Weekly Monday Round-up (October 10, 2016)

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is hosted by Kathryn at the Book Date and is "a place to meet up and share what you have been, are and about to be reading over the week."

Visit the Book Date to see what various other book bloggers have been up to in the past week.

Books I finished last week:  

• The Book of General Ignorance: Everything You Think You Know is Wrong, by John Lloyd & John Mitchinson. Trivia. This is a QI book and the tone is reminiscent of Stephen Fry's occasional bursts of infodumping on the TV show of the same title.
• Whose Body? by Dorothy L. Sayers. Detective fiction. Reread of this delightful first full-length Lord Peter Wimsey adventure.
• The Nine Tailors by Dorothy L. Sayers. Another Lord Peter Wimsey adventure, and my favourite along with Strong Poison.
• The Boy's Book of Survival: How to survive anything, anywhere, by Guy Campbell (text) and Simon Ecob (illustrations). A partly humorous, partly useful collection of survival tips, with funny illustrations. I don't see myself ever having to use the zombie invasion tip, but the one on making a fire without matches or a lighter is useful. This book does not, however, contain anything useful that can't be found in the Worst-case Scenario Survival Handbook and it's sequels. I do have big hopes for my other TBR book of survival tips, How to build a fire, and other handy tricks your grandfather knew, by Erin Bried.

Books I am reading: 
Have I mentioned that I collect guidebooks? No? Well, there will be a post on that subject soon.
In the meantime, I have been reading the 2007 edition of the Let's Go! guidebook to Germany and finding that Wikipedia in some cases has better information on the places I'm interested in learning about. I am planning to take my mini-motorhome to Germany, probably in May of next year, and have started making plans. I already have a rough route planned out (in Google's My Maps) and some idea about the places I want to visit, but I find that guidebooks are always good for some extra information and are good to have on hand when one cannot access the Internet. However, as I said, some of the information in Wikipedia is better, so I am also preparing a supplement with information gleaned from there and other places on the Web. I also have a recent copy of the Eyewitness Europe book, which should be good for the three other countries I plan to briefly visit on my trip: Denmark (that's where the ferry from Iceland docks), Liechtenstein and France (just Strasbourg this time around, because it's not far out of my way and I have never been to France (I don't count transiting through CDG airport)). I just wish I'd come across a second hand copy of the Lonely Planet or Rough Guide to Germany, as I find them to be of better quality than Let's Go!
Best of all would be an Eyewitness guide I can use as a source of pictures, diagrams and maps for my travel journal... but more of that in the upcoming guidebook post.



Last week's book haul: 
Explanations in a separate post later in the week.
Missing is a copy of A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth, because I discovered I already had a copy, so back it goes to the charity shop. This is what happens when I leave my phone in the car when I go shopping for books, because that's where I keep the file with all the titles I own. At least it was cheap.

DVDs I watched this week: 

• I followed up Howl's Moving Castle with another brilliant Myasaki film: Spirited Away. It's another lovely anime that I don't think I will ever get tired of watching. I wish the Reykjavík indie cinema, Bíó Paradís, would put on a Myasaki festival, because I would love to see those two on the big screen.
• I also watched The Bucket List, starring Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson.