Since it was not too cold, I sat on my front porch for a while, sipping green tea, and reading a couple of chapters from Natalie Goldberg’s Thunder and Lightning: Cracking Open the Writer’s Craft.

I left a while later on my Sunday morning errands and ended up at Starbucks, sipping a coffee while reading Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortensen and David Oliver Relin.  This is the text my women’s book group elected to read for its March gathering.  I am enjoying this one quite a bit.

Now the afternoon was a bit different than my usual Sunday afternoons.  I had an eye on the Superbowl game   At the same time I was doing some housework.   But I did stop for a few minutes and read a bit more from the Goldberg book.

Usually, I do a few minutes of reading to unwind before I fall asleep.  However, last night I was out like a light and did not do that.

Today, I have to work so I won’t be able to spend so much time reading.  This morning, I am doing my 5 am writing (now!); I plan to read a few minutes of Goldberg before I go to work and this evening a few minutes of Mortensen.

So, I am curious:  does anyone else have this habit of reading multiple books at different times of the day?

Havaday.

L. Gloyd (c) 2009

I’s a fun exercise for any writer to do, and under the guidance of an inspired mentor! Why not give it a try and bring your myths to the library for others to enjoy.

What I particularly like about this room is that you get a choice of ways to view the books. My favourite is the Flip Book option which puts the virtual book on your screen and you can turn the pages. Try it with a great book on drawng caricatures

I can see this becoming a much visited room. Thanks Lori!

I found a delightful site for free old books (and it’s not Gutenberg!)

Chest of Books has out of copyright books on many subjects, including craft, gardening and cooking. I was browsing for crafts when I found The American Girl’s Home Book of Work and Play with its wonderful inscribed cover.

New doors will be magically appearing in the Ship’s Library so browsers can pop in any time and wander through collections of books and stories found on the web.

1
Huzza! Hodgson, we are going,
Our embargo’s off at last;
Favourable breezes blowing
Bend the canvass o’er the mast.
From aloft the signal’s streaming,
Hark! the farewell gun is fir’d;
Women screeching, tars blaspheming,
Tell us that our time’s expir’d.
Here’s a rascal
Come to task all,
Prying from the custom-house;
Trunks unpacking
Cases cracking,
Not a corner for a mouse
’Scapes unsearch’d amid the racket,
Ere we sail on board the Packet.

2
Now our boatmen quit their mooring,
And all hands must ply the oar;
Baggage from the quay is lowering,
We’re impatient—push from shore.
“Have a care! that case holds liquor—
Stop the boat—I’m sick—oh Lord!”
“Sick, ma’am, damme, you’ll be sicker,
Ere you’ve been an hour on board.”
Thus are screaming
Men and women,
Gemmen, ladies, servants, Jacks;
Here entangling,
All are wrangling,
Stuck together close as wax.—
Such the genial noise and racket,
Ere we reach the Lisbon Packet.

3
Now we’ve reach’d her, lo! the captain,
Gallant Kidd, commands the crew;
Passengers their berths are clapt in,
Some to grumble, some to spew.
“Hey day! call you that a cabin?
Why ’t is hardly three feet square;
Not enough to stow Queen Mab in—
Who the deuce can harbour there?”
“Who, sir? plenty—
Nobles twenty
Did at once my vessel fill.”
“Did they? Jesus,
How you squeeze us!
Would to God they did so still:
Then I’d ’scape the heat and racket
Of the good ship, Lisbon Packet.”

4
Fletcher! Murray! Bob! where are you?
Stretch’d along the deck like logs—
Bear a hand, you jolly tar, you!
Here’s a rope’s end for the dogs.
Hobhouse muttering fearful curses,
As the hatchway down he rolls,
Now his breakfast, now his verses,
Vomits forth—and damns our souls.
“Here’s a stanza
On Braganza—
Help!”—“A couplet?”—“No, a cup
Of warm water—”
“What’s the matter?”
“Zounds! my liver’s coming up;
I shall not survive the racket
Of this brutal Lisbon Packet.”

5
Now at length we’re off for Turkey,
Lord knows when we shall come back!
Breezes foul and tempests murky
May unship us in a crack.
But, since life at most a jest is,
As philosophers allow,
Still to laugh by far the best is,
Then laugh on—as I do now.
Laugh at all things,
Great and small things,
Sick or well, at sea or shore;
While we’re quaffing,
Let’s have laughing—
Who the devil cares for more?—
Some good wine! and who would lack it,
Ev’n on board the Lisbon Packet?

Next, Natalie Goldberg’s Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within is more ‘why you should write’ than ‘how to write’.  Although there are how-to tips, don’t expect the whole book to be as such.   It is part journal, part philosophy, part writing guide, but if you are stuck and can’t remember why you started writing in the first place, this is the book for you.

Mr Smith is a very fine writer that I thoroughly recommend. This is the first book in a delightful series set in Botswana, where the redoubtable Mma Precious Ramotswe runs the all woman detective agency of the title. The books introduce you to characters that Mr Smith brings to life as radiantly as he does the country of Botswana itself. You will fall in love with Mma Precious Ramotswe, and the pride she takes in her `traditional build’ as I did.

We also have Mr Smith’s other books, including the well loved 44 Scotland Rd series. Once you begin to read his works, I guarantee you will become addicted.