This hit me like a death in my own family, and I wasn't sure what I wanted to say about it. Then I read the ending quote in this article and realized that she had explained part of why I cared for her and her books so deeply. Thank you Madeleine.
]]>“Why does anybody tell a story? It does indeed have something to do with faith, faith that the universe has meaning, that our little human lives are not irrelevant, that what we choose or say or do matters, matters cosmically.” - Madeleine L'Engle
We realized last night that we have a fairly large Amazon gift certificate from Christmas that we never used. It's like finding a dollar in your coat pocket but on a bigger scale, so we've been practically giddy with all the possibilities.
Both of us have been going through our wish lists and finding items that make us scratch our heads. "Why did that sound interesting?" Then we look at the other books added the same day, and we realize that was the day we read the NPR list of summer reading picks or the week we were obsessed with some particular topic like Nancy Drew or The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.
Having been through this pruning cycle more times than I can count, I know some of those books will probably make their way back to the lists in the future. Eventually, they'll come back often enough that we'll end up buying them. It's fun to see the ebb and flow of our lives laid out so plainly in the books we find interesting.
People always say they're willing to die for the ones they love, as if nothing else they could do would be so hard. But it is harder to keep living for someone else, doing everything in your power to keep that person safe and breathing. I know. All these past weeks I have been living for my sister and her son, battling everyone else in the world, or so it seems, to keep Annie and Kinnon alive. I have defied my father, broken my mother's heart, traveled in secret, gone without sleep, gone without food, and hidden from violent strangers trying to kill all of us because of the magic in Kinnon's veins.
Most days it would be easier to be dead.
"When Winter Comes" seems to be set in the same world as the Shinn series that begins with Mystic and Rider, and I enjoyed this novella enough that I'll probably pick that up as well. Those sneaky writers keep pulling me in! ;) I read the Samaria trilogy by Shinn years ago and loved them, but for some reason, I haven't kept up with her more recent work.
Well, the not-so-good fanfic mentioned in my last post was really the ending. Bah. Still didn't like it, but the rest of the book was fairly good. I'm keeping this a spoiler-free zone for a bit longer, so that's all for now. :)
]]>Other Harry Potter fans are probably a little smarter about this than I am, but just in case, I suggest that you not read any Harry Potter fanfic from new sources for the next few days. My cousin emailed me a link to a "great new fanfic", and it was not great. It also had a little note at the end that what I'd read was actually the epilogue from the end of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Lovely.
My cousin claims she actually didn't read the story and just forwarded the email to me, but the email didn't look forwarded, so that's strange. And if I'm really spoiled, then I'm irritated as heck, and I'm now tempted to check the last page just to see if I really was spoiled, which irritates me too. (I'm not going to do that, but the temptation is still there.)
I know there are photos of the book pages supposedly floating around, so I guess it's possible that someone typed up the ending and disguised it as fanfic, but what I read is not what I want the official ending to be. It was just too wrapped up, and that's all I'm going to say because I don't want to inadvertently spoil someone in case I was really spoiled myself.
Maybe it's silly that this is coloring my mood so much, but I'm not as excited about getting my book now as I was. Whoever put that "fanfic" up stinks whether it's really the ending or not.
Kristine shared a library meme a few days ago, and I've had it on my list of things I want to do since I read it. Yay libraries!
1. How old were you when you got your first library card?
My mom loves to tell this story for some reason, so I guess this is for her. My family went to the library at least once a week, and I got it in my head when I was four years old that I needed to have a library card of my own. I asked the librarian at our local library, which was a small country library that was absolutely wonderful with the most awesome librarians, how I could get my own library card. She told me that I needed to be able to write my name on the little paper card.
I could write parts of my name but it was in that big scrawl that kids have, and that wouldn't fit on the library card. I went back to my mom and told her that I was going to get my library card the next time we were at the library. Over the next few days, she and my dad must have helped me write my name hundreds of times, and each time, it got a little clearer and a little smaller. And I did get my own library card the next week.
It ended up being a little embarrassing because the librarians put up a little display with my photo as the youngest person in the county with a library card. (I did mention that it was a tiny little country library, right? LOL) I probably still have that little yellow card in my one of my keepsake boxes at my parents' house.
2. What’s the first book you can remember reading from a library?
Wow, I honestly don't know. I was really into kids' books from the 1940s and 50s for a while like the Betsy, Tacy, and Tib books by Maud Hart Lovelace that Kristine mentioned along with the Eddie and Betsy books by Carolyn Haywood and the Borrowers series by Mary Norton. I loved series (and still do) because I liked going back and seeing all my friends again, and I probably got hooked on older books because my library had a lot of those.
3. Did you ever participate in a summer reading program or other kids’ event at a library growing up?
Of course! I participated every summer I was eligible. We had a limit of 20 books per person out at a time, and I was checking out and reading 20 every week, which made some people think I was lying to get to the top of the list of participants, which really upset me, so then I really did start lying and halved my weekly totals. The librarians caught on to what I was doing and were so sweet in talking with me and letting me know that they knew I really was reading those books and that it wasn't anything I needed to be worried about.
4. Do you remember when card catalogues weren’t computerized?
Yep! Sometimes I miss digging through that big cabinet with the little stepladder that I had to pull out in order to be able to reach the top row of drawers. And related to that, I loved seeing the history of all the names that had checked out a book before me on the card inside the book. I kind of miss that too even though I love being able to browse and reserve books online like we can do now.
5. When was the last time you went to the library?
This is really sad to me, but it's been a long time. The libraries closest to us have some funky hours that seem to change all the time, and they're not that convenient to where we live. The last couple of times that Matt and I have seriously looked at buying a house, I've been focused on neighborhoods within walking distance of one of the good libraries. Heck, it wouldn't even need to be one of the nice ones with all the inter-library loans you can do now. I could sign in online and request whatever I wanted and then just walk to the library when I got the email saying they were ready for me. That sounds like a little slice of heaven right now.
6. How many books do you usually check out of the library at one time?
It varies, but I usually get a good stack of maybe 5-10 books at least.
7. Name one great author you’ve discovered at your library.
I became really hooked on the Castle series by John DeChancie years ago because those were shelved near the Charles de Lint books, and one of his covers caught my eye. I read the whole series in a week or so, and then decided it was one of those series that I really needed to own, so I spent a few months looking for them at used bookstores to find just the ones I wanted. Some of the editions had better covers than others, and I wanted ones in good condition that looked like they belonged together. I'm a little obsessed with details at times.
8. What was the librarian at your elementary school like?
I could never ever in a thousand years say enough good things about Ms. Wilma Greene. She was seriously like another grandmother to me, and she always had book suggestions for me. She talked to me about books like she really cared what I thought and what I liked. As I entered the upper grades of our school (4th and 5th grades), she let me help her select books for the younger classes, and I'd write up reviews to share with teachers and parents. I felt like such an important person! She did wonderful things for my self-esteem, and I just loved her.
I saw her for the last time right before Matt and I were married in 1996, and we had a huge love fest because we each had some happy memories of the other. I heard that she died a few years ago, and I've looked for confirmation of that here and there, but I've never been able to find out for sure. She was one of the most influential people in my life as a little girl, and I was so lucky to have known her for all those years.
9. How many times a year do you go to the library?
As I mentioned before, we don't go nearly as often as I'd like, but we usally make it there 15-20 times a year.
10. If you could change one thing about your library, what would it be and why?
]]>I'd pull it a few miles closer! :D
What books did you love as a child?
Submitted by hearts.
Matt has brought it to my attention that I may have overlooked a collection in the collections QotD. Apparently, some people would consider my books a collection. If you do, then I've got a massive book collection that fills up a room full of floor-to-ceiling bookshelves, and I just keep buying them. I understand this will sound crazy to some people, but calling my books a collection just feels wrong because they're so integral to my life. The thought of living without books freaks me out. While I do like reducing the amount of stuff we have, my books are not included in the aforementioned stuff. I will cheerfully throw out and give away a variety of other things, but my books are staying with me.
What books are on your nightstand?
I have three bookcases in the bedroom that are filled with books I intend to read someday. I've made many resolutions over the years to not buy another book until I read all the books I already own, but those resolutions never last more than a few months.
The book I'm actually reading is the one pictured to the left. I've heard great things about it, and I think I'll enjoy it once I can get into it. The last week or so, my mind has been running a mile a minute, and I've had a hard time focusing on the story. I find myself rereading the same page multiple times, and I guess part of that is because of the cool footnotes that almost serve as another story.