Bookclub and Reading

When I went to University I chose to do English Language and Literature largely because it was my favourite subject at school and it was probably the one that I was best at for A-Level. I loved reading, but I always struggled with the fact that I am a pretty slow reader and even though people are convinced that I am fast, it can take me months sometimes to get through a book.  Like a lot of things I need a "target" to work towards, or nothing really happens.

I'm a bit of a geek too ever since I was 15 I have kept a small flower covered book with a list of all the books that I've read since then (which is now going on for about 17 years!).  Eventually I twigged that it might be interesting to look back on how many books that I had read each year and so from 1998 I've got a log of how many books I've read per year which is as follows:

1998 - 26

1999 - 28

2000 - 46

2001 - 34

2002 - 9

2003 - 13

2004 - 6

2005 - 11

2006 - 9

2007 - 18

2008 - 5

2009 - 2 (!!!)

2010 - 7

2011 - 6

As you can see I read the most books when I was at Uni from 1998 - 2001 which is to be expected as I had a lot more time on my hands,  as well as the fact that I had to read about 3 books per week per semester which was 12 weeks in total (so actually I should probably have read a few more than I did!).

As you can see apart from a blip in 2007 (not sure what was going on then!) my reading has really declined - probably as a result of the work that I do taking up a lot of my brainpower and making me fairly tired so I fall asleep very quickly if I try and read at bedtime.  The stupid thing is that I really do love reading, I just struggle when I'm tired and don't have an end date to get things done to finish a book with momentum unless it's an incredible book and I'm hooked.

When I joined Buns & Roses in 2010 I hadn't realised that they have their own Book Club and I was really pleased that they did - it would give me the impetuous to make sure that I finished a book by a deadline as well as giving me suggestions of books to read that I might not normally encounter (at the first meeting that I went to we discussed Jam and Jeopardy by Doris Davidson which was certainly a different read)  and have a chance to chat through them with friendly ladies eating cake.  I've already read nearly twice as many books as I did last year so I think it's got a definite positive impact on my reading.

We meet at the Tiled Hall Cafe which is next to the Art Gallery and the Leeds Central Library. It's a really pretty venue and they serve gorgeous cakes - Earl Grey Tea Loaf, Scones with clotted cream and jam, Caramac cake and Neapolitan Cake.  They also serve a great selection of drinks including wine and beer and my favourite - Suki tea - I love the Russian Caravan which is like a milder slightly less smoky lapsang souchong.

Our last book club was really fun - we met on Sunday and we had all finished reading the book that we were discussing - The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky which we all enjoyed. 

The Buns & Roses Book club is really friendly, we don't worry if someone hasn't finished the book, or indeed if they hate it that's fine too!  Everyone is fine to voice their opinion and most importantly it's fun - we talk about what we think of the cover of the book and who might play certain characters in a film version as well as discussing more technical things like characterisation and plot.

We all agreed that we liked how the book reminded us very much of being teenagers and in particular Susan who is from America said that it really reminded her and felt very well written and representative of her time in high school much better in comparison to some other books that she has read in the past.  

Sam who was new to book club mentioned that she had read the book slightly differently as she'd seen the film first, but really enjoyed the book and actually hadn't expected the form of the book to be the series of letters that are presented.

In terms of characters we felt that they were all very "real" characters and had a lot of sympathy with the main character - Charlie and genuinely felt as though we were taken on a bit of a journey with him and saw how he developed.  

Lianne had been worried about how the ending of the book would transpire and how some of the fairly serious issues would be handled, but actually felt that it was effectively written.

We all enjoyed the book and I found that I really enjoyed the references to different music of the time and how his teacher recommended different books for Charlie to read to help him develop both intellectually and emotionally.  I loved how one of these books was A Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger as the feel of this book was very similar to that, but the characters were much more likeable.

We tried to think of some Christmas themed books for our December Bookclub meeting, but went for Life of Pi by Yann Martel instead and will be meeting at 2pm on the 16th December at the same place - you are welcome to come and join us.

Hobbycrafts Craft Fair and Cake International

7 hours stacked full of craft and cake - a great day.

I got on the 8.12 am train to head down to Birmingham to meet my friend Celeste and use our £6 worth Tesco Club Card Vouchers for entry to both the Hobbycrafts Craft Fair and Cake International shows.  We met up at New Street Station and took the train to Birmingham NEC (it was a bit of a crush and apparently you can get charged for First Class tickets if they find you just in the vestibule area - cheeky!).

We started off with the Cake International Show and went straight over to look at all the amazing cake competition entries.  Everything bar a few internal supports and dummies is made entirely from sugar and it's quite overwhelmingly amazing just how clever people are.  

I took over 100 photos which is far too many to post here, but here is the link to the whole album.  However, here are a couple of my favourites:

This one was in the Handbags and shoes category - I was really impressed that it's literally been knitted/crocheted together with icing.

This one was in the cupcakes category - I had thought that cupcakes would be a fairly straightforward entry,but I was really impressed how creative some of the entries were.  I particularly liked the typewriter in this one.

These two were in the wedding cake with "at least 2 tiers category" and there were so many entries and they were all amazing.  I liked the Halloween themed cake and I also loved the really tall square tiered cake as it was really different.

This category was flowers made from sugarcraft and they were startlingly realistic.  I was really impressed with the tiny detail on them.

These two were in the "Sculpted novelty cake category".  The Roast chicken looked really realistic and the glaze was really convincing.  Slimer was great too, the shaping was really clever, but there was also some sugar "slime" as well.

These two were in the younger category and I loved Oscar who was in the 12 - 18 year old category - really realistic, fun and reminded me of my favourite Sesame Street character.  I apparently insisted to my Mum when I was about 2 years old that it was "arsker" and not "Oscar" as she was trying to get me to pronounce it.  The Dinosaur was in the Under 12 category and was more impressive than I think anything that I might be able to manage! 

This was my favourite cake - Hagrid's house.  The detail was incredible, the pumpkins, the toadstools and best of all even inside Hagrid's hut had amazing detail.

I'm in so much admiration of these cakes, I'd love to have the time and energy to be able to create something so detailed and impressive - not sure that I would be able to bring myself to be able to eat it though after so much work!

We stopped for some lunch and I showed Celeste some more photos from my trip to Bali and had some Sushi and Edamame beans.

Next we walked around the sales stalls and I bought some chocolate "melts" in purple, red and brown (peanut butter flavour) some cellophane bags, purple and red lolly sticks.  I also bought some cellophane with patterns on them that you put melted chocolate on and when you peel off the cellophane the patterns stay on.  I'm going to be making some Chocolate Lollies for Christmas Presents that I learned at the Living La Vida Cocoa WI workshop in October.   I also bought some edible glitter to make them all a bit more exciting!

We then went into the Hobbycrafts, Crafts for Christmas and Arts Material Live section of the show.  

I bought a couple of goody bags as they are always pretty good value for money - the Prima bag was pretty good with some magazines and an OPI crackle nail polish in black which is itself about £8 and the whole bag was only £3!  The other bag was £6 and had loads in it, lots of card making papers and letters and some ribbons - apparently the value was circa £50 and I can believe it!

I then was enticed to buy some more nail polish after an impressive demonstration when I had a strawberry, flowers and a French Manicure drawn onto my nails in seconds using a set of 10 polish pens from Nails Supreme.  This morning I've turned all my nails into a French Manicure, they are great and really easy to use.  I paid £20 although apparently they are usually £30, but a quick google search revealed that you can buy them for £20 online.

I bought 4 balls of Rico Can Can yarn to make scarves to sell on the stall at the Buns & Roses craft stall.  I've used Rico Can Can before and it's so easy to use - cheat knitting really as it knits so fast and I will make it into scarves that look like this:

I can make a scarf up in about an hour or so in front of the TV, so it's a really good craft for winter nights sat watching my favourite programs from Sky Plus like The Bill, Fresh Meat and and of the CSI or Criminal Minds series.  It also only needs someone to know how to knit basic knitting and cast off, you don't even need to know how to cast on!

I then bought some really good value fabrics for patchworking - 4 pieces for £6 and then some Christmas smelling oil - cinnamon, clove, orange - really smells like Christmas!  Here is my haul!

Someone else was very interested in my bag when I got back in, not sure why as there was no fish or meat in my purchases!