Their loss is my gain

The Borders in my neighborhood is closing. Of course, I say "the Borders" like there isn't another one on the south side of town. It's just that the south side one isn't as big, is in a crowded shopping center, and isn't right next to a World Market.

At least I will still have the one Borders. But still, the big one is closing, which means there are lots and lots of discounted books to be had. And after today, I do have several of them.

I'd been thinking a lot this week about how infrequently I'd been blogging lately, and what I could do about that. So I decided I'd bring back booklove Sundays. And dropping over a hundred dollars at Borders seems like a good way to go about that. I could talk about the book I'm actually reading right now, but as it's going a little bit slowly, there's a very good chance I'll still be reading it next weekend. So I'll talk about that then. For now, lookit all the stuff I got!

I did get a couple of non-book things. A cute apron with cupcakes on it, which just happens to match the cute pencil bag with cupcakes on it, which I plan to use as a notions bag for knitting things. Stitch markers and a tape measure and stuff like that. And four knitting magazines. And a journal with typewriters on it. I like all those things. I've already broken in the apron, while I was making some of these.

But all the rest was books. And mostly books about books. Either writing them, or loving them, because I can't seem to get enough of both of those kinds of books. Looking at the stack on the floor by my feet (because my bookshelves are already crammed, and I'm not sure where I'm going to put them), at the top of the stack is The Lost Art of Reading, by David Ulin. It's subtitled "Why Books Matter in a Distracted Time." As someone who both recently signed up for Netflix, and is knitting a stripey cashmere sweater with a really interesting construction that I can't seem to put down, I am certainly distracted. And as it's a short book, I figured it couldn't hurt for easing myself back into reading more. I'd kill to get my attention span back to where it used to be, when I could lie still for hours just reading one book after another.

Next is The 4 A.M Breakthrough from Brian Kitely. I already had the book that came before it, The 3 A.M. Epiphany. Both are about writing, which is the other thing I'd like to be doing a lot more of these days. They're both a collection of prompts and ideas to (hopefully) jump-start writing. This has been on my mind a lot lately. I have one friend who's doing a Master's program in creative writing, and she just turned in her novel to her advisor. I have another friend who is currently editing her novel, and plans to start sending it out to publishers this year. And I have yet another friend enjoying her full ride to Emerson's fantastic Master's program, also in creative writing. I'm feeling lazy. So it's time to get back to work. And more creative writing books won't necessarily help, but they certainly can't hurt.

So I got that one, and another called A Novel in a Year, which is a writing book that's pretty much what it sounds like, and one called Views From the Loft, which I kind of can't wait to start reading. It's essays and interviews and observations and advice from a slew of writers from the famed writers' workshop, the Loft. This ties for the book I bought today that I'm most excited about.

The other I'm thrilled with is Melissa Clark's In the Kitchen with a Good Appetite. I've only glanced through it, but I can't wait both to read it and start cooking lots of recipes that sound amazing. I made myself stop looking at it, because I didn't have any post-its handy, and I refuse to dog-ear the pages. There are a lot of things I'm going to want to cook. But I like that there's a lot of her just writing about food, and eating food, and loving food. I already love the part where she talks about how her parents tricked her into eating so many strange foods as a kid by telling her it was chicken. Rabbit, horse steak, frog, squid. Stuff like that, which any kid would have second thoughts about trying. It was hilarious.

It's enough to make me wish the Oscars weren't on tonight, because a big part of me would like to be reading. But instead, I'm going to go back to knitting and watching. It's time for more stripes on my sweater.

Wheeeeeee!

I do realize yet another month has gone by without me posting.

It's been a busy month.

There was a school ski trip that I chaperoned. There was lots of knitting, and reading. There was me going to a dinner party, like a grown up or something. There was a group effort from pretty much all of my friends here to get me to start playing Dungeons and Dragons. And finally, there was me getting sick and spending almost a whole week in bed.

I really should be blogging more, for how eventful things have been.

I don't even think I mentioned everything.