Quoting the Poetical #1 – Else Lasker-Schuler

Posted on February 7, 2020 by sammicoxwriter

Inspired by today’s Google doodle, and with one of my goals for 2020 being to explore more new-to-me poetry and poets, I’m starting a new series on Sammi Loves Books, Quoting the Poetical. Like the “Quoting the Classics” series I posted a few years ago, I aim to share beautiful and inspiring snippets of poetry, but unlike that first series, it won’t be a weekly challenge rather, a series I can add to perhaps once a month or so…

So, for the first post in this new series, here is a beautiful quote from a poem by Else Lasker-Schüler:

Strand by strand, enamoured colours,

Stars that courted each other across the length of heavens.

(From An Old Tibetan Rug by Else Lasker-Schüler,

original and translation found via Wikipedia)

Quoting the Classics – Part 2

Posted on May 17, 2019 by sammicoxwriter

“Quoting the Classics” was a challenge I set myself in 2015. Each week, for the duration of the year, I was to post a quote from a classic, so that by the end of if, I would have collected together 52 quotes.

It was an interesting exercise, and so I thought, four years on, I would revisit the challenge, and post ten of my favourite quotes from those collected. You can find the first five posted here, Quoting the Classics – Part 1. The second five can be found below…

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Quoting the Classics – Part 1

Posted on April 5, 2019 by sammicoxwriter

It was an interesting exercise, and so I thought, four years on, I would revisit the challenge, and post ten of my favourite quotes from those collected. The first five can be found below. The second five will be posted in the coming weeks…

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Sammi Loves Books – Year in Review 2015 Part 1

Posted on December 30, 2015 by sammicoxwriter

So, with my final reading challenge concluded on Christmas Day, I thought it would be apt to begin a look back over 2015 by reviewing the themes and challenges I set myself…

Quoting the Classics

This was supposedly a year-long challenge, the aim of which was to find 52 quotes from classic books that I really liked or found inspiring. Posting every Monday was the plan, but it slipped. I think I was all right until I hit the three month mark, where I fell behind and began posting the quotes to play catch-up. I finally gave up in October after posting week 32, which was of course, late…

So, out of the 32 quotes I posted, here are my top five favourites:

(To see the full list, click here)

Shall I be setting myself such a challenge again? I am not sure. Certainly not for 2016. This year has made me realise that I need to be smarter with the time I have available for this blog, and the most important thing is that I write book reviews. Perhaps when I have more time on my hands…

Indie Only Month

I really enjoyed some of the books that I read for 2015’s Indie Only Month. July is a time when I allow myself to only read Indie authors and review Indie books. This year I posted seven reviews for this challenge, my favourites being:

Xoe: or Vampires and Werewolves and Demons, Oh My! by Sara C. Roethle

Lost Cause by JL Simpson

These were two great reads, one being a paranormal YA and the other being a modern murder mystery staring a woman sleuth.

(To see the complete list of titles that were read and reviewed during Indie Only Month 2015, click here)

Historical Fiction Month

Hot on the heels of Indie Only Month is a month completely dedicated to historical fiction. This year, although I read all the books during August, a number of the reviews were not posted until September…

For this challenge I posted seven reviews, and I can honestly say I loved each and every one of those books, hence it would be difficult for me to name by favourites. Five of the books were written by some of my favourite authors, Karen Maitland, Ellis Peters, Lindsey Davis and Candace Robb. However, the other two books were written by authors I had not read full-length novels by before, Elizabeth Elgin and Edward Marston, and I was not disappointed. The majority of these books found their way into my top ten reads of the year.

(To see the complete list of titles that were read and reviewed during Historical Fiction Month 2015, click here)

Festive Reads Fortnight

To end the year, I realised that I hadn’t read that much festive fiction and I decided to remedy that and I am really glad I did. I think this challenge was a great way to end the year, and makes a great addition to my yearly read and review schedule.

In the two weeks leading up to Christmas, I read five festive reads, ranging from historical fiction to modern romance to a Christmas classic. Again I was introduced to authors I had never come across before, which is one of the reasons I love these reading challenges so.

My favourite festive read was definitely Home for Christmas by Melissa McClone as it just inspired such festive feelings as I read it.

(To see the complete list of titles that were read and reviewed during Festive Reads Fortnight 2015, click here)

And so, that brings to a conclusion my reading themes and challenges for another year, and I can’t wait for them to come around again. 🙂