My Glorious Return!

Okay, it may not be that glorious for you, but it's glorious for me. I haven't blogged in a few weeks, but I have no shame in this since I was pretty busy with getting married. (I know, it's just terrible that I could allow such a little thing as my own wedding to interfere with my blogging!) But now the honeymoon is over and my husband and I are well on our way to being well settled in our new apartment, and I can relax and start blogging again.

Probably needless to say, I've done little-to-no reading in the time I've been gone...I wanted to finish Little Women, but unfortunately that did not happen. However, I still have some small hope that I might, just might, finish before the end of the year! I made pretty good progress on it, and I'm enjoying it immensely.

One of the first things I wanted to get organized in the apartment was, of course, my books! Here's a picture of my bookshelves:

Foodies Read Challenge 2013

Another super-exciting challenge for me!

I love books. I love food. How could I possibly not like books about food?

(Also, I'm secretly trying to get my license as a foodie. If I succeed in this challenge, will I be a certified foodie? Only the powers that be can truly know...)

I don't want to go too far overboard with challenges for next year, since I am quite new to book blogging, so I will refrain from committing to the highest level and I'll commit to the "Pastry Chef" level (4-8 books). Since this should easily cross over with a couple other challenges (Nerdy Non-Fiction challenge and Books on France challenge), I don't think that number will be too much of a problem. I'm not going to make an official goal to go beyond 8 books, since like I said, I don't want to overdo it. I'll upgrade to a higher level if I find I can't stop reading food books!

Books Reviewed:

Julie & Julia by Julie Powell
A Homemade Life by Molly Wizenberg
My Life in France by Julia Child
In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto by Michael Pollan
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver
Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel
The Truth About Food by Jill Fullerton-Smith
Make the Bread, Buy the Butter by Jennifer Reese
Food Rules by Michael Pollan

Top Ten Books I Wouldn't Mind Santa Bringing Me

I didn't do a Top Ten Tuesday (hosted by The Broke and the Bookish) last week because, well, it was about new releases in 2013, and I'm not really a "new release" kind of person. There are literally zero books I'm holding my breath for in the new year. I feel like most people who do that are more YA/fantasy/series kind of people, and I'm just not.

However, I do thoroughly like the topic for this week because this year I feel like all I want for Christmas is books! Since I will be moving to a space with a lot more room for books than I've had in the past, I want to start my collection.

10. Anything on my Classics Club list. Okay, this is probably cheating, and I will reiterate some of the ones I want the most later in the list, but it is much nicer to own a copy that I can mark and love and spend more than 3 weeks reading than it is to borrow it from the library, especially when it's a classic.

9. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. I've been truly loving this book, and I'm afraid I might not be able to finish it before the break since I have so much to do in preparing for a wedding and the end of the semester. What will I do if I have to turn it in before I leave town?! And even if I do finish it, I'd just love to own it anyway.

8. Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens. This is such a long book, I know I might run out of renewals before I can finish it, once I get it started. And I've heard so many good things about it.

7. Make the Bread, Buy the Butter by Jennifer Reese. Ever since I heard of this book I've been wanting to read it, since I'm sort of obsessed with making my own food (and I will be even more once I have my very own blender, food processor, candy thermometer, and various other wonderful kitchen items which will hopefully grace my kitchen after I'm married).

The P&P95Forever Club

You may have noticed (or maybe you haven't...I, for one, never notice these sorts of things, so I won't judge you) that there's a new button in my sidebar with a picture of Jennifer Ehle as Elizabeth Bennett, drinking a cup of tea. As the badge says, I am now a member of the P&P95Forever Club!

So what does this mean? Why should you care? What it means is that I'm taking my place among the ranks of "the opinionated, biased, and unswerving devotees of BBC/A&E's Pride and Prejudice." I'm not only admitting, but proudly defending my heartfelt devotion to this film adaptation of Jane Austen's classic.

You might think I'm exaggerating. Well...

I really love the BBC P&P. And I seriously question the loyalty of supposed Jane Austen fans who don't prefer it over any other version. (If this is you, don't worry, I'll still like you. Sort of.)

(Just kidding. Let's agree to disagree.)

Anyway, I just wanted to let you know about this marvelous club, and to encourage you to join if you love the BBC P&P film! (You don't have to be as rabid a fan as I am, but if you do decide to join the Club, be aware that raving lunatics like me will probably be lurking in the shadows of the site...)

My Books are Getting a New Home!

Photo by Ian Wilson on Flickr

With my impending marriage (er, poor word choice?), I will soon be moving into a brand-new apartment. Of course, I am excited beyond belief, for several reasons. First, and most obvious, I will be switching from living with 5 roommates to living with only one. Second, I will have infinitely more (well, it seems like infinitely more) storage space--and do you know what that means?!

More space for books, of course! Almost all the books I read come from the library. One reason is that I can't afford to buy books all the time, but mainly I just don't have any space to put them. But now that will be different!

But now I'm faced with an interesting dilemma: how do I organize my books? Ever since I started keeping my own collection, I've pretty much just put them wherever they would fit. But now that I'm planning on actually adding to my collection (slowly, of course, since I'll be even poorer after I get married), I'm not quite sure how to arrange them.

Photo by Moyen_Brenn on Flickr

Do I arrange them alphabetically by author? (Is that too difficult to maintain?) Do I arrange them by genre? Do I organize them by which ones I'm most interested in reading? Do I have specific shelves for favorites and TBR (like a real-life Goodreads...intriguing...)? Do I color-code them? (I've seen it done. Could make a striking display, but doesn't seem very practical.)

How do you organize your books? I'd love to get a good idea of what to do with mine before I throw caution to the wind and continue my current habit of stuffing them into every random nook and cranny...