Journal Life!

Some time ago I saw a bookshop promoting Bullet Journals. I had no clue what they were.
What I do know is that I love journals. I try to keep four of them. I don't share my deepest darkest secrets (I don't really have many of those) in them but I do share bits of information and what interests me.

Journal 1 - Literary Journeys - In this I share some of my notes which help in writing up book reviews for my blogs. Each page has the following sections - Book Title, Author, Plot Notes, Character Notes, Favourite Quotes, Other Books to be read by this Author, Date Started, Date Finished and a place to rate the book out of 5. It is a pen and paper version of Goodreads with a few extras.

Journal 2 - Q & A - 365 Questions - 5 Years - 1825 Answers - I bought this journal while on holiday in Europe and each day there is a question to answer. A few of the 365 questions or statements to answer include Today was delightful because....., Where do you go for good ideas?,  What was the last thing you  baked or cooked? and so the very long list of 365 goes on.  There's room to answer for five years and I try to write in this journal as much as I can.

Journal 3 - 3am Journal - This is a journal I picked up from one of my favourite stores Kikki K a year or two ago. What's supposed to happen is that you wake up at 3am or some other unearthly hour of the evening with all these amazing ideas and you quickly jot them down in your 3am Journal. Thankfully, most of my ideas come at more friendly times of the day so I just use it for notes and ideas.

Journal 4 - Literary Listography - I just love this reading journal - so much so that I'm too scared to write in it. On each page there is a bibliography list to complete. There are more than 70 lists including My Top 20 Most Beloved Books,  My Favourite Classics, Fictional Characters I Connected With, My Favourite Book Covers, etc.

And now I'm about to add Journal 5 to the pile - A Bullet Journal.
A Bullet Journal is  described as the "analog system for the digital age" by its creator Ryder Carroll. He says the Bullet Journal is a customisable and forgiving organisation system. It can be your to-do list, sketchbook, notebook and diary, but most likely, it will be all of the above. It will teach you to do more with less. From the research I've done Bullet Journals can be as simple or as complex or as creative as you want them to be.

I'm still in the research phase as to what sort of Bullet Journal I want to keep but there is so much resource out there on the web - whether it be Instagram, Facebook or other areas of the Internet to explore. I'm hoping to keep a Bullet Journal with a bit of a bookish theme. I've already found one Bullet Journalist who designed her own Book Bingo which I loved.
I've started following a number of Instagrammers who create the most creative and colourful spreads for each week or month of the year. I'm not that creative when it comes to drawing but having been a fan of scrapbooking and stamping I realise I have a lot of materials I can use.

And I have now found something for which I can use the pens I initially bought for the adult colouring phase I unfortunately had to give up. And there is a huge amount of templates of Bullet Journal pages available to download online. You can also buy templates to help with drawing more than stick figures.
I will leave you with a few people to follow on Instagram and some links if you want to start a Bullet Journal.

To follow on Instagram

@bulletjournal
@bulletjournal.ideas
@thebujobuzz
@written.intentions
@journalwithpurpose
@bujobeauties
@candyloucreative
@fischrjournals
or search with the hashtag #bulletjournal

Some links
https://kalynbrooke.com/life-and-style/time-management/how-to-start-a-bullet-journal/
http://bulletjournal.com/
http://www.infiniteplanner.com/
Or just type Bullet Journal in Google for thousands of resources!

 

A delightful find at my library!

Okay I admit it  - I love children's books and I LOVED this book Not Just a Book. It's written by Jeanne Willis and illustrated by Tony Ross.

I found it in the library I work at Te Aka Mauri - Rotorua Library in Rotorua, New Zealand.

I think people look at me oddly when I say I love children's books but some of the books being published today are pretty amazing often because of their beautiful illustrations but many have great messages too.

Not Just a Book is one of those books with a great message and also the most adorable illustrations. I won't give the message away but have you ever wondered what other uses books have? Some of those uses are illustrated in this children's picture book.

If you re looking for a delightful read for your toddler, then check out this book. And if you're a lover of books about books or anything book-related like me, you will love it too!

The Seven Imperfect Rules of Elvira Carr

If you loved Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman then you will love The Seven Imperfect Rules of Elvira Carr by Frances Maynard.

I remember looking at this book in a bookshop and the bookshop owner said she was reading both at the same time and said remarked on how similar they were.

Elvira Carr is 27 and is neuro-atypical. I still don't know what that term means but according to the Internet, it means someone whose neurological structure or function does not fit in with what society says is normal.

Elvira lives with her mother but at the start of the book her mother has a stroke and has to move into a resthome. Elvira is left alone. Her father died a few years earlier. She manages her life by reading up about her condition online and coming up with seven rules to help her cope and adjust. The last thing she wants to happen is for someone to put her in a special facility. She has a neighbour who looks out for her and she makes friends with some of the people she works with at a zoo once a week. 

She regularly visits her mother in the resthome and helps out with the resthome's pet therapy using guinea pigs. Any questions Elvira has about life she notes down in a notebook - a special notebook she thought her father had brought her back from Japan. Questions start to arise about her father. Everything starts to unravel for Elvira and what she believed about her father.

This book has some sad and some tough moments but also some beautiful moments. I just love Elvira's character. This is the best book I've read so far in 2018. Okay to be fair I've only read a few!

Footnote: Pictured with the book are some biscuits or cookies as the Dutch would call them. They are a special delicacy called Stroopwafels. We were given several packets of these during our visit to the Netherlands last year. These Stroopwafels were gifted in a beautiful delft blue tin. The reason I've included them in this image is that one of Elvira's favourite topics to talk about is biscuits and their packaging.
  

Books, Books and more Books!

I love books about books, bookshops and libraries. I also love bookish ornaments and Bookstagram - books-related Instagram. So I thought I'd share a selection of books about my favourite subject and a few ones on my TBR (To Be Read) pile.

MY FAVES!

The Reading Promise - 3,218 Nights of Reading with my Father by Alice Ozma
When Alice was 9 she and her father - a school librarian - made a promise to read aloud together for 100 consecutive nights. They reached their goal and decided to continue reading. Alice's father went on to read to her for eight years. It's been a while since I read this book but I remember loving it!

The Diary of a Bookseller by Shaun Bythell
Shaun Bythell owns The Bookshop in Wigtown, Scotland. It's a secondhand bookstore and his diary covers his day-to-day life from February 2014 to February 2015 - the customers he meets, the employees he has to share food, gathered from the skip, with, his friends and family. For my review of this book go to 
https://bookbloggernz.blogspot.co.nz/2018/01/the-diary-of-bookseller.html

The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin
Absolutely adored this book! A.J.Fikry is a grumpy bookstore owner on an island which is hard to get to and only attracts visitors during the summer. His wife has died and his bookstore is not doing well. Then one day a small package is left in the bookstore for him and his life changes. For my review go to 
https://bookbloggernz.blogspot.co.nz/2017/11/the-storied-life-of-ajfikry.html

Lost for Words by Stephanie Butland

The book tells the story of Loveday Cardew who works in a secondhand bookstore called Lost for Words in York. She prefers books to people. Really enjoyed this book. The chapters take us from the present day of 2016 and then to an incident in 2013 and to Loveday as a child in 1999. I thought it was going to be confusing. It wasn't. This book is very well written. It has strong and raw themes which can be hard to read about at times but I really wanted to read to the end to see how the mystery unfolded and was resolved. For more go to 
https://bookbloggernz.blogspot.co.nz/2017/10/lost-for-words.html

Scribbles in the Margins - 50 Eternal Delights of Books by Daniel Gray
This books features 50 short essays of why we love books so much. A gorgeous book to own if you love books. For my review go to to
https://bookbloggernz.blogspot.co.nz/2017/10/scribbles-in-margin-50-eternal-delights.html

The Little Shop of Happy Ever After by Jenny Colgan
When I read the synopsis of the book - a woman starting life over by buying a bus and selling books from it - I was intrigued. The main character Nina loves books, she buys a bus and turns it into a travelling bookshop. The first half of the book was great but then it got a bit too chick-lit for me.
For my review go to
https://bookbloggernz.blogspot.co.nz/2017/09/the-little-shop-of-happy-ever-after.html

SOME OF THE BOOKS ABOUT BOOKS ON MY EVER INCREASING TBR PILE (and some you may want to look out for if you haven't read them already)!

• Weird Things Customers Say in Bookshops by Jen Campbell
• The Bookshop Book by Jen Campbell
• The Library at the Edge of the World by Felicity Hayes-McCoy
• My Life with Bob by Pamela Paul
• The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend by Katarina Bivald
• The Little Bookstore of Big Stone Gap by Wendy Welch
• The Little Paris Bookshop by Nina George
• The Bookshop in Rosemary Lane by Ellen Berry

The Diary of a Bookseller

I have a new appreciation for booksellers after reading this book.

Several weeks ago I travelled to a secondhand bookstore out of town to sell several pretty much brand new books they had offered to buy. I arrived there and the secondhand book dealer went through the books, offered me some money (enough to buy my lunch and a latte while I was in said city) and I accepted the deal. To be fair the secondhand book dealer had warned me a few days earlier that they wouldn't be able to offer me much.

After reading The Diary of a Bookseller by Shaun Bythell I understand a bit more where the secondhand book dealer I'd had dealings with was coming from.

I loved this book for a few reasons - 1) I love books written in diary format 2) It's about books 3) It's funny!

Bythell owns The Bookshop in Wigtown, Scotland. It's a secondhand bookstore and his diary covers his day-to-day life from February 2014 to February 2015 - the customers he meets, the employees he has to share food, gathered from the skip, with, his friends and family.

At the start of each day's entry he lists the online orders the bookstore's had and the books he has managed to find to meet those orders. At the end of each day's entry he lists the till total and the customers (the people who have actually bought books) in the shop that day. Each month starts with a piece from George Orwell's Bookshop Memories and Bythell's own views on the topics covered in George Orwell's Bookshop Memories.

Bythell spends a lot of time travelling to people's home to buy books that have been left in a deceased person's estate or by someone wanting to get rid of a collection. I love his interactions with his customers.

You come away from this book knowing there is still a place for the physical book.

I would love to travel to Wigtown one day to check out The Bookshop but also spend a week or two staying at and running the bookshop called The Open Book, which is also in Wigtown.

• Bythell has a great Facebook page called The Bookshop. Here's a link to it  https://www.facebook.com/thebookshopwigtown/
• And here's a link to what The Open Book experience is all about too      https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews/videos/1974842162529912/

The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper

So it's Christmas Eve in New Zealand and I'm writing a book review but I wanted to write it now as I've just finished this beautiful book that has taken me too long too read. The reason it has taken so long is because of work, study and Christmas commitments, not because there's anything wrong with the book.

The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper is written by Phaedra Patrick. It tells the story of 69-year-old soon to be 70-year-old Arthur Pepper. It's the one-year anniversary of the death of his wife Miriam who he had been married to for more than 40 years. 

Arthur decides it's time to start going through Miriam's wardrobe and he finds a gold charm bracelet. He's never seen it before and he sets out on an adventure to find out where all the charms on the bracelet have come from. He finds out some beautiful things about his wife and some things that may be best left in the past. 

Along the way Arthur meets some interesting characters and finds out a lot about himself as well.

A delightful debut from Phaedra Patrick!

Best Fiction for 2017 - Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine

Have you ever loved a book so much, you didn't want it to end?  

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman was that book for me. It's the best work of fiction I've read in 2017. 

This is the debut novel for Honeyman and it's easy to see why she has been getting accolades for the best debut novel of 2017.

The book's main character is Eleanor Oliphant. She is a woman who has had a tough life. She lives alone, goes to work each day, talks to her mother once a week and has her set way of doing things. 

As the back of the book says she has learned how to survive - but not how to live. 

That is until she meets the IT guy at work and an elderly man who the IT guy and Eleanor help after he collapses on the street. Friendships develop between the trio leading Eleanor to experience a better life. However, she still has her past to deal with. 

Eleanor has her quirks and by the end of the book you will want to read more about her. It would be great if there was a sequel. 

The book is funny and also does a great job of covering areas like loneliness and friendship. However, I admit there were one or two chapters I found hard to read but they were part of the story.

This is a hard book to review without giving too much of the story away so I will leave it there except to say - Go read this book, you will be glad you did!