My Top 3 of Everything in 2011

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My Top 3 of Everything in 2011

Saturday, December 10th, 2011

I’m currently sitting in the livingroom with the xfactor final about to start. So I thought it would be a good opportunity to get my usual end of year post done.

I present to you my favourite things of 2011

The Great Book Project 20 of 20 – The Road by Cormac McCarthy

Monday, August 29th, 2011

Well whaddayaknow! I finally did it. My task to read the Times Top 20 books of the Naughties has been completed. It only bloody took me over a year! Don’t get me wrong I read other books along the way. I’m slow, but I’m not THAT slow. Also, I’ve pretty much had the most eventful year-and-a-bit of my life during it. I got married, moved to a new house, continued to develop my own business, went on two holidays, been to three weddings, my own stag do in Cardiff and shit load of other stag do’s.

The Short and Winding Book

The final book, and therefore the Times’ Number one book of the Naughties, wasn’t a let down. It really is a great book. It’s a hard slog, and almost draining to read. I can’t help but think of the word GRIM. The book is set in the future after the world has experienced some kind of apocalyptic event (we never find out any details) and we are following a father and son as they head south to warmer climate and the promise of something better.

The book’s main subject is centered around the father justifying survival of both himself and his son. Coming to terms with the prospect of ending both his son and his own life. What is there to live for after all? The earth is now a barren, grey, wasteland with no-one except the occisional survivor. There are some disturbing moments in the book. Definitely up there was the moment the dad holds a gun to his son’s head about to pull the trigger completely convinced in his reasoning.

This was a pretty small book. And it had to be. I actually read most of it on a flight to London for my good mate Duncan’s wedding. See pics here.

I do recommend it, but if you can’t stick too much of that kind of tone then give the movie a try.

Rating:

Here is a list of the books I read as part of my the project. Remember, some of the books were removed from the list as I had already read them; I asked people to recommend books to fill the gap in the comments of this post.

The Road by Cormac McCarthy	Rating:
Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood by Marjane Satrapi	Rating:
Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance by Barack Obama	Rating:
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger	Rating:
Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth by Margaret Atwood	Rating:
Austerlitz by W.G. Sebald	Rating:
Suite Fransaise by Irene Namirovsky	Rating:
The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell	Rating:
Life of Pi by Yann Martel	Rating:
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers	Rating:
Atonement by Ian McEwan	Rating:
One Fine Day in the Middle of the Night by Christopher Brookmyre	Rating:
The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler	Rating:
Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi	Rating:
Animal Farm by George Orwell	Rating:
Rapture by Carl Ann Duffy	Rating:
The Average American Male by Chad Kultgen	Rating:
Bad Science by Ben Goldacre	Rating:
The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen	Rating:
White Teeth by Zadie Smith	Rating:

My favourite was Atonement as you can see from the ratings. I have a wee soft spot for Suite Fransaise too. Especially ‘Part 2′ of that book. I highly recommend you check both of them out.

So yeah. It’s been emotional, as a mate in work would say. I have no clue what to blog about now though. haha. I am however, looking forward to reading any book I want. This project has really opened my eyes to books I would never have picked up otherwise. I’ve learned a lot and it has strengthened my love of reading. So, in short, everything that I intended to get out of this hair-brained project.

Tags: book, conclusion, cormac, end, life, mcarthy, project, stag, the road, weddings
Posted in Life in General, The Great Book Project | No Comments »

My First Munro

Tuesday, May 3rd, 2011

I’m pretty late to the party when it comes to this munro business. I hear about people doing them all the time (check out my mates blog for more munro blogage) but never had the motivation to do one until last week. Seems like all the variables were just right for me to give it a go; it was a long weekend therefore I wasn’t ruining my one day of the week where I could have a long lie, Gemma was away with the girls for the weekend so my responsibility to her was nil and the weather was fantabulous.

I was just a passenger to the other lads who were making the plans. They’ve done many before and have a history of the ‘great outdoors’. I was told to get my ass out of bed at 7.00am as we were heading to The Bridge of Orchy to do not one but two munro’s. Beinn Dorain and Beinn an Dothaidh.

I really enjoyed it actually. It was really hard, but great fun. Being out in the elements with good mates getting some decent exercise. In all we done 11.4k (7.1 miles) and climbed around 3200ft.

Here is a wee diagram I made using info from mapmyrun.com

Also have a ganter at some pics from the day:

[Show as slideshow]

[View with PicLens]

I think I’ll need to get some proper gear if I’m going to be serious (my feet were a bit sore), but I’m looking forward to more.

Tags: an, beinn Dorain, blog, dothaidh, hike, mario, munro, scotland
Posted in Life in General | 3 Comments »

The Dash

Monday, April 25th, 2011

I’m not one for poems (see this post for details), but I was at another Humanist Funeral on Saturday morning and the speaker read out a poem that I instantly loved. Thought I would post it here:

The Dash by Linda Ellis

I read of a man who stood to speak
At the funeral of a friend.
He referred to the dates on her tombstone
From the beginning..to the end.

He noted that first came her date of birth
And spoke the following date with tears, 1964 – 1994
But he said what mattered most of all
Was the dash between those years.

For that dash represents all the time
That she spent alive on earth..
And now only those who loved her
Know what that little line is worth.

For it matters not, how much we own;
The cars..the house..the cash,
What matters is how we live and love
And how we spend our dash.

So think about this long and hard.
Are there things you”d like to change?
For you never know how much time is left,
That can still be rearranged.

If we could just slow down enough
To consider what’’s true and real,
And always try to understand
The way other people feel.

And be less quick to anger,
And show appreciation more
And love the people in our lives
Like we”ve never loved before.

If we treat each other with respect,
And more often wear a smile..
Remembering that this special dash
Might only last a little while.

So, when your eulogy’’s being read
With your life’’s actions to rehash..
Would you be proud of the things they say
About how you spent your dash?

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The Great Book Project 16 of 20 – Payback by Margaret Atwood

Wednesday, March 30th, 2011

It’s been a mad month for me. And I mean mad in the “I’m a lunatic” kinda way. I don’t know what it is, but I just can’t stop letting stuff get to me. Wee stupid things get me wound up to the point I want to bang my head against a wall. Need to keep telling myself to calm the hell down and stop being a girl.

I’ve also been a bit of an arse when it comes to the bevy. Something has changed. My theory is that it’s to do with FOOD. I seem to forget to eat after a few pints. I need to get my stomach full before going out and, if the session is likely to last more than, say, four hours, then I bloodly-well better have a Gregg’s or something in-between too. (DISCLAIMER: I’m not daft enough not to realise that it might be too much drink!)

Perfect opportunity to try this theory is this weekend where I’ll be hitting Edinburgh with the boys to celebrate the arrival of my mates boy Maxwell. Congrats Andy!!

Payback Yo!

So in-between my panic attacks and drunkeness I’ve been slowly crawling through the next one in my project. The full title is actually Payback: Debt as Metaphor and the Shadow Side of Wealth. Going into this I thought I was in for an economics lesson; learning how banks work, how debt is managed etc. But I should have paid more attention to the sub-title. This book is actually nothing like that. It’s about debt as a psychological principal. Let me try to explain that a bit better:

If you are in debt then you owe someone something; therefore you believe that the person you owe something gave you it in return for something else of equal value. It’s all about Balance. You have to be in dept because you recognise that what you received is a fair trade for what you will owe. What do you say to a bank teller when you want to know how much is in your account? “Can you tell me my BALANCE please?” You know the symbol used in many banks? A two pan balance? This book is about fairness, not just in monetary terms but also from a moral standpoint.

Margaret Atwood goes into great detail on the subject. From debt to your god, original sin (Btw did you know that in the original bibles the actual word used in place of Sin translated to DEBT) to the different types of debt used as a plot device in literature. Such as The Christmas Carol as plot driven by monetary debt and The Godfather as moral debt.

I really enjoyed Atwood’s tone. I found her quite funny at times which was surprising. Sadly though this book was let down by drawing out a topic that could have been adequately summarised for me in a few pages. It’s not that Atwood didn’t find ways to keep it interesting, its just that it isn’t a topic I would find myself wanting to read about in my spare time.

I think I would give her another go; I think that a fiction book by her would be awesome. Sadly, overall, this book didn’t interest me enough to warrant a high rating. Sorry Margaret.

Rating:

I’m near the end folks. Four more to go. The next one in the list (number four of the Times top 100 books of the decade) is indicated as Masterworks of the Classical Haida Mythtellers trans Robert Bringhurst (2002). But I’ve realised that this is actually several different books. Bit of a bummer. So what I’m thinking of doing is either reading one of the books or reading number 21 in the top 200. Need to make up my mind. I’m sure that Kindle availability will have a big say in my decision. Opinions on the matter in the comments if you please.

Tags: andy, anxiety, book, debt, drunk, edinburgh, great, payback, project, sin
Posted in Books, Life in General, The Great Book Project | 1 Comment »

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