Next Shelf
The kids will be awake soon, so I won’t have time to do a whole shelf, but Scott (of all people! he sees these shelves every day) has been clamoring for another bookshelf post, so here goes.
Same bookcase, third shelf down:
My Charlotte Mason series: her six books, shelved here for easy access. I return to these over and over again.
A boxed set of Edward Eager novels: Half Magic, Knight’s Castle, Magic by the Lake, The Time Garden.
Not that I can actually see any of the above right now, since Scott has a bunch of music CDs stacked in front of them. But I know they’re there.
Then comes one of the several Lord of the Rings sets we own. Scott and I both brought copies into the marriage, but I think this set is much newer, a Christmas gift to one of the girls a couple of years ago.
An Old-Fashioned Girl by Louisa May Alcott.
And then my favorite Alcott, Little Men.
Mystery Train by Greil Marcus, “generally considered the first truly scholarly exploration of rock and roll, its history, its importance, and its uniquely American properties,” says my husband. I haven’t read this one, can you tell?
A biography of Richard Wagner by Robert W. Gutman. Scott’s read it, I haven’t.
Elvissey by Jack Womack. Has a library sticker on the spine so must be something Scott picked up on the discard pile. He reads a lot about music, as you can see.
Rowan of Rin by Emily Rodda, the first book in a favorite series of my girls.
The Brownie and the Princess, a collection of stories by Louisa May Alcott. I’ve not read it yet. Jane enjoyed it. She says a couple of the stories are set during the Revolutionary War. The title story, she says, is very sweet.
Exile on Main Street and In the Aeroplane Over the Sea, two books in a series called 33 1/3, which is a collection of small books, each by a different author and about a single record album. Scott has really been enjoying these lately. I’m seeing them all over the house.
Latin for Children DVDs.
And then a sideways stack of craft and home arts books:
Mrs. Sharp’s Traditions by Sarah Ban Breathnach.
Festivals, Family, and Food
Crafts Through the Year by Thomas and Petra Berger.
Knitted Animals
Magical Window Stars
The Nature Corner
Rose Windows
Of the craft books, Rose Windows and Magical Window Stars are the ones we’ve used the most. We made a ton of the stars last year for Advent decorations. As I mentioned in the comments below (I am adding this later), these days I am more likely to turn to the internet than to books for seasonal and liturgical craft and recipe ideas.
I’ll try to come back later and add authors and Goodreads links and maybe some commentary to these titles, but morning has broken* and I need to get a move on.
*Whoops, glanced at this hours later and see that I never hit ‘publish.’
nina says:
I’m enjoying this series very much. I’m wondering how long it took you to get your shelves orgainzed once you moved into your new house. We’ve been in our new (“rented” which adds a whole dimension to organization) house four months and my shelves are still in a jumble.
On September 26, 2008 at 11:08 am
mamacrow says:
how I loved ‘an oldfashioned girl!’ I discovered it as an adult, and it’s sequal (name escapes me) is great too.
You know, what this house really lacks is a set of L M Alcott…
On September 26, 2008 at 12:06 pm
Mama Squirrel says:
You have Festivals, Families and Food too? That’s the one I’m using with Crayons this year–as I said, though, in a limited way–a lot of it’s too far into the Waldorf/Mother Earth for me. What do you think of it?
I’ll have to check out that Greil Marcus book for Mr. Fixit–sounds like something he’d like.
On September 26, 2008 at 4:50 pm
Melissa Wiley says:
Nina, re how long it took to get our books organized after we moved here–
I don’t think I even attempted to sort them the first year, though I’d have to hunt back through the blog to see when I did the big rearrange all over the house that got the books into an order we loosely maintain. Actually, I could date it by when I started my Library Thing account, because it was shortly after that that my friend Laurie loaned me her CueCat (which I still have, gulp) and it was after cataloging the first 300 books that I got fed up with having to hunt through the whole house every time I wanted a specific book and did the Big Sort.
Of course in a house with kids the books are never going to stay in their assigned seats. 😉 I do a re-sort about once a month.
We are overdue for one again. But if I start moving things around now, I’ll mess up my one-shelf-at-a-time series, won’t I!
On September 26, 2008 at 7:30 pm
Melissa Wiley says:
Mama Squirrel wrote: You have Festivals, Families and Food too? That’s the one I’m using with Crayons this year–as I said, though, in a limited way–a lot of it’s too far into the Waldorf/Mother Earth for me. What do you think of it?
I’m with you–there is much in there that is not my cup of tea. With the Waldorfy craft & recipe books, I have felt like I could pull out what worked for me and ignore the rest. I find I’m much less inclined to use them than I once was, though, and I’ve been thinking about purging several to clear some space on our overcrowded shelves.
Anyway, nowadays it’s so easy to find seasonal recipes and crafts on the internet…mostly I just go dig around Alice’s blog and see what she was doing this time last year. 😉
On September 26, 2008 at 7:34 pm
patience says:
Wonderful 🙂
On September 26, 2008 at 10:15 pm
Jen Lynch says:
“Little Men” is my favorite too! I credit it as the book that planted the seeds of unschooling in me. Evie loved “The Brownie and the Princess.” The Alcott home, Orchard House, is a wonderful place to visit if your ever in the Concord, MA area. Fruitlands is where we had our rehearsal dinner before our wediing. I am a bit of an Alcott nut and my husband’s family is from that part of MA–lucky me!
On September 27, 2008 at 2:55 am
Karen Edmisten says:
This is a fun series. I do love to browse other people’s bookshelves. 🙂
On September 27, 2008 at 5:39 am
Heather says:
Edgar Eager books delighted me as a kid, I can’t believe I haven’t remembered to turn my own kids on to them. Thaks for the reminder!!
On September 27, 2008 at 4:50 pm
Susan Gaissert says:
Little Men is my favorite Alcott, too. I even wrote a blog post about how Jo March is one of my favorite unschoolers.
On September 30, 2008 at 6:54 pm
Kim says:
I was wondering what one called those star things so we could track down a book!
On October 2, 2008 at 2:35 pm