dragon stash

Until the end of October, I suspect posting will diminish to two per week, Monday and Wednesday.. I’ll try to get more out, but will not stress about it. Enjoy the Penguin Girl break .. and shanah tovah v’gmar chatima tovah!

This past week I read a bit and then read a bit more. The current theme du jour seems to be dragons and fibre.. Below are six books I’ve finished this past week with my goodreads reviews cut and pasted here. Please feel free to go to goodreads to find out more. You do not (as far as I am aware, please prove me wrong) need to be a member to see what I’ve been reading. Just click on the link on the side-bar and you’ll land at my profile/bookshelves. In time I hope to complete reviews for all the books I’ve read. Please be patient. Why all this goodreads love? I like the interface. Sure, E and I have been trying to develop our own database and the interface to go along with it, but why reinvent the wheel? Plus I’m finding it fun to watch books being added to “to-read” shelves much like patterns are favourite-ed and queued on Ravelry.

The Goodness of Nuts and Seeds
by John Midgley

While published in 1993 this very small and slender volume (~5×7″ and only 65 pages) caused me to reminisce back to a pre-internet era. It’s a good introduction/overview to nuts and seeds. Part one is an a-zed of both nuts (such as chestnuts) and seeds (i.e. fennel) along with a short history of their place in history. Part two consists of recipes. No one recipe jumped out at me as unique or something I needed to make, but they all felt classically inspired– both the pesto and saffron rice look basic to my eyes. The real gem of this book is in the illustrations by Ian Sidaway and they definitely remind me of simpler times before wikipedia and googling for information. I’m not sure what sort of library would benefit from Midgley’s book anymore, but it was nice and fun to read through.

A Fine Fleece: Knitting with Handspun Yarns
by Lisa Lloyd

I’m not sure what it is but I just cannot be engaged by this book. I love cables. I love sweaters. I want to find the potential of my handspun. I just can’t. I urge you to check it out for yourself.

That said, I am pleased that both handspun and commercially available yarns are presented side-by-side in the same garment. I liked the layout. I just do not see myself knitting any of the projects for myself or anyone I know in the near future.

Mastering the Art of Mason-Dixon Knitting: Patterns, Stories, Pictures, True Confessions, Tricky Bits, Whole New Worlds and Familiar Ones, Too
by Kay Gardiner, Ann Shayne

Full review and a star rating after I’ve sat with the book for a while longer. MDK can be a difficult pair. Love ’em or Hate ’em. Emotions run high in any case. Plus I’d like to get my paws on a published copy as mine is a uncorrected proof I picked up at Strand. ;)

Knitalong: Celebrating the Tradition of Knitting Together
by Larissa Golden Brown

Full review coming soon …

The Dragon Nimbus Novels: Volume II
by Irene Radford

Full review coming soon …

Book Reviewing
Edited by Sylvia E. Kamerman

How does one review a book of reviews?

I began reading this about a year ago. Thanks to semester loans (and the ability to renew) it became a part of my bookshelf and every month or so I would pick it up and read another chapter. I first took it from the Uni library when I was asked to review for a small publication a book I had read and raved about for class. I had no idea where to begin and this leapt off the shelf and asked me to bring it home. That review ended in disaster for many reasons and I vowed to improve. Do I see reviewing as a career? Not necessarily, but I feel the ability to write a good review of a book, music album, movie, recipe is a skill I should add to my toolbox.

I believe that while unique and offering different and valuable insights, each essay found in this book can be distilled to pretty much the following: read as much as you can, practice writing as much as you can, write clear, and submit on time and according to word count.

It’s an amazing book and I hope to find a copy to call my own so it can have a permanent place on my shelf. I’m curious what how a chapter about current technologies would read, especially with the rise of these social sharing sites (see my love of goodreads above!).

I’ll clean this “review” up when it’s sat with me a little longer and I feel worthy of the task.

• Category: books