Burning a hole
So glad you all love Digger as much as I do. There will certainly be more pieces of the house introduced in the coming days and months. It’s so fun to take a step back and appreciate some of the characteristics that make this a home. Especially since we’ve been working so hard to get it in shape. We also have been dealing with some broked-ed stuff lately. So we REALLY need to focus on the good.
I have about $15 worth of gift cards to amazon burning a hole in my pocket. Which book MUST I own? Not just read, but own? Come across something lately that you are in love with? Tell me about it! If you’d like you can take a look at my existing library here.
How did I get these gift cards? Blingo! It’s a free search engine that awards prizes randomly. You really do win prizes. I’ve won a total of 12 prizes in ~18 months. That’s almost a prize a month! Most of these have been through friends, every time one of my friend’s wins I win! Come be my friend!!!
It’s a little bit more than $15, but I love the Knitter’s Book of Yarn. So full of info and fun patterns it’s almost edible.
That Blingo thing is awesome. How have I not heard of this before?
Oh, and btw, I’m a longtime lurker. Not sure I’ve ever commented before. Hi! Nice to meet you
27 Feb 2008 at 7:04 pm
Having glanced through your books, I’m going to recommend Haruki Murakami. He’s a favorite of mine, weird Japanese surrealist author that he is. For a weighty tome, try the Wind-Up Bird Chronicles. For a shorter read, A Wild Sheep Case is good too.
27 Feb 2008 at 7:33 pm
Wow! I have (or have read- and loved) so many of the books on your bookshelf!
My brother and I have been peeking at one another’s LibraryThing bookshelves to determine what we want to borrow next… I love LibraryThing, although I have not gotten close to puttingin everything, and I need to go through and cull a lot of paperbacks and others that are not favorites.
Have you read Inkheart or Inkspell? I love Cornelia Funke- and these are lovely books that I cannot wait to read to (and with) my daughter. And kids love them, too-my 12 year old stepson just called this week to say how much he loves Inkheart.
I also got him an armful of Madeline L’Engle- which he also appreciated greatly. He’s a big reader, which means we get along just fine.
These are some of my other favorites, although they are not new by any stretch of the imagination:
A.S. Byatt’s Still Life
Roddy Doyle’s The Barrytown Trilogy
Connie Willis’ Doomsday Book
Boris Akunin’s Sister Pelagia and the White Bulldog is my latest favorite- it is slow in the beginning (like the Russian classics) but worth the effort.
I hope you have fun poking through the bookshelves! (oh and Happy Birthday, too!)
~Meg (Megret at LibraryThing)
27 Feb 2008 at 8:02 pm
Knitting without Tears, by Elizabeth Zimmerman. That was my only knitting book for many years.
27 Feb 2008 at 8:17 pm
Hi Wendy,
I’m a lurker too.
Looking at your knitting books, I recommend Elizabeth Zimmerman’s The Opinionated Knitter, if only for the baby surprise jacket, though it’s $30. Simple knits for cherished babies is one of my favs and it’s less than $15. I’ve been drawn to Itty-bitty hats lately because of Alison Hansel’s blue blog pics. That’s less that $15 too.
Have fun book shopping. I joined your friends on blingo as librarianknitter.
Michelle
27 Feb 2008 at 8:29 pm
We have so many books in common! I’m going to recommend two - Shadow of the Wind, by Carlos Ruiz Zafon, and The Brief History of the Dead by Kevin Brockmeier. Both fiction, both books I love - and both kind of hard to describe! Hope you get lots of good recommendations!
27 Feb 2008 at 11:03 pm
I just finished reading Stewart Brand’s _How Buildings Learn_. It’s anthropology meets archaeology meets home improvement. And it has completely changed the way I think about home repair, improvement, green building/sustainability, and my taste in modern architecture. Paperback (not cheap) but full of illuminating building comparisons. You’ll find you think about his ideas in all quarters of life.
http://www.amazon.com/How-Buildings-Learn-Happens-Theyre/dp/0140139966/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1204203390&sr=8-1
28 Feb 2008 at 8:59 am
I love Library Thing (I’m qarylla on there). I haven’t put nearly all of my books in there, though it did get easier once I got a Cue Cat.
I’m reading a newer translation of Don Quixote right now and am really enjoying it (it is more interesting and better annotated than the translation I read in the mid-90s). I don’t $15 would buy you the book, but it would get you past the halfway point in costs.
28 Feb 2008 at 3:50 pm
Since you have Franny & Zooey and Catcher, and Melissa Banks Girls Guide–if you like Salinger, I’d rec Nine Stories and/or Raise High the Roof Beam. And speaking of short stories, and since you have Drop City, I really enjoyed T.C. Boyle’s Without A Hero–I went to give it away before our move and made the mistake of rereading it, so it stays with us.
McCarthy’s The Road is a must read, although it will freak you right the f&*k out (or at least, it did me).
For kid’s books, you already have the essential and beautifully drawn Guess How Much I Love You, so check out Flotsam. It is gorgeous (there are no words to read, just pretty colors).
Sara Gruen’s Water for Elephants was a great read. Not one I plan on rereading, because it’s a bit wrenching, but we’ve given several copies to family.
And if you liked Cloud Atlas, his Black Swan Green was really good, a more traditional coming of age novel, but with elements of genre shifting in there too.
And I think it’s essential that kids grow up with some E.B. White around the house: Stuart Little, Charlotte, Trumpet of the Swan. And when I was little, Roald Dahl was favorite. The Twits is very naughty and inappropriate for children.
(Thinking of Saki there, another good one.)
As for knitting books, I think my most favorite purchase has been A Natural Knitter. It’s just gorgeous and lovely, nice patterns and a nice section on natural dyeing.
01 Mar 2008 at 1:45 pm
Hi Wendy!
Let’s talk soon!! Miss you much!! Had to reply to your request for book ideas: still quite fond of The Secret Life of Lobsters. It’s one that I’ve managed to read in the last 2 years that I have actually remembered. Hugs to you and the fam!
02 Mar 2008 at 8:26 pm
Hey - happy birthday lovey.
03 Mar 2008 at 12:34 pm
I have been on Blingo for almost two years and have NEVER won anything. Not.One.Thing. Bummer. You have the midas touch.
03 Mar 2008 at 2:21 pm
For Sophia I would recommend Good Night Moon. My kids loved it and would recite it with me.
Books I’ve really enjoyed are : A house for Mr. Biswas by V.S. Naipaul (one of my favourite books ever)
The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen ( got excellent reviews and I really loved it)
The Rebus mysteries by Ian Rankin- they take place in Scotland and Rebus is a very interesting detective
How about David Copperfield by Charles Dickens ? I’ve read it a couple of times and it’s a great read.
Happy Reading ……………Linda
I find also that you already have some of the books i own
04 Mar 2008 at 1:40 pm
YEAH! Congrats on winning something from Blingo!
I’ve never won anything with them
Feel free to add me to your friends list…;o))
I love the Debbie Bliss books, highly recommend them!
Happy Shopping!
05 Mar 2008 at 8:17 pm