Old glass and curios

A mirror is a strange thing. Somehow this picture is showing my living room, and somehow it is not. All the elements are there, true, but the mirror makes the end result so striking I got completely baffled after taking the picture! I am finding it very hard to believe my living room could ever look this good.

I do love the old glass I have inherited or found in antique shops and my curio collection, though. This might be just a small part of everything I have collected, but at last I have found a way of displaying them. Happy days. An added bonus is I have better space in my library now, too!

Old glass and curios ♥

Sora's Quest

When a young noble Lady finds a necklace after her mother, a journey begins.

A journey that all but erases all the earlier traces of nobility in the young girl, and instead leads her to discover a magical world where dangers and death hide around corners, love can be found in a cold stranger and the clue to survival is friendship.

Sora used to dream of adventures and travels - and now she is smack in the middle of it. This is the first book in the series about Sora and her friends, and I enjoyed it immensely. Even the covers of the books draw you in - the first one is simply stunning.

"Sora's Quest" by T. L. Shreffler

"She immediately reveled in the warmth that flooded her senses, and looked around the room in wonder. Cheery lanters graced the walls on either side of the shop. She had never seen anything quite like this, not even in Lord Fallcrest's library, which was one of her favorite places. The small circular room was jammed full of bookshelves, whch were crammed with all sorts of books. She could see the twinkle of a thousand stars through the large domed roof. Tables set up like a maze throughout the tiny shop were stacked with piles of dusty scrolls, yellowed books and wrinkled parchments. The air was heavy with the scent of paper. Sora had the sudden, intense urge to curl up in an armchair with an old book and maybe a nice cup of tea."

p. 160, "Sora's Quest" by T. L. Shreffler

A glimpse of my library wall

At last I have gotten some of my acquired art up on the wall, although I am far from done. I love how the pictures have transformed the feeling of the room already.

The reading corner in my library

Old family treasures

Firstly, I should mention that this is not my book. Not yet, at least, and hopefully not for many years still.

Secondly, I have a fondness for old recipe books, and so far I have collected a few. The effort and time the ladies put into them back in the days and over the course of years make them special. Some young women continue to write in the same recipe book for fifty years or more, making it more similar to a diary showing the passing from unmarried to married, to being a mum or to become a grandmother.

This particular one belongs to my dad's mum. She brought it out from its hiding place when I asked if we could bake prior to Christmas. The book is almost 50 years old now. It was a fun day - and I got to spend wonderful hours with my grandparents. I love being home for Christmas.

My granny's old recipe book

My library contains more than books

Amongst the books residing in the shelves of my library you can find a great many other things. If I like something, it will fit in here somewhere - that is the greatness of a room full of rare, strange or funny items. My library is a testimony to my somewhat eclectic taste - a sanctuary for all the weird things I have collected over the years.

Some items, like this puzzle, are perhaps not so eccentric, although very pretty in itself. 

A puzzle with the most vibrant colours!

Oh dear...I am getting short on space in my shelves!

Another browsing on another travel led to this collection...

Book hotel - such a nice idea

One of my preferred hotels in the city of Stavanger, Myhregaarden, has these fantastic shelves filled with books tucked away in the halls and around corners. I love perusing unknown shelves of books, and so make sure I stop by all the ones I have found so far. Even if that equals standing there literally in the middle of the night in the otherwise quiet and sleepy hallways.

Spine Poetry is fun!

I got the wonderful idea from here...and I just had to give it a go. It was great fun wandering around in my library looking at titles and trying to make them fit together - almost like solvng a puzzle! It was an entirely new way to utilize my books. Do give it a try yourself - you will be surprised by the sheer joy when you find that perfect something to finish off your brand new poem.

Without further ado - here is the result of my first ever attempt at spine poetry:

"The Colour of Magic"

This one turned rather dark, which quite surprised me. I have never done anything even remotely similar in the past, so this is an exciting new way to test my boundaries.

My new ibook - I love love love it!

My ipad has never looked this great ♥ 

Do you believe in Father Time?

One of Mitch Albom's newest books states that Father Time is real. He is no myth, no work of fiction...real.

He has been banished for an eternity for the crime of trying to measure time, listening to the people of the world always asking for a little more of it - a few minutes, a few hours...a few more years - as punishment. The whispers and wishes never stop. There are too many people in our world asking. Too many voices.

Now he is on a mission - he has the chance to redeem himself at last. All he has to do is teach two people the true meaning of time. An easy task, you may think?

We humans seem to believe that we have all the time in the world. That there will always be a tomorrow where we can fix things, do things, make dreams come true. That it will never be too late. We also seem to think there is never enough time. Never enough time to stop by a friend, have that cuppa or make that call. Never enough time to stop and simply be - be in the moment or take that deep breath while doing absolutely nothing. We are such strange creatures.

Have you tried to imagine a life without timekeeping? Yes? No? Can you? Have you realised that man are the only ones on earth that actually tries to measure it? And by so doing we all fear something no one else fears.

You see, mankind invented the fear of time running out.

The book "The Time Keeper" by Mitch Albom really makes you think. And when you are finished reading it it may have changed your perception of time, too. At least I sincerely hope so.

"The Time Keeper" by Mitch Albom

A Peculiar teaser

Sometimes you see a book that has such a colourful and fantastic cover that you simply must have it. This is one of those books.

"The Peculiar", as it is called, is indeed a peculiar book, although the creature the title references to is so much more.

As a creature of two worlds, Bartholomew is hated by both. This story begins the day he got himself noticed - which, he knew, he ought not to be. The wise saying of the area he lives in clearly states:    

"Don't get yourself noticed and you won't get yourself hanged."

Now what? Next thing he knows he has to flee for his life - and gets himself tangled up in a sinister plot where he must gather all the courage he can to try to set things right... before it is all quite too late.

My teaser:

"You didn't simply go places. It was unwise to leave the house, dangerous to go into the street, but it was mind-bogglingly foolish to venture out of the faery slums. Bartholomew had not needed to be mind-bogglingly foolish until very recently."

pp. 268 

"The Peculiar" by Stefan Bachmann

I enjoyed the story, and I am eager to get home so I can start on the second and possibly last book, "The Whatnot". I might even treat myself to the short-story collection Bachmann has made in collaboration with a few other authors.


More teasers:
Flukten fra virkeligheten
Should Be Reading

Incredible book art

Sometimes art can be so detailed and beautiful - and what better material then books to make it out of? A book that has seen better days might turn into this perfect project. I especially marvel at the pictures and drawings of this book - they are truly magnificent when displayed like this.

"Modern Painters" by Brian Dettmer

A new game, anyone?

Source

Something to relate to?

This is so true, in my personal opinion. I loved my cats and miss them terribly. The house still feels empty without them. Though I at least still have my books for comfort ❤

Source

Bookmarks!

Here is one of my old bookmarks - it is rather worn now, but I do love it.

There really is no such thing as too many books, right?

I tend to fill my books with stuff I pick up while I read them, too. Things like receipts, tickets, scraps of paper, notes and much more quite often end up in whichever book I am reading at that particular moment. They end up as little reminders of where I was or what I did when I read the books, like little surprises or treasures for the books to keep. 

Anyone else doing the same? 

A Discovery of Witches

Tonight I am reading a book that has been in my possession for a long time. I have planned to read it several times in the past, but somehow I never got around to do it. The fact that it is the first book in a trilogy where the third book is not due until the summer may have had something to do with it, though. I do have book two in my shelves, so if I read them both slowly I might even get around to book three! That would be really something.

That is me in a nut shell, you see...if the series have unpublished books, I have a tendency of neglecting to read the last volumes - not because I do not want to, but simply because I move on to books I have not yet read while I am waiting, and then I figure out, at some point, that I have to reread the first books in preparation for the last books - and, well, guess what? One thing leads to another and then I just cannot seem to find the time to reread those books I have already read as there are sooooo many new ones on my tbr-list that I am ever so curious about! I am impossible, I know.

Right. Back to the book.

It is called "A Discovery of Witches" and is, as you now know, the first book of a trilogy named "All Souls". Witchcraft, libraries, old forgotten manuscripts...what more can you desire? Oh, creatures, of course. You did not think there would only be witches, now did you? Of course not! There are four different types of creatures in this trilogy, and although our main character is a witch, the other ones come in to play as well. There might even be some love in the air, although I have not gotten that far into the story to be able to tell for sure. I do have a sneaking suspicion, however. Set in Oxford, with a magnificent library as a backdrop and wonderful alchemical texts as the center of attention, I have every hope of this being a great story.

Here is a teaser from the main characters childhood:

"Sarah didn't tell him about the voices, about my habit of picking up the phone a good minute before it rang, or that she had to enchant the doors and windows when there was a full moon to keep me from wandering into the woods in my sleep. Nor did she mention that when I was angry the chairs in the house rearranged themselves into a precarious pyramid before crashing to the floor once my mood lifted."

excerpt from A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness, p. 9

A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness

Have a great Sunday, everyone!


More teasers (although a few weeks old this time, due to Christmas):
Flukten fra virkeligheten
Should Be Reading

The awe of a book collection

Source

Ocean and ocean... Any resemblance here?

I love this song. It is beautiful, haunting - and today it reminded me of one of my new books! Though, I should probably say it reminded me of the title and cover of one of my new books, namely "The Ocean at the End of the Lane" by Neil Gaiman. I bought this in hardcover edition last time I was home, but have not started reading it just yet. Gaiman is one of my favourite authors, and I want to save it for a little while. Do any of you ever do that with a long-awaited book? Simply put it on the table or nightstand for some time before you read it - a place where you can keep glancing at it and feel that little spark of anticipation?

Something that caught my eye today

Saturday chill

This is how a good day easily becomes a great day ❤

A new book!