2013 book list

Oh books, lovely books. In 2012 I keep a list of most of the books I read. I thought I'd do the same for 2013, but somewhere along the road I kinda stopped recording. So here is my list from the first half of 2013. After these I read a few more - including some travel guides. I like lonely planet for reading before you go. I don't find the guide books are great for specific restaurants as things change so quickly.

I really enjoyed 'Rivers of London'. It's an easy read and feels a bit like a cross between Neil Gaiman's 'Neverwhere' and China Mieville's 'Kraken'. Both of which are great 'urban fantasies' (although Kraken could do with a little editing in my opinion).


key:
(r) means that I'm re-reading a book from my bookcase
(book club) means someone else chose it


Pixel to Plate by Helene Dujardin (Tartelette)
Build a Business from Your Kitchen Table by Sophie Cornish & Holly Tucker
The House of Silk by Anthony Horowitz
Reamde by Neal Stephenson (kindle) - my first ebook, I read it on my Nexus 7 tablet
Death Comes to Pemberley by P.D. James
Distrust that Particular Flavor by William Gibson
Pattern Recognition by William Gibson   (r)
A Force to be Reckoned With: A History of the Women's Institute by Jane Robinson
Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton
The Dosadi Experiment by Frank Herbert
Clocks by Agatha Christie
Peril at End House by Agatha Christie
Ready Player One by Ernest Cline (r)
Gateway by Frederik Pohl
Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch
Interaction of Colour (50th anniversary edition) by Josef Albers

I also read (most of) 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami (I read books 1,2 and part of 3 but by then I didn't care what happened, so I stopped) and another book by Ben Aaronovitch. I'm reading a little bit less recently as I've not been well and it takes more energy to read than listen to podcasts. I might investigate some audio books this year.

December Daily 2013

After the success that was 'December Daily 2012' I wasn't sure if I wanted to do the project again.

Let's rewind to 2012, for several reasons that December was super festive. A couple of my favourite Christmas films were re-released at the cinema, I was feeling really well and we had lots planned for the whole month. I had things to put in the book that were Christmas-y nearly everyday. Not that I did it everyday. I did it three or four days at a time. (Mainly because I like to use real photos - I mean ones processed by a shop, not inkjet printed.)

This year was not quite as festive. Apart from I was not feeling so well, we didn't have that much planned. I decided to give it a go since it was fun, but do a much smaller book. Oddly the shape was inspired by something I saw in the medical history museum in Berlin. A small square shape with a thick spine.

I spent a bit more on supplies this time. I didn't really choose them all though, I ordered a Christmas box from Shimelle. I always enjoy her videos and her taste is somewhat similar to mine, I trusted her to pick some good stuff (and get it shipped from America). I was pleased with most of it - there was a great selection of papers which I used for the pages of my book.

Here are some pages from the inside:

I really enjoyed making the book. It has a very simple construction - the outside is three pieces of book board covered in fabric on the outside and paper on the inside. I made the book's 'signatures' by folding the pages over and stapling in the middle. Each section is held into the spine with red elastic. I could have sewn the sections in but I wanted to be able to rearrange them and give them space to expand as I added to the pages.

I wonder how I shall look back on this Christmas. Looking back at my 2012 book was great fun and brought back a lot of memories.