Book Binge, and a Cat

Today being my only day off in the foreseeable future, I spent the morning and early afternoon on a leisurely walk through my neighborhood. Four books, dropped off at the library. One tasty breakfast at Gone Wired, featuring the best-tasting bacon of my life, a little too much coffee for comfort and a quiet hour in which I savored the ending of Ernest Callenbach's Ecotopia.

This book is a treasure. I'm adding it to my Top 10 book list.

I just sauntered on home from Everybody Reads, my wonderful neighborhood book shop, on the eastern side of Lansing. It was a longer walk than usual, what with my bag-o-books weighing me down. Wanna see what I got?!

An ARC of Martha Cooley's The Archivist
Dorothy Allison's Cavedweller (Never heard of it, but am so intrigued!)
Elizabeth Gaskell's Sylvia's Lovers
Witold Rybczynski's Waiting for the Weekend (A study of leisure time and "the freedom to do nothing," from Roman times to modern day. I loved learning about this massive change in society in the 20th century, and can't wait to crack this baby open!)
Ken Kesey's Sometimes a Great Notion
Hunter S. Thompson's The Great Shark Hunt (!)
Beppe Severgnini's Ciao, America! : An Italian Discovers the U.S.
The Awakened Warrior: Living with Courage, Compassion & Discipline (ed. Rick Fields)
In the Company of Others: Making Community in the Mondern World (ed. Claude Whitmyer)

These were all gently used paperbacks, and even though I insisted upon paying double their asking price, I still managed to get out of Everybody Reads without spending more than $10 - and I got a neat bumper sticker, too!

Other books I've acquired in the last few weeks include:
Kwame Anthony Appiah's The Honor Code: How Moral Revolutions Happen
James Redfield's The Celestine Prophecy
Dan Millman's Sacred Journey of the Peaceful Warrior
Alice Miller's Thou Shalt Not be Aware: Society's Betrayl of the Child
J.G. Ballard's The Crystal World
Rick Steves's Travel as a Political Act
Shiva Naipaul's Beyond the Dragon's Mouth
Elinore Pruitt Stewart's Letters of a Woman Homesteader (So good, so far!)
Rebecca Ann Collins's The Pemberley Chronicles (Yeah, I know...)
John Mortimer's The Summer of a Dormouse: Another Part of Life
Krishnalal Shirdharani's My India, My America (Introduction by Louis Bromfield!)

I hope to read them all eventually, but I obviously acquire more books than I can read. I'll have to take a photo of the book shelves sometime soon, to share some of my double-stacking storage techniques. Even still, I have boxes and boxes of books stashed in a closet. Two closets, actually.

All of these books makes it difficult to get more writing done. I'm working on a novel, as always.
What makes it different this time, though, is that soon I will have an actual writing space, a place of my own without the seduction of internet, candy or a stack of books. The goal is to keep this desk clear, save for a mug of pens and a cushy spot for cats to snooze on the sunny windowsill.

It's a damn good thing that Nova, our new little adoptee from the Lansing Area Humane Society, can happily co-habitate with so many books. Footage of the little cat to come soon, as well. I'd upload some now, but she's being so darn affectionate, curled up on my lap.