Saturday 9 January 2010

Beautiful Books

Day Thirty Seven.

Inspired by my trip to the library to sort out the floppy disks, I decided to go back and have a look at the books (and get warm, ha!). I know I have a lot of (as yet) unread secondhand books in my bookcase. I know that. But it's still nice to think about borrowing the special hard-backed library ones! Think I might have a book fetish...

I picked out quite a variety:
Delia Smith's Vegetarian Collection - I am hoping that this will inspire me to cook some lovely meals, as the photos alone start the saliva flowing. Most of the dishes in the book look more exciting than my cheesy cauliflower bake (see my recent blog post)!

Overcoming Your Smoking Habit: A self-help guide using Cognitive Behavioral Techniques - yes, I must admit that I'm struggling a little despite my earlier success...

Earth Grids: The Secret Patterns of Gaia's Sacred Sites - sometimes my curiosity leads to interesting google searches, but often the results can be quite far-out and without enough evidence for the scientist in my head. So I thought I might get more backed-up evidence from a 'proper' book. Hmm, maybe I'm old-fashioned...

The Hive: The Story of the Honeybee and Us - we're hoping to keep bees when we settle in at the smallholding, and I've always been fascinated by the creatures. This book is bound to inform and inspire.

Blink by Malcolm Gladwell, author of 'The Tipping Point' - described by the author as "a book about rapid cognition, about the kind of thinking that happens in a blink of an eye. When you meet someone for the first time, or walk into a house you are thinking of buying, or read the first few sentences of a book, your mind takes about two seconds to jump to a series of conclusions. Well, "Blink" is a book about those two seconds, because I think those instant conclusions that we reach are really powerful and really important and, occasionally, really good." I started reading a borrowed copy when I was in the States this summer, and although I only made it to page 40 before I had to return it, I found myself learning a great deal from this work. I can only assume that there will be many more gems in the remaining 245 pages!

There's something motivating about having a deadline by which to read one or more books, it begins to feel like a personal secret mission. I'm excited and itching to start reading, so without further ado...

I'm off! :)

3 comments:

  1. It's so long since I've borrowed a non-course-related book, but you're making me yearn to peruse the library shelves once more. You'll have a marvellous head full of information after reading all of those - I hope you enjoy it:-)

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  2. I love the sound of Blink, think I might have to track that one down for myself ;)

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  3. That's fab about the beekeeping idea, look forward to hearing about that.

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