books on books and fibre

First the books on books…

The Destruction of the Books by Mel Odom
Well, first off, I wish I remembered HOW I found out about this book. After that, I must say it was quite enjoyable, a light fun read a la Lord of the Rings. It was nice to read of Librarians and others coexisting (or not). The mix of “races” and “peoples” and the rags to riches story melded well with other books I’m still reading (see that long side bar, yeah). Here are a few quotes that made me stop and think. I also began to wonder if I should really continue with my current grad program or move to a slightly different degree as Columbia closed its librarian school many years ago.

Wizards read books only to learn what they wanted about powers and things with power and—on occasion—about treasures to finance further searches for things with powers. Librarians read for the education promised with the opening of each book. (p 190)

And another indication that a brand new journal can be scary and wonderful at the same time.

Juhg opened the journal to the first page and started at the impossible white expanse that looked amber-tinted in the lantern light. He took a deep breath and inhaled the soapy scent of the paper. Whenever he started writing a new book—even his journal of his experiences aboard WindChaser—he always got nervous, always grew aftrain that his hand and eye and mind wouldn’t work together. Afraid that he would mar the book with indelible scars that other Librarians would ridicule him for, he always hesitated. (p 276)

I greatly enjoyed reading of Juhg, Craugh, Raisho, Wick, and the Vault of All Known Knowledge. I’m impatiently waiting for the library to deliver the second book, Lord of the Libraries to me.

The End of Mr Y by Scarlett Thomas.
I loved Scarlett Thomas’ other books (especially PopCo) and had eagerly awaited the publication of this. And that might be the problem. I enjoyed it but it didn’t quite live up to my expectations, it could be the underlying departmental choices, I really don’t know. I really do look forward to see what Ms Thomas produces in the future. So while this book has some faults and I didn’t enjoy it as much as PopCo still I highly recommend it. Here are a two quotes I enjoyed:

That was when I got into the habit of bing-reading. It’s easy to do when you spend hours of every day surrounded by more books than you can ever read. You start one, but you’re distracted by the idea that you could, equally, have started a different one. By the end of the day you’ve skimmed two and started four and read the ends of about seven. You can read your way through a library like that with out ever properly finishing any of the books. I did finish novels, though. But I wasn’t one of those kids who read Tolstoy. I read the kinds of adult books that they didn’t let you actually borrow. (p 35)

Real life is regularly running out of money, and then food. Real life is having no proper heating. Real life is physical. Give me books instead: Give me the invisibility of the contents of books, the thoughts, the ideas, the images. Let me become part of a book; I’d give anything for that. (p 117)

This is one of my From the Stacks challenge books. I wonder which one I’ll pick up next.

Now onto the fibre:
Spinning in the Old Way by Priscilla A Gibson-Roberts.
Now that I’ve actually attempted something in the book I feel I can review it and at least get it off the side-bar even though I’ll continue to review it these next few weeks and months. I like that she starts you off learning the muscle memory bits with yarn. I’d played with some fibre with my other spindle before and this time it totally clicked. I love the layout of the book, especially the font choice, the text is set in Worstveld Hand (Graham Meade; Typotheticals) which I am in love with. The other fonts are nice as well. The diagrams actually make sense to me which is a plus. I also notice that the publisher, Nomad Press participates in the Green Press Initiative which sounds quite cool. Lastly this is a nice, portable, informative, and affordable book which I expect to be using a good deal in the future.

Victorian Lace Today by Jane Sowerby is a very yummy book. I think Grumperina’s review is what pushed me over the edge. I think that this is a good book used in conjunction with other lace books, I’m currently eying A Gathering of Lace by Meg Swansen or Traditional Knitted Lace Shawls by Martha Waterman or First Book of Modern Lace Knitting by Marianne Kinzel. This week I hope to make a decision as I have no clue how to knit the border onto the lace I’m knitting for mum though the big thing is that I have to successfully cast on! I’m going to go check out EZ’s explanation (in Knitting without Tears) of the invisible cast on and see if she can clarify for me. Otherwise I think I’m going to use the crochet chain.

In other reading, I’ve made progress through most of the other books listed on the side bar. I love No Idle Hands and hope that I can keep mine idle enough to read through it. I’m only three chapters in at the moment. It’s quite enjoyable. I hope to load enough pictures to have some for tomorrow’s post, otherwise it’ll be a little boring and bland, like this one.

May 2007 bring you happiness, health, and lots of good blessings.

• Category: books