A while back I mentioned these very cool commemorative stamps that had just been issued by the Royal Mail in celebration of the two hundred year anniversary of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice and the hope that I might find one or two on some mail coming my way. In just the last week look what has appeared in my mailbox, kindly sent to me by two friends in Britain with whom I correspond. I've now got three of the six designs (you can see them all here), so how lucky I am to have not only received them, but received different stamps--for Emma, Mansfield Park and Sense and Sensibility. (Many thanks to John and Julia!). Sometimes the stamps on cards and letters are tiny works of art, don't you think? This puts me in the mood to pick up one of Jane Austen's novels, which I hope to do at some point this year.
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Last month was a busy month in more ways than one. A very busy work month and there are no signs of any let up this month or even next. Even though when I leave work I leave behind all the worries associated with it, they somehow seem to absorb me so much when I am there that I can still feel them in my body when I am at home, and they have nonetheless spilled over into my "home time". I am forever behind in things online, so please do forgive me if I seem somewhat absent here even though I am still managing to post fairly regularly.
Last month was a busy month, too, for group reads. I'm hoping this month to catch up on those books I had started for readalongs/book groups, but for which I seem to have missed the discussions. I love reading along with others, as this is often a great way to discover new books, but I always forget how slow a reader I am. I dive in without thinking of possible time constraints, but no one minds, so I'll keep plugging away at my books. The only structured reading this month will be Timothy Findley's The Wars for the Literature and War Readalong. I'm hoping to read a book or two along with friends this month, however, but more at leisure than in too structured way.
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Litlove is planning on reading a series of creative nonfiction books over the course of the spring and summer and into fall and has posted a list of titles. So more opportunities to read along. There are a few that have caught my eye and I do hope to join in this summer. Something to look forward to.
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Last year I decided I wanted to reread Elizabeth Jane Howard's The Cazalet Chronicles, which I'd read years ago and loved. I only managed to read the first volume, The Light Years, but I have Marking Time sitting on my night stand. I have been gently nudged to return to it as Howard will be publishing the fifth and last volume this November. That should surely give me plenty of time to read the other three, right? The last book is called All Change, but as yet there is no listing online for it.
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After the challenge of reading Elizabeth Bowen this weekend, I was thinking it might be time again for something frothy and frivolous (à la Cashelmara perhaps). Something a little different and mindless, kind of 'on the side', if you will. So I've been 'trying out' books this afternoon and at the moment I have them narrowed down to Georgette Heyer (I usually like to read a Heyer or two every year, but I think I've not picked up any of her books in a couple of years now--definitely time), Judith Lennox and Jennifer Donnelly. Unless something else catches my eye that is. I have quite an array of comfort reads to choose from, so it is always a dilemma. Also something nice, too, to take to work when I need something not requiring too much concentration on break time!
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You've probably heard that Google Reader is going to retire July 1? Although not entirely happy with GR as the best way to read blog posts, it is much easier to corral them in a feed reader, so now I will need to find a good alternative. Lots of people seem to be using/switching to Bloglovin, so I will likely check them out, too. How does everyone else read/keep track of blog posts? Teresa at Shelf Love raised some interesting concerns about RSS feeds and the high use of other social media venues. Although I do occasionally use Twitter, I am not on Facebook, and find already that my time online is limited, so I'm unsure how these changes will affect foot traffic here. I'm not very good at promoting posts and taking advantage of other reading/blog sites. Typepad is not always very good at incorporating other methods of reaching out to readers through their blog add-ons (email subscriptions for example), so it tends to create more work that I tend to ignore. Then again for my small readership and my own very quiet corner of the web, maybe it doesn't matter.
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And now in typical, I'll worry about those questions later, fashion, I'm off to decide which comfort read to choose. Priorities.