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Archive
Behind-The-Books Blog
Train your brain (and have fun in the process)
Monday, February 8th, 2010
It’s a known fact that the Telegraph Online is an excellent source of news, features, review pages, blogs TV and job listings etc…but were you aware that it offered brain-training excercises too?
If not, allow me to introduce you to Word Bubbles - a brain-training game to which I am now seriously addicted and causing fierce [...]
Exactly what libraries need?
Friday, February 5th, 2010
You know, I might harp on a bit about this whole ebooks/digital thing, but away from the news-grabbing stories of iPad this and epub that, there are some pretty cool developments taking place which are a really positive thing for reading as a whole.
For instance, you may not be aware of Bloomsbury Library Online, I [...]
You’ve got to be kidding!
Thursday, February 4th, 2010
My favourite news story of the week so far has to be that of poor old Christine Cuddihy - the 24-year-old woman who was forced to produce ID to prove she was over the age of 21 in order to buy…wait for it…a 51p cheese and onion quiche from Tesco!
For reasons best known to herself, [...]
Review of It’s Complicated
Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010
Earlier this week I went to see It’s Complicated - the new movie featuring Meryl Streep as a divorcée , who unexpectedly finds herself having an affair… with her ex-husband. The ex-husband is Alec Baldwin, a man who had left her ten years ago for a yonger woman, and to whom he is currently still [...]
More neologisms…
Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010
I absolutely loved reading all the brilliant entries to our recent Caboose competition - the one where we asked you to supply us with alternative meanings for the word ‘caboose’ - see previous blog. Now I’m delighted to discover that The Washington Post has been running similar neologism contests (in which readers are asked to [...]
A little gem for cinema-goers
Monday, February 1st, 2010
I’ve been watching more films recently – mostly thanks to my Lovefilm account. But occasionally there’s a film you just have to see on the big screen and this cinema in Notting Hill is my secret love.
The Coronet is an old Victorian theatre, with gorgeous old-school décor in scarlet and gold and feels like a [...]
Best Birthday E-cards
Friday, January 29th, 2010
Never one to shy away from any kind of excuse for festivity, I am happy to broadcast that today is my birthday.
On this note, I confess that I am terrible at remembering other people’s birthdays. And when I do remember it’s usually on the actual day and too late to be able to send a proper card. [...]
Is there an app for this?
Thursday, January 28th, 2010
For anyone who loves word searches as much as me, I’ve stumbled across the perfect way to while away a cold, wet lunchtime – although be warned, it could become addictive!
In Bookworm, you have to search for words by moving up, down or diagonally across the letter tiles. When you find a complete word and [...]
Love is in the air?
Wednesday, January 27th, 2010
How cool - this coming Valentines weekend I will be toasting some very good friends tying the knot ‘up north’. I’m usually terrible at remembering days like this and, unlike my other half, am much more likely to be the one picking up some tired looking ‘gift’ in the corner shop than he is. So, [...]
Happy Australia Day!
Tuesday, January 26th, 2010
G’day cobbers - today is Australia Day!
I am always reminded of this since my Aussie boyfriend never lets this day pass without due fanfare. In fact, we had a pre-Aussie day BBQ this weekend - replete with bottles of Crown Lager, marinated prawns on the barbie, Aussie snacks such as Burger Rings, Shapes and In a Biskit Dixie Drumsticks, as well [...]
Do you know your book covers?
Monday, January 25th, 2010
Copies of The Bookseller take a ridiculously long time to circulate in the A&B office (I’m one of the worst culprits – I think I may have a December copy still lurking in my intray somewhere). In the ‘latest’ edition (dated 8th January) that has just crossed my desk, I found a great competition for [...]
Word-play and word-rewind…
Friday, January 22nd, 2010
I love clever word games, play on words etc - and this video takes the biscuit. A palindrome reads the same backwards as forward. This video reads the exact opposite backwards as forward. It was submitted by a 20-year-old in contest entitled “u @ 50″ (run by AARP ) and I think it is simply brilliant. (Make sure [...]
Chuckle brother
Thursday, January 21st, 2010
My brother-in-law has recently taken to texting me random jokes in the morning. I love it! It’s a great way of making the train journey pass a little quicker. Here are a couple from this week…
19 Irishmen go to the movies.
The ticket lady asks them, ‘Why so many of you?’
Paddy replied, ‘The film said over [...]
In the jungle…
Wednesday, January 20th, 2010
There must be something in the water - following hard on the heels of Chiara’s trip to see Chicago, I went to see The Lion King and came bounding out of the Lyceum theatre on Saturday with a whole raft of Disney’s best songs ricocheting around my head. And when I’m not fully-conscious of it, [...]
When Customer Service fails…
Tuesday, January 19th, 2010
I should have had Broadband up and running in my house by now. I spent over two hours on the phone with Talk Talk’s Customer Service last night to find out why it had not been installed as yet. It was a call which involved being passed round every one of their departments, sitting in [...]
Sleep Talkin’ Man
Monday, January 18th, 2010
“I’m baking pillows. Burn them slowly, keeps them fluffy! Mmmmmm, pillows.”
During a dinner with friends on Friday night we somehow got on to the topic of sleeptalking. My friend’s boyfriend insists that she laughs in her sleep, sometimes so much that she wakes herself up. I thought that makes a nice change from the usual [...]
Why delete one of the best songs?
Friday, January 15th, 2010
Last week I went to see the musical Chicago at the Cambridge Theatre (and now consequently break out into renditions of Mr Cellophane and All that Jazz when feeling bored). I’d recently rewatched the movie version so the songs were all familiar to me - except for one that is, the one about ’class’. And it’s probably my [...]
What do you mean?
Thursday, January 14th, 2010
Sometimes the written word can be misread or misinterpreted. And there are some things that really shouldn’t be left open to interpretation.
When my Yahoo News bulletin flashed up an article from SkyNews about a Japanese student who was arrested after driving for four miles with the body of an 80-year-old pensioner lodged in her car [...]
Mission accomplished
Wednesday, January 13th, 2010
You’ve got to admit it; over in the sunny U S of A they have a wacky sense of humour. Can you imagine over three thousand people travelling London’s tube network with no trousers on? Definitely not in this weather – I’m wearing at least four layers to work every day at the moment and [...]
Worms on order
Tuesday, January 12th, 2010
One of my friends bought me this book for Christmas and considering the snowy weather keeping us indoors all weekend, I got to reading. We had a fairly successful summer last year of growing a few of our own vegetables and tomatoes – even now some of our herbs seem to be resolutely battling through [...]
Currently we are...
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...reading
Shadow of the Wind, by Carlos Ruiz Zafon and Lucia Graves Louise says: The most engrossing book I’ve read for a while. The ending was a little predictable, but I’d still definitely recommend it.
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