. I read on a blog the other day that the reason the text had changed on that one was that some HTML had been lost. This is rather scary as I would have no idea where to look if I found that I had lost some of mine ! Been losing my memory for years and now it's seems my blog is losing it's. Ah well, close friends always share things...