A la Litlove, I think today is going to have to be a bullet point sort of day. I came home tonight to a computer experiencing technical difficulties. For some odd reason my font and display are whacked out (the font and icons are huge) and I can't quite get them back to normal. I've been messing with the settings adjustments but it still doesn't look like it should and so is driving me a little crazy (hence the bullet points as I've wasted all my 'computer time' trying to resolve the issue). Any ideas on how to get it back to normal would be much appreciated.
So, a few odds and ends that have been on my mind of late, since I'm not going to have time for normal bookishness tonight.
- This has been a crazy work week. It's felt like Friday (well, that it should be Friday anyway) from the moment I arrived Monday morning and finally I am looking Friday in the eye. Thank goodness. It couldn't have come a moment sooner.
- I'm more than normally behind in my usual online reading/chatting/blogging activity. I've been hugely neglectful and someday I am going to not only be caught up but feel caught up. I can dream anyway. I did finally log into Google Reader a little earlier and sorted through more than 250 blog posts. Yikes. How easy it is to fall behind. I hate feeling out of the loop, which is how I am feeling at the moment.
- I've been contemplating next year's reading and what projects or readalongs or challenges (personal or in a group setting) I might take advantage of. I must say, they abound. I'm most interested in perhaps trying to read from my own bookshelves for part of the year in 2013. Not buying so many books or borrowing so many (though keeping extra good lists, which I've had much practice doing). Forget trying to whittle down my own piles as at this point it's just not going to happen, but on a couple of occasions this year I read books that had long sat on my shelves for years and found I liked them very much (and really need to do more of that--reading from my own shelves that is).
- To that end, there are at least two bloggers who are inspiring other readers to do just that (see above bullet point). There's the TBR Double Dog Dare and the 2013 TBR Pile Challenge. Should I? Could I? Maybe I'll informally plan to join in without actually joining in. Will have to contemplate it. But it would be great fun, I think, to start browsing through the books in my (very messy) book room. The nice thing about having a personal library is being able to dip into it whenever you like and finding something you completely forgot you owned.
As you can see I would have plenty of books to choose from. I wish I could say I've read each and every book in these two photos, but I'm afraid I haven't (I've read far more of the books from the top photo, but as for this second one my reading has been much more hit or miss. And then there are the shelves not pictured . . . sorry the room is far too messy and small to give you a larger look).
- The Slaves of Golconda have chosen their next book to read (for January in case anyone would like to join in and read along): Doctor Glas by Hjalmer Soderberg.
- I'm very tempted to read along with Cornflower's Book Group when they pick up Iain Pear's An Instance of the Fingerpost in February. It would actually fit in very nicely with reading from my shelves since I've owned a copy of the book since it came out in paper, which was years and years ago.
- I'm looking forward to getting my next postal reading book group book in the mail. It's always a surprise to see what will arrive. I loved the last book I read and just mailed on to the next person in the group.
- And then Simon is reading Julia Strachey's Cheerful Weather for the Wedding in January in anticipation of the movie coming out. Another temptation I might not be able to resist. Plus the book is short and has long been on my reading pile. See how easy it would be to spend lots of time reading from my own shelves? (But can I wean myself off of library books even temporarily?).
- I'm also intrigued by Simon's Century of Books project. I know there are other bloggers who have been doing this as well. I'm not sure how long it has taken him to read through a century of books (one book published each year starting with 1900), but it sounds like a fun thing to do. Not that I need to add any other ideas to my own reading, but that could be a long term project. I read mostly from the 20th century so could probably fill in the years relatively easily.
- Caroline has posted the list of books for her 2013 Literature and War Readalong, do go take a look. I've really enjoyed reading along for the last two years and look forward to exploring the books on her new list (you know how I love book lists!). I had hoped to read all the books from this year's list, but I am going to be short by one book I think--one I missed from the summer. Still 11 out of 12 is pretty good (though am still working on the last two so maybe had better not get ahead of myself?).
- I've got a list of thirteen books I really want to read this month. I've finished one so far. Twelve more to go. Anyone interested in hearing what they are?
- And one more item. I've had a question about getting the posts published here delivered into email inboxes. Unfortunately Typepad does not offer this service, but I can set it up through another provider but wondered if there would be anymore interest by others. I'd have to search around for a company that does this (does any other blogger offer this to readers?). It sounds quite nice and I'd like to be able to do it as well if I can set it up.
Okay. Happy weekend everyone. The wonky font on my computer is getting to me and I think I've chattered on long enough. Hope everyone gets to spend time with a good book (or two) this weekend. I know I'm going to do my best to do so.