Lately, I've got a thing for books. I love making them, reading them, looking at them, holding them. I always have a few in my bag or purse. Usually I have a novel, a non-fiction book, a journal, a planner, and typically one or two smaller books where I jot down song lyrics, funny thoughts, and random phrases I overhear.
Storybooks I've been carrying recently: My favorite books are those I read in about 2 days. These three books may have an unfair advantage because I read them on vacation, but I gobbled them up as quickly as possible. Each book is about the struggle keep a family together despite the individual struggles of each member of the family. I'm a huge Richard Russo fan, and That Old Cape Magic had a lot of similarities with my favorite book of his, Straight Man. The Story of a Marriage takes its readers to San Francisco in the 1950s, a wonderful historical backdrop for the story of a woman who comes face-to-face with a huge secret and a huge decision. The Great Perhaps is the story of a modern family of six in Chicago, and what unfolds when each of them has their own personal meltdown.
The blank books I carry: I always have a planner/calendar with me. My current planner is the extra-large soft cover moleskin. When it's open, the page on the left has a space for each day of the week, and the right-facing page is just a lined sheet for notes. I use the lined page for my weekly to-do list. I also have a feather pocket planner from the etsy shop dozi. It's a tiny little book with each month on two pages. I use it for big-idea planning. One of my favorites is this gocco-printed mini moleskin from shoofly's etsy shop. I love that it's filled with graph paper and it's where I keep track of projects I want to try next. And I also carry around this little lime green mini moleskin that my friend, Kara, gave to me as a graduation gift. On the back inside cover she wrote, in her gorgeous handwriting: Sometimes I play a song I never heard before. The cats I like best are the cats who take chances. I keep song lyrics and quotes in that book.
Non-Story Books I Might be Carrying: I tend not to read non-fiction books all the way through. I'll read a chapter or two, move onto another book or get swept away by a novel, and then I'll come back later. Honestly, there's only so much self help one girl can handle at a time. Some of the non-fiction books in rotation lately are Eats, Shoots, and Leaves; How to be Useful; The Glass Castle; True Love (and other mindfulness books); and Craft, Inc.
What books
do you carry?
{I've decided to run a series on books over the next few days (weeks? until I run out, I guess). I'll share some of my favorite books to carry around (see above), what supplies I bring with me on trips, some easy book-binding techniques, and what inspires my favorite pages.
Feel free to use any tip or technique I share on the blog in your own work. If
you find a way to make it profitable, by all means, use it. If you really like
an idea that I've shared, I'd love a link back to my blog or the post where I
shared it; if you like lots of my ideas, consider adding me to your blogroll.
If I share something that I didn't come up with myself, I will point you to the
source; if I point you to another website or blog, please be considerate about
how others want their work attributed. If you make something super neat using
an idea from my blog, I'd love to see a photo of it! Thanks and enjoy}
