Sunday, June 14, 2009

Sunday Salon: Cleaning and Reading

The Sunday Salon.com

We've been doing a big clear-out at our house. When did we acquire all these plastic kids' toys? Yikes! Getting rid of years of accumulated junk (and believe me, it is junk!) is so cathartic, I feel great!

The only thing I haven't given away to charity or sent to the dump are my extra books. I am paralyzed when it comes to giving away books. I guess I think I'll get around to reading it, or will possibly read it one more time, so I just can't give it away. But I am getting ruthless here, so I will be giving some books away soon. Which might mean some benefits for my blogging friends--methinks there's a giveaway brewing...

As far as reading goes, I'm still under the spell of Elizabeth Baines's short story collection Balancing on the Edge of the World, which I finished last night. These stories are very short, but hypnotic--I found they definitely transported me to another world. Sometimes that other world was the world of a child's mind--those stories were particularly good. I'll post a review some time soon.

I cannot believe the book luck I had last month, either! I was the recipient of a lovely stack of books, gratis. At last month's BEA "twitty party" (a pity party for those of us who couldn't attend BEA--waahh!), I won a book giveaway (thanks, Book Lady! You're the best!).

I also won a copy of Sally Gunning's book Bound from my blogging friend Booklogged at A Reader's Journal (yay, thanks, Booklogged!). I've been wanting to read this since I heard about it, as I really enjoyed Gunning's earlier book The Widow's War (my review here).

So my summer reading is set! (Okay, set except for all the books that I come upon as the summer progresses...) How's your summer reading shaping up?

8 comments:

Ti said...

My summer reading is getting off to a good start. I read heavier books during the summer. I seem to have more time for them (reading thru swimming lessons, rehearsals, etc.)

I'm trying to decide what to take on vacation. I always end up taking too much but that's okay.

Eva said...

Congrats on the big pile! I don't plan particular summer reading, but I'm enjoying my big pile from the library. :)

gautami tripathy said...

We moved to this house in April 2008. And we had lived in the previous house for 14 years. We had accumulated a lot of junk. It sure felt good to shed some of those. We still have junk but now manageable!

:D

You got some good reading ahead..

TSS: Lets talk about books and related suff

Anonymous said...

Nice loot...I got a similar box of books, so most of those titles are looking familiar.

Bybee said...

My plan is to read the books for the Eco Reading Challenge.

Elizabeth Baines said...

Thank you so much for the mention of my book. I'm glad they cast a spell!

Gentle Reader said...

Ti--I always take way too many books on vacation, too!

Eva--I have a few titles from the library, too--I'll have to get cracking on those first. Happy summer :)

Gautami--We've lived in this house for thirteen years, and I can't believe the crap (sorry, but that's what it is) that we've accumulated! Amazing!

Jill--Good--then we'll have to compare our thoughts when we've finished...

Bybee--that sounds like an interesting challenge. I'm terrible at following through with challenges, but I do love to take them on!

Elizabeth--Yes, I'm still under their spell, even now! Will definitely go back and re-read them. Really great!

Bookfool said...

I won those same exact books from the same places! Funny! I just read In the Sanctuary of Outcasts and it's a great read.