Hello you and a very warm welcome to damppebbles. If you stopped by the blog this time last week then you may have seen my first-ever Top Ten Tuesday post. I’ve decided to occasionally (that’s the keyword here, occasionally!) take part in That Artsy Reader Girl’s Top Ten Tuesday meme. The meme was originally created by The Broke and the Bookish but has lived with Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl since January 2018. It was created to encompass a love of books, of lists and to bring readers together. If you would also like to take part then you’re very welcome: the more, the merrier. Just make sure you link back to Jana’s post every week. If you don’t have a blog then no problem, just add your list to the comments below.

So it’s week two and I’ve already fallen short! This week’s topic is: Weird or Funny Things I’ve Googled Thanks to a Book (Submitted by Astilbe @ Long and Short Reviews). I feel this is a topic which needs a bit of a run up! Time to prepare, to take notes. I don’t remember what I read last week, let alone what I Googled because of it! Actually, tell a lie – I do know about last week as I had decided to take part in TTT then. My list comprises of only books I’ve read in the last week or so because I can just about remember them 😂 But it’s not a list of ten. It’s a list of FIVE. And one of those five isn’t even mine – it’s my husband’s (I’ll let you know which).

1. The 13th Girl by N.V. Peacock
In The 13th Girl Dee’s mum gives her a FUMSUP to bring about good luck. I had no idea what a Fumsup was. So I Googled it.

The metal, articulated figure of an infant typically had a rounded wooden head that it could touch when its arms were raised. This movement linked the charm to the phrase ‘touch wood’. This phrase had developed as a sentiment to ward off ill fortune and to look forward to good fortune.

If you’re looking for ‘weird’ then I’m not sure you can beat a fumsup. Feels this topic was created for this Google search alone!

2. The Bandit Queens by Parini Shroff
The Bandit Queens is set in India and uses a lot of Indian words and phrases. Many of the words just seemed to fit in the sentence and I could make a good guess as it what they meant. It all seemed to flow very well. But I did Google many words to check that my interpretation was correct.

These included:
Mangalsutra – a Hindu wedding necklace (I wanted to see one in the flesh!). Garba – a Gurjarati dance). Kabaddi – a team sport (sort of knew this already but the context the word is used in in the book made me want to check). And many, many more!

3. Sharp Scratch by Martine Bailey
In Sharp Scratch the lethal dose of anaesthetic is given to the first victim in place of an expected ‘flu vaccination. The book is set in the early 1980s and I was surprised that ‘flu vaccination programmes were active in the UK in the 1980s for some reason! So I googled to check the date.

It’s true. The first ‘flu vaccination programme started in the UK in the late 1960s.

I’m not sure why I doubted this fact in the first place, truth be told!

4. Original Sins by Erin Young (review to follow later this week)
I can’t remember the context of this one but the word FULCRUM is used. It sounded strangely familiar but I could not, for the life of me, bring the meaning of the word to mind. So I Googled it! Google, your friend and mine, right?

fulcrum. [ ful′krəm ] The point or support on which a lever turns. The position of the fulcrum, relative to the positions of the load and effort, determines the type of lever.

The book is GREAT! The Google search though was really disappointing 😂

5. Foxglove Summer by Ben Aaronovitch
So this one isn’t mine, It’s my husband’s. He’s currently working his way through the Rivers of London series by Ben Aaronovitch and devouring them with absolute glee! I asked him if he had Googled anything recently and he said whilst reading Foxglove Summer he came across the term ‘Gambrel Roof’ and couldn’t bring to mind what that was. So he asked Google!

gambrel /ˈɡambr(ə)l/
a roof with two sides, each of which has
a shallower slope above a steeper one.
BRITISH
a hipped roof with a small gable forming the upper part of each end.

It’s not a full list but I don’t think it’s that bad! I think the fumsup is the winner here though. Everything else is really quite normal, neither weird nor funny but it’s what I’ve been Googling. I’m actually really grateful, based on my choice of dark and sinister reading material, that this list is as tame as it is!

Have you read any of these books? Do you like the fumsup as much as I do (creepy little guy!)? Are you taking part in Top Ten Tuesday this week? Let me know in the comments.

So there we have it! If you fancy joining in next week then head on over to That Artsy Reader Girl’s blog to find out what the next topic is!