Christmas Reading List

Happy Advent! Today is the first day of Advent and so the Christmas reading has begun.

And here it is! My Christmas reading list.

I am very excited and I can not wait for tomorrow. I will see how my reading goes as I might add to the list as December goes on. The Christmas reading list runs from 1st December to 6th January when the Christmas decorations come down.

Christmas at the Beach Hut by Veronica Henry

I chose this one because I read a short story by Venronica Henry recently and really enjoyed it, so I thought I would try one of her Christmas books.

Letters from Father Christmas by J. R. R. Tolkien

My best friend bought me this book for my birthday present and I have been saving it for my Christmas read. I am really excited about this as I absolutely adore Tolkien.

Five at the Office Christmas Party by Bruno Vincent (based on the characters created by Enid Blyton)

These books are my guilty pleasure, I think I have read them all apart from this one, as again I have been saving it for Christmas.

Mary Poppins by P. L. Travers

Not really a Christmas book I know but I could not resist. This book is so beautiful and special I just thought it was ideal for Christmas reading. Also the new Mary Poppins film Mary Poppins Returns is out soon and one of my saxophone students plays one of the children in the film, so I thought I had better read the book.

Coming Home by Michael Morpurgo

I am a bit of a Morpurgo fan and when I saw this book I had to have it. I do love children’s books they always make me smile and feel all warm and fuzzy inside. I found this book by complete accident as I was looking online for another book called Coming Home and this came up in the search. Hopefully it will be a lucky find.

Mog’s Christmas by Judith Kerr

This was chosen quite simply because I have very fond memories of reading Mog stories to my neice and nephews. I have missed Mog so much I decided to buy this as a little treat to myself.

The Nutcracker by E. T. A. Hoffmann

Here is the big finale! As I have mentioned in a previous post I always read a new version of The Nutchracker on the run up to Christmas and here is my new copy. Another pretty book, I do love pretty books.

I would love to hear if anybody else has a Christmas reading list. Please feel free to post a link to your blog in the comments.

Happy Advent and Happy Reading.

Lady Book Dragon

One Month Blogging!

So today marks exactly one month from when I started this blog.

I must admit I think I am hooked. I have got another blog, which I must admit is rather abandoned which is about lots of things really, but to be honest I lost heart with it after a while. This blog, however I have no intention of abounding as I have found what I enjoy and that is reading and talking about books.

I hope my readers so far are enjoying my posts and all the likes and follows are extremely appreciated. I’ve also discovered some new blogs to follow as well through my blogging journey.

A quick Christmas reading list update: Two new books have arrived for my Christmas reading list. I am getting very excited for the 1st December. I am so tempted to start now but I must resist.

The new books are:-

Christmas at the Beach Hut by Veronica Henry

Coming Home by Michael Morpurgo

Anyway, a big thank you to all my readers and thank you for your support so far on my blogging journey.

Happy reading and blogging everyone.

Lady Book Dragon.

Goodreads Book Challenge

So yesterday I completed my book challenge for this year and it was a personal best for me as well. This year is the first year I have read 60 books and it is not even the end of the year yet! I am so pleased with this result and I must admit since starting this blog my reading has gone through the roof and I am loving it.

Books have always meant a lot to me, they have been my escape and my way of destressing from a long day. I was a very lucky child having a big sister who did English and French literature at university who surrounded me with literature from an early age. I read Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol at the age of 8 and from there I was hooked. My parents also never denied me a book and so I was always buying new books and adding them to my to read pile. This is probably why I am also a book hoarder, like a dragon hoards gold, I hoard books.

So I am hoping that by the end of this year I will have read even more books and also got a good to read list ready for the new year.

How is everyone doing with their reading challenge this year? I would love to hear how everyone else is doing with their challenges.

Lady Book Dragon

Christmas Planning

It has begun! My Christmas reading list has started to be developed and planned. On the 1st December I start to read Christmas related books, to get me into the festive spirit.

I have one main tradition that I started a few years ago and that is to read The Nutcracker by E. T. A. Hoffmann but a different copy each year. I have ordered a new copy and I’m impatiently waiting for it to arrive. I am hoping it will be as pretty as it looks on the website.

I have also ordered some Christmas related books which I will post on here as soon as they arrive. I will also be taking a trip to Waterstones at some point for Christmas present shopping and I am sure I will buy some extra Christmas books then.

Here is the beginning of my Christmas list so far:-

Letters from Father Christmas by J. R. R. Tolkien

Five at the Office Christmas Party by Bruno Vincent.

Does anybody else have a Christmas reading tradition? I would love to hear your traditions or Christmas books you plan on reading. Please drop me a comment.

Lady Book Dragon

Birthday Treats

For my birthday my wonderful husband bought us both tickets to see The Cursed Child parts 1 & 2 with a one night stay in a very posh hotel.

So this weekend found us both in London at the Palace Theatre.

I remember reading the script as soon as the book came out in 2016 after waiting and waiting for the book to arrive. I will be honest the story was a slight disappointment however the actual play was amazing! On Goodreads I only rated the book as 2 stars, my husband gave the same rating.

I am so pleased the script did not put me off as I would have missed out on an amazing stage production.

The first thing that struck me was the amazing stage effects, how they did all the magic was just wonderful and the choreography that went with it was the icing on the cake. The second part was the music, there was no hint of the music from all the Harry Potter films in it. The music stood on its own and was just stunning, it really helped back and move the storyline forward. The only thing I would say is that sometimes the music was a little on the loud side.

Finally there was the acting. The actors were phenomenal, how they kept their energy up for the two parts was unbelievable. The star of the show in my opinion was the actor who played Scorpius. He was amazingly talented and his energy was electric. I think the actors who played Harry, Ron and Hermione were excellent, as they had hard acts to follow from the three actors we know so well from the films. Ron in particular was my favourite, he was just as fun and as happy as he always was and I am happy that did not change.

All in all I loved the play even though I still can not get used to the storyline, it was an amazing day and I can not recommend it enough.

I also visited a new book store during the gap between the two parts. I went to Foyle’s bookshop and I loved it! Sadly I did not buy anything from there as I did not want to be carrying lots of books in to the theatre but I had a good explore. I really loved the layout so open and brightly lit, and the sheet music selection was incredible! I was completely overwhelmed but I desperately want to go back (another trip to London in the planning I think).

Sunday was a relaxing day exploring The Natural History Museum and I might have bought a T-Rex toy wearing a Christmas jumper because dinosaurs are awesome and even better in Christmas jumpers.

Lady Book Dragon

A Surprise Dragon

So I’ve had another busy weekend, not quite finished yet but I promise I will update you on it all tomorrow. It has a literary theme!

I just had to share with you this lovely surprise in the hotel room.

It’s a Dragon mug! So I had to have a calming peppermint tea and a read of my new Kindle book before bed.