Sunday Salon - Bookish Thoughts & Challenges

I have missed the last few Sunday Salon's. Life has simply taken over and I find that I do not seem to have enough hours or energy in a day to achieve what I want to.

I sat a few weeks ago on the settee, with the dog watching the opening ceremony for the Olympics. I thought we did a fantastic job of presenting a great lead up to the games and I suddenly thought of a great idea for a book challenge based upon the Countries participating in the Olympics - all 204 of them. The challenge to be completed by the time of the Olympics in Rio in 2016. 204 books in 4 years. I can do it, do you want to join me? You can read the details of the challenge HERE.

Since I last wrote I have been contributing to the long admired blog, Historical Tapestry. The site has a nice new template and continues to be a great book and historical site.

I finally found a local book group, which meets every month at the library. Last month's book was a challenge  - Slaughterhouse - Five by Kurt Vonnegut. Our current read, for discussion this week is The Midwich Cuckoos by John Wyndham. Review will be up soon!

Meanwhile, I read and reviewed a great book, aimed at children, but I loved the mix of history and postcards. The book was Postcards from a War by Vaita Oelschilager, which had some great illustrations. It is a quick read and whilst aimed at children, it is well worth a read for all ages.

Anyway, that is it for this week. Hope to be back next week. Organisation allowing!

Ramblings from my Desk.....(8)

At the risk of sounding confessional, it has been 10 days since my last blog post. I know, it is unusual, but then the last 33 days have not been usual at all. The reason is that I have been home alone and quite frankly I have been exhausted.

Hubby arrived home today, the car chockabloc with luggage, clothes, uniform, footwear and a very large pile of dirty washing. Hubby has been away at one of the Olympic venues and has been gone a total of 33 days. Believe me when I say it has been a very long month. He trundled off on 11th July and we spent, for the first time in 18 years our wedding anniversary apart. We have seen each other during the month when I have travelled to his location, but all that travelling on top of my working week, and a dodgy back it has taken its toll.

At the time of writing this Team GB has 59 medals and I am very proud of the achievements that those who have represented us have made. The opening ceremony was amazing and in some ways I can not believe that all the hype and it is almost over. The closing ceremony is tomorrow and then at the end of August for 2 weeks we head into the Paralympics.

In the meantime, I plan to catch up on the various draft blog posts, book reviews and genealogical posts. So normal service will be resumed soon.

In the meantime, I have made some headway with my Olympic Reading Challenge - are you going to join me?

The Olympics - London 2012 - Reading Challenge

Well, the opening ceremony was beamed around the globe last night and I was blown away by the ceremony. OK there was the occasional cringe moments, but overall it was an amazingly well produced and arranged ceremony.

As I sat and watched the presentation of the Countries participating in the Olympics I was surprised at some of the names - some I had never heard of, some were new Countries, those created following the collapse of the USSR.

My mind wandered very slightly across to books and I wondered if I could read a book written in or by an author that represents all of the Countries participating in the 2012 Olympics? I think I can and therefore I will set myself a personal reading challenge which will commence today on the first full day of the Games and conclude on the day of the next opening ceremony in 2016.

Whose going to join me? You can read the details HERE

The Olympics - London 2012

We are just hours away from the Olympics opening ceremony. The Olympics runs from 27th July  through to 12th August. The focus seems to be typically on London, but there are numerous other venues around the Country taking part. The official website is HERE

I came across the following video which is about how the BBC Olympic theme was created for the opening ceremony.



Here is the video featuring the famous band Muse, who has links to the Devon town that I live in. This is the official Olympic song.



This morning I was reading the Daily Mail on-line and spotted that an article that there was to be no official photograph of Team GB. A sports photographer from the Daily Mail then set about photographing all the athletes taking part.

Although all 541 of Team GB are representing us as a Country they are not all going to be in the same place, so with the aid of some technology a single photograph of the individual athletes or small groups of them has been taken and then it has all being pieced together.

Courtesy of The Daily Mail

You can read the full article with names of all the participants of Team GB and see a video of how it was all done HERE. From what I can establish this is of the Olympic Games, and I hope that the Daily Mail will produce something for the Paralympic Games.

The Olympics - London 2012 runs from 27th July  - 12th August 2012
The Paralympics - London 2012 runs from 29th August - 12th September 2012

Good luck to Team GB!

Inside the Olympics by Nick Hunter

An interesting book looking back to the start of the Olympics and the revival of it through the International Olympics Committee. 

The book features the early aspects of the Olympics from its conception in Greece through to the most recent Olympics to be held in London 27 July - 12 Aug 2012. 

The involvement of women at such events from women being unable to watch let alone participate in the games to the very fact that women play an considerable part in the games. The book also includes the Winter Olympics and Paralympics.

A well planned book showing not just the history of such an event, but much of the behinds the scenes planning.