My Little Free Library: Trick-or-Book!

        

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. Each Tuesday That Artsy Reader Girl assigns a topic and then post her top ten list that fits that topic. You’re more than welcome to join her and create your own top ten (or 2, 5, 20, etc.) list as well. Feel free to put a unique spin on the topic to make it work for you! Please link back to That Artsy Reader Girl in your own post so that others know where to find more information.  

Nonfiction November is Coming!

Nonfiction November starts in just a couple of weeks! This year there are five hosts and five weeks of blog prompts:

Week 1: (November 1-5) – Your Year in Nonfiction with Rennie at What’s Nonfiction: Take a look back at your year of nonfiction and reflect on the following questions – What was your favorite nonfiction read of the year? Do you have a particular topic you’ve been attracted to more this year? What nonfiction book have you recommended the most? What are you hoping to get out of participating in Nonfiction November?

Week 2: (November 8-12) – Book Pairing  with Katie at Doing Dewey: This week, pair up a nonfiction book with a fiction title. It can be a “If you loved this book, read this!” or just two titles that you think would go well together. Maybe it’s a historical novel and you’d like to get the real history by reading a nonfiction version of the story. 

Week 3: (November 15-19) – Be/Ask/Become the Expert with Veronica at The Thousand Book Project: Three ways to join in this week! You can either share 3 or more books on a single topic that you have read and can recommend (be the expert), you can put the call out for good nonfiction on a specific topic that you have been dying to read (ask the expert), or you can create your own list of books on a topic that you’d like to read (become the expert). 

Week 4: (November 22-26) – Stranger Than Fiction with Christopher at Plucked from the Stacks: This week we’re focusing on all the great nonfiction books that *almost* don’t seem real. A sports biography involving overcoming massive obstacles, a profile on a bizarre scam, a look into the natural wonders in our world—basically, if it makes your jaw drop, you can highlight it for this week’s topic.

Week 5: (November 29-December 3) — New to My TBR with Jaymi at The OC Book Girl: It’s been a month full of amazing nonfiction books! Which ones have made it onto your TBR? Be sure to link back to the original blogger who posted about that book! 

Do you like nonfiction? Will you be joining in for Nonfiction November this year?

Back from Arkansas...and Dewey's 24-Hour Readathon!

 

I definitely started at least some of these, but what did I finish? Maybe nothing, as it has been a busy week of hiking and hanging out and playing card games and relaxing. These are what I took along:

Renewal: How Nature Reawakens Our Creativity, Compassion, and Joy 

by Andrés R. Edwards

The Hummingbird's Gift: Wonder, Beauty, and Renewal on Wings by Sy Montgomery

How to Draw Anything Anytime: A Beginner's Guide to Cute and Easy Doodles

Bread for the Journey: A Daybook of Wisdom and Faith by Henri Nouwen

Art Before Breakfast by Danny Gregory

The Book of Delights: Essays by Ross Gay

Hummingbird Salamander: A Novel by Jeff Vandermeer

Extraordinary Insects: Weird. Wonderful. Indispensible. The Ones Who Run Our World.

by Anne Sverdrup-Thygeson

On Trails: An Exploration by Robert Moor

Map: Collected and Last Poems by Wislawa Szymborska

I am eagerly looking forward to reading all of the Narnia books for the first time beginning the last weekend in November with Calmgrove. I bought all the Narnia books as ebooks last week; Amazon offered a sweet deal with $5 off the whole series. Do you have any interest in joining in? Find out more about #Narniathon21 here.

This weekend is Dewey's 24-Hour Read-a-thon. I plan to try to get in as much reading as I can with the books I took along to Arkansas but did not finish. I also have a library copy of The Lincoln Highway and Stanley Tucci's memoir, Taste, that are due back in a few days. For snacks, I plan to keep the coffee coming. 

More about the readathon is here.

Arkansas!

Good Thing #1

Arkansas!

Good Thing #2

Arkansas!

Good Thing #3

Arkansas!

Photos to come soon...

I'm happy you joined us here at the Sunday Salon. Sunday Salon is a place to link up and to share what we have been doing during the week. It's a great way to visit other blogs and join in the conversations going on there. 

Some of the things we often talk about at the Sunday Salon:

• What was your week like?
• Read any good books? Tell us about them.
• What other bookish things did you do? 
• What else is going on in your life?

Other places where you may like to link up over the weekend are below. Click on the picture to visit the site.

        

My linkup for Sunday Salon is below. 

Author I Never Thought I'd Meet: Margaret Atwood

What author have you met that you never thought you'd get the chance to meet?

For more wordless photos, go to Wordless Wednesday.

Online Resources for Book Lovers

Goodreads. I post all my reviews here and link to them through my blog. It’s nice to have everything in one spot.

LibraryThing. It’s one of the first spots I found and it’s still a sentimental favorite.

Canva. I enjoy making graphics for my posts. Canva is delightful.

My online library catalogs and WorldCat. I live in a small town just outside a major metropolitan area in the US. I can easily access a dozen city and county libraries nearby. And I can easily see where I can find books close to me via WorldCat.

Overdrive. Several of the nearby libraries where I have cards allow me to check out books through Overdrive. I relied on Overdrive almost exclusively during the early part of the pandemic.

Blogs. And my blog. And your blog. And all the other blogs I love.

I don't need anything more than these. Do I?

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. Each Tuesday That Artsy Reader Girl assigns a topic and then post her top ten list that fits that topic. You’re more than welcome to join her and create your own top ten (or 2, 5, 20, etc.) list as well. Feel free to put a unique spin on the topic to make it work for you! Please link back to That Artsy Reader Girl in your own post so that others know where to find more information.  

A Week of Forest Bathing in Arkansas

 

We are in the forested mountains of northwest Arkansas for a week of hiking and relaxing. I hope to share photos next week.

I downloaded a bunch of books from Overdrive at my library last week. I'm taking these along for our trip to Arkansas. We'll see what I decided to read, but it's nice to have lots of choices.

Renewal: How Nature Reawakens Our Creativity, Compassion, and Joy 

by Andrés R. Edwards

The Hummingbird's Gift: Wonder, Beauty, and Renewal on Wings by Sy Montgomery

How to Draw Anything Anytime: A Beginner's Guide to Cute and Easy Doodles

Bread for the Journey: A Daybook of Wisdom and Faith by Henri Nouwen

Art Before Breakfast by Danny Gregory

The Book of Delights: Essays by Ross Gay

Hummingbird Salamander: A Novel by Jeff Vandermeer

Extraordinary Insects: Weird. Wonderful. Indispensible. The Ones Who Run Our World.

by Anne Sverdrup-Thygeson

On Trails: An Exploration by Robert Moor

Map: Collected and Last Poems by Wislawa Szymborska

New York Times Opinion, by Farhad Manjoo:

When Listening to a Book is Better than Reading It

Arkansas!

A week of hiking and relaxing in northwest Arkansas.

Good Thing #1

One of my friends, Elke, is a retired librarian, 

and she often forwards a Daily Ray of Hope

from the Sierra Club. You can subscribe here.

Good Thing #2

The Great British Baking Show is back.

Good Thing #3

I finished a cozy mystery set in a magical bookstore.

The bookstore will send just the book you need to you.

Our book club members will each be reading a Christmas cozy mystery

in December. Recommendations?

I'm happy you joined us here at the Sunday Salon. Sunday Salon is a place to link up and to share what we have been doing during the week. It's a great way to visit other blogs and join in the conversations going on there. 

Some of the things we often talk about at the Sunday Salon:

• What was your week like?
• Read any good books? Tell us about them.
• What other bookish things did you do? 
• What else is going on in your life?

Other places where you may like to link up over the weekend are below. Click on the picture to visit the site.

        

My linkup for Sunday Salon is below. 

Shall We Spin to See What We Shall Read Next? The Next Classics Club Spin

The Classics Club has issued the announcement of the 28th Classics Spin.

What is the spin?

It’s easy. At your blog, before next Sunday 17th October, 2021, create a post that lists twenty books of your choice that remain “to be read” on your Classics Club list.

This is your Spin List.

You have to read one of these twenty books by the end of the spin period.

Try to challenge yourself. For example, you could list five Classics Club books you have been putting off, five you can’t WAIT to read, five you are neutral about, and five free choice (favourite author, re-reads, ancients, non-fiction, books in translation — whatever you choose.)

On Sunday 17th, October, we’ll post a number from 1 through 20. The challenge is to read whatever book falls under that number on your Spin List by the 12th December, 2021. That’s an eight week reading window for this spin. You may like to stack your list with books that you know are do-able for you within that time frame.

We’ll check in here on Sunday the 12th December, 2021 to see who made it the whole way and finished their spin book!

I picked the ten books I most wanted to read and added them each to the list twice. 

So here is my list.

1. Country of the Pointed Firs by Sarah Orne Jewett. Novel. 1896. 88 pages.

2. The Art of Eating by M.F.K. Fisher. Cooking. 1954. 784 pages.

3. A Pony for Jean by Joanna Cannan. Children's. 1937. 156 pages. 

4. Country of the Pointed Firs by Sarah Orne Jewett. Novel. 1896. 88 pages.

5. The Thurber Carnival by James Thurber. Humor. 1945. 448 pages.

6. Cue for Treason by Geoffrey Trease. Children's Classic. 1940. 305 pages.

7. Mistress Masham's Repose by T. H. White. Children's. 1946. 260 pages.

8. A Pony for Jean by Joanna Cannan. Children's. 1937. 156 pages. 

9. Dubliners by James Joyce. Short Stories. 1914. 152 pages.

10. Oranges by John McPhee. Nonfiction. 1967. 160 pages.

11. The Thurber Carnival by James Thurber. Humor. 1945. 448 pages.

12. The Baron in the Trees by Italo Calvino. Novel. 1957. 320 pages.

13. Mistress Masham's Repose by T. H. White. Children's. 1946. 260 pages.

14. The Art of Eating by M.F.K. Fisher. Cooking. 1954. 784 pages.

15. Cue for Treason by Geoffrey Trease. Children's Classic. 1940. 305 pages.

16. The Baron in the Trees by Italo Calvino. Novel. 1957. 320 pages.

17. Dubliners by James Joyce. Short Stories. 1914. 152 pages.

18. Love in a Cold Climate by Nancy Mitford. Novel. 1949. 284 pages.

19. The Baron in the Trees by Italo Calvino. Novel. 1957. 320 pages.

20. Oranges by John McPhee. Nonfiction. 1967. 160 pages.

Have you read any of these? Which would you most want to read? 

Wondrous Words: Getting Ready for NaNoWriMo

 

I'm getting ready for National Novel Writing Month in November, and to prepare myself, I've been reading If You Want to Write. First published in 1938, Brenda Ueland's If You Want to Write is said by some to be the ur-text to modern inspirational writing texts. 

Ueland compares the creative process to listening to God inside yourself:

"Now this creative power I think is the Holy Ghost. My theology may not be very accurate, but that is how I think of it. I know that William Blake called this creative power the Imagination, and he said it was God. He, if anyone, ought to know, for he was one of the greatest poets and artists that ever lived. Now Blake thought that this creative power should be kept alive in all people for all of their lives. And so do I. Why? Because it is life itself. It is the Spirit. In fact it is the only important thing about us. The rest of us is legs and stomach, materialistic cravings and fears."

She learned a lot about the process by reading van Gogh's letters:

"But the moment I read van Gogh's letter I knew what art was, and the creative impulse. It is a feeling of love and enthusiasm for something, and in a direct, simple, passionate, and true way, you try to show this beauty in things to others, by (recreating) it.

Ueland also learned about the creative process from her writing students:

"I learned from (my students) that inspiration does not come like a bolt, nor is it kinetic, energetic striving, but it comes into us slowly and quietly and all the time, though we must regularly and every day give it a little chance to start flowing, prime it with a little solitude and idleness. I learned that you should feel when writing, not like Lord Byron on a mountaintop, but like a child stringing beads in kindergarten--happy, absorbed and quietly putting one bead on after another."

All this reading about the creative process arising from the divine and inspiration and enthusiasm led me to look up the etymology of the words "inspiration" and "enthusiasm."  

So there you go. Apparently, this idea of writing as led by a divine spirit is an old one.

Let's hope I can be filled with enthusiasm and inspiration this November.

Photos: Top photo is a photo I took of a writer in a cafe in New York City in 2011. Bottom photo is a photo I took of a writer in a cafe in Paris in 2020.

Wondrous Words Wednesday is a weekly meme where you can share new words that you’ve encountered, or spotlight words you love.  Feel free to get creative! It was first created by Kathy over at Bermuda Onion and is now hosted at Elza Reads.