Let's all read some books.

Becky tagged me for this and so I will celebrate my last day of NaBloPoMo with it. I am not going to tag anyone, but feel free to participate if you like.

Have you read more than six of these books? The BBC believes most people will have read only six of the 100 books listed here. Instructions: Copy this into your NOTES. Bold those books you've read in their entirety, italicize the ones you started but didn't finish or read an excerpt. Tag other book nerds. Tag me as well so I can see your responses!

Ok...so that's the meme.

Let me start out by saying that I read mostly non-fiction. I have always preferred it to fiction, although I love John Steinbeck, have read all of his works, and own many of them. I also have read all of the "Bunnicula" series by James Howe, and thoroughly enjoy an occasional cat murder mystery by Lillian Jackson Braun.

I love biographies and history books, such as "The Habsburgs", by Dorothy Gies McGuigan. (Doubleday, 1966). I just really love non-fiction. I do attempt to read fiction, though. I even have a list of things I want to read. I try to remember to look them up so I can get them, but I always forget. Maybe I will join a book club this next year.

So here we go...let's see how many I've read. I know it won't be as many as Becky or Chris.


1. Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen

2. The Lord of the Rings – JRR Tolkien

3. Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte
Seriously...I faked reading this for school. Didn't care for it at all.

4. Harry Potter series – JK Rowling (all)
Haven't even read one!

5. To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee

6. The Bible
When I got my first Bible, I read it cover to cover. The only frustrating part for me at the time was that there were mentions in the Old Testament to other books, which were not available to me. (or anyone?)

7. Wuthering Heights
I started this book so many times. The movie was a little better, but again...not my style.

8. Nineteen Eighty Four – George Orwell

9. His Dark Materials – Philip Pullman
Gosh, I never even heard of this one.

10. Great Expectations – Charles Dickens
I went through a Charles Dickens phase in which I read several of his books. I even enjoyed most of them.

11. Little Women - Louisa May Alcott
And "Little Men" and "Eight Cousins" which I have also.

12. Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy

13. Catch 22 – Joseph Heller

14. Complete Works of Shakespeare
I own a copy of the "Complete Works of Shakespeare". It was published in 1890. It is one of my collection of old books. I haven't read it because the pages are brittle and I don't want them to break. Maybe I will do another blog on some more of my old books.

15. Rebecca – Daphne Du Maurier

16. The Hobbit – JRR Tolkien

17. Birdsong – Sebastian Faulks

18. Catcher in the Rye – JD Salinger

19. The Time Travelers Wife – Audrey Niffenegger
It's on my to-do list.

20. Middlemarch – George Eliot

21. Gone With The Wind – Margaret Mitchell

22. The Great Gatsby -- F Scott Fitzgerald
I don't know why I never finish this book.

23. Bleak House – Charles Dickens

24. War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy
Darryl finished it. I didn't.

25. The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams
On my list.

26. Brideshead Revisited – Evelyn Waugh
Also on my list.

27. Crime and Punishment – Fyodor Dostoyevsky

28. Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck

29. Alice in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll

30. The Wind in the Willows – Kenneth Grahame

31. Anna Karenina –Leo Tolstoy
On my list.

32. David Copperfield – Charles Dickens

33. Chronicles of Narnia – CS Lewis
My kids have all read this, why haven't I?

34. Emma – Jane Austen

35. Persuasion – Jane Austen

36. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe – CS Lewis

37. The Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini

38. Captain Corelli’s Mandolin – Louis De Berniere

39. Memoirs of a Geisha - Willaim Golden
I really want to read this one.

40. Winnie the Pooh – AA Milne

41. Animal Farm – George Orwell
It took me years, but I finally read this one.

42. The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown

43. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabrial Garcia Marquez

44. A Prayer for Owen Meaney – John Irving

45. The Woman in White – Wilkie Collins

46. Anne of Green Gables – LM Montgomery

47. Far from the Madding Crowd -- Thomas Hardy

48. The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood

49. Lord of the Flies – William Golding

50. Atonement - Ian McEwan

51. Life of Pi - Yann Martell

52. Dune – Frank Herbert

53. Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons

54. Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen

55. A Suitable Boy – Vikram Seth

56. The Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafon

57. A Tale Of Two Cities – Charles Dickens

58. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley

59. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time – Mark Haddon

60. Love in the time of Cholera - Gabriel garcia Marquez

61. Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck

62. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov

63. The Secret History - Donna Tartt

64. The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold

65. Count of Monte Cristo – Alexandre Dumas

66. On the Road - Jack Kerouac

67. Jude the Obscure – Thomas Hardy

68. Bridget Jones’s Diary – Helen Fielding

69. Midnight’s Children – Salman Rushdie

70. Moby Dick – Herman Melville

71. Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens

72. Dracula – Bram Stoker

73. The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson

74. Notes from a Small Island - Bill Bryson

75. Ulysses - James Joyce

76. The Bell Jar - Sylivia Plath

77. Swallows and Amazons – Arthur Ransome

78. Germinal – Emile Zola

79. Vanity Fair – William Makepeace Thackeray

80. Possession - AS Byatt

81. A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens

82. Cloud Atlas - Charles Mitchell

83. The Colour Purple - Alice Walker

84. The Remains of the Day – Kazuo Ishiguro

85. Madame Bovary – Gustave Flaubert

86. A Fine Balance – Rohinton Mistry

87. Charlotte's Web - EB White

88. The Five People You Meet In Heaven – Mitch Albom

89. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

90. The Faraway Tree collection - Enid blyton

91. Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad

92. The Little Prince - Antoine de Saint Exupery

93. The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks

94. Watership Down - Richard Adams

95. A Confederacy of Dunces – John Kennedy Toole

96. A Town Like Alice – Nevil Shute

97. The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas

98. Hamlet – William Shakespeare

99. Charlie & the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl

100. Les Miserables – Victor Hugo


I think my count is 27. Not too bad. Maybe I will make a new list for myself.
I have to admit there are several on here that I didn't even know existed, so I will have to go check them out and see what I can find.
,
And with that...
NOVEMBER is OVER! NABLOPOMO is complete! Yay!

Peruna's Modern Webster Dictionary, Atlas and Hymn Book.

Here are a few of the reference books in my collection. Most of these are early 20th century, although "The Big Toast Book" is mid-century and the college handbook is from my college days which started in the 70's and ended in the 90's.


I found these two books together in a thrift store. They are very small, less than five inches high and jam packed with information. Pitfalls in English is very much what the title says. It's about the common little errors to avoid while writing or speaking the English language.
Everyday Sayings is a little history book about the common sayings of the time, for instance, "mind your p's and q's" which refers to pints and quarts being consumed at the tavern. I can cover them more in detail in another blog.



These are some of my dictionaries and encyclopedias from the early 20th century.
Also on this shelf is "The Big Toast Book". It is what it says and contains toasts for all occasions.




The Hodges/Harbrace College Handbook replaced the old Harcourt Brace or Harbrace handbooks that were considered to be the right arm of most writers. They were a must have item on any writers bookshelf, along with a good standard Webster's Dictionary and Roget's Thesaurus. None of my classes required this book, but I required it and still use it.



How can you not love this title? The book truly contains all three. I'm not at all sure WHY it contains all three, but it does. Inside the first pages are the Atlas, then some Hymn pages and then the dictionary. After the dictionary it continues with more Hymns and then some more Atlas pages. Odd combination, but overall a nice little book. When I can get someone to help me I will take a picture of the inside pages. They are brittle so I cannot do it alone. I love, love, love this book for its title alone.




I would have liked to go into more detail, but man....the blogs are just getting lame the last few days. My cafe is taking all my time. Starting a business isn't easy, you know.

Oh Gee...it's 11:03

And I haven't written my blog, yet. How about another picture blog.
How about this cookbook?
Well, it probably doesn't really classify as a cookbook because it doesn't really have any recipes in it. Hmmm...Well, it does have recipes in it, but they were all added to it. They didn't come printed in it.
I thought it was a pretty clever idea. I can't even remember where in the heck I got it. It may have been given to me or I may have gotten it at a thrift store. I have no idea.
But here it is in all it's 1950's (or maybe 60's) glory. I love the color and illustrations because it definitely defines the era. Sorry about the shadowing on the pages. I couldn't find a way to take the pictures without a shadow and the flash washed the pages out. I should have taken them in daylight. Oh well. If you click on the pictures you will be able to see them bigger.

These pages are at the back. I love the fact that it has a place for you to put the date you tried the recipe.

This is one of the recipes that I keep in the pockets. I should transfer it to one of the pages but I enjoy looking at the handwriting.  It's one of my favorite things even though I personally don't care for pumpkin pie.

Back to the books.

How can this be "Everybody's Complete Encyclopedia" ? It is approximately 5.5 inches by 7 inches and maybe 1.5 inches thick. Not very big to be a complete encyclopedia when you consider that most encyclopedias take up more than a whole bookshelf. I think even in 1937 and 1940 they had to have more information than this book could hold. So, of course, I had to buy it when I saw it. It's one of my favorite books just for the title alone.











The March of Events is a list in the front of the book that lists a few of the key things included in the book and shows the common abbreviations used. It's actually chock full of information that might have been useful at the time of printing. Of course, a lot of the information shown in this book is now obsolete. It is a great time capsule, though!





And now...I'm off to work. Going to pull a double shift today!

Books I love.

I love books. I love the smell and feel of books and love to open them and smell the inside between the pages. OK...you can call me weird if you like, but I still love books. I have a special love for old books. I'm not sure if it's the way they smell or feel or just the fact that they are great time markers. I have a small collection of old books, most of which are not valuable in a monetary sense, but all of which have caught my fancy for one reason or another and are valuable to me in what they represent. I collect children's books like the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew from the 50's. I have a small collection of early reading books or primers and other text books. I also like to collect grammar books, dictionaries and etiquette books. It's actually a lot of fun to read about the habits and requirements of society in different times. Really! Old books are like a window in time.

That being said, I've decided that I am going to share some of my favorite pieces in the collection during this month of NaBloPoMo.

I have a hard time picking just one favorite, but if I had to pick just one, this one could be it. The book I am highlighting today is the one in this picture without a spine cover. This book is in rough shape because it belonged to, and was well used by, a child. The child who used this book was my Great-Aunt Carrie. She was my mom's aunt and my grandmother's sister. I love this book because of what she added to it. The covers are (actually, were) taped together with masking tape and scotch tape that has long since disintegrated.


I love the fact that it is "Webster's Shorter School Dictionary".


Here is where she wrote her name and address.


If you look closely you can see that it was 1914 and she was in the 8th grade at 12 years old. Her teacher's name is also written on this page, along with a math problem it seems.


And here is the main reason I love this book. She has drawn a picture of their farm on the back cover. I love, love, love this little drawing. Priceless.