Year End Contemplations - Of a Mostly Bookish Nature

I will probably do a proper year-end Sleeping with Bread post sometime in the next few days; however, I thought I'd get the blog-posting juices flowing with some meandering thoughts. Maybe if I just start writing, without worrying about creativity and cleverness, something creative and clever will start coming out eventually!

First things first... some sidebar info:

New Scenic View - a little British Comic Relief wit Catherine Tate and David Tennant.

A New Quote - from atypical brat's progeny

I also just updated my sidebar with books I've been reading. It looks like I finished about 28 books for the year. I suspect that is a middling average number. I look at the list and some of the books seem like they were read ages ago. I see that I read fewer and fewer books toward the end of the year. (School of course). I can see that the last few books of this year have been what my husband might call "light and fluffy." (You have to hear him say light and fluffy in his silly accented way to get the full impact.) In general, I have been all about romance and period dramas, not just in books, in viewing as well--from two versions of Pride and Prejudice, two versions of Jane Eyre (I don't care what anyone else says, Charlotte Gainsbourg is a stellar Jane and William Hurt, although physically not the type and a wee bit too long in the tooth, a heavyweight contender for Rochester.), Wives and Daughters, North and South, and moving into the 20th century, but still a period drama, Foyle's War. I'm just finished with Series 2. Thanks goodness for Netflix. I love Michael Kitchen.

As the year ended, I also got sucked into the vortex of some 19th century inspired fan fiction. (Imagine me cringing a little here as I write this.) It has been a lot of fun. There is a lot of really bad stuff out there. Many uses of the words frisson, tendrils, ministrations, ambit, etc. Some of it has been quite nice, though. It has been a way of staying in a well-loved story and imagining what happened next to Jane and Rochester or Margaret and John. Through the fan fiction board, I also became acquainted with a fan fic writer who ended up getting a publishing contract. Two of her books have been published so far. You'll notice More Than Love Letters in my sidebar by Rosy Thornton. I haven't read her second book yet, but MTLL was a fun romantic comedy written in the form of emails, meeting minutes, etc. There are some laugh-out-loud moments and I actually got a little teary at the end. Rosy and I have engaged in a little of our own email correspondence and it has been a treat to e-meet an author. (Hi Rosy!)

Back to books... I realized as I was looking over the book list that there are many books which I have bought this year but have not yet read. I think in 2008, I will convert my book list to show books bought AND read--that will be interesting.

Well, this post is getting long. There is more to contemplate than my reading habits for the year. I find that Christmas and New Year is a time I spend thinking about my Uncle L.T. I also made some resolutions for myself last year. Resolutions I failed at meeting. Utterly failed at meeting. But I also experienced a lot I didn't expect to. There is definitely alot of yeast for that Sleeping with Bread post I have rising, ready to bake.


Well, this post did some meandering but I don't see much in the way of creative or cliver--maybe next time! ;)