Tag: bloganuary 2023

A room without books is like a body without a soul. – Cicero

Bloganuary Day 21

Today’s Prompt: Who is your favorite author and why?

Now there is a question that I don’t really have an answer to. I enjoy reading. Ever since I was a kid, I had to read something every day. To this day, no day is complete without me reading something even if it is an article or two on Medium or a blog post on WordPress. I have have shelves and shelves of both fiction and non-fiction books. I don’t know if I will ever get to read all of them but I live in hope.🤭 I do have some favourites though. Let’s start with the fiction:

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com
  • Lee Childs – I loooove Jack Reacher! He is such a unique character. I was horrified when they made Tom Cruise play him so I didn’t bother watching him. I must say that the Amazon Prime series actor is a lot closer to the picture I had of Reacher so I enjoyed season 1 and look forward to season 2 although I still prefer to read the books.
  • Jeffery Deaver – The master of deception. He keeps me guessing
  • James Patterson – I love that his chapters are so short. It results in the books having a good pace.
  • Ken Follet – I love the stories and how he weaves his love of cathedral architecture into his stories.
  • Michael Connelly – Both the Bosch and Mickey Haller series. I have also enjoyed how the stories have been brought to life in the TV series created for both characters.
  • George R.R. Martin – I have just started reading A song of Ice and Fire series and I just love his style.
  • J.K Rowling – I love the level of detail she adds to her stories. I marvelled as I read the Harry Potter series. I recently bought “The Cuckoo is Calling” which is written under her pseudonym, Robert Galbraith. I look forward to reading this series as well.

I used to enjoy Stephen King, Sydney Sheldon and Dean Koontz when I was at school. I read Stephen King’s “On Writing” a few years ago. It’s a must for aspiring writers.

Non fiction writers that I enjoy include

  • Malcoln Gladwell – Outliers made me think long and hard about the opportunities I wanted to give my son in order for him to make well informed choices later on in his life.
  • Walter Isaacson – I have yet to finish one of his biographies. They are so long but very enjoyable to read when I can fit them in. I have started Steve Jobs and Albert Einstein.
  • Gabby Bernstein – I love her take on spirituality. She really helped me find my way to God in recent years. This is also true of Florence Scovel Shinn’s books.

Let me also not forget the poetry of Billy Chapata.

As you can see, I could go on forever about the books that I read. A lot of the non-fiction books that I have read and are still to be read are probably easier to group together by topic rather than author as I am drawn to books on spirituality, psychology, finance (Mine needs serious help!), economics and business.

I have a list of new authors that I will be keeping an eye out for based on the recommendations of my fellow bloganuary participants. Just follow the hashtag #bloganuary to find a few that might interest you.

I’m off. I’ll leave you this beautiful quote about books and reading.

“As you read a book word by word and page by page, you participate in its creation, just as a cellist playing a Bach suite participates, note by note, in the creation, the coming-to-be, the existence, of the music. And, as you read and re-read, the book of course participates in the creation of you, your thoughts and feelings, the size and temper of your soul.”

Ursula K. Le Guin

Home Sweet Home

Bloganuary Day 20 – only 11 days to go…

Today’s Prompt: What irritates you about the home you live in?

I am going to change this around and talk about what I love about the home I live in as I don’t enjoy focusing on the negative. There will always be things that I want to change about my home but that will be because I have gotten bored with seeing the same things in the same places to I will switch it up for a change in scenery. I also find that moving things around often changes the energy of the space.

So what do a I love about my home? Well I love that I have a home and that I get to share it with my son every day. I love that I have stairs as I always wanted a double storey home when I was a kid. I try and make sure that I run up the stairs a few times a day when I need to fetch something as my home is very small so it helps me get a little bit of exercise in every day.

I love my little garden out back although I have been neglecting it of late due to the influx of mozzies. They have my ankles for dinner! I love that I do have my own little patch of grass to ground myself on and space for my table and benches so that I can sit and watch the butterflies flitter and flutter about and watch the kittens chase each other. I find it very calming and peaceful even though there is a bust main road very close by.

I do need to give my home a complete overhaul as right now it is in complete disarray. I am constantly amazed at how I can get rid of an item of furniture and somehow, just somehow, I manage fill up that space with stuff before I can get to replace that furniture with a new piece. So, as I said, now I just have give every space a complete overhaul so that it looks pretty and has utility.

I live in a complex, from the car park, one has great views of the west of Durban, especially the beautiful sunsets. I’ll leave you with a pic of one that I took earlier this week.

African sunset
African sunset. Image credit: Author

So that’s it for today. Thanks for dropping by. Bye for now.

Food, Glorious Food!

Bloganuary Day 18

Today’s Prompt: What’s your favourite meal to cook and/or eat?

Let me start by saying that I love to cook however, my cooking skills often leave a lot to be desired. My son cooks way better than me and makes a wonderfully tender fillet steak with butter and rosemary. We usually have it with chips/french fries. This is definitely one of my favourite meals to eat!

My son’s Butter and Rosemary steaks
Creamy Tuscan Chicken

The dish I have enjoyed making and eating is called Creamy Tuscan Chicken. I found the the recipe on the internet. It’s quick and easy and tastes delicious. I serve it with pasta most often. The recipe doesn’t call for it but I add basil at the end which just helps to make it taste more fresh and not too creamy. You can find the recipe here.

Creamy Tuscan Chicken served with Penne.

We seldom eat dessert with our meals but when we do, it’s most often triple chocolate pudding from Woolworths. It has a layer of chocholate sponge, white chocolate mouse and dark chocolate mouse. It no way good for my sugar levels but way worth it!

Thanks for stopping by! Bye for now!