Top 10s: the first list

Now that the month of November is over, meaning that NaNoWriMo is over, I have a lot of blogging to catch up on! I was so busy writing for NaNo that I did neglect this poor blog somewhat. But on the positive side, I have many reviews to post over the next couple of weeks!



I thought I'd ease back into things by participating in this week's Weekly Geeks assignment. This is a carry-over from last week, a request to post your favourite books so far this year, out of those which were published in 2009. I have my yearly roundup to post in a few weeks, which will cover all my reading this year, but for now I thought I would share a list of 10 great books I've read in 2009 which were also published in 2009.



1. Broken / Karin Fossum (mystery/literary)



2. Come, Thou Tortoise / Jessica Grant (literary fiction)



3. Family Album / Penelope Lively (literary fiction)



4. The Incident Report / Martha Baillie (literary fiction)



5. The Good Mayor / Andrew Nicoll (literary fiction)



6. The Children's Book / A.S. Byatt (literary fiction)



7. The Sweetness at the bottom of the pie / Alan Bradley (mystery)



8. The Earth hums in B flat / Mari Strachan (literary fiction)



9. In Bed with the word / Daniel Coleman (non-fiction; literary discussions, spirituality)



10. Where our Food comes from / Gary Paul Nabhan (non-fiction; food issues, sustainable agriculture)

Weekly Geeks World Tour

This week's Weekly Geeks asks you to tell us about your globe trotting via books. Are you a global reader? How many countries have you "visited" in your reading? What are your favorite places or cultures to read about? Can you recommend particularly good books about certain regions, countries or continents? How do you find out about books from other countries? What countries would you like to read that you haven't yet?

I do enjoy reading about places 'elsewhere'. Fiction provides an excellent opportunity to really get into somebody's mind and see the world from their point of view. One of my favourite Proustian quotes which encapsulates this idea for me says that "The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes."

Some of the places I seem to read about most, besides my own North American surroundings, are England, France, Eastern Europe (especially Ukraine), Japan and China, and a smattering of various other countries here and there. I particularly enjoy reading about Ukraine, because of my family background, and since my trip to Kyiv I've only become more fascinated by Ukrainian culture. I also really enjoy reading Scandinavian fiction, for no real reason except that I somehow connect with it. Nevertheless, when I was looking at my reading habits for this post, I realized I haven't read as widely as I had thought; I am aware of many books in translation, which are on my TBR, but I haven't actually read as many as I anticipated. One of the areas that is lacking which was pointed out by this exercise was South America. Except for Garcia Marquez, I haven't made great inroads into the writing of South America, although there are so many authors to choose from!

One of the ways I find suggestions for great international fiction is through all of you: other bloggers' reading habits inspire my own, very often. There are also a few sites that result in growing lists of things I really want to buy! One is World Literature Today; they have limited content up at their website but it is fascinating stuff. Here are a few works in translation I've read recently and really enjoyed --

• The Book of Chameleons / José Eduardo Agualusa (Angola)
• The Elegance of the Hedgehog / Muriel Barbary (France)
• Miss Chopsticks / Xinran (China)
• The Post Office Girl / Stefan Zweig (Austria)
• Doctor Glas / Hjalmar Soderberg (Sweden) *I read this classic years ago but it remains one of my favourite books; I've reread it a couple of times and recommend it

Over at One Swede Read, there's a list of all the countries of the world with the relevant books she's read slotted in. (And she reviews a wide variety of world fiction). It's a handy way of keeping track, and seeing where your titles tend to pile up. And of course there's always a map -- Weekly Geeks has provided a link so we can all create our reading maps this week. I like what Christina over at Jackets & Covers has done with her map; she's created one map to show where she has physically travelled, then a second to show her bookish rambles. I haven't gone many places in real life, but my reading rambles are quite extravagant, so I'm stealing her idea! To see what other people are reading and what their suggestions for international fiction are, be sure to visit other Weekly Geeks -- I've already discovered both new bloggers and numerous new titles.


First, where I have actually gone...



create your own visited country map


Then, where my reading has taken me...



create your own reading map

Reviews: upcoming and questionable!

This week's project for the Weekly Geeks is timely for me: it is all about catching up on reviews! For some reason I've been reading a lot more than writing & reviewing the past few weeks so I do have quite a number of books I want to talk about. Here's the complete WG assignment:

1. In your blog, list any books you’ve read but haven’t reviewed yet. If you’re all caught up on reviews, maybe you could try this with whatever book(s) you hope to finish this week. (Be sure to leave a link to this post either in the comments of this post, or in the Mister Linky below.)

2. Ask your readers to ask you questions about any of the books they want. In your comments, not in their blogs. (Most likely, people who will ask you questions will be people who have read one of the books or know something about it because they want to read it.)

3. Later, take whichever questions you like from your comments and use them in a post about each book. Link to each blogger next to that blogger’s question(s).

4. Visit other Weekly Geeks and ask them some questions!


So, here are some of the books I will be reviewing sometime soon; please question away!

Faery Rebels: Spell Hunter / R.J. Anderson

(YA tale known as Knife in the UK, it's her first novel and a wonderful take on having fairies at the bottom of the garden)

The Good Mayor / Andrew Nicoll

(Scottish author; read as an ARC)

The Children's Book / A.S. Byatt

(via Random House Canada)

The Story Sisters / Alice Hoffman

(also via Random House Canada)

Moon Tiger / Penelope Lively & Consequences / Penelope Lively

(2 of Lively's novels from the library; I've always meant to read her books and a patron got me started; now I can't stop)

Summer Reading Habits

This week over at Weekly Geeks there are two questions. The first concerns Memorial Day, but since I am not in the US and it is not a holiday here in Canada, I chose the second -- how does the change of seasons affect your reading habits? There were a couple of questions within this theme:

Do your reading habits change over the summer? Do you choose lighter fare? What do you enjoy to take to the beach, for example?

Summer doesn't cause a lot of change for me -- I am generally a mood reader so I can suddenly be taken with the urge to read "beach books" in the depths of winter or bleak and wintery Russian novels in August. There is one thing I find, however: I always think I'll have tons more time to read in the summer. I rarely take holidays over the summer so there is no reason for this belief -- I guess years of following the school schedule has trained me to think of summer days as longer and more carefree, nonetheless. So I have great, if unfounded, hope for lots of reading being done!

What is the ultimate summer book?

I don't know about an 'ultimate' choice, but I read Janice Kulyk Keefer's The Ladies' Lending Library in the summer of '07 and found that to be a great summer read. It is set at Kalyna Beach and takes place over the summer weeks that a community of women spends at their cottages; really timely and it just feels like summer.

What are your favorite travel guides -- official or unofficial guides?

Well, again, since I don't get away much, one guide I've found that is tons of fun is Lonely Planet's Guide to Experimental Travel. It's all about travelling where you are. Very quirky and fun.


Well, although I've just said that changing seasons don't affect my reading habits, I have been making a tentative plan for my reading this summer. I've been feeling an urge to do some rereading, and think that I will dedicate this July & August to just that -- rereads of books I first read years ago. I'd really like to tackle Watership Down, LM Montgomery's Emily series, Earth and High Heaven by Gwethalyn Graham, some Thomas Hardy or Virginia Woolf (probably The Waves) and whatever else strikes my fancy. I've just finished rereading the fantasy novel The Labyrinth Gate, a true comfort read for me and a return to some familiar writing. I love all the new books I've been discovering but want to revisit some old friends as well. Does anyone else try to balance new releases with older ones -- either rereadings or just finally getting to items on the TBR? Or does that element matter to you?

Bookmarking It

I've been away from my blog for over a week -- really away from the Internet in general, as I have been quite violently ill for the past week with some kind of nasty bug. I had to call in sick to work for more than one day, which I hate doing, and for two days I could scarcely open my eyes or bear to have music/tv/audiobooks on as my ears hurt so much. Those were two pretty crummy days, let me say. At least my husband could read to me, which he did; we've begun the first book in the new Vish Puri mystery series by Tarquin Hall , The Case of the Missing Servant. Just what I needed! Anyhow, as I am now somewhat on the mend, I had to pop in just to participate in this week's Weekly Geeks project -- all about bookmarks. They ask:


Do you use bookmarks or just grab whatever is handy to mark your page? Do you collect lots of different bookmarks or do you have a favorite one that you use exclusively? If you're not someone who uses bookmarks on a regular basis, have you ever used anything odd to mark your place?


I love bookmarks, and my husband has even more than I do (but then he's been collecting longer!) We like them as art objects, as historical documents, and as clever bookish items. I have a few favourites I like to use; for example, I have some with herb & spice images that I use with my cookbooks. I have some with pressed flowers that I enjoy using when I am reading Victorian literature. Most of the time though, I am not nearly so well organized or well prepared and end up using slips of paper which are near at hand, despite the plethora of real bookmarks in the house. Some of these end up being grocery receipts, old to-do lists, notes to myself which are incomprehensible when I read them after they've been stuck in a book for ages, and so on. I have discovered one odd source for very effective bookmarks, though; the perfume counter at the nearest department store. Have you noticed that the little paper thingies that you're supposed to spray perfume on, I assume, are the perfect bookmark shape and size? I use them all the time now -- they are always changing and I find new kinds like the one with a crown at the top on a strip of paper (although I can't remember the name of the perfume...oops) or an apple shaped "Nina" one. My all time favourite is the lovely yellow one for the perfume Poème that Juliette Binoche used to hawk. It started me on this kick as it seemed very apropos for the purpose. Anyhow, no pictures or futher ruminations to share tonight - must take more drugs and get to sleep!! Hopefully my brain will be recovered enough to start some reviewing again next week.

Weekly Geeks: Cookbooks Galore

This week the Geeks are talking cookbooks. I love cookbooks and have highlighted this before... see my previous collection roundup to see my favourites. I mainly buy vegetarian and lately vegan cookbooks, unless it is a specific topic I am otherwise interested in, for example, a cookbook about tea or a local, charity cookbook. As for the cookbooks I use most often, I'd say lately I've been trying out quite a few recipes from Jae Steel's Get It Ripe; it's one of my most recent purchases and I'm still getting to know it. She has wonderful cookie recipes!

But the recipe collection I use most frequently is one I've collected myself; over the years as I find recipes I go back to again and again I've written them out on recipe cards and filled a small photo album. It's extremely convenient; each pocket is the size of a recipe card, and made of plastic -- easy to wipe splashes and spills off. And it makes it easy for whoever is making dinner to quickly locate the required favourite recipe, whether it is me or my baking fiend of a husband.

Weekly Geeks: Review Links

This week a theme is being revived by the Weekly Geeks:

Here's what we'll do:

1. Write a post encouraging readers to look through your archives (if you have your reviews in a particular place on your blog, point them there), and find the books that they have also written reviews. Tell them to leave a link to their review on your review post. For example, I've written a review for Gods Behaving Badly and Jane Doe leaves a link to her review of Gods Behaving Badly in the comments section of my review.

2. Edit your reviews to include those links in the body of the review post.

3. Visit other Weekly Geeks and go through their reviews. Leave links for them.

4. Leave a note somewhere on your blog to let people know this is your new policy.

5. Write a post later this week letting us know how your project is going!

I am always pleased to link to other people's reviews; in fact I try to do it regularly, although sometimes I do forget to check before posting a new review. Please do leave me a link in the comments if you see a book I've read which you have as well -- I think it is always interesting to see multiple perspectives on a book. I don't have an archive all in one place yet but am working on a blog overhaul so perhaps soon... in any case, since Dewey started this habit ages ago, I've been trying to keep it in mind, so link away!

Cover Art

Weekly Geeks is colourful this time around; we are told:

This week it's all about judging books by their covers! Pick a book--any book, really--and search out multiple book cover images for that book. They could span a decade or two (or more)...Or they could span several countries. Which cover is your favorite? Which one is your least favorite? Which one best 'captures' what the book is about?

I've chosen to highlight some of the incarnations of L.M. Montgomery's Emily of New Moon. Anne of Green Gables is of course better known but I love Emily and thought there were some interesting covers to share. (If you want to see hundreds of covers for all of LMM's books try looking at the LM Montgomery Book Cover Gallery or at a sampling over at a fancy page created by a partnership of LMM sites and libraries and the virtual museum.)

Here are some of the covers I found:

The first 2 on the far left are my favourites; the first because it is the copy I read many times over; the second because it is the original cover and very beautiful. There are a few covers here I've never seen before, which is great, and then there's the lovely 60's one in the second row, ew. I really like the one with the silhouetted tree and Emily beneath, it is new to me. I'm not sure which one I think captures the story best, though; most of them seem to reflect both the story and the era in which they were created. I find the last one to be very reminiscent of The Borrowers or Magic Elizabeth, and a few other children's books of the 60's/70's. I wonder if it was the same artist? This was a fun exercise, and I've enjoyed looking at some of the other participants' choices as well; I'll have to find some time and look at them all.

Weekly Geeks: Passions and Fascinations

The Weekly Geeks assignment this week caught my eye:

What are you passionate about besides reading and blogging? For example, are you crafty (knitting, woodworking, scrapbooking, model building)? Do you cook? Into gaming (computer or board)? Sports (player or spectator)? Photography? Maybe you like geocaching, rock climbing? Or love attending events like renaissance fairs, concerts? Music? Dancing? You get the idea. Tell us why you're passionate about it. Post photos of what you've made or of yourself doing whatever it is you love doing.

This really made me stop and think; lately I've been feeling quite one dimensional. I love reading. It is what I do, almost always. I read and blog and write at home, then at work I spend all day dealing with books and readers (I am a librarian). My husband is a bookseller so we are busy with that as well, books again. For enjoyment I often write letters. Most of what I do is most definitely text based.

This Weekly Geeks made me consider what other kinds of things I have enjoyed that I am not paying much attention to any more. I used to sew quite a lot, but haven't done much, besides a few Christmas gifts, in ages. I'll have to remedy that! Here are a couple of sewing blogs that I like looking at, and think I should spend a little more time trying out some of the projects:

Sew Mama

Crafty Girls (a friend of mine, I always like to see what she's up to!)

Another thing I absolutely love, but haven't been focusing on as much as I used to, is cooking. I've been a vegetarian for about 17 years and I love trying new recipes. I've been getting more and more interested in veganism over the years and right now my three favourite cooking people are Sarah Kramer, Jae Steele and Isa Chandra Moscowitz. I am especially fond of Jae Steele's Flax Maple Cookies. So very easy and really, really yummy. Hmmmm, maybe I should go make some now... thanks for the reminder, WG.

photo by Jae Steele

The Return of Weekly Geeks

Weekly Geeks is back! Thanks to the dedicated souls who took Dewey's creation on, we have a new 'assignment'. This week's challenge is as follows:

In the spirit of the amazing community building that Dewey was so good at, tell us about your favorite blogs, the ones you have bookmarked or subscribe to in your Google Reader, that you visit on a regular basis. Tell us what it is about these blogs that you love, that inspire or educate you or make you laugh. Be sure to link to them so we can find them too.

As you may be able to tell from my blogroll, I follow many, many of your writings. I'm continually finding more to add as well -- there are so many great blogs I read regularly! Not knowing quite how to choose just a few, I am going to note here some of the ones that I've been reading the longest, since the beginning of my blogging life.


The Book Mine Set

John is the originator of the Canadian Book Challenge, one of my personal favourites. He reviews a lot of short stories, children's books and poetry, and posts weekly word games. He is a very Canadian blogger admirable for his energy and consistency in his blogging; how does he do it with small kids and a full time job? I stand in awe.




Bookpuddle

Cipriano reliably offers great quotes and very personal reviews of the books he's reading. Somehow he always has hilarious experiences while reading in cafes and food courts; I know I will end up laughing while reading his posts. Furthermore, he shares his original poetry, which is darned good.




So Many Books

Stefanie is a library student and is full of enthusiasm; she reminds me of why I started out in this field in the first place. She is a brilliant blogger who reads and blogs about an intimidating number of classics (Herodotus or Emerson, anyone?). I also love her posts, with photos, about the luscious vegan food she and her husband prepare for their holidays and celebrations. Yum! Another inspiration.




Tripping Toward Lucidity

Andi is always entertaining and posts about being a college instructor and a student simultaneously. As part of the team behind Estella's Revenge, she has also been a big influence on me since I began blogging. All that bookish goodness! She has a personal, humorous touch and a wide ranging reading list that I admire.



A Striped Armchair

Eva is such an energetic reader - she's an inspiration. She reads a lot of non-fiction, which I can always use suggestions about as I never really read enough. Her brilliant suggestions for science reading as well as for her own challenge, the World Citizen Challenge, will keep me reading for years.



A Work in Progress

Danielle reads constantly! She always has interesting suggestions on mystery reading, among others, and shares images of her beautiful needlework as well. I enjoy catching up on the latest English fiction and historical books coming out when I read her posts; she is always up on the latest things. And nobody can do lists like Danielle. :)

And there are so many others that I follow regularly, but this list has to stop somewhere!

Weekly Geeks 25: Gift Giving Guide

This week's Geeks assignment is fascinating! Dewey says:

With winter holidays coming up, many of us have started thinking about gift giving. And, of course, many book bloggers prefer to give books. At Amazon, there are gift guides based on relationship or personality. Unfortunately, I don’t really find the gift suggestions for mom and wife very suited to me, and the personality guides are even worse. I may be interested in green living, but I’d be pretty disappointed to find an energy-saving lightbulb in my stocking. So let’s make our own, a books-based Weekly Geeks Gift Giving Guide!

How to:
1. Think about the books that you and people in your life love. It’s best to use more obscure books, because we’ve all heard plenty about the more popular ones.

2. Come up with categories, based on relationship, personality, or whatever else you like. I think this is easier to do once you have your books in mind; you can then just assign categories to those books.

3. Post your own gift giving guide! Add short blurbs about the books, just enough so that your readers can determine if it’d be a good gift for people on their list. Don’t forget to come back and sign Mr Linky.

4. Visit other Weekly Geeks, and if you like their guides, maybe add links to the bottom of your own.

So here is my gift giving guide for the bookish this year:

For that manly Uncle who loves reading about arctic exploration even though he complains about having to go out and shovel the sidewalk:

Fatal Passage : the true story of John Rae, the Arctic hero time forgot / Ken McGoogan

This is the story of an Orkney boy who became an HBC man and the acknowledged expert on Northern exploration. He could snowshoe 50 miles a day, design boats for ice-filled rivers, hunt, mend his own clothes, take scientific readings which were widely recognized as the best available, maintain relationships with the local native groups - respecting and using their traditional knowledge, oh yes, and he was a doctor as well. Not forgetting to mention that he found the remains of the Franklin expedition and discovered that in their extreme duress they had taken to eating one another. Since this was not the answer that Lady Franklin and the British navy wanted to hear, Rae was vilified and left out of history. It's a wonderful read, restoring this explorer to his true status.

For the aunt who doesn't know what to do with herself since Mary Stewart died:

The Winter Sea / Susanna Kearsley

An historical love story involving time travel/genetic memory and Scotland, who needs anything more? Lots of tension, historical drama and enjoyable characters, just right for a holiday read.

For the teenage niece who adores fairy tales but feels she's too old to be caught reading any:

Wildwood Dancing & Cybele's Secret / Juliet Marillier

Set in Transylvania and loosely based on the fairy tale of the Twelve Dancing Princesses, this story of 5 sisters and their connection to the world of fairie is wonderfully, magically told. And the books look gorgeous; what cover art!

For that cousin who's taking a degree in art history, with a minor in Russian:

The Dream Life of Sukhanov / Olga Grushin

One of my favourite books last year, this tells the tale of a man who is losing his place in society as his Russia moves further away from communism and into the wider, free market world. As perestroika arrives in Moscow, he begins to question what the sacrifice of his artistic gifts to the party has been worth.

For your sister who is just marginally more crazy about Anne of Green Gables than you are:

The Gift of Wings / Mary Rubio

The first rigorously academic biography of Lucy Maud Montgomery, aimed at adults and pulling no punches.

AND/OR

Magic Island / Elizabeth Waterston

A companion read to the biography, this ties elements of LMM's life to the writing of each and every one of her novels. Essential for the enthusiast.

For your peripatetic brother who can't settle down:

Nikolski / Nicolas Dickner; trans. by Lazer Lederhendler.

This book just won a Governor General's award for translation; it's a French Canadian tale of 3 restless characters who drift to Montreal and there discover their family connections. As the blurb says:

With humour, charm and the sure touch of a born storyteller, Nicolas Dickner crafts a tale that shows the surprising links between garbage-obsessed archeologists, pirates past and present, earthquake victims, sea snakes, several very large tuna fish, an illiterate deep-sea diver, a Commodore 64, a mysterious book with no cover, and a broken compass whose needle obstinately points to the Aleutian village of Nikolski.

Weekly Geeks #24: Author Profile

I've missed the last couple of Weekly Geeks projects, mostly through distraction and disorganization! So this week I really want to play along, especially as this week’s theme is:

Fun facts about authors.

How to:
1. Choose a writer you like.
2. Using resources such as Wikipedia, the author’s website, whatever you can find, make a list of interesting facts about the author.
3. Post your fun facts list in your blog, maybe with a photo of the writer, a collage of his or her books, whatever you want.
4. Come sign the Mr Linky below with the url to your fun facts post.
5. As you run into (or deliberately seek out) other Weekly Geeks’ lists, add links to your post for authors you like or authors you think your readers are interested in.


I had thought of noting some facts about Alexander McCall Smith -- see my recent post on his work! -- but saw that Juliann at Unwritten Reads had already done so, quite enjoyably. So I thought I would try sharing a bit about a very obscure author, a romance novelist from quite some time ago. She was an Englishwoman and wrote for Mills & Boon (later to be bought out by Harlequin). I've talked about my surreptitious adoration of one of her books before. Now that I've read her autobiography as well, I admire her even more. She was an example of how we can't hold stereotypes of 'romance writers', as she is the farthest thing from Barbara Cartland as I can imagine. So here are some random facts about:



Mary Burchell, Mills & Boon author
1904-1986


Mary Burchell's real name was Ida Cook

Despite being a romance novelist, she never married

She and her sister (Mary) Louise were huge opera buffs, even travelling to New York by steamer just to hear one of their favourite opera stars sing

She wrote an entire cycle of 13 romance novels, The Warrender Saga, based in the opera world; very culturally educational love stories!

She worked as a civil servant before giving it up to write full time, in 1936

She and Louise used their opera connections and the income from her romance novels to assist in getting 29 Jews out of Germany in the 1930s

In 1965, they received the designation of Righteous Gentiles by the Yad Vashem Martyrs and Heroes Remembrance Authority in Israel for this service

Her 1950 autobiography, We Followed our Stars, was republished as Safe Passage in a lovely new trade paper copy this year.

A few more interesting author facts:
Dr.Seuss at Belle of the Books
George Eliot at Book-a-Rama
Astrid Lindgren at Pink Blue Whale and at Lou's Pages

Weekly Geeks 19: Best Books of 2008..... so far

This week, the WG theme is to list your top books published in 2008. I've been thinking about it all week, but have just squeaked in before the end of the week with my list. Here were the rules:

1. Compile your list of favorites. Please be sure that books you choose actually were published in 2008, or at the very earliest in the winter holiday season of 2007. Sometimes books that come out then are left out.

2. Come back and sign Mr Linky with the url to your top books of
2008 post.

3. If you happen to see any non-WG bloggers making similar lists, please grab the url and come put it in Mr Linky for them. Let them know you’re doing that, please, in case they have some sort of objection; if they do, they can ask me to remove their link. I’ve already seen a couple favorites of 2008 posts, which is another reason I wanted to get started early.

4. Feel free to make changes to your list if you read something new
in the next few weeks.

This year I've been reading far more new books than ever before, mostly thanks to all the ARCs and the suggestions from other bloggers that I then pick up at the library. I usually read a lot of classics/1920's-40's kind of books but this year it's been a lot of NEW, like so new they haven't been published by the time I've finished them New. So without further ado, here's my list of the favourite 10 I've read just so far this year.


Blackouts / Craig Boyko

Atmospheric Disturbances / Rivka Gal-Chen

The Laughter of Dead Kings / Elizabeth Peters

First among Sequels / Jasper Fforde

Odd Hours / Dean Koontz

Three Bags Full / Léonie Swann

Blasted / Kate Story

The Lace Reader / Brunonia Barry

A Version of the Truth / Jennifer Kaufman & Karen Mack (released Dec. 26, 2007)

The Loser's guide to Life & love / A.E. Cannon (YA)

Saturday's Sexy Quote

A wry one to finish off the week...

...the word sex is more exciting than the word book. Or is it? Surely that depends on what kind of sex and what kind of book?

Jeanette Winterson
from Art Objects

Friday Quote: On the Difficulties of Finding Time to Write

To every writer who has ever published a book, there comes eventually that amusing though irritating moment when someone says pensively, "I have always thought that I could write a book -- if only I had time."

I have never been able to decide whether the subtle implication is that only those with an unfair amount of time at their disposal ever reach the point of seeing themselves in print, or whether it is a delicate way of saying that in order to write a book one must have neglected more pressing duties.

Ida Cook
from We Followed Our Stars

Just a bit of seaweed

I've been quoting a few authors on the joys of reading, so to equal things out here's one on the dubious joys of writing:

The very glory of what he wanted to say seemed to get in the way of his saying it. Try as he might, he could not write down what he knew. He was like a man trying to catch the moonlight on the water with a fishing-net. When he pulled the net into the boat there was nothing in it except two repulsive jelly-fish and a bit of seaweed.

Elizabeth Goudge
from The Rosemary Tree

Why Read?

True too of literature: we like what we're like. Why do we read? Not for truth or beauty, but the opposite: for lies and ugliness, for reflections of ourselves. For glimpses that would make us less forlorn. For reminders that others read literature too, for evidence that we're not the only ones who sometimes feel like we're the only ones who feel like this.

Craig Boyko
from Blackouts

Interweavings

Through books we felt we lived multiple existences not precisely our own, lives of monastic austerity or courtly riot or flyblown squalor. To talk about those books, those lives, was a further interweaving that made them even more profoundly part of us.

Geoffrey O'Brien
from The Browser's Ecstasy

A Bookish Bent

For those of us with a bookish bent, reading is a reflexive response to everything. This is how we deal with the world and anything that comes our way. We have always known that there is a book for every occasion and every obsession. When in doubt, we are always looking things up.

Diane Schoemperlen

from Our Lady of the Lost & Found

Quote the First

Dewey's Weekly Geeks projects just keep getting more creative and entertaining! Here's this week's assignment.

This week’s activity is: A Quote a Day.

You may want to come up with a theme, such as favorite passages from books, author quotes, political quotes, quotes about books or reading, humorous quotes, whatever. Or you may not want a theme at all; maybe you just want to gather up seven assorted quotes that appeal to you. You may want to start each of your posts of the week with a quote, or you may want to give quotes posts of their own in addition to your regular posts. It’s all up to you!

The only rule is this: thou shalt not steal! If you see a quote you like on someone else’s blog, you can post it in addition to your quote for the day, even with your quote for the day, but please link to where you originally saw it. Of course, it’s possible that more well-known quotes may appear on more than one blog just by chance, but these things happen among honorable people such as ourselves.

I'm just going to choose readerish quotes which I have copied down in the past; either they will deal with books and reading in general, or with the subject of a book I am reviewing. Here is the first one.

Somehow, the books that prove most agreeable, grateful, and companionable, are those we pick up by chance here and there; those which seem put into our hands by providence; those which pretend to little, but abound in much.

Herman Melville (from White Jacket)