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From My Shelves: Ten Books for Creative Inspiration

Belle Wong — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 14:24:00 +0000

Thank you to Joy Weese Moll, for suggesting that I put together a list of books ideal for creative inspiration for this month’s BAND (Bloggers’ Alliance of Nonfiction Devotees) discussion of books that support goals and resolutions. It was a great idea, and I’ve had a blast this past weekend going through the books on my shelves, picking out the most creativity-inspiring books!

One of my intentions for 2012 is to be more creative – and to add a nice dose of commitment to this intention, I also signed up for the Creative Every Day challenge. I’ve been doing fairly well with this “be creative” goal of mine, but one thing I’ve discovered: it’s much easier to do something creative every day if I prepare myself for creativity.

Preparation for creativity requires two things: materials, and inspiration. It’s easy to get together the materials you need, once you’ve been inspired. So creative inspiration is key!

These are all books I pulled from my bookshelves; some of them I’ve read, some of them have been hanging around waiting (often for quite a while) for me to read them. I spent the weekend looking through a huge pile of books (I am notorious for being unable to resist these kinds of books) and ended up with this list of ten creativity-inspiring books.

1. 52 Projects: Random Acts of Everyday Creativity, by Jeff Yamaguchi

52 Projects is the companion book to the 52 Projects website. It’s worth reading through the projects because even when a project doesn’t particularly tempt you, you might find yourself coming up with appealing variations on the theme. Here’s one for book lovers (who aren’t adverse to writing in books, that is!):

Write in the margins of your books. Underline your favorite passages. Then, make sure to donate the books, or sell them to a used bookstore, to put them back into circulation.

2. Journal Bliss: Creative prompts to unleash your inner eccentric, by Violette

This glossy, colorful book is filled with ideas for your journal – if you’ve never incorporated art into your daily journal, you’ll come away with ideas for some fun things to liven up your pages. What I liked best about this book is its emphasis on doodling and drawing. I love the idea of creating my own fanciful lettering, too. And here’s something I could definitely make use of:

Start a file, box or scrapbook of flourishes and interesting doodles that you like clipped from magazines, junk mail or catalogs. Then, refer to your inspiration collection whenever you need ideas for your own doodles.

3. Caffeine for the Creative Mind: 250 Exercises to Wake Up Your Brain, by Stefan Mumaw and Wendy Lee Oldfield

This thick little paperback is beautifully designed and great for just flipping open whenever you’re in need of a bit of creative inspiration. While the book is meant for graphic designers, it’s easy to change things up and transform the design-related exercises into art or writing ones. There are lots of photography prompts, too, for those days when you just want to play around with your digital camera.

Here’s one for those who love the zombie genre:

As any sane person will tell you, there will be a time when the area we currently live in will be overrun by hordes of flesh-craving zombies. Naturally, we have all prepared for this inevitability, correct? Of course we have. The task today, in case this vital piece of preparation has eluded your usually comprehensive safety regimen, is to devise your zombie survival plan.

4. Living Out Loud: Activities to Fuel a Creative Life, by Keri Smith

Not only is this colorfully illustrated book filled with fun creative activities, there are also pages for you to write on or doodle in, game boards, fold-out pages and even sheets of stickers. It reminds me of a kid’s fun book – for adults!

Recipe Box of Secrets: Be your own research project

We are all collectors at heart. Creating a Box of Secrets gives you the chance to explore and to research things that will help you see the big picture when you need perspective.

5. The Write-Brain Workbook: 366 exercises to liberate your writing, by Bonnie Neubauer

Unlike most books of writing exercises, The Write-Brain Workbook is designed to be written in. The pages are colorful and visually appealing, and each exercise also includes a bonus exercise entitled “Take the Next Step”. While you can read through the exercises from beginning to end, it’s definitely a book to flip open to a random page and ready, set … GO! Here’s the exercise I opened the page to just now:

You are a disgruntled Tooth Fairy. You can’t understand why Santa and even the Easter Bunny get more attention than you. You just visited twins who expected $20 per tooth. Start with: “I can’t believe …”

6. The Imagineering Workout, by The Disney Imagineers

The Imagineering Workout is filled with creativity tips from members of Disney’s Imagineering team. (Even a stroll through all the job titles is fun; can you imagine being a “visioning consultant”?!) Direct from the “How to use this book” page:

The Imagineering Workout is designed for those who are interested in shaping and toning their creative muscles. It’s written from the collective practice, wit, and wisdom of over one hundred Imagineers – each creative and yet each different in their creative expression. As a result, this book is a collection of exercises, note cards, write-in cards, jotted notes, journal pages, and illustrations that capture aspects of the creative process and routines Imagineers use daily to keep their creative muscles in the best of condition.

7. The Creative License, by Danny Gregory

The Creative License is all about living a more creative life, and Danny Gregory shows you how by focusing on drawing and journaling. The book is motivating and inspiring; it reminds you, you can do it. Here’s what I know: It really doesn’t matter if you don’t know how to draw – drawing is a skill that can be learned. I know this because I didn’t know how to draw. And then one day, I decided to learn. And it was fun. And then I stopped drawing. Now I’m ready to start again. If I can learn to draw, you can too!

We’re going to start by developing one of your creative skills. It’s a skill that you had when you were small but now almost certainly think you have lost. It’s a skill that will immediately begin to stretch your mind, to transform how you see the world. It’s a skill that takes minutes to learn but a lifetime to master.

You are going to learn to draw.

Yikes! (Gulp!)

8. Creative Is A Verb: If you’re alive, you’re creative, by Patti Digh

If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you’ll know I’m in love with index cards. I use them in my writing, I use them to jot down quotes, I use them to brainstorm. In Patti Digh’s Creative Is a Verb, you journey back to your creativity with a few simple materials: a black pen, and a stack of 3X5 unlined index cards. And the Creative Challenge exercises come in two versions: word and image. So whether you’re a writer or an artist, there’ll be something in here to fill your creative well.

This is a book about waking up to the beauty around you – the beauty of seeing more and living more deeply. What emerges from that equation is art. Not Art with a capital A. That kind of Art scares me because it takes us out of the doing (writing to write, painting to paint) and right into performance, comparison, sales. I’m talking about art with no capital. The art that is your life. Artfulness that only you can create, that is uniquely, incredibly yours.

9. The Crafter’s Devotional: 365 days of tips, tricks, and techniques for unlocking your creative spirit, by Barbara R. Call

Don’t worry if you’re not very crafty; I’m not (I’m a menace around glue guns), and opening The Crafter’s Devotional at random, I came across lots of things that inspired me. Even the crafty techniques that are sprinkled throughout the book are doable – fun for creative self-challenges (although you may have to research specific techniques a bit if you’re not familiar with the process involved). And there are more than craft techniques here; you’ll also find lots of quotes, artist interviews, creativity prompts and entries that just make you think and engage.

Revisit Childhood Crafts: Today’s task should be a fun trip down memory lane. Visit your favorite craft, toy, or art store and buy a kit for a craft you used to do as a kid. It could be bead looming, a miniature potter’s wheel, paper dolls, or sequin art. It may not look exactly like you remember, and the materials may have changed, but try to find a kit that resembles something you liked as a little child.

Buy the kit, take it home, and do the craft.

10. Drawing Lab for Mixed-Media Artists : 52 creative exercises to make drawing more fun, by Carla Sonheim

This is probably the book I’ll turn to the most this year for the Creative Every Day challenge. There are a ton of creative project ideas in the drawing exercises in Drawing Lab, and best of all, your drawing skills will improve as you work your way through the book. I think this is also a great book for choosing something creative randomly. Flip it open and see what you find.

One suggestion I loved was Doodling on Steroids. You’ll need ten pre-selected drawing implements (markers, pens, pencils – anything that you can doodle with) and an audiobook (yes! an audiobook!). Here’s what you do: doodle while you’re listening to the audiobook. Don’t concentrate on what you’re doodling; focus on your audiobook. Switch your drawing tool every minute or so, making use that you use all ten of your drawing tools.

When your book or podcast is over, take some time to study your doodle drawing. You will likely learn some things about yourself, such as that you like purple or you are drawn to patterns and shapes more than to identifiable objects. These types of insights can be valuable as you endeavor to tease out your individual style.

These books are great fun to have around, and very inspiring. What titles would you recommend for living a more creative life?

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Some Thursday Random

Belle Wong — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 17:29:37 +0000

It’s been a while since I’ve written a “random stuff” post, but I woke up today to a whole pile of jumbled thoughts, so it seemed like a perfect time for random, you know?

Bookish Random

I’ve been having a blast filling my Kindle and Overdrive iPad apps with loads of interesting reads. In no particular order, here are some titles I added recently:

And the Kindle version of A Cold Day for Murder, by Dana Stabenow, the first Kate Shugak mystery, is free right now at Amazon!

Have you read any of these titles?

Drama Is The Interwebs

All I can say is, wow. People who think the world of books and reading and writing is low-key and well, boring, have never clicked on Twitter links tweeted by the bookish community.

There is a whole lot of drama out there, folks. Drama on Goodreads, drama on individual blogs, drama in tweets (although I haven’t actually caught any of that this week).

And I am pleased to continue in voyeur mode (is that the word I mean?), playing the observer and not dipping my toes in any of it!

A Pinterest Question

I’ve been wondering something. Here’s the way Pinterest plays at my house. I pin recipe links to my Muse in the Kitchen board on Pinterest, then email them to Ward. I keep my fingers crossed and lo! and behold! every so often he serves up a dish I pinned on Pinterest.

So, can I make the claim, “I made something I pinned on Pinterest”? What do you think? After all, the dish wouldn’t have ended up on the dining room table without my initial input. Right? Right???

I had a whole lot more random in my mind when I first started writing this post, but such is my memory, I’ve forgotten most of it. Maybe I should tell you about the dream I had this morning, where I found myself back in university again? Nah, I thought not.

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Pinning My TBR (And Other Fun Bookish Ways to Use Pinterest)

Belle Wong — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 14:05:00 +0000

I fell in love with Pinterest a few months ago, and have been madly pinning away ever since. In addition to lots of other, non-bookish things, I have a board called Bookish Things where I pin all the awesome bookish stuff that delights my little bibliophile heart.

But recently, I’ve discovered a few more fun bookish ways to use Pinterest. My favourite so far? Pinning my TBR!

Check out my board, The Ever-expanding TBR Pile. Isn’t it a great little bookish board? What I love is being able to see my to-read list visually. It’s SO beautiful!

And best of all, I pin a lot of books directly from my favourite book bloggers’ review posts – this means when I write about the books I’m reading or have read, I can link directly to those who are to blame for adding to my TBR pile the reviews which persuaded me to add the book to my to-read list. I’ve tried many ways in the past to keep track of who recommended what, as I like to give credit where credit is due; pinning my TBR pile does this fabulously for me.

I also have a Pinterest board for books read (or currently reading) in 2012. It’s on the sparse side right now, but just being able to pin a book on my board once I’m done is proving to be very motivating when it comes to my reading goal.

And just yesterday, I started boards for Rave-Worthy Reads and Comfort Reads. I’ve only pinned a few books so far, but it’s been fun thinking about what books I’ve loved in the past few years, and what books qualify as comfort reads for me.

Bottom line? I think Pinterest is such a great way to spread the news about great books!

What about you? Do you use Pinterest for bookish pinning?

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My Mid-January Goals Update

Belle Wong — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 16:26:37 +0000

One of the perks of blogging is the truly awesome accountability tool it can be. It’s mid-January already (four days past the mid-point, actually) so what better way to motivate myself goal-wise than post this little update?

So how have I been doing with all my new year goals? Well …

This week has actually been the first week I’ve found myself in sync with my daily goals. The first week of January was virtually a write-off – but then again, I knew it would be, and my expectations weren’t high. The second week turned out to be a little busier than I’d expected, with some new deadlines turning up on my desk that I hadn’t anticipated.

This week, though, has been great. The kind of week that had me saying, “Ah, this is the life …”

So, excuses aside, here’s how I’ve been shaping up with my daily and weekly goals:

The Dailys

1. Read. I finally got my Toronto Public Library library card last week, and to say I felt like a kid in a candy store as I ambled through TPL’s ebook site is no exaggeration.

So, after a rough start at the very beginning of the new year, I’ve been doing quite well with my daily “Read” goal; I’ve just finished Alan Bradley’s The Weed That Strings the Hangman’s Bag – a book I’ve been meaning to read for quite a while now – and I have quite a few more books waiting for me on my iPad.

2. Write. I’ve discovered something about myself: the hard part for me isn’t the actual doing, it’s the “getting to it”. I’m just so skilled at procrastination, it’s quite amazing. But if I can get myself to actually sit down and start something, it’s actually kind of hard to tear myself away.

That’s what’s been happening with my writing. My first project of the year is revising and editing my mystery WIP, 120,000 words of which have been sitting on my hard drive, gathering dust, for the past four years. I’m implementing the index card method for all of my WIPs this year, so the first step was to go through my draft and get all the scenes down in index cards. I finally finished this task last night, and I’m now looking at a stack of 98 cards that contains the bones of what I’ve written so far.

Next up: filling in the gaps. I’ll be brainstorming more index cards, as there were quite a few gaps that needed to be filled. Also, I realized I needed more suspects; it’s not so much that it’s clear whodunnit. It’s more like it doesn’t seem likely that anyone did it, and as a reader, I enjoy mysteries the most when there are a lot of possibilities, rather than none at all. So I’ll be adding in my red herrings the remainder of this week!

3. Create. I did well initially with this goal. Participating in the Creative Every Day challenge was a great motivator. But then my intentions went a little wayward in the second week of the month. This week, though, I’m back on track.

Here’s what I’ve discovered: since I’ve been in a habit of letting my creative side slide the past three or four years, in order to create a new habit of being creative every day, I need to prepare to be creative.

It sounds a little counterintuitive – after all, isn’t creativity supposed to be spontaneous? Well, not necessarily. And what’s been working for me is putting together a concrete list of creative projects, and prepping the materials for them so they’re within easy reach.

I’ve been having the most fun with the Secondary Character Bank I’ve been creating. Since I’m not counting my writing as part of my Creative Every Day challenge, it’s a great way to incorporate a writing-related activity into the challenge. And I’m finding it’s also a juicy source of inspiration for more stories!

4. Meditate. I can give myself a prize for this one! I’ve been very good with my Meditate goal, although most days I only meditated for about ten minutes. But ten minutes is far better than no minutes, right? Plus, this week I’ve been aiming for 15-20 minutes. Small steps really do gain momentum!

The Weeklys

My weekly goals right now are: blogging, exercising and experiencing. (Given the flexibility of my DIY Moleskine planner, I’ll likely be adding and deleting from these weekly goals.)

So far I’ve met the blogging one (yay!). I’ve totally sucked with the exercising one (which started out the new year as a daily goal, so you can see how far I’ve tumbled with this one). And I’ve really been doing well with the experiencing one.

By “experience”, all I mean is getting outside and doing stuff. During all those years I spent in the suburbs, I rarely ventured outside unless it was to drive to the grocery store or the mall or Costco. I didn’t walk much at all; everything was always a drive away, and as for the neighbourhood, well, you can only walk around the block a few times before the scenery of house after house after house gets a bit boring.

But I’ve been getting out quite a lot the past few weeks, and what I’ve been loving is how so many things are within walking distance!

On Tuesday, as part of a homeschooling event for our youngest, Dylan, we attended one of the Free Noon-hour Concert Series programmes at Roy Thomson Hall: the Bach Children’s Chorus. It was simply beautiful, and the bonus was being able to walk home from the concert!

So that’s my mid-January update. How have you been doing with your 2012 goals and resolutions?

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I’m Reading: Zombies, Gaming and Legal Shenanigans

Belle Wong — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 16:52:56 +0000

Last year was so busy and so chaotic, I really fell behind on my fiction reading, and when I don’t read, I find I’m not as creative as I can be. The ideas don’t come as quickly, and I don’t write as much. I play a lot less and when it comes to doing artful little things, I never seem to have the time.

This year, I’m changing things around in my life. I’ve come to realize that I need to make the things I want to do a priority. Reading is high on my list, and so it’s one of my four daily intentions (the other three are writing, meditating and creating).

How did I do last week? Not very well, I’m afraid. Not just with the reading, but with each of my other three intentions. But that’s okay. I had the last of the deadlines from my busy work season last week, so it was understandable.

On Monday, I logged onto my library’s ebook lending site, and had a field day. Here’s what I’ve been reading this week:

Z, by Michael Thomas Ford, is a YA zombie book. I haven’t read very many zombie books, despite the recent zombie-book-craze; as far as I’m concerned, Justin Cronin’s The Passage set the zombie-book bar quite high. But I decided to give Z a try, as it looked like an interesting, quick read, especially since I like books about gamers and gaming:

The First Rule of Torching: Cleanse with fire.

Josh is by far the best zombie Torcher around—at least, he is in his virtual-reality zombie-hunting game. Josh has quickly risen through the player ranks, relying on the skill, cunning, and agility of a real Torcher.

The Second Rule of Torching: Save all humans.

But luckily for Josh, zombies exist only in the virtual world. The real zombie war is now more than fifteen years in the past, and the battle to defeat the deadly epidemic that devastated his family—and millions of others—is the stuff of history lessons.

The Third Rule of Torching: You can’t bring them back.

Charlie is the top-ranked player in the game. Since all the players are shrouded in anonymity, Josh never expects Charlie to be a girl—and he never expects the offer she makes him: to join the underground gaming league that takes the virtual-reality game off the screen and into the streets. Josh is thrilled. But the more involved he gets, the more he realizes that not everything is what it seems. Real blood is spilling, members of the team are disappearing, and the zombies in the game are acting strange. And then there’s the matter of a mysterious drug called Z. . . .

I finished Z last night. An interesting book with an interesting premise. I found the action towards the end a little bit too fast-paced, but for a young reader who’s interested in zombies and gaming, there’s enough thrills and chills to keep those pages turning.

The Lincoln Lawyer, by Michael Connelly. Confession: this is my first Michael Connelly book. It’s been on my to-read list since forever, or so it seems, so when it showed up as available at my library’s ebook site, I grabbed it.

How am I liking it so far? Very enjoyable. I’m only at the beginning, but I’m already very intrigued by lawyer Mickey Haller.

For defense attorney Mickey Haller, the clock is always running. With two ex-wives, four Lincoln Town Cars that he uses as offices, and dozens of guilty clients, he can’t afford to miss a trick. When he gets picked by a Beverly Hills rich boy arrested for assault, Mickey sees a franchise case: a nice, long, expensive trial with maximum billable hours–until it hurtles him into the last place he wants to be. Suddenly hustling, cynical Mickey Haller is confronted with pure evil and someone who may be truly innocent. Now, for a lawyer who has always gone for the easy score, getting justice means taking the deadliest risk of all.

Ready Player One, by Ernest Cline, narrated by Wil Wheaton. Yes, just call me a crowd follower – everyone was raving about this book last year, so I decided to spend an Audible credit on it. After all, Wil Wheaton’s the narrator! Plus, it’s a book about gaming. How could I resist? Have I mentioned, I love books about gamers and gaming?

I started chapter one last night, and despite feeling quite sleepy, I was enthralled from the very beginning. I listened for as long as I could before the call of sleep proved to be too much for me. I will definitely have to find some wakeful time for listening to the rest of Ready Player One!

It’s the year 2044, and the real world is an ugly place.

Like most of humanity, Wade Watts escapes his grim surroundings by spending his waking hours jacked into the OASIS, a sprawling virtual utopia that lets you be anything you want to be, a place where you can live and play and fall in love on any of ten thousand planets.

And like most of humanity, Wade dreams of being the one to discover the ultimate lottery ticket that lies concealed within this virtual world. For somewhere inside this giant networked playground, OASIS creator James Halliday has hidden a series of fiendish puzzles that will yield massive fortune—and remarkable power—to whoever can unlock them.

For years, millions have struggled fruitlessly to attain this prize, knowing only that Halliday’s riddles are based in the pop culture he loved—that of the late twentieth century. And for years, millions have found in this quest another means of escape, retreating into happy, obsessive study of Halliday’s icons. Like many of his contemporaries, Wade is as comfortable debating the finer points of John Hughes’s oeuvre, playing Pac-Man, or reciting Devo lyrics as he is scrounging power to run his OASIS rig.

And then Wade stumbles upon the first puzzle.

Suddenly the whole world is watching, and thousands of competitors join the hunt—among them certain powerful players who are willing to commit very real murder to beat Wade to this prize. Now the only way for Wade to survive and preserve everything he knows is to win. But to do so, he may have to leave behind his oh-so-perfect virtual existence and face up to life—and love—in the real world he’s always been so desperate to escape.

A world at stake.

A quest for the ultimate prize.

Are you ready?

So this is what I’ve been doing reading-wise so far this year. What about you? What books have you picked up to start the new year off?

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A Harry Potter Christmas!

Belle Wong — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 17:40:01 +0000

Happy holidays, everyone! I’m still in the middle of festive celebrations, as we have some family “dos” scheduled this week. And then, of course, there’s New Year’s, although Ward and I have been so busy, we haven’t actually figured out what we’re going to be doing on New Year’s Eve.

My Christmas Day was all about Harry Potter, because this is what I found under the tree:

I’d had this book on my wishlist since I first heard about it (I think it was on Twitter), but it was one of those “yeah, maybe one of these days” kind of things – after all the decluttering book-wise we’ve done this year, I felt strange about forking over such big bucks for a big coffee table type of book. But Ward decided to pick it up for me for Christmas, and am I ever glad he did!

I spent most of Christmas Day curled up on the couch devouring Harry Potter Page to Screen: The Complete Filmmaking Journey. It’s one of those books where, when you come up for air, you say to yourself, “And a wonderful time was had by all.” (Well, at least, that’s what I usually say to myself when I find myself immersed in a really good read.)

The parts I like best? The occasional mentions of J.K. Rowling’s contributions to the filming process, like this bit about the Black family tree:

“Within the house is a tapestry that reveals the entire history of the Black family. The tapestry is mentioned only briefly in the book but needed to be fully constructed for the film. So David Heyman called Jo Rowling to get details about the Black family tree. Within fifteen minutes, she faxed him a complete family tree for the house of Black, with over seventy-five names going back over five generations, all complete with dates of births and deaths, marriage details, and even the family crest and motto.”

It really dawned on me after reading this, how Rowling did more than simply write the Harry Potter books. She also created extremely detailed material about all aspects of Harry Potter’s world, and even though these details might show up in the series in brief mentions, or perhaps not at all, they clearly infuse the books with a realism that plays no small role in their appeal.

Know what I would love to see? A volume devoted to all of this supplementary material. Wouldn’t that be just a lovely peak inside the creative process of this very extraordinary writer?

Ward also got me the final movie in the Harry Potter series; when it came out this year, I went to the theatres to see it twice. I think it’s one of my favourites in the entire series. I haven’t had a chance to watch it again yet, as Christmas Day was given over to the reading of Harry Potter Page to Screen, and then right after Christmas, I had to dig deep into my deadlines again, but I’m definitely looking forward to it.

How were your holidays? What bookish delights did you find under your tree?

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You Know You’re a Big Fantasy Reader When …

Belle Wong — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 13:16:00 +0000

One of Ward’s students invited him to a guy’s movie night on the weekend. Ward has been to this student’s house quite a few times before, but that night I received a call from him, asking me to look up the student’s address in his records.

So I did. And then I asked, “Did you forget where he lives?”

And he said, “No, I remembered. I’m there right now.”

And I said, “Why, is the house not there anymore?”

The thing is, I said this in all seriousness. It was the first thing that popped into my mind.

Yes, it’s true. My first thought was that the house must have disappeared. Into thin air.

I didn’t even see the weirdness of this. My husband laughed when I said it. I think he thought I was joking.

But I wasn’t.

So there you go. Now you know I’m a big fantasy reader.

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Fantasy Road Trip: Libba Bray’s Gemma Doyle Trilogy

This is the Difficult Part

Belle Wong — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 23:13:59 +0000

So Ward’s home from Okinawa now, and almost all rested from his jetlag.

Which means it’s time to start:

1. Packing the things we’ll be moving with us.

2. Listing things on Craigslist and Kijiji.

3. Giving things away.

4. Getting things ready for storage.

And it also means …

tackling the difficult part. Meaning, this:

These are the bookshelves in our living room. They are packed to the brim with mostly non-fiction books (the bookcase on the far right holds fiction).

Some of these books have been with me for nearly twenty years. There are plays, art books, essay collections, biographies and memoirs, garden writing books, food writing books, new age books, quantum physics and math books … and many, many more.

I’m not sure how I’ll hold up, sorting through the titles and deciding what to take with us, what to give away, what to store.

It will be hard.

My husband has his own dilemma:

These are his cookbook shelves. He ran out of room earlier this year, so he’s also started another collection in a smaller bookcase to the right of this one.

And then there are these – my To-Be-Read bookcases. Yes, I have two of them.

These two bookcases are also problematic because, well, obviously I haven’t read the books they hold yet – and I still want to!

I also have another three full bookcases in my office, filled with writing and reference books (I’m not showing you a picture because that part of the office is unbelievably messy and I don’t think you’d be able to see the books through the stacks of paper piled in front of the bookcases).

All of this – after I’d already sorted through several bookshelves full of books earlier this year. At the end of that first round, I ended up giving away about 20 boxes of books, packed nine for storage and four to take with us.

I thought that was painful. It did take care of all the bookcases upstairs.

This is the downstairs. And just like before, it’s going to be really, really difficult.

My only consolation is – ebooks! I did find it easier to give away my books earlier this year, knowing that eventually, if I want them back, I can order them in ebook format. Much easier to store, ebooks.

But still …

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Some Bookish Television

Belle Wong — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 18:18:34 +0000

Ward’s away on his trip to Okinawa, and if anyone had asked what I would be doing while he was away, I would have said, “Why, reading, of course.”

I even stocked up on a few audiobooks: Gambit, by Rex Stout (a reread), A Trick of the Light, by Louise Penny (I’ve been SO looking forward to this new Inspector Gamache mystery) and Outlander, by Diana Gibaldon (another reread, and an unexpected purchase – Audible had it on sale for two days for $4.95 so I snapped it up).

(Nothing in print or ebook, though – I also have a handful of deadlines coming due this week, and I find that when I spend my days staring at PDF proofs, I don’t feel much like staring at a page when I’m done for the day.)

I did get into Gambit – I find both Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot and Stout’s Nero Wolfe to be excellent companions during kitchen clean-up time.

But surprisingly, I’ve been watching TV series at night!

I’m not really one for television or movies, although when I sit down to watch something, I do usually enjoy it. We made the decision back when my two older kids were young to not do the cable or satellite thing; television time for us meant DVDs and VHS, and nowadays, a lot of online content, too.

The weekend started out, strangely enough, with X Factor auditions on YouTube. Earlier this year my daughter introduced me to The X Factor – we followed along on YouTube – and I really enjoyed them. The new season has just started, and the auditions are actually my favourite part of the series.

Once I’d watched the latest batch of auditions, though, I found myself wanting to watch other things. (This is probably how television addiction starts …)

So I fired up Netflix, something I almost never do. Netflix is Ward’s territory – he loves being able to watch all those reality cooking shows, and of course his action/adventure movies and chick flicks (which he enjoys even more than I do).

Guess what I found on Netflix? BBC’s Inspector Lynley series! I’m a fan of Elizabeth George’s Lynley books, and I ended up watching all four episodes of the show that Netflix had on offer.

And that’s when my eye was caught by Sherlock, also from the BBC. I remembered, vaguely, some Twitter conversation I’d seen last year about this series and how good it was. So last night, I watched the first two episodes.

Sherlock (Photo credit)

Wow. I loved it! The whole idea of Sherlock Holmes and John Watson solving modern-day crimes is so much fun. I found both the characters and the mysteries very enjoyable.

On tonight’s agenda? More Sherlock – there are two is one more episodes episode right now on Netflix. And I’m hoping Netflix will be adding new episodes soon after they get broadcast. (Netflix for Canada doesn’t have quite the selection that Netflix in the States has, unfortunately).

What am I planning to watch after I finish the two one remaining episodes episode? Miss Marple, of course!

Can you tell? I’m really enjoying my bookish TV.

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My Audiobooks-Only iPod!

Belle Wong — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 17:04:55 +0000

I’m normally a very difficult person to buy a gift for. The only things I ever seem to want are books, more books, a few more books, soaps and tech-y gadgets. The problem with books and soaps are, within those broad ranges, I’m very picky. I only like certain types of books. I only like certain types of soaps.

And of course, the problem with the tech-y gadgets: usually they’re too expensive for anyone other than my husband to get me. Not to mention, once I have one, I don’t exactly need another one, do I?

Earlier this year, though, my trusty old iPod broke on me. It was at least five years old, and had seen a lot of use. I was grateful for all the listening pleasure it had given me over the years, and was sad to see it go.

But I figured I’d be okay without it, though. I’m never far from my iPhone, so wouldn’t the ideal solution be to upload my current audiobook listen to my iPhone?

Problem is, I’m an app-happy kind of person. I love my iPhone apps, and one of the pleasures of my life is browsing through the app store finding more apps to try out.

More apps = less memory. I figured out pretty quickly that I’d only have room for a handful of audiobooks at any given time on my iPhone.

For the past few months, I’ve done a lot of deleting and uploading and deleting and uploading. Some nights, I absolutely have to listen to Hugh Fraser’s soothing narration of an Agatha Christie novel. And call me lazy, but it irked me to have to run down to my computer and load one to my iPhone. Took all the spontaneous pleasure out of the whole thing.

So for my birthday yesterday, I asked for, and got, a new iPod with a humungous amount of memory – and while I’m going to keep my songs on my iPhone, I am dedicating this new iPod to audiobooks only!

(Yes, if you’re hearing music right now, it’s the sound of my bookish heart singing …)

Right now, I’m having fun making up playlists, sorting my audiobook collection by author name, and by genre.

I am definitely a book nerd to the core!

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