Completed: The Professor and the Madman

Dear Jenny,

I read this book in June, so I'm still catching up here. I love the subtitle of this book: "A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary." Kind of a big tease, isn't it? And yet... that is, in fact, what this book is about. (Side note -- as I was writing this, you published this writeup, also talking about crazy subtitles in non-fiction books. Heh.)

One notable part of this book is that I found it one of the most "readable" works of non-fiction I have ever read. It made me wonder about what makes a book/story more readable (or less). I don't know the answer to that, but I do know that I enjoyed this book.

Of course, only two months later, I can barely remember it (le sigh) -- let's see what the synopsis says on the back of the book:

Masterfully researched and eloquently written, is an extraordinary tale of madness, genius, and the incredible obsessions of two remarkable men that led to the making of the Oxford English Dictionary -- and literary history. The compilation of the OED began in 1857, it was one of the most ambitious projects ever undertaken. As definitions were collected, the overseeing committee, led by Professor James Murray, discovered that one man, Dr. W. C. Minor, had submitted more than ten thousand. When the committee insisted on honoring him, a shocking truth came to light: Dr. Minor, an American Civil War veteran, was also an inmate at an asylum for the criminally insane.

That about sums it up. I did mark a few pages, so let's flip through it and see what notes Past Kelly has left for Present Kelly...

Oh, yeah! Every chapter begins with a word and a definition from the OED that pertains so that topic. There were a lot of fun ones, my favorite being:  Sesquipedalian -- a very long and polysyllabic word. Also: "A person or thing that is a foot and a half in height or length." [75] Ha! Next time I need to say something is 18 inches long, I may need to say that it's "sesquipedalian." (Thereby also using a sesquipedalian word -- so meta!)

The perspective of what the world was like before we had the first complete dictionary is absolutely fascinating to me. You know what a research junkie I am -- imagining this world is like trying to think about a time when we believed the world to be flat -- whaaa---? Check it:

Shakespeare was not even able to perform a function that we consider today as perfectly normal and ordinary a function as reading itself. He could not, as the saying goes, "look something up." Indeed the very phrase -- when it is used in the sense of "searching for something in a dictionary or encyclopaedia or other book of reference" -- simply did not exist." [80]

I often struggle to remember what the world was like before in Internet, but the idea of a world with no dictionary?! Oh, I need to sit down. Where are the smelling salts?

In fact, perhaps that is part of why this book was so interesting to me -- I have long been in love with the dictionary. In 1987, Random House released its expanded 2nd edition of the "Unabridged Dictionary" (OMG! Like the one at the library!) It was the only thing I asked for for Christmas that year. My grandfather bought it for me and I still have it. In fact, here's the inscription:

(Hilarious that he wrote "Granpaw" here -- surprisingly, he was a goofball!)

I was going to take a photo of the dictionary itself, but I'll do one better... here is a photograph [of a photograph] that I took in 1996 that I still carry around in my wallet, 17 years later (!!) It's Kaesea, sitting on my dictionary:

Ignore the glowing eyes -- check those darling white paws! And that SUPER fluffy tail! 

Someone saw this photo once and said, "Wow - small cat!" I said, "Nope. Big book." (Kaesea was probably about 11 pounds when this photo was taken.) Heh.

(BTW, I keep a very clean wallet --  this photo is the only frivolous item in there. So you know -- My cat and my dictionary: a couple of true loves.) (Note the Chronicles of Narnia also making an appearance there, as well as this book that you bought me years ago that did, I must report, eventually get replaced by the Internet.)

I still love that dictionary, although it's more sentimental than practical at this point. If I'm looking up words, I'm using some sort of eDictionary. But pre-Internet?! This thing got a ton of use... in fact, it's pretty ratty now but I can't see ever getting rid of it (it's been with me in 4 different states!) I used to want a full-on library stand for it, but never had the room... maybe I should look into that again now that we've got a big house... hrm.

But I digress.

Back on this whole The Pre-dictionary World mind-blowing concept. I underlined this passage: "The English language was spoken and written -- but at the time of Shakespeare it was not defined, not fixed." [83] Again -- where are my smelling salts? This is just too lawless for me to even imagine.

Of course, when it came to laying down the law, plenty of people had to pipe up and take it to extremes, right? Here we go: "[Jonathan] Swift was the fiercest advocate of all. He wrote to the earl of Oxford to express his outrage that words like bamboozle, uppish, and -- of all things -- couldn't were appearing in print." [91] So here's someone who wanted not only rules to govern the usage of words, but to also outlaw words he deemed "unacceptable." Which was not at all the goal of the OED -- it was simply to document all of the words in use, regardless of how they felt about them.

And so the thinking of great literary men went -- if longitude was important, if the defining of color, length, mass, and sound was vital -- why was the same import not given to the national tongue. As one pamphleteer wailed, appropriately: "We have neither Grammar nor Dictionary, neither Chart nor Compass, to guide us through the wide sea of Words." [92]

This book gets into the nitty-gritty of how words were researched, documented, and, in the end, actually defined. And I ate it up. When I started writing this post, I thought, "Wait... what happened in this book?" Now that I'm flipping through and looking at my notes, I remember it all -- and part of the reason that I cannot remember this book is that I burned through it. I guess part of it is the writer's style, but, based on the above photos, it's also probably about my extreme interest in dictionaries.

It took decades to write the OED and the process by which it happened (tons of people researching, filling out scraps of paper, organizing those scraps, etc.) (All done via the postal service!) was absolutely fascinating to me. The titillating subtitle of this book refers to the state of mind of one of the biggest contributors and that story was somewhat interesting, but it wasn't what I really found engrossing about this book -- it was the dictionary stuff that really got me.

So, there ya go: Read about what interests you. (Um... duh, Kelly.)

love,
kelly

Completed: The Secret Garden

Dear Jenny,

Yes, I am woefully behind in these write ups -- I finished this book in May and now it's July August! (yeah... I started this post last month). But, you know... better late than never? Also -- I have kept up with my reading -- just not the writing. So get ready for a bunch of posts coming your way!

I must admit that my initial attraction to this book was the awesome cover...

Front:

Back:

Can you see that? It's photographed embroidery by an artist named Jillian Tamaki. Her dress is all French knots -- it's really lovely. It's also embossed, so the embroidery has a sort of 3D effect, which is extra cool. The series is called Penguin Threads and there are currently six titles available.

I especially love that the back of the embroidery is used inside of the covers, giving it the effect that the cover is actually embroidered:

Oh, yeah. And the pages all had deckle edges, so reading this book was a super tactile experience. Now that I've raved about the look and feel of this thing, shall I get to the content?

Basically: it's sweet. It's a children's book and I get why kids love it and why it's a classic. Have you read it? It's about a young orphaned girl named Mary who is a spoiled brat, basically due to neglect. When her parents die, she goes to live with her uncle who is also pretty neglectful (Yeah, yeah -- Invisible Parent trope. I didn't say it was terribly creative!) Left to her own devices, she befriends a servant's brother (Dickon) and discovers her uncle's son/her cousin (Colin) locked away in a room in the mansion.

Her uncle's wife (her aunt, I guess, although they never refer to her that way) had died some years before and when she died, her prized garden was locked away. Hence, the "secret garden." Along with Colin (this kid's story: they thought he was sick as a baby, so they kept him bedridden. Once he was bedridden, he got [and stayed] sick... kind of a vicious circle) and their pal Dickon, they go on a mission to find the garden and, once they do, they revitalize it. In the process, she becomes a better person and Colin experiences a complete turnaround in health and it all culminates in a happy ending where he surprises his father with his new-found vitality, as well as the beauty and health of the garden. And everyone is thrilled that Mary is also a good person now. Whee.

It's all very predictable -- it's a kids' book, after all -- but I think it holds up well over time (it was written in 1911). One theme I can get behind for kids (and adults) is what one might call "the power of positive thinking." Colin is "sick" because he has been deemed sick all of his life, but once he decides to get well, he focuses very hard on it and, with lots of exercise and Dickon's and Mary's support, he is able to gain strength and vitality. Of course, if a person is truly sick, this isn't going to work, but for those among us who create our own misery (or let another's misery drag us down), it's a good little inspirational message: dust yourself off and get workin'!

I was actually a little surprised by how strong some of those messages were in the book (the healthfulness of outdoor activity, the "mind over matter" will of Colin to get well, etc.) and made a (slightly minor) mistake by looking it up -- turns out it's all based on Christian Science, which Frances Hodgson Burnett was a big proponent of... But I say: Eh.  Kind of like finding out that The Chronicles of Narnia were a big fat Christian allegory (I was a little more aware with this book, being an adult when I read it). Still a good story with a decent message and I'm sticking with that.

I don't really have all that much more to say about it. It wasn't too complex, but I enjoyed it. And, you know... I really liked that cover. ;)

love,
kelly

Completed: Hellhound on His Trail

Kelly,

This was a great, entertaining read. It starts just a few weeks before King's assassination, with Eric Galt escaping from prison. Who is Eric Galt? you may be wondering. It was the alias used by James Earl Ray as he prepared to kill King. The book uses whichever alias the killer went by in real time, and only reveals the name James Earl Ray once the FBI uncovers it. At first, that was sort of annoying, but he uses so many aliases that it actually begins to make sense.

The book goes back and forth between the movements of King and his assassin, with occasional forays into the actions of FBI director J. Edgar Hoover and other politicians and investigators. But the whole is tightly focused on King and Ray and the events leading up to the assassination at the Lorraine Hotel.

I would say the best part of this book is that it proves the old axiom that Truth is Stranger than Fiction. The story itself is almost unbelievable in it's twists and turns and near escapes. The way the FBI figured out that Galt was the main suspect is an example of meticulous detective work---and all without technology! We are so used to seeing the way police investigate on TV,  but the hours and hours of manpower that went into this investigation were truly astounding. FBI agents combed through thousands of fingerprint cards and passport photos by hand! Where's the CSI team when you need them?

The book reads like a novel is someways, and clearly the author heavily researched the topic. The lists of what items Galt had in his bag, or of the whereabouts of all the different players is specific and fascinating. This was a quick, fast paced read. Even though I knew the big picture, I found the meticulous attention to detail to be completely compelling.

I have only a few quibbles with this book. One, and this is a little silly, I guess, but it really needed a section of photos. At one point, the author describes how a famous photograph was taken only moments after the assassination. King was shot on the balcony outside his hotel room in Memphis. Although no one saw the shooter, many of them ran towards King to help him. One of King's friends had grabbed a camera. Minutes later, the police arrived and "At first, many in King's entourage thought the police were attacking them--that the [hotel] was under siege. Then the cops yelled, 'Where'd the shot come from? Where'd the shot come from?' Young, Abernathy, and the others standing over King raised their arms and pointed up slightly to the right..as they did so, Joe Louw snapped..a photograph suffused with palpable urgency and thinning hope" (173). I mean, I've seen this photo before, but I had to pause and look it up on the internet at this point. Perhaps there was some copyright issues preventing its use? Another time, they describe how the original Wanted Poster had a picture with closed eyes, and so an artist had to draw them in. This is difficult to imagine without seeing it!

The author makes a wise decision to stick to the facts and not try to imagine what people might have been thinking of feeling. When he quotes someone, it was from another source, an article or biography, etc. However, this did leave me feeling a bit confused as to motive. I know what Ray is doing, but I don't know why. Apparently, the guy was a born con man and liar, so everything he said later conflicted with other parts of his story. But in the heat of the manhunt, it left me feeling that the biggest part of the story was missing.

It doesn't help that Ray was such a complete and total nut job. There's proof given of his extensive racism, for example he called King Martin Lucifer Coon, or his love of Governor George Wallace (famous for saying "Segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever!); however, Ray's eventual goal after killing King is to take refuge in Rhodesia. I mean, what kind of idiot that hates all black people want to go to AFRICA? I mean, really? As it turns out, they had no extradition to the US and a virulent white supremacist in charge. This was back when Europeans ruled the Continent. That, and Ray figured he could get hired as a mercenary so he could kill as many black people as he wanted. What a prince.

Eventually, after about two months on the lam, they caught Ray in London, trying to make his way to Brussels. The book comes to a quick end, summarizing only briefly the trial and ending with a second successful escape from jail in 1977, although this time they quickly caught him. By the way, another example of Ray's mental instability is that he continues to deny that he is James Earl Ray, insisting they call him by his alias. However, he then asks his lawyer to call his brother, saying, "Oh, he lives in Chicago. His name is Jerry Ray" (377). He eluded the biggest manhunt in history for two months, so he's clearly clever, but also a bit crazy. But then again, I guess you'd have to be...you know, to be an assassin.

As I finish here, can we discuss why almost all non-fiction books have these super long subtitles? The actual title of this one is Hellhound on His Trail: The Stalking of Martin Luther King Jr. and the International Hunt for his Assassin. Interestingly, the paperback got retitled to Hellhound on His Trail: The Electrifying Account of the Largest Manhunt in History. Come on, is that really better? Who's in charge of this? But, I actually think the second title is more accurate, because if I have any quibble with this book, I'd say that it fails to make the case for stalking. Given the lack of internal motive, the book is much more about the manhunt and what happens after than it is about the events before.

Finally, I guess the way I feel right now is a little...I don't know...wrong..about reading this. The focus is much more on Ray than on King. It makes me want to read more about King and the positive things he did with his life over the focus on his killer. In fact, one of the most interesting things in the book is the response of King's allies, friends, and family. Their focus in not on the one person who pulled the trigger, but rather their conviction that it was American society that made such a killer possible. The FBI could catch Ray, but does catching that one man really fix America's problems?
 In fact, when one of King's children asked his mother, "Should I hate the man that killed my father?" Coretta Scott King answered, "No, darling, your daddy wouldn't want you to do that."

Completed: Shadow Tag

Kelly,

As you know, I consider Louise Erdrich to be one of my favorite authors. Despite her recent (and infuriating) foray into quotation-mark-less prose, I still love her work. It's sharp and insightful, but also heartfelt and warm. She manages to perfectly understand and describe the human condition.

This is a short book, one that tells the story of a marriage on the rocks. Gil is a well known artist, but he's most well known for the long series of paintings he's completed over many years of his wife, Irene. Gil and Irene have three kids, and this portrait of their broken marriage is strangely compelling with just the right hint of emotional distance. The narration is split between Gil, Irene, and the kids. In this way, there's no one character pulling us too deeply into the narrative. Their motives are sometimes crystal clear, and other times veiled in levels of obscurity. It's an interesting trick, and so different from her earlier novels, that I found myself wondering what was going on.

One of the things that's interesting about having a beloved author is that you have a tendency to see their style grow and change, but there's also those authors that get stuck in a rut. Every single one of Erdrich's previous novels have been generational family sagas of Ojibwa Indians, almost always with strong ties to the reservation. I enjoyed those stories, I loved them! But this book and her most recent, The Round House, have been very different. The focus is on a single family in a single generation, and The Round House has a single narrator rather than many. In this case, the tight focus on Gil and Irene makes for a claustrophobic and intense read: these are unhappy and troubled people, and being privy to their split is wrenching.


I did like this book, though. One thing that I was struggling with was that the characters felt emotionally distant in a weird way, or maybe I should say weird for Erdrich. Of course, there was the annoying lack of quotation marks. But even more than that, it just felt like I wasn't quite in their heads the way I was with previous characters. Lo and behold, it turns out that the story is being written by their daughter many years later. Of course, this conveniently explains the lack of quotation marks because the daughter is remembering or imagining what they might have said to each other. But is also explains the distance, in some ways the daughter is unable to imagine what her parents must have been thinking. She's guessing, hoping, or assuming.

All in all, this was a satisfying read. I left the book at home, but I might go back and add some to this later. There were lots of lines I marked to share with you!

Jenny

Completed: Grand River and Joy

Dear Jenny,

I finished this book back in April and I'm finally getting around to writing about it. Ugh! It's kind of been swirling around in my head now with all of the other books about Detroit I have been reading this year, I must admit. But let's see if I can pick my brain and recall what we had here...

The book begins in 1967 in Detroit, so you know early on that we're going to hit on the riots before it's over. The central characters are a Jewish man, Harry, who lives in Detroit with his family and owns a shoe distributor (located at Grand River and Joy -- hence, the book title) and a black man, Curtis, who works for him and rents the apartment upstairs from the shoe warehouse with his son. This book did a nice job of juxtaposing the development of the personal relationships between the two men against the racial tensions going on in the city of Detroit at large.

The story itself isn't that original -- Harry's family facing the topic addressed by Harry's wife's Women's Club: "Detroit's Changing Neighborhoods: Stay or Go?" (Ugh. This is a Kindle book that doesn't have page numbers -- I'll use "Location numbers" for references in this write up...) [593] But it's handled pretty well and there is growth and discovery on both sides of the fence (in the end, of course, Harry's family "goes" -- not really a spoiler there. It's all in the history books.) Of course, Curtis has his own struggles as he tries to survive in Detroit while his son is toying with joining the Black Panthers.

Random Quotes

In writing this up, I looked at the book again and found that I had highlighted a lot of text -- way more than I usually do. I really enjoyed the actual writing in this book. So let's take a journey through my notes here...

This line made me smile -- I'm not sure if it was intended to be "funny," but it struck me:

Harry remembered what Ruth, his wife, said: that the word Jew, by itself could sound ugly, spit out. It was better when softened with the ish ending, as in short-ish or small-ish, suggesting not exactly short or small but somewhat. [98]

When someone has spray painted an anti-Semitic comment on Harry's business, he hears two cops talking. I thought this passage was really poignant:

This string of words that they were using with each other, "women," "tenant," "teenager," was getting to Harry -- as if one word was all you needed to know, as if it telegraphed everything, funneled whole populations down to a label, like the label on the window, like the y in boy with its narrow throat in which a whole huge history of meanings and individual variations could disappear. Women: foolish. Tenants: losers. Teenagers: delinquents. [314]

This sentence succinctly sums up that time of "Stay or Go?":

No one wanted to be the last to go, but it was also hard to be the first. [542]

The author reflects on the evolution of moving days -- from excitement about new neighbors to trepidation over neighbors moving. I thought some of this writing was really evocative (and echoes the stories I've heard from locals in the same situation...):

In those days, a moving van was not a welcome sight. Not the kind of event, like once upon a time, that brought the children running, to sit near the curb and watch the strong men carry refrigerators, bureaus and beds...[2886]

(Although, I must say this bit might have been a tad overwritten, as we have this passage shortly thereafter...)

In the old days, when a moving van pulled up, it was like a holiday, like the circus coming to town. It could have been prancing ponies with feather crowns, descending from the ramps. Or a line of elephants, trunks swaying like some ungodly extensor hand. [2899]

Gotta love this observation of a picky eater at the dinner table:

Today, she had the peas to contend with. It was one disturbing pile of vegetables after another. [2994]

(Ha!)

This line applies to many people and their life's work:

All these years, he thought, the business has been good to him and his family. But now, he saw, it wasn't good for him." [3910]

Snapshot of the pre-internet world... as the riots rage on downtown, Harry and his family, just a few blocks away, rely on the television for coverage:

By now, they'd heard some sketchy news that the crowds and looters and fires had spread somewhere near the Riviera and the Grande.

 "We don't know for sure," he said when Ruth gave him a look. "No reason to talk about it." It was maddening that with all the news, none of it zeroed in on a the particular block of interest to him. [3435]

I'm not sure if that's much of a "review" (and I actually highlighted even more text than that!) but it gives you an idea -- there's a lot of great imagery in this book and I think the author does a nice job of capturing a specific point in time.

Detroit

Of course when reading books about where you live, it's fun to say "Hey -- I know that place!" There was a lot of that in this book. A few things that really stood out to me ...

Detroit Industry

As a kid, Harry witnesses Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo as Rivera is painting Detroit Industry, an enormous mural at the DIA [3736]. Have you ever seen it? It's truly amazing. They have this really cool iPad app (and iPads to borrow while you're there) that gives you a complete tour of the mural. The thing is huge, so it's a really neat way to experience/learn about it while you're in there. (Or at home -- you can check it out here online or download the iPad app here. )

The Birwood Wall

Before reading this book, I had never heard of the Birwood Wall in Detroit, and it seems like a lot of Detroiters are unaware of it as well. In a nutshell, the FHA refused to fund housing that were near "certain" neighborhoods (read: black [and to a lesser extent, Jewish]) so a developer built a 1/2 mile long, 6 foot tall wall between the "black" neighborhoods and the newer "white" ones. The FHA then granted funding to the white developments on the "right" side of the wall. (Blech. Makes me sick to even write this...)

I've lived in both the North and the South and northerners really seem to pride themselves on not being segregated, but come on -- it's a damned *wall* dividing black and white neighborhoods. So fucked.

In related news, my procrastination in writing this post paid off, because when I first read this book and looked up the Birwood Wall, I didn't find too much (the most information found in this article from 2011). Lo and behold, on May 1, there was an article in HuffPo about this very topic. So weird, right?

Detroit: City on the Move

The mayor at the time of the riots was Jerome Cavenaugh and his mention in the book reminded me of this awesome video produced in 1965, when Detroit was bidding for the 1968 Olympics. The first two minutes are kind of boring (just the mayor, talking about the history of Detroit) but skip ahead to 2:06 and just watch for a few minutes (the whole thing is pretty long) -- the 60s production values, the music, the narration... it's pretty good stuff (especially considering Detroit today -- oh, the high hopes!)

In Conclusion

Well, I got sidetracked a lot there, reporting on all of my recently acquired Detroit knowledge (there's way more -- believe it or not, I'm trying to reign this in). I guess I am technically "from" here, but I don't feel that connection -- learning about this place feels all new to me (I left when I was 9, sooo...)

Back to the book! It was good. I don't think this write up gave it full justice, but I've talked enough. Some of the prose was a little long winded, but as "historical fiction" goes, it was a good story. As I said, not too surprising, but heartfelt. Of course, I think it would be a very different story as told from Curtis's viewpoint, but that's probably true of all stories, right?

Whew! I'm done!
love,
kelly

Completed: Cloud Atlas

Kelly,

Boy, you were right about this one. What a great book. I have your copy, and it's in good shape since I read this one on my Kindle (thank you, school library overdrive!).

I know it's been a while since you read this, so I'll briefly recap. The structure of this book is fairly amazing: 6 stories, organized like a set of nesting dolls. I read the first section and when it stopped in what felt like mid-sentence, I actually looked up the book on Wikipedia. I was sure that the Kindle version had somehow gone kablooey. It was then that I discovered what I thought would be a major spoiler, but turned out to be okay, which is that as the stories move through time, it is revealed that the current character is reading, watching, or experiencing the previous story in the chain.

Hmm. Hard to know how to talk about this book.

I guess I'll start off by saying that I definitely enjoyed some sections more than others. I don't think it's because of their gender, but I would say that my two favorite sections were those that focused on Louisa Rey and Somni. Although, if I remember correctly, you don't like Hawaii all that much, so maybe that's not too hard for you!).

One of the most impressive things about this novel, I think, was the control the author was able to maintain over the voice of each section. I almost felt a sense of whiplash at the beginning of each new section: who is this person? When is this? What in the hell is going on here? So often, a book contains multiple characters and points of view, and yet it all sounds exactly the same. I thought I would find the structure of the novel annoying, but instead I found myself enjoying the puzzle of the story and wondering how it would all come together in the end.

I'm fairly certain that this book would hold up incredibly well under repeated reading. As it is, I'm sure that I missed some salient details and plot points. And there must be tons of foreshadowing in each section, pointing to what's coming next.

At some point last year, they made a movie of the book! I've heard it's not too great (It's almost impossible for me to imagine how you could even make a movie out of this book!), but I'm still curious to see it. Have you seen the movie?

I feel like this review doesn't quite do the book justice, but it's so complex and layered. What a daunting task.

Jenny

Libraries!

Dear Jenny,

This post is basically a distraction from the fact that I haven't written about my April book. Or kept up-to-date with my TBP list. It'll happen. Just... in a bit.

Instead, look at these lovely photos of libraries from around the world, as seen on the Instagram blog last month (warning: clicking that link will take you down a rabbit hole of clicking to see more photos of beautiful libraries!)

The libraries pictured above are:

• Stuttgart City Library, Stuttgart, Germany 
• Trinity College Library, Dublin, Ireland 
• Library of Alexandria, Alexandria, Egypt 
• Real Gabinete Português de Leitura, Rio de Janiero, Brazil 
• The Royal Danish Library, Copenhagen, Denmark 
• George Peabody Library, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 
• Kanazawa Umimirai Library, Kanazawa City, Japan 
• New York Public Library, New York City, NY

I have been using my own local library quite a bit recently (it's a nice walk from my house and it's got a really good selection) but I am remembering what I have had a problem with in the past with libraries: I end up getting out *too many* books when I go! I really have to remind myself to only get the books I can read in the next three weeks.

(Remember when we were kids and used to max out the library limit... I think it was 30! Ah... so much more free time for reading before we had bills to pay and chores to do...)

The other problem I have been having is that I have been trying out Overdrive by putting my name on waiting lists for books. But once my name comes up, I only have two weeks to read it! Which means that, when it's my turn, I need to suddenly re-arrange my reading queue to jam it in there. (Last week, I had two books come up, three days apart -- there's no way I was going to finish those, so I threw 'em back.)

So I've been having a bit of a "Lucy and the Chocolate Factory" time here with books recently (which may also explain my lack of writing on the blog! A-haaa!)

Oh... "Wah wah wah! Free books are haaaaard!" HA! It's not that! It's just been a bit of a learning curve to get back into the library swing of things. Basically, I don't read fast enough to polish off a book that comes in for me on Overdrive when I don't expect it, so I probably ought to just stay away from that service altogether (kind of a bummer, but not finishing books I've started is also a bummer!) *And* if I go to the library and see books I'm interested in, I just need to write them down for later. (So many books, so little time!)

One thing my library is particularly great for is craft books, cookbooks (I never even *thought* to get cookbooks at the library -- brilliant!), DIY books, and graphic novels. Basically, inspiration, reference, and/or quick-reading. This is the *best* library I've ever been to for these types of books (well, Berkeley had a great graphic novel section, but it was a little far for me -- I like an easily accessible library) so that's been great. As for novels... I just gotta remind myself not to bring home a big pile. (My back will thank me too...)

love,
kelly

PS -  I just watched that "I Love Lucy" video -- it's still funny and one thing I never noticed before was that the actor playing the supervisor is trying not to laugh when she comes back into the room to see how they're doing! Hilarious!