I want to go

Actually, I just want to live in this place. You can visit Beatrix Potter's home at Hill Top Farm, looking just the same as it did when she lived and wrote there.

Beatrix Potter's house, an inspiration for many of her tales, Hill Top remains as she left it. Each room contains something that appeared in her books. Beatrix valued the house and its contents highly and when she died she left Hill Top to the National Trust, to open it to the public, on the condition that the house was kept with all her belongings in place. The lovely cottage garden is a haphazard mix of flowers, herbs, fruit and vegetables.

Gaaaaa! I want to go!!

Snowed In

I knew I was going to have to be hunkered-in today because of the storm that's been blasting the Northeast, so on my way home yesterday I stopped off at the bookstore to pick up this collection of new, re-envisioned fairy tales, which I'm enjoying very much. I'm only a few stories in, but already I'm finding them delightfully creepy and fun.

I have a sense that a proliferation of magical stories, especially fairy tales, is correlated to a growing awareness of human separation from the wild and natural world. In fairy tales, the human and animal worlds are equal and mutually dependent. The violence, suffering, and beauty are shared. Those drawn to fairy tales, perhaps, wish for a world that might live "forever after." ~Kate Bernheimer, from the Introduction to My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me

Likes

Here's a new kind of post -- things I'm liking/reading/watching right now -- at this point in time.

This book:
The Dirty Life by Kristin Kimball

this nightgown
(a late Christmas gift)




this documentary

An old childhood favorite

Ideal Bookshelves

Oh how I love these Ideal Bookshelf prints from artist Jane Mount. Too bad the ones I want the most - #2 and 3 here - are all sold out. You can tell a lot about a person from the books they surround themselves with. Recently it was brought to my attention that someone at work referred to me as having "a lot of weird books." (I don't think the person who said it actually owns any books of their own. Just sayin').

Letters to Santa: Books

Dear Santa,
These are some of the books on my current wishlist,
and I'd be just tickled to find any one of them under the tree on Christmas morning.
Love to Mrs. Claus and the elves.

xo
Kim

This is why I say I am a "slow reader." It takes me forever to get through any book.

Rereading

"USDA figures show a decline in the nutrient content of the forty-three crops it has tracked since the 1950s. ...you now have to eat three apples to get the same amount of iron as you would have gotten from a single apple grown in 1940.

The news of declining nutrient levels in American produce prompted The Packer, a trade publication for the produce industry, to suggest that this might actually be good for business, because people would now need to eat more produce to get the same nutritional benefit."

I suddenly had the urge today to reread this book - which I originally purchased and read when it was first released. I'm currently suffering from a second major illness in as many months, and am on my second round of antibiotics so that I can go back to work in a timely manner. It's no secret that I've been eating very badly since starting this job over a year ago, and I know that's at least partly to blame for my insufficient immune system. Time to make a change, i.e. get back to where I was a year and a half ago. It would be even better if I could get back to where we were 50 or more years ago. Maybe then I'd actually make it through a month without getting sick. Oh wait, there are other variables to consider, like the fact that my workplace forbids opening the windows, but thinks nothing of conducting ongoing construction in the building for over a year, forcing us all to breathe in unhealthy air for 8 hours each day.

Tomorrow

The venue for Mockingbird Marathon has changed -- it's now being held at the Book House in Stuyvesant Plaza. Not one of my favorite places, but that's another story. Uh oh, that's dangerously close to Chipotle...

Start a New Tradition

Give scary books for Halloween.

Writes Neil Gaiman on his blog:

***

You know, there aren't enough traditions that involve giving books.

I propose that, on Hallowe'en or during the week of Hallowe'en, we give each other scary books. Give children scary books they'll like and can handle. Give adults scary books they'll enjoy.

I propose that stories by authors like John Bellairs and Stephen King and Arthur Machen and Ramsey Campbell and M R James and Lisa Tuttle and Peter Straub and Daphne Du Maurier and Clive Barker and a hundred hundred others change hands -- new books or old or second-hand, beloved books or unknown. Give someone a scary book for Hallowe'en. Make their flesh creep...

Give a scary book.

***


I love this idea. I already ran out and bought the book I'm going to give. Pass it on.

**UPDATE** I received this book, and I gifted this.

I also like what Joe Hill had to say:

***

I’m going to adopt this as a Halloween habit and I hope you will too. The only thing I’d add is that I think you should also take twenty minutes on Halloween evening to read a scary story to your kids, or with your friends, or your family. Everyone reads The Night Before Christmas on Christmas Eve, which is fine, but Halloween is really a time to share a good bone-shaking horror story that will keep your loved ones awake at night.

***

I couldn't agree more. As Alvin Schwartz pointed out, scary stories want to be told. So, what are some of your favorite scary books?

TKAM

On Saturday, November 6th I will be taking part in a marathon reading celebrating the 50th anniversary of the novel To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee. The event is being held at Townsend Park Bakery in Albany from 9 a.m. until 9 p.m. and will raise money for the Literacy Volunteers of the Greater Capital Region. People from all over the area will come together to take turns reading portions of the novel from start to finish. Thanks to Mary from AOA for asking me to be a part of this great event. Hope to see some of you there! For more information, you can check out the event's web page.

I put together a little collection of the various book jackets the novel has appeared with over the years. (above image by Erin Morelli)

Destination:

I'm off to a place very near and dear to me.
HAPPY OCTOBER!

Never Let Me Go

Went to see this beautiful and disturbing movie over the weekend (thanks Kaitlin). I haven't yet read the book, but according to Time magazine, it was the best of the past decade. Whoa. That's saying a lot. Futuristic, dystopian societies are right up my alley, and this has to be one of the most visually appealing films I've seen - maybe ever. I want to wear all the clothes. I want to live in 'the cottages.' I'd love to be a part of that world -- except, I don't want to be a clone.