Even Walden had to have booksheves!

Whether you own two books, eight hundred books, or plan on someday owning a book, you, no doubt, need a bookcase. I found this great site that shares 20 creative bookshelf ideas! Some extravegant, some pratical, and some just down right... different.. these are all great! (My favorite is the first one!) Check 'em out!
Click Here

Ex Libris..

I would love to have a book plate like this.From the library of Hannah Nelson.

I think these are so cool. Ever since I bought those Shakespeare books at D.I. with the old book plates in the front.
I found the design on this website


Also my sister-in-law found this adorable picture and says that she knows one day I will be throwing parties like this.

B.J. you are so right!!! What a fun idea!
(Notice what the table runner is made out of)



In church today, in a lesson in Relief Society, the teacher quoted Jane Eyre. I wasn't actually in the lesson (I was teaching the four year olds... so cute..) but my mom shared it with me afterwards. I love that book, but this made me realize how much I have forgotten of it! I need to read it again.

Mr. Rochester is asking her to move in with him.
(Mr. Rochester to Jane) "'You make me a liar by such language: you sully my honour. I declared I could not change: you tell me to my face I shall change soon. And what distortion in your judgement, what perversity in your ideas, is proved by your conduct! Is it better to drive a fellow-creature to despair than to transgress a mere human law- no man being injured by the breach? for you have neither relatives nor acquantances whom you need fear to offend by living with me.'

This was true: and while he spoke my very conscience and reason turned traitors against me, and charged me with crime in resisting him. They spoke almost as loud as Feeling: and that clamoured wildly. 'Oh, comply!' it said. 'Think of his misery; think of his danger- look at his state when left alone; remember his headlong nature; consider the recklessness following on despair- soothe him; save him; love him; tell him you love him and will be his. Who in the world cares for you? or who will be injured by what you do?'

Still indomitable was the reply- 'I care for myself. The more solitary, the more friendless, the more unsustained I am, the more I will respect myself. I will keep the law given by God; sanctioned by man. I will hold to the principles recieved by me when I was sane, and not mad- as I am now. Laws and principles are not for the times when there is no tempation: they are for such moments as this, when body and soul rise in mutiny against their rigour; stringent are they; inviolate they shall be. If at my individual convenience I might break them, what would be thier worth? They have a worth- so I have always believed; and if I cannot believe it now, it is because I am insane- quite insane: with my veins running fire, and my heart beating faster than I can count its throbs. Preconceived opinions, foregone determinations, are all I have at this hour to stand by: there I plant my foot."

Beautiful.

Lousy Lessons, Lovely Largess, Liking&Longing, and T.J.

I just finished another Children's Literature (the class I am taking presently) book, From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg. I am usually a push over for books of any kind: a lover of the words, a nut for the story, best friends with the characters, just in love with the whole thing! Not this time though... What started out with elements of a cute and funny children's story, actually turns out to be, in my opinion, kind of a terrible message for kids. These kids run away from home because they are mad at their parents for doing... nothing. They don't care how it is making them feel really- worried, scared, "frantic"- they sneak around, feel proud of tricking the adults, break in, lie, steal money, and the ending thought of the book is about keeping secrets. The old lady they look up to encourages them to ignore their conscience and find happiness in having your special secret. And the two kids argue the entire time, which is also made to seem like an acceptable thing.. I kinda feel like these are not.. good things, to be teaching kids...
That makes it sound like an all together horrid book.. it was not. On a more positive side, it was great writing. Such fun diction for children and an interesting way to tell the story. The whole book was actually a letter from the narrator to her lawyer. And she loves these children. Konigsburg definitely has a talent with words and plot! My favorite line of the book was,

"lying in bed just before going to sleep is the worst time for organized thinking; it is the best time for free thinking. Ideas drift like clouds in an undecided breeze, taking first this direction and then that."

So true.

Now I am on to the next book: Number the Stars by Lois Lowry. I am so excited for this book because I have been wanting to read some Lowry ever since I had the chance to meet her and listen to her speak to a little gathering of students at my school! It was amazing! She is amazing! And I learned a lot about her, how and why she writes, and little tidbits about the background of her books, like where the picture of the girl on the cover of Number the Stars comes from. Apparently she tried out photography for a while and photographed this beautiful young lady a long time ago. Mrs. Lowry is really fun too.

So those are my most recent book adventures.

This made me very happy:
Today, I got a package in the mail that I was not expecting. It was from my cousin in Utah. (Me, my cousin, and her husband a few years ago)
Last time her and I we're together we had lovely one o'clock in the morning discussions about our favorite stories! It was so fun and she has such a great collection of books (organized beautifully by color in her adorable house)! Well, in this package, she sent me a picture she said "fits me perfectly" and that I just love! It is already framed and on my wall. Here it is.
All of those books have real titles on them and then the quote in the middle is by Thomas Jefferson, who I already greatly respect. It says, "I cannot live with books" I love that he said that!! So fun!
And it goes perfectly with my room, which over the past few months has accumulated a bit of a theme... She knows me well.

This is a lamp made out of old book pages decoupaged onto a lamp shade. I got the idea from someone on etsy.com! So easy and fun! It is sitting on two of the books I have used for ripping apart and covering in glue.

The bookshelves my dad helped me make (or really the other way around...). More books have started sneaking themselves into other parts of my room as well now.. shelves in my nightstand, my closet, on top and inside my amoir.. I can't help it. I guess I am preparing to fill that dream library of mine!
Cool thing is that most of these books have been gifts or old antique books or just used books. They are each a story within a story!


The new collection of books that I am just dying for is this...
The Penguin Classics hardcover collection. It is Jane Austen, Charolette Bronte, Homer, Charles Dickens, and many more delightful authors and stories in these just beautiful covers!

If I had to choose just one from this collection, it would definitely be Jane Eyre. I have been looking for a copy of Jane Eyre that I liked for years! After I read the book, and fell in love with it, I knew I had to find just the right one to add to my collection, and the only ones I have ever found have those old paintings of dramatic lovers or are very plain or something else undesirable and unfitting for a story like this one! Then one day, low and behold, there it sat, in my school's bookstore, just calling my name. That is, until I turned it upside down and saw the price tag... I am a college student after all...

As dear Thomas Jefferson said,
"I cannot live without my books"

I completely agree Mr. Jefferson.

Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I loved this book! Such a great story of a young boy who learns a lot about life, relationships, and the world. Really interesting historical fiction as well. It is about a boy, Johnny Tremain, who was an apprentice to a silversmith in Boston in the 1760's. He ends up getting involved with Paul Revere, Samuel Adams, and other men and becomes as passionate as they were about freedom for themselves and their posterity. He learns the importance of home and his people in the colonies. Such a heart warming tale.

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