Some photographs I only discovered at the weekend that The Converted One took in Scarthin Books café of my Gran and I seem the perfect pictures for today’s post because they are pictures of us firstly having some kind of rather heated book debate over our tea one minute…
And then unable to contain ourselves laughing the next minute…
Aren’t they lovely? These pictures to me show the differing joys of reading and talking about books, if only I could remember what the books were that we were talking about. These two pictures are also ones that I will treasure forever as the illustrate me and Gran’s relationship brilliantly, we had no idea The Converted One was snapping away. Any back to talking about books…
In fact at around 5pm big discussions will be starting in just what ‘The Green Carnation Prize Longlist 2010’ will be (though you lot won’t know the results until tomorrow morning). I am getting quite nervous as have a couple of books am rather passionate about and haven’t had to champion books in this way before. I am also a bit nervous because I haven’t met some of the other judges before and have only met the two I have very briefly. I am sure it will be a delight and actually I am getting really excited about a good long natter about what has been a selection of some fantastic books… and some not so.
Subsequently you might not see so many book reviews on the blog for a week or so. In part because I am not sure if I will write about the books that don’t make it into the longlist yet, at all or after the winner is announced in December. It is also a case of me feeling quite read out at the moment. ‘The Green Carnation Prize’ submissions the final one of which I put down on Sunday where rather more books than I could ever imagine reading in a month – not that I am complaining.
However I am once again going to be able to talk much more about the books I am reading and the books I might have been reading which I am looking forward to. So this week and some of next will see much more discussion based posts looming. I just need to let them all form in my head and get over the nerves and excitement of tonight! Oh and tomorrow myself and Novel Insights are meeting to chatter about a new project that involves us chattering about books… but more of that in the forthcoming weeks.
For now though how about playing catch up? As over the weekend I asked you a question about classics that I would love more of your thoughts on and yesterday I asked you all about ghost stories which I would also love your suggestions on. Also ‘The Bookboy’ has been back and is wondering what other books you would like to see him read here. So lots and lots for you to get chatting about please, you guys are always marvellous with your siggestions!
P.S I need to go and mull over what the heck to wear tonight, we have a photo shoot first, so any suggestions for what a male book judge should be seen in (pref that isn’t a suit) are most welcome in the comments below too!
All this prize talk sounds very exciting, especially with the addition of a photo shoot!
If you’ve time it’d be great to hear about the unlisted books (also they would provide content for days when you run out of inspiration – unless of course writing about them causes burn out anyway.)
Love the photos of you and your gran, and good luck with the discussions later!
Forgot to add: In answer to your question, a smart casual shirt and trousers?
I didnt go for shirt and trousers but think I went for smart casual.
The photo is up on the Green Carnation website there are some others though, not sure what we are doing with those at the moment.
The submissions that we didint longlist we might review eventually but we wont be saying they were submissions, we decided that one last night.
I say go for an all black outfit. I love a man in all black.
Those pictures of you and your Gran are precious. I envy your relationship, and it makes me miss mine!
I love these photos especially as we had no idea that they were bieng taken, they are very us.
I’m looking forward to reading the list tomorrow! Best of luck with championing your books. And love the pictures, you and your Gran look like you are having an awesome chat.
Thanks Amy, the list is up!
look forward to list tomorrow and nothing better than sitting talking books over a coffee or even better a beer lol ,all the best stu
There was some wine involved last night, but I can’t say too much more than that. Hope you like the long list.
That second photo is precious! You two look super happy.
As for clothing, I’d just wear a nice black top with darker blue or black jeans, if you’re avoiding the suit route.
I love the contrast of the two pics, I asked Gran if she could remember what books we were talking about, she can’t sadly either.