Cindy Lynn Speer's Blog, page 8
December 8, 2015
Reblog if you’re a booklr, studyblr or writeblr!
I want to follow more blogs, so if you post about:
-Books (Any/Fantasy)
-Studying (Especially literature)
-Writing
I can’t wait to to meet/follow new people. Hi!
Also, if you want to talk about books with me, my ask box is open.
Hiya! I love literature with all my soul and spent a year in university studying it and then taught English Lit in high-school. Most of the stuff I post here is about the topics you’ve mentioned, as I wanted to continue my education and have to do it by myself. I’d love to have a conversation about Oscar Wilde or Dante’s Inferno… Heh. Do tell !
Well done you for cramming books into the next generation of booklrs!
December 7, 2015
Merry Bookmas?
I have thrown out about 50 tries for Holiday Themed blog posts. I am unsure what I want to talk about, how personal I want to be, how religious, how sentimental.
For me, this is the best time of the year, because I do love the lights, the sentiment, and the huge pile of books. The Holidays are, in some ways, a preparation against the long cold darkness of the next few months, and what brighter light is there than books?
So, here is a random Christmas Shelfie. You do not want to know how long I spent on these shelves, getting everything right, trying to remember if Emerson and Thoreau liked each other and should be on the same shelf together.
Ever since I was younger, the holidays were the Time When You Got Things. You didn’t really get much during the rest of the year…a treat here or there, some birthday presents, but it was the Holidays when you stocked up on things for the year. Somehow that morphed into books. I don’t get much else – clothes are somewhat seasonal, electronics are kind of get them when you need them – so books are the main thing. (OK, OK, and the occasional weapon. It’s not REALLY Christmas without a new sword, is it?)
But books are expensive. So I spend my time, way too much time, on sites like Half.com, comparing editions and prices and trying to get as many books from the same place as possible to save on shipping. I haunt the clearance section of Half Price Books like it’s my second job.
But not all my books are second-hand. (Just most, because I am not wealthy enough to afford mine and my mother’s combined book obsession.) This is the time of year when I buy the odd books, the strange books full of nifty facts, the weird reference books. Pulling things like Kunz’s book on rings, or Victoria Finlay’s wonderful book on the history of colors off the shelf is a weird and lovely walk down memory lane, each one a different Christmas, each one a history of me, and my interests at the time. This year it’s DK’s fashion history book, which I probably need like I need a hole in the head, but, well, it’s Dorling and Kindersley. It’ll have real pictures.
But I need something else. Any ideas for quirky reference books?
(To be honest, I do reference book buying jags when I need to, too – there was the Great Chocolate History Book Buying Binge of ’06, after all.)
One of the best things about this is how much my mother and I overlap in our tastes. I recently read C.J. Sansom’s Dark Fire, fell in love, and handed it to her, and she stayed up late reading it. So when we unpack the bags (yes, books are like, the easiest things in the world to wrap, but I use gift bags because I hate to waste that pretty paper.) we exchange books, knowing that the pile of books on either side of us have books that both of us will love. Any guy who decides to marry me will also be marrying my mother and a shared library. Don’t say I didn’t warn you. But it’s a large library, that’s good, right?
Oh, and my mother’s a sweetheart. That’s probably also worth noting. Just in case you are thinking of marrying me and my twenty tons of books.
And that’s my lame Holiday post. Do you celebrate Bookmas? What is the best book you ever got as a present?
Also, because it must be done, my book, the Chocolatier’s Wife, takes place around a Holdiay-like winter time festival. Just in case you feel like taking pity on me and buying my gentle, well loved by people who don’t live in my house murder mystery fantasy book.
May your holiday be full of light, joy, and really lovely things to keep you going through the darker parts of life.
Here are the shelves in the light. Do you see the Magic and Circus Books? Those things are so heavy, you could literally use them as murder weapons. Yes, I know, not very Holiday-post like. Sorry. :-/
And now, go visit people with much better themed posts! And maybe win stuff! Click on the blue button to read other posts.
meganderthick:
I want to have a crown like this for my w...
I want to have a crown like this for my wedding. Too ostentatious?
No. Do it. You only get to be a princess once.
travelgurus:
The Amazing Godafoss waterfall in Iceland ,...
The Amazing Godafoss waterfall in Iceland , shot by
Ed Graham – 500px
Travel Gurus – Follow for more Nature Photographies!
