My current new read is the Bible.  I have managed to get past the first twenty pages or so, which is quite a feat as I have tried to read it a few times before.  There was a truly terrible made for TV movie from 2000 or 2001 about some key Bible figures on TV a week ago.  There were very many recognizable actors on it and it struck me how terrible a job they were doing.  They spoke their lines like they were reading the ingredient list off a soda bottle. I expected more feeling or passion than what I saw.  To me, a casual observer on the outside, I had always thought these stories were more moving and that they should engender more passion.

So I decided to read it for myself, and I have actually gotten through the part I saw on the movie and a little further.  I've been stuck reading about the red and purple stuff being made to house the golden ark (of the covenant?) and how many tabs should be on each side of each panel for the last few days. These explicit descriptions seem to get told to one person and then repeated. A lot.  For you Mosaic of Thought fans out there, my book to book connections for the Bible so far are:

I think they were talking about the dimensions of the ark and the curtains to go over it for about as long as Harry and Hermione were stuck in that damn tent in the woods and not quite as long as Imriel was tromping through the snow of Russia.

I am also getting a kick out of recognizing phrases from other books, like the use of the phrase 'Fat of the land'. I may get a two second flash of Lenny stroking a bunny each time I come across the phrase, but I do understand the influence of this work of literature on everything else, even if I have no familiarity with the original source material.  When you study English at school long enough you also get a half-way decent review of history since the two are so tied together. To a similar extent you get a smaller review of what is going on in the Bible, just from the sheer number of references made. 

I've had an interest in reading most of the basic religious texts from across the world for some time.  Jacqueline Carey's books have helped influence that as well, as has been my idle poking through the Unitarian websites.

I have to work to remind myself that though an interest in literature prompted this reading, it was not written as literature and therefore I have to deliberately choose not to be critical of execution of the story (as in the tendency for one person to get a description from God and then turn around and repeat everything to another person in entirety).

I've also been doing a lot of thinking about Neville Longbottom, but I do want to review a couple of chapters of HP7 before I write about it.

The library is under a bit of renovation again.  I discovered, as a result of iPhone ownership, that I had grown out of the place where a laptop would suit all of my needs.  This week my very first Apple computer arrived. And I'm sure I'll be gushing about that for awhile, particularly since it is possible to post here again.

Adding a desktop computer to a room that is library, music conservatory (HA!), scrapbook studio, and homeschool stuff repository has necessitated a bit of shuffling around. And I've also made the slightly heartbreaking decision to split the contents of my library.  It has become impossible to reshelve books as there are too many orphan books sitting in front of them on each shelf. (One of my next goals with this new computer is to learn how to take a picture and then insert it here for proof of what I say....)  So, sometime today I will go purchase a bookshelf for our bedroom, where we always intended to build custom shelves anyway, before, you know, all those babies snuck up on us. 

 If I move my picture book collection upstairs I'll buy myself about 5 linear feet.  I'm also weeding out the books again, but I've done a decent enough job in the past that there are very few to go.  I'm also going to bring up all the books I have not read. It's always been a matter of pride that the unread books have been a pretty small  percentage of the total collection but current events are causing that percentage to creep up.  I just can't think of any other way to split up my books that will make me less sad. At least that way the unread books can return to their brothers and sisters upon completion.

The friend that house sat while we were in France after graduation said that he learned a lot about me from checking out the books in the house. He then looked straight at me and told me I'd been involved in horses, but a long time ago.  Most of the trade paperbacks were rereads. The larger paperbacks were probably from college as they were less read and a sign that perhaps I did not choose them myself. I read fantasy primarily and very little hard science fiction.  All he said was true. Even my significant other, who does not share my tastes in reading, knows I have been a fan of Mercedes Lackey owing to the long row of the books on the shelves in our house. I really like seeing the whole of my collection in one place, the Bantocks and Brysons on shelf one,  the Sookies and Lilys on shelf four and five, the Pullmans and Rowlings always chasing each other around the junction of one wall or another. I can see the end of my second decade in the neat row of literature anthologies, mostly by Norton above the picture book collection.  Everything is shelved alphabetically, especially when on subjects has to do with another - Gilgamesh is under G (as are the Bibles) so the fictional work of Gilgamesh which is written by a modern author only gets to sit next to his inspiration if I sort this way.   

Of course I'll try to cull a few, where practical. So far I've managed to let go of Heart of Gold by Sharon Shinn, A Secret Rage by Charlaine Harris, The Green Consumer (written in 88) and Betwixt, which is pretty much a very messy attempt to jump on the wave created by the Twilight books.  These books generally get donated to a library and I feel a little guilty about letting that Betwixt out, but it really is not worthy of the inch and a half of space it takes.

The very act of working on this post stirs up all sorts of plans for other posts.  The Pioneer Woman deserves her own post, as does the month of May, which was a very fulfilling reading month for me. And of course, we are quickly coming up on August 2, always memorable as it is both my wedding anniversary and the day that the next Twilight book comes out....