Short Stories

As our Short Story Competition draws to a close (Fri 28th March) and we look forward to reading through the entries, I thought it would be good to showcase some of the short story collections we have in the College Library.

Some people dismiss short stories as not as good as a 'proper' story or book. I disagree completely with this. For a start, when you are short of time, but still need to read for escapism, a short story can be the perfect answer. Also, some short stories pack more of a punch in their scant pages than many 800 page epics. Just think, Brokeback Mountain, Stand By Me and The Birds were all short stories originally.

I've highlighted 3 of our collections in the 'Books and Blurbs' section on the left. Why not browse our shelves and see if there are any short story books which catch your interest. Happy reading...

World Book Day celebrations

A big thank you to all who took part in our World Book Day celebrations last Thursday. It went really well, with many of you contributing to either the Book Oscars/Election or writing your own inspirational books on a post-it note and adding it to our own. 125 people voted in the Oscars and it would seem that 'the boy who lived' is still very popular with our readers. Here are the results:

Best Book: Harry Potter & the Prisoner of Azkaban
Best Series: Harry Potter
Best Female Author: J.K. Rowling
Best Male Author: A tie between William Shakespeare & Charles Dickens

The World Book Day site has lists of their own 'Writes of Passage' books, available on their website at:
http://www.worldbookday.com/writes-of-passage

Keep a look out for details of World Book Night, which will be on April 23rd 2014. Keep on reading...

The Oscars and books...

Did you all watch the Oscars the other night or take an interest in who/ what won? Quite a few of the films which were up for nomination in various categories this year have been adapted from books (rather than original screenplays). The Library at NC have several of these books on their shelves, including 12 Years A Slave and The Wolf of Wall Street.
We also have plenty of other titles which over the years have been adapted into films. There are all of the Harry Potter, Hunger Games, Twilight and Lord of the Rings series, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, The Silence of the Lambs, Pride and Prejudice, Oliver Twist, 1984, Death of A Salesman and many more. If you've seen the film and think you'd like to read the book, why not pop into one of the Library Centres and ask if we've got it. The 'blurb' books on the side of the blog are also titles which have been adapted and which we hold in the Library.
Don't forget tomorrow (6th March) is World Book Day. Come and celebrate with us or do your own thing to mark the occassion. Happy reading...

World Book Day

It is World Book Day on March 6th and the Library would like you to help us celebrate it. The theme of the day this year is books that have inspired people and so we have created a display which will compliment that. We have some of the Library staff commenting on books which have affected them and we would encourage the students and staff to add to that by popping down any of your suggestions on a post-it note and adding them to our board.
We will also be asking you to vote in our 'Book Oscars', asking for your opinions on the following categories:

• Best Book
• Best Series
• Best Female Author
• Best Male Author

There may be a small chocolate reward for those who take part...
We hope to see you on March 6th to celebrate books and reading across the world.
For more information about World Book Day, visit their website at:

http://www.worldbookday.com/

Updates

We've had a fabulous repsonse this year to both the Reading Journey (over 130 participants) and the Six Book Challenge (over 500 joined so far). Thanks to everyone taking part, we hope you see the rewards of these schemes.
Keep a look out for Library competitions posters which will be appearing soon. We will also be celebrating World Book Day (6th March) and World Book Night (23rd April). Hope you pop into the Library to see what's going on. For more info about these two book celebrations you can go to:

http://www.worldbookday.com/

http://www.worldbooknight.org/

Happy New Year!

Hope you all had a good break and managed to read a few books while you were relaxing. The Library staff have certainly been bookworms and I've got new titles to add to their Reading Journeys. Don't forget you can use the forum (Book Chat) attached to this blog to talk about any new books/ authors you've come across and want to share with others, or if you just want to natter about other stuff you've read.
Thank you to all our Poetry Competition entrants. There are some really good efforts and the hard work you've put in has been clear to see; well done. We are reading through them at the moment and we hope to be able to announce the winner very soon. We'll keep you posted.
Have a great new year and we look forward to hearing more from you on our favourite subject: BOOKS!! Happy reading...

Christmas Time

Just a quick word to say thank you for reading the blog & forum this year and I hope you'll carry on in 2014.
The book blurbs for this month are all books which have been read (and enjoyed) by our Library staff, for their Reading Journeys.
Have a lovely break, whatever you may be doing and we'll get back to the chat about books in the New Year.
Merry Christmas!!

Poem for the Day

To help any of you budding poets out, who would like to enter our Poetry Competition, but are finding it hard to get started, I thought I would put an extract, or whole poem on the blog. We have a book available at Lower Mounts Library called Read Me and Laugh by Gaby Morgan, which is a collection of funny poems by lots of different writers. I will post each day's poem until the end of the competition, and maybe longer, if it proves to be popular. It will be on the left-hand side of the blog, under the 'Quote of the Week'. Have fun reading them!

New card design for the Reading Journey

For those of you who are ready for their next step in the Reading Journey, or for anyone who would like to join (pop into any Library Centre and ask staff for details), we have a beautiful wintery scene adorning our latest card.

Makes you feel warm and toasty doesn't it?

New ways of talking about books

If you are a regular reader of the blog, you may have noticed that we have a new tab at the top of the page. This tab will take you to our forum, where we hope you will find it easier to chat about books. There will be different topics and different threads within those topics. You can register as a member, if you want to, but it's not necessary in order for you to leave a comment. It will ask you for a name (which you can make up if you like) and an email address (but this won't be made public). Then you can respond to our comments or make up something of your own.
At the moment we have a thread running on Room 101, where you can chat about characters in books who you've really disliked. There's already a few names on there, so why not have a look and see if you agree or if there is anyone you would like to add.

Reading Journey

Good Morning,

How’s the Reading Journey going for everyone? I know we’ve already had a few people finish and enjoy their free treat from the canteen. Well done to them. Don’t forget all you need to do is read four fiction books & get your loyalty card stamped, fill in a book review and then you can go to any of the three canteens (Lookout Express at Booth Lane) to claim your free coffee, tea, flapjack or muffin. It’s a pretty good deal! Ask in the Library for more info.

We are also in trialling a forum, which is attached to the blog. We’re hoping that this can be used as place for people to get into some really good discussions about books/characters/storylines they love/hate/find funny etc. We are still playing with it at the moment, so it’s a work in progress, but keep your eyes peeled.

That’s it for now, happy reading!

Get Caught Reading!

We're starting a new campaign this term, continuing our aim of enveloping Northampton College with a culture of reading. We've taken some happy snaps of ourselves reading our books in unusual places and we'd like you to join in.

Find a spot that you wouldn't normally think of reading your book in and either take a selfie, or ask a friend to help out. Don't take any silly risks though, we only want safe fun.

Bring your piccie into the library and you could find yourself on one of our campaign posters, or you could even feature in our 'Picture of the Month'.

Go on, you know you want to!

 

New Year, New Books

Welcome back to all those people who are returning to the College after the summer break and a big HELLO to all those staff and students who joining us for their first year. We hope you will enjoy your time at the here and make good use of the Library and all the other facilities the College has to offer.

Thank you to all those who joined the Reading Journey before and during the summer. We've already had a few people complete the challenge and have enjoyed their cup of tea or flapjack in the canteen. We have had over 50 people join so far, which is fantastic. College staff have been really supportive and are just as keen as the Library to encourage a culture of reading across the three sites. Big thanks to those people. We're looking forward to seeing how the Journey goes this year as well as hoping to continue (and build) on our Six Book Challenge Success.
http://readingagency.org.uk/adults/news/colleges-celebrate-six-book-challenge-success.html

We will be updating this blog regularly with reviews of fiction books, any new fiction we have in at the Library and any books we might recommend as a good read.

If you have something you'd like to say about any of the books we chat about, or have some recommendations of your own then please do post comments. We'd love to hear your thoughts and feelings about any fiction which you have enjoyed, hated, loved, unveiled some emotions etc.

This year we may be collaborating with some other readers, outside of the College, to discuss specific books- almost like a book club but you don't have to attend a meeting. To that end we will be developing the blog over the next few weeks. We hope you'll like how it looks but drop ua a line if you have any suggestions.

There will be some book reviews appearing in the next few days from texts library staff have read over the summer, so have a look through and see if anything appeals to you. Look out for different campaigns and competitions running in the Library throughout the year, that you may like to contribute to.

As ever...happy reading!! 

Don't forget the Reading Journey

If you'd still like to join Northampton College Library's Reading Journey, then just pop into one of the three centres and talk to a member of staff. They'll be happy to explain how the journey works and give you your loyalty card.

Let us know about any books you:

• are reading at the moment
• are planning to read
• have read in the past

Recommend some reads or tell us why you'd never read that book again; anything you like about books, we want to hear it. Just comment on any of the posts on this blog and we'll get a discussion going. Enjoy the summer weather, happy reading!

My Reading World

Hello people. Just thought I'd let you know what I thought of the two books I mentioned in my previous post. Interestingly, both of them are told from a retrospective point of view, which was by coincidence, rather than design.
The Execution of Noa P. Singleton- I enjoyed this book, for the most part. It was a good examination of the American justice system, specifcally the death penalty which still operates in certain states of the US. There are parts of the book that broke this information down into facts and figures, which I felt jarred slightly with the tone of the rest of the book, even though it made interesting reading. Noa herself narrated the story, which she told in retrospect from the discomfort of her prison cell. We see her life from infancy, teenage years and young adulthood, up to and including the events which caused her to be in the terrible situation she finds herself. This back story is interspersed with letters from Noa's victim's mother, who is writing to her dead daughter to try to explain her current actions. Neither of the these two main characters are particularly warm and whilst you feel symapthy for both of them at certain times, you feel the exact opposite at others. There were times when I felt the author could have given the reader the chance to feel more emapthy but perhaps these were missed on purpose. I'd recommend reading it, particulary if you enjoy a different take on the crime genre or films such as The Life of David Gale.
The Ocean At The End Of The Lane- Of the two books, this was probably my favourite. I've read a few Neil Gaiman books recently (having read Good Omens written with Terry Pratchett a number of years ago- but I'm not saying how many!). This evoked memories of the freedom, boredom, mystery, wonder and and overall powerlessness of being a child. It is the story of a boy and his strange experiences with the three women who live in the house at the end of his road. It is a blend of the supernatural with the normal and everyday. At a time when he is feeling alone and abandoned by his family, these three are able to offer him the comfort and safety he desparately needs, albeit in a unsual but wonderful way. Beautiful book, which I recommend to anyone but especially those who enjoy fantasy or rites of passage stories.


I am just starting The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes. It is the story of a serial killer who is able to go through time targeting the young girls who will grow up to be women of renown. I'll let you know how it goes. Keep reading everyone, and let us know all about it.

What's going on in your reading world?

Just wondered what people are reading at the moment. I am currently reading The Execution of Noa P. Singleton (Elizabeth L. Silver)- a story of a woman who has been on death row for ten years and is fast approaching her 'end' date. She is visited by a lawyer and the mother of the victim, who she has never denied killing. Noa narrates the story and we are told in a kind of flashback what happened all those years ago; what led to the circumstances which put her in this terrible position. I'm about half-way through (so no spoilers, please if anyone has read it!), seems a fairly good book and I'm pretty sure there are going to be some twists and turns before I reach the end. I'll let you know.

Really looking forward to the next book I have lined up:        Neil Gaiman's The Ocean At The End Of The Lane (OAEOL- for short). I've been reading a lot of his stuff recently and this is getting rave reviews, so I can't wait.

New Reading Challenge

To help encourage reading for pleasure across the whole college, we are hoping to start a new reading challenge. Keep a look out for more information as the launch date approaches, which we hope will be the week beginning July 1st. There's a teaser picture, just to keep you intrigued. Pop in and ask at any of the College Library centres if you want some more info. Happy reading!

New look, new layout

Welcome to the new look blog. We will soon be advertising our resources on a new Library website, so this has given us the opportunity to re-vamp this blog slightly and devote its use to our love of reading fiction. We hope that students of the Northampton College, members of staff or anyone from anywhere who happens to come across BooksBlogBlurb, will join in with our chats about what's tickling our fancy storywise. We want to get open discussions going, with all voices being heard. So please, if you have something to say about a book you are reading, a book you want to read, or a book someone else is reading, comment on our posts. Let's have a massive love-in for books and reading!!

Revision Tip of the Week

Turn off your social network sites- If you are half concentrating on your revision and half concentrating on what someone is saying on Facebook or Twitter, then your progress is not going to be very good. Turn off your phone, close your internet browser (unless you're using it for revision) and pay attention to your work. You could try doing an hour of study and then rewarding yourself for 10 minutes by turning your phone back on. Give it a go, see how you get on.

Photography Competition winners

After hearing all about the success of the Photography Competition and seeing the images on display in the libraries, we thought you'd like to see some of the creative people behind those winning shots.



Lewis Blanch- Winner



Ryan Sexton- Library Choice



 


Jason Brackel- Runner-Up

Well done to all our winners