A Work in Progress

Fun With Anne Taintor

I just love Anne Taintor!  Check out her website!!

This one is particularly fitting after a full day of Christmas shopping!

A Book Lover's Book

Today I received a surprise in the mail from my friend Sandy.  Along with some other goodies (two bookmarks are included in those goodies) was this very cool book--A Book Lover's Diary.  It has literary woodcut illustrations and loads of bookish quotes.  There is lots of room  for book lists, which is good as I will need it.  There is a section for book clubs, and a place for me to write more book quotes.  However, I am sorry to say I might not use the "Sharing Books" section.  It is not that I don't want to share my books.  I am quite happy to share titles and book lists, but if I loan a book out, I better be ready to just consider it a gift as more often than not, I have not gotten the book back!!  Important Rule:  Be careful who you loan books to!!  I guess if I do loan them out, I have a place to keep a record of it!  I also have my first book I can add to one of the lists--I had some Christmas shopping to do after work today, and I stopped at the bookstore.  They happened to have Dava Sobel's The Planets on sale for 50% off.  I even received an additional 10% off as I have a discount card.  How could I pass up that deal?  When I first read about this one, I knew I would buy it eventually. I have a feeling this might just be one of the books I will get to read on my vacation!!

17 Days! Yes, Count Them!

17!  That is the number of days I will have off between my last day of work, and the day the university reopens.  17 blissful, work free days.  What do I plan on doing, you might ask?  I'd say that photo is pretty descriptive.  I decided to take the week before Christmas off from work.  This year we are getting gyped thanks to when Christmas falls.  Christmas Eve is on a Saturday, Christmas on a Sunday and ditto for New Years!  That means a paltry five days in between the university will be closed down.  Since I didn't get much of a vacation this year--I am taking my days right before the holidays!  Actually over my break I will be hanging with my family, baking some cookies, and also working on some needlework projects.  But I am all geared up for some late night reading sessions, too!

So, what shall I read???  Hmm?  Any good ideas?  I plan on reading The Woman in Black by Susan Hill (remember I mentioned that chapter 1 is entitled Christmas Eve?--gotta have a ghost story over the holidays for sure!).  I have also read some good things about Joan Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking, and Margaret Atwood's The Penelopiad (and she has a new one coming out Jan. 10th called The Tent).  I am not sure what else.  Of course I might just be getting a book or two for Christmas, and perhaps a gift certificate as well??...so I am sure a trip to the bookstore will be in order one of those days as well!

I am also contemplating doing The Library Thing.  I keep hearing about it, and seeing other people's lists.  I may have to start this as well.  The only problem--my computer is upstairs and most of my books are downstairs!  And perhaps I will put together my own version of "best books of the year" like I saw at Bookshelves of Doom.  So many possibilities!  Ah, the joy of thinking about all that free time!!

So Sorry Morag!

Sorry, Morag Joss, but your book, Funeral Music, is going back into the shuffle of mystery books.  It wasn't that the writing was not good--the writing was good.  Or that the characters were annoying--Sarah seems like a nice enough sleuth.  But I just was not getting into the story.  I just never want to pick it up to read.  So I am choosing one that I should have started reading when I bought it (anything that is purchased in hardcover needs to be read before it comes out in paper--or I get depressed thinking of the extra money I could have used to buy another book with!).  Jacqueline Winspear writes the Maisie Dobbs mystery series, and I have thoroughly enjoyed her first two novels!  Pardonable Lies is the third in the series, and it came out earlier this Fall.  The books are set in post-WWI England.  Time to hear from Maisie!

Subzero Temperatures Call for a Book Set in Russia

Technically I should read Boris Pasternak's Doctor Zhivago in the sweltering heat of July, when I can just dream of the icy cold as a remedy to the heat and humidity.  Instead I am reading it now when we are experiencing colder than normal weather.  It seems to snow a little every other day, and I am actually looking forward to this weekend when the highs are supposed to break into the 30s!  How warm that will feel!  I saw the remake of Doctor Zhivago last year (during my winter break), and thought I really need to read the book.  Actually I only saw the second half of the movie, so I know the ending, but I don't care.  Books are always better than movies.  I admit I have never seen the David Lean version of this.  I ordered it as a sale item from my video club, so I will save it for after I have read the book.  I know that the Lean version is a fairly loose telling of the story, and the PBS version was a closer telling of it.  I admit I have not really read much Russian literature, but I have had a fascination with Russia and its culture since I was in high school.  This one has been pretty high up on my TBR pile for some time.  Off to tackle those long Russian names!

Majorly Thumping Good Read!

 

30 pages to go!  Count Fosco is confessing.  Can there be any more twists and turns?  I fear we are not finished yet!  I highly recommend this book!  I don't want it to end, but I have dragged it out long enough!  My next reading selection is all picked out....

Christmas Market a la Vienna

I went to my own local little Christmas market this afternoon.  I don't think Vienna will need to worry about any competition!  It was a very small affair, and you can't really even compare one with the other. It was in a heated tent and there were not many vendors.  I have a feeling it was probably better yesterday.  But I did buy a yummy cherry almond crunch pie!  Quite a few years ago I was fortunate enough to live in Austria (in a small town outside of Vienna) for a year.  At Christmastime they put on a spectacular Christkindlmarkt in front of the Rathaus.  I am sorry I cut off the top of the Rathaus, but I was trying to include some of the stalls and the display in the center.

They sell the most wonderful confections there.  You can also buy gifts and decorations.  When I was there, and I am sure it is true today, there were all sorts of events and activities for families.  I would love to go back there at this time of year!!

A festive holiday window to help you get into the Christmas mood!

21 Days and Counting

I have a feeling we are going to have a very snowy and cold winter this year. For one thing, we use gas to heat our home, and as the cost of this type of gas is rather expensive at the moment, Murphy's Law pretty well guarantees that it will be especially cold all winter long so we can pay an exorbitant sum of money to someone!  It snowed all morning laying down a fresh blanket of white.  As long as I am in the house and can watch it out the window, I actually think snow is quite pretty.  I even don't mind the thought of having a White Christms this year, which we have not had for several years now.  It is only the frosty temperatures that I don't care for. 

Perhaps this will help put me in the Christmas Spirit, however, as so far I have not been motivated in the least to even think about any of it at all!  No Christmas tree yet. Nary a present bought.  Not a single card addressed.  On Thursday at work when I flipped the calendar over to December on my desk, and I really looked at  how much time was left before the holiday I nearly gasped.  I guess I better get cracking.  I may just have to order everything I can online to avoid crush of people in stores.  Tomorrow I am planning on going to a Christmas Market downtown, which is meant to be modelled after the markets they have in Germany and Austria at this time of year.  I have been fortunate enough to attend them, so I am curious how it will compare.  If I can, I will take a few photos, but if not I will share some from the real thing!  They are more than a few years old, but festive nonetheless.

Until then, I guess I will be like Chispa and watch the snow, and contemplate my gift list.  Oops. I better go make my gift list.

Lessons Learned...(or... Still Working On Learning...)

I have been enjoying reading the short essays in So Many Books, So Little Time by Sara Nelson.  This is a book which is not terribly demanding, and that you can pick up and put down easily and not lose any of the content.  While I don't always agree with her book choices, she makes some good points about reading in general.  For example, I think I am still part of that group she calls "the clean plate book club."  She talks about reading a book by James McBride, whose first book she had loved,  called Miracle at St. Anna, which she was not enjoying and was slogging through.

"By page 60, I still hadn't latched on to any of the characters.  By page 70, my mind wandered to the words of that Chorus Line song: 'I feel nothing'.

So I did something that I have only in my maturity learned how to do: I stopped reading.  Right there on page 71, right after the hero, a brain-damaged soldier, encounters the little boy who will change his life.  I might pick it up again, I told myself.  And I might.  But I doubt it."

I tell myself some of the same things Nelson writes about--it must be somewhat universal amongst readers--I just paid for the hardcover--I must finish it.  My friend loved it, so I better, too.  It is The book and everyone is reading it, and the reviewers say it is wonderful (so why don't I love it, too?).  Someone spent so much time researching and writing this, I should give them the benefit of the doubt.

I haven't quite gotten myself to that point.  Not entirely anyway.  There are books that I have put down, or returned to the library, but I always tell myself I will pick them up later.  I hate starting something and not finishing it.  How many pages should you give a book anyway, before you declare it a lost cause?  For example, at the moment I am working on a Morag Joss mystery, and I thought I would really like it, but now I am not so sure.  To be fair, I have other books calling my attention, and quite often I will pick those up before the Joss book.  I can probably get my way through just about any book, but the question is, should I? 

Why is Postage So Much?

I tried to order The Woman in Black by Susan Hill from Amazon.  I ordered it and waited.  And Waited.  And finally was told it would not arrive until after the holidays (after I had been told it was guaranteed to arrive by the holidays).  So I gave up.  I then turned to some of my trusty used online stores, and they had copies.  Unfortunately they all seemed to be shipping from the UK or Canada.  Certainly there must be copies floating around here in the US somewhere--apparently not, though.  So I decided that if I had to order from the UK, I might as well just order a new copy, so I turned to Amazon.uk.  They also discount.  Wonderful, or so I thought.  Unfortunately you need to be rich as King Midas to afford the shipping rates from Amazon.uk.  I wonder if all UK online bookstores charge the same outrageous rates.  Perhaps I should have investigated a bit more.  But, I didn't.  So I will try to forget that the shipping nearly cost as much as the books!  I ordered two copies--one for me and one for my mom for Christmas as she likes ghost stories, and I have heard this is a good one.  Any other ideas of books that are good ghost stories would be most welcome--I am always looking for books to give my mom.  I think this one will be sitting at the top of the TBR pile.  The first chapter is entitled Christmas Eve.  Maybe I will save it for the holidays.  Nothing like a good ghost story for Christmas, eh?