bricolagelife

make your own uncool

-Sol LeWitt

a favorite quote from this book i am still reading. so good i don't want to finish.

the book i read... to each his home

images from to each his home by bilyana dimitrova

she didn't know a thing about the four interviews i was preparing for when she loaned me this book. but maybe my dear friend is a little bit clairvoyant. the requests had arrived by email just days apart, from separate sources, with lists of very good questions about what's in my home - and why. if you have ever had to put this into words, you may know the trepidation i felt about the tasks ahead of me. and then she put this book in my hands and said she thought i might like it. oh, i did.

opening this generous picture book of eccentric homes embellished by creative minds and hands, i was instantly drawn into the photos. and then the interviews, giving the visual home tours more depth and meaning. i enjoyed every fascinating page. and i felt a little more confident that i would find a way to express with my keyboard what went on in my mind. serendipity to the rescue. how did she know?

a favorite quote from the book:

and when the final email was answered and all the photographs were edited, i looked around my favorite room, saw how the autumn light was falling thru the front windows, imagined where the warm spots would be thru the coming winter - and rearranged the furniture again.

{there's the book on the green table before i returned it}

more book love...

my penpal has a new book available for pre-order and a new etsy shop. congrats jen!

a book about mr. mustache is now in print in english.

my faraway friend pip's new book is looking lovely.

happy weekend!

 

 

 

the book i read... the true deceiver by tove jansson

reading the true deceiver was like falling into a rabbit hole. i was instantly lost in it's crisp white cold menacing village and all the twists and turns in the minds of it's characters. so very different from the summer book and the moomins you may already know, this is a dark story full of tension and unexpected events.

a favorite paragraph:

"Evenings in the village were very quiet, just the barking of a mongrel dog or two. Everyone was at home having dinner, and there were lights in every window. As usual, it snowed. The roofs had heavy overhangs of snow, the paths tramped into snow during the day went white again, and the hard-packed banks on either side grew higher and higher. Inside the snow banks were deep, narrow tunnels where the children had dug hideouts for themselves during thaws. And outside stood their snowmen, snowhorses, formless shapes with teeth and eyes of bits of tin and coal. When the next hard freeze came, they poured water over these sculptures so they'd harden to ice."

deceptively brilliant.

the book i read... is lousy with phonies

when we read that j.d. salinger was gone we looked at each other and knew exactly what we would do next. i stepped into the second bedroom that we facetiously call the library and pulled our combined sets of well-worn paperbacks from the classic literature shelf, divvied them up and we began to reread our respective copies. he opened franny and zooey first and i went straight for the comfort of the catcher in the rye. 

the following weeks would find us laughing to ourselves behind the pages of our books, reading selected passages aloud while laughing out loud, marveling at the fact that we were allowed to read these in high school, recalling what we had forgotten since the last rereading and frequently consulting our dictionaries. we clipped this perfect obit to save and found our tongues tied when we attempted to explain who j.d. salinger was to our young friends from japan. it had never occurred to us that there was anyone in this world, anywhere in this world, who did not know who he was.

holden caulfield on reading and authors:

"What really knocks me out is a book that, when you're all done reading it, you wish the author that wrote it was a terrific friend of yours and you could call him up on the phone whenever you felt like it. That doesn't happen much, though. I wouldn't mind calling this Isak Dinesen up. And Ring Lardner, except that D.B. told me he's dead. You take that book Of Human Bondage, by Somerset Maugham, though. I read it last summer. It's a pretty good book and all, but I wouldn't want to call Somerset Maugham up. I don't know. He just isn't the kind of guy I'd want to call up, that's all. I'd rather call old Thomas Hardy up. I like that Eustacia Vye."

he must have know precisely why we wished he would come out of hiding. and how cool we thought it was that he didn't give a damn.

r.i.p., j.d.

the book i read: the poisonwood bible

...was about 200 pages too long.

seriously, she could have said it all just as well in way under 576 pages. i know a lot of people loved this book, and there's some beautiful writing in there, but oh - it was work to get thru it. and whoever read my used copy before me ate all their meals over this paperback. i actually hurried thru some passages because the spills on the pages were kind of gross. it's already been re-donated. 

i have no favorite quotes from this one. not sure if i would recommend it, either. am i the only one? apparently not.

the book i read: across the bridge by mavis gallant

i couldn't believe i'd never heard of mavis gallant before, but when i read jhumpa lahiri's interview with her in granta magazine i had to know more. scouring the G section of the literature aisle in every used bookstore we entered for months turned up nada. not one single story. eventually i searched my favorite online used bookseller and found enough affordable copies to quench my thirst for the author.

i was not disappointed. my favorite sentence:

"He didn't mind learning, but he hated to be taught."

her writing is like that. words wonderfully crafted in tight concise little packages that make you stop and reread with a smile what you just encountered. that's so perfect, i kept thinking. i want more.

find more by mavis gallant here.

and listen to an interview here.

the book i read: the consolations of philosophy

it's funny how serendipity sometimes drops in your lap just the thing you've been searching for. 

it began last summer when i came across a half hour program on a local pbs channel purely by accident. it was called the consolations of philosophy and explored the ideas of epicurus (who, interestingly did not prescribe a life of luxury and excess but just the opposite). the instant it concluded i searched the cable guide for upcoming episodes, then looked online... but never found a listing or saw another minute of the series. still, my curiosity lingered.

a few months later i pulled from a gift bag this very book. tho i don't recall mentioning it to my sister, she had given me a birthday surprise i'd been ruminating on all that time. we often think she can read our minds and now i believe we may be correct.

i have slowly savored each section of the book and here are a few quotes from the pages i marked with a turned down corner as i made my way thru it:

from montaigne:

"To learn that we have said or done a stupid thing is nothing, we must learn a more ample and important lesson: that we are but blockheads."

from nietzsche:

"We must learn to suffer what we cannot avoid. Our life is composed, like the harmony of the world, of discords as well as of different tones, sweet and harsh, sharp and flat, soft and loud. We must learn how to use all of them and blend them together, good and ill, which are of one substance with our life." 

from seneca:

"if you believe that life is a vending machine where you put in virtues and take out happiness, you will always be disappointed." {this is actually a quote from six feet under, but it expresses so well and compactly what seneca wrote, i used it instead}

and from my favorite, epicurus:

"What is essential for happiness in life; 

good friends

freedom

time for reflective thought

simple food, adequate shelter and clothing

The possession of the greatest riches does not resolve the agitation of the soul nor give birth to remarkable joy."

102 more wordy reviews here.

the twelve days of christmas in books :: 12 christmas blessings

we seemed to sell a truckload of this sweet book every holiday season in our little toy store. a christmas blessing is full of nostalgic christmas images expertly matched to a blessing by welleran poltarnees (aka harold darling).

no detail was overlooked in it's production. crisp and sturdy pages with bright rich colors and silvery snowflakes, a printed hardcover and book jacket, decorated end papers and a book plate. it is lovely in every way.

"When the celebration is over may you turn in your memory the love, the giving and the receiving"

what a fine way to finish out the twelve days of christmas.

thanks for following along. a happy twelfth night to you all!   

the twelve days of christmas in books :: 11 compilations

just turning the pages of these mostly thrifted christmas compilations is like a treasure hunt. an obscure poem here, an excerpted story there, a beautiful block printed illustration, a surprise from a favorite author... there's enough to fill all the christmases to come.

something for everyone. happy hunting! 

the twelve days of christmas in books :: 10 letters from father christmas

what can be better than j.r.r. tolkien's story of the mysterious letters his children received from the north pole, written in father christmas' own shaky hand (he's very very old, you know), including news from his home, drawings of his busy daily life and hand painted postage stamps?

how about a collection of ten facsimiles of those letters, in envelopes to open? it's like having your own correspondence with santa himself. there are several editions of this title (including a mini book) but we like turning each page to find another envelope to reach into, revealing another folded letter to read. the original letters and envelopes are stored in the bodleian library in oxford. wouldn't it be wonderful to take trip there and see them in person? this has to be the next best thing.

letters from father christmas written and illustrated by j.r.r. tolkien