One Long Winded Post. Again.

Bellamoden's hand dyed yarn (Eunny's Endpaper Mitts pattern). That's not really a ladder up the middle, it's actually the purled side seam. Weird angle.

Here is weird lighting to offset the other picture. Gah.

Meme stolen from Book Chase, originated w/Kimbooktu.

• 1. Hardcover or paperback, and why? Both. Hardback to keep, paperback to lug around.
• 2. If I were to own a book shop, I would call it... Go Away, I'm Trying to Read. Own a bookshop? Then I'd have to do bookkeeping and ordering and keeping customers happy......although I have always wanted to own a combo bookstore, bar and yarn shop.
• 3. My favorite quote from a book (mention the title) is...tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow, creeps in this petty pace from day to day. To the last syllable of recorded time.... (looking up and lifting the full quote)
  And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
  The way to dusty death.  Out, out, brief candle!
  Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
  That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
  And then is heard no more; it is a tale
  Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
  Signifying nothing. MacBeth. I love MacBeth. Eminently quotable.
• 4. The author (alive or deceased) I would love to have lunch with would be...Alice Starmore. No wait. Wrong author. Alison Weir.
• 5. If I was going to a deserted island and could only bring one book, except for the SAS survival guide, it would be...the biggest anthology I could find.
• 6. I would love someone to invent a bookish gadget that...would hold my book open, turn the page, keep the right amount of light on it - basically I need a robot slave.
• 7. The smell of an old book reminds me of...Heaven. I mean used bookstores. Same thing.
• 8. If I could be the lead character in a book (mention the title), it would be...One book? So limiting. I'm the lead character in ALL of them. I think that's why reading is so addicting.
• 9. The most overestimated book of all times is...The Da Vinci Code? Jonathan Livingston Seagull? Anything overhyped.
• 10. I hate it when a book...is about serial killers targeting woman (a current favorite plotline it seems like) or gets really sappy or preachy.

I'm supposed to tag five other bloggers for this meme but it has really made the rounds, hasn't it? I tag Elspeth anyway, Alum Creek, hand eye crafts, Knitting in the North and On the Needles.

Shockingly, I managed to read 5 books in September, even if it did take me something like 3 weeks to finish Coyote Dreams. I do like CE Murphy's Joanne Walker series but that migraine made it hard to read and I mostly just wanted to shake her most of the book. Also read:

• Little Ice Age by Brian Fagan. Interesting and informative. Oddly enough, data they didn't expect to be able to confirm for decades in 2000 (when the book was written) seems to be cold irrefutable fact nowadays. Not that I doubt the possibility of global warming or another ice age but the certainty it's being presented in.
• Secondhand Smoke by Karin Olson - I liked Annie so much better the second time out. She's prickly but smart, that one. Not to mention a guy who looks like Frank Sinatra? Swoon. (reviewed by Musings of a Bookish Kitty)
• Winter Moon, anthology by Mercedes Lackey, Tanith Lee and CE Murphy (great backstory on Joanne's mother. Book 1.5 of the series)
• The Possiblity of an Island by Michel Houllebecq, a book that had a fascinating premise but I just couldn't take the female bashing under my current pathetic circumstances and the library wanted it back for the next hold, so it's a DNF for now, but one of these days. (reviewed on Dewey's site) Edited: Whoops, Dewey is right. Kookiejar reviewed it. Sorry Kookiejar!)
• Thunderbird Falls and Coyote Dreams by CE Murphy. Books Two & Three of Joanne Walker aka Siobhan Walkingstick. (reviewed by Stumbling Over Chaos).

Equally shockingly, the Non Fiction Five Challenge that Joy hosted ended yesterday and I actually read more than the five the challenge......uh, challenged.

1. A New World: An Epic of Colonial America From the Founding of Jamestown to the Fall of Quebec by Arthur Quinn. - fascinating look at often forgotten historical moments. The Acadians for one.
2. Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell - quirky obsession with dead presidents. Great travel guide.
3. The Unicorn's Secret: Murder in the Age of Aquarius by Steven Levy - the 60's had its share of charismatic wingnuts. The story of Ira Einhorn.
4. Richard the Third by Paul Murral Kendall - the version of what I prefer the life of Richard III to have been.
5. The Princes in the Tower by Alison Weir - more likely.
6. How to Read a Novel by John Sutherland - the man loves his novels. He made me appreciate them again, I'd been reading non fiction fairly steadily for some time.
7. Little Ice Age by Brian Fagan - (see above review)

• What was the best book you read in this challenge? The best? I enjoyed all of them, although Alison Weir's more up to date scholarship on Richard III dashed my Richard III high from PMK's book.
• What book could you have done without? Which one do I regret reading? None of them. Which one did I need to go on? None of them.
• Did you try out a new author? Yes. If so, which one, and will you be reading that author again? All but Alison Weir were new to me and sure, I'd read them again. Steven Levy has an interesting looking book out about hackers on my TBR shelves now.
• If there were books you didn't finish, tell us why. Oh, I didn't even list these. Did you run out of time? Realize those books weren't worth it? Put them in the Some Day stack, most likely.
• Did you come across a book or two on other participants' lists that you're planning to add to your own to-be-read pile? Which ones? Always. And no idea.
• What did you learn -- about anything -- through this challenge?  I can finish! If only that applied to my knitting too.
• What was the best part of the this challenge?

But, most importantly, what you should watch on TV.

Hopefully you caught Brothers & Sisters last night. (ABC Sunday at 10pm)

Monday:

• Chuck at 8pm but mostly for Adam Baldwin, of the late lamented Firefly.
• Heroes and/or Two And a Half Men/Rules of Engagement at 9pm
• Journeyman at 10pm but it might be the last week.

Oh jeez, what's on the rest of the week? I'm still not up on the schedule.

In knitterly pursuits, I'm not quite done with the Endpaper Mitts, I'm ripping along on the Curve of Pursuit blanket - I love this pattern, I'm not sure why I waited a year to cast it on, the Mountain Stream scarf is coming along (although I did have a snafu at the border naturally) and possibly I cast on a pair of Latvian mittens.

Did I finish anything? Don't be absurd.

Oh! Oh! My bad. Susoolu's largesse:

Very cool, no? I've been wanting to read Philip Pullman for awhile now, I keep hearing such good things about his books. And voila! In my library at my fingertips. And apparently it's some kind of reverse birthday gift - Happy Birthday, Susoolu!

Okay, now I know that there is suffering and anguish (too much) and there is no world peace and there are far, far more important things in this world, but everyone just wish "FINISH A FRAKKING KNIT PROJECT" thoughts at me anyway, willya? It's my only hope.