Books to the sky!

Books to the ceiling,
Books to the sky,
My pile of books is a mile high.
How I love them! How I need them!
I’ll have a long beard by the time I read them.
~ Arnold Lobel

I hope that won’t have a beard, but I expect my hair to be long and grey.

In an attempt to work on my “pile o’books to the sky” I have joined the From the Stacks Winter Reading Challenge. Kat introduced me to this wonderful idea! Thanks Kat!

My hope is to read the following five books from my stash (not necessarily in order):

1. The End of Mr Y by Scarlett Thomas [yes I know I have it listed that already I’m reading it, but I’ve not cracked the cover]
2. Deafening by Frances Itani
3. The City of Light : The Hidden Journals of the Man Who Entered China Four Years Before Marco Polo by Jacob d”Ancona (Translated by David Selbourne)
4. Rocket Boys by Homer H Hickam Jr.
5. The First American : the life and times of Benjamin Franklin by H W Brands

Other contenders: (only from the books that are easily accessible. All of our bookshelves are now double-stacked; sadly the unread often end up in the back. *sigh*)

1. The Jungle Law by Victoria Vinton
2. Triumph and Tragedy by Winston Churchill
3. Churchill by Roy Jenkins

AND to try to finish the following books: (these are the only ones I’ll admit to, this list only includes stash books, not library books [of which there are more out than I want to admit])

1. Empire Express : Building the First Transcontinental Railroad by David Haward Bain
2. Small Changes by Marge Piercy
3. The Art of Project Management by Scott Berkun
4. A Gentle Madness: Bibliophiles, Bibliomanes, and the Eternal Passion for Books by Nicholas A. Basbanes
5. Shogun by James Clavell
6. Salt : A World History by Mark Kurlansky (technically this is from my in-laws stash but as E and I are only children I count the ‘rents stash as our own)
7. Line by Line : How to edit your Own Writing by Claire Kehrwald Cook

This past week I finished the following books:

1. The Digital Person : Technology and Privacy in the Information Age by Daniel J Solove
   I should probably reread it before I write my assignment. There is a good deal in between the 283 pages. Interesting read. Especially since I have this site, that I purchase books on Amazon, that I use various webmail apps, that I subscribe and have posted to many message boards (often while experiencing insomnia), that I have various “wishlists”, I use a credit card, etc. What do a certain string of nine digits mean to you?

2. The Shadow of the Lion by Mercedes Lackey, Eric Flint, & Dave Freer (944 pages)
   This is a stash book! Very well written. This fiction work sadly highlighted my extreme ignorance of Venice. I enjoyed the interweaving plot lines. In time I’ll go looking for This Rough Magic. I was slow reading it because I didn’t want to finish and have to put away the story line while I make progress on the many other books in my stash.

Ok. Back to the grindstone. I’m pretty busy so posting will be spotty for the next couple of weeks. I hope that one day this busy-ness will translate to nice sized checks or lots and lots of books, yarn, and fiber along with the time to use it. I don’t like missing posts, but I’d rather slightly better quality than quantity. I’ll probably try to keep the sidebar updated with knitting and reading. Which presumptuously assumes that you visit the site daily instead of reading through an rss reader. ;)

• Category: books