Songs of Summer Blogfest, Books I'm Reading, and Round Three of ROW80

ime for another round of A Round of Words in 80 Days!

I'm going to carry over my main goal from the last round, which was to take part in the June exercise over on the Compuserve Books and Writers Community.

Speaking of which, one long-standing forumite and one forumite who hasn't been around in a few years got together on Twitter the other day:

For my other goals, I'm going to include items that have to be done, in the hopes that they will get done:

1. Transcribe the latest batch of Alfred Russel Wallace letters
2. Finish knitting a baby blanket and start a new project, a gift for a friend
3. Read!

I'm in the middle of four books at the moment:

1. My Dancing Bear by Helene de Klerk, a biography of Reg Smythe, the creator of Andy Capp
2. Beowulf: A Translation and Commentary by J. R. R. Tolkien
3. The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith
4. Parade's End by Ford Maddox Ford

Has anyone read Parade's End (or each of the four novels that it's comprised of)? I'd really like to discuss and learn about some of the nuances of the British class system that I think are going over my head.

I have to finish these because I just added another four books to my wishlist today:

1. How To Build A Girl by Caitlin Moran
2. Rosie's Rescue by Raisa Stone
3. two short stories, "Zoo" and "Door Jamb" by Anthony Martignetti
4. American Interior: The quixotic journey of John Evans, his search for a lost tribe and how, fuelled by fantasy and (possibly) booze, he accidentally annexed a third of North America by Gruff Rhys (of the Super Furry Animals)

Not to mention all the books I keep adding to my Kindle app...

11 July is the Songs of Summer Blogfest!

Hosted by Armchair Squid, Suze, and Cygnus.

Post your top five favorite summer songs – and explain why they're you're favourites.

Here are mine (three songs and two albums):

The Pop Singer's Fear of the Pollen Count, by The Divine Comedy

It's about summer!

What more could you ask for?

"I'm in love with the summertime..."

Margarita, by Whisky Trench Riders

Romance by the sea...

You Held the World In Your Arms, by Idlewild

You know how sometimes you hear a song and you have no idea what it is or who sings it but you must find out? This happened to me over a decade ago with this band, with this song.

And it was summertime!

The album Gülümse, by Sezen Aksu

The first song on this album was a huge hit in Turkey many summers ago, and Sezen Aksu herself is one of the grande dames of Turkish pop music. My sister and I had this album on tape and listened to it endlessly.

Britpop!

This is the playlist I created for the Help! album to benefit War Child.

It's a good sample of some of the bands I loved during the 90s and reminds me of all the times I spent listening to their albums during summer vacations (well, all year round, really), as well as all the friends I made thanks to these bands and their music.

I hope you share your favourite summer songs!