I apologize for the sporadic posting of late. I have been quite overwhelmed with several crazy deadlines, special events, and, of course, trip preparations. Doesn’t it always seem like the two weeks before a big trip are always the most stressful weeks possible? Several times in the last fourteen days, it crossed my mind that going on vacation may not ever be worth the stress that precedes and follows it. But I know, deep down, that this is not true.
It is, however, a running joke between me and E that we are always more tired after our vacations that we were at the start. That’s because we have an inability to sit around and relax when we’re on vacation. We always have to be moving, seeing something, eating something, or planning something.
But this week, as I was thinking of this, I realized the simple truth that for us, the purpose of going on vacations is not to relax. For some, relaxing is the main purpose of time off. For us, traveling is more about broadening our minds and experiencing things that allow us to walk away changed, either with new knowledge or new insight. This can happen anywhere, as long as we’re out and about with our eyes and minds open.
We should experience plenty in the next two weeks while we’re in Taiwan and Japan. I’m bringing the Kyoto guidebook with us so we can read about each place our tour takes us to. Since the tour will be conducted in Mandarin, I’m a little concerned about understanding historical or geographical vocabulary. A guidebook will be very useful, I think.
We take off on Sunday, so I’ll say goodbye for now. I may stop in and say hello during the next two weeks, but I’m not sure what my internet situation will be. I will for sure resume posting in April, though. See you then!
Recently I have read a great book, The Anybodies. After reading the first page, I couldn’t let go of it. It was so good, that I decided that it was one of my favorites and was worthy to be one of my favorites. The Anybodies, by N. E. Bode, was a great book to read.
There was a girl named Fern who was accidentally swapped at birth. She found out when, one day, her read dad came to unswap the children. Fern’s father was able to strike a deal with Fern’s other extremely dull “parents” to exchange the children for the summer. During the summer, Fern found out that she and her father were anybodies, people who can turn into anybody or anything and could turn anything into other things. She found out about the art of being an anybody and fought the Miser, a sinister anybody. In that summer with her read dad, Fern learned many lessons that were important to her.
This book was creatively written by a great writer. The story was described in great detail by the author, N. E. Bode. Many things were described so well that I could imagine what was happening. He added a lot of humor in, like when Fern just met her real father, and she was starting to wonder if he was actually her father. This book is very suspenseful, but at the same time, humorous. If you are looking for a good book to pass the time with, this is the book to read.
Although The Anybodies is so beautifully written, sometimes it isn’t so easy to follow the story. The author mentions things from other books and, if you haven’t read those books, you would not know what he is talking about. Also, the story line is a bit confusing because the author does not explain about the anybodies too well. You’d probably need to read the story very carefully in order to be able to follow along. However, I still think this is a great book.
In conclusion, this is an interesting book to read. However, you will have to put in a little extra effort in reading in order to follow the story. In my opinion, although this book has a few flaws, I still think that this book is going to remain one of my favorites from now on. It can also become many other peoples’ favorite. This book can make a great addition to any library.
It’s official. We have our wilderness permits for climbing Mt. Whitney, the tallest mountain in the continental United States, and the big day will be August 19.
This wasn’t my idea. E came up with it a few months ago and his best friend immediately jumped on board. So I had to make a decision: either I would have to participate in this grueling, 20-hour, high-altitude climb or I would have to stay behind and wait. I hate staying behind.
So I’m going to climb Mt. Whitney, and I’m going to be terrified for the next five months about getting into shape for this Insanity Trek. Some facts to consider: The Mt. Whitney Trail, one of nine routes up the east side of the mountain, begins at 8,365 feet. It rises 6306 vertical feet over a trail length of 11 miles. According to our book, Mount Whitney: The Complete Trailhead-to-Summit Hiking Guide by Paul Richins, Jr., the ascent should take 11.8 hours. And that’s just going up. Our plan is to reach the top and return back to our camp in a single day.
As soon as we return from Asia, we should start our training routine. What that will be, I have no clue, but it will probably involve running around the neighborhood, hiking up the big hills and small mountains of the Bay Area, and doing some higher-altitude hiking up in the Sierras this summer. In July we’ll climb Half Dome at Yosemite National Park as a warm-up.
I haven't read this book, but I really like the title. It sums up my week.
I had a completely surreal and upsetting week involving an unpleasant customer and several angry email exchanges that just ruined about three days straight for me. Not only was what he wrote upsetting, but it made me start questioning my ability to do my job and function in society as a whole.
He had then inexplicably cc-ed a copy of his own side of our correspondence to a mutual colleague, who called me yesterday, aghast as the rudeness of his email. She said that she had had a similar falling out with him earlier this year, as had many other people she knew. I was so glad to find out it wasn't just me that I was as shaken as I had been when I first recieved his email.
In addition to my emotional rollercoaster week, I have been madly finishing up the design for our spring catalog, getting printers and mailing lists in order, finishing up the design for the next book to be published, entertaining our out-of-town guests, having company for dinners, going to meetings, and preparing for our trip. If I recall, the two weeks before a big vacation are always the most stressful. I often begin thinking, why am I doing this? Wouldn't it be easier just to stay home?
But this will pass. I will get through it, and the trip will be amazing, and everything will be alright. Eventually.
Just came home from an NCCBA meeting. I would link that acronym to a website for the Northern California Children's Booksellers Association, but there isn't one. Part of the meeting was devoted to the planning and design of our website, which would be a very handy thing to have in times like these.
Another chunk of time at the meeting was devoted to author presentations. Each month, up to three authors are invited to talk about their upcoming titles. This is a great place to do it, because almost everyone at the meeting is an independent children's bookseller interested in both great new titles and promoting local authors.
Today's guests were Wendy Lichtman and Lisa Shulman. Lisa showed us two of her upcoming books, one of which was The Moon Might Be Milk. This is a really cute and clever story about a little girl, Rosie, who sees the bright full moon and wonders what it is made of. Each animal she asks has a different answer: the cat thinks it's a saucer of milk, the hen thinks it's an egg, etc. But she is not convinced, and goes to ask her grandmother.
Rosie's grandmother hears out all the animal's opinions, and considers each item as she adds it to a big bowl. Before long, Rosie realizes that the ingredients in the bowl will soon be her favorite cookies: big, pale, moon-shaped sugar cookies. So that's what the moon is made of.
The booksellers were charmed, or at least made appropriate encouraging noises. Lisa told us that she was so glad to see the book being released because it had been a long, long time coming. She had sold the manuscript in 1999. The Moon Might Be Milk by Lisa Shulman, illustrated by Will Hillenbrand
By special request I am guest blogger today. You all may know me as DH or E… Well R is feeling a little blue today and I think that’s ironic because I was not too happy the last few days. Aside from having a cold, I had a test in my Mandarin class to worry about, in the next two weeks I have to figure out what to do when I grow up, we’re going on vacation (but I don’t have a job, how can I have a vacation?) and I need to clean my room and the garage.
Anyway, yesterday R brought home a new book (that happens a lot) for me (that, not so often). It was appropriately titled My Friend Is Sad by Mo Willems. In this book, Gerald the elephant is sad and his friend Piggie (uh, the pig) tries in vain to cheer him up. My favorite illustrations are those of Gerald uttering the “Ohhh…” of deep despair that comes directly from the soul. Ohhh…
I won’t to spoil the ending but I will say that Gerald is happy once again, at least temporarily. I think Gerald and I share some traits so he will likely find a reason to be sad again. But since his best friend Piggie wants him to be happy, I am confident he will be. Hey, that sounds a lot like me and DW, or should I say, me and R…
Our friends K&M are visiting from the Washington D.C. Don’t you love how when your friends are on vacation, you feel like you’re on vacation too? I went to work today, but I really didn’t get much work done. Otherwise, we ate a lot, hung out, saw the Reduced Shakespeare Company’s “History of America Abridged” show, ate even more… you know how it is.
K&M are actually in town for five days to visit possible wedding sites around the San Francisco bay area and Napa. There is no shortage of fun things to talk about around here.
As a thank you to E and me, they brought a small gift: a book, of course. In keeping with the DC theme and our many years of political distress, they brought us Bush-Whacked: Chronicles of Government Stupidity by Leland Gregory.
Bushwacked is full of anecdotes and quotes, mostly of Bush-related stupidity but also including that of other governmental figures. Each page features one story, quote, or exchange with comments. While some people find these anecdotes funny, I have trouble reading them without getting angry. After seven years of G.W. Bush, I am just done.
Here’s a random page:
“I want it to be said that the Bush administration was a results-oriented administration, because I believe the results of focusing our attention and energy on teaching children to read and having an education system that’s responsive to the child and to the parents, as opposed to mired in a system that refuses to change, will make America what we want it to be, a literature country and a hopefuller country.”
-George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., January 11, 2001
In honor of our visit to Japan in... about two weeks... E has decided Shogun by James Clavell will be his "vacation book." I'm not sure if he has realized that it's a 1210-page book, but I guess if we're going to be spending a total of twenty-some-odd hours on airplanes, better too long than too short. So today I found a copy on Bookmooch for him, and hopefully it will arrive before we leave.
I apologize for the sporadic posting of late. I have been quite overwhelmed with several crazy deadlines, special events, and, of course, trip preparations. Doesn’t it always seem like the two weeks before a big trip are always the most stressful weeks possible? Several times in the last fourteen days, it crossed my mind that going on vacation may not ever be worth the stress that precedes and follows it. But I know, deep down, that this is not true.
feed me