"It's right in front of your nose."

This fortune must be talking about my computer- that's what is right in front of my nose, most of the time. Sometimes I have a steering wheel there.
When I was a kid I had a book in front of my nose- or I guess, the expression goes, I had my nose in a book. Lately I don't do that much. I feel guilty reading for pleasure when I should be reading for school. Course, that can be pleasurable, too, I just have to get going at it.
I do enjoy a good detective yarn now and again. I discovered the Louise Penny books this year, which are set in Montreal (which H and I visited two years ago and loved) and the English townships south of there, which is the area my grandmother was from. (My grandfather was from Montreal proper.) Anyway, her books are the nice kind of detective stories where you get to know characters, and the chief detective is someone you want to have dinner with, and she describes all sorts of delicious food, too. When I'm done with one of her books, I want to move to the village of Three Pines, even if people do keep getting murdered there!

"It's time to turn over a new leaf, again."

I think the first time I heard this expression was in the Enid Blyton's St. Clare series. The girls at the  boarding school where all the stories took place would realize their mistakes and turn over a new leaf, apparently. I loved reading about English boarding school life, though I now find the system rather appalling. I would never be able to send my own kids away to school.
My favorite thing about the books was that in each one they would cobble together treats and have a secret, illegal, midnight feast, complete with roasted sausages. This seemed the height of fun to me, but the closest we could come to it was raiding the fridge during a slumber party.
Because of my early immersion in British boarding school life, the Harry Potter series, with its head boy and head girl, was a familiar world.
I've already turned over the new leaf of keeping my house clean, but yesterday there was no showing and cookies were made with Grandma and now it's a bit of a mess again. So, I guess that's what the "again" is about!

Birthday Present for Me!

I just pre-ordered Ann Lamott's new book as a birthday present for myself. After all, that's the day it's due to come out. It's called Some Assembly Required: A Journal of My Son's First Year. It should be fun to read as I watch my own son's first year unfold.

Persphone Books

I just found an interesting publisher through Pages Turned- Persephone Books- which helps contemporary audiences rediscover authors of the past. This might be helpful for my PhD, but otherwise, something to read when I'm finished.

Bad marketing for me

I guess it's bad marketing to show you another calendar I think is so cool by "My Aunt June." I love that she has spaces for you to write down what books you've checked out of the library and when they are due. I need this because I'm always checking out books from the college where I work and then getting overdue notices galore. Luckily they don't actually do anything to me as long as I get them back sometime. It's funny though- at the place I work, I can only check out a book for 3 weeks. But at my grad school, I can have the books for a whole semester.

Book worms

Yesterday Leila read 7 books. 7. She's doing the summer reading program at the library- she signed up Tuesday. After 5, they put her on a list. After 10, she gets to put something on the wall. For every 5 after that, they donate a book to a book deprived child. I think at this rate she'll be stocking some libraries!
Ali is participating too, but at the listener level. For every 10 minutes someone reads to him, he puts a check mark. He got tired of waiting for people to read to him, and started reading to himself. Basically, he looks at the pictures and tells himself the story. Sometimes I have to get him started. Sometimes we can get Leila to read to him. He's put a lot of checkmarks, some probably undeserved.
I only read one novel. And then a few pages of The Power of Photography, one of the books in my summer reading pile.

If you love reading as much as I do...

... this may make you cry, but in a good way. Don't miss this video.