Gadgets and gizmos...oh and books

I think this bookshelf is officially full. All of these books and nick naks are collections from my travels, friendships and favorite memories... Now to start a new one!

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Good book, I think

Just the knowledge that a good book is awaiting one at the end of a long day makes that day happier.
          ~Kathleen Norris

...Pictured book complements of mine brudda

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A Chilly Morning, but a great one...

This morning on our very green carpool commute, Mrs B. Kim and I had wet hair, because both of us like to hit "snooze" at our separate houses. Well, Vanda, my sweet ride, has broken windows on the passenger side. They like to fall into the door at inconvenient times and this was one of them. Wet hair and near freezing temperatures made for a cold, miserable ride to work. The sun wasn't even up to help thaw our bones.
However, when I arrived at work, my trembling hand was able to check my email, and what to my wondering eyes should appear? A NEW BOOK BY CHARLES BAXTER! He is one of my most favorite authors in the whole wide world and I have been waiting and waiting for something new!

I believe it is a compilation of short stories and I cannot wait to pick it up! If only I hadn't used my whole Amazon gift card!

"The bright day is done, & we are for the dark." -W. Shakespeare

“Books are the quietest and most constant of friends; they are the most accessible and wisest of counselors, and the most patient of teachers.” ― Charles W. Eliott

I have a slight fear of picking up a new book... I know I will grow to love and know the characters the covers hug. And when I am through reading- a small piece of me is left in the binding because I don't quite feel whole not knowing their continued story. I've lost some of my dearest friends by simply closing a book. The friends I was saddest to stop knowing were my friends in The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. The book came to me at a time when I really needed friends and strangers at the same time. I sat on my couch on a warm Saturday afternoon and read the entire thing without getting up (well, I think I subconsciously moved myself to the floor). After I was done with the book I felt a moment of sadness, and a great loss come over me. I was severely disappointed to not know the rest of their story, and the people they would continue to encounter. I was, however, moved to start writing letters to my own friends, as the book itself is based upon the written correspondence between friends.This hardly works in the day and age of email, texting and tweeting. My my dear friend in ChiTown and I have been on-again off-again pen pals since we graduated high school, but it always slows due to our busy lives. I would love to get new stationary and write to all of my friends, and they also return the favor. 

Perhaps a new goal has arisen... a pen pal in the making.

Here are some "Nuggets" I got from the book as well. 

Nugget = something that moved me!

"I can't think of anything lonelier than spending the rest of my life with someone I can't talk to, or worse, someone I can't be silent with."

"Men are more interesting in books than they are in real life." (I don't necessarily believe this to be true anymore, but, found it quite true at the time.)

"I have a parrot in my keeping too- her name is Zenoba & she does not like men." (I mostly loved this because my Chicken Little doesn't like men, or any one for that matter...)

"...I sometimes think I prefer suitors in books rather than right in front of me. How awful, backward, cowardly, and mentally warped that will be if it turns out to be true."