4 Steps to Read Like a Writer
When we read, we change our world, and we write because on some level, we want to do the same for others. Do you want to write something that affects others the way you were affected? Then you have to learn to read like a writer—with your brain turned on.
Read more here.
Book Tag – How I Read
I found this on Nya Reads, and I thought I’d do it too.
How do you find out about new books to read?
From Booklikes mainly, but also other book sites, like Goodreads.
How did you get into reading?
I don’t remember. LOL. Actually, I learned how to read when I was about 3 years old, so I’ve been reading ‘real’ books, that is, books for kids, who could read, for a very long time. Before that, I had picture books read to me by primarily my mom, but I think also my grandmother. My dad (and to some extent my mom and grandmoter) loved reading, so I guess it was only natural.
How have your tastes in books changed as you got older?
Not much, except for one thing: I now like science fiction too.
How often do you buy books?
Me personally? Practically never, unfortunately. I tend to get them either as birthday presents or as Christmas presents. because I can’t afford to buy that many books.
How did you get into reviewing books?
Hm. Oddly enough I don’t really remember. I guess it’s because I joined Goodreads, several years ago. Those reviews spilled over to my personal homepage/blog and my Booklikes blog, because I can’t resist posting them everywhere I can.
How do you react when you don’t like the end of a book?
I’m afraid it ruins the whole book for me. Usually, I don’t even review it and I’d never read it again.
How often do you take a sneak peek at the ending to see if there is a happy ending?
I try not to, but it happens. Fortunately, most books have a happy enough ending so I can finish reading them.
My own question:
Do you use bookmarks in your books?
I used to dogear my books. (I’m so ashamed!). These days I don’t do anything. I always seem to be able to find my place anyway.
Finally, I am tagging everyone who wants do this too!
Dark Fire by C J Sansom
I just finished reading Dark Fire by C J Sansom. Since I love historic books, I really liked this one. It was well written and well researched (at least it seems that way, I can’t say I have enough knowledge to be absolutely sure).
The main characters are likeable enough (at least Matthew Shardlake, the ‘main’ main character). There’s a new guy working as his assistant, and he’s a bit brusque and rude at times, but after a while I got more used to him. It turns out he had good personality traits too.
Matthew Shardlake is once again (like in book 1) forced to help Cromwell with an important matter, but he also investigates another case. The latter is a very dark and serious case, and I must admit that I found it hard to read about, since it involves something I have a lot of trouble handling. To avoid any spoilers I won’t say more about that or for that matter the Cromwell case either.
It’s just a very interesting book from a turbulent time that I haven’t read all that much about in the past so it was fun to learn more about it.
I read the first book several years ago, in Swedish translation and I found it rather dull then (despite being a historic book), but maybe that was due to the translation or – I don’t know. This just seemed a lot more interesting, despite the upsetting subject matter.
Researchers Say There May Be Undiscovered Tomb at Great Pyramid of Giza
A team using scanning technology said temperature variations could indicate the presence of a tomb in the 4,500-year-old structure.
Read more here.
Blistering barnacles! Tintin is back – with added swearwords
Hergé’s adventurer is born again for the iPad age, with a new show and a digital project that puts all his expletives back in. The world’s top Tintinologist talks quiffs, colonialism – and beating Armstrong to the moon.
Read more here.
Iced Diamonds by Heather Haven
I found this series last year, I think and I liked it. It’s historic which is always something I appreciate. The main characters are more or less sympathetic which is another plus as far as I’m concerned. Finally, the cases aren’t too predictable which is a big problem to me. Some Swedish bestselling books, particularly mysteries are extremely predictable, but after I was told that if I criticize them, I’m ‘envious’ of these bestselling authors (which for the record I am not), I’m not going to mention their titles or the name of the authors.
So, anyway, this book is set just before Christmas in New York in the 1940’s (during WWII). Percy Cole, the private investigator, gets a case that promises some much needed money for herself and her family. An elf has been found murdered, not in the store where he was working, but in another. The daughter of the man who owns the store (where the body was found) is accused of the murder. The store owner hires Percy to keeph is daughter out of jail. So far everything’s very simple. Of course there’s a bit more to the case than that, but after putting some effort into it, Percy manages to solve it.
This book could have done with a bit more proofreading, because I found almost as many errors as I would in an ebook, but other than that I don’t really have anything negative to say about it.
I can recommend this series to anyone who likes historic straightforward old-fashioned mysteries.
Stonehenge Begins to Yield Its Secrets
Discoveries over the last decade have revealed more about the everyday lives of the people for whom the giant monuments held meaning.
Read more here.
Sizzling Sixteen by Janet Evanovich
These books are lifesavers. Even now when I’m not in a very good mood, most of these books can still get me in a better mood at least for a time. In fact, this might be one of my very favorites among the Stephanie Plum-mysteries. Actually, as anyone who’s read even one of these books knows, they’re a bit more comedy than mystery. Sure there’s action too, but it’s not the kind of action that has you on the edge of your seat. The reason this is probably one of my favorites is that there is a LOTR connection. I’ll just mention one word HOBBITS!
Other than that, Stephanie’s boss at the bonds office/bounty hunter headquarters, Vinnie the pervert, has been abducted, but that turns out to be just the beginning of everyone’s troubles.
Also, Stephanie has inherited a supposedly lucky red glass bottle, so that gets taken along on all assignments for a while. That’s not all there is to the bottle either but you only find that out at the very end.
Stink bombs also play a part in this book.
As most of the other books in the series, this one is full of fun, sex and action. I don’t think I’ll need to go into more about the plot because as you might know, plot is the least part of these books. Sure, it works fine, there’s nothing to complain about when it comes to the plot, but there’s so much more to the series than that.
If you need cheering up read one book or more in this series. In fact, even if you don’t, you’ll probably enjoy it anyway. I might not want to continue reading this series forever, but so far I haven’t found any reason to stop, so I’m going to read the next couple of books as well, at least.
Spooky
I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned this, but we (very) recently moved into a new house. It’s a bit odd. For instance, there are no doors except to the closets and the basement. Really. The yard isn’t much. There’s mainly just a big pond that I’m not at all keen on and then there are sheds that are too far away from the house. Finally, there’s a sort of veranda that isn’t in good shape. But I don’t want to give you the impression this is a bad house. It isn’t. We could afford it, that’s the main thing and also it’s been newly renovated and looks really nice even if there are a few things not yet working properly.
It’s just a bit scary. Last night we woke up to find the front door standing open, not just unlocked. It felt really creepy. There was no one other than us in the house and my sister was out in the sheds during the day so I’m pretty sure she just forgot to lock the door and the storm opened it, but you know, it was really spooky. We’ve also heard some spooky noises inside the house. Also, there’s this small attic space that we can’t get to from the inside, it’s just visible from the outside. No way are we going to open it up and check if there’s anything inside. I’m not into spooky or creepy, especially not in real life.
As long as nothing more happens, I’ll be fine, but if something does happen I’m not sure I want to stay here. Great. We just bought the house and if we can’t stay here we’ll have to sell it. So I’m really hoping we’ll get used to the noises. I’m sure there’s nothing really wrong here, it’s just an old house that we’re not used to yet.
What were the best things about my dad?
Apparently, on Sunday it’s Father’s Day in Sweden. I hadn’t kept up since sadly I lost my dad several years ago. In one of the local papers I found a headline that asked What is/was the best thing/s about your dad? So I thought I’d consider that for a moment.
My first answer is probably that he was quite nice and kind. Many people you meet are sarcastic and rude, but dad was usually very nice. He could tease you a bit, rather like a brother, but other than that I think he was really great.
From my point of view I guess it’s important that we had a lot in common and were quite a lot alike. He loved books and reading, for instance. Like me, he wasn’t very social, but I knew that when I needed help I could count on dad.
He helped me with my maths homework and was the only reason I got the grade I got. Without his help I would have done a lot worse. He drove me pretty much anywhere I needed to go except in later years (or when it wasn’t an outing he considered important). If I was depressed, or worried about something, dad always understood, because he’d been there (in a very similar situation) before and knew what to say to help me feel better.
I have already told my followers about the time I skipped a sports day in high school, because I really didn’t want to spend time playing some kind of ball game with my class mates (who didn’t like me very much and the feeling was mutual). My form mistress (?) who was in charge of that day called to check on why I’d been absent (this was when I was at least 17, so it kind of surprised me). My dad just got back from work and had no idea where I’d spent the day, but I came down the stairs and heard him tell my teacher about my ‘cold’ or ‘headache’ or whatever it was, so obviously he’d needed no prompting at all.
Thanks a lot, dad! There isn’t a day that goes by when I don’t miss you terribly.
Whenever something new happens, like when Apple released the iPad or when we found out that we could ‘buy’ land on the moon or when Google started working on those driverless cars etc, I always think, dad would have loved this. The same goes for the fascinating discoveries on Mars and Pluto and so on. He would really have loved all that.
In a way, it feels as if dad hasn’t left at all. Some days I feel him close by and I hope that he’s able to keep up with all these new interesting discoveries. If so, have fun and enjoy it all, dad. 🙂
