I’ve seen this on a couple of different books blogs, and thought it was a neat idea: a reading acrostic. You try to match each letter of your name with the first letter of the title of a book you’ve read in the past year. I decided to go with my actual name and the name of the blog. This ended up pushing it a bit, only because there are too many Os in those words – five of them – and it’s not a particularly common starting initial. But I managed it – here goes, my name to the left, blog name to the right, links to blogposts on almost all of them:
My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante
Clue in the Castle by Joyce Bevins Webb
Lamentation by CJ Sansom
Ironside by Jim Thompson
Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory
Rain Before it Falls by Jonathan Coe
Take 6 Girls by Laura Thompson
Arab Jazz by Karim Miske
Horizontal Man by Helen Eustis
Rising Tide by Molly Keane
Enter a Murderer by Ngaio Marsh
Edwardian Fashion by Daniel Milford Cottam
Secret Adversary by Agatha Christie
Death of the Detective by Mark Smith
Indigo’s Star by Hilary McKay
Mystic Masseur by VS Naipaul
New Lease of Death by Ruth Rendell
Operation Mincemeat by Ben Macintyre
Ballad and the Source by Rosamond Lehmann
Night in Question by Laurie Graham
Oh Where Are Bloody Mary’s Earrings? by Robert Player
Death Maze by Ariana Franklin
Or Be He Dead by James Byrom
Kiss Me First by Lottie Moggach
Spy Line by Len Deighton
Happy 2016! There'll be some posts on my favourite books of 2015 later in January
Nice idea, must give it a try. Also great to see your empty bookcase again. I have two identical ones, which I think my grandmother received FREE(!!) when she joined a bookclub. 60 years on and they're still going strong, and packed with books.
ReplyDeleteYes, I remember your saying when I first used the photos last year. I'm sorry (?) to say this bookcase has quite a lot of books in it again, after being empty briefly....
DeleteWhoops, sorry about that! It just amuses me every time I see it. Very glad it's filled up again :-)
DeleteNo! I was delighted to be reminded of that!
DeleteOh, that's most impressive, Moira! Clever and very creative! And I like the 'photos, too.
ReplyDeleteYou should give it a go too Margot, bet you could fill up your name....
DeleteNicely done! Now...you've dangled a challenge in front of me. Can I do it too? Will have to find out.
ReplyDeleteWell...the only way I can do it, is to only do my name (there's one too many Es in "My Reader's Block" AND to disregard the "The" at the beginning of a few titles. Not entirely a successful venture.
ReplyDeleteI think missing out 'the' is fair game Bev. I must say it's not as easy as it seems -I read a lot last year, and thought I would easily do it, but jigsawing them in took a bit of searching. I almost had to read an extra book!
DeleteAwww, I made it!
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely Daniel! Does fame have anything more to offer...?
DeleteCool idea - not seen it before. Loved Ironside - the only one I've read.
ReplyDeleteI'm an E short - Colman Kean or Colman Kane - I suppose I could change my name by deed poll! Didn't attempt the blog letters though!
You do yourself less than justice - I think you read Death of a Detective too! And now you need to find a book beginning with E.
DeleteDoh - course I did, how could I forget that behemoth? I could find an eye, but I feel it's too late, it would have to be within a calendar year.
DeleteVery clever. Not sure I could pull it off for either my name or the blog's with last year's rather paltry reading but I'll have a look this weekend. A challenge anyway.
ReplyDeleteOh please do of course you have quite a long name with a couple of repeated letters - they are the real menace I found.
DeleteI'm impressed. Now, did you calculate what book titles you had to read to do the acrostic when you planned your year's reading?
ReplyDeleteThat's the only way I could do that, especially since I have
two "k's" in my name, a "y" and a "u," so it's not easily done and I didn't read as many books last year as I usually do.
So, I would have to plan for this.
And I am impressed with the empty bookcase. Did you read its entire contents last year?
I didn't plan it that way, but I think it'll be crossing my mind this year! It's those pesky Os, I need lots of them and will have to find some books.
DeleteCheated a little bit - the empty bookcase was last year and it is largely filled up again now...
Wow, I cannot believe you did both your name and your blog name. I have a long list of books I want to read this year and Horizontal Man by Helen Eustis is on it.
ReplyDeletePerhaps it's a way of deciding what to read next from your plan - as I say above, I think I'll be very conscious of books starting with O this year....
DeleteWhat an interesting idea, Moira! And I'm impressed too, as I always am by genuine readers and reviewers.
ReplyDeleteThose are very kind words, Prashant - thank you!
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