This Week

This week I have mostly been eating:

Triple chocolate death cookies. Adapted from a Nigella recipe, with more chocolate added, different flour and varied cooking times.




Homemade bread. I enjoy using my parents' bread machine when I am at 'home' but I don't like the way that it cooks the bread so I make the dough in the machine and then hand shape it before baking it in the oven.


Salted butter caramel which was a complete disaster. Well, maybe not complete. It tastes great but there is an awful lot of it and it refuses to set so I have no idea what to do with it. I am going to try making some chocolates with caramel in, otherwise I'll be eating it all with a spoon. Healthy, right? I've also finally tried making a ribollita which was gorgeous and I will certainly be making that again. There's no picture - I ate it before I remembered to take one. Because of the cold weather I've been at home quite a bit which has allowed for lots of slow cooking, mainly roasting. Luckily walking around everywhere has burnt a fair bit of all this naughty food away.  

This week I've been working on:

Making Etsy treasuries. I've never done this before but they are addictive and I'll be making more very soon I feel.






Adding a page on Facebook. It's not that I didn't think of using Facebook before, but up until recently they allowed you to have an Etsy tab within your profile, so now that this has gone away I've made a page for the business.

I've also been joining groups, adding people to circles and favourite as well as just generally trying to improve my profile online. This was spurred by the snow-blockade of last weekend when I was stuck and couldn't get to my favourite craft show of the year so I decided to make the most of the extra time.





This week I've been interneting here:

The very lovely Adele and her super-hero team have put up the first edition of Un:Bound Video Editions which manages to be both informative and fun at the same time. Go and check it out, there's no 'or else...' but you will be missing out!


I've forgotten which of my friends popped this online but it's brilliant. (Possibly Emma Jane who has a real knack for finding amazing things on the web so I usually assume she found all the best links.) It reminds me of being on the beach when I was very young and went on holiday with my cousins. While we didn't manage anything like this, my genius of a cousin (not exaggerating - he's the smartest person I know) used to build sandcastles that had foundations and were structurally sound. I added the shells.

St. Kilda Football Club Luckily for me, and unfortunately for everyone who talks to me, things are kicking off over in the AFL again. This means I will be getting excited about drafts, rookies, games, analysis and how amazing these guys are. Again. Apologies.



This week I've been reading:
*The Library of the Dead - Glenn Cooper. I'm not sure who recommended this to me but it's not one I would pass on. Stock characters and too many different time zones that jumped around a lot. It's a shame because the basic idea was original, clever and gripping.
*Hush, Hush - Becca Fitzpatrick. Another one I wouldn't pass one. This time the idea was unoriginal, unconvincing and dull.
*Selected Poems - Lawrence Durrell. I've lost count of how many times I've read this but it never gets any less perfect.
*The Summoning & The Awakening - Kelley Armstrong. Enjoyed this one but an awful lot of it feels like set-ups for the next book. I love the idea and the plot keeps getting better. My main niggle with it was that the main character, who wants to be a film director, keeps stating how she would film the events if she was making a movie. Very irritating but easy enough to skim over.
*Succubus Blues - Richelle Mead. A good mix of characters and some interesting twists (you could see most of them coming but they were still intriguing and well worked out). Definitely going to keep going with the series.
I'm not putting links for the books because these aren't real reviews - I've not written this week's batch yet!

And now the snow has finally started melting so hopefully a warmer, more mobile week to come. Happy weekends to all.


Vick.

vclinde@gmail.com
www.vclinde.co.uk
@vclinde

Stopping by Words on a Snowy Evening

I read the wonderful Blake Charlton’s blog yesterday and it reminded me of something I wrote back in 2003. Mr. Charlton wrote a poem entitled ‘The Second Book’ as homage (in his words "mash up") to W.B. Yeats’ poem ‘The Second Coming’.

Below is something similar that I wrote when I was sixteen-ish. A friend and I were emailing each other at some ungodly hour of the morning and rather than revising as we should have been we exchanged homage/parodies of well-known poems. My friend began with Poe’s ‘The Raven’ and I countered with my version of ‘Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening’ by Robert Frost.

Amazingly this piece has managed to survive each computer change since 2003 and the parody method has been a staple of my writing/playing-with-words ever since.

Whose words these are, I think I know. His ideas sourced from others though; He does not sense my writing here To follow phrases he did show.

My little laptop thinks it's queer To stop mid sentence, oops, oh dear Between the comma and full stop A truly awful pause, I fear.

She gives her Windows' bells a shake To ask if I am still awake. The only other sound's the noise That nearby aeroplanes must make.

My bed looks lovely, I need sleep. But I have homework to complete, And much to do before it's light, And much to do before it's light.

And the other one I wrote that night was a very odd version of ‘Weathers’ by Thomas Hardy!

Vick. vclinde@gmail.com www.vclinde.co.uk @vclinde

places of worship

I'm off to Northumberland next week for a few days holiday. It's a part of the country that I have loved for a very long time now and have visited many times, always exploring a new part. The main appeal used to be Alnwick, for a very specific reason, they have a fantastic bookshop there. I am drawn to places with good second-hand bookshops and will base entire holidays/trips around them. When I look back on holidays I do tend to think most fondly of bookshops that I have found. The top ten, in no real order, are as follows.

#1. Brierlow Bar just outside Buxton in Derbyshire. This is not actually a secondhand bookshop but has vastly discounted books and a great selection. There is a large fiction section but their real highlights are in the various non-fiction sections. Cookery, travel and history are all brilliant.

#2. Massolit Books in the centre of Kraków in Poland. I found this wonderful place in 2005 while travelling around Europe on a rail-pass. We were wandering towards the Castle and found this wonderful shop, sadly backpacks did not allow for many purchases but I did get a great poetry book. We were also invited to join a poetry reading that evening. The shop is cosy and welcoming with a cafe attached and a lovely fire. As a lot of the stock is English language the staff are happy to help out with non-Polish speakers. They had a huge stock and of a great variety.

#3. Barter Books on the outskirts of Alnwick in Northumberland. For a long time this was the largest and most exciting bookshop that I had ever seen and so it will always have a sentimental attachment for me. It wouldn't need that to keep me going back because the book selection is great. The layout is really user-friendly and the little train that runs around the top of the shelves is always nice to see. Again, has drinks/snacks and fire near the entrance. It is housed in the old station and the staff are brilliant, exactly the sort of people you want to meet in a bookshop - and I do mean that in the best possible way.

#4. Any Amount of Books on Charing Cross Road in London. Living in London gave me the chance to properly explore the bookshops there without worrying about having to get them home (apart from TFL weekend strikes). This is great because of the knowledge of the staff and their willingness to help in any way possible. They will keep an eye out for particular books, check their vast stock not kept on site and almost always know whether something is in the store or not. The prices are fair and their is a table set outside with £1 books and often deals on top of this. This is my favourite place to buy plays and poetry - a great selection, and often unexpected and lesser-known works. Don't neglect downstairs if you go, they have a really cracking children's section and some wonderful titles can be found in the back room which is less well organised but worth digging around.

#5. Powells in Portland, Oregon, U.S.A. Possibly the best, almost certainly the biggest bookshop on my list. I was only in Portland for two days and spent five hours in here. I bought five books and gave two in for trade. The staff are knowledgeable and friendly, the till system is efficient, even at peak times. The stock is out-of-this-world awesome. Fiction and non-fiction alike. Don't expect to pick up a real treasure at rock-bottom prices but I didn't see anything overpriced either. They know what books are worth and prices follow suit. They have several bookshops but their flagship is like the mothership for book-lovers. It's worth a trip to the States, even if you see nothing else.

#6. Community Bookstore on 7th Ave. Brooklyn, NY, U.S.A. However, if you do happen to venture outside Portland and as far as New York, this is a great bookshop. I was staying just around the corner and spent a lot of time, wandering in and picking up books. The staff left me alone when they saw I just wanted to wander. The best thing about this bookshop is a bookshelf near the back of the store which holds ARC editions of books. I remember reading (although, of course I cannot remember where) several writers and readers talking about the sale and re-sale of ARC copies a while ago and I think Community Bookstore has it well organised. When they are done with a book it goes on the ARC shelf and people can come and help themselves to them and then leave a donation in a tin which is given to charity. Brilliant, right? They don't have a huge selection but they do have a warehouse and delivery options. Staff are also great at recommending titles and there is a foodie seating area at the back as well. Oh, and cats, I almost forgot the cats.

#7. Much Ado Books in Alfriston, Sussex. I stayed in a self-catering cottage with friends a few years ago and this delightful bookshop was right opposite. It was a great holiday with the only drawback being that I found this shop on our penultimate day so didn't get to take full advantage. It looks small from the outside but is huge and well stocked. Lots of surprises inside. This is a real bookish bookshop and if you want a good discussion about literature then the wonderful American ex-pat owners. We got along so well that when I left it felt like leaving friends (after only an hour or so). Worth a de-tour, or even a specific visit.

#8. River Market Books, Little Rock, AR, U.S.A. I had such a great time at this bookstore. It is just around the corner from the Little Rock public library and their stock is largely books that are donated to the Library that are unwanted/duplicates/inappropriate etc. When I went the most surprising thing is first walking downstairs which is crammed full of books. Mostly fiction and a large amount of crime, a good few sections of genre books and great classics. The prices are amazing and the whole place is very well organised.

#9. Book and Comic Exchange, Pembridge Road, Notting Hill, London. If you ever talk to me about books I promise that it won't take me long to start talking about the Book Exchange. Their ground level shop is good, but only good. Then there is a tiny little corridor near the stairs which is packed with sci-fi and fantasy (heaven!). And then downstairs...a 50p section of pure joy. It used to be 10p and 50p but last year the 10p magic was taken away. The reason I have so many books is largely due to this shop - without exaggeration I have bought at least 150 books from here. It is very close to Notting Hill tube station, perfect for staggering back home with lots and lots of books. Take a backpack.

#10. Afterwords Bookstore, E. Illnois Street, Chicago, IL, U.S.A. My trip to Chicago was a mix of huge highs and lows. I was walking around in very deep snow with a broken toe and the hostel was very noisy but I loved the city. One of my favourite places in the world. Afterwords was found at the end of a long day of walking around and I staggered in, hoping to be able to exchange my copy of Ripley's Game for a new book to keep me going on the next part of my trip. The store is a combination of new and secondhand books and some of their prices are stupidly good, especially if there is a sale on. I also have to give them credit for me falling in love with Doris Grumbach who is now pretty much my favourite author because it was her book I took away with me in the end. There is nothing usual about this bookstore, it is a one-off and magical place. You probably would not find it if you weren't looking, but if you are it's near Grand Red metro stop.

There it is, my current list. The most wonderful thing is that this is the tip of a very literate iceberg and every time I go to a new place I try to find more bookshops - because you really cannot have too many books

Vick.
vclinde@gmail.com
www.vclinde.co.uk
@vclinde