Several pieces of good news today! Which to start with . . . I am now officially only 100 pages away from finishing Charles Palliser's The Quincunx. I feel as though this is a momentous announcement, so I had to make it (complete with photo--poor though it may be) here, to all of you. Sound the trumpets, a little fanfare please!
Okay, we'll save that for when I turn the last page. I am getting ready to begin the last section of the book--where all shall be revealed (or so I hope)! It's been quite a ride, I must say. Since I am soclose, I have decided to give it my full attention rather than messing with ten pages a day and dragging it out over the course of several weeks. And now that things are beginning to wrap up, I am finding it compelling reading. Of course, as compelling as it may be, focusing on just this book brings home to me just how much I like to be able to sample a variety of books each and every day. Fingers crossed that by Sunday night I'll be closing the book one final time (until I write about it that is).
Second piece of good news. I'm not sure whether I shared that I was taking an online class that relates to my job at the library. My duties have changed somewhat (actually in some ways fairly radically), so I have needed to learn some new things and the class was meant to give me a little foundation and extra training. I had to complete six modules dealing with Cataloging (we use Library of Congress Classification). It is almost like learning a new language! It's been a challenge and taking the class has been a lot of extra work. I completed the work for the last module, submitted it and learned that I earned all possible points. So my hard work has paid off. More trumpets and fanfare please. As much as I like learning new things, I am relieved to be finished. There is the added pressure of doing well (which I would try and do in any case) as the library paid for the class. I need to make sure I finished all my tasks, but today the course ends and I will once again be the master of my own time (well, more or less anyway).
I've had lots of things going on lately and hopefully finishing the class will ease things up a bit. Maybe I can finally get caught up on my other 'extracurricular' reading (as in online reading, my newspapers and magazines . . . ).
This is good news of a different kind. Look what came in the mail yesterday. While I didn't venture out shopping over the Thanksgiving weekend, I did take advantage of two bookstore coupons. I couldn't decide how to use one of them, but I wanted to choose something I wouldn't normally have splurged on. I am not sure what made the Laura Ingalls Wilder Little House books pop into my head, but I have always wanted the complete set, so I indulged in the boxed set of paperbacks. And I even got the nine-volume set. Aren't they pretty?
I read some of them when I was a kid, but I never read all the books in the whole set. Doesn't this just call out as a little reading project for 2014? I can already visualize it. I might even start reading the first book as a reward when I finish the Palliser. And I know there is peripheral reading I can do, too. Maybe a biography of Laura Ingalls Wilder, or some books about the period, life on the Prairie--you get the idea. I think these will be a real treat to revisit!
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And I have a few links to pass on to you for the weekend:
Check out this year's Costa Short Story Award finalists. There are six and you can download them to listen to or read and then they invite you to go back and vote on your favorite.
Check out Jeane's (at Dogear Diary) tutorial on making an ereader cover out of an old book, if you're feeling crafty this weekend.
'Tis the season. Go Christmas shopping with Virginia Woolf.
And then check out Belle's (at Belle, Book, and Candle) Gifts for Readers here and here.
I've been thinking lately about my own favorite books this year. Take a look at the NYTBR's 100 Notable Books of 2013. Unsurprisingly I have not read any of them, but I have a few on my TBR pile (and a further couple checked out from the library). I'm looking forward to reading several of them and will be investigating several more. Eventually anyway.
One more piece of good news, which you'll get to partake in, too! It's Friday! What's your good news? (I'll be trying to stay warm since we are now enjoying a good, strong Arctic blast of cold weather with a forecast that includes the S word and subzero temperatures). I am hoping to go to this Holiday Market, will decorate my mini tree (I want to string popcorn and cranberries--I am feeling strangely festive this year--happy to be done with my class, I suspect). But mostly I hope to spend time reading!