Sunday, June 24, 2012

The Bedside Stack

My bedside table is too small for a book, so my books tend to accumulate on the floor next to my side of the bed. Lately, it's gotten a bit out of control down there. I thought it would be fun to neaten up the stack a little and take a photo to share.

From bottom to top:

One World, Many Religions by Mary Pope Osborne. The kids and I are learning about world religions this summer, and I was pre-reading this book. The other book I'm using, Sacred Stories, was already out in the living room because we started with Buddhist stories. (Stories first, then some more factual background; that's my plan.)

Design-It-Yourself Clothes by Cal Patch. I bought this from Cal herself at the Squam Art Fair, but I think it's a bit beyond me. At least, every time I try to look through it, I get overwhelmed. I want to make a dress, but the dress uses one of the shirt patterns, so go make that first, it says, but that pattern is actually a modified version of another shirt pattern, and...I'll eventually try something from here. Maybe. I'd really, really like to feel competent enough to try, anyway.

Little Red in the City by Ysolda Teague. Also purchased at the Squam Art Fair, from Ysolda. I think I'll start with Cria. There is lots of useful information in here about fitting knitting patterns to your body and how to modify things, but it's hard to process because it's full of comma splices and run-on sentences. My husband makes fun of me when I say things like that, but I say, commas and periods send a different message to the brain. Periods are meant to come between separate complete thoughts (independent clauses, in grammatical terms). The ubiquity of run-on sentences is proof that many people's brains function just fine by stringing complete thoughts together without an end stop, but mine does not. (Also, no matter how common they are, they're still incorrect, grammatically, and have no place in a professionally published, beautifully designed book.) I may go through with a marker and edit it all, so I can read it without getting a headache. Other than that, useful book. Pretty patterns.

In the Days of the Pharaohs. From the library. I'm homeschooling* at least one child now (well, I suppose technically beginning in the fall, but I don't draw lines like that), and we'll be starting with ancient history. I checked this out to, well, check it out.

Science in Ancient Egypt. Same as above. I was intrigued by the title. I haven't read it all yet, so I can't tell you much about it.

Painted Pages by Sarah Ahearn Bellemare. I bought this a little bit ago in preparation for taking her online workshop next month. Exciting!

Cultivating Your Creative Life by Alena Hennessey. She gave a book talk at Squam one night, and I wanted to be supportive, so I bought her book.

Reinvention by Maya Donenfeld. She gave a book talk at the same time as Alena. I'd already decided I'd wait to buy this book from her in person. Her line was very, very long--which is why I went right from her table to Alena's. I want to start with some Tyvek projects, which means I need to remember how to log onto Freecycle and post to see if anyone has some they want to get rid of.

The first two Life of Fred books (upside down--whoops!). Again, pre-reading before sharing them with my eight-year-old, who, after three years of school, thinks he hates math.

Push Stitchery. Goodness, I ordered (and read through) this ages ago. It needs to find a home on a bookshelf!

*Herewith is the obligatory statement: I decided to homeschool because I feel it's the best thing for this particular child at this particular time. It's not a statement on what might be best for any other child or how I feel about his school or school in general. While the topic may trickle in here now and then, I have no intention of turning this into a homeschooling blog. This is my space.

So...have you been reading (or stacking) any good books lately??

8 comments:

Shell said...

I've not being on a spending spree lately but the last one which I bought was 'Sublime Stitching'- Embroidered Effects. It was one of the books lingering around in my wish list for ages then popped up on sale so snapped it up.
I also bought 'Drawing Lab' after seeing your posts about the book. I'm no artist but it looked like fun. I even roped the hubbie in to draw a few blind giraffes and his were a lot better than mine ( think he cheated )
The latest not crafty type book which I bought was 'Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children'. I was drawn to this one due to seeing some of the vintage photos inside, some look kind of creepy. Its not a horror novel and the storyline could easily pass for an older teenage book. One which my youngest boy would love to read if only he would bring his head out of his comics.

amy said...

It does look like a bit of a spree, doesn't it?! The Amazon ones I get with points, and the Squam ones came out of the art fair budget. :) Most of that budget went towards books I think!!

That Peculiar Children one looks good--I think I'll see if our library has a copy. Thanks for mentioning it!

Jill said...

I think I'm in love with Fred. Do you know about Khan Academy? Online, but has been very helpful to Lilia and Jonah. And me, for that matter. Yesterday I packed three THREE copies of The Arabian Nights. Sigh. I will never win the book war. I found and started reading The Professor & The Madman about the creation of the OED. Although I may not be able to finish it (due to the excessive use of parentheses). And asides. And vast digressions. Tell the dang story already! Last week I read my two favorite Jane Austens for the umpteenth time. I have Mason-Dixon Knitting outside the lines on hold. Jonah found and swiped an O.Henry collection. Lilia's reading Nickel & Dimed, which is MHS's summer reading book. I'm almost through reading Half Magic to The Little Tyrant.

Jill said...

And Michael is Zipping through In the Garden of the Beasts, the new one by the guy who wrote The Devil in the White City, this one's about the US ambassador in Hitler's Germany during the runup to the war.

Karen Isaacson said...

I love your little tirade about complete sentences and punctuation. My mother is a copy editor for a University's publications department and her red pen has touched nearly everything I've ever written. My husband has also worked as an editor, so I'm surrounded. Somehow the punctuation gene seems to have completely skipped over Max.

Michelle said...

Good stuff! You'll have to let me know how you like the mary pope osborne one.
Fred makes everone happy here.
I'm reading an anne lamott book that I'm sad to say I'm not enjoying. Although, she writes so wonderfully that I still want to keep reading it.

bells said...

wow. I so don't get that from reading Ysolda. Also, calling full stops periods does my head in because we don't call them periods so I guess it's maybe cultural?

Donna Lee said...

I don't have a pile of books near the bed anymore. I have my mp3 player which is loaded with interesting things to listen to. I don't read as much as I used to. I think it's because I truly enjoy listening while I spin or knit. And I like having someone read me to sleep.

I do have a few poetry books in the bookshelf by the bed that I like to peruse.