Picked up a few interesting books, with a mix of online reserves and wandering the stacks. I found that one library I have a card at had The Lost Art of Dress thanks to a useful extension I use with Firefox: Library Extension. It’s available for Chrome (and other Chromium browsers) and Edge as well. It has a little window that pops up whenever I’m on Goodreads, Amazon, or Barnes and Noble. The addon has a list of sites it works on, sadly it does not work on Kobo yet, but they’re working on it. I have a limited book budget, so finding things I want to read at the library is such a boon to the pocketbook, making my budget go farther for books I really want to have.
Online reserves are so handy! I picked three of the books online, picked them up at the checkout desk, then found the rest in the stacks. Iwas in an eclectic mood, but the Trainable Cat I picked as we recently got a new cat to add to our clowder and we’re having some adjustment issues with the former baby of the house, Josiah.
I woke up this morning to a pile of books arriving. A super great way to wake up is to wake up to a book haul arriving in the mail. All my books came from Abebooks, one of my favorite used book sites for when I can’t get to my local used bookstore or the bookstore doesn’t have what I want.
The Books, a Partial List
The top one, the Random House Hostess set, is a two-volume set, with one volume being a book of etiquette and the other one a cookbook. This is replacing the set my grandmother gave me when I was younger. I wore the books out and also misplaced the slipcase in a move, so this set is important to me since it was a gift. I’m excited over the fact that it is in such excellent condition, too!
Next from the top is a 1996 reprint of a book, Craig Claiborne’s Kitchen Primer, which I loved when I was in high school. The illustrations were so pretty, and it sparked off my love for cooking. The one I remember checking out almost once or twice a year was an older print, but my new copy is in much better condition with a dust jacket. I have it on a bookcase that isn’t in sunlight and is partially hidden by the trim, which should help keep it nicer. I’ll have a bookshelf tour up soon once I take pictures of my paperback bookcase.
The Chic Simple books with Cooking [the dust jacket is faded, but that’s the worst damage] on the bottom were also favorites. I already have Clothes, Women’s Wardrobe, and What Should I Wear?, and added Accessories, Dress Smart, Home, Cooking, Woman’s Face, and Work Clothes to my collection. These books aren’t just for a collection, but I like the aesthetics, even though they’re going on 30 years old now. Some examples may be dated now, but a lot of the advice on how something should fit and how to find quality and take care of your clothes is timeless.
Updates
2020 was not a good year for keeping up with this blog. I have ADD and I was moderately depressed at least until November 3, then I was just Anxious until Jan 20, which made for an excellent birthday present. I tried to do a 30-day book challenge, but I’m going to do that in June instead, and a fun bookish tag for April.
What I’ve Loved in 2021
As for what I’ve read lately, it’s been a slump, mostly trying to decide what to read from my TBR.
I picked Deborah Harkness’s A Discovery of Witches/All Souls series, which I inhaled in February. Three books, three days. And they aren’t thin books, either! I enjoyed the entire series, though it got rough during the second and third books because of a character’s motivations and subsequent actions. I’ll have an in-depth review next week with explanations and appropriate content warnings. The TV show is on my list to watch, for sure, so look out for my thoughts about it.
Another book I’ve read recently was The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison, and it’s one of my favorites. I’ve reread it four times that I could remember the dates of, according to my Goodreads. I’m working on a review for next week, hopefully.
What have you been reading lately? In between scrolling social media and phone games or was that just me and my family?
A little Friday fun, lol. I got a box from Amazon yesterday full of goodies. A birthday gift to myself (and a replacement for a lost tool for my vacuum cleaner but shh, that’s not nearly as fun as books)
In the #TBR pile, not counting the new books, I have my e-reader, an Asus Z380M, and I use calibre to manage it, along with MoonReader + Pro, the Amazon Kindle app, and Google Play Books. I put all of my ebooks in calibre and use MoonReader to read, but buy via the apps.
The Scalzi books and the Elizabeth bear book along with my nightstand books are re-reads and everything else linked is new to me. I’ve had the Star Wars books for over a year now, time to read. I’m dipping in and out of 1,000 Books and The Well-Educated Mind, the first for book ideas, the second to learn how to educate myself. I’ll be discussing that project at a later point as well.
What’s in your TBR piles? And how do you like to manage them?
