maybe next time

Dreamers of the Day, by Mary Doria Russell
The problem with Russell having written The Sparrow, which was violent and transformative and heartbreaking and which I loved, is that I keep wanting her to write something that overpowering again. And, well, this isn't it either. Solidly entertaining novel (mostly) about a woman going to Egypt on the periphery of the Cairo Conference. Endearing characters, moral complexity, juicy factoids. But I was never once surprised.
(253/250)

good things I ate today

1) chips with bacon and sour cream AND cheddar cheese
2) lamb stew
3) chocolate with raspberry syrup


PS I finally have passport photos.

not working retail really DOES make me more obnoxiously Christmassy

Christmas music snippet:

Love shall be our token,
Love be yours and love be mine,
Love to guide and guard us,
Love for plea and gift and sign.
(Christina Rossetti, slightly mondegreened because I like mine better.)

book meme that heyoka made, possibly on accident

How many of your books do you part with after reading? (Other than books which were dreadful.)
Maybe about a third? Eventually.

What makes you keep or discard a book?
Keep: i) it was a gift; ii) I love this book and I plan on maybe rereading it someday and either a) no one other than me will appreciate its full glory or b) it's so darn good that if I want to give it out, I will buy more copies.

Do you ever purge your shelves? Does that only happen when you move to another country?
I don't purge so much as I keep stacks. There is a stack of "crap that was fun but it can either go to someone or be given to library or who the hell cares, I might even eventually throw it away" and a stack of "this would definitely be good to give so-and-so next time I see them or mail them stuff". Every so often these stacks get towering and I try to clear them up, one way or another. Sometimes I end up keeping stuff from the stacks though. It's a gradual process. The one time I moved to another country, I actually only owned about 4 small shelves of books, and I gave a few away but mostly kept them. Out of 11 boxes mailed in total, everything I owned at the time, I think at least 4 were books.

Is there anything weird about having a large-ish personal library?
Yes. But it's the delightful and extraordinary and YAY YAY YAY kind of weird. Umberto Eco, when asked how many of his thousands of books he'd read, is said to have replied, "Why, almost none. It's a working library, isn't it?"

Do you re-read the books you have? Often?
Yes, some of them quite often and some of them only once or twice. Kids' books get reread most.

Is it freakish and self-indulgent to have entire rooms shelved with tasty, tasty text?
If decorating with books is freakish, let me never never never stop being a freak.

Do you head straight for the shelves when you visit someone's house for the first time, to find out who they really are? And are you slightly alarmed when you find yourself in a bookless house?
Absolutely, to both. And my favorite houses have lots of books and permissive owners who don't mind me getting absorbed in them.