Five Free Books and a Question

Sometimes I look at myself as I race through the to-do list to free up an imaginary spare hour in which I may, perhaps, be able to read, and think that it's a funny pastime: here I go, lamenting that there aren't enough hours in the day and yet I willingly use precious lots of them to propel myself into another reality. 

Some recent gems

And then I start reading books like these, some of my favourites of this year, and the world sort of melts around me as I read the first page and slide into a brilliantly told story. When I know this read is going to be breath-taking, stirring, preferably amusing, generally thoughtful and, of course, I'm falling in love with the characters, that's when I know why I spend more time (and money) on books than I'd care to admit.

If, like me, resistance to the potential for a life-affirming read is futile, you might be interested to know that I have a competition running in this blogpost and the prize is not one, but *five* books of your choice from the entire list of fiction and non-fiction titles in the wonderful Urbane Publications', collection. That's a choice of 78 books – and counting.

But we're not going to make it that easy for you.

Hearing that people have enjoyed Glass Houses warms my heart and the line which often tickles me, is the one about it being a great book group read. Oh, how I'd like to be a fly on the wall for that one! In light of this, we are going to be providing fliers to book groups with a list of questions about Glass Houses to get them started.

Just a few of my Urbane Titles.
More on my iPad's TBR...

And who would be the best people to come up with a list of questions about the book? My loyal readers!

So, to enter the draw for your pick of five books, please provide: 

Either (1) a question about Glass Houses you feel would spark discussion in a book group
Or (2) a question you'd put to a specific Glass Houses character if they were sitting in front of you
Or (3 - if the above seems a little too like a piece of GCSE English homework) the name of at least one of the Urbane titles you'd like to win and a sentence explaining why.  

*Competition closes: Monday 5 September*

• You can insert your question in a comment below, email it to me here or post it on Facebook or Twitter (including @jaxbees).
• You can enter as many questions as you like - each question = one entry.
• If you feel your question may include 'spoilers' (ie you'll give some of the plot away) please choose the email option. 
• The winner of their choice of books will be chosen at random and the best question – or questions - will be included on the flier.   
• If you haven't read Glass Houses, you still have time! The closing date is 9am on Monday 5^th September. 
• Glass Houses is available direct from Urbane Publications and Amazon and to buy or order from book shops.
• For more about Urbane Publications and its titles, click here.

Good luck!

If you would like to ask a question in person, I'd love to answer it for you. I will be signing books and hosting a Q and A session at Blackwell's in Leeds on Saturday 17^th September from 2pm.

And I'll be doing similar in Bakewell Bookshop in Derbyshire on Monday 5^th September (evening). More details to follow, including news of events in Cardiff (15th October), Ripon and Harrogate.

* In the event of the winning entry coming from outside the UK, the prize must be taken as eBooks.

My Life in Books

I was very honoured to be invited onto the lovely Ruby Speechley's blog this week, to talk about My Life in Books. It meant I got to spend an indulgent few hours choosing my favourite, most meaningful ten great reads. I can only compare it to finding a box of photos in the attic and thinking you'd spend half an hour sorting through them, only to find yourself still there, two days later, having totally forgotten to eat, drink or work as you ambled through a range of emotions, losing yourself in times gone by. 
 

Eventually, totally forgetting Atonement by Ian McEwan and reluctantly leaving out the writing god, Maggie O'Farrell's, After You'd Gone, this was the list I came up with. 

Read more about the titles here on Ruby's blog.

1. The Power of One by Bryce Courtenay

2. The Devil’s Music by Jane Rusbridge
3. Defending Jacob by William Landay

4. Flying Under Bridges by Sandi Toksvig
5. Perfect by Rachel Joyce

6. The Humans by Matt Haig

7. Alphabet by Kathy Page
8. Crossing the Line by Christian Plowman

9. The Tell-Tale Heart by Jill Dawson

10. Glasshopper by Isabel Ashdown

I wonder how many you've read and what you thought of them. And I'd love to know what your Top Ten would be. Please share!

The Staples in Life

The first known stapler was
handmade for King Louis XV

I’m worried about the future of staplers. I admit, I haven’t given mine a great deal of attention over the past few years and should have shown greater appreciation for its capability and reliability. Quietly it binds clumps of unruly papers together with little complaint and, despite a bent staple in need of extraction with the help of some long scissors occasionally or the odd stapled finger through particularly ambitious attempts at multi-tasking – but we can hardly blame the machine for that - it never goes wrong.

I fear the humble piece of paper will disappear from our lives and what then the use for a stapler? I’m typing this on my pc. I could have done it on an iPad, a tablet or even a phone. What I haven’t done is written it out on a piece of paper first and this from someone who likes nothing more than the feeling of pen making marks on a blank page. If even notebook hoarders like me are using paper less, surely its days are numbered?

And then there’s the pen. Unsurprisingly, as the owner of multiple parker pens, (each refill capable of writing 600 metres of characters, apparently, or 500 of mine, my writing being particularly large and ever more illegible) I don’t want to see them go. Where are they currently made? I have visions of a hive of industry of Charlie and his Chocolate Factory proportions bubbling and fizzing away to bring us this simple contraption. And I wonder if these factories will be turned into flats.

Will print presses go the same way? Will the printed book cave under electronic pressure and the paper versions be confined to the shelves of nostalgic old relics like me, secretly leafing through the remains of the towering To Be Read pile under the dead of night, the guilt of the trees slain for their production weighing heavy?

If the printed book goes? What then of book shelves? Granted they take up a huge amount of space, particularly for those of us who feel the need to keep a book which will never be revisited, just-in-case-someone-wants-to-borrow-it (I never read a book twice, I have too many in my TBR pile for that), but used books to me are another person’s ornaments. They’re not entirely necessary but the sight of them all lined up, the colour they add to the room, the enjoyment I associate with reading, makes me smile. It’s hard to pinpoint what makes a house a home but without the spines of books representing the worlds I’ve frequented and those where I’ve yet to go, mine would feel like something was missing.

If I took the stapler, paper, notebooks, pens and books from my study, it would look like this: 

Yes, I know it wouldn’t need dusting but I don’t do too much of that anyway. Yes I know other things would replace the missing items and I dare say I’d become ridiculously attached to those, too.

But I don’t want to.

I want a world which doesn’t need to be re-charged, which can’t be accessed with such ease that it becomes acceptable to make notes whilst supposedly also in conversation. I want a world where my children talk to their friends on the bus rather than watch YouTube clips on their iPads, where they listen to the teacher in a lesson rather than message their friends in another class. I want a world where you can eat supper and have a drink with friends and nobody feels the need to check that somebody more interesting isn’t texting them or worse, that they’re missing something at work. I want a world where people go on holiday rather than, ‘will be contactable via email’ so that they and their family life returns fully refreshed.

I’m still clinging on to most of that so, for now, I’m Celebrating the Small Things. I’m celebrating the fact that the stapler is still regularly brought out of my drawer.

What Would You Like?

It was my birthday last week. Regular readers will know that I have an acute case of ‘Hackaphobia’ which prevents me from stating the exact date but I can say that I love birthdays and those that fall in September are every bit as enjoyable as in any other month. I enjoy the fuss and the cake and feel the only place for being depressed about getting older is from the fluffy clouds above (God willing) even if the time spent in front of the mirror plucking out grey hairs is so significant these days, I’m going to have to promote it to the To-Do list.

If I’m asked what I would like for my birthday I tend to answer, ‘a publishing deal, please’ but whilst I am thoroughly spoilt by my wonderful friends and family, I’m afraid this particular item has eluded me thus far.

However, this had me thinking of other more abstract ideas for presents I’d be happy to accept and I came up with the following list. If you would be so kind, I’d like:

… the tidying fairies to sort out my study while I sleep. First of all, I need extra storage space, about twice the amount which would fit in the room should suffice. As a priority, I could do with extra shelving for my ToBeReads as hubbie is soon to notice that the book purchasing has exceeded the read of speeding over the past few months. My lapsed one book in, one out rule of foisting much loved missives on un-suspecting fellow readers, needs to be revisited.

Next, I’d like the four black bags of old clothes to be disseminated amongst parents of younger children. The fitness ball and hoola hoop should disappear from view, only to miraculously reappear should I ever decide to use them again. Could the old computer have its own desk please? It has to stay, it has three billion six hundred thousand photos stored on it but viewing is currently restricted as the path to it is strewn with un-hung pictures and large, children-generated (very good, actually, but we’re running out of wall space) pieces of artwork. That would be a good start.

… the government NOT to allow the selling off of school playing fields. Hello! Olympic legacy?

… a self-cleaning bathroom. Nay, a self-cleaning house. And car. And cases which unpack themselves. I’ll stop there.

… my children to be totally unmoved by all negative peer pressure. (Ok, I didn’t say my requests had to be feasible, nor, in the long term perhaps, desirable but for now, in my dreams, it would make parenting so much easier.)

... my children to eschew all trashy tv and replace it with literature. See also the addendum to the above.

… winter to be resplendent in crisp, white snow which has not a jot of impact on traffic or journey time and bi-passes the slushy stage before giving way to a snow-drop be-speckled, blue-skied  spring.

… the time difference to be banned so that I could ring my sister in America at 8am our time and she be happy to hear me.

Oh, and did I mention the publishing deal? Although, ever the optimist, I can say that I am a whole heap closer to getting one than I was this time last year so I shall accept that as an extremely acceptable birthday present, thank you.

So, now it’s your turn. You’re not allowed to ask for World Peace because that’s a given. But other than that, sock it to me, what would be your perfect birthday ‘present’ this year?