A bibliophile's dream

Last week, my twincess Irene & I languished in the devastation of celebrated our 29th birthday.

I'm not one to accept growing old(er) gracefully. I live in denial. I turned 25 last week, OK?

To soften the blow, Colin got me the best birthday gift my geeky little heart could ever wish for. I was taken to my favourite place in the world, Voltaire & Rousseau, and given free rein.

Free rein in this place!

4 carrier bags later, we were home, and I was delirious with happiness.

Here's the list, in all its stunning entirety:

• Ulysses - James Joyce
• Cal - Bernard MacLaverty
• The Sunday Philosophy Club - Alexander McCall Smith
• Red Dust Road - Jackie Kay
• White Teeth - Zadie Smith
• Choke - Chuck Palahniuk
• Pulp - Charles Bukowski
• Not Not While The Giro - James Kelman
• The Acid House - Irvine Welsh
• Moments of Being - Virginia Woolf
• Any Human Heart - William Boyd
• Senor Vivo and the Coca Lord - Louis deBernieres
• Creative Writing (Pocket Essentials) - Neil Nixon
• The Peppered Moth - Margaret Drabble

With all this joy comes a great dilemma... in which order should I read the beauties? I'm slightly obsessed with Irvine Welsh at the moment and have started on The Acid House... I'm thinking James Kelman next. Have you got a favourite amongst them all?

Just when I thought I was all-booked-out for the immediate future, I received this lovely tweet from my writerly friend, Paul Forrester (be sure to follow him on Twitter):

Wayne & Maria were having their own book clear-outs, so I jumped at the chance! I came in to work to find this wee cracker on my desk:

I can't wait to read it, especially as I'm rewriting some of The Novel and about to embark on some serious editing.

I'm experimenting with close (third person) narration and took an extract of my latest attempt into writers group on Thursday. On the whole it was positive, although it clanged with a few people. I'm going to continue with it, though, I feel like I've got some momentum going at last!

How are you all getting on?

Take care
Catherine x ◦

A bibliophile's dream

Eyeball strain, dry heaving and the stuff of fairy tales

Helloooo how are you? Thought I'd pop in for a gab and an update!

The writing is coming along nicely. Still going to the writers group and getting excellent feedback, which has really changed the way I edit my work. I now print as I go, and set about it with my trusty highlighter and black pen. As it stands, I'm 41k into my rewrite, though I still have 2/3 of my previous draft to wade through, slice and polish. I'm not putting my head through my monitor yet; it's still exciting. I spend most lunch hours working on it, as well as frequent trips to the library after work (I get more writing done there than at home!). It's hard work, but it's a learning process.

I've become alarmingly obsessed with reading. The Paisley Library has an eye-watering “book sale” section, where I picked up these beauties on my last trip. Have you read any of them? Which one should I delve into first?:

Despite my purchases, I can’t stop checking books out of the library; it’s an unstoppable compulsion. I last checked out The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, which was an astounding read. I was tempted into reading it after the glowing review Ian Rankin gave it on Radio 4, when discussing the book he would never lend to another. The way Muriel Spark used the past, present and future tense concurrently... well it just shocked my tiny little mind. From this slimline masterpiece, I discovered a writing technique called prolepsis, or flash forward. Not sure if I’ll ever use it, but it's lovely to see a classic novel defy the confines of the "writer rulebook".

After that, I read Roddy Doyle’s The Snapper in one day. One day! It was too absorbing to put down. I didn’t even have my dinner. I turned wrinkly in a tepid bath, reading for hours, which I’m pretty sure has caused some kind of eye strain damage. It was worth it.

Next on my list is Irvine Welsh’s Trainspotting. I listened to an interview where he described that toilet scene in such graphic detail, I dry heaved at my desk. This sick puppy wants to read the rest.

I’ve become something of a Twitter addict of late. I spotted this tweet from the Scottish Book Trust. Have you read about the author Samantha Shannon?:

Isn’t it just the stuff of fairy tales? If it wasn’t such a hopeful and optimistic story, I’d be sickeningly jealous (alright, I am sickeningly jealous)! Read the rest of the article here.

I'll stop gibbering for now. Tell me your news, what have you been up to?

By the way, I'm going to start taking part in the #WordlessWednesday phenomena. I feel I should explain that now, since I will be wordless... on Wednesday.

Take care

Catherine x

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Eyeball strain, dry heaving and the stuff of fairy tales