Books, Books, Books

I don't know how many knitting books I have, but I don't feel like I have wasted my money buying any of them. My favorites are on the history of knitting, which I can imagine a non-knitting enthusiast cringing at. "What could be more boring than knitting?...reading about knitting." Well, too bad. I remember buying Richard Rutt's History of Knitting when it first came out. We were on a camping trip, and I lay in the tent for most of the afternoon savoring every word. Knitting books are great!
I haven't really read much from this set of books, Journeys Through Bookland It's special to me because it belonged to my grandparents. They had a fire that destroyed almost everything several years before I was born and these books were one of the few items saved...I think. Now I''m wondering what in the heck they were doing carrying out a set of books from a blazing fire. My uncle and cousin were staying with them that night because my aunt had just given birth to another baby and was still in the hospital. It could have been such a tragedy. Instead, it was something that I always knew about and was kind of intrigued by. My grandpa found my grandmother's wedding ring among the ashes because they knew where the piano she had left it on had stood. Back to the books, I loved going to my grandparents' home. These books were in one of the cozy bedrooms along with another set of storybooks that I would read and read. My own parents aren't too big on nostalgia, but I made sure that they knew how badly I wanted this set. I wa probably a pain about it; I do have three other siblings, and one of them is a bigger bibiophile than I am. But, I ended up with them, and I love having them.
My husand and I have eclectic tastes in books. We use the library a lot, but also like to own books we love. It's probably cheaper than way since we have a little problem with library fines. It's not like we have thousands of books...I think; but we have hundreds...OK, maybe we do have a thousand counting our kids' books.



I've been just messing around all morning, wasting time but having fun. Julie had a link on her page to her Library thing book list. I checked it out and now have another avenue to waste hours of my time. Thanks, Julie! I've started my own library, and have the link in my sidebar. It's really fun to think about and categorize your books. I'm a funny reader for an English major. I'm not that good of a reader, as in not that careful of a reader. I can read well if I want to. I do not like to have to work very hard reading, which may be why I like Barbara Kingsolver and Sue Monk so much. They write contemplative stuff that doesn't require much concentration on your part. I've tried reading Kristin Lavransdatter and Anne Karinina innumerable times, but I can't discipline myself enough to finish them. I have recently read two modern book. One first one was Water for Elephants, which I really liked and pretty much read every word of, but this week I read The Thirteenth Tale, which I also really liked. I wouldn't want to have to take a test on it though. I got kind of bored by the end and started skimming. I do that a lot. And here's another tidbit. i have no intention of correcting this habit!




I've been knitting, but I don't really have anything new to show off, so I'll show off some stuff from my backyard. I'm kind of envious of people who post pictures of snow in their backyards this time of year because of how cozy it is indoors when it's snowing outside. On the other hand, it's kind of fun to see my garden come to life again after seeing everything suffer through our miserable summers here in Central California. So, here are some views of what I'm currently seeing in my backyard this week.