A Walk Down Library Lane

One of the my favorite things, for as long has I can remember, has been reading. Getting so sucked into a book that I'm sad to see it end and spending hours thinking about the characters, rewriting their endings and pondering sequels.

I hope Mac grows up with the same ability to lose himself in a story; I plan to instill in him the same excitement about going to the library that my mom gave me. Sure, there are other ways to read books nowadays, but the wonder of turning a page and seeing an illustration in living color can't be overstated. And my little bookworm seems to be on the right track so far.

Yes, it's true that right now all he does is shout out every miniscule detail he sees on the page ("sunshine! clock! hat! flower! mouse - squeak squeak! monkey! juice! car - vroom vroom!") but surely that will translate itself into reading voraciously one day, right?

I came across a list of "must read" children's authors and it got me reminiscing about my favorite storytellers from a few decades back.

Here were the author's suggestions for top ten authors and their most prized works, in descending order:

10. Ludwig Bemelman: Madeline
9. Roald Dahl: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
8. J.K. Rowling: Harry Potter
7. Margery Williams: Velveteen Rabit
6. Katherine Paterson: Bridge to Terabithia
5. Janell Cannon: Stellaluna
4. Judy Blume: Fudge
3. Dr. Seuss: Green Eggs and Ham
2. Maurice Sendak: Where the Wild Things Are
1. Shel Silverstein: Where the Sidewalk Ends

Would you add any to this list? I'm not familiar with Janell Cannon and I (eep) haven't read any of the Harry Potter books, so my top ten would also include:

Eric Carle: Anything! For the tiniest of readers, his colorful, timeless stories about hungry caterpillars and sharp-eyed bears are classics.

Chris Van Allsburg: The Polar Express (Runner up: Jumanji)

Beverly Cleary: Anything, but particularly the Ramona books.

Arnold Lobel: Frog and Toad

Peggy Parish: Amelia Bedelia

Harry Allard: Miss Nelson Is Missing!

Don Freeman: Corduroy

Marc Brown: The Arthur series

My favorite baby gift books are Goodnight Moon, Runaway Bunny, Pat the Bunny and (new addition!) the Stinkyface series.

What am I missing? Any favorites from your childhood libraries or must-give gifts for parents-to-be?

Side note: Library Lane is the name of my china pattern. See how I substituted Library for Memory? I amuse myself sometimes...

Little Bookworm

I can't lay claim to the blue eyes on this boy. I can't take credit for his light hair. I can only vaguely pat myself on the back for his burgeoning vocabulary.

His love for books, though, is another story entirely.

Growing up, my parents made a "no reading at the table" rule; otherwise I'd keep my eyes glued to a captivating chapter, passing up real life conversations with my family. (Unthinkable for this loudmouth, right?)

Give me a book long enough and I could survive a roadtrip anywhere. Looking out the window is for sightseers; I prefer a page.

Mac might wish otherwise when he realizes it's "uncool," but he loves to "read" already.

I like to watch him point at pages of dogs and babies and big red balls and tell me what they are. I love his ability to "speed read" by flip-flip-flipping through stories he already knows. I laugh when he carries one in his lap as we run errands, leaving his blankey behind for the comforts of a favorite board book.

I am comforted that, no matter whom he looks like, this child with his nose in a book is mine. And that bookworminess? It came from me.

Happy reading, Mac-Mac.

Crazy (Book) Love

I just bought Crazy Love, a recommendation of Angie Smith's and the focus of her blog's upcoming book club. If you're interested in joining, swing by Bring the Rain to take a peek.

(Or you can let me know and I'll share my copy with you once I'm finished!)

I also grabbed Babywise and The Happiest Baby on the Block while I was Amazon-ing. Don't those saved credit card numbers and shipping addresses just making click-click-clicking your way through checkout the easiest thing ever?

I had J. Crew delete my credit card number from their virtual website memory, but until I delete it from my own, it's way too easy to just tippity-type those sweet sixteen digits and find myself clicking BUY before I know it.

Anyway, that's not what this post was about, was it? Back to books. My sweet friend Heather shared a few great books with me last week in the most delicious FedEx package stacked with novels. First up is The Time Traveler's Wife (saw the movie already, but we'll chat about that later), then two others that look equally enticing.

What's on your reading list these days? Can you tell I'm trying to get super-prepared for Grapenut by stocking up on my reading material? Surely that's all you need to be a good mom, right? (Someone told me that if Jamie Lynn Spears can do this, I can do it. It's almost become a mantra...)

Forgive the pregnancy brain - back to the topic at hand. Will you be buying Crazy Love and reading along with Angie and her "Sundays" this fall?

What's on your nightstand these days? (Book-wise, that is. A glass of water and your trusty tube of Burt's Bees is a given.)

A few of my favorite things

Sweet Ashley tagged me to list just six of my very favorite things. I've actually given this a lot of (non-blog-related) thought lately, hoping to narrow down the most meaningful ways to spend my time. It's a lot harder to do than it sounds...here goes!

1. Bradley and Blue. We may be crazy, but I love our little household. Sometimes I worry that it's unusual for us to so thoroughly enjoy just hanging out. I mean, shouldn't we be inviting more people in to our ridiculous, irrational house o' fun? That's something I hope to become more intentional about in coming months. I am, however, thrilled to enjoy myself so completely by doing so little.
2. My nearby and far-away friends. Notes in the mail, smiles as I walk to my desk, sweet voice mail messages when I'm too sick to call back, emails at just the right time, a lunch or dinner to take my mind off of every little thing - from top to bottom, I've been blessed with incredible friends. The ones who have known me since braces and bangs, those who met me before Bradley did, and the fabulous folks I've met since we moved to Greenville - each of you play such an important part in my life and my happiness. Thanks for letting me into your lives. (And for consistently updating your pictures on Facebook - y'all know that's my favorite peek into your world!) Wish I could have each of you on my street; wouldn't we make the most fabulous neighborhood?

3. My family. Raised me, see me through thick and thin, still think I'm amazing. How that is possible, I'll never know. I'm so fortunate to have parents who are also really great friends - to one another and to me. I appreciate them for a lifetime of family dinners, unfailing patience, vacation memories, much-needed braces, absolute belief in me, always answering the phone when I call and never blinking at my crazy stories. (The picky eating I developed against their wishes and best attempts to teach me otherwise, I promise. Those weirdos can even allow their food to touch. Bizarre.)

4. Reading. I could sit in a hammock, in my bed, on the beach, in a recliner or on the floor for hours each day and read. Blogs, books, magazines, journals, biographies, travel guides, shampoo bottle labels - it really doesn't matter. It's the fastest way to entertain me and the most fun I can have in an instant. It's equally relaxing, stimulating and informative. I should probably become a librarian when I retire. I may need to work on my inside voice, though...

5. Doing what I "should" do. While I'm not a fan of doing things simply because I have to or I'm expected to, the feeling I get afterwards is pretty remarkable. For example, I rarely feel better than I do in the gym parking lot after a workout. Or bragging about how I got up at 5:15 to hop on an elliptical. (That's a true story - twice this week. It's ok if you're shocked; I am too.) Checking something off my to-do list is a dorky thrill for me and clicking 'send' on a project I've been working on is always a relief. I hate cleaning but adore a sparkling house, laundered sheets and an organized closet. So, as this list winds to a close, I'm about to do just what I "should" be doing right now - cleaning for our open house tomorrow.

6. Dreaming. In every sense of the word. I'm the world's best and most appreciative sleeper. Left to my own devices, I could easily sleep ten hours a day. I'm always happiest after a full night's sleep or a quick afternoon nap; therefore so is anyone who has to hang out with me. I also enjoy dreaming by imagining what our life will be like in five, ten, twenty or fifty years. Will I be have my own little PR (or stationery) shop? Be a college professor? A writer? Retired and addicted to pasta? Living in that gorgeous house with a huge porch downtown? Spending a year in a glass-bottomed hut in Bora Bora? Answering the phone for Bradley's furniture company? Wrangling seventeen childreen or just one? Hard to say. My eight and a half ideal hours of sleep each night give me lots of time to explore the possibilities though. Not counting naps on Sunday, of course.

Honorable mentions: teaching our 4-year-old class each Sunday, Christmas ornaments, Christmas parties, Christmas shopping, monogrammed stationery, monogrammed table linens, clean sheets, a good thesaurus, new journals, recording Bradley-isms, pretending I can sing, broken-in jeans, hot showers, pedicures, Febreze, lip gloss, naps, holding hands, holding babies, Clemson football, Clemson colors, Clemson people, Clemson's campus, old-school family pictures, rewatching favorite childhood movies, gelato and Diet Cherry Coke. Whew.
P.S. The title of this post is a definite reference to a favorite childhood movie, The Sound of Music. Add in Annie, Anne of Green Gables, Anne of Avonlea, Mary Poppins, Bedknobs and Broomsticks, The Cutting Edge, Shakespeare in Love and With Honors and you have the perfect recipe for a 1990s Anne movie marathon, from 3rd grade to graduation. Anyone in?

What are your favorite six things? I tag Shelley, Kristen and Elizabeth.

Netflix for Magazines?

Magazine lovers of the world rejoice? (Question mark?)

Maghound set to open in September

MagHound: Another interesting media business model

You Decide

In my many volunteer hours at the Junior League's Nearly New Shop, I purchased more than my fair share of "summer reading" books. I have just finished The Memory Keeper's Daughter and now have way too many choices for what comes next.

I'd love to get started this weekend in some scheduled "down time" - isn't that an oxymoron? We have a long weekend at the lake planned for July 4th, so I hope to tear through a few of these then as well.

What book should I start first? This is the most pivotal vote you'll cast all year, no doubt.

The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory
The Pilot's Wife by Anita Shreve
Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
The Book of Ruth by Jane Hamilton
The Virgin Blue by Tracy Chevalier, author of Girl with a Pearl Earring
My Antonia by Willa Cather
Wuthering Heights* by Emily Bronte
Jane Eyre* by Charlotte Bronte

I think there are a few more in my stack, so I may be updating this list soon. Can't wait to hear your feedback!!

*I've read these, but not in several hundred years.

Have I Ever Told You...

...that I really love this poem?

Sorting Laundry
Folding clothes,
I think of folding you
into my life.

Our king-sized sheets
like tablecloths
for the banquets of giants,

pillowcases, despite so many
washings, seems still
holding our dreams.

Towels patterned orange and green,
flowered pink and lavender,
gaudy, bought on sale,

reserved, we said, for the beach,
refusing, even after years,
to bleach into respectability.

So many shirts and skirts and pants
recycling week after week, head over heels
recapitulating themselves.

All those wrinkles
To be smoothed, or else
ignored; they're in style.

Myriad uncoupled socks
which went paired into the foam
like those creatures in the ark.

And what's shrunk
is tough to discard
even for Goodwill.

In pockets, surprises:
forgotten matches,
lost screws clinking the drain;

well-washed dollars, legal tender
for all debts public and private,
intact despite agitation;

and, gleaming in the maelstrom,
one bright dime,
broken necklace of good gold

you brought from Kuwait,
the strangely tailored shirt
left by a former lover…

If you were to leave me,
if I were to fold
only my own clothes,

the convexes and concaves
of my blouses, panties, stockings, bras
turned upon themselves,

a mountain of unsorted wash
could not fill
the empty side of the bed

-Elisavietta Ritchie

What are you watching?

(Sorry for the absence, y'all! We had a family weekend in Charleston from Thursday to Sunday and now my home laptop is on the fritz. Disaster!)

So the newest Bachelorette's adventures premiere tonight on ABC. So You Think You Can Dance (ie, American Idol for feet) starts on Thursday. Traditional season shows are wrapping up soon.

With books being so long, and so perfectly suited for the beach, it's quite easy to rely on that glowing box to keep us entertained. That being said, what are you watching?

Will you tune in to see which of Deanna's 25 gentlemen callers will become her Prince Charming?

A Six-Word Memoir

Have you heard about the six-word autobiography? Fabulous concept - let's give it a try.

Some people do a few six-word memoirs, perhaps one each for childhood, adolesence, college, and everything after. I'll try to get it to just one six-word sentence. Below are my first attempts:

First attempts:
Newlywed. Never better but still dreaming.
Planned intensely, scrapped plans, never happier.
Two degrees. Friends teach me more.
Notes in mailbox are long-distance kisses.
Faith, Bradley, family, Blue, shopping, sleep.
Met, befriended, stalked a bit, married.
Glad college preceded digital camera boom.
Excited to wed; glad wedding's over.
Paid to talk. Seriously. Someone listen!
Peachy childhood, awkward teen, relieved adult.
Summered in France before dollar dove.
Beach, burger, boat, wine, friends - perfection.
Columbia-raised but grew up in Clemson.

(Instead of deleting each iteration, I'm just going to make the latest bold. Be warned that this is quite an addictive little challenge.)

You can read more here. Now let's see yours!