just began

"He swept the floor with his jacket and lay down, using the book he had just finished reading as a pillow. He told himself that he would have to start reading thicker books: they lasted longer, and made more comfortable pillows."

Sense and Sensibility

am halfway through. Sometime soon I'll post pictures of the project that kept me away from here so long...

I've been trying to begin Wuthering Heights for the past few days, but it's been chaotic around here.

Finished both Little Women and Little Men this week, in addition to harnessing our bread machine. Made oodles of bagels, two loaves of Amish bread (so ironic that I made it in a machine...) rosemary-olive oil bread, and one ill-fated oatmeal-wheat loaf that Papa insisted was delicious. I'll be sorry to go back to school tomorrow...

Now for Jo's Boys and Eight Cousins!

Can't be sure...

Have I read this before? The opening lines are so familiar...maybe I listened to it on tape...




"I suspect that the real attraction was a large library of fine books, which was left to dust and spiders since Uncle March died...The dim, dusty room, with the busts staring down from the tall bookcases, the cozy chairs, the globes, and, best of all, the wilderness of books in which she could wander where she liked, made the library a region of bliss to her. The moment Aunt March took her nap, or was busy with company, Jo hurried to this quiet place, and, curling herself up in the easy chair, devoured poetry, romance, history, travels, and pictures, like a regular bookworm. But, like all happiness, it did not last long; for as sure as she had just reached the heart of the story, the sweetest verse of the song, or the most perilous adventure of her traveler, a shrill voice called, "Josy-phine! Josy-phine!" and she had to leave her paradise to wind yarn, wash the poodle, or read Belsham's Essays by the hour together."

The Princess Bride

a lucky find at the used bookstore--finished in three days!

started last night

The Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway

for Lent

As seen in Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger.

belated valentine's day reads

"Stop acting like a much-wronged primadonna and come down to earth, kid."
-Ralph

"Take a good look at the floor these next few months Darling because you will be seeing a lot of the ceiling when I come home."

-Jack


"Love
Patsy?"

and this book:



"...I composed a beautiful letter to you in the sleepless nightmare hours of the night and it has all gone: I just miss you, in a quite simple desperate human way. You, with all your undumb letters, would never write so elementary a phrase as that; perhaps you wouldn't even feel it. And yet I believe you'll be sensible of a little gap. But you'd clothe it in so exquisite a phrase that it would lose a little of its reality. Whereas with me it is quite stark: I miss you even more than I could have believed; and I was prepared to miss you a good deal. So this letter is really just a squeal of pain. It is incredible how essential to me you have become. I suppose you are accustomed to people saying these things. Damn you, spoilt creature; I shan't make you love me any more by giving myself away like this--but oh my dear, I can't be clever and stand-offish with you: I love you too much for that. Too truly. You have no idea how stand-offish I can be with people I don't love. I have brought it to a fine art. But you have broken down my defenses. And I don't really resent it."
-Vita

finally gave in...

After having this book recommended to me by several friends, I eventually read it when Lauren forced it into my hands last week. It only took me three days. And yet...there are just so many books to read--why bother with science fiction?

You are Miss Elizabeth Bennet

As one of Austen's most beloved characters, Elizabeth Bennet represents what most women would like to become: strong, independent, and loyal. Of course, she has her faults including a stubborn will of iron and a clinging to first impressions. Overall, Lizzie is bright and lovable...something to admire and aspire to.


http://quizfarm.com/test.php?q_id=41259

just began

"One of his guards would follow him, unseen, until he returned soaked with dew and with a thread of breath almost too thin for him to climb the steps to the portico, haggard annd dazed but with the eyes of a happy madman."

rediscovered obsession

Read the third book in less than a day--can't wait to buy the rest...

just finished

"I dream a lot now. It is my present major preoccupation."
-Jacob Kahn

a new batch of stationery

from Juliana as an early nameday gift.

now reading Chaim Potok's My Name is Asher Lev, which Michaela gave me a long while ago. Excerpts to come...

pride and prejudice

have been reading incessantly--

"And now nothing remains for me but to assure you in the most animated language of the violence of my affection."
-Mr. Collins