So, a fun announcement to start off the New Year with: HMV and Waterstones shutting shop on 60 stores. Not a good thing but hopefully, it'll keep the chains running a little longer. Even if I don't shop there, I still like having those stores on the High Street to browse through. And I suppose I do shop there sometimes. Anyway, enough of that. Onto my latest acquisitions.
I finally found a copy, and finished, my book club selection - The Stupidest Angel by Christopher Moore. I'll leave most of my comments aside until Book Club comes and goes (planning to write a regular piece after each month's meeting) but generally I liked it. Very odd, but its nice to have a different kind of Christmas story.
Onwards and upwards - I finally joined the library in my new town! December was much too manic to try and get it done but it has been driving me crazy, not having any access to new books, even if I do still have a small mountain at home to devour. The library, unfortunately, is exceedingly poor. For something that calls itself the 'Central' library, its range of books, its organisation and its generally depressing decoration make it somewhere I really don't want to spend a lot of time. Luckily, living in a London borough means I do have access to libraries in 11 other London boroughs as well as my own. Thank god for small mercies. Needless to say, most of my book browsing will be done online, only venturing forth once I know books I want are in stock. I know the Government/Councils are pulling a lot of funding from the Library System and, while this is a terrible thing, you can see why no one visits when they look like my one. They need dedicated, passionate staff (who will be more so with a decent salary) and some cold hard cash spent on new books and sprucing the buildings up. Seriously, give me a couple of grand and some able volunteers and I'm sure that I could do wonders with the places.
The one book I did pick up on my first trip was a teen fiction one (I had to take something home) and I was quite pleased with the outcome. If I Stay by Gayle Forman, is the story of a teenage girl who is almost killed in a car crash. With her body in a critical condition in the hospital, Mia's spirit (no better word for it really) is left to decide: to live or die, to give in, give up or to stay and fight. The book details Mia going back over her life, and watching the people she loves by her bedside, as she desperately tries to make a decision. Mia's tale, borne out of a real life incident in Forman's life, where friends died in a car crash, strikes home and leaves us to decide (in the words of Jodi Picoult): what would you do?
So January is starting off well for books; I've finished... (counting in my head)...three new books this year, and it's only the 7th. I've also watched a few new-ish films and finally started the third season of In Treatment (mainly because everything else is on Thanksgiving/Christmas/Holiday Season hiatus). It's good but I haven't really watched enough episodes yet to build up a massive interest - it's been too long since I watched Seasons One and Two. So In Treatment is back on the 'Watching' list and, very annoyingly, Boardwalk Empire is off it. I have the episodes (Iphone compatible) but, apparently, ITunes has taken a dislike to them and refuses to acknowledge their existence. And people wonder why I don't like Apple products? ITunes is the biggest waste of RAM I've ever encountered to be honest.
There is more to come, but this post is getting a little longer than I'd like so I shall wrap up and continue on later.
