Anyway--it's been a great reading week. I finished Victor Hugo's Hunchback of Notre Dame and wept for poor Quasimoto and Esmeralda. I'm such a sucker for a beautiful, classic tragedy. This one was a much easier read compared to Hugo's Les Miserables but I absolutely loved both. His characters steal your heart and linger on long after the final page.
I also re-read JK Rowling's Harry Potter and the Goblet of Stone. These books simply make me happy in my soul. I'm also listening to the audio version in my car to and from work every day and I couldn't help "hearing" the movie characters' voices competing with Jim Dale's voice (the reader for all the Harry Potter audio books) as I was reading through again. It's always so much fun to slip back into the world of Hogwarts--I know I'll be re-reading these books for a long time to come!
This week I'm moving on to Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell. This has been on my To Read list for years. I love the movie version, so definitely looking forward to finally reading the actual book!
I'm also sneaking in a short story from 50 Great Short Stories in between each book I read. Since I'm hoping to read at least fifty books this year, that should work out perfect--one short story after each full book. I don't typically read short stories. I don't find them engaging enough and they're over way too fast. But part of my reading challenge this year is to reach for books outside my usual genres. And so that lead me to pick up a couple more anthologies (my poor backlist is never going to shrink!) I bought Ken Liu's Paper Menagerie and Other Stories and Patricia McKillip's Dreams of Distant Shores. They're both at least in my favorite fantasy genre and I've heard lots of encouraging reviews about both authors, which I haven't read anything by either of them yet. Yet! And so grows my list...
And grows and grows--I also (heaven help me) picked up a couple creative books this week. I'm trying to find time to just play and create more this year and on my way to clock in one morning, I came across this happy yellow cover of 1 Page at a Time by Adam Kurtz:
It reminds me a lot of Keri Smith's Wreck This Journal series, just fun, playful creative prompts to help break down blocks and get the artsy juices flowing again. And THEN! I saw this gorgeous book yesterday during our morning staff meeting:
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| Calligraphy Made Easy |
It's chock full of tips, instruction, technique drills and space to work, but what sold me are the beautiful painted backgrounds that are included for project practice! My mind has just been swimming with painting ideas that I can't wait to play with (hopefully a little later today!) And the bonus is this beauty is available in our bargain department--just had to have it!
So, alas, I may not be getting any closer to reducing my back list goal, but it's early--plenty of time to work on that yet! What books are finding their way into your stash?
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