The Great Books reading list

As you will know by now, I am obsessed with being obsessed with things.  So, the latest obsession is a book list I found on www.goodreads.com of the top 100 books that everyone should read in their lifetime. 

First book: To Kill a Mockingbird.

You can find the complete list here.

And my work in progress list here.

bubblegumbooks: The Hobbit

This book review is brought to you by a traumatising afternoon at the Auckland City Library.

I have not read many fantasy novels.  Wizards, witches, dragons, they are not really my thing.  However, after reading this book I find myself coming to realisation that writing off an entire genre of literature is a bit extreme, all things considered. 

The hobbit follows the adventures of Bilbo Baggins and a clan of dwarves.  Despite his small stature, hairy feet, and constant longing for his beloved shire, Bilbo Baggins is quite possibly one of the greatest heroes in literature, not because of his stunning good looks, killer sword skills, or cunning agility.  In fact, Bilbo is none of these things and yet all who meet him come to admire and adore him.  All who underestimate him end up apologising for their short-sightedness.  After all, a hobbit that is courageous enough to sneak up on a dragon is pretty impressive by any measure.

Reading this book made me appreciate not only the fantasy genre, but also Tolkien for being an amazing story teller.  I started reading this book, and to my surprise, I could not stop.

I give this 4.5 attempts at finding a book in the Auckland Library out of 5.

Happy hippo

It's funny how something very simple can make your day wonderful.  I've had a rough week, not because anything traumatic has happened. I'm just tired. It happens to me sometimes. Today I went to the staff kitchen in search of my usual mug for my usual morning tea, and became somewhat irritated when I couldn't find it.  So I opted to use someone else's mug and keep the mug-thief-ring going instead of breaking the chain and using a communal mug.

Said mug is shown below:

I feel like I've had an awesome day today simply because my mug has a hippo in the clouds of awesomeness on it. 

I hope you find something simple to bring you happiness too.

Debbie does something: bookmarks

Today Jess and I had an in-depth discussion about bookmarks.  When I was younger, my mom used to sew these amazing bookmarks that had an elastic around them to hold them in place.  This childhood reminiscing resulted in a google search which resulted in a craft project. 

Ta-da! Bookmark!

 

What's more awesome than an adorable elephant bookmark? Nothing!

Super in-depth instructions on how to make the world's most complex and yet amazingly awesome bookmark:

1.   Skip on down to your local craft/hobby/dollar/cheap Japanese market and get yourself some:

• elastic
• super cute patches
• needle and thread (if you're one of those people who don't have any on hand because you didn't steal the sewing kit from a hotel recently).

2. Take your elastic and cut it into a 15-inch piece, that's like 38.1 cm for those of you who still use the metric system.

3.  Sew your elastic into a circle using shoddy sewing skills.  Keep track of the pointy end of the needle at all times, it's lethal.

4. Sew the patch onto the elastic band, preferably covering up your shoddy sewing skills.

There you have it.  Easy-peasy-Auckland-breezy. 

While working on above craft project, Mike (who from here on out shall be referred to as The Accountant) told me that bookmarks don't work on the kindle.  I showed him...

Mark Twain approved!

Tom yum soup nom nom nom

bubblegumgoods: Moleskine notebooks

There are few things in this world that make me squeal, clap and cry at the same time...well, that's not entirely true, there are actually quite a few things that provoke this reaction from me.  But this isn't about me, it's about these Moleskine notebooks and how I think they are the single greatest stationary creation...EVER. 

Top 3 reasons why you should have a Moleskine:
1. Moleskines are legendary notebooks used by: Vincent Van Gogh, Pablo Picasso, Ernest Hemingway and some guy named Bruce Chatwin. I don't know about you, but having a Moleskine makes me feel like I'm in the cool group, with my friends Picasso and Hemingway.  Now all I need is to make some bizzare paintings and fight a bull...

2. Do you ever go into a store like Barnes & Noble or Whitcoulls and fan through notebooks or books and smell the paper, or think of the wonderful story inside and the things you will create on the pages?  I do, and if you don't, you should.  When I get a new Moleskine notebook it inspires me, motivates me to create something, write something, draw something.  I attribute this inspiration solely to Moleskine notebooks.

3.  When the Zombie uprising comes and we can no longer track our lives via Facebook timeline, all of our history will be erased.  Well, yours will, mine won't because I've got my Moleskines.

I hope this blog post inspires all of you to run out and buy Moleskine notebooks.

Dinner at Elliott Stables

Book of the week: Lance Armstrong, it's not about the bike

This book review is sponsored by a weekend in Wellington, New Zealand where Mike made me walk to the airport and we were still two hours early.

I'm not usually one for reading celebrity biographies and especially not athlete, celebrity biographies, but I'm attempting to branch out.  Reading Lance Armstrong's book made me respect the athlete and person he is.  Do I still think he's an egomaniacal perfectionist? Yes.  Do I think that is why he has been able to stay on top of the biking world? Absolutely.  If you respect nothing else about Lance Armstrong, not even his biking career you have to respect his battle with cancer, but I also believe that anyone who has battled any kind of cancer deserves the same level of respect.

Maybe the best thing about reading this book was coming to the realization that Lance Armstrong is a fallible human with chips on his shoulder about his childhood and people who have wronged him in his career.

If I had to recommend any part of this book, I would recommend the last few chapters, I believe that they are the most revealing chapters of the whole book and carry within them a certain inspiration that can be lacking in the rest of the book.

I give this book a 3 km walk to the airport out of 5.

Upcoming book of the week reviews:

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