comfort books

I am feeling kinda bleh and the words are failing me so I am going to do a list. Oh a list of books. How fun!

When I rearranged the furnitures in my room, I put my bed up against a small bookshelf. So there's a shelf of books right by my head and I can literally go to sleep with my books. I finally picked the books to put there. I had not criteria other than to pick the books that put me at ease. I didn't pick my favorite books, per se, and there is a size limitation (no books too large would fit there), but I think I have an interesting selection.

oh.. .so the list. here goes from left to right:

• Selected Poems, Jorge Luis Borges
• A Writer's Diary, Virginia Woolf
• The Virginia Woolf Reader
• The Voyage Out, Virginia Woolf
  
• Mrs. Dalloway, Virginia Woolf
• The Hours, Michael Cunningham
• Reading like a Writer: A guide for people who love books and for those who want to write them, Francine Prose
• Wintering: A novel of Sylvia Plath, Kate Moss
• The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath
• Gracefully Insane, Alex Beam
• Girl, Interrupted, Susanna Kaysen
• Tender Is the Night, f. Scott Fitzgerald
• Of Two Minds, t m Luhrmann
• Complications: a surgeon's notes on an imperfect science, Atul Gawande
• An Unquiet Mind, Kay Redfield Jamison
• Prozac Nation, Elizabeth Wurtzel
• The House of God, Samuel Shem
• New Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud
• Final Exam: A surgeon's reflection on mortality, Pauline Chen
• Asylums, Erving Goffman
• The Living Clock, John D. Palmer
• The Development of Cognitive Anthropology, Roy G D'Andrade
• Facundo: Civilization and Barbarism, Domingo Faustino Sarmiento
• The Men Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat: And other clinical tales, Oliver Sacks
• Bedlam Burning, Geoff Nicholson
• Running with Scissors, Augusten Burroughs
• Stumbling on Happiness, Daniel Gilbert
• Labyrinths: Selected stories and other writings, Jorge Luis Borges
• Delivering Doctor Amelia, Dan Shapiro
• Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego, Sigmund Freud

This was, more than anything, an exercise in following my heart. As cheesy as that sounds, I am trying to relinquish some control over every aspect of my life. Sometimes randomness and irregularity produce beautiful results. And if I can just let life happen, I might be pleasantly surprised. So instead of fretting over figuring out why I pick the books I did, I just grabbed the books I wanted for this mix. The collection I have doesn't quite make sense and I only have an inkling as to why I picked some of those books. The result, nonetheless, is quite satisfying.

gotta have it

Yes, I got the book! Here's my latest addition to my library:

101 Designer one-skein Wonders
Edited by Judith Durant

I have wanted a one-skein knitting book ever since I realized that I am an ADD-knitter. I cannot maintain an interest in my knitting project beyond a bundle of yarn . I considered getting the classic book: One Skein since I had this insane urge to knit a cupcake and a felted handbag. But that's about all I want from that book and I knit a cupcake from an online pattern. So I ended up getting what I think is the newest and the hippest book out now about short knitting projects.

There are so many things in there I want to make. I am still a bit fuzzy on yarn weights but I now know I can get a nice skein of yarn and find something neat to make with it. I looked through about a dozen knitting books in the store and this book was the only one that had more than 5 things I want to make.

This book is one of the girly-est book I have. Well maybe tied to my shopaholic books. But the cover has pictures of cute knitted things and yarns. The pages have flowerly patterns and swirly girly fonts. And and and some of the letters are in pink. I am so in love with my girly book. ah...

As much as I like books, I usually don't buy them at full price. So I was especially hesitant getting this one since there are free knitting patterns all over the internet. But I woke up this morning feeling like I had to get this book. It was all windy, cold, and rainy outside but I felt something greater than me dragged me to the bookstore to get this book.

But I did restrain myself from getting a cute notebook I found. It was beautiful and I now regret not getting it.

These are the times when I understand shopaholics. I am lucky though since it is obviously far better to be addicted to books, notebooks, and art supplies than to be drawn to clothes and shoes or electronics. You can never have too many books and the notebooks represent possibilities.