Bullet journal ideas: Books to read

I recently re-reading the Rei Shimura series by Sujata Massey and I felt a bit bereft when it was over, so I immediately began searching for some other series that have similarities in Asian location or theme to keep me going. After a lot of searching online I came across the Mas Arai books by Naomi Hirahara, a couple of series by Ovidia Yu, Diane Wei Liang’s Mei Wang books, the Perveen Mistry books by Sujata Massey, and some others.

I wanted to keep track of all these books and series that I'd come across, so I created some pages in my bullet journal. I started with the Rei Shimura series itself, checking on Amazon and Wordery when I'd first purchased each of the books.

Opposite this I made a list of other books and series that I'd come across, marking squares to show how many books there were in a series.

Once I started tracking some of the books down on abebooks, I needed a better way to keep track of each series, with the names of each book, so I created a double-page spread to record these.

Christian aid book sale 2019

I went to the Christian Aid Book Sale in Edinburgh on the Saturday and the Monday this year, and, as usual, came home with as much as I could carry! Saturday haul in the picture above, and Monday's below.

Springs of Islamic Wisdom

Springs of Indian Wisdom

Wild Flowers of the Spring

From Aalto to Zaha Hadid postcard book

Laura - The Life of Laura Ingalls Wilder by Donald Zochert

Wholefood for the Whole Family

Making and Decorating Cakes (Ladybird)

Edible Fungi (King Penguin)

The Casual Observer by Elizabeth Whitson

Paper World

Recyclopedia

The Summer Book by Tove Jansson

A Winter Book by Tove Jansson

Architecture 2000
The Shape of Towns

The Shapes We Need

The Development of Shape

Anno's Alphabet

80 Things to Make in Cardboard
My Learn to Play Chess

Garden Flowers (Observer)

Geology (Observer)
Wild Animals (Observer)

Ballooning (King Penguin)

Penguins Progress

How to Study an Old Church by A Needham

Kirkcaldy Potteries by Carol McNeill

Doll Dressing Book

This is Your City

Happy Days in the East Neuk & St Andrews

And various postcards, bookmarks and other pieces of ephemera!

I'm not going to bother putting prices against them all this year. Most books were about £2, the cheapest item was the Charles & Di tin at 20p, and probably the most expensive was the East Neuk and St Andrews book at £7.

2018 part 1 and part 2
2017
2016
2015
2014
2013
2012
2011
2010
2009
2008
2007

Factual books by women

I've been reading a lot of factual books by women this year, so here are some recommendations! I found all of these books really interesting, and I hope you will be inspired to read some of them.

Data/Maths:

Invisible Women by Caroline Criado Perez

Hello World by Hannah Fry

Weapons of Math Destruction by Cathy O'Neil

Nature:

The Wild Remedy by Emma Mitchell

The Almanac by Lia Leendertz

Gossip from the Forest - Sara Maitland

Language:

The Prodigal Tongue by Lynne Murphy

Art/Craft/Creativity:

Joyful by Ingrid Fetell Lee

The Secret Lives of Colour by Kassia St Clair

Conscious Creativity by Philippa Stanton

Making Winter by Emma Mitchell

Fashion:

The Curated Closet by Anuschka Rees

I hadn't really set out to read specifically factual books by women this year, but now that I've noticed this pattern in my reading I'm actively seeking them out!

Review: Joyful

Earlier this year I read the book Joyful by Ingrid Fetell Lee, and it left me more inspired than I had been in months! I am now full of ideas of how to bring more joy into my life.

I have in the past felt let down by some books that verge on self-help territory, especially anything that promises to improve my happiness. I always feel a bit inadequate reading any such book, when it tells me I need to change myself. But this book is the complete opposite, because it’s more about changing your environment than yourself, which seems so much more achievable!

The book covers the topics of energy, abundance, freedom, harmony, play, surprise, transcendence, magic, celebration, and renewal, and looks at how we can use elements of these to bring joy into our lives, whether it’s in our decor, clothing, or activities. It looks at how simple things like circles, confetti, bubbles, and polka dots, can bring us so much joy.

We live in a consumerist society, and I often feel guilt about buying so much, especially things that I’m buying for fun rather than because I “need” them. This book made me a bit less hard on myself, and I realised that we have needs other than just food and shelter – keeping ourselves happy should be regarded as essential too!

And the book in itself is a joyful object, with its playful cover of overlapping dots, and yellow-edged pages.

I’ve taken many notes from the book, and will show you some of those over the next few days. I have made plans to bring more joy into my life in lots of different ways, so here’s to lots of pompoms and polka dots!

Books read 2018

I'm a bit late with my list of what I read last year, because I took a month's blogging break. I joined Goodreads at the beginning of 2018, so it was much easier to keep track of what I was reading. Finishing off my Chalet School reread added a lot of books to my total!

I think the majority of what I read this year was physical books, with only a few Kindle reads. I like the ease of reading on the Kindle, but paper books seem to be cheaper, they're more photogenic, and I can pass them on to others to read.

1. The Power - Naomi Alderman
2. The New Mistress at the Chalet School - Elinor M Brent-Dyer
3. Beneath the Bleeding - Val McDermid
4. Excitements at the Chalet School - Elinor M Brent-Dyer
5. A Very Distant Shore - Jenny Colgan
6. Dot Journaling - Rachel Willerson Miller
7. The Coming of Age of the Chalet School - Elinor M Brent-Dyer
8. The Chalet School and Richenda - Elinor M Brent-Dyer
9. Trials for the Chalet School - Elinor M Brent-Dyer
10. The Endless Beach - Jenny Colgan
11. La Belle Sauvage - Philip Pullman (audio)
12. Once Upon a Time in the North - Philip Pullman
13. Pirates! - Celia Rees
14. Theodora and the Chalet School - Elinor M Brent-Dyer
15. Joey and Co in Tirol - Elinor M Brent-Dyer
16. Ruey Richardson at the Chalet School - Elinor M Brent-Dyer
17. Fingers in the Sparkle Jar - Chris Packham
18. Josephine Tey: a Life - Jennifer Morag Henderson
19. A Leader in the Chalet School - Elinor M Brent-Dyer
20. The Chalet School Wins the Trick - Elinor M Brent-Dyer
21. A Future Chalet School Girl - Elinor M Brent-Dyer
22. The Feud in the Chalet School - Elinor M Brent-Dyer
23. The Chalet School Triplets - Elinor M Brent-Dyer
24. Ikigai - Hector Garcia and Francesc Miralles
25. The Long Winter - Laura Ingalls Wilder
26. The Chalet School Reunion - Elinor M Brent-Dyer
27. Jane of the Chalet School - Elinor M Brent-Dyer
28. Redheads at the Chalet School - Elinor M Brent-Dyer
29. Adrienne and the Chalet School - Elinor M Brent-Dyer
30. Summer Term at the Chalet School - Elinor M Brent-Dyer
31. Challenge for the Chalet School - Elinor M Brent-Dyer
32. Live Lagom - Anna Brones
33. The Keeper of Lost Things - Ruth Hogan
34. Ready Player One - Ernest Cline
35. Two Sams at the Chalet School - Elinor M Brent-Dyer
36. The City & The City - China Miéville
37. Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine - Gail Honeyman
38. Althea Joins the Chalet School - Elinor M Brent-Dyer
39. Prefects of the Chalet School - Elinor M Brent-Dyer
40. How to Love Brutalism - John Grindrod
41. Little Greycoat - Ellinor Davenport Adams
42. If We Were Villains - M L Rio
43. With the Light #1 - Keiko Tobe
44. Cloud Busting - Malorie Blackman
45. Introducing Quantum Theory: A Graphic Guide - J P McEvoy
46. With the Light #2 - Keiko Tobe
47. Dungeon Fun - Colin Bell and Neil Slorance
48. Chocky - John Wyndham
49. The Crack-a-Joke Book
50. With the Light #3 - Keiko Tobe
51. With the Light #4 - Keiko Tobe
52. With the Light #5 - Keiko Tobe
53. With the Light #6 - Keiko Tobe
54. With the Light #7 - Keiko Tobe
55. With the Light #8 - Keiko Tobe
56. Poverty Safari - Darren McGarvey
57. Dark Matter - Blake Crouch
58. Blindsight - Peter Watts
59. The Wisdom of Sally Red Shoes - Ruth Hogan
60. The Book of Rubbish Ideas - Tracey Smith
61. The Silent Companions - Laura Purcell
62. Lud-in-the-Mist - Hope Mirrlees
63. How to Survive the End of the World - Aaron Gillies
64. All the Light We Cannot See - Anthony Doerr
65. Fun Home - Alison Bechdel
66. Outskirts - John Grindrod
67. Christmas at Little Beach Street Bakery - Jenny Colgan
68. The Story of Holly and Ivy - Rumer Godden

80s make-up and style books

I still have my favourite makeup book from the 1980s, by Barbara Daly, who was the makeup artist for Princess Diana. It’s a book I keep looking back at, because I really love the looks in it. Although the makeup styles are meant to be for different skin tones and eye and hair colours, I’ve tried most of them in my time! 

I picked up the book about scarf tying a few years ago, but I’m sure it’s one that I used to have many years ago! I keep meaning to wear my scarves more, so I really need to make use of this book! 

The Vogue book More Dash than Cash, is one I’m sure I used to get out of the library, and I can think exactly where it would have been on the shelves there! Looking at it, it was actually published in the 1990s, but many of the outfits are from the 80s. Perhaps this book was one of the things that got me into scouring charity shops for clothes, because Mum reckons I wouldn’t set foot in one until I was a student! One of my first charity shop memories certainly dates from about that era, when me, my brother, and my holiday friend Fiona were hunting for flat caps and waistcoats and I found a cropped white short-sleeved Windsmoor denim-style jacket (but lovely soft cotton) that I so wish I still had!

 

Penguin books

You've got to love the design of a vintage Penguin book, especially the orange ones! I've picked up a few recently. I've always meant to read Miss Read, because I am Miss Reid! I loved The Day of the Triffids when I read it at the age of about 9, so I'm really looking forward to reading it again! And I plan to read all of Josephine Tey's books, including The Daughter of Time which I've already read a few years ago.

 

Postcard books

I recently discovered an amazing secondhand bookshop in Burntisland. I'd seen the sign a few times for a bookshop, but this was the first time I'd gone for a look. I was actually looking for postcards, but instead I came out with a book of Boring Postcards compiled by the photographer Martin Parr (who I just happened to see on a programme about British photography I watched shortly afterwards). This style of postcards really appeals to me, and my parents found the book fascinating too.

I've had A History of Postcards by Martin Willoughby since it came out in the 1990s. It's interesting to read about the history of how postcards developed, but most of the book concentrates on eras before the time I'm interested in, with only two pages on the 1960s and 1970s. It seems to jump from the 1930s to the 1980s with not much in between.

Beachcombing books

I've only got a couple of books to help me in my beachcombing so far, but I'm looking forward to getting more.

The Essential Guide to Beachcombing and the Strandline by Steve Trewhella and Julie Hatcher is really in-depth and fascinating. It mainly concentrates on all the living things that you will find washed up on the beach, and it arrived just after some big storms so I found it really useful! It hasn't much in it about sea glass or pottery, which are what I mainly go to the beach to find, but I didn't mind this at all as I am interested in all the things I see around me when I'm beachcombing.

The other book is The Ultimate Guide to Sea Glass. This has beautiful photos in it, and lots of helpful tips. I did have a couple of problems with the book, though, one on the production side and the other with the way it was written. I found that the placement of a lot of the photos didn't tie up with how they were mentioned in the text - the book would say that a photo was below when it was above, or mention something on the left of the photo that was actually on the right. I also felt that the writer spent a bit too much time talking about how good her own powers of identifying sea glass are, which came across as a tiny bit arrogant although I'm sure she didn't mean it that way.