All Things Bookish - 2012

Have I mentioned that I love to read???

And that I love books???

I am actually on a book buying "diet" - notice I did not say "fast".  If you have had opportunity to visit my home, you would agree that I have quite a few books (and when you add in those belonging to my husband, well........). 

Anyway, for a number of years I have frequented several local library used book sales on a regular basis and usually left those sales with a bag (or two) FULL of wonderful books. 

Several weeks ago I realized that if I did not slow down on book buying I would have to:

• Buy a library to house all my books;
• Read continuously for 3,249 years in order to read everything;
• Install steel beams in our house to hold the weight of my ever increasing collection;
• Stop feeding the cats because the cat food budget was spent at book sales;
• Stop feeding my husband because the husband food budget was spent at book sales;
• Stop eating chocolate because the chocolate budget was spent at book sales!

HOLD ON!!!!! I can't stop eating chocolate! 

So, the only thing to do was to put myself on a book sale diet.  I can happily report that I have not been to a library book sale in several months and I can now even read about these sales without hyperventilating and salivating excessively!

Again, notice I said "diet" and not "fast".  I may still buy a book (notice I said "a" book instead of a "bag" of books) every now and then.  In fact, I was in Goodwill last week and found a Rick Bragg book that I have never run across before - a compilation of his newstories.  So, I bought - let me also mention that it was priced with a blue tag and all blue tags were 50% off last week!  Bingo! 

How long will my book diet last?  Good question!  Maybe when I start seeing some available space on my bookshelves? 

I'm not a book hoarder (I don't think).  Once I have read a book, it usually 1) gets passed on to a friend to enjoy; 2) gets sold on Ebay; 3) goes *back* to Goodwill; or 4) stays in my library if it is a book/author that I want to read again at some point.   Here is my guess on that breakdown:
     #1 given to a friend - 35%
     #2 sold on Ebay - 15%
     #3 donated back to Goodwill - 15%
     #4 kept in my "library" - 35%

I do keep track of the books that I read througout the year.  When I finish a book, I make note of the title and author on my calendar.  I have kept a "Books Read" journal for about 20 years which I try to update on an annual basis using the information noted on my calendar.  I also keep track of books electronically.  I was using Shelfari but have just recently switched over to Goodreads.  I like the electronic version especially for keeping a list of books "to read". 

Here is the list of books that I finished reading in 2012.  You'll find a variety of subjects/genres on this list.  One genre that I totally neglect is poetry.  Maybe this year I will read through some of my poetry books (I know I have Emily Dickinson, Robert Browning, Robert Frost and *many* more).
So, here goes........

• Forgotten Bookmarks:  A Bookseller's Collection of Odd Things Lost Between the Pages by Michael Popek
• C. H. Spurgeon - Beside Still Waters:  Words of Comfort for the Soul, Roy H. Clarke, Ed.
• The Cross of Christ by John R. W. Stott
• A Separate Peace by John Knowles
• Tending Your Garden: Wisdom for Keepers at Home by Denise Sproul
• Dakota: A Spiritual Geography by Kathleen Norris
• Wise Counsel: John Newton's Letters to John Ryland, Jr., Grant Gordon, Ed.
• Lives of Mothers & Daughters: Growing Up with Alice Munro by Sheila Munro
• Life as a Vapor: 31 Meditations for Your Faith by John Piper
• Gardening Letters to My Daughter by Anne Scott-James
• Blue Hills and Shoofly Pie by Ann Hark
• Library: An Unquiet History by Matthew Battles
• The Last Dickens by Matthew Pearl
• Life with Mother by Clarence Day
• Carrot Cake Murder by JoAnne Fluke
• The Winter Garden by Johanna Verweerd
• Fifty Reasons Why Jesus Came to Die by John Piper
• A Small Country Living Goes On by Jeanine McMullen
• Thrumpton Hall: A Memoir of Life in my Father's House by Miranda Seymour
• The Girls from Ames: A Story of Women and a Forty-Year Friendship by Jeffrey Zaslow
• The Virgin Blue by Tracy Chevalier
• Letters to Anna: The Civil War Through the Eyes and Heart of a Solier by James R. Knight
• Falling Angels by Tracy Chevalier
• An Unknown Woman by Alice Koller
• Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson
• Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay
• Seabiscuit: An American Ledgend by Laura Hillenbrand
• A Gift from Brittany: A Memoir of Love and Loss in the French Countryside by Marjorie Price
• The Law of Kindness: Serving with Heart and Hands by Mary Beeke
• Letters In a Woodpile: Essays from NPR All Things Considered Commentator by Ed Cullen
• Brunelleschi's Dome: How a Renaissance Genius Reinvented Architecture by Ross King
• A Guide to Writer's Homes in New England by Miriam Levine
• Cross Creek by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings

My favorite?  Without a doubt...."Seabiscuit"!  I also enjoyed "A Small Country Living Goes On", "The Cross of Christ", "Gardening Letters to my Daughter", and "A Separate Peace".

Which ones did I finish only because I hate to NOT finish a book?  "Library: An Unquiet History", and "An Unknown Woman".  And had I not visited Florence, Italy last year and seen the Duomo, "Brunelleschi's Dome" would have been a difficult book for me to finish.

How am I doing in 2013?  With five weeks under my belt, I think I have finished 5 or 6 books, three of which were probably started at the end of 2012.  Without further ado I better bring this post to a close and head to my favorite reading nook!