It’s Only Words

I was having a browse through the BBC News website last night and came across an article about what words George Bush used the most during his eight year presidency. It got me thinking about which words I use the most on here, so using Wordle I decided to find out …

Clicking on the above image will take you to a bigger version.

Now you do have to bare in mind that this blog is only two weeks old so it’s probably not an exact representation, so the plan is to do another one in about 6 months time in order to compare it. Providing I remember that is!

If I Could Turn Back Time

So it’s Sunday evening again, which means I’m beginning to get that dull horrible feeling of knowing that it’s nearly time to go back to work again.

Why is that weekends always seem to go so quickly? It doesn’t seem two minutes since I left work on Friday and now in what seems like the blink of an eye it’s nearly time for me to go back again. When you want time to slow down you can guarantee it speeds up and yet you can bet your bottom dollar that tomorrow, when I actually want it to go quickly, will drag by instead. Blimmin’ typical. I wish I had the power of turning back time, because if I did I’d definitely turn it back to Friday evening!

Still on the plus side, last week I managed to put in for my last remaining annual leave entitlement and the boss signed off on it too, so I now have just over three weeks to get through before I’m off for 8 days, which along with two weekends gives me the grand total of 12 days off work. Fantastic.

So if my calculations are correct it means I only have 17 work days to go … not that I’m counting or anything!

Library Stop

Now seeing as I’m a fairly regular visitor to my local library and as I’m also participating in the Support Your Local Library Challenge, I thought that this new Library Stop meme would fit in fairly nicely.

The aim of the meme is to share with your readers what books you have recently checked out of the library.

Now although this is technically a weekly meme, I will not be participating on a weekly basis myself because although I do tend to visit my local library at least once a week (and sometimes two or even three times a week) I may not necessarily get books out each time, so there’s not really any point in me participating if I don’t have anything new to offer. However I will definitely participate those weeks that I do get new books out.

I last visited my library on Thursday and came away with two books …

1. The Shop On Blossom Street by Debbie Macomber
2. Glitz by Louise Bagshawe

The first one was recommended to me by a member of the Book Club Forum and the second one is by an author whose books I usually enjoy, so all in all not a bad haul.

Booking Through Thursday #2

This week’s Booking Through Thursday theme is …

Numbers

Some people read one book at a time. Some people have a number of them on the go at any given time, perhaps a reading in bed book, a breakfast book, a bathroom book and so on, which leads me to …

1. Are you currently reading more than one book?
2. If so, how many books are you currently reading?
3. Is this normal for you?
4. Where do you keep your current reads?

When I was younger I quite often had more than one book on the go at any given time, but since I’ve gotten older I’ve learnt to appreciate the written word more and as my reading tastes have changed so have my reading habits. These days I much prefer to stick to just one book at a time, this way the characters are always fresh in my mind, the storyline’s don’t get muddled up and overall I find it much more enjoyable as this way there is no room for confusion.

As for my current read, well that is always kept either by my bed or on my desk, however I have been known to take my book into work if I think that there’s the slightest possibilty of being able to snatch a few minutes peace and quiet during my lunchbreak, in which case it can also spend a considerable amount of time in my bag.

Blog Improvement Challenge Week 1

Today is the first Monday of the month (not to mention of the year) which means it’s also the start of the 2009 Blog Improvement Challenge. The topic this week is Setting Goals – What Is Your Blog For?

I first got the idea of keeping a journal or diary way back when I was a teenager (which was a fair few years ago now) but back then my dream was to keep a handwritten one. I was going to use it as a place to pour my heart and soul out into. A place to share my deep dark secrets, my hopes and dreams for the future and generally just as a place to detail my daily comings and goings. A record if you like of my life. Something that I could look back on in the years to come with either a smile, a tear or maybe even just a fond memory.

Unfortunately, although I tried numerous times in numerous different notebooks (all bought especially for the occasion) it never quite came to fruition and even those attempts made throughout my adulthood have all been pretty spectacular failures. However despite my failings as a diarist I’ve never been able to shake of the feeling of wanting to try again and now in the age of the world wide web, I’ve turned to online blogging as a way of achieving my dream. Whether this will be any more of a success still remains to be seen, but hopefully with the help of the Blog Improvement Project I will be one step closer to achieving my goal.

So for this first task the two things I’m going to ask myself are: what do I want to use my blog for and what do I want to achieve throughout the course of the next 12 months?

Well with regards to content, I want to use it for a number of things. Along with all those deep, dark and meaningful thoughts and feelings that you can usually expect to read in someone’s journal, I’ll also be using this as a place to post my thoughts on everything from celebrity news and gossip, to my views on newsworthy stories hitting the headlines around the world. Some days I may even just use it to chatter inanely about the jaw-dropping moments of my favourite television shows or to curse madly at the-powers-that-be over the death of a much loved character. Basically I’m going to use this a sounding board, a place for me to talk (or ramble more like) about anything and everything regardless of the subject matter.

As for my aims for the coming year well let’s see …

• First of all I’d really like to actually make this blog a success. Not necessarily through readership, although that is something that I would like to work on, but more for me personally. I do have a bit of a habit of starting blogs and not continuing with them so my ultimate goal is to actually keep this one going for a full year. I figure if I can make it to it’s first blogoversary then I’ll be set for life.
• I also want to improve my writing skills as some days I can be fiddling about with entries for far longer than is strictly necessary before finally hitting that save button and I think this is one of the reasons why I tend to get bored with blogging so easily. I spend too much time oohing and aahing over whether I’ve got the full stop in the right place or whether I could have worded things slightly differently – so this has got to stop.
• Lastly although readership and statistics aren’t really a priority for me I do think it would be nice to become a part of the blogging community as a whole and making a few friends along the way would be nice so I’m going to try and not only visit more blogs but I’m also going to start commenting a lot more too in the hopes that friendships can be made.

So there you have it, my goals for the coming year and with it the end of week 1 of the Blog Improvement Challenge … although I guess it’s not really the end as now is the time for me to stop talking about my goals and start focusing on making them a reality.

Just My Imagination

A few days ago I was waving goodbye to 2008 and welcoming in the new year with open arms. I was looking forward to starting afresh and leaving all the troubles from the end of last year behind. I was thinking positive. I mean surely after the horrible events of the past four or five weeks things could only get better from here on in right? Well, maybe not.

Even though we’re only four days into a brand new year, things are already beginning to look a bit bleak. On the plus side this new turn of events doesn’t involve any of the problems that were affecting me last year, although if I’m honest I wish it did. I’d take any of those previous problems over this new one, any day.

So what’s bothering me?

Well without going into any great detail, two of my cats are currently unwell at the moment.

Ollie has an infection in his stomach which the vet says isn’t serious and can be treated with a two week course of medication and a special diet, so all in all he’s not doing too badly – other than the side effects of said medication that is which is a whole other story!

But Oscar, well he’s a little more worrying. He’s having what I can only describe as a ‘fit’ every now and again. We’re not entirely sure how often they’re occurring or when they first started but we do know he had three yesterday, and possibly one this morning, but those are only the ones we witnessed so in theory he could have had more. They don’t last for long, maybe 20 seconds if that, and he seems completely fine afterwards, but the point is we don’t know what they are or what’s causing them and more importantly we don’t know what kind of affect they’re having on him. We don’t know if they’re causing him any suffering or if he’s in any pain and as a result a trip to the vet is on the cards for him for tomorrow.

I am more than just a little concerned for him though. I’m petrified. He’s getting on a bit now. He’s 16 and other than an incident with a fox a few years ago, which in itself nearly killed him, he’s had a fairly healthy life, but like I said he’s not getting any younger and I don’t know if it’s just my imagination running away from me or whether I really do have something to be concerned about, but I do have this really bad feeling that once he goes to the vet, he wont be coming home again.

Forget To Remember

A Patchwork life was created exactly one week ago today, and the entries so far have mainly focused on the reading challenges that I’ll be participating in over the course of the next 12 months. However now that 2009 has finally rolled around it’s time for me to get down to the very serious business of turning this blog into a fully-fledged blog … which basically means I actually have to start blogging.

Now this is where things start to get a little tricky because the one thing that I’ve always struggled with in the past with regards to keeping a blog is actually thinking of things to blog about. Although to be fair, that’s not always the problem as I do quite often think of things throughout the course of the day that I know I’d like to blog about at some point, but unless I immediately write these things down somewhere then there is a very good chance that I’ll end up forgetting them and … well nine times out of ten I do end up forgetting. I have a terrible memory.

Today is no exception because as usual my mind has gone completely blank and I can’t for the life of me think of anything worthwhile to actually write about.

Still in my defence I am a little preoccupied with a little ‘issue’ that I’ve had recently, which all being well will be resolved this evening. Or then again it could just lead to even more trouble and things could be even worse by the morning. Either way though regardless of what happens it’s bound to give me some great fodder so at least that will solve the problem of what to write about tomorrow!

Things Can Only Get Better

Happy New Year

Overall 2008 hasn’t been too bad a year for me, however the last month has been a bit of a rollercoaster ride with more lows than highs. I’m not the kind of person who likes to dwell on things (or at least I’m trying not to be) so I’m not going to go into any great detail (or any for that matter) about the events of the past four or five weeks but I think it’s fairly safe to say that I for one am glad to see the back of 2008 and I’m looking forward to starting afresh in 2009. Things can only get better from here on in.

Well seeing as I posted my new year resolutions a few days ago, there’s not much left for me to say other than to wish you all a Happy New Year. I hope that the year ahead is filled with love, health and happiness and that all your hopes, dreams and wishes come true.

Richard & Judy Book Club

Richard & Judy is a UK magazine / talk show which has held a book club and a summer read since 2004.

My challenge is to read all the books featured since it began. Once read books will be reviewed over at The Only True Magic and then linked to from here.

1. PS I Love You – Cecelia Ahern
2. Brick Lane – Moncia Ali
3. When Will There Be Good News – Kate Atkinson
4. No Time For Goodbye – Linwood Barclay
5. Arthur And George – Julian Barnes
6. The Farm – Richard Benson
7. The Righteous Men – Sam Bourne
8. Restless – William Boyd
9. The Resurrectionist – James Bradley
10. The Sixth Lamentation – William Brodrick
11. March – Geraldine Brooks
12. Blood River – Tim Butcher
13. Perdita: The Life Of Mary Robinson – Paula Byrne
14. The Food Of Love – Anthony Capella
15. The Promise Of Happiness – Justin Cartwright
16. The Pirate’s Daughter – Margaret Cezair-Thompson
17. The Know – Martina Cole
18. The Luminous Life Of Lilly Aphrodite – Beatrice Colin
19. The Lincoln Lawyer – Michael Connelly
20. White Mughals – William Dalrymple
21. The Gargoyle – Andrew Davidson
22. The Conjuror’s Bird – Martin Davies
23. The Welsh Girl – Peter Ho Davies
24. A Gathering Light – Jennifer Donnelly
25. The 19th Wife – David Ebershoff
26. The Memory Keeper’s Daughter – Kim Edwards
27. A Quiet Belief In Angels – RJ Ellory
28. Getting Rid Of Matthew – Jane Fallon
29. Then We Came To The End – Joshua Ferris
30. Eve Green – Susan Fletcher
31. The Jane Austen Book Club - Karen Joy Fowler
32. Notes From An Exhibition – Patrick Gale
33. The Cellist Of Sarajevo – Steven Galloway
34. East Of The Sun – Julia Gregson
35. The Laments – George Hagen
36. Down River – John Hart
37. Feel: Robbie Williams – Chris Heath
38. Notes On A Scandal – Zoe Heller
39. The Island – Victoria Hislop
40. This Book Will Save Your Life – AM Homes
41. Loving Frank – Nancy Horan
42. A Thousand Splendid Suns – Khaled Hosseini
43. Love In The Present Tense – Catherine Ryan Hyde
44. The Abortionist’s Daughter – Elisabeth Hyde
45. Mister Pip – Lloyd Jones
46. The Outcast – Sadie Jones
47. Mudbound – Hilary Jordan
48. Addition – Toni Jordan
49. The Brutal Art – Jesse Kellerman
50. Relentless – Simon Kernick
51. My Best Friend’s Girl – Dorothy Koomson
52. The Historian – Elizabeth Kostova
53. The History Of Love – Nicole Krauss
54. The Girls – Lori Lansens
55. The Other Side Of The Bridge – Mary Lawson
56. The Highest Tide – Jim Lynch
57. The Rose Of Sebastopol – Katharine McMahon
58. Liars And Saints – Maile Meloy
59. The Private Lives Of Pippa Lee – Rebecca Miller
60. Savage Garden – Mark Mills
61. Empress Orchid – Anchee Min
62. Cloud Atlass – David Mitchell
63. The House At Riverton – Kate Morton
64. Labyrinth – Kate Mosse
65. Half Of A Yellow Sun – Chimamanda Ngozi-Adichie
66. Starter For Ten – David Nicholls
67. The Time Traveler’s Wife – Audrey Niffenegger
68. Star Of The Sea – Joseph O’Connor
69. Netherland – Joseph O’Neill
70. The Bolter – Frances Osborne
71. My Sister’s Keeper – Jodi Picoult
72. Hunting Unicorns – Bella Pollen
73. The Ivy Chronicles – Karen Quinn
74. Semi-Detached – Griff Rhys-Jones
75. The Lost Art Of Keeping Secrets – Eva Rice
76. The Mermaid And The Drunks – Ben Richards
77. The Testament Of Gideon Mack – James Robertson
78. The Interpretation Of Murder – Jed Rubenfeld
79. Random Acts Of Heroic Love – Danny Scheinmann
80. The Lovely Bones – Alice Sebold
81. The Bookseller Of Kabul – Asne Seierstad
82. The Life And Death Of Charlie St Cloud – Ben Sherwood
83. Toast: The Story Of A Boy’s Hunger – Nigel Slater
84. The Visible World – Mark Slouka
85. Moondust – Andrew Smith
86. The Suspicions Of Mr Whicher – Kate Summerscale
87. The American Boy – Andrew Taylor
88. Salmon Fishing In The Yemen – Paul Torday
89. Want To Play – PJ Tracy
90. Lucia, Lucia – Adriana Trigiani
91. How To Talk To A Widower – Jonathan Tropper
92. December – Elizabeth H Winthrop
93. Good News, Bad News – David Wolstencroft
94. The Shadow Of The Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafon
95. Marriage Bureau For Rich People – Farahad Zama

The Big Read

The Big Read was a 2003 survey carried out by the BBC, with the goal of finding the ‘Nation’s Best Loved Book’ by way of a public vote. The British public originally voted for any book that they wished to and then from this, a list of 200 was drawn up and put forward for further voting, the results of which can be found below.

My challenge is to read all 200 books on this list. Once read books will be reviewed over at The Only True Magic and then linked to from here.

1. The Lord Of The Rings – JRR Tolkien
2. Pride And Prejudice – Jane Austen
3. His Dark Materials – Philip Pullman
4. The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy – Douglas Adams
5. Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire – JK Rowling
6. To Kill A Mockingbird – Harper Lee
7. Winnie The Pooh – AA Milne
8. Nineteen Eighty-Four – George Orwell
9. The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe – CS Lewis
10. Jane Eyre – Charlotet Brontë
11. Catch-22 – Joseph Heller
12. Wuthering Heights – Emily Brontë
13. Birdsong – Sebastian Faulks
14. Rebecca – Daphne du Maurier
15. The Catcher In The Rye – JD Salinger
16. The Wind In The Willows – Kenneth Grahame
17. Great Expectations – Charles Dickens
18. Little Women – Louisa May Alcott
19. Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis de Bernieres
20. War And Peace – Leo Tolstoy
21. Gone With The Wind – Margaret Mitchell
22. Harry Potter And The Philosopher’s Stone – JK Rowling
23. Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets – JK Rowling
24. Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban
25. The Hobbit – JRR Tolkien
26. Tess Of The D’Urbervilles – Thomas Hardy
27. Middlemarch – George Eliot
28. A Prayer For Owen Meany – John Irving
29. The Grapes Of Wrath – John Steinbeck
30. Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland – Lewis Carroll
31. The Story Of Tracy Beaker – Jacqueline Wilson
32. One Hundred Years Of Solitude – Gabriel García Márquez
33. The Pillars Of The Earth – Ken Follett
34. David Copperfield – Charles Dickens
35. Charlie And The Chocolate Factory – Roald Dahl
36. Treasure Island – Robert Louis Stevenson
37. A Town Like Alice – Nevil Shute
38. Persuasion – Jane Austen
39. Fune – Frank Herbert
40. Emma – Jane Austen
41. Anne Of Green Gables – LM Montgomery
42. Watership Down – Richard Adams
43. The Great Gatsby – F Scott Fitzgerald
44. The Count Of Monte Cristo – Alexandre Dumas
45. Brideshead Revistited – Evelyn Waugh
46. Animal Farm – George Orwell
47. A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens
48. Far From The Madding Crowd – Thomas Hardy
49. Goodnight Mister Tom – Michelle Magorian
50. The Shell Seekers – Rosamunde Pilcher
51. The Secret Garden – Frances Mary Burnett
52. Of Mice And Men – John Steinbeck
53. The Stand – Stephen King
54. Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy
55. A Suitable Boy – Vikram Seth
56. The BFG – Roald Dahl
57. Swallows And Amazons – Arthur Ransome
58. Black Beauty – Anna Sewell
59. Artemis Fowl – Eoin Colfer
60. Crime And Punishment – Fyodor Dostoyevsky
61. Noughts And Crosses – Malorie Blackman
62. Memoirs Of A Geisha – Arthur Golden
63. A Tale Of Two Cities – Charles Dickens
64. The Thorn Birds – Colleen McCollough
65. Mort – Terry Pratchett
66. The Magic Faraway Tree – Enid Blyton
67. The Magus – John Fowles
68. Good Omens – Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
69. Guards! Guards! – Terry Pratchett
70. Lord Of The Flies – William Golding
71. Perfume – Patrick Süskind
72. The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists – Robert Tressell
73. Night Watch – Terry Pratchett
74. Matilda – Roald Dahl
75. Bridget Jones’s Diary – Helen Fielding
76. The Secret History – Donna Tartt
77. The Woman In White – Wilkie Collins
78. Ulysses – James Joyce
79. Bleak House – Charles Dickens
80. Double Act – Jacqueline Wilson
81. The Twits – Roald Dahl
82. I Capture The Castle – Dodie Smith
83. Holes – Louis Sachar
84. Gormenghast – Mervyn Peake
85. The God Of Small Things – Arundhati Roy
86. Vicky Angel – Jacqueline Wilson
87. Brave New World – Aldous Huxley
88. Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
89. Magician – Raymond E Feist
90. On The Road – Jack Kerouac
91. The Godfather – Mario Puzo
92. The Clan Of The Cave Bear – Jean M Auel
93. The Colour Of Magic – Terry Pratchett
94. The Alchemist – Paulo Coelho
95. Katherine – Anya Seton
96. Kane And Abel – Jeffrey Archer
97. Love In The Time Of Cholera – Gabriel García Márquez
98. Girls In Love – Jacqueline Wilson
99. The Princess Diaries – Meg Cabot
100. Midnight’s Children – Salman Rushdie
101. Three Men In A Boat – Jerome K Jerome
102. Small Gods – Terry Pratchett
103. The Beach – Alex Garland
104. Dracula – Bram Stoker
105. Point Blanc – Anthony Horowitz
106. The Pickwick Papers – Charles Dickens
107. Stormbreaker – Anthony Horowitz
108. The Wasp Factory – Iain Banks
109. The Day Of The Jackal – Frederick Forsyth
110. The Illustrated Mum – Jacqueline Wilson
111. Jude The Obscure – Thomas Hardy
112. The Secret Diary Of Adrian Mole Aged 13¾ - Sue Townsend
113. The Cruel Sea – Nicholas Monsarrat
114. Les Misérables – Victor Hugo
115. The Mayor Of Casterbridge – Thomas Hardy
116. The Dare Game – Jacqueline Wilson
117. Bad Girls – Jacqueline Wilson
118. The Picture Of Dorian Gray – Oscar Wilde
119. Shogun – James Clavell
120. The Day Of The Triffids – John Wyndham
121. Lola Rose – Jacqueline Wilson
122. Vanity Fair – William Makepeace Thackeray
123. The Forsyte Saga – John Galsworthy
124. House Of Leaves – Mark Z Danielewski
125. The Poisonwood Bible – Barbara Kingsolver
126. Reaper Man – Terry Pratchett
127. Angus, Thongs And Full-Frontal Snogging – Louise Rennison
128. The Hound Of The Baskervilles – Arthur Conan Doyle
129. Possession – AS Byatt
130. The Master And Margarita – Mikhail Bulgakov
131. The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood
132. Danny The Champion Of The World – Roald Dahl
133. East Of Eden – John Steinbeck
134. George’s Marvellous Medicine – Roald Dahl
135. Wyrd Sisters – Terry Pratchett
136. The Colour Purple – Alice Walker
137. Hogfather – Terry Pratchett
138. The Thity-Nine Steps – John Buchan
139. Girls In Tears – Jacqueline Wilson
140. Sleepovers – Jacqueline Wilson
141. All Quiet On The Western Front – Erich Maria Remarque
142. Behind The Scenes At The Museum – Kate Atkinson
143. High Fidelity – Nick Hornby
144. It – Stephen King
145. James And The Giant Peach – Roald Dahl
146. The Green Mile – Stephen King
147. Papillon – Henri Charriere
148. Men At Arms – Terry Pratchett
149. Master And Commander – Patrick O’Brian
150. Skeleton Key – Anthony Horowitz
151. Soul Music – Terry Pratchett
152. Thief Of Time – Terry Pratchett
153. The Fifth Elephant – Terry Pratchett
154. Atonement – Ian McEwan
155. Secrets – Jacqueline Wilson
156. The Silver Sword – Ian Serraillier
157. One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest
158. Heart Of Darkness – Joseph Conrad
159. Kim – Rudyard Kipling
160. Cross Stitch – Diana Gabaldon
161. Moby Dick – Herman Melville
162. River God – Wilbur Smith
163. Sunset Song – Lewis Grassic Gibbon
164. The Shipping News – Annie Proulx
165. The World According To Garp – John Irving
166. Lorna Doone – RD Blackmore
167. Girls Out Late – Jacqueline Wilson
168. The Far Pavilions – MM Kaye
169. The Witches – Roald Dahl
170. Charlotte’s Web – EB White
171. Frankenstein – Mary Shelley
172. They Used To Play On Grass – Terry Venables and Gordon Williams
173. The Old Man And The Sea – Ernest Hemingway
174. The Name Of The Rose – Umberto Eco
175. Sophie’s World – Jostein Gaarder
176. Dustbin Baby – Jacqueline Wilson
177. Fantastic Mr Fox – Roald Dahl
178. Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov
179. Jonathan Livingstone Seagull – Richard Bach
180. The Little Prince – Antoine De Saint-Exupery
181. The Suitcase Kid – Jacqueline Wilson
182. Oliver Twist – Charles Dickens
183. The Power Of One – Bryce Courtenay
184. Silar Marner – George Eliot
185. American Psycho – Bret Easton Ellis
186. The Diary Of A Nobody – George and Weedon Grossmith
187. Trainspotting – Irvine Welsh
188. Goosebumps – RL Stine
189. Heidi – Johanna Spyri
190. Sons And Lovers – DH Lawrence
191. The Unbearable Lightness Of Being – Milan Kundera
192. Man And Boy – Tony Parsons
193. The Truth – Terry Pratchett
194. The War Of The Worlds – HG Wells
195. The Horse Whisperer – Nicholas Evans
196. A Fine Balance – Rohinton Mistry
197. Witches Abroad – Terry Pratchett
198. The Once And Future King – TH White
199. The Very Hungry Caterpillar – Eric Carle
200. Flowers In The Attic – Virginia Andrews