Friday Smile: Yippee! New Books To Read!

Disclaimer:  I have not been paid to promote any products, I just thought I'd share my latest book related smiles x

Hi Honeys
Today's Friday smile is one of the best kind of smiles... it's the smile when there is a very loud knock on the front door and outside is a delivery driver with a lovely box of new books!

Yesterday morning our latest book purchases arrived and it really did brighten my day... books always do :)  It's been a smiley week honeys.

I've had Hubby home with Jade & I all week, we've been working on organizing two bedrooms and the upstairs landing where most of our book collection/mini library is stored on bookcases, we're hoping to make a trip to Ikea before Hubby goes back to work on Monday and (as if that's not enough reasons to smile) the garden is starting to wake up and smile too. It's definitely been a smiley week so far, honeys :)  

I thought I'd share our new literary arrivals in the hopes that they make you smile too :)

Do you remember the "Stuff I used to know in school" series of books honeys?  It all began with a title by Caroline Taggart called I Used To Know That and has been followed by a whole collection of titles covering English, science, maths, grammar and many, many other topics :)


I love these books :)   Each title I've read so far has made me smile and taken me back to my school days :)  I've been building a (so far quite tiny) collection of these titles and you can imagine how pleased I was to spot another three of them in the sale section of my favourite online bookstore last weekend :)

Since they were only £2 each into the cart they went :) The latest titles were...

 I Used To Know That: English: This book has to have been written for me!  English was always my favourite subject at school, I've been a book worm for as long as I can remember so any class where they asked us to go away and read books was just fine by me :)

Also I have a dark confession ... don't hate me but you know those people who get an actual nervous tick when faced with grammatical errors?  I'm ashamed to say I'm one of those ... blushes!  I care far too much about people's feelings though honeys to ever point it out but in my mind I'm blinking rapidly and wishing I could edit...

Oh dear.  There's no hope for me... grammar, spelling and syntax have always been hugely important to me, no idea why, can't help it... "Get a life!" I hear the entire internet scream at me.. I know honeys, It's so sad, I used to have a life once, not sure what happened to it, it might have rolled down the back of the sofa I must have a look some day.... :)

Remember The Alamo? (doesn't seem to be available anymore so I've linked to Amazon instead in case you want to know about it, altho according to amazon it was only published a couple of weeks ago, might it have been in sale section by mistake?) Another wonderful little title with a brief wander through the important dates in American history, there is even a list of all of the US presidents up to and including Obama.  As with the other titles in the series, great to pop into your bag and dip into when you have a few minutes such as travelling to work (although not if you're driving obviously!) or sitting in the Drs waiting room.

Opening Pandoras Box: Again, the perfect little book to dip into when you have a few minutes to spare or to curl up with and read in one sitting as I did with a cuppa and a furbaby to keep me company on the sofa :) This title examines those everyday phrases we all use and traces their origins. Wonderful! love it!       

I really do enjoy these little books, they're perfect little travelling or handbag books and I wholeheartedly recommend them honeys.

Next book isn't really a book at all, it's a note book :)  

This was actually a gift for Hubby and he loves it :) It's an A5 lined book, it's Star Wars and Hubby grinned so I'm happy :)

I'm a tip addict :) I really am, I love finding new ways to do things, new recipes, how to make my own chemical free cleaners, hair care tips, make up tips, skin care tips you name it :)  So you can imagine how pleased I was to see this....

 10,000 Tips: How To Do Almost Everything:  I love, love, love this book :) It's a large format, hardback book and is divided into sections: Home & Garden, Friends & Family, Beauty & Wellness, Health & Fitness, Work & Education, Holidays & Travel, Food & Drink, You & Your Money, Fun & Games and finally Four Wheels & Two.

Phew! That's about every topic covered then!  This really is an interesting read honeys.  Not a book you'd read through page by page but it offers tips on everything from setting up a dating site profile to how to measure for curtains. How to deal with a difficult boss to how to achieve your (whatever they might be) goals and so (so) much more :)

Watching The Detectives...

OK, hands up, who watches BBCs Sherlock?    

Sherlock Chronicles: This is a very large, very heavy hardback book and yes it's full of photos of Benedict Cumberbatch but that's so not why I bought it.  I mean it doesn't hurt..... but it's not the primary reason :)

For almost as long as I can remember I've been a huge fan of Conan Doyle's Holmes stories.  It all started with a childhood spent watching the fabulous (though not particularly faithful) Basil Rathbone movies each and every time they appeared on TV.  Happy memories!

When I started secondary school at twelve years young I quickly located the school library (like I said, I'm a book worm :) in the library I discovered the Conan Doyle stories and during the course of my first months at secondary school I read all fifty six original short stories and the four novels in quick succession.

There are no words for how much I adore those original stories honeys, even now all these years later, or any way to count how many times I've re-read them over the years.

As wonderful as Mr Cumberbatch is, and he really is, he'll never be "my" Holmes.  I enjoy watching the BBC series, but I have to admit to being quite repelled originally by the thought that it's makers had dared to drag the stories forwards to the present day!  The nerve, I thought!

No fog? No horse drawn hansom cabs? No Victorian London?  What finally made me watch was the beyond wonderful Mark Gatiss.  Mr Gatiss could read the phone book aloud and I'd be mesmerized :)
For far more faithful adaptations (as good as the BBC versions are) of the Conan Doyle canon of stories you'd have to look to the Granada TV series of the early 1980s starring the incomparable Jeremy Brett.  

Mr Brett captured every nuance, every mannerism exhibited by Holmes in Conan Doyle's stories. He took great pains in bringing the great detective to life, lifting the tiniest details from the stories and incorporating them into his performances.  He famously had a collected volume of the stories with his many annotations written in the margins.

The book above was a Christmas present from Hubby in 1986 (wow I'm old!) and is one of my dearest treasures :) It examines the Granada series in much the same way as the BBC series is investigated (see what I did there? :) by this latest purchase, the Sherlock Chronicles.

It's a testament to my affection for the BBC series that this new book will sit side by side with the Granada version in our Holmes collection :)  If I were ever to only watch one adaptation of these wonderful stories ever again though it would certainly be the Granada stories, always.  Dear Mr Brett will, forever and a day, always be "my" Holmes.

Of course I'll always have a soft spot in my heart for Basil Rathbone.  I spent the early years of my childhood adoring those movies before I'd ever read the stories themselves after all.

I'll never lose my passion for reading (or watching) detective stories honeys.  Whether it's Conan Doyle's Holmes tales, the works of Agatha Christie,  my much loved Sir Peter Wimsey tales by Dorothy L Sayers or of course dear Colin Dexter's Inspector Morse stories. I was blessed to meet Mr Dexter many years ago and he was so sweet.  He signed our copy of the very last (sob!) Morse novel as well as a photo I wanted to hang above my desk.  I still have it and it sits in our book nook upstairs. Another dear treasure :)

What about you honeys? Do you love detective fiction too? If so, who is your favourite?  Have you read any good books lately? If so, share in the comments section?

I hope you've had a fabulous week honeys and that you're looking forward to the weekend.  This will be my first weekend off work for what feels like ages so I'm looking forward to not working late shift and catching up on some TV watching, especially since we've been working on decluttering this week :)

Till next time, smile lots and hug even more dear ones :) huggles xxx