New Books and the Proximidade Award

Since I tend to buy books second hand or on sale, I often miss out on new releases. In fact, at the end of last year I realised that I hadn't read a single book published in 2008! I decided to rectify this and joined the Countdown Challenge and the Pub Challenge in order to have some goals. And here we are in April and I am still very, very behind. So what did I do on my lunch break today> I visited Waterstone's and bought three books, two of which were published in 2008. The 2009 ones are still either only hardcover and/or too expensive so I'll wait a few months. Here's what I got:

The Cellist of Sarajevo by Steven Galloway
Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith
Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day by Winifred Watson

So, which one should I read first? :-)

_________

Trish presented me with the Proximidade Award:

"This blog invests and believes in the PROXIMITY-nearness in space, time and relationships. These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement! Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers! Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this clever-written text into the body of their award."

Thanks Trish, I am really touched!

I pass this lovely award on to:

Lezlie from Books 'n Border Collies
Nymeth from Things Mean A Lot
Kailana from The Written World
raidergirl3 from An Adventure in Reading
Joy from Thoughts of Joy
Iliana from Bookgirl's Nightstand

And if I could give it back to Trish too, I would, but that would be just plain silly!

It's a wonderful feeling to have friends like you out there in the world.

A Christmas Spirit Award!

Kailana presented me with the Christmas Spirit Award! Thanks! :-) She's one of the organisers of the very cool Blog Advent Tour, during which we got to read about people's holiday traditions. I loved participating and will definitely be in next year too. Great event.

Here are the rules for the Christmas Spirit Award:

"You must be a true Christmas lover to receive this award.
The person to whom you give the award must also be in love with Christmas.
Link back to the person who gave you the award.
List 5 things that you love about Christmas. If you can't limit it to 5 things, then keep going till you run out of space!
Pass the award along to as many people as you like. That can be 1 or 50. It's up to you! But keep the Christmas cheer going!Let your recipients know that you have tagged them by leaving them a comment. Also, link back to the person who gave you the award."

5 things I love about Christmas:
1. Spending time with my family
2. All the kitsch decorations, including lots of Santas
3. The lights
4. The presents
5. Snow

I think that Kailana tagged everyone who participated in the Blog Advent Tour, so I don't know who to tag. So I'll take the lame way out and give this award to YOU if you haven't received it already. :-)

I've been nominated!

My friend Lezlie from Books 'N Border Collies nominated me for an award! Here it is (drumroll):


Isn't it fantastic? And it's my first nomination ever, I feel so loved! :-)

Here are the rules for the recipients:
1. Put the logo on your blog.
2. Add a link to the person who awarded you.
3. Nominate at least seven other blogs.
4. Add links to those blogs on your blog.
5. Leave a message for your nominees on their blog.

I'm a bit late with all this and it seems that everyone I'd like to nominate has already been nominated, usually more than once! So I'll just ask you to browse the blogs listed on the sidebar - they're all ones I enjoy so much that I visit them regularly!

Thanks again Lezlie!