I think I underestimated how long it would take me to make my chunky book because I’ve been working on it for a couple of weeks now and still am not close to being done. Granted I only work on my book when I go to class once a week but there’s also a lot of waiting around during class too because sometimes we have to wait until pages are pressed, glue is dry and that sort of thing.
Today while we were waiting on the end pages to press our teacher showed us how to bleach paper. He’s restoring a book from the 1800s and as you can imagine the pages are browned. He immersed each page in a tray of water and hydrogen peroxide and voila, the pages started to whiten. It was pretty cool. But what a tedious process, you have to do that to each page, let them fully dry and then sew them back up again. For now I think I’ll stick with making new books. Hopefully I’ll have my chunky book ready in the next two weeks.
Anyway, another thing I’ve been doing quite a bit of lately is mooching books. I got tired of waiting for the newer books to show up as available so I’ve started looking around. There are some authors whose books I never seem to find, like Haruki Murakami or Italo Calvino but I keep trying. Anyway, I think I did pretty well and in the next few days the following books should show up in my mailbox:
- Zorro by Isabel Allende
- Rules of Engagement by Anita Brookner
- The Queen of the Tambourine by Jane Gardam
- A Step in the Dark by Judith Lennox
- Dreaming in Cuban by Cristina Garcia (psst, if you are reading this for the Slaves discussion, there are still copies available on bookmooch)
- Broken for You by Stephanie Kallos
Has anyone been mooching lately? Any good finds?
Love your mooch list.
I admire how well you are doing with your class.
How many are left?
Bleaching pages – not for me. Don’t have enough patience.
The bookmaking classes sure sounds interesting to me, Iliana! I wish we’ve such classes here… should be loads of fun! 🙂
You’ve a great list there. I can’t wait to read Broken for You as I’ve heard raves about this book.
Happy reading!
I want to see some pictures of the work in progress!!
My latest mooches… (because I loved reading yours)
Dreams Underfoot by Charles de Lint: I’ve adored both of the books of his that I’ve read, and this is his recommended first book for one of his ‘series’ (set in the same place w/ different characters)
Blonde by Joyce Carol Oates (I’ve been meaning to read some of her stuff forever, and I’m a bit fascinated by Marilyn Monroe)
A Very Long Engagement by Sebastien Japrisot (because I loved the movie-set in France during and after WWI)
West With the Night by Beryl Markham (because the review on Estella’s Revenge was so good and I loved Out of Africa)
and The Tale of the Murasaki by Liza Dalby (It’s a historical novel set in Japan based on the Tale of the Genji that Danielle recommended)
So my resolution to not bookmooch books has failed miserably, lol. But at least I haven’t bought any!
I haven’t found anything good to mooch lately. I never seem to get to those books on my wishlist–someone else always beats me there first! It looks like you found some good things, though! I have a book by J. Lennox, too (not this title and as yet unread). It looks good, so I’ll have to write this title down, too! Which chunky book are you reading by the way?
Isabel – My class goes through the end of March but I’ve already signed up for another session 🙂
Melody – I don’t remember hearing about the book before but it sounds really good. The cover doesn’t even ring a bell with me. Always fun to discover “new” books!
Megan – I should post some pics. I am just so involved and sometimes my hands are all yucky – with glue and stuff that I don’t want to handle a camera. Maybe next week though I’ll take my camera and take some pics before starting 🙂
Eva – Ooh, I love your mooch list. I’ve not read anything by JCO in a long time. And, she’s got quite the backlist doesn’t she. A Very Long Engagement is wonderful. I still haven’t seen the film but one of these days 🙂
Danielle – Yep, I know what you mean. If I get an email telling me there’s a book available by the time I check bookmooch it’s usually gone! ha,ha. Oh and no, I’m not reading a chunky book so far but I’m still contemplating Les Mis! 🙂
I totally would be mooching, if for some strange reason bookmooch all of a sudden doesn’t recognize my e-mail address anymore – it is so frustrating!
I’m returning a tower of books to the public library as I’ll be leaving for Asia on Monday. I haven’t even touched half the stack but am a bit sad to part with them! Dora Damage is coming to an end and I’m absolutely in awe of the story. Is Lisa See coming to your town for a book talk as well? I know she has been to New Orleans. I’m bringing Peony in Love with me abroad. 🙂
I feel as though I don’t find much that I want from bookmooch. I almost exclusively use paperbackswap now. I prefer the idea of being in line for a book rather than the lucky person who is always logged into their email gets the books.
Stephanie – Oh no, I wonder if you could get them to reset your account for you or something. You gotta mooch! 🙂
Matt – I know that feeling. I hate returning unread library books and it seems to happen to me all the time. I probably shouldn’t check out so many but hey, it’s fun! As far as I know Lisa See is not coming to Dallas but you never know. I’m always on the look out for author tours. I do want to read Peony in Love too.
Tara – Oh so Paperbackswap works different then? I need to check that out! I didn’t realize that. You won’t believe this but I lucked out today when I went to accept a mooch I noticed that one of my wishlist books, which I could never find, was up! I quickly got it but that is rare. I’ll let you know if I sign up with paperbackswap.
‘The Queen of the Tambourine’ is one of Jane Gardam’s greatest books and that means a lot coming from me, because I think everything she writes is superb. I really do hope you enjoy it.
Great Mooch list. I have not been mooching at all but I know there is some extra room on the book shelves so perhaps I will add a few more new ones. Maybe I should trying reading some of the ones I have currently! haha. I am going to start bringing a book with me for my commute next week!
Ann Darnton – Really? Ooh I can’t wait to read it. It still hasn’t arrived but I’m really looking forward to it.
Christine – Stock up on books is my motto 🙂 I love mooching – it’s so fun. And, yes, take advantage of your commute!
Nice mooches. Thanks for the mooch tip in the Slaves book. Book restoration sounds really interesting. How is that bleaching the paper doesn’t harm the ink on the page?
Stefanie – I know, it is weird but it’s only the paper and not the type that’s affected. I wonder if it’s something to do with the way the words are set in type. I’ll have to ask! 🙂
I am so glad to see your great mooch list! I too just mooched “Dreaming in Cuban” in preparation for diving back into “Slaves” participation after many months of busyness. Here are some of my other recent mooches (it has been a lucky month or so):
– “Crossing the River” by Caryl Phillips (I have challenged myself to a year of Caribbean reading)
– “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” by Michael Pollan
– “The Year of Magical Thinking” by Joan Didion
– “March” by Geraldine Brooks
– “The End of Vandalism” by Tom Drury
– “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” by Hunter S. Thompson
– “The Radiant Way” by Margaret Drabble.
Would that I had time to read them all right now!