Secret Santa Thank You and reading time

THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! SECRET SANTA, THANK YOU!

My Secret Santa parcel arrived on Dec 23rd, just when I was wondering if something had happened. I was so excited! Above you can see what my dear Secret Santa sent me:
- The Faerie Queen's Deception: Lament by Maggie Stiefvater (I haven't heard of this author and the book looks very interesting), and:
- my heart is so happy! FINALLY: a copy of Looking For Alaska by John Green, which I've been looking for, for a year now!!!! I am so thrilled!
- Two big lollipops (my kids are delighted!) and
- last but not least, a pair of beautiful red bead earrings shaped like a glowing drop, with silver leaf filigree around the top. Perfect!
I couldn't fit the card into the photo, but there is one, with her name and address. So thank you so very much, Vanessa of Today's Adventure.

This is a new blog for me also, and I'm bookmarking it. I love the photos of her angels, though I think my darlings are a little cuter!!! lol
I am so happy I received books for Christmas. Thank you, Vanessa! Best of all, it did arrive before Christmas, so Vanessa, Canada Post worked again!!!

Thank you, Secret Santa. Thank you also to the organizers of this exchange. I had so much fun picking out what my giftee was going to get - and she is another new to me blogger; and I had just as much fun receiving my mystery parcel.

So, I'm full of turkey still, and we are in the middle of another ice storm. We have candles ready, and enough food to feed a (small) army, so I'm going to go do what I need to do to rest (finally) over these holidays: read. I'll post later about how good Santa was to me this year. Right now I'm taking my first chance to just sit with the books I received, hold them, flip through them, and pick which one to read first. The most precious gift of all to me is time to read. So that's what I wish for all of you this ice-rain falling day after Christmas.

Happy holiday reading, Gentle Readers!!

I'm back! Happy birthday to me, and a special book treat....

I feel so refreshed and somewhat relaxed now. It was a fabulous weekend away. There was a heron on our dock on the first morning:

There was fishing, cards, a family turkey dinner, shopping in the US - a day trip to Watertown, NY, my first time in that state, and lots of new clothes and even some books: 4 new ones from Borders:
- Curse of Chalion - Lois McMaster Bujold
- Winter Study - Nevada Barr
-Old Man's War - John Scalzi (point to Chris!!)
- The Year of Magical Thinking - Joan Didion (I've long wanted to read this)
and 3 used ones from Picton's only bookstore, Olivia & Company:
- Dragon Fantastic - ed Martin and Rosalind Greenberg
- Tricks - Ed McBain
- The Song of Rhiannon - Evangaline Walton (with the original cover.....now I need books one and two!)

There were sunny days and a wind storm that - yes, you guessed it, knocked out the power on our part of the island! Not where my sister-in-law's house is, but only where the cottage is on the east side. I think I said something like, "Not again! not so soon after the tornado!" but since the fire was lit (we had very cold nights so the wood stove was on) we could light the candles. I know some people find the city relaxing, and we have friends who go to Toronto or New York to relax. Us, we go to the country. So it was a very welcome break indeed.

Then, it was my birthday yesterday. This is one of my presents (note the big smile, the glow....)

Yes, it is hot today - (son isn't wearing a shirt for a reason!) but I'm glowing because I'm so happy: that's my copy of North and South in my hands, and as soon as I finish here, I'm off to the tv to finally see it on the big screen. As many of you wrote on my last post, you too have this DVD, so you know how excited I am! No small You tube screen on my computer! Richard Armitage up close! And, I also received wonderful book gift certificates !!! Oh yes, it was a lovely day with family, and at work with my co-workers.

I also picked up a real treasure while in Picton, and I thought I would share with you some of the glorious pictures. This is a retelling of Sleeping Beauty, "Thorn Rose", The Brothers Grimm version, illustrated splendidly by Errol Le Cain. It's a Puffin book, so it's from England, copyright 1975.

I love this picture! All the fairies, the leaves and flowers and dark tree trunks.

I love the evil fairy flying by on the dragon!





My daughter loves this book too, and is showing you her favourite of the fairies.

It's the fairy riding the unicorn. She has just discovered unicorns and dragons, and is fascinated by them.


She asked me what mine was, and I said, "Oh, I love the one flying with the magic wand." My daughter is very creeped out by the wicked fairy who curses Sleeping Beauty. I love how she is painted in the corner, all in black. Holly-Anne asked why, and I said, "It's because she was left out. Only 12 fairies were invited, and there were 13 fairies in all."

I didn't get much reading done on my weekend holiday. So it was only today that I finished reading "The Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfuss. What an excellent fantasy! I will do a longer review later, I just wanted to let you know that if you are looking for a new fantasy to read, with magic, and dragons, and creepy mystery killing creatures, then this is one to try.

And I thank you for all the lovely Star Trek comments on my last post! I am so thrilled so many of us have gone to see it! I almost saw it a third time while in Picton, with my niece who can't find any of her friends to go with, but we couldn't get the time.

Meanwhile, I hear North and South calling. I wish my American blogging friends a fabulous Memorial Weekend. I really hope you can get some time away, some time to read, some time to yourselves.

Monday Musings

I am having trouble settling down to reading. I had the same difficulty in England, so maybe travelling does throw me off center more than I realized. I have picked up Middlemarch again and am hoping to finish it this week.

Middlemarch update:This story is skilfully told, with such wisdom about people's natures. I love this section where Dorothea and Will meet, as he comes to say goodbye to her: 'Something which may be called an inward silent sob had gone on in Dorothea before she said with a pure voice, just trembling in the last words as if only from its liquid flexibility -
' 'Yes, it must be right for you to do as you say. I shall be very happy when I hear that you have made your value felt. But you must have patience. It will perhaps be a long while.' '
'Will never quite knew how long it was that he saved himself from falling down at her feet, when the 'long while' came forth with its gentle tremor.' p 446
Aren't those lines a little like pure music? Who taught Eliot to write about people like that? People's thoughts are woven into the story line, so we know what Susan Garth thinks of her husband's inability to think or even want to know anything bad about anyone he has business dealings with. And I'm finally at the part where I discover that Mr Bulstrode hides a deep dark secret, that I hope will be his undoing, but I also see why he is so Christian oriented - he thinks he is living a blameless life, but it's really to make up for how he came into his money. And we find out through a secondary character who really is a scoundrel and creepy. There is so much about life that is in Middlemarch, that it really is one of the most enjoyable novels I've read in a very long time. And people change in this book due to their actions - or don't, depending on their natures. and that makes it like real life, and so very satisfying to read.

I took The Polysyllabic Spree with me to work today. I am enjoying Nick Hornby's comments about what he reads, though I have to admit that his reading tastes are very different from mine! I like how he's not allowed to comment negatively on anything he reads, either, for the journal he was writing for at the time.

I haven't made any resolutions about what I'm going to read yet this year, other than I am determined to read 100 books this time!! I am going through my shelves, cataloguing my books so I know what I have - my computer crashed two years ago and took the list I had then, which I haven't replaced until now. Sometimes I have to look at my books, touch them, so that I can remember I have them, until I find the time to read them!! Doing the cataloguing, I am finding I am pulling books out I want to read, so I think I'll see what I come up with that I already have, and then what challenges fit what I want to read! I have some Charles de Lint to read to start catching up on my Canadian Challenge, and a science fiction book or two for Carl's Sci Fi reading experience. And then - Oh, so many books to read! I love challenges, so it's more a matter of me finding my way to different blogs and see what's happening.

It was much harder to be without a computer than I expected, when we were in England. For me, it's taken about 6 years for the computer to change completely how I communicate with people. I think I realized on this trip, how much I have come to rely on the computer. I used to be a great letter writer, and sends so many things through the mail. Now, except for birthdays and Christmas, almost everything is sent through email/via computer now. It was very difficult to not be able to look up news from back home, to not be able to check in with my son on Facebook or via email, and our friends in England too looked for us on email. Since I had planned to connect with some bloggers in England to meet with them, all my plans were thrown out when the computer was suddenly not accessible! And I couldn't email or check blogs because I didn't know next when we would get to an internet cafe! It didn't change the quality of our trip at all, except that I missed out on meeting with some of you, my Gentle readers, and I regret that very much. Sometimes the telephone is still better! I do love the computer, I know it now!! It's a great way to find out about books, too, in so many ways!!

So, just some thoughts on a Monday evening as we prepare for Day 35 without buses - yes, that transit strike I mentioned way back in mid-December before we left for England, is still on-going, and our lives are a bit in upheaval while we try to get to and from work every day. My reading time is completely changed because I don't have that hour or so on the buses each day to read. I am lucky enough to have a really good friend and co-worker who lives near, and we carpool to work, along with a mutual good friend, and another co-worker who shares in the driving. So we have fun rides into work and back - we all are fairly sarcastic people when it comes to our jobs, having been at the office long enough! The good news is, it means I can't really get around the city outside work, so my evenings and weekends are freer for reading! At least the children's school buses aren't affected, although the teachers may go on strke in March.....

Happy reading on this quiet Monday night, everyone!

When does reading win?

I was reading some of my favourite blogs and came across a post at Lunaea Weatherstone's Blogue about time: 'In one of them, I found this lovely bit of legal-speak that set my mind to musing: Motions to extend or enlarge time. I want some of those motions! '. Isn't that lovely? So after reading her post, I began thinking about my day today. I had a really busy weekend, and this afternoon I was thinking of the cleaning that still had to be done, and I was feeling a sense of panic rise in me that I wouldn't get to do what I wanted to (I still think of housework as a duty and somewhat forced on me by public opinion. I like having a clean house, I just want it to take a flick of my wrist and presto! it's done) which was, of course, reading. I suddenly thought, no. I'm going to read for a little while, first. Not last, not after everything is done, but right now. And I did. I'm almost done my book! And I don't mind at all that the bathrooms still need to be done. Sometimes, I need a little breathing space, and the world just has to wait until I'm ready to get back into it. After a telemarketer phoned to ask if I would vote for our local Conservative if an election were called this fall ("no," I replied. "I voted Conservative once a long time ago and never since!"), I realized I didn't want to talk to anyone, either. I wanted to retreat into my home, and, as Lunaea says above, extend time. And see, it worked, because after losing myself in reading, I can feel myself unwind! I can face going to work tomorrow! Reading won today, and I am so-o-o much happier now!

So, when you feel that urge to retreat into yourself, and allow yourself the time - the luxury of time - to read, to give yourself the breathing space to read, do you, my blog friends? Do you let yourself relax and read? What is your cutting off point when you realize you have to take some time now, no matter what, or bad things will start to happen? And even though we love this passion of ours, why do we let so many other things come first? Do you make reading a priority in your life? I am beginning to think I have to make it more of a priority - I know that is a constant theme in this blog of mine, but it's a struggle, in the midst of raising a family, working full-time, and having some friends, to make an equally important place for reading. I'm nowhere near my goal of reading 100 books this year, again. I have already surpassed my total for last year, but that just shows how pathetic last year was. 37 books read last year! In terms of housework done or books read, I think I can say at the end of my life, I will be much more thinking about what I have read - and haven't - than how sparkling my bathrooms were.

I do wish there was a motion to extend or enlarge time, though!