New Year, New Thing!

Well, I've been blogging for a while now, and it's an ok sort of thing to do. But let's face it, my blog is not exactly rivetting now, is it?! My life is pretty ordinary, and so is my blog.
So I've been thinking about what to do to make it a bit more - well, interesting actually. And as it happens I've also been doing a bit of surfing recently, largely looking at fanfic. For those who don't know, fanfic is writing done by people who are really into a particular story, or tv show, or whatever - they use the characters or worlds that other's have created, and make their own stories. The reason I bring this up is that in looking at this stuff, (and I'm not going in to whether or not I think it's any good...) a lot of people who do this sort of thing tend to blog about books. They talk about what they've read, whether they think it's any good, and I kind of like that.
Also I came across this group who agree to read 50 books a year, and as they're doing this, they write reviews of what they're reading. So that other people can then think, hey, I'd like to read that too. I have to say I think I probably read more than 50 books a year, but I really like the idea of telling people about those books. I think I have things to say about them, and I think it will perk my blog up a bit.
So that's what I'm adding to the blog. I think I probably have talked about wanting to write more about what I'm reading before, but this time, I'm even setting myself some ground rules!

I'm not technically sophisticated enough to hid spoilers. You know the sort of thing I mean - highlight here to read the spoiler. A spoiler incidentally is a crucial bit of a story or plot that you may want not to know since it's generally the twist on which all mystery hangs. So since I can't hide them, I'll highlight them in someway - asterisk them, or write 'Spoiler Alert' and you can choose to skip the next few lines. I can't promise to always remember this, but I will try.
It's my intention to try and talk about the experience of reading something. What I think is a spoiler, may not be your idea of what a spoiler is, so it's up to you to choose to read what I'm saying - or not, as the case may be.
The opinions I'm giving are purely mine. I have no special qualifications that make my opinion any better, or any worse than anyone elses. No one is paying me to do this, I'm doing it because I fancy the idea of doing it. I've got no intentions of including entire plots, or using quotes.
The kind of books I read are both fiction and non fiction. I read crappy detective books that some people may feel are only fit to be read on a beach - I read science fiction and fantasy, and yes, on occasion that does mean dragons. Not very often though. But I also read biographies, I read history, psychology, sociology, anthropology - and PG Wodehouse. I read classical, I read stuff. Just the same as everyone else does.
I like to read "around" - that is, I read multiple biographies of people I find interesting. I'll read multiple accounts of a particular event or period in history. If I read something that I like by an author I haven't read before, then I'll read other stuff by that person.
I'm afraid I don't read romances. Well, not one's that have been written in the last 100 or so years at least - I do read classical novels, that certainly are romances - Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, The Woman in White, for example. But I don't read this modern chic lit stuff, it does not reach out and scream read me when I pass it in the supermarket. But I do read Harry Potter, so there's nothing elitist about this. I'll feel I'm achieving my aims if I'm talking about say the latest HP and the whatever sitting next to a paragraph on the latest biography of Byron.
One other thing - I passionately re-read my favourite books. One would only have to look at my bookshelves to see this. One of my biggest problems when I moved to Glasgow to go to uni all those years ago was what to do about my books. At that point I had several thousand. Literally. I threw out tons, and was left with several hundreds that I dutifully packed into cardboard boxes, books that remained in those boxes for several years after I moved there. (No shelves in my flat!) I just couldn't bear to part with them. Many of them lived in my parents garage for a few years after I came back to Bristol. Many of those books are with me still, happily on shelves these days, and many of them are re-read incredibly often. I'd say I re-read more than I buy, but I try to buy myself a new book every month or so. So a lot of what you'll read here will be of old books, they'll be the things I pick up just before I go to bed because I need something to read. Books are part of the architecture of my life, and I'm happy for them to form one of my constants in life.

I also fully intent to blog just as I have been doing. Just 'cos I'm going to do this, doesn't mean I'm going to not do what I've been doing. And for those of you who're reading this, and who know me, yep, I can't sleep, and I'm in quite a bit of pain from the fall I had this morning getting home from my night shift. This is one of my diversion tactics, and it's been quite a good one.
So what am I reading right now? What will I be reviewing? The cool thing about this is I just finished a book, so I have to find a new one. I have no idea at the moment what that book will be, 'cos I haven't chosen it yet, but I'm about to go to bed, and hence about to pick something up. I'll let you know what it is in my next blog...