Tuesday Twaddle - Casual Twaddle

This is going to be more casual than the typical weekly post because I don't feel like confining myself to format. In fact, the weather has been so unusually nice (cool, autumn-like) that I didn't feel like sitting at the computer at all, yesterday. Cooler weather energizes me. Too bad it's supposed to climb back up to the mid-90s, soon.

Sterling Children's books actually saved me from an otherwise blog-hating day, yesterday. Every now and then, I think, "So, why am I doing this?" and I have to remind myself that the purpose is to keep a record of the books I've read, not to review for publishers or authors, but to allow myself a place to chatter -- and that it's okay if I don't happen to feel like sitting down to write about books. I felt like that, yesterday, then a package of monster books arrived on my doorstep. Wow, did that change my mood!

I had a private monster party, sitting on the couch, reading aloud to the cats and to myself (because you have to read children's books aloud or you won't know if they're good for reading to children, when none are available). And, while I was in the midst of Dining with Monsters, Huzzybuns called. I said, "Hello," and then read him the page I was on. Because he's been married to me forever, he laughed rather than asking me what on earth that was all about.

Arrivals:

• Dining with Monsters by Agnese Baruzzi
• The Color Monster: A Pop-Up Book of Feelings by Anna Llenas
• Monster Trouble! by Lane Fredrickson and Michael Robertson
• Mind Your Monsters by Catherine Bailey and Oriol Vidal, all from Sterling Children's Books for review

A box of purchases also arrived from Book Closeouts or whatever it is they call themselves, now (the latest name change just does not work for me):

• Mud, Sweat, and Tears by Bear Grylls
• A Street Cat Named Bob by James Bowen
• The Dream by Harry Bernstein

I'm on p. 89 of Mud, Sweat and Tears. I've wanted to read Bear Grylls' memoir for quite some time, so I dived right in, but mostly as a break from the string of stories in Let Me Tell You by Shirley Jackson (a library checkout). And, I only spent one night reading Mud, Sweat, and Tears before becoming so immersed in the Jackson that I couldn't bear to leave it.

Last week, I only finished one book: Ross Poldark by Winston Graham. I loved being in the Poldark world so much that it was hard leaving. I'm saving Demelza till I finish some other books I have ahead of it in the mental queue, but I admit to looking at Demelza on my nightstand longingly, every night.

I can't recall when exactly I finished The World According to Bob and I don't feel like fetching my calendar or pulling up past posts, but it was the second of the books about Bob and his formerly homeless owner, James Bowen. A Street Cat Named Bob is the first of the Bob books and I enjoyed World but wanted to read the first book, as well, hence the order placed while I was still reading the second book. The Dream is an immigrant memoir that takes place at least partly during the Great Depression. It was one of several books I left sitting in my cart at . . . okay, it's Book Outlet, now. I just looked at the bookmark. I ditched the rest of the books in my outlet cart. Sometimes, I'll just throw a bunch of books in a cart and leave them there to avoid having to look up a particular subject, all over again, but I seldom end up buying everything I've tossed into the cart. Leaving books in the cart is just a time-saving method.

TL;DR version:

1. I only managed to finish one book, last week: Ross Poldark.
2. I'm almost finished with Let Me Tell You by Shirley Jackson, which is due back at the library today.
3. New favorite essay, by Shirley Jackson, is "Good Old House".
4. I read a little of Mud, Sweat, and Tears by Bear Grylls when I needed a break from Shirley.
5. I didn't feel like blogging, yesterday.
6. A pile of monster books arrived and I had so much fun reading them (and showing favorite monster pop-ups to the spouse) that I became monstrously annoying. 
7. It's been cool outside but it won't last.

In other news, I got some inexpensive extension tubes for my camera and I've been having loads of fun taking closeups of apples, flowers, cat eyeballs and poppets.

Also, Izzy is doing great and still going out of her way to show how cute she is.

And, that rug has got to go. Both husband and I have decided we went from enjoying the bold colors to hating it, this past year. The cats think it's a scratching pad so it's also not in the best of shape. I had to touch the image up a bit.

How was your week?

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