Yellow Dog/Bleeding Heart

This week's damage: Bad Dog , a Buddhist memoir A Lover's Discourse and The Pleasure of the Text , both by Roland Barthes, whom I have recently discovered and think I may be in love with. A couple of fairly recent Chomsky tomes The stuff of Thought , by Steven Pinker All of the above are currently in some stage of being read by me. For reference I also bought a Harvard Press text on Sociolinguistics and two other linguistics reference books. Grad school is really going to be hell on my budget, but will result in an expanded (albeit very nerdy) library!

I just finished reading Susan Nash's I Never Did Tell You Did I? It's an interesting glimpse into the life of a woman just trying to deal with life. I have had the pleasure of taking classes from Dr. Nash and she is an awesome instructor whose passion for writing inspires. Do board books count even though I am old? I just added two adorable board books to my collection: The Story of Rosa Parks and the The Story of Martin Luther King, Jr . I'm not really sure why they chose the board book format, as the stories are written for about kindergarten level, but they do offer a concise biography of the subjects. Tonight in Barnes & Noble I found a first edition of Irving's latest novel, Until I find You, on the clearance table for five bucks! That made me really happy, as it completed (to date) my Irving collection. Well, sort of. I refuse to acknowledge Son of the Circus, which reamins the only book that ever bested me. I absolutely could not stand it enough to read e...

Well, I am skipping over The Agony and the Ecstacy because Brad Warner just turned me on to another book titled Thank You and Okay . It's a bit dated, but is about an American man's experience living in Japan and in a Buddhist monastery. I also went to Border's last night and did serious damage to the bank account. Little Dog got 5 new mangas and I got the new issues of Mothering and Bust . I also got a huge book on Russian cooking (and culture); picked up a hardback copy of The Elements of Style to replace my worn out paperback from college; and bought the most currently revised edition of A Child is Born . In addition to these I purchased Your Life Buttoned Up from Life.doc. The inner obsessive compulsive in me loves organisational books like this! I only hope to find the time to actually make it work for me. See, this is why I have to avoid bookstores. Books are my crack. I have about five heavy texts I need to be studying for school instead of reading fem/hippie ma...

In an effort to keep track of all the books I read in 2008 I am going to at least list them here as I finish them. Thus far I have (re)read Little House on the Prairie – my favourite book as a child! It is one of the few that I reread every year just for old times sake. From the ages of 7 through 12 I wanted to be Laura Ingalls and to live on the prairie. That's right. Me - the city gal who now freaks any time a wall socket is not clearly accessible. Laugh all you want, but if only the Amish had been a bit more inviting on those summer family trips of my childhood I would have stayed with them. I could have had 14 kids and instead of writing in this blog right now I'd be canning! Beets even! But alas, the Yoder farm only sold us eggs and baked goods and never invited me to stay, so here I remain, all "of the world." Also read: More than Noise: The Philosophy of Punk (take that Amish!) by Craig O’Hara. It was a Christmas gift from Bojo. Thanks Bojo! Next up: The Ago...

Maybe it's the ice storms we've been having. Maybe it's the new year. Maybe it's the break between semesters at school. All I know is that I have been doing more this month than I have in a long time. I've been cooking like crazy, catching up on my reading, cleaning out the house and generally thinking a lot. What I've cooked this week: Chocolate chip cookies, homemade broccoli cheddar soup, Italian chicken with wild rice, a creme cheese coffee cake, my incredible Reuben sandwiches, spinach quiche, pumpkin cookies and a huge Mexican feast including fajitas. Books I've read so far this year (with opinions ) : Good Body , by Eve Ensler ( not as good a Vagina Monologues), Horse Play , by someone whose name I can't remember (An amusing quick mindless fiction read.) How it All Vegan and The Garden of Vegan , both by Tanya Barnard & Sarah Kramer (Cool gals who are really really into the vegan way of life. I didn't read every single recipe, b...

Bookshelves! No, I am not here to talk about my boobs, although there is plenty to talk about there. No, I am here to talk about my big bookshelves, which, unlike my big boobs, I want you to ogle. I want you to ask me about them. I want you to get closer and fondle the spines and even pull out a text that interests you. I would be extremely flattered if you even drooled a little bit. See, books are a pretty integral part of my life and I think they should be a large part of yours also. I am firmly of the camp that believes you can find anything you need to know in a book. Remember that scene in Richard Bach's The Bridge Across Forever when he found out he was a millionaire since the publication of Jonathan Livingston Seagull ? The first thing he does is go to a library and look for a book about how to be rich. Likewise, the minute I become intrigued by a new idea or hear about something that piques my interest I am online looking up relevant texts about it. As such, you can tell ...

Little Dog Shoes: Chuck's. Baby Toys: Little Tikes. I even wrote them a fan letter when Little Dog was an infant. Cars: I'm Nissan/Honda loyal. Airline: American. Period. Electronics: JVC. My first VCR lasted over 10 years and never needed a repair. Soap: Dial. White. Tools: Craftsman. Even my garden hose. Department Store: Target. I absolutely Luuuuuuurve Target. Read the book, On Target for the whole story. Newspaper: The New York Times. I've never met a local paper I liked.