Reading Life

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On Being a Reading Mom

 Hey baby girl… I hope you like stories.

I expect life to change in many ways when baby arrives. Date nights will be rare, meals will be quick and simple, and travel will be more kid-friendly than cathedral-heavy. I’m ready for those changes, and I welcome the new adventures that parenthood will bring.

But there’s one thing I’m hoping doesn’t change too much: I still want to read. As much as possible.

I can imagine my life – at least the foreseeable future – without the fancy dinners, nights at the symphony, and days spent rambling around European cities (on vacation) or my own little town of Washington, D.C. But I can’t imagine my life without books. I know that it’s going to be a challenge, and that my reading will be dropping off sharply during my baby’s early life. I probably won’t be pounding out as many blog “book reviews” or churning through eight to ten tomes every month. For me to hope that my reading habits would stay the same is just unrealistic, and I’d be setting myself up for a major disappointment.

The fact is, I have NO IDEA what my life will look like when October rolls around. I could get a great sleeper that gives me uninterrupted evening hours for reading… or I could get a challenging baby who won’t go to bed no matter how much I beg and plead. Sitting here, on the mom-to-be side of the great divide, I just can’t tell you “Here is when I plan to get my read on, and that’s how it’s going to be.” Because I really don’t know, and I won’t know until I’m in the thick of it. One thing I do know is that it’s going to be hard to squeeze books into life with an infant. Right now I read on my commute while hubby drives – but I expect to spend most of my post-baby commute making sure the kiddo is comfortable and entertained (anything to keep her from screaming in the car, right?). And on my lunch hour – but once I’m back at work, I’m planning to go over to our daycare at lunchtime to see the baby as much as possible. And while I make dinner – well, no comment on this one; I’ll be lucky to get a reasonable dinner on the table at all for awhile, I expect. And after dinner – when bathtime and bedtime rituals will take over. Where does that schedule leave room for books? I’ll have to get creative, it seems.

That said, I REALLY want to be a reading mom. And I’m committed to making that happen. Here’s why:

…For my own sanity… Yes, it’s hard for many moms to get their Me Time in. There’s always something to do. My own mom used to say “A mother’s work is never done.” (Maybe it is now that my brother and I are both independent and out of the house.) But I hope and pray that I’ll be able to cut myself off from housework for at least a little while each day – if the baby helps me out by going to sleep – and sit down with a book. I haven’t experienced motherhood yet, but I have experienced tough jobs with long hours and I know that reading – even just a little bit before bed – helps keep me sane. I firmly believe that moms need to make at least some time for themselves, to do something they enjoy – for one thing, they deserve it, and for another, I think that keeping up at least one of my own interests will make me a better, more well-rounded mom.

…To set an example… This might be even more important. I want my baby to grow up surrounded by books, and to live in a world where stories and reading are a part of life. That’s the childhood that my own mom gave me, and that’s what I want to give my little girl. Along those lines, it’s going to be important for me both to read WITH the kiddo every day (stay tuned for our favorite bedtime stories to be featured on the blog), and for the kid to see ME reading to myself – to see that I make reading a priority in my own life. Whether that’s sitting with a book in my lap while I keep an eye on my offspring on the playground a few years from now, or picking out my own book when we motor by the library for story hour, I want the kid to understand that books can enrich her life – and what better way to get that message across than to embody it?

…To educate myself… Oh, I’ll never stop reading fiction; I love it too much. But since getting pregnant I’ve also been all about reading books to help me make sense of this pregnancy-and-mommyhood journey. It starts with “What to Expect When You’re Expecting” and “Your Pregnancy Week By Week” – my two pregnancy bibles – but I’m planning to read a LOT of books about early child development and parenting. I know that every kid is different, but I want to be armed with all the information I can be. Like I said, I really don’t know how things will shake out when the baby is born. But I hope I can be a reading mom. I plan to set an example for my kid by eating well and living an active lifestyle, but also by reading. I hope to instill in the baby the same love of reading that I’ve had since I was a toddler myself.

Do you have any tips for me, to make the transition from “reader” to “reading mom” easier?

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1001 Books

Have you heard of the “1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die” list? It’s a list of… well, what it says: 1001 books that the list-makers have decreed everyone should read during their lives.  I’ve been aware of the list for a few years now and it floats around the periphery of my mind when I’m deciding what to read next.  I alternate between thinking “What a fun challenge!” and “That’s nuts, it would take my entire life to read all of these and I’d never be able to read anything else, and anyway, why should I listen to some random stranger about what to read?”

Last weekend I decided it would be fun to just have a look-see at the list, and figure out how many of the books I’d already read.  And oh, friends, it wasn’t pretty.  Here are the titles I’ve read from the 1001 Books list:

2000s
Saturday – Ian McEwan
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time – Mark Haddon
Atonement – Ian McEwan
Life of Pi – Yann Martel

1900s
The God of Small Things – Arundhati Roy
The Virgin Suicides – Jeffrey Eugenides
The Things They Carried – Tim O’Brien
The Remains of the Day – Kazuo Ishiguro
The Child in Time – Ian McEwan
The Cider House Rules – John Irving
The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood
White Noise – Don DeLillo
A Confederacy of Dunces – John Kennedy O’Toole
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams
The Master and Margarita – Mikhail Bulgakov
In Cold Blood – Truman Capote
The Bell Jar – Sylvia Plath
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich – Aleksander Solzhenitsyn
Pale Fire – Vladimir Nabokov
Catch-22 – Joseph Heller
To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee
The Talented Mr. Ripley – Patricia Highsmith
Lord of the Flies – William Golding
The Catcher in the Rye – J.D. Salinger
Love in a Cold Climate – Nancy Mitford
Animal Farm – George Orwell
Cannery Row – John Steinbeck
The Pursuit of Love – Nancy Mitford
Loving – Henry Green
The Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck
Rebecca – Daphne du Maurier
Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck
The Hobbit – J.R.R. Tolkien
Out of Africa – Isak Dineson
Gone with the Wind – Margaret Mitchell
Thank You, Jeeves – P.G. Wodehouse
Cold Comfort Farm – Stella Gibbons
To the Lighthouse – Virginia Woolf
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd – Agatha Christie
The Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Trial – Franz Kafka
Billy Budd – Herman Melville
Siddhartha – Herman Hesse
The Age of Innocence – Edith Wharton
Night and Day – Virginia Woolf
The Voyage Out – Virginia Woolf
Ethan Frome – Edith Wharton
The Secret Agent – Joseph Conrad
The Jungle – Upton Sinclair

1800s
The Awakening – Kate Chopin
Tess of the d’Urbervilles – Thomas Hardy
The Picture of Dorian Gray – Oscar Wilde
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn – Mark Twain
Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy
War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy
The Moonstone – Wilkie Collins
Little Women – Louisa May Alcott
Notes from the Underground – Fyodor Dostoyevsky
The Woman in White – Wilkie Collins
Walden – Henry David Thoreau
The Scarlett Letter – Nathaniel Hawthorne
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall – Anne Bronte
Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte
Agnes Grey – Anne Bronte
Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte
Dead Souls – Nikolai Gogol
The Charterhouse of Parma – Stendhal
Oliver Twist – Charles Dickens
Ivanhoe – Sir Walter Scott
Northanger Abbey – Jane Austen
Persuasion – Jane Austen
Emma – Jane Austen
Mansfield Park – Jane Austen
Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen
Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen

1700s
Candide – Voltaire
Gulliver’s Travels – Jonathan Swift

By my count, that’s 77 out of 1001 books.  Not even ten percent.  Ouch.  It doesn’t seem like a coincidence to me that the vast majority of my books are from the 1900s, with the 1800s coming in as a close second.  (This is the “original” list, by the way – it gets revised periodically.  Keeping up with the revisions seems to me like a good way to drive yourself off the deep end, so I wouldn’t bother with it.)

So, do I want to go after the 1001 Books list?  Meh.  There are a lot of books on the list that I’d been wanting to read anyway, and I’m sure I’ll get to those sooner or later.  And I definitely think it would be fun to keep tracking my progress against the list.  But am I going to make it an official goal?  Or decline to read other books because they’re not on the list?  Nope.  Still, I’m going to pay a bit more attention to the list and see what kind of progress I can make on it.  I do have a lifetime to get through it, after all.

Have you ever tried to read through a pre-determined list of titles?  Are you tackling the 1001 Books list?  Spill.

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Bookish Confessions

Fellow bibliophiles, is there anything about your reading life you’re embarrassed to admit?  Today’s the day I’m admitting to my bookish confessions.  Feel free to join in!

1) I can’t pronounce the word “library.”  This is REALLY embarrassing for me, considering how much time I spend there.  Every so often I get it right, completely by accident, but at least 95% of the time it comes out “li-berry,” or sometimes just “libry.”  I have no idea why.  In college all the cool kids shortened “library” to “libe,” which really worked for me.  I was able to get through four years of “hitting the libe” without anyone knowing that the word “library” gives me fits.  And now I’ve told the Internets.

2) I’ve never been able to bring myself to read Lolita or The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay because I’m a lepidopterophobe.  Any book that involves butterflies or moths as a major plot point just sounds way too scary for me.

3) I’ve read six of the Outlander books by Diana Gabaldon, but I’ve never admitted it on Goodreads… or to anyone without swearing them to secrecy.  I even had a favorite: Voyager.  I have not actually read beyond A Breath of Snow and Ashes, so I think I may have kicked the habit.  I’m no book snob, but I’m pretty embarrassed that there was once a time that I was completely obsessed with Jamie Fraser.

4) I have a small-but-growing collection of Angelina Ballerina books.  And they’re not relics from childhood; I actually purchased them as an adult.  With money I earned as a lawyer.  Yep.  (I just love the illustrations so much – the sweet details, the soft colors and the cute little mice.)  But I hid the books at one point so a houseguest wouldn’t come across them, and now I can’t find them.  And yes, I am actively searching for them.  For the baby, of course.  (Okay, okay, for me.)

5) I have routinely bought books based on seeing Rory Gilmore read them on “Gilmore Girls.”  (For instance, I started reading the Jeeves books after Rory told Richard that she was “very into P.G. Wodehouse.”)  MANY of the books on my shelves were Rory “recommendations.”  And not just books.  I own a “Reading is Sexy” t-shirt that I saw Rory wear and then simply had to have.  (What?  Reading is sexy.)

There, now you know my secrets, so tell me one of yours.  It’s only fair.

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But Where Will the Books Go?

When you’re as nutty for books as I am, you tend to accumulate them without even realizing it.  My collection grew from one tall bookshelf in my childhood bedroom to three tall bookshelves… and spilling over… today.  For years I’ve been perfectly content to live amongst heaps of books – books stacked double on my shelves – books on my nightstand and under my bed – books coming out of every odd place imaginable.

Over the past two years, hubby and I have implemented a temporary solution to the book creep.  This is the room that we have been fondly calling “the bookroom” up until now.

(In my head I picture the room from The Little Bookroom, one of my favorite kids’ books – and source of many of the bedtime stories that made me the most popular babysitter in my neighborhood when I was 16 – and although the reality is both less romantic and less dusty than the book, it’s still a fun place to hang out.  With less sneezing – bonus.)

But all that has to change.  In a few short months, “the bookroom” will be dismantled, on its way to becoming “the nursery.”

Cue panic.  Anyone remember the episode of “Friends” where Monica and Chandler are discussing their efforts to have a baby?  Monica starts “reassuring” Chandler by telling him that when the baby arrives, there will be so much they can’t control, like: “What if the baby gets into the ribbon drawer?  Messes up all the ribbons?!  What if there’s no room for a ribbon drawer, because the baby’s stuff takes up all the space!? Where will all the ribbons go!?!”

Imagine the same level of panic in my voice as I realize that we have to clear out the bookroom.  WHERE WILL ALL THE BOOKS GO?!?!?!

Go ahead and laugh, but this is a problem of some magnitude.  My book collection is pretty ridiculous; the three bookshelves I have right now are practically buckling under its weight as it is.  (And that’s not counting hubby’s book collection, which takes up two of his own shelves in our den.)  And the bookshelves I have don’t really match any of my other furniture.  I know, who cares, right?  But I’ve actually spent money and effort in trying to make sure that my house looks like adults live in it – in contrast to my first apartment, which looked like hobos… or frat boys… or hobo frat boys… were squatting there.  So it’s my strong preference to not destroy that hard work by moving shelves into a room where they clearly don’t belong or look good.

Here are a couple of the less-than-perfect solutions I’ve come up with:

1) Move the bookshelves into my second guest bedroom as a temporary solution.  Eventually install built-in shelves and use the second guest room as permanent book storage.

(Problem with this: Out of sight, out of mind.  The odds of me actually installing built-in shelves in a rarely used room, sometime within the next ten years, are pretty slim.  Meanwhile, the shelves really won’t look good in there.  So I’ll have an unfortunate-looking room that won’t really get any better for a long time, which I will proceed to actively hate on but do nothing to improve.  Plus, if we have another kid sometime down the road, the second guestroom will have to make way for that kid.  And then the books will be homeless again.)

2) Move one shelf into my main guestroom and put the other two in the basement.  Edit down my collection severely and put the rest of the books in storage.

(Problem with this: The main guestroom only will fit one shelf as it’s currently configured; it’s a big room but that’s just the way it’s laid out – there’s not much wall space that doesn’t involve a picture window or a large closet, and it’s all in use already.  And editing down my collection is not a good option.  I’ve only got about two-thirds of my total book collection out as it is.)

3) Reconfigure the furniture arrangement in the main guest bedroom.  Specifically, I could move the TV out of the main guest bedroom and set up the bookshelves where the TV was.  Nobody watches the TV in there, because I lost the remote years ago.  (Sorry to all of my houseguests.)  The shelves aren’t a perfect match in that room, but they would look better there than anywhere else and be a not-horrible temporary solution.

(Problem with this: I don’t know where the TV would go.  I store all of my unused stuff – which isn’t much stuff; I’m a minimalist in everything except books and perfume – in the basement.  But I’m a little weirded out by the idea of electronics going in the basement, especially if we have another flood.  Still, this might be the best solution, if I can find an acceptable place to store the TV.)

4) Buy a couple of new bookshelves that will complement my bedroom furniture and move as many of the books as possible in there, then pack away the rest.

(Problem with this: ‘Spensive.  I have cribs and strollers to buy, and daycare to pay for.  Plus I’ll still have to whittle the collection down a little bit.  And having my books in my bedroom… well, my motivation to actually visit other rooms will shoot way down if that ever happens.  It’s already a little too comfy in there.)

Long-term, what I’d really love to do is install built-in shelves in the living room.  I love, love, LOVE the way built-ins look, and I think they’d be a perfect backdrop for my piano, which I’m hoping to move down from New York before baby’s appearance.  (Not to mention a temptingly convenient place for my books to live.)  But installing built-ins is a long way off.  As much as I’d love to, I don’t think either hubby or I is confident enough to take on a task of that magnitude, and paying someone for a big project like that – a project which isn’t strictly necessary – isn’t really in the baby-on-board budget.

Bottom line, the books need somewhere to go, and I really don’t want that somewhere to be “in storage.”  Especially not when I have space to spare in the house.  I want the baby to grow up surrounded by books, like hubby and I did.  In the meantime, I’m still trying to figure out where I can put these displaced books so that they’re out of baby’s way, but still easily accessible to me.

Any ideas for me?

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Library Mishap Update: Week 3

Well, kids, this is it.  The moment of truth.  Did I, or did I not, manage to read 1,927 pages in three weeks?  And more importantly, did I learn one single blessed thing from the experience?  Read on.

Tuesday (5/1): Still a touch burnt out from 11/22/63, so I didn’t do any reading today.  Instead, I spent the evening watching The Biggest Loser season finale (I was totally pulling for Kim).  Totals are the same as at the conclusion of last week: 1,522 pages read; 405 to go.

Wednesday (5/2): Headed off on my second business trip in two weeks, this time to a conference sponsored by my firm at our headquarters.  I was excited to see some of my colleagues from other offices and wonderful firm clients.  On the plane, I got a little bit of reading done, knocking off 55 pages of The Marriage Plot.  Not quite sure yet what I think of the characters or the book, but the writing’s great.  1,577 pages down; 350 to go.

Thursday (5/3): I wasn’t expecting to get any reading done today, but I woke up early and wasn’t expected at the conference registration until 9:30 a.m., so I kicked back in my hotel room and read 72 pages of The Marriage Plot before breakfast.  That was it for the day – I spent the rest of the time in workshops and socializing with clients and work friends until way past my bedtime.  But considering I thought this would be a lost day as far as bookish pursuits were concerned, I was thrilled with my page total.  1,649 pages read; 278 remain.

Friday (5/4): Another plane flight, another hour and a half of uninterrupted reading time.  Then, when I got home, hubby switched on a hockey game and I did some more reading while keeping an eye on the TV.  115 pages of The Marriage Plot dispatched with today between the plane and post-dinner time.  1,764 pages down; 163 to go (and starting to think I might pull this off).

Saturday (5/5): Annnnnnnnd… SHE’S DONE.  163 pages of The Marriage Plot completed today.  Permit me a Boom Shaka?  I got into the zone – meant to do housework for most of the day, but I ended up turning page after page.  I saw the finish line and decided to just go for it.  (In between trips downtown for lunch and grocery shopping with hubby, that is.  I read fast and was done by the time the Kentucky Derby aired.)  So… that’s that. 1,927 pages read; 0 to go.

I am still in a bit of a state of shock.  When I realized the magnitude of the task I had to get through in three weeks, I didn’t really think it could be done.  I mean, maybe I thought it could be done on vacation.  But working 50 hours per week, with two business trips thrown into the mix?  Yeah, I wasn’t too optimistic.  I’m amazed that I managed to pull it off, and – I’ll be honest – feeling pretty proud of myself right now.

So, for the important question: did I learn anything?  Well, considering I checked out two more library books since beginning this challenge (one the new 625-page Robert K. Massie biography of Catherine the Great, which I had on hold) and got two more books off the holds shelf when I returned The Marriage Plot, I’d say… it sure doesn’t seem like it.  Right now I have those books right where I want ’em… but stay tuned.  There will probably be another library mishap in the future.  I might be a fast reader, but I seem to be a slow learner.

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Library Mishap Update: Week 2

Yep.  Still reading.

Tuesday (4/24): Started 11/22/63, by Stephen King, and was instantly captivated.  Blazed through the first 75 pages before starting work for the day, then 32 before bed, for a total of 107 pages.  (I don’t have much time in the evenings this week, as I’m on a business trip to a very big, extremely cool city with a great group of people, and the time I’m not spending with them, I’m trying to be on the phone with hubby.  But this book is irresistable so far.)  Totals thus far: 773 pages read; 1,154 to go.

Wednesday (4/25): Have been completely sucked into 11/22/63.  Between before work and bedtime reading, I dominated 191 extremely exciting pages.  I’m basically at the midway point of this insane attempt to read 1,927 pages in three weeks.  964 pages down; 963 to go.

Thursday (4/26): Headed home from my business trip and was really looking forward to the 1.5 hour flight for some good uninterrupted reading time.  Unfortunately, I woke up with a headache that got progressively worse over the course of the day, so I ended up sleeping on the plane and only read 41 pages today.  Still totally absorbed in 11/22/63.  I don’t know if I’d enjoy any other Stephen King, but I’m loving this one.  1,005 pages down; 922 to go.

Friday (4/27): Still working my way through 11/22/63 – 91 pages read today.  Not bad considering I met hubby for lunch and, as a result, didn’t read during that time.  A quiet evening at home contributed to the page total.  1,096 pages read; 831 left.

Saturday (4/28): I hardly ever have a day when I can say this, but I didn’t do any reading.  Spent the morning wandering around the farmers’ market and the downtown area, then having lunch with hubby.  And I whiled away the afternoon catching up on life with my high school BFF (we’re both so busy that we don’t have time to talk as much as we’d each like to, but when we do finally connect over the phone it’s as if the conversation never stopped, and we can go on for hours) and shopping for some new work clothes, which were sorely needed.  So I’m still at my numbers from yesterday: 1,096 pages down; 831 to go.

Sunday (4/29): Well, I definitely made up for not cracking the spine of 11/22/63 yesterday.  In fact, I finished that mama.  Between working in the yard with hubby, some household chores I’d assigned myself, and a trip to the library to return a bunch of books (The House at Tyneford was due back, and now Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?, Village School, Below Stairs and, yes, 11/22/63 are off to their next temporary homes as well), I managed to plow through the 419 pages I had left in the tome.  And while I don’t know that I’m going to be reading any other Stephen King novels (from what I hear, 11/22/63 was a departure from his usual fare), I loved it.  1,515 pages read; my math says 412 left.  (I got screwed up somewhere, because the final book on the agenda is The Marriage Plot, which – I just looked – only has 406 pages, so I must have shortchanged my page total in one of the earlier books.  Ah, well, details.  I never claimed to be a mathematician.  We’ll stick with my numbers though, because it’s easier that way.  And I’ll read the dedication pages or something.)

Monday (4/30): I was pretty wiped out after my epic day o’ reading yesterday, so while I started The Marriage Plot I only got 7 pages in.  So far it seems good, but it’s a little too soon to tell for sure.  Totals after this week:  1,522 pages read; 405 to g0.

Whew!  I can’t believe I finished off 11/22/63.  That was a chunkster if I’ve ever seen one.  With just one book left and seven days to finish it, things are looking pretty good for this challenge.  (Watch: now I’ve said that, I’ll totally jinx myself.)

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Library Mishap Update

Last week after I posted about the little problem I had at the library (oh, playing with that holds queue is a dangerous game – let this be a lesson to you kids out there), Eagle-Eyed Editor gave me a vote of confidence and some much-needed encouragement in my quest to read 1,927 pages by May 7th.  Because of that comment, and because I am delusional, I now believe that you all care about how it’s going.  So here’s an update:

Tuesday (4/17): Posted about my library mishap.  Finished The House at Tyneford (I had about 70 pages to go), so I could officially begin the epic journey to May 7th.  Since Tyneford was a little intense, I decided Mindy Kaling was the perfect antidote.  Picked up Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns), read 63 pages.  1,864 pages to go.

Wednesday (4/18): I’m enjoying the heck out of Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? but I’m not surprised at all, since I think Mindy Kaling is one of the most hilarious people in the television business.  But it wasn’t a big reading day for me – lots to do around the office, so I worked through lunch.  Then I accidentally left the book at work and instead of starting something new, decided to spend the evening pouting, cooking an elaborate dinner, shouting obscenities at my TV (it’s hockey playoffs time!) and falling asleep on the couch shortly after 8:00 p.m.  Yes, I am a wild child.  Total reading for the day: 14 pages on the way to work.  77 pages down; 1,850 to go.

Thursday: (4/19): It was another busy evening and early-to-bed night, but I managed to knock off 89 pages of Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? between the commute home and some before bed reading.  I’ll finish this and be on to the next book before the weekend hits, despite some bumps in the road this week.  Totals: 166 pages down; 1,761 to go.

Friday (4/20): Finished Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? between my morning and evening commutes (53 pages).  Absolutely hysterical.  I would like to be best friends with Mindy Kaling, please.  Then started Village School, by Miss Read, and knocked off 52 pages while keeping an eye on the Flyers-Penguins game.  Pages read today: 105.  Totals: 271 down; 1,656 to go.

Saturday (4/21): Read 122 pages of Village School – up to page 175 – between morning laziness and afternoon/evening couch time.  Loving my time in Fairacre.  Spent the rest of the day walking around town and having pizza with hubby.  393 pages read; 1,534 remain.

Sunday (4/22): Finished the remaining 62 pages of Village School in the morning and loved, loved, loved it.  Didn’t have much time to read, between cleaning, errands, and some weekend work, but I did start on Below Stairs and read 86 pages this afternoon.  (It’s proven to be a fast read; were it not for having to work, run errands and do chores around the house I totally would have finished it.  Ah, well, I’ll get ‘er done in the next day or so.)  Totals: 541 pages down, 1,386 to go.

Monday (4/23): Headed off on a business trip for the next four days (hubby is partying it up at home without me, poor guy).  Between the plane and some hotel bedtime reading, I got done 125 pages to finish off Below Stairs.  666 pages down (really); 1,261 to go.

Since I’m just crazy enough to believe that someone out there is actually interested in whether I can read 1,927 pages in three weeks and still have enough time to take many naps, I’m going to keep posting updates here until this journey ends, whether that be in triumph or tears.  Plus, y’all can keep me accountable.  Because you know I need the encouragement to ignore housework and read.  /sarcasm.

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Oops I Did It Again

Had another library mishap.  Or, well, not really a mishap.  At least no one can blame me this time.

Here’s what happened: I’d been adding books to my holds queue, I thought strategically.  I spaced out the additions and I seemed to be at wildly varying points in my wait for all of these books.  Then I got an email saying that a couple of my holds were available for me to pick up.

Great!  I sailed on down to the library and grabbed them – Death Comes to Pemberley, by P.D. James, and The House at Tyneford, by Natasha Solomons.  I knew that there were probably a few more that would be available before long, so I set to it and made my way through the first, and about two-thirds of the way through the second.

Meanwhile, along came another email: two more books available for me to pick up.  Well, I’m still happy.  The new books were books I’d been looking forward to reading – very much – and I couldn’t wait to dig in.  Still, I decided to leave them on the holds shelf for a little while, at least until I could return a couple more books.  (I can leave them there up to a week before they’ll go to the next person.  Normally, I don’t like to do that – it’s not entirely fair to the person who’s behind me in the queue, but these were desperate times, clearly calling for desperate measures.)

Then came another email: two more books were ready.  And finally, one more email this morning: a fifth book was waiting, with my name on it.  Uh-oh.  Now the situation is getting pretty out of hand.

I did some quick calculations and found that, not counting The House at Tyneford, which I should finish shortly, I have 1,927 pages to read before May 7th.

The House at Tyneford, by Natasha Solomons (due back April 30)
Village School, by Miss Read (due back May 7)
Below Stairs, by Margaret Powell (May 7)
Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?, by Mindy Kaling (May 7)
The Marriage Plot, by Jeffrey Eugenides (May 7)
11/22/63, by Stephen King (May 7)

Let’s get this party started…

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My First Literary Crush

Raise your hand if you have crushed on a fictional character.

Last week I read Austenland, by Shannon Hale – a fluffy, fun bit about a woman who lets her crush on Mr. Darcy get in the way of her real-life relationships.  Most bookish girls have had crushes on their favorite fictional heroes… right?  I know I have.  Please tell me I’m not the only one.  I know I’m not the only one.  How else would Mr. Darcy and Mr. Knightley have acquired their legions of female fans, without the delicious and safe literary crush phenomenon?

Oh, yes, I’ve sighed over Mr. Darcy.  And Mr. Knightley.  Come to mama.

And for even longer, I have loved me some Gilbert Blythe and Teddy Kent.  I imagined both of them with a shock of hair falling in their brown eyes.  But don’t worry, Anne and Emily, I know they’re your men, not mine.

But even before Gilbert and Teddy, there was another literary boy who struck my fancy.  Oh, Peter Pevensie, I’d have ruled Narnia by your side any day.

Peter is a loving and responsible big brother.  Although he doesn’t believe his sister Lucy when she tells her siblings she has found a magical land in a wardrobe, he doesn’t try to make her feel ridiculous, either.  And when Lucy is proven right, Peter is the first to apologize for doubting her… in fact, that happens multiple times throughout the books.  Peter is quick to own up when he makes a mistake, but he is never tempted by the evil White Witch like his brother Edmund.  Peter grows from schoolboy to warrior to king.  Now what pre-teen girl wouldn’t love a boy who can conquer and rule an entire magical land (with a little help from his friends and one all-powerful Lion, yes), yet still be humble enough to admit it when his little sister is right and he is wrong?

Peter Pevensie is a little young for me these days.  And I don’t need literary crushes anymore – I have a cute hubby to crush on.  Still, I’m proud to own up to my first literary crush being a stand-up guy like Peter.

Who was your first literary crush?

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Bookmark Rodeo

About a week and a half ago, Eagle-Eyed Editor, a blogger I’ve recently come to admire, posted about souvenir book hunting.  Now, I usually don’t bring books home from vacation, because I’m often traveling on the strength of one backpack.  (A big one, to be sure, but you can’t do two weeks in England on one backpack and expect to be toting many purchases home with you.)  Sure, there are exceptions – I brought a load of cookbooks back from California in 2009, for instance, and found ways to cram several teas into my backpack after last year’s trip to England.  Oh, and mugs too.  But my low-key travel preferences generally work for my souvenir-buying habits because what I really can’t resist on a trip is a new bookmark (or ten).  Since I was a kid, I’ve collected bookmarks.  I love ’em, and it recently occurred to me that they make perfect travel souvenirs for bibliophiles like myself.  They’re tiny and flat, they fit easily in a purse or backpack, and they make me smile and remember the place I acquired them every time I use them (which is daily).  So today, I thought I’d show you some of my favorites.

Since we’re talking about trips, these are three of the bookmarks I acquired in England.  (I bought two more, but one is in use and one is AWOL.  That’s a thing about bookmarks – they do tend to go missing and reappear with alarming frequency.)  The one on the left is my favorite, because the place I bought it – the British Library – is easily one of my favorite places in London, if not the world.  In the middle is a bookmark I spotted at the Bodleian Library in Oxford and had to have, and on the right is my souvenir from Shakespeare’s Globe in London (more on that visit to come in a future post).  All three are leather, and beautiful, and I love using them.

While we’re on the subject of trips, here are three bookmarks I’ve picked up on various trips to New York City, all at the Strand, my most favoritest bookstore in the world.  (Yes, my love for the Strand demands juvenile vocabulary.)  I go every time I visit the 212, without fail, and I always leave with a bulging tote bag full of books, and a bookmark or two.  The cardboard specimen on the left was an impulse buy near the register.  The two metal bookmarks on the right were carefully considered purchases.  (Yes, I put great thought into my bookmark acquisitions.)  One is a miniature “subway sign” of the stop I use to go to the Strand – 14th Street and Union Square.  The other is a cutout of the storefront that makes my heart skip a beat every time I approach it.  (P.S. Mom, when we meet up for our girls’ day in NYC this summer, we’re going to the Strand.  Sorry, but it can’t be helped.)

A bookmark addict like me can’t just restrict herself to buying while on vacation, though.  I feed my addiction to leather bookmarks while playing tourist in my own town, too.  I got this one this winter, one day when hubby took me out for a date to the National Gallery of Art, my favorite D.C. museum.  Let me tell you, this isn’t the only bookmark I have from the National Gallery.  That place is bookmark heaven.  I can barely control myself.

Finally, here are a couple of my other favorite bookmarks.  I have no idea where the “Reading Girl” bookmark came from, or when I got it, or how I came by it.  I used to be really into “The Girls” (I have a “Tennis Girl” magnet on my fridge left over from my varsity days) and I probably got this bookmark then.  I’ve had it forever, and I love it, because I am definitely a “Reading Girl.”  The other bookmark is a recent acquisition.  My mom and I were shopping at a paper goods store in my town where they had a display of “Keep Calm” goodies.  I showed my mom and explained the British World War II slogan to her, then mentioned I’d been mulling over buying this bookmark for a few weeks.  My mom gave me a look that plainly said, “Kid, loosen the purse strings,” and told me she was going to buy it for me.  Unfortunately, it was $3.00, and she only had $1.00 on her.  Like mother, like daughter.  I actually had $2.00 – I was flush that day – so we split the cost and I got my long-desired “Keep Calm” bookmark.  I use it exclusively for British mysteries and biographies of Queen Elizabeth.

That’s just a fraction of my frighteningly large collection of bookmarks.  I’d show you more, but I don’t want to freak you out.  What about you – are you obsessed with bookmarks?  What’s your go-to travel souvenir?