The Auldhouse Book Corner

Hello, I'm Juliana Aldous, aka auldhouse and welcome to my little corner. I'm new to LibraryThing and wondering why I didn't get here sooner.

I have loved books and have been an avid reader my entire life. I started my career off as a bookseller which then made me wonder...who decides which books are published? That lead to a career in tech how-to publishing as an acquisitions editor and later as a content strategist. I've always enjoyed working with authors and watching a book idea come to life. Right now, I'm doing some consulting for Humble Bundle and I'm the Board President for Folio: Seattle's Athenaeum which is a cultural center (and library) at the heart of Pike Place Market in Seattle.

I usually read about 100 books a year--101 in 2022 and I'm very active on Twitter tweeting about books as jaldous. I'm in book groups outside of LibraryThing, one is making our way through Kazau Ishiguro's works and another one is called the Unbook Club where we all bring the books we love and share what we are reading. I'm very eclectic in my reading, if it has words I'll give it a try. I've been slowly making my way through the Boxall 1001 Books To Read Before You Die.

This year I am shooting for 125 (can I make 150?) so I better get cracking.

I recently put my entire library up on Library Thing--which has been fun. I have a thing for books, book data, and serendipity so I absolutely love the random features on LibraryThing like Folly. And I'm a list lover and my favorite genre besides Fiction is Books About Books.

I'm still new to LibraryThing--so please connect with me!

Books Read in 2022:
March 2022
23. The Editor by Steven Rowley
24. Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak
25. Caps for Sale by Esphyr Slobodkina
26. Bookstore: The Life and Times of Jeannette Watson and Books & Co. by Lynne Tillman
27. The 12-Hour Expert by Noah Charney (ARC)
28. Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather
29. Good Talk by Mira Jacob
30. The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro

February 2022
15. Bewilderment by Richard Powers
16. Black Sun Rising by C.S. Friedman
17. Quoth the Raven by Jane Haddam
18. Great Literary Friendships by Janet Phillips
19. Hot Dog Girl by Jennifer Dugan
20. Penguin Anthology of 20th Century Poetry edited by Rita Dove
21. Dedicated: The Case for Commitment in an Age of Infinite Browsing by Pete Davis
22. Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr

January 2022
1. Dragonquest by Anne McCaffrey
2. Dirt: Adventures, with Family, in the Kitchens of Lyon, Looking for the Origins of French Cooking by Bill Buford
3. When We Were Orphans by Kazuo Ishiguro
4. For the Love of Books: Designing and Curating a Home Library by Thatcher Wine
5. A Comprehensive Anthology of American Poetry (The Modern Library of the… edited by Conrad Aikin
6. Joan Garry's Guide to Nonprofit Leadership: Because Nonprofits Are Messy by Joan Garry
7. A World Without Email: Reimagining Work in an Age of Communication Overload by Cal Newport
8. A Swim in the Pond in the Rain by George Saunders
9. In the Margins: On the Pleasures of Reading and Writing by Elena Ferrante
10. Little & Lion by Brandy Colbert
11. The New Pocket Anthology of American Verse edited by Oscar Williams
12. When We Were Orphans by Kazuo Ishiguro reread before book club
13. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
14. Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

Welcome, Juliana, I also have that thing for books, book data, stats & graphs, and lists.

Welcome! You’re going to find many kindred spirits here! That second book looks very interesting.

Welcome, Juliana.

Welcome to the group, Juliana.

>6 PaulCranswick: Thank you! And these are great tips!

Currently Reading:
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
Little & Lion by Brandy Colbert
The New Pocket Anthology of American Verse edited by Oscar Williams

Book of Lists I Making My Way Through Slowly
YEAR OF WONDER: Classical Music for Every Day by Clemency Burton-Hill
Book Lust by Nancy Pear
1,000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die by Tom Moon

Welcome, Juliana! You will find many in the 75ers who enjoy books, stats, and lists. Hope your reads this weekend are good!

Taking stock of what I am reading right now.

This is a list of the kinds of books I have underway. I try to hit as many of these categories as possible.

• New Any book that has been published this year or is an unpublished review copy
• Margaret Atwood Book Club- this is a book club I have with some friends and former colleagues. We have been meeting for close to a decade. We don't have anything on the schedule right now!
• Folio Book Club- I'm the president of the Board for Folio: Seattle, Seattle's Atheneaum, and we have a fantastic set of book clubs. Right now we are reading through all of Ishiguro's novels in chronological order.
• Books About Books -I've worked with books from bookseller to acquisitions editor and Books About Books is one of my favorite genres. I love learning about the history of books and publishing and how
• Boxall - I've read almost 15% of Boxall's list of 1001 Books to Read Before You Die, and I always want to make sure I'm working at it.
• Quick Read - when I'm behind on my goals for the year, a good Quick Read or two can catch me up!
• Sci Fi/Fantasy - my pledge to get back to reading more SciFi/Fantasy. We recently moved and unpacked my husband's boxes with his scifi/fantasy collection and I've been reading through that.
• Beat the Backlist- let's face it, I'm never going to stop buying books, but pulling something from my TBR pile is necessary and this is a wonderful hashtag to follow on twitter.
• List Books and Anthologies- I absolutely love lists. It may have started with The Book of Lists by Irving Wallace.
• Jane Haddam- I'm working my way down the Gregor Demarkian set of mysteries

Books I'm Reading or About to Start:
New: Great Literary Friendships
New: In the Margins
Folio Book Club: Never Let Me Go
Books About Books: A Swim in the Pond in the Rain
Boxall: War and Peace
Quick Read: Little & Lion
SciFi/Fantasy: Black Sun Rising
Beat the Backlist: A World Without Email
List Book: Book Lust
List Book: 1,000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die
List Book: Year of Wonder: Classical Music to Enjoy Day by Day
Anthology: The New Pocket Anthology of American Verse
Jane Haddam: Quoth the Raven

Looks like a good list!

>11 drneutron: Thank you!

Hi Juliana! Fellow Seattleite here. Dropping off a star -- interested in seeing what you read this year!

>13 curioussquared: Glad to meet you! This is fantastic place for book lovers.

>13 curioussquared: So glad to meet someone from Seattle! This region is wonderful for book lovers.

Whoo hoo! I finished War and Peace!

>16 auldhouse: You deserve a pat on the back and a vodka and caviar to celebrate, Juliana.

>17 PaulCranswick: LOL! Love it! Thank you.

>16 auldhouse: Congratulations, Juliana, that is a very big tome to tackle. I hope you liked it.

>19 FAMeulstee: Thank you! I loved it. The book has everything in it.

>15 auldhouse: Agreed! Spoiled with excellent libraries, fantastic indies, and access to lots of other book lovers 😁

>16 auldhouse: Congrats! I've done Anna Karenina but not that one yet. The Pevear and Volokhonsky translation is waiting for me on my shelf.

Just dropping by to say hi and looking for updates, Juliana. x

What I'm reading in February

Probably too much all at once, but such is life of an extreme reader! :-)

Les Miserables–I began a group book read with members at Folio Seattle's Atheneaum. Be sure to check us out at Pike Place Market.
The New Penguin Anthology of American Poetry–I'm comparing anthologies to determine what makes a good one and this one edited by Rita Dove is incredible.
Quoth the Raven by Jane Haddam–Book Four in Gregor Demarkian mystery series
Year of Wonder–Making my way through this recommended collection of classical music one-day-at-a-time when I remember.
1,000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die--Same. These two books are year + long projects.

>22 PaulCranswick: Thanks, Paul! I'm on it.

What I'm reading now:

• Cuckoo Cloud Land by Anthony Doerr who is one of my favorite authors and this one counts for scifi/fantasy as well as a new book
• Les Miserables by Victor Hugo for a Seattle Folio group read and counts as a Boxall book and for #beatthebacklist
• I completed Never Let Me Go by Ishiguro also for a Seattle Folio book club. I'll be re-reading the Buried Giant next.
• Literary Feuds by Anthony Arthur for my Books about Books
• The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2006 counts for my anthology books
• I finished Quoth the Raven by Jane Haddam so will be starting the next one in a few weeks.
This isn't the complete list, but at least I've hit all my areas.

These are the categories I hit:
• New Any book that has been published this year or is an unpublished review copy
• Margaret Atwood Book Club- this is a book club I have with some friends and former colleagues. We have been meeting for close to a decade. We don't have anything on the schedule right now!
• Folio Book Club- I'm the president of the Board for Folio: Seattle, Seattle's Atheneaum, and we have a fantastic set of book clubs. Right now we are reading through all of Ishiguro's novels in chronological order.
• Books About Books -I've worked with books from bookseller to acquisitions editor and Books About Books is one of my favorite genres. I love learning about the history of books and publishing and how
• Boxall - I've read almost 15% of Boxall's list of 1001 Books to Read Before You Die, and I always want to make sure I'm working at it.
• Quick Read - when I'm behind on my goals for the year, a good Quick Read or two can catch me up!
• Sci Fi/Fantasy - my pledge to get back to reading more SciFi/Fantasy. We recently moved and unpacked my husband's boxes with his scifi/fantasy collection and I've been reading through that.
• Beat the Backlist- let's face it, I'm never going to stop buying books, but pulling something from my TBR pile is necessary and this is a wonderful hashtag to follow on twitter.
• List Books and Anthologies- I absolutely love lists. It may have started with The Book of Lists by Irving Wallace.
• Jane Haddam- I'm working my way down the Gregor Demarkian set of mysteries

>25 auldhouse: You have been busy!

Hope all is well Juliana and that you'll stop by and update us all soon.

>27 PaulCranswick: Thanks Paul! Updating now.

What I'm reading now
• Les Miserables by Victor Hugo for a Seattle Folio group read and counts as a Boxall book and for #beatthebacklist
• The Buried Giant by Ishiguro also for a Seattle Folio book club. I think this also qualifies for SciFi/Fantasty.
• Literary Feuds by Anthony Arthur for my Books about Books
• The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2006 counts for my anthology books
• Great Day for the Deadly by Jane Haddam as part of Gregor Demarkian series.
• Uncollected Essays fo Elizabeth Hardwick which is an ARC from NYRB
• Readying to Rise by Marcus Harrison Green which is a set of essays from a local writer
• Putin Country by Anne Garrells. I pulled this one out of my stacks--seemed appropriate for what is happening.
• Good Talk by Mira Jacob. A graphic novel that will count toward Quick Reads.

These are the categories I hit:
• New Any book that has been published this year or is an unpublished review copy
• Margaret Atwood Book Club- this is a book club I have with some friends and former colleagues. We have been meeting for close to a decade. We don't have anything on the schedule right now!
• Folio Book Club- I'm the president of the Board for Folio: Seattle, Seattle's Atheneaum, and we have a fantastic set of book clubs. Right now we are reading through all of Ishiguro's novels in chronological order.
• Books About Books -I've worked with books from bookseller to acquisitions editor and Books About Books is one of my favorite genres. I love learning about the history of books and publishing and how
• Boxall - I've read almost 15% of Boxall's list of 1001 Books to Read Before You Die, and I always want to make sure I'm working at it.
• Quick Read - when I'm behind on my goals for the year, a good Quick Read or two can catch me up!
• Sci Fi/Fantasy - my pledge to get back to reading more SciFi/Fantasy. We recently moved and unpacked my husband's boxes with his scifi/fantasy collection and I've been reading through that.
• Beat the Backlist- let's face it, I'm never going to stop buying books, but pulling something from my TBR pile is necessary and this is a wonderful hashtag to follow on twitter.
• List Books and Anthologies- I absolutely love lists. It may have started with The Book of Lists by Irving Wallace.
• Jane Haddam- I'm working my way down the Gregor Demarkian set of mysteries

Just dropped by to catch-up and wish you well, Juliana.

Thank you as always for books, thank you for this group and thanks for you. Have a lovely day, Juliana.