It’s another rainy weekend here in the southeast, which normally I would not mind except the days in between (when I’m working) have been sunny and nice for the most part and it’s only the when the weekend rolls around that the grey clouds come out. Watch, next weekend, which is my Saturday to work, will be all sunshine.

It was only a light misty rain early this afternoon, so after church and lunch I headed out for what has now become my regular Sunday run. Last year was the year I finally decided to lose weight and get in shape. Inspired by my friend Susan, I joined Weight Watchers and started back at the gym. I thought participating in a 5K would be a good thing to aspire to, so back in October, I ran my first 5K along with my husband and my friend, Jeanie. Two more 5Ks followed and then I got the bright idea to participate in a half-marathon. I got another friend of mine who recently did the breast cancer 3-day to agree to do it with me, and we are training to do a combination of running and walking the half-marathon, which takes place at the end of March. So anyway, I got 2 miles into what was supposed to be a 6 mile run today, but almost as soon as I set out, the light mist turned to a steady rain, which has since turned into monsoon-like conditions and a tornado watch. I figured I was not that dedicated and could finish up my 4 miles at the gym tomorrow morning. So instead I came home and settled back in the comfy chair with a blanket and a good book while my Sunday pot roast cooks in the crockpot. Life is good, indeed.

And what book am I curled up with, you may ask? Well, it should have been Mrs. Mike, the classic tale of love in the Canadian wilderness, but yesterday as I was in the midst of the book and coming up on a scene where something mysterious was going to be unveiled, I come to the bottom of the left page, which says:

“We came over on a small boat, my father, my mother and five sisters and brothers. It was strange how it happened. The

and the next words at the top of the right page were:

“Well, you know now.”

Wait. What? I know? No, I don’t! You were just about to tell me! What’s going on here?!? I read a little more and it’s different characters talking around a dinner table, a completely different setting than the previous page. I look at the page numbers and see that the left page was number 154 but the right page is 187. Dang it! Foiled by a publishing misprint! And of course, it was a remaindered copy I bought months ago who knows where, so it’s not like I can take the book back to where I bought it and exchange it out. And thanks to my self-imposed book-buying ban, I can’t just run down to the nearest bookstore and buy myself a new copy. The only copy in our library system is a large-print version at another branch so I have to wait for it to be sent to our library, which means I won’t be able to return to the story for at least a few days.

So instead, I’m returning to The Woman in White, which I started out reading earlier this month as part of Leila’s read-a-long, but got put aside so that I could focus on Beach Music, which took me two weeks to get through the first 200 pages, 3 days to get through the middle two hundred pages, and 5 hours to get through the last two hundred pages, finishing up at 3:24 a.m. the morning before my book club this past Thursday. I’ll leave the rest of my comments for the extravaganza that was Beach Music for its own post, but suffice it to say that it took all attention away from The Woman in White for much of January.

Speaking of January being almost outta here, have you signed up for the Bibliophilic Books Challenge yet? There’s only one more week before the signup period expires, and I will be drawing for an appropriate prize from all the initial registrants. So head on over there and sign up!

OK, that’s it for me for this Sunday. I’m off to Limmeridge House!

I mentioned last week that my friend Susan was visiting this weekend, and we have been enjoying ourselves immensely so far.

We started by going to afternoon tea at the Holly Cottage Tearoom. We were seated in the Brontë room, with a print of the famous portrait of the Brontës overlooking our table:

That is me on the left and Susan on the right, both of us proudly wearing our fancy hats and enjoying our tea. We had three courses, starting with tomato and basil soup (me) or salad (Susan) and then were served this three tiered tray full of sweet and savory goodies. Here’s a closeup of the second tier:

And this is a shot of the final pot of tea we shared:

We started with Monks Blend tea (which turned out to be my favorite), segued to a pot of Bella Coola tea (I would like this iced in the summer but it was a bit too strong as a hot tea for my tastes) and set a tearoom record by requesting a THIRD pot of tea, their signature blend, Yorkshire Harrogate, to which I added a spot of cream. It was also very good but by the time we finished I was ready to float out of there, I was so full of tea!

The next evening, we ventured into Atlanta so that I could get all giddy and verklempt  by spending an hour or so listening to Jasper Fforde as he talked about his books and read from his newest novel, Shades of Grey. He was funny and clever and his accent was like buttah! I could have listened to him talk all night.

And here I am waiting patiently (on the outside) as I squeal with delight (on the inside) while Jasper signs two of the books I brought with me:

The event was held at a Barnes and Noble, and this was the first real test to my 2010 book-buying ban, since it was the first time that I’ve stepped into a bookstore since January 1st. I’m happy to say that I passed the test! I did a cursory glance of the bargain shelves, but didn’t roam around too much, just took a seat in the second row and waited for Jasper. The B&N folks very nicely made all the people who’d come in late and stood around the front (near the autograph table) move to the back and let those of us who’d gotten there hours ahead of time get in line to get our books signed first. I appreciated that even though I had my husband stationed near the front of the line as a placeholder.

In the last photo, on the side is a postcard that he inserted into Shades of Grey and a green button (he had a big bag of buttons of all colors out for people to choose one).  It was a great evening and I thoroughly enjoyed myself – and am an even bigger fan of Jasper Fforde than I was before.

As for my reading this weekend, well, I am still making my way through Beach Music and telling myself I can’t look at any more books (including the two graphic novels that came in at the library, Grey Horses and Laika, both of which I’m dying to read) until I finish it, since my book club meets this Thursday and I still have a few hundred pages to get through. I’m not loving it but I have moments where I’m enjoying the book – but I’ll be honest, if it wasn’t for book club, I probably would have set it aside already. Hopefully I’ll finish in time!

I began January with a plan, a plan laid with the best of intentions, to read a certain number of books this month, nine in all. Two of those books are book club picks, so I have to read them, but the others were all chosen based on my mood, what I have checked out from the library, and which books I could fit into the various reading challenges.

That plan has strayed somewhat. I’m still reading the book club books, and I’m even pleased with myself that I’m through the first section of The Woman in White for the read-a-long taking place this month (and quite enjoying myself, too, I should add – it’s not a chore at all to read and is beginning to feel like one of those ‘why did I wait so long?’ books). But there’s a few others that may not make it from my bookshelf to my nightstand reading pile this month; I’m too fickle and keep inviting other books to join the party instead. Oh well, I suppose what matters is that I’m reading and enjoying myself, right?

I’m also reading a lot more books at the same time than I normally would. Typically I’m a one-book-at-a-time type gal. But right now, I have one book going on at work (The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie), one in my purse for when I’m waiting at the dentist’s office or in the car with my husband (Biblioholism), and three on my nightstand (Beach Music, Same Kind of Different as Me and The Woman in White – there are more on my nightstand but they’re on the back burner for now). Juggling so many books hasn’t been as difficult as I would have thought, probably due in large part to the fact that the books are all quite different from one another.

This coming week will probably not give me much in the way of time for reading, most of these books, but that’s a small price to pay for having my dear friend Susan, come to visit for almost an entire week! And of course, since we are both big-time book nerds (and proudly so!), there will be visits to bookstores (which will be a test for me, but I can window shop), plenty of talk about books, and even a visit to meet Jasper Fforde, who is stopping in Atlanta on his book tour, promoting his newest book, Shades of Grey. We are also both Anglophiles, and each time we visit one another, there is sure to be a visit to a tea shop involved, and this time is no exception. I will be taking her to the Holly Cottage Tearoom, a new favorite of mine, where paintings of Emily Dickinson and the Brontës adorn the walls. Stay tuned next week for a summary of our bookish adventures!

And with that, I’m off to read one of my books. Hmmm … which one to choose …

It’s my first Sunday Salon post!

A few weeks ago I was allocating some of the books from my overflowing bookshelves for a new bookshelf I’d gotten for my birthday. It also serves nicely as a television stand and knickknack holder. Here it is all set up in our bedroom:

(By the way, in case you’re wondering, it’s an episode of South Park playing on the television.)

This now makes seven bookshelves in my house, and according to my LibraryThing account, there are almost 800 books interspersed among those shelves. Since I have periodically purged my bookshelves of books I’ve read and don’t want to keep, and because I have something of a book-buying addiction, a majority of those almost-800 books are unread. While I was setting up my new bookshelf, I was thinking about all those unread books. I got to thinking that maybe it would be a good personal challenge to see if I could not buy any new books in the new year. Then, I made the mistake of telling my husband. He, of course, thought it a GREAT idea.

As I work in a library and have easy access to free books all day long, you’d think I wouldn’t be tempted by the book buying bug. But alas, no. I love to go to bookstores and peruse the shelves, sometimes looking for something in particular, but more often, not. Better still are the used bookstores, where I can find all kinds of forgotten treasures on the cheap. And don’t even get me started on library book sales! All in all, it’s rare for me to walk out of a bookstore or sale empty-handed.

But those days are behind me, at least for the next year.

It’s my personal reading resolution to not buy any new-to-me books this year, which means library sale and used books are out. My built-in caveats are that books given as gifts (including gift cards), books ordered prior to December 31st and books swapped for credit all are exempt. And since I’m strong, but no saint, I did buy several books in December:

Hellfire has been on my wishlist for awhile now, but since it’s not available in the US, I went to The Book Depository to see about getting a copy there. While browsing, to my surprise and delight, I saw that a new Adrian Mole book had been published in the UK: Adrian Mole: The Prostrate Years. I’ve been a fan of Adrian since first reading his diaries as an early teen, and a couple of years ago when I read Adrian Mole and the Weapons of Mass Destruction, it was a bittersweet experience as I thought I’d read the last of Adrian. Not so! So of course, that one had to be added to the cart as well. Lastly (and not pictured, since it hasn’t arrived yet), was Howards End is on the Landing, by Susan Hill, a book I first read about on pages turned, but in the subsequent weeks have seen mentioned countless times, so apparently I was in the minority having never heard of what sounds like a wonderful book.

I also took advantage of my husband’s trial Amazon Prime membership and ordered Ophelia Joined the Group Maidens Don’t Float: Classic Lit Signs Onto Facebook, a collection of funny status updates, wall posts and conversations by some of our favorite classic characters and authors; a copy of Alice I Have Been (not pictured since it hasn’t been officially published yet) since I’ve heard so many great things about it from blogger’s who’d read the ARC; and Shades of Grey, Jasper Fforde’s latest novel which I’m hoping to get signed by him when he comes to Atlanta later this month (I’m SO excited!).

I also wanted to clean up my wishlist a little bit, so I deleted a bunch that I decided I didn’t want anymore or couldn’t remember why I’d wanted them in the first place, and chose a few that I could find used copies of through Amazon – in fact, I ordered four books and even with shipping, paid less than $20 in total. Those four are Biblioholism: The Literary Addiction (if that book doesn’t fit me to a tee, I don’t know what does); Rowing to Latitude, a book I’ve wanted since it appeals to my interest in Arctic exploration (plus the writer also visits the northern coast of Newfoundland in her travels); There Are Mountains to Climb (not pictured since it hasn’t arrived yet), a personal account of one woman’s hike of the Appalachian Trail, which as I’ve mentioned before, is a dream of mine; and Rereadings, which completes my collection of Anne Fadiman’s literary-themed books (Ex Libris and At Large and At Small being the other two).

Then, on Boxing Day, my husband and I were in Border’s, where we got a 2010 Wallace and Gromit calendar, and they had a large table of marked-down books on display. I was browsing through, looking for anything that piqued my interest, when my eyes caught upon one particular book: The Moonflower Vine, a book I’d had on my wishlist for quite some time. There were dozens and dozens of books there, many with multiple copies, but there was JUST ONE copy of The Moonflower Vine. I love it when that happens. It’s like a little miracle of the universe, telling me this book was meant for me. So of course, I bought it. And at only $3, it was quite a bargain!

My last set of books came into my possession on the last day of 2009. We were in Athens, Georgia to participate in a New Year’s Day 5K run, and since it’s a university town (GO DAWGS!) I knew there would be some decent bookstores. Luckily, there was Jackson Street Books, and it was still open at 4pm on New Year’s Eve. It is a veritable treasure trove of books and I highly recommend it if you are in the vicinity and especially if you have a couple of hours to spare. I set myself a limit of $20 and tried to reason with myself to only purchase books I really wanted. I found a copy of The Polysyllabic Spree, which although I’ve already read, I’d borrowed it from the library and wanted my own copy if I could get it cheap enough; a small Penguin edition of Three Men and a Boat, which I’ve read bits and pieces of but never the whole thing, and the style of humor really appeal to me; and finally, a 1959 edition of M.R. James’ More Ghost Stories. I was instantly drawn in by the compact edition and the retro cover. (The one you see on the LibraryThing page is my own copy; I couldn’t find that cover online.) The book was wrapped in a protective plastic so it wasn’t until I got back to the hotel and opened it that I saw yet another unusual feature: it has an inscription from the person I assume to be the original owner, dated 26 March, 1959, and the label for a Parisian bookstore, Galignani, which apparently was the first English bookstore established on the European Continent, founded in 1520. Here are some photos of the inside:

Oh, and that little gift card sitting on top of my book stack? My thoughtful and sympathetic husband included that in my stocking, so I have $50 to spend at Border’s this year. I’m thinking I’ll hold off paying them a visit until at least June or when the withdrawal shakes kick in, whichever occurs first.