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stonepicnicking_okapi) wrote2024-01-31 01:58 pm
stonepicnicking_okapi) wrote2024-01-31 01:58 pm
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Book Bingo 2024: January
My badge for completing the 2023 book bingo. Thank you, kingstoken.
And here is January's additions to the 2024 card.
Book in a Series: A World of Curiosities by Louise Penny. Audiobook. 13 hours. Narrated by Robert Bathurst. Excellent narration. This is the latest in the Canadian Inspector Gamache of the village of Three Pines. Gamache investigates murders related to a bizarre painting found in a hidden room. There are a lot of flashbacks to Gamaches's early career. I think it's a bit gruesome and overwrought (like Law & Order SVU) but very nice to have on in the background while you do a jigsaw puzzle.
Non-fiction: The Wager by David Grann. Audiobook. 8.5 hours. Narrated by Dion Graham. Excellent narration. I enjoyed it very much. The book concentrates on the story of HMS Wager, a square-rigged sixth-rate Royal Navy ship, and the mutiny that took place after the ship's wreckage in 1741. Byron's grandfather as a young man was part of it.
With a Blue Cover: The Pattern in the Carpet: a Personal History with Jigsaws by Margaret Drabble. I disliked this book very much. I did not like the author and I wasn't moved to care about her reminiscences of her Aunt Phyl. It was much more 'personal history' than 'jigsaws.' The parts about the history of jigsaws were fine, but those are few and far between. It's mostly about her, and she's rather tiresome, wandering, cross and crotchety old lady. She name-drops a lot (including name-dropping herself) and I've not heard of a single person she mentions! Nevertheless, it has a blue cover, and here are a few interesting quotes:
Led by Kevin, I have strayed out of my frame and along a branching spiral track of free associations. But no associations come for free. They cost the neurons dear. [Note: they also cost your readers' their patience with your ramblings.]
The French used to call puzzles les jeux de patience, and the Germans called them Geduldspielen.
Jigsaws may be connected with depression. They serve the depressed, and they certainly flourished during the Depression.
Jigsaws are useful antidotes to anger.
kingstoken. And here is January's additions to the 2024 card.
Book in a Series: A World of Curiosities by Louise Penny. Audiobook. 13 hours. Narrated by Robert Bathurst. Excellent narration. This is the latest in the Canadian Inspector Gamache of the village of Three Pines. Gamache investigates murders related to a bizarre painting found in a hidden room. There are a lot of flashbacks to Gamaches's early career. I think it's a bit gruesome and overwrought (like Law & Order SVU) but very nice to have on in the background while you do a jigsaw puzzle.
Non-fiction: The Wager by David Grann. Audiobook. 8.5 hours. Narrated by Dion Graham. Excellent narration. I enjoyed it very much. The book concentrates on the story of HMS Wager, a square-rigged sixth-rate Royal Navy ship, and the mutiny that took place after the ship's wreckage in 1741. Byron's grandfather as a young man was part of it.
With a Blue Cover: The Pattern in the Carpet: a Personal History with Jigsaws by Margaret Drabble. I disliked this book very much. I did not like the author and I wasn't moved to care about her reminiscences of her Aunt Phyl. It was much more 'personal history' than 'jigsaws.' The parts about the history of jigsaws were fine, but those are few and far between. It's mostly about her, and she's rather tiresome, wandering, cross and crotchety old lady. She name-drops a lot (including name-dropping herself) and I've not heard of a single person she mentions! Nevertheless, it has a blue cover, and here are a few interesting quotes:
Led by Kevin, I have strayed out of my frame and along a branching spiral track of free associations. But no associations come for free. They cost the neurons dear. [Note: they also cost your readers' their patience with your ramblings.]
The French used to call puzzles les jeux de patience, and the Germans called them Geduldspielen.
Jigsaws may be connected with depression. They serve the depressed, and they certainly flourished during the Depression.
Jigsaws are useful antidotes to anger.
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You've got a good start to this year's.
Sorry the puzzle book was so dreadful.
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I think so, too! Two were squares I thought I might have some difficulty with, so it's good to get them done early.
Yeah, the title was so promising, and I think for another type of person it might have worked, but it didn't for me. The bits actually about puzzles were fascinating. Unfortunately, last year I did a different book about puzzles (The Great Puzzler by AJ Jacobs) and had a similar (though diluted) reaction. It was much more informative than this year's but his very personal style (though very different from Drabble's) still wasn't fun. I guess I just want the facts, and much less personality. But it had a blue cover, which I realized after I read it so--yay!
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Yes, it's always best to get the harder squares out of the way first. It's also a much better strategy than my "read giant stacks of books, then see if anything fit" method I seem to be doing, lol.
That makes sense. At least you got a fill out of it.