2014 in First Lines

I did this meme the previous two years too. A bit of fun for pre-Christmas. It originated at The Indextrious Reader.

The “rules” are simple: Take the first line of each month’s first post over the past year and see what it tells you about your blogging year. Links go back to the original posts. Here goes:

January: ‘I was amazed to find that this thriller from 1975 was Gerald Seymour’s début novel.’ (from my review of Harry’s Game.)

February: ‘You know how it is, you’re reading a book when something – often just a single word or phrase – spooks you.’ (from my opinion piece Anachronism or not? And a potted history of plastics.

March: ‘It’s the start of March. Last year, when James launched this year’s TBR Dare, I gaily signed up again.’ from my report on my progress in The TBR Triple Dog Dare.

April: ‘I haven’t read Donoghue’s famous, or even infamous novel Room. I own a copy, but its dark subject matter requires a certain frame of mind to read and we haven’t coincided yet.’ from my blog post on her novel Frog Music.

May: ‘Last night I went to see the live screening of Sam Mendes’ production of King Lear beamed live from the National Theatre to a cinema near you – Didcot in my case.’ (from my write-up of said film.

June: ‘I blame Simon for this! :D’ from my post shamelessly copying his ask me anything idea.

UK cover

July: ‘Some readers may already be familiar with David Downing; the six books of his ‘Station’ series of spy thrillers set in WWII Berlin are highly regarded.’ from my review of Jack of Spies by David Downing.

August: ‘Although I only studied it up to O-level, possibly my favourite subject at school was Latin. I continue to surprise myself by the amount of Latin I’ve retained over the years, but I do try to use it whenever I can.’ from my post on the Latin translations available of children’s novels.

September: ‘This remarkable novel about young German soldiers in WWI was our book group’s read for August; I had pushed strongly for a WWI-related choice for the month of the 100th anniversary of the war’s start.’ from my review of All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque.

October: ‘Last week you may have seen my post about ephemera reporting my finding of some marginalia in an old book – well it made me want to read said book instantly – so I did!’ from my review of The Pursuit of Love by Nancy Mitford.

November: ‘I wanted to write a post about my reactions to a film I saw on TV the other night. It’s not one I would have chosen to see in the cinema, or buy the DVD of – it was just ‘on’…’ from my reactions on seeing the film Drive.

December: ‘A while ago, I was approached by a publicist from the USA who was trying to get some exposure for her client’s book in the UK/Europe – it’s a debut novel, but by an author with an awesome pedigree in the TV world.’ from my review of These Things Happen by Richard Kramer.

As always, it does sort of represent what I’ve written about – 6 book reviews, 2 memes, 2 film/theatre reviews and 2 opinion/misc book pieces.  Feel free to do it yourself.

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