Friday 10 July 2015

My Lifelong Book Obsession Continues With Some New Arrivals :)

Hi honeys

Disclaimer: I have not been paid to recommend any of these titles or any particular book store, just our latest additions to our home library and wanted to share.

I hope you're looking forward to the weekend and enjoying the sun where you are.  It's Friday again :) Can you believe we're in July already?  I swear this year is passing too fast. 

Do you remember I posted recently about some books we'd added to our home library?  We had another delivery and thought I'd share.  Have you read any of these honeys?

Non Fiction Educational Books
I'm not so sure it's a good thing that I discovered the online shop belonging to The Works,  I mean the books are so inexpensive and we are trying to de-clutter our home after all, but then again, their books are such incredible value and they do deliver right to the door and..... Is there a programme to wean a person off books? There's no hope for me honeys. None :)  Like I said, I've loved books for as long as I can remember, it's a life long obsession. There's just no hope for me, and since Hubby is exactly the same, we're both ok about that :)

First then on our latest mini book haul is a book I'd previously spotted in passing on amazon.  Having read a few of the reviews there it seemed interesting, but I hadn't gotten around to buying it.  You can imagine how pleased I was then to see it again, and at a ridiculous price of £2! So into the virtual shopping basket it went :)
A Brief History Of Life In The Middle Ages

A Brief History Of Life In The Middle Ages by Martyn Whittock
I'm only two chapters into this book so far but I have to say I'm loving it.  I adore history, and have a special fondness for the middle ages.  Mention of medieval England conjures up images of Knights jousting and great battles, of King Henry and his wives and everything we've all learned from any number of fabulous BBC documentaries.  Unfortunately though, history does tend to dwell on the rich and titled but surely far more interesting is the lives of ordinary people of the time.  The author of this book seems to understand this.  As I said I'm only two chapters in but it's certainly so far a great read.
Bosworth And The Plantagenets Books

Bosworth: The Birth Of The Tudors by Chris Skidmore & The Plantagenets: The Kings That Made Britain by Derek Wilson
I had originally seen the book on Bosworth, the legendary battle that changed the course of history in England, when Richard III's army fought the army of Henry Tudor, while sifting through the non fiction historical listings and after clicking on the page link discovered that it was available as a "bundle" packaged together with a copy of Derek Wilson's book on the Plantagenets.

The Plantagenet dynasty reigned for over 300 years and included so many fascinating and instantly recognisable Kings. From Richard The Lion heart and his disloyal brother John, poor unfortunate Richard II, the hero of Agincourt Henry V, to Richard III who died at the battle of Bosworth Field.

The wonderful thing about history is that even when you know facts, figures & dates it remains fascinating. Each new book is another authors view, another voice in an endlessly interesting debate.  I'm very much looking forward to reading both of these books.

Stuff We Used To Know At School

Do you remember the series of books I mentioned in my last book related post, all inspired by a book called I Used To Know That by Caroline Taggart.  These fabulous books were written to remind those of us of a certain age (hey!) of the things we learned long ago (hey! not so much of the long ago!) at school and have since long forgotten.

These books are such fun! This time around I ordered the original I Used To Know That as well as two others, again bundled together by The Works, called As Easy As Pi by Jamie Buchan & A Certain Je Ne Sais Quoi by Chloe Rhodes.

As Easy As Pi is all about numbers but don't let that put you off :) Speaking as a person who studied HND Law not knowing she'd be forced to also study & pass higher level accounts (shudder) I am so not a fan of numbers but I love this book :) It's chock full of interesting facts, numbers in language, in slang, numbers used in mysticism, and even some mathematical rules to remember that might just be useful someday :)

A Certain Je Ne Sais Quoi is a very interesting stroll through all of the words commonly used in spoken and written English which have been borrowed from other languages.  It's a fun read and ideal to dip in and out of when you have a few minutes.

The last two of our latest home library additions were ordered from Amazon.  You'd think during three years at University and in all of the years since I'd read enough books on philosophy but as with historical works there are always new views, new ideas, new voices to be heard. 

On the BBC news this morning I was thrilled to hear that some primary schools in England & Wales have started to include one hour of philosophy each week in their curriculum in order to increase children's reasoning and communication skills.  I so hope this is a great success and is adopted in all schools in the UK. 

The study of philosophy truly is mind altering.  A huge claim I know but so true.  It enables us to see the world around us in a completely new way, to question and not just accept what we're told by our senses and the world around us.  Wonderful.

The Story Of Philosophy

The Story Of Philosophy: A History of Western Thought by James Garvey & Jeremy Stangroom
This is a very large, hefty tome but after just, so far, flipping through it seems immediately accessible, well organized and does seem to reach out to not only those with a knowledge of the subject but also those new to the field too.  Looks like a great read, I look forward to reading.

Last, but by no means least in our order, is another fabulous volume from publishers Dorling Kindersley from their "Eyewitness Companions" series.
DK Philosophy

Philosophy by Stephen Law
Another fabulous little volume to dip in and out of while enjoying a cuppa.  While flipping through this volume I smiled when I saw the concept of deductive reasoning being illustrated using the character of Sherlock Holmes.  They used Holmes' often quoted statement to his dear friend Watson from one of the original short stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle, where Holmes says " Watson, you see everything.  You fail, however, to reason from what you see."  Wonderful!

Not only made me smile but also made me want to immediately go take out my volume of the collected Holmes short stories and re-read them :) Isn't that the sign of a great book?

So those are the latest additions to our home library honey.  Over to you, what have you been reading lately? Are you a book worm like me? Have you read anything fabulous lately? Fiction, non fiction, all recommendations are welcome, so if you've read something wonderful, do leave some suggestions in the comments section? 

Have a fabulous weekend honeys, I hope that your weather is better than ours is supposed to be, rain all weekend apparently.  Oh well, ideal weather to curl up with a good book :)  Till next time dear ones, hugs always xx

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