As an inveterate reader, I’m always on the hunt for more books to add to my collection.  Sometimes I think Steve probably wonders why I bother to buy books, since I am also addicted to my local library.  What can I say?  I love using the library, but I also love seeing books lined up on my shelves, their spines neatly facing outward, reminding me of all the possibilities and new worlds for exploring from the comfort of my couch.  I’m choosy about the books I do buy – since I have limited shelf space and a limited budget, I want to make sure that the books I add to my collection are worthy of taking up room in the bookcase and dollars out of my wallet.  But there are so many books that meet that standard, that I am never lacking in options and no matter how many books I buy, my list never seems to get any shorter.  (Funny how that works.  I blame Penguin Random House, which keeps reprinting classics in beautiful new editions and taking my money.)

Since I try to be a generally responsible person, some time ago I decided to make a rule for myself: I am allowed to buy two books per month.  That’s two books regardless of the cost, so a Folio Society hardcover counts the same as, for example, a BL Crime Classics paperback in this exercise.

This seems like a reasonable rule to me.  It’s not as if I’m likely to run out of reading material on my own shelves – I have so many unread books already.  And even if I did, there’s always the library.  Restricting myself to a creep of only two books per month won’t slow down my actual reading pace at all.  And it gives me something to look forward to – I usually postpone buying the month’s books until the very last day, and spend all the days leading up to that in a delicious anticipation of trying to choose.  (I’m an INFP.  The process of examining all the possibilities is a thrill for me, particularly when it comes to new additions to my personal library.  It’s actually making the decision that is painful – even when I know that I’m going to have another bite at the apple in the next month.)

That said, I am also a lawyer.  So it is impossible for me to adhere to a book-buying rule without coming up with a host of loopholes that allow me to buy way more books than the actual rule says.  A rule is not worth the paper (or screen) it’s written on unless it has at least ten exceptions, amirite?  Here are mine:

• Books that I pre-order don’t count.  I mean, how do you know what month to assign them to?  You can’t count a pre-order to the month in which you order it, because you’re not going to get it right away.  And you can’t count a pre-order to the month it’s paid for, because you didn’t order it that month.  Best to just exempt pre-orders from the rule, I think.  It’s too confusing otherwise.  And don’t you dare point out that you can pre-order a book during the month it’s released.  I reject your reality and substitute my own.
• Comics don’t count.  Don’t ask me to explain why they shouldn’t.  Sometimes the Executive makes a rule or carves out an exception for no apparent reason.  Just chalk this one up to chaos.
• Books I buy when I’m having a bad day don’t count.  If I’m struggling through a rough week, I should have a little retail therapy if I want and need it.  I wouldn’t buy a scarf and count it toward my monthly book total, so books bought under the same circumstances shouldn’t count, either.
• Books I buy when I’m having a good day don’t count.  Sometimes I successfully get through a tough week, or I accomplish a goal I’ve been working towards, and I think I deserve a treat.  In this case, again, I don’t think that should count as a regular book purchase.  See scarf example, above.
• Kindle books don’t count.  I mean, how would you even quantify this?  When I buy every book Elizabeth Gaskell has ever written for a total of $0.99 for the entire library, am I supposed to then refrain from buying books for the next year?  Don’t be silly.  (I will say, if I bought a new release on Kindle and paid something like $9.99 for it, I would count that.  But all I ever buy are classics for a dollar or two, or sale ebooks from Modern Mrs. Darcy‘s daily Great Kindle Deals emails.)
• Books I buy for the kids don’t count.  Obviously, they’re not for me.
• Books that I buy on vacation don’t count.  If I’m traveling and stop into a cute little indie bookstore, I give myself license to shop.  It’s souvenir shopping, okay?  If I ever make it to the Persephone or Folio Society bookshops in London, you can bet I will be leaving with an armload.
• Books that I buy during the Folio Society’s semi-annual sale don’t count.  I shouldn’t even have to explain this, y’all.  Those deals come along twice a year at most.  If I can get a Folio Society hardcover edition on deep discount, and I passed up that chance, I’d fully expect my family members to have me committed.
• Slightly Foxed back issues don’t count.  Because they’re not books!  They’re not books so it shouldn’t matter that they cost more than a lot of the books I would otherwise be buying.
• Books I buy with birthday or Christmas money don’t count.  Again, I refer you to my scarf example.  If I got a windfall and used the money for a pretty scarf, I wouldn’t count it toward my monthly book quota, so books bought with gift money also get exempted.  (But what if I buy a scarf that is printed with text from a book, like my Jane Eyre scarf?  The head spins.  Best not to think about it and just buy more books instead.)
• Books that I buy for special occasions don’t count.  If I buy a Penguin Christmas Classics edition (I think I’m still missing one) or a volume of poetry for National Poetry Month, those are exempted from the quota.  Because I said so.  (I did count Poems Bewitched and Haunted toward my October book quota, even though it is a Halloween book.  How virtuous am I?  I should probably reward myself for that good behavior by buying another book.)
• Books from the library book sale don’t count.  I mean, $2.00 Nancy Drew hardbacks?  How am I supposed to keep track of that?
• Catch-all exemption.  I don’t want to box myself in, so let’s just say if I have a good reason, as determined in my sole discretion, then it’s on like Donkey Kong.

To answer your question, no I don’t think that this list of exceptions is at all irrational or unmanageable.

Do you have a book-buying rule, or is it basically a free-for-all?

One of the most delightful discoveries of my new job is that my firm is populated with avid readers.  This is not a surprise – when I interviewed, one of the attorneys made a joke about Franz Kafka, and I instantly decided, these are my people.  But it’s been such a joy to find so many other book lovers at work and in two months at my new job I’ve already had more ecstatic water cooler conversations about Pride and Prejudice than in my entire career leading up to this job.  One of the most ardent readers I’ve met at this job is – again, no surprise here – the firm librarian, who works three doors down from my office.  It took about two weeks for me to discover that she is a true kindred spirit.  And it was she who told me about Will and Jane: Shakespeare, Austen and the Cult of Celebrity, a special exhibition on display for two months only at the Folger Shakespeare Library.

“They have The Shirt,” she reported breathlessly.

It’s on.

Would you believe I’d actually never been to the Folger Shakespeare Library?  I had wanted to go for years, but didn’t make it in the entire time I lived in D.C. from 2003 to 2013.  Visiting the library was high on my list of things to do upon moving back, and a Jane Austen exhibit gave me the perfect excuse to go.  Not wanting to miss out, I dragged Steve and the kids out first thing on Saturday morning of the exhibition’s final weekend.

I loaded Peanut in the stroller and literally – literally – skipped down the sidewalk with her, I was so gleeful at the prospect of finally making it to the Folger, and making it in time to see Will and Jane.  On our way up the ramp, we stopped to snap a picture of the serene garden.  I could totally picture myself lounging on the grass with a copy of my favorite Shakespeare play – Macbeth.

First stop when we got inside was the theatre.  They were actually holding a children’s event in the theatre, and there were kids of all ages reenacting scenes from Romeo and Juliet onstage when we stepped through the doors.  My little drama queen didn’t want to get up on the stage (doesn’t she know her mother once placed second in a school-wide Shakespeare competition? there’s a family tradition to uphold, kid!) but she did consent to a selfie inside the hallowed halls of the Folger Shakespeare Theatre you guys.

Enough stalling.  We left the theatre, turned into the exhibition hall, and There. It. Was.

The Shirt.  Bestill my beating heart, THE SHIRT.

I can’t imagine that I have any blog readers who don’t know this, but since the question came up on Facebook, NO DAD, THIS IS NOT THE PUFFY SHIRT FROM SEINFELD.  The Shirt, as all Janeites know, is Colin Firth’s iconic white shirt worn in the lake-jumping scene from the 1992 BBC production of Pride and Prejudice starring Jennifer Ehle as Elizabeth Bennet.  (You can see her on the screen just behind The Shirt, in the picture up above this one.)  A few things about The Shirt, which I am qualified to comment upon now that I have stood in its rarefied air, sort of (it was behind glass – boo):

• Initial disclaimer: as most of you no doubt know, the lake scene is not in the book.  But I suspect Jane would have approved.
• The Shirt was every bit as magical as you would hope.
• I was inches away from fabric that touched Colin Firth.  I WAS INCHES AWAY FROM FABRIC THAT TOUCHED COLIN FIRTH.  I WAS INCHES AWAY FROM FABRIC THAT TOUCHED COLIN FIRTH.
• It was dry.  This was less disappointing than you would expect, because it was still pretty adorably wrinkly.  According to my firm librarian, the staff at the Folger Library told her the shirt couldn’t have been kept wet (by such means as a mister, for example) because it would damage the fabric.  And of course, we can’t have that.
• I WAS INCHES AWAY FROM FABRIC THAT TOUCHED COLIN FIRTH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Steve was shockingly unimpressed.

I mean, look!  He’s wearing The Shirt and he’s about to jump in the lake and get all wet and emerge looking brooding and disheveled!

All right, all right.  Enough about The Shirt.  You may find this surprising, but there was a lot more to the exhibit than just Colin Firth’s wardrobe.  The theme of the exhibition was how a “cult of celebrity” grew up around both William Shakespeare and Jane Austen, and how Shakespeare’s celebrity influenced and informed Austen’s work.  It was a fascinating take on both geniuses, and there were tons of cool artifacts.

Such as the playbill from a production of Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice that Austen saw performed in London in 1814.  Worlds colliding!

As is to be expected from the Folger Library, the exhibition also included a number of books of varying age and rarity.  How stunning is the iconic peacock cover of Pride and Prejudice.  Wish list, if I was a billionaire!

There were examples of how Shakespeare’s and Austen’s celebrity has lasted over the centuries – such as these grave rubbings from their respective tombs.

An illustration of how Austen’s image has been polished and altered to create the iconic Austen of today – starting with Cassandra Austen’s sketch of her sister and reworked posthumously until the popular image on the left came to be.

And examples of how both Austen and Shakespeare’s images – and those of their characters – have been coopted into everything from collectible figurines to children’s toys and literary kitsch – like these bobbleheads and action figures.  (And Jane Austen band-aids!  Weeeeeeeird!)  They also had a copy of the “Cozy Classics” Pride and Prejudice board book – but in what I considered to be a shocking oversight, were lacking the books from the BabyLit series, even Good Night Mr. Darcy!

And of course, interspersed throughout were truly exciting bits of BBC memorabilia – like the wedding bonnet worn by Jane Bennet in the final scene, when (spoiler alert!) Jane and Elizabeth marry Mr. Bingley and Mr. Darcy, respectively, in a fabulous double wedding.

Will and Jane was everything I had hoped for – and more.  I’m delighted that I was able to make it there before the exhibition closed (even if I went down to the wire) and now I’m itching to re-read Pride and Prejudice (maybe I’ll pull out the gorgeous illustrated edition I bought a few months ago!) and get back to the Folger Library to see what it looks like when not devoted to a special exhibition.

Happy Labor Day to my American friends, and happy new week to my friends around the world!  I hope that you all had a fabulous weekend, and that if you were in the path of Hurricane Hermine, that you’re safe and dry.  As for us in DC, we saw nothing more than a slightly overcast Saturday – what a relief.  I didn’t feel like dealing with a hurricane, not that I had anything particularly fun lined up.  The theme of this Labor Day weekend was labor.  We had a full slate of chores lined up and with one day left in the long weekend, progress has been made on all fronts – hurray!  On Saturday morning, Steve and I took Nugget for his first haircut.  Nugget was a hot mess because we had to wait thirty minutes past our appointment time, I was a hot mess because I couldn’t deal with my baaaaaaaabaaaaaaaay getting his first haircut and becoming a big boy (still sobbing over here) and Steve was just trying to hold everyone together.  We finally made it out of the salon and he does look pretty cute (but WAY too grown up).  The rest of the day was errands, errands, errands – hitting Target (and striking out on almost the entire list – ugh) and then grocery shopping.  Sunday we had more work lined up: Nana watched the kids while I attacked boxes and Steve made three Goodwill runs, broke down boxes and hauled them to the trash, and helped with all the grunt work.  We’re nowhere near unpacked, but we’re making big strides toward getting the first floor livable, and I couldn’t be happier about that.  I think that another couple of days of solid work and we’ll be there.  (The master bedroom is still a disaster, so that will be next, and attacking the basement is my winter project.  But one step at a time.)

While I had an extremely productive weekend when it came to house stuff, it was less productive when it came to reading.  Last week I finished up The Warden, the first in Anthony Trollope’s Chronicles of Barsetshire – and absolutely LOVED it.  Loved every word, and was kicking myself the whole time for having never read Trollope before.  Then I decided to be responsible and go back to my currently-reading shelf on Goodreads rather than starting another something new.  A few weeks ago I had begun The Light Years, the first in Elizabeth Jane Howard’s five book Cazalet series (what is it with me and series books lately?) and then set it aside and gone on to other things.  So, meaning to whittle down my current reads, I dove back in, and now I am wallowing in all things Cazalet – seriously, I can’t get enough.  I am so delighted that after I finish The Light Years, I will have four more books to read in the Cazalet Chronicles (not to mention FIVE more in Trollope’s Chronicles of Barsetshire!).  I know how I’ll be spending my fall!

This week, hopefully, I will get through The Light Years.  I’ve been spending several evenings a week in front of the computer, working on Nugget’s baby book on Shutterfly, but I’m going to finish that up (all that’s left is to proofread it and then order it!) so I’ll probably reward myself with a week off from hardcore Shutterflying after I do that, and spend my evenings reading unless I’m tempted to do more unpacking.  (That is tempting, to be honest – we’re so close to getting through all the boxes on the main floor!)  Once I finish The Light Years, I’m either going to turn to the final book that’s been languishing on my TBR – The Witches: Salem 1692, by Stacy Schiff – or I will read Alias Grace, which I checked out of the library and which is due back in a couple of weeks.  I really do plan to read one of those – and I want you guys to hold me to that.  Responsible reading for me this week – no new books until I finish my half-read one and my library books!

On the blog this week, August’s reading round-up on Wednesday (it’s a short but good one!) and another vacation recap on Friday.  Check back!

What are you reading this week, my friends?

Happy Monday, y’all!  So the big bookish news of this week is that Peanut got – and started listening to – her first big-kid chapter books.  For a few weeks now, she has been requesting that I read her “long books,” and she usually asks me to read to her from the book I’m reading.  But my reading this month has been pretty grown-up in themes and content, so I’ve been putting her off.  Over the weekend, though, Nugget and I made a trip to Barnes & Noble as a way to get out of the house while Peanut napped, and we picked up a couple of chapter books for her – Freckle Juice, by Judy Blume, which I loved in elementary school, and Mr. Popper’s Penguins, which I’ve never read before but which had chapters of the right length and looked sweet.  We’ve started Mr. Popper’s Penguins and we’re about five chapters in, and the whole family is really enjoying it.  (Except for Nugget, that is.  He barely has the patience for a board book, let alone a chapter book.  He’ll get there.)  I can’t tell you how excited I am to read “long books” to Peanut – finally!  I’ve been waiting for the day that she could enjoy reading chapter books since, oh, pretty much since she was born.  And now I can’t wait to introduce her to so many – the Mouse and the Motorcycle books!  Ramona!  Matilda!  Island of the Blue Dolphins!  There are so many new fictional friends and favorites for Peanut to discover.

As for my own week in reading, it started out slow but got really good at the end of the week.  Last Monday I was struggling through The High Mountains of Portugal, trying to convince myself that I really wanted to read it, and wondering how it could be that a book with such a gorgeous cover was not holding my attention at all.  (You know what they say – never judge a book by its cover.  It works both ways.)  My BFF, Rebecca, was reading it at the same time and commiserated with me.  We both absolutely loved Life of Pi, but neither one of us found The High Mountains of Portugal very compelling – even though the plot description sounded wonderful.  Rebecca finished it on audiobook, but I ended up abandoning it after I yawned through a scene in which one of the main characters accidentally caught fire.  If that couldn’t get my attention, nothing was going to – so I moved on.  Next I picked up The Fifth Season, the newest novel (and start of a trilogy!) from N.K. Jemisin – and WOW.  It was incredible.  Exhilarating, riveting, heart-wrenching – magnificent.  Now I need to read Jemisin’s entire backlist.  If her earlier books are even half as good as The Fifth Season, they’ll be among the best fantasy novels I’ve ever read.  Finally, after finishing The Fifth Season on Sunday, I turned my attention to March: Book 2, which I had been dipping into all week.  Congressman John Lewis’s life story is really fascinating, and the graphic novel format is such an interesting way to present his narrative.  It’s really wonderful.

On deck for this week’s reading – I’m going to finish March: Book 2 first, and then I’m not sure what will be next.  I have Jam on the Vine out from the library – another story of the African-American experience, which I heard recommended on the All the Books! podcast – and I’m really looking forward to it, so I’m hoping to pick it up next.  But I also have a handful of library holds to pick up on Tuesday, and some of them might be seven-day books – I’m not sure.

On the blog this week, I have an adorable selection for February’s Diverse KidLit title on Wednesday, and then the first (disgustingly belated) Colorado recap will post on Friday!  I know you’ve all been holding your breath – ha.  Check back!

What are you reading this week?

Happy Monday, Happy President’s Day, and Happy (belated) Valentine’s Day to my friends!  How were your weekends?  Ours was lovely – not as lazy as I wanted; I’d really been hoping for a weekend of full-on sloth – but really lovely.  Saturday we devoted to chores and errands, and we’e gradually chipping away at the mountains of boxes in our townhouse.  Sunday we dedicated to some family fun – a visit to the Botanical Gardens.  Last year we went quite a few times when the temperatures got really ridiculous, but this year we’ve been enjoying a mild winter and this weekend was the first time (I think) that temperatures got down into the single digits.  So between the weather being decent and a bunch of social engagements – birthday parties for Peanut’s friends, mostly – plus moving, we just haven’t found our way over to the botanical gardens yet this year – until yesterday.  It was as warm, fresh and beautiful as always.  I’m not feeling nearly as beat down by winter as I did the past two years – between the mild temperatures, relatively sparse snowfall, and crazy-busy-ness making the weeks fly by, it actually seems like spring is around the corner.  (Please let that be true.)  But I’m not one to turn down a visit to the Botanical Gardens, and we did have a wonderful time.

As for reading this week, it’s been pretty good.  I finished up Welcome to Braggsville and enjoyed it, although the language never really seemed to flow for me.  It was clearly excellent writing, just for some reason my brain didn’t want to get into a rhythm with the words.  But the characters were wonderful, the story was riveting and the writing really was good.  Then I moved on to March: Book One, the first installment in a three-part graphic memoir by Congressman and civil rights leader John Lewis.  I have heard so many amazing things about this comic and it lived up to the hype, and then some.  It also made for perfect Black History Month reading.  I immediately checked the second volume out from the library, so hopefully I will get to that this week.  And then I turned my attention to the new release from Life of Pi author Yann Martel – The High Mountains of Portugal.  The story is intriguing and I’ll read any new Yann Martel that comes out, but so far my favorite part of the book is the cover.  I can’t stop staring at it – it’s so incredibly beautiful.  As for the rest of the book, well, I’m actually having a little trouble getting into it.  But it’s a seven-day library book, so I have to either push through or return it unfinished.  I’m pushing through.

On the blog this week: more 2015 catch-up – a recap of our fall hike at Reinstein Woods Nature Preserve on Wednesday, and 2015 book superlatives on Friday.  At some point, I swear, I will be caught up.  I probably should call a spade a spade and forget about trying to catch up on everything, but I actually like clicking around and looking back on my own hiking and reading posts, so whatever – I’m just going to continue forcing the absurdly late content.  It’s my blog; I make the rules!

What have you been reading this week?

Annnnnnnnd… exhale.  We’re moved.  It’s not the end of this crazy moving journey – there are at least one, maybe two more moves ahead of us before we finally find our forever home, and I’m hoping that we won’t be in our current situation for long.  But we’ve earned a brief respite and a sigh of relief.  After some last-minute histrionics by our buyers (that ended in us insisting that they sign a general release, because the trust on our side was absolutely gone) we made it through the closing and we’re officially free of a house that, while it is a lovely house, had proven to just not be right for us.  And now we’re back to living in a sea of boxes again – but it feels like we’ve cleared a major hurdle.

I’m still swamped with work and running around, so haven’t had much time for reading.  But what I have read has been good – really good.

Last week I finally got around to reading The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.  I’ve been meaning to read it forever and had made more mental notes than I can count of the fact that my in-laws had it on their bookshelf.  So after months and months of thinking, “I really want to read that; I should borrow it from Dad and Lynn,” I grabbed it off their shelf while we were staying with them for a few nights mid-move.  And WOW – I could not put it down.  I read it in a few days and would have finished it faster were it not for pesky adulting constantly getting in the way of my reading time.  Henrietta Lacks should be required reading for all humans.  I knew the basic backstory, so I knew I would be horrified and astonished, and I was.  After I finished Henrietta Lacks I had a major book hangover for a day or so, then picked up Welcome to Braggsville.  (My Black History Month reading is on point, you guys.)  I’m about sixty pages in now and just starting to pick up steam – the writing is excellent but the style is a little different from my usual reads, so it took some getting used to, but I’m in it now.

Reading plans for this week – more Braggsville, and pushing Henrietta Lacks onto Steve if I can.  After I finish Braggsville I think I’m going to pick up the first volume of March, by Representative John Lewis, for more Black History Month reading.  And then it’ll be back to We That Are Left, which I have out from the library, and The High Mountains of Portugal, the new Yann Martel (!!!) which I have on hold.  I’m all library, all the time for the foreseeable future, since pretty much all of my books are in storage and I’m trying not to buy myself new books if I can restrain myself – it’s just more to move, and I know we’re going to be moving again in less than a year.  But I discovered as I was looking for my new grocery store that our townhouse is less than a mile from a Barnes & Noble, so there’s that.  So far I’ve managed to stay away, but it’s only been a week.

On the blog this week: the long-overdue Part II of my bookish 2015 recaps (top ten books read last year; just bookish superlatives left to do after that) on Wednesday and Nugget’s penultimate monthly recap on Friday.  Can you believe he’s turning eleven months old?!  Because I can’t.

What have you been reading lately?