Bond Girl dreams on, in 2014

First timer. Trying to get back on the reading track after having a baby. Will be lucky to read half of what's planned, but planning is half the fun!

I dream of a library room of my own, filled with deluxe editions and fine press, mementos from travels and art. In reality, I listen to audiobooks in the car and flip through e-books on my nook while reciting 'Bah Bah Black Sheep' to a 10-month old. A bit of a Folio Society and New Yorker addict. Swiss-French, Russian, and now American, I read in three languages.

My happy place would be:



Other bookish websites I like:

Awesome People Reading
Bookshelf Porn
The Final Sentence
The Books They Gave Me
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La Pléiade editions | Folio Society| The Bookcase: reviews of illustrated Russian children's books

In 2014, I hope to:

- pick up more travelogues as travel is another thing that enriches us and a gift that I hope to give to my son;
- revisit the classics because my experience of them is different every decade of my life;
- catch up with the contemporary book prize winners;
- finish books and not to be a serial quitter;
- keep my mind open.

(different ideas for my thread stolen all over this group, thank you (especially to Smiler69, through whom I found this group)! I lurked with envy for months, so happy I can participate and mingle this year!)

Reading: Night Train to Lisbon, Pascal Mercier (fiction; for a book club), due on Jan 19.



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Listening: ♫ A Dance with Dragons, George R.R. Martin

Books Completed:

- January: I wish

Books Purchased:

- Aristocrats, Stella Tillyard (biography)
- Earth, an Intimate History, Richard Fortey (science)
- The Nude, Kenneth Clark (art)
- The Sea, the Sea, Iris Murdoch (fiction)
- A Short Walk in Hindu Kush, Eric Newby (travel)

Oh, that's a good reading spot! You should keep an eye on richardderus' thread. He loves to post book porn.

Hi, I saw your link on Barabara's thread and followed, and now I'd like to settle in this window seat. Sooo inviting: not overdone, light, white shelves, nice view, wooden floor... if I could have my own library room it would be very similar to this one.

Hi Irina! Found you and starred.
I hope you'll find quiet reading times with your lovely little sunshine. When my kids were young, reading was a precious gem.
Your currently reading is a good choice. I liked Night Train to Lisbon very much.

Drneutron, thank you so for the recommendation! I find I need guidance at this busy community.

Deern, it is such a lovely corner of someone's world, isn't it? If only pictures came with sound, this would be probably filled with a brief, restful silence of a house which is usually filled with happy family sounds.

Barbara, so far, the little guy is very much into books, even if he must participate by violently flipping the cardboard pages. Hope that soon, he would be understanding what we are reading as well! I'm building him a library of children's classics. Night Train to Lisbon is excellent so far, I find it hard to put it down except for when I google the sights and the streets.

Irina - What a beautiful name. Hani (aka SWMBO my wife and sometime nemesis) had a close friend of the same name when we used to live in the south of Malaysia.

Welcome to the group and I must say I was most intrigued by your name and the images created for the imaginative red-blooded male!

Your perfect reading spot looks exactly that and it is nice to see another in the group buying more books than they read.

Have a lovely weekend.

Irina, my daughters were thumbing through cardboard and cloth books very early. They loved listening and watching storybooks. In their beds were always piles of books, so when they woke up they could go through them. And now, they both are addicted readers. So, go on with it, I'm sure your little man will be a great reader one day. :-D

Such a beautiful reading spot!

Hi and welcome! It's true that reading time gets to be a precious commodity when you have a wee one (I've been struggling with that issue for 5 years now (aka: I have a 5-year-old munchkin)), but the reading we get to do to and with our little ones is precious, too, eh?

Ah! Found you, and now I know your name too, Irina's a lovely name. We both have five-letter names with same first and last letter, neat. Love your reading spot. Every time I've seen this particular spot, it's made me dreamy, but then I also cringe about all that light hitting the book spines! Spoken like a true Folio addict, no? :-)

I can't be sure now, but I believe I owe my recent conversion to La Pléiade to you, when I saw it mentioned in the Folio Society Devotees group. I've manage to collect six volumes since last year; Les Liaisons Dangereuse, Colette : Oeuvres, tome 1 & 2, Zweig : Romans, nouvelles et récits, tome 1 & 2, and Prévert : Oeuvres complètes, tome 1. I also very much want to put my hands on Les essais by Montaigne. They are so much more expensive than even Folios though!

I envy you being able to read in three languages. I'm happy about having both French and English, but Russian would probably be the next language I'd most like to be able to read.

Hi Irina, I wish you a lovely weekend