A Bookish Confession

A few days ago on the 12th March marked the anniversary of Sir Terry Pratchett’s death in 2015. I still remember the day, I had been teaching all day and my best friend knew I had probably not seen the news so she sent me a text to break the news. Although I knew he was ill and it was going to happen, it was still like a kick in the stomach and I am not ashamed to admit I shed a tear. Sir Terry Pratchett meant so much to me, his Discworld novels were my absolute favourites, that I always relied on to cheer me up and make me laugh. I could not believe there would be no more, that the world of Discworld was over.

I first discovered the Discworld series at the age of 12, when my cousin’s partner recommended them to me, I then persuaded my mom to join a Sci-fi and Fantasy book club to order me a few of the books and from then I got a couple each month on offer. In year 9 at school during quiet reading, my teacher attempted to confiscate my copy of The Colour of Magic because he thought it an inappropriate book for a girl of my age, happily my mom intervened and I was allowed to continue reading them.

In 2013 I decided to read all the Discworld novels in order of them being written and it was wonderful. During this time they helped me cope with a particularly harrowing two-week session on jury duty and it was comforting to know that in my handbag there was always a Terry Pratchett novel.

Anyway, that’s a brief description of my history with Discworld, now on to my confession. The very last Discworld novel The Shepherd’s Crown I have never read! I pre-ordered it, I even got the special edition that Waterstones did so I have two copies but I have never read either. The reason, I just could not bring myself to read it, because in my mind once I read it I would know for sure that there would never be another Discworld book and that Sir Terry Pratchett was gone for good.

Over the last few days I have been thinking of The Shepherd’s Crown and yesterday I collected both copies from my parents house and brought them home. Now they are sat in my living room looking at me and I think I have made a decision. Sir Terry Pratchett wrote this book for people to read and the fact that I have not read it yet is not what he would have wanted. So on Terry Pratchett’s birthday on the 28th April I plan on starting to read The Shepherd’s Crown and I must admit that thought scares me a little, as I do not want to be disappointed and I know I will not want the book to end. Even just writing this brings all those memories back from 2015 and the sadness.

That is my bookish confession and I hope I can go through with my plan. Apologies to Sir Terry Pratchett for not having read your last Discworld novel sooner.

Lady Book Dragon.

A New Page

Happy Saturday!

Firstly, welcome and thank you everyone for the new follows. I hope you will enjoy reading my blog and please feel free to comment and talk about any of the books I talk about on the blog.

Some of you may have noticed a new page on the menu called Currently Reading. This page I have recently added so anybody who is interested can see what books I am currently reading and know that a review for these books will hopefully be appearing soon.

I am hoping this new page will also give me a little kick up the behind when I get a little slack with my reading.

Hope you enjoy and Happy reading!

Lady Book Dragon.

February 2019 Wrap Up

Another good reading month!

This month has been great blogging wise, more follows and likes off people and feedback on a review from an author, which I really appreciated.

I managed to read 7 books this month, granted some of them were only short but sadly work has got in the way and my reading has slowed. This month I discovered two things: one, I love the Star Trek books and plan on reading as many as I can and, two, I have discovered a new possible favourite author Elly Griffiths. I read her latest book (review on the way) and I could not put it down. I would have happily not gone to sleep and carried on reading all night but my husband needed his beauty sleep.

Books I read this month

(If you click on the picture you’ll go to the review)

4 out of 5 Dragons.

5 out of 5 Dragons.

5 out of 5 Dragons

3 out of 5 Dragons

4 out of 5 Dragons

3 out of 5 Dragons

5 out of 5 Dragons.

I also managed to visit a few Waterstones stores and tick some more off my list, oh and buy some new books, which is always good.

Plans for March

For March I would like to read the next two Star Trek Discovery books and The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon anything else is a bonus. I also plan on visiting a few more Waterstones stores.

Have you got any plans for March?

Happy reading.

Lady Book Dragon.

Book Sleeve Product Review

After years of reading and never leaving the house without a book, I decided to get a Book Sleeve, so my poor books would stop getting dog earred and battered in the neverending pit that is my handbag.

I had a good browse on Amazon and finally chose a medium book sleeve with Sloths on so it would match my diary, the price was £10.59. I think they match quite well but I must admit when it first arrived I was quite shocked how bright the green background was, it does not come across that bright in the picture below or on Amazon but believe me it is bright.

I have been using the sleeve for about a week now, I have used it for a tiny book that was about a 100 pages long so the sleeve swamped the book somewhat but the book did not get damaged and stayed safe in the sleeve. The next book I am using it for is a great big hard back book pictured below. It just about fits so really I do need a slightly bigger size for hardbacks but for paperbacks it is wonderful and so far my hardback book has stayed safe and sound.

I love my sloth book sleeve and I will definitely be using it on a regular basis, although due to the colour I imagine it will mark easily but I think it looks like it should wash quite successfully if something bad happens to it. I think I will get a bigger one for the hardbacks and a smaller one for the small paperbacks I read. This one is well made and of good strong material so I am hoping it will last me for many more reading years to come. Really happy with the product and was expecting it to be more expensive if I am honest, so the surprise with the price was a big bonus.

If you are interested in getting the Sloth Book Sleeve the Amazon link is here.

Happy reading my fellow Book Dragons!

Lady Book Dragon.

Lemon Slices Recipe Review

As promised I have had a go at making one of the recipes from The Book Lover’s Guide to Tea, which I reviewed here. I let my husband choose which one to make and he chose the Lemon Slices. The Lemon Slices are paired with the book The Picture of Dorian Grey by Oscar Wilde and the tea is Earl Grey.

The plan was to eat a slice with a nice cup of Earl Grey, you will soon see the result.

Firstly, I found the recipe to be a little like The Great British Bake Off technical challenge, as there was no picture to see what they looked liked. It is also the first recipe where I have had to measure everything with cups, thankfully we have some rather cute cat cups.

Here is the recipe:

2 cups sifted all-purpose flour

1 cup confectioners’ sugar

1 cup melted butter

4 eggs

2 cups white sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 cup all purpose flour

5/8 lemon juice

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Generously grease a 9x13in pan.

(Temperature was a guess for us as we have an AGA so adapting the temperature is rather tricky as we have to use a cold shelf to get the AGA to a better temperature. Also I do not have a big enough square tin so it had to be a circular pan.)

2. Stir the 2 cups of flour and confectioners’ sugar together. Blend in melted butter, and press into the bottom of the pan.

(I was guessing I was aiming for a biscuit texture like a cheesecake, hopefully that is correct.)

3. Bake for 15 minutes or until golden. In another bowl, beat eggs until light. Combine the sugar, baking powder, and flour, and stir into the eggs. Add the lemon juice, and pour over the prepared crust before returning to the oven.

(The first problem was baking the base and trying to prevent it from burning in the AGA, the edges started to catch slightly so we decided it was time to add the topping and bake for 30 minutes.)

4. Bake for another 30 minutes or until bars are set. Make sure to let cool completely before cutting.

(We had to use two cold shelves to bring the temperature down so the top did not burn but we think it came out rather well.)

It reminds me of a giant custard tart!

As I said at the beginning we planned to eat a slice with a nice cup of Earl Grey, however we were impatient and attempted to cut the Lemon Slice before it was fully cooled, this ended in disaster. Yes, it fell apart, as shown below.

For the Earl Grey I got out the best china cups and side plates, these were my aunts who sadly passed away last year and I inherited her china. My aunt never drank tea out of a mug, it was a china cup and saucer or nothing. My aunt also drank more tea than anyone I have ever met, she was a true tea drinker, oh and a tea bag would never do, always loose leaf! It was really nice to use the china and enjoy our tea and think of my aunt telling me Earl Grey is not real tea, whilst drinking her tea with her little finger delicately pointing out. Sadly there is no teapot with the set so we used our little one that we use for loose leaf tea.

We ate the Lemon Slice and it was delicious. Later when it had fully cooled I cut it up and it all stayed together beautifully and worked brilliantly. A definite hit that I will happily make again and goes perfectly with Earl Grey Tea, just like the book says.

In conclusion, as well as loving the little book, I also so far love the recipes and how they are linked to books and teas!

Lady Book Dragon.

A Bookish Tea Infuser

I finally got to use my new tea infuser that I got for Christmas. My friends know me so well, the two things I absolutely adore are tea and books and my best friend managed to get me something that combines both these things.

So here is the fantastic tea infuser with the little book of tea it came with. The Book tea infuser is called A Tale of Two Ci-Teas one of my favourite books.

I can report the tea infuser works brilliantly and I made the tea in a suitably bookish mug.

I hope my next mug of bookish tea I can accompany it with a good book but sadly this mug of tea had to stay on the AGA to stay warm as I did some jobs.

Do you have any bookish related items? I would love to hear what they are.

Lady Book Dragon.

100 Books Scratch Off Bucket List

I mentioned at Christmas that my best friend bought me the 100 Books Scratch Off Bucket List and I decided that I would start reading the books on there that I have not read before. Anyway the list has been sat looking at me since Christmas and I still haven’t made a start on reading some of the books off the list.

So I thought I would make a few lists and enlist you my fellow readers to help me decide on which book to read next.

Here is what the poster looks like

Firstly, the books I have already read:-

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Matilda by Roald Dahl
The Complete Art of War by Sun Tzu
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip K. Dick
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell
The Colour Purple by Alice Walker
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
Harry Potter (Series) by J. K. Rowling
The Picture of Dorain Gray by Oscar Wilde
The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger
Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
The Hitchiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
A Game of Thrones (Series) by George R. R. Martin
MacBeth by William Shakespeare
The Lord of the Rings (Trilogy) by J. R. R. Tolkien
Tess of the D’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy
Hamlet by William Shakespeare
Goodnight Mister Tom by Michelle Magorian
Winnie the Pooh (Complete Collection) By A. A. Milne
Dracula by Bram Stoker
Bridget Jones’s Diary by Helen Fielding
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis
Watership Down by Richard Adam
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
Bird Song by Sebastian Faulks
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

Books I have not read (the ones I own are in blue):-

American Gods by Neil Gaiman
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse
Sophie’s World by Jostein Gaarder
A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking
To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela
Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie
The Man who Mistook his Wife for a Hat by Oliver Sacks
Naughts and Crosses by Malorie Blackman
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
The Secret History by Donna Tartt
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey
The Man in the Iron Mask by Alexandre Dumas
The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo by Stieg Larsson
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
His Dark Materials (Trilogy) By Philip Pullman
The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
Ulysees by James Joyce
Bad Science by Ben Goldacre
I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson
Les Miserables by Victor Hugo
Wild Swans by Jung Chang
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by John le Carre
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift
The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells
Freakonomics by Levitt and Dubner
The Help by Kathryn Stockett
Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis
Notes From A Small Island by Bill Bryson
A History of Venice by John Julius Norwich
The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
A Wild Sheep Chase by Haruki Murakami
Schindler’s Ark by Thomas Keneally
London Fields by Martin Amis
The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
My Man Jeeves by P. G. Wodehouse
The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje
The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
The Commitments by Roddy Doyle
Gladys Aylward the Little Woman by Gladys Aylward
Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie
The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne
Dissolution by C. J. Sansom
The Time Machine by H. G. Wells
Animal Farm by George Orwell
The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
The Enchanted Wood by Enid Blyton
All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
The Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
Misery by Stephen King
The Odyssey by Homer
Tell No One by Harlan Coben
Moby – Dick by Herman Melville
Middlemarch by George Eliot

So out of the books on the list that I have not read and own which do you think I should read next? Whichever book is the most popular I will read next. Thank you in advance for your choices.

Happy reading.

Lady Book Dragon.

Happy Birthday Charles Dickens!

Happy Birthday to you.

Happy Birthday dear Charles Dickens!

Happy Birthday to YOU!

Another of my favourite authors was born on this day and that is the great Charles Dickens. Charles Dickens was born on this day in 1812 in Portsmouth. Dickens left school to work in a factory when his father was incarcerated in debtors prison. Despite his lack of education Dickens went on to write 15 novels, five novellas, hundreds of short stories and non fiction articles, lectured and performed readings, he also edited a weekly journal for 20 years. He was also a campaigner for children’s rights, education and social reforms.

Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol was the first Dickens novel I read and also the first classic book I read at the young age of 9 years old. Later I fell in love with A Tale of Two Cities and have since read it many times. I have not read all Dickens’ novels though sadly but hope to remedy that soon. I do own a beautiful set of old Dickens’ novels that are a joy to behold and read and a complete set of Vintage Classics that are paperback. I tend to read the paperbacks though as I do not like to take the old antique ones out of the house. Sadly as we are trying to get our library room finished my Dickens collection is stacked up in the living room, but I have included a few snaps of my antique Dickens books.

So Charles Dickens, happy birthday and thank you for your wonderful work, you truly were a literary genius.

Lady Book Dragon.

The Dickens’ novels that I have read are as follows:-

The Pickwick Papers

A Christmas Carol

A Tale of Two Cities

Our Mutual Friend

The Old Curiosity Shop

Great Expectations.

Which one do you think I should read next? I would love to hear what your favourite Dickens novel is.

The 7 Day Book Cover Challenge

7 days ago my cousin nominated me for the 7 Day Book Cover Challenge on Facebook so I thought I would share with you what the 7 book covers were that I shared on Facebook.

Day 1

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte was the first book choice. This copy I have read many times and each time I see the story in a different light.

Day 2

The Lord of the Rings Trilogy by J. R. R. Tolkien. I can not tell you how much I love this trilogy. I used to read it every year, I have not done this for a few years so I think it is high time I re read them all again.

Day 3

Another classic, Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. This is not my current favourite Austen novel, that is currently Persuassion but this is the one I have read the most and it was my first Austen novel.

Day 4

Silas Marner by George Eliot is another one that I used to read every year and plan on reading this year again. It is just such a wonderful little story and always makes me cry but for all the good reasons.

Day 5

Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte. Anne is my favourite Bronte and this is my favourite novel by her. I love how you can tell it is influenced by her life experiences.

Day 6

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy. This wonderful book kept me company on many a train journey to and from Liverpool whilst I was studying at the University of Liverpool doing my Masters. Although I have only read it once it has always stayed with me and started my love of Tolstoy.

Day 7

A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. My favourite Dickens novel, I first read this as a childrens version of the book and then when I was older read the original and have read it many times since. I love it so much!

So there are my 7 books. I would love to hear if anybody else has done the 7 day book cover challenge. Please drop me a comment and I will head over to your blog.

Lady Book Dragon.

January 2019 Wrap up

Well it is finally the last day of January, the snow drops have started to appear and all of a sudden the weather has gone very cold. Thank you to my new followers, the blog has now got 40 followers, which I am very happy about as I have only been blogging for 3 months.

This month I managed to read 6 books! To be honest getting back to work after Christmas I was not expecting to have read 6 books this month so I am very chuffed with myself.

If you click on the books you will be diected to the reviews I have written for the for books.

What I read…

5/5 Dragons and on my favourites list!

3/5 Dragons

5/5 Dragons

4/5 Dragons

5/5 Dragons

3/5 Dragons

As you can see January was a good month as 3 out of the 6 books are rated 5 Dragons. I also discovered a new author I would like to read more of which is Juliet Ashton, I have already bought one more book written by her and added some more to my wish list. I have also added Coming Home to my favourites list as I loved it so much and plan on reading it again. I hope the rest of year proves to be as good reading wise because January was certainly an excellent start to 2019.

I would love to hear your thoughts if you have read any of these book?

Thank you.

Lady Book Dragon

P.s I leave you with Lyra our book loving cat, I hope you can find her in the photo!