Wednesday, June 3, 2015

Reading and Dreaming


I am not currently knitting anything but I am dreaming of knitting - really! I am having nightmares about knitting!

Julian pulled out my Ultimate Sweater Machine (I convinced him to buy it for me years ago - before I learned to knit - and haven't touched it since the day I got it) while he was sorting and packing. I browsed my Pinterest board for knitty-ness and found a pattern I'd like to try: the Speckled Shrug. I thought, "Hmm, that's a good project for the ultimate sweater machine..." and got pretty excited about giving the gadget a go when we get to our new house. Then for THREE nights in a row I had panic dreams about being in the store and Memorial-Day-weekend-sales causing all the appropriate yarns to be SOLD OUT!

*Mass hysteria for yarn on Memorial Day* Yeah - who's ever heard of such a thing?

Yeah, me neither. Moving onward.

I finally went past the local library to renew my membership. I get so many of the books I read on my phone or Kindle from the eBook program that when my membership expired two weeks ago, I reading life came to a screeching halt. Sure, I have a zillion books on my Kindle already but the only books I want to read and, or course, the ones I can't!

I've jumped right back into my audio books with The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce. It's too soon to tell but so far I've not found anything to not love about the story!

I also finally found my Kindle charger (a tricky thing to keep up with since we've switched to iPhones and the Kindle and phones are now different) so that is back in operation. It says I'm 71% finished with The Ladies Room and at this point I'm just reading it to have it over with. Sure, it's cute and happy and worry free. It doesn't plague my conscience or keep me up at night. But its just too sicky-sweet. The man in the book, Billy Lee, is just too good to be true. I understand liking to be pampered, but for real, I wouldn't be able to trust a man who made my sandwich every day.

Moving onward, I've added these books to the queue:

  • Sylvia's Farm and The Improbable Shepherd by Sylvia Jorrin - I requested that my library purchase them in eBook format, they DID and then while my card was inactive, someone else checked them out so I am waiting in line. 
  • All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr - I am behind the eight ball on this one because I had a hunch it was a good book months ago but didn't read it. Now a bunch of gals who like the same books I do are reading it and I am waiting for it from the library. If you've read it, don't give away spoilers!
  • The Beautiful and Damned by F. Scott Fitzgerald - I really loved going back to The Great Gatsby as an adult (stupid book report book) and reading it just prior to the movie release. Both books are set in the same era/social scene so I am looking forward to jumping in. 
  • The Life-Changing magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo - Julian and I have been so overwhelmed by packing the house for our move. I need to find some way of reconciling my sentiment and my desire to recapture.

What are you reading and dreaming about? Comment to share and/or join me at Ginny's Yarn Along!

12 comments:

  1. all the light we cannot see is on my to read list but haven't obtained a copy as of yet...Love your list of readings :)

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  2. Go get something on those needles! You have lots of great selections on your Pinterest. I need to go and renew my library membership as well. I would love to get books on my iPad that I don't have to pay for.

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  3. Ah - you're an audiobook listener! Do you have any favorites? I'm always looking for good ones. My fav from the past year is Me Before You by Jojo Moyes.

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    1. Kelly - I love many of them but I get particularly attached to certain narrators. Robin Sachs is great. I like Cynthia Darlow telling the Miss Julia stories. I can't stand the people who read the Jodi Picoult books, so those stories have never tempted me. I LOVE the Redwall series on audio, and The Light Between Two Oceans I liked but some people didn't like that narrator's cadence.

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    2. Thanks for the suggestions! I agree, a bad narrator can make me shut off an audiobook in just a few minutes. There's one lady that sounds like a robot! Some of my favorite readers are Steven Boyer, Cristin Milioti, and Julia Whelan.

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  4. Love the shrug in the top picture, I would be lost if I didn't have something on the hook.

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  5. I'm glad I'm not the only one who has knitting nightmares :)
    I like peaking at your PInterest page, I have the same ponchette pinned, it's so pretty.
    Thank you for the review on the Ladies Room, I had it on my list, but think I need to delete it, you and I have very similar taste in books.

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    1. So other that "All the light..." what else is on your list?

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  6. I don't have the slightest idea what this machine is that you speak of! Off to go look that up... I think that pattern is beautiful though and no matter how it is made, it would be a delight to wear! I'm reading "All the Light" but am not far enough into it to have an opinion generated yet!

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  7. Coincedence - I also have The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry waiting to pick up at the library! Yarn Along always gives such great reading recommendations!
    I have heard about that tidying up book too, but my library doesn't have it.
    All the best with the move. We just moved in here six months ago and I am still trying to sort things out! The problem of moving from a huge house to a small one! And not wanting to get rid of any yarn or books!

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  8. I read the Marie Kondo book and honestly found it a bit...... odd. I certainly took away some useful information though, and thought she was a pretty fun and quirky writer. I guess I just felt kind of like "so THAT'S what all the fuss is about??" at the end. And while I admit I did NOT proceed to go through her step-by-step exactly as prescribed immediately following the book, it surely did help me let go of some stuff I'd been on the fence about prior.

    I've had a hard time reading lately. I'm in one of those start-several-books-but-not-proceed-seriously-with-any-of-them stages. do you ever go through those? I think it's probably because I grabbed a lot of nonfiction at the library and they never suck me in quite like a good novel.

    All the Light we Cannot See is on my list, as is The Orchard House, The Hummingbird's Daughter, Breathing Room, Better Than Before.... and finishing The Grapes of Wrath. gosh, and so many more. soon, soon.

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    1. Yeah - I just told Julian the other day, "Can you believe it? I think I am going to read a self-help book!" We will see. I had a moment this week. We were cleaning in a hurry for a house showing and I had this handbuilt pot my sister made in middle school. It was never fancy and I remember thinking when she brought it home that it was quite ugly and a waste of space. I've moved it and kept it for YEARS now not because of what it is but because it was a facet of my childhood. I was putting it in abox and dropped it on the concrete floor of the garage. I picked it and all its pieces up and tossed it in the trash. It didn't bother me at all.
      I think I am always in a state of not-taking-things-seriously-unfinished-ness. I am a WONDERFUL starter of things and a terrible finisher. Its a wonder I can finish a bowl of cereal some days....
      Was thinking of you this morning and your downhill coast towards summer - last day of school here.

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