Annie, so nice to know you're still here, hope all is well or on the mend. Sending good thoughts your way.
Naturegeek, what a nice poem, I had long forgotten it. I'm basking in this spring, taking waaaay too many photos to try and slow it down.....
Hoping for a healthy year for everyone, and time to read some good books. I'm way off pace, unreads at an all time high of 166. I'm not panicking yet. Just hoping summer = reading!
dftba,
Mel

posted by readaholic12 at 8:20 pm (EST) on May 5, 2008

Ah, there it is!! A.E. Houseman. I kept thinking Ezra Pound - I was thinking of the Metro wet cherry blossom poem... but it's this one:

Loveliest of Trees, the Cherry Now

Loveliest of trees, the cherry now
Is hung with bloom along the bough,
And stands about the woodland ride
Wearing white for Eastertide.

Now. of my threescore years and ten,
Twenty will not come again,
And take from seventy springs a score,
It only leaves me fifty more.

And since to look at things in bloom
Fifty springs are little room,
About the woodlands I will go
To see the cherry hung with snow.

-- A.E. Housman (1859-1936)

posted by NatureGeek at 3:05 pm (EST) on May 2, 2008

Hi Winky!!! :-D

I'm so glad you are alive! I am sorry to hear about your daughter's surgeries, but it sounds like she is recovering, but you have definitely been busy with real-life stuff, for certain! Funny how easy it is to move your priorities to what really matters when life presents itself to you in that way. Maybe "funny" isn't the word - it's a good thing.

I've been busy with school, learning to design websites, and getting to know my new home (Bishop). I now have a friend (I have a friend! And she's not virtual! he he) that I walk with every week - it's so beautiful here. Today the wild iris were blooming in the pastures along the road, the snow is still on the Sierra, the horses and cows are fat and happy with all the green grass, birds singing, ducks pairing up, trout jumping from the creeks - ahhh, Paradise!

I haven't been reading much - just technical books, but have been enjoying the spring, which is what's really important.

I was trying to remember a poem I read long ago, where an older man is musing on how few springs are left to him... we all have far too few springs.

Enjoy!

posted by NatureGeek at 2:58 pm (EST) on May 2, 2008

Hey Winky - you still here? We miss you over at the Ning :(
I'm personally a little worried, too - are you okay?

Nerdsister NatureGeek (aka Maggie)

posted by NatureGeek at 2:45 pm (EST) on Apr 3, 2008

Hi, how have you been? Read any good books?
Mel

posted by readaholic12 at 8:32 pm (EST) on Mar 18, 2008

Ok, I'll try not to be annoying here...
Your library is immense compared to mine, I am very jealous, and I will lose hours perusing your books.
I have to talk about To Kill a Mockingbird. I too read it when I was about Scout's age, I remember finding it in my Grandmas house when I was staying with her and reading late into the night by a tiny light when I was supposed to be asleep. Reading that book at that age changed my life forever. I love in Bird by Bird where Anne Lamott talks about ideas stepping out of the shadows like Boo Radley. My Grandma Emily was a voracious reader, her father read all the books in the library shelf by shelf, 6 at a time. So I was destined to be a book nut. But there's something about when you read them too, where you are in your life and what you connect with, what resonates. I wonder if I had read it later, would it have changed me?
Another revelation was the World According to Garp, which my aunt gave me to read when I was maybe 15, that was my first Irving book, and I've been nutty about him since. Although I can't seem to finish Until I find you, he can get tedious after a while. My aunt also got me reading Twain, Thurber and DAve Barry -she loved to laugh.
Then came college and my discovery of Kurt Vonnegut, Joan Didion, Tom Wolfe, etc, my rebellious years.
I barely read for a decade until after my second baby and hen I read Deep End of the Ocean and I remembered that I was a reader and I needed to read or I was going to go nuts. Haven't slowed down since. Then I found LT last January and I'm pretty OCD about it now. I think my book club friends think I'm a nut job. I also think I'm a serial reviewer here b/c I need to talk about what I read, even if its just to myself. You're not in Early Reviewers Group? I love the free books, but am hating reading the clunkers.
So, there you have it. How about you?

posted by readaholic12 at 10:18 am (EST) on Jan 7, 2008

Yes, nerdsisters we are. I had you on my interesting libraries and my watch lists and favorited your blog. Surprised I haven't commented you before NF!
Housekeeping I read a year ago, and I wish I could remember how I found it. I think Borders, and the cover art caught my eye. I had never read anything by the author before, but I remember very well reading the first few pages, they took my breath away a bit. I realized I really liked her way with words and I started over and read slowly. I have a top shelf tag for books that haunt me, and this one's on it.
I have to confess I have never read Ayn Rand, but she's on my must read list. I collect lists of books to read and continually buy books like The Literature Teacher's Book of Lists to keep adding to my lists to read. I was almost an English major before I detoured to environmental studies, so my literary foundation looks like swiss cheese, the kind with the big holes. That's why LT mesmerizes me, I'll never get it all read, but at least I can winnow it down to the essentials. I wish LT had a feature to tag my tbr as right away or don't bother. Or a feature that comments how could you have not read this yet?
I guess that's what friends are for!
Hooray for back to school - clean fast, read faster! :)

posted by readaholic12 at 10:00 am (EST) on Jan 7, 2008

NerdWarriors! Your blog has been in my favorites folder of blogs for some time, our worlds have collided this is too cool. I'm all for crosspollinating LTers and NFers!

posted by readaholic12 at 5:10 pm (EST) on Jan 6, 2008

Thanks! I've been wanting to since you first showed me, but I just now got around to it ;D

posted by rjayeb at 5:15 pm (EST) on Dec 21, 2007

Hello again! Re-read what I wrote to you. LOL. Only had 40 books in at that time and I was already pooped? Now I have 305 and getting closer to being done. Still have the kids' section (and probably get rid of some of them), the cookbooks (I don't know how thorough I'd do those yet though. They have their own shelf) and computer books (not much there). I still have a few more (maybe 10 to 20?) of regular books and I'm finished with the main part. Went to a thrift store today and bought 3 or 4 MORE books! One was on job hunting and another was on resumes so they should be very useful, even though I just got a new job. Ok, I'm addicted to books. Admitting it is the first step, right?

So we now have 42 books in common! And you're my top one with the most! Congrats! LOL.

Well, things to do.....have a good one!
Tara

posted by MrsStites at 10:52 am (EST) on Nov 12, 2007

Great to meet you! Thanks for accepting my friendship. I'm looking forward to checking out your library and I hope you enjoy mine.

posted by lisaunger at 7:29 am (EST) on Nov 12, 2007

a smile and a nod, i was browsing through selected sections of your collection. it must be fun having all those books at your fingertips.

anyway, hey. a pleasure meeting you.

posted by tim_watkinson at 12:17 pm (EST) on Oct 30, 2007

Hi Annie! I just started with LibraryThing and I'm already pooped. LOL. I only have 40 somethin' books in so far! I'm doing call numbers for my books too so I can organize them easier. (People say I make an easy task harder!). I see that we already have 12 books in common! 12 books out of however many I put in. Anyways....just saying Hi and this LibraryThing should be interesting!

posted by MrsStites at 2:48 am (EST) on Oct 28, 2007

Annie in Austin,
Hi, and thanks for viewing my library!
Love your library, and your darling picture! Your picture reminds me of the Tammy dolls with the sideways glance.
I'm about half way through cataloging. Funny thing about those stacks of books everywhere -- I'm beginning to think it's a decorating style! I have lots of genealogy books, novels, writing books, and kid books to go.
Rebecca in Friendswood (south of Houston)

posted by webecca at 1:30 am (EST) on Sep 27, 2007