As if the bed nook wasn’t cool enough, that door leads to the closet, which holds a ladder to a reading space, with the “balcony” window above the bed to look out!
OH MY GOODNESS
Tag: books
“Think of a book special to you, and how much bleaker and poorer your life would be if that one writer had not existed—if that one writer had not, a hundred times or a thousand, made the choice to write. You’re going to be that one writer, one day, for somebody you may never meet. Nobody can write that book you’re going to write—that book that will light up and change up a life—but you.”
When I was about ten, Mum bought me the eight books in the first picture, a couple at a time, from Kmart, until I had them all. I’m pretty sure they were $5 a book, which might sound like a lot for a kid, but Mum and Grandma had been buying me things like Kipling and Bronte since I was about eight, and they knew I took care of my books. They’re nice editions, unabridged, with eight full colour plates of illustrations in each. Even after the better part of thirty years, the pages are still bright white, so for cheap hardbacks, they used REALLY low acid paper for circa 1990. They’re also a proper sewn binding, not just glue.
Fast foward twenty five years. I find a book, in a charity shop, that matches my books. But it is one I do not own. It is one I never knew existed. I had always had weird recurring dreams of finding more books to match my treasured set of eight. TURNS OUT THEY WERE TRUE. Cue an internet trawling, which yielded a final number of twenty four titles in the series.
Over the last year or so, I’ve found three in charity shops and bought five from the internet. I have a massive list of things I want to buy – most of them books – but I decided that what I really wanted for my birthday this year was to complete the set. So here it is.
They’re all imperfect in some way – scratches, dents, the odd ex-owner’s name, and two badly faded spines, but the whole collection is together, after twenty six years of being incomplete.
Alice in Wonderland & Through The Looking Glass – Lewis Carroll
Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte
What Katy Did Next – Susan Coolidge
What Katy Did – Susan Coolidge
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer – Mark Twain
Hard Times – Charles Dickens
A Christmas Carol & Cricket on the Hearth – Charles Dickens
Kidnapped – Robert Louis Stevenson
What Katy Did at School – Susan Coolidge
Robinson Crusoe – Daniel Defoe
Little Women – Louisa May Alcott
Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm – Kate Douglas Wiggin
The Jungle Book – Rudyard Kipling
Black Beauty – Anna Sewell
The Wizard of Oz – L. Frank Baum
Moonfleet – John Meade Falkner
Treasure Island – Robert Louis Stevenson
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea – Jules Verne
Around The World in Eighty Days – Jules Verne
Heidi – Johanna Spyri
The Water Babies – Charles Kingsley
The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde & The Beach of Falsea – Robert Louis Stevenson
Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen
The Secret Garden – Frances Hodgson Burnett
Some of them I’ve read lots of times over the years, some, not since I was a kid, and a small amount are completely new to me despite being classics. I can’t wait to dive in.
I LOVE CLASSIC LIT.
The rest of my birthday present was three queer YA titles, but I’ll take a picture of those later, when I’ve covered them. 🙂
Things I am good at: Finding and buying cheap books
Things I am not good at: Reading them in a timely manner
Stephen Pollington has been writing books on Anglo-Saxon England for two decades. His many published titles include works on the Old English language, military culture, healing and herblore, runes and feasting in the ‘meadhall’. He has recorded a double CD of readings in Old English.
He has lectured widely on aspects of Anglo-Saxon culture since 1991, from local history to the details of verse metre, from theories of the origins of the Germanic runes to the handling of Anglo-Saxon weaponry.
Fave Five: Queer Autistic Main Characters
The Lifeline Signal by RoAnna Sylver Failure to Communicate by Kaia Sonderby An Unseen Attraction by KJ Charles…
im a simple girl.. i see book, i buy book, i let book sit on my shelf for months unread
Months? Oh, sweet summer child, I’m currently pushing myself through a programme where I’m reading everything that’s been on my shelves, unread, for 10+ YEARS. And yes, I’m still buying books. The programme is mostly to clear off the books I don’t actually want to keep, to make space for new stuff.
love that adhd feel when “and there goes my ability to read”
why u ask?
– it’s too noisy
– my brain keeps thinking too many Thoughts
– re-read it again till u die
– BOREDOM!!!
– constantly zoning out
– the tiny sound in the distance
– too stressed out because I CAN’T READisn’t adhd fun!!!
– wait… that’s not what it said… or is it?
– i just skipped eight lines wtf
– is this English?
– where the fuck was i
– *gets up to do something* *never returns*
– wait how long have I been reading for
– I remember Nothing (except for a few unnecessary things in excruciating detail )
– must move NOW
– font bad
– song stuck in my head
*GETS UP TO DO SOMETHING* *NEVER RETURNS*
The not being able to read, in all seriousness, is one of the most upsetting, stressmaking manifestations of my ADHD. Reading has always been the way I check out, escape, relax, and when my brain stops letting me focus enough to read, I lose that outlet, and it makes the agitation and stress and anxiety WORSE. It’s a self-perpetuating cycle of suck.
Help This Graduate Study: LGBTQIA Fiction Community Survey
Do you like to read? Do you like to read books featuring women who happen to like other women? Do you enjoy good karma points from the universe? If so, help this CMU grad student with her LGBTQIA Readers Survey! It takes less than 10 minutes and answers are anonymous.
The survey can be found here. Must be 18+ to participate: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/ReaderSurveyCMU
More info from the graduate student running the study:
“I’m Hope, a graduate student in the Master of Science in Administration program at Central Michigan University. My capstone thesis study, underway now, examines the LGBTQIA fiction market and its readers – especially for women who love women. The data collected will provide useful information and help us understand how authors and publishers can make better LGBTQIA content for readers.
My target participation goal is approximately 400, and I’m hoping to capture a healthy portion of responses from outside the USA. The results of this study are only useful if it accurately captures the needs and interests of the LGBTQIA fiction community. I’m happy to share a summary of the study once it’s finished – please contact me at my academic email for more information or questions: croni1h@cmich.edu.
Thanks for your time and support of this project! Your voices and your stories matter!
I’ve been asked to spread this among my followers because whom best to get the statistics from than wlw readers themselves! The survey is really short so do it if you have a few minutes free.
knitting in the dark 