Book heaven!

Came across a neat idea today from Traverse poetry. It's a crowdfunding venture into poetry trading cards. Do go and have a look. It sounds like fun and got my attention.

I've finally got round to ordering How Not to Get Your Poetry Published from Happenstance Press. Maybe I can find out what I've been doing wrong all these years!

Right now I am in book heaven as not only did my youngest son give me a £30 Amazon gift card for my birthday last week but on Friday night I was presented with another for £45 (plus a five pound note) as a thank you for the six years I have lead our church branch of Mother's Union. I stepped down from this position in January and Friday night was our annual Summer Supper. The weather just about held for us to eat out of doors. It was a wonderful evening. Hubby won a raffle prize (Thornton's chocolates) and I was over the moon with my vouchers.

I loaded all my gift cards this morning and began buying! My wish list has been there for some time and I felt guilty about buying some of the books as I had already read them (library borrows) but I wanted them for keeps. So the first two were ones I'd read - 52 Ways to Read a Poem by Ruth Padel (partly read) and Forensics: The Anatomy  of Crime by Val McDermid. The third book was also on my list but I've not read it but always meant to - The Rights of Man by Thomas Paine. I seem to come across him rather a lot. He follows me around. There is a statue to him in Thetford, Norfolk (where he lived) where my grandmother was born and grew up (my mother seemed to have a grievance with him but as she always voted Labour I don't know why!)  and I learned more about him at the local Thetford Museum. I came across him again in Lewes in Sussex and then his name came up when I was studying Humanities with the OU. I feel Tom and I would have got on well! Still, I've yet to read the book and I may change my mind.

The final book I've purchased (for now) is the first novel by Mark Haysom called Love, Love Me Do. I love Mark's short stories (which you can view for free if you 'like' his Facebook page). They are heartwarming and nostalgic. So, I thought it was about time I bought one of his novels.

That's enough to keep me busy for a while.