Tonight has been an evening of starts and finishes. I plowed through the final 100 pages of Katie Fforde’s Practically Perfect, a sweet romance set in an English village where Anna has just bought a cottage she’s renovating. There’s not a lot in the way of character development, particularly once you reach the secondary characters, but I didn’t mind. It wasn’t overly treacly, and I found myself missing the characters when I opted to take a different book with me to Connecticut last weekend.

While in Connecticut I finished the cowl I was test knitting (and which I’ll share with you once I have the designer’s go-ahead to do so), so needed either to cast on something new or pick up something old. I opted for both by pulling out my Lightning Shawl, which is knit in strips. Yes, I did cast on the next strip just for the sake of the blog post. And, yes, it took me three tries to realize that I’d used a different cast-on than what I’d expected on the previous strips. But we’re good now (I hope) and it’s not out of the question that this could be done in time to take with me to Hungary as a completed accessory.

Part of the problem with the end of the year is that it is chockablock full of best-of book lists. My poor friends on Goodreads know how much I enjoy them, adding multiple books to my to-read list daily and probably 100 over the season. In addition to adding them virtually, I also start requesting books from the library. This is fine for certain books, where hundreds of folks are in front of me in the queue, but more of a problem for books that are checked in and idling on the shelves of various branches of the D.C. Public Library.

I’ve had probably half a dozen books come in each week for the last month. (I have books sent to the main branch near my office for weekday pickups and the Georgetown branch for a weekend trip.) This means I currently have 27 physical books out*, 2 more waiting for me at the library, and five audio books on my phone.

Before you start offering the obvious advice, I do look over the pile each week, assessing the likelihood I’ll actually get to each one and whether it would make more sense to request it again later in the year. I’ve returned some that I know I just won’t get to, but I hold out hope that I’ll magically gain some extra hours in the day and continue to hoard the rest.

It’s seriously unlikely I can squeeze in 29 books before I head to Hungary next month. After all, I do have other hobbies and favorite tv shows and loved ones and a job and a bed competing for my time. It’s a problem.

But, without a doubt, it is a good problem to have.

Book Riot has created a reading challenge for 2014 that calls for participants to read books that cover 24 areas designed to broaden our horizons.

These “tasks” are as follows:

A book written by someone when they were under the age of 25

A book written by someone when they were over the age of 65

A collection of short stories (either by one person or an anthology by many people)

A book published by an indie press

A book by or about someone that identifies as LGBTQ

A book by a person whose gender is different from your own

A book that takes place in Asia

A book by an author from Africa

A book that is by or about someone from an indigenous culture (Native Americans, Aboriginals, etc.)

A microhistory

A YA novel

A sci-fi novel

A romance novel

A National Book Award, Man Booker Prize or Pulitzer Prize winner from the last decade

A book that is a retelling of a classic story (fairytale, Shakespearian play, classic novel, etc.)

An audiobook

A collection of poetry

A book that someone else has recommended to you

A book that was originally published in another language

A graphic novel, a graphic memoir or a collection of comics of any kind

A book that you would consider a guilty pleasure (Read, and then realize that good entertainment is nothing to feel guilty over)

A book published before 1850

A book published this year

A self-improvement book (can be traditionally or non-traditionally considered “self-improvement”)

Interestingly, the task I see myself having the hardest time with is the guilty pleasure. What would that be for me? I’m not inclined to feel guilty about what I read, so maybe I’ll categorize that as something someone else might feel guilty about. (In checking out the discussion on this topic in Goodreads, I see others with similar concerns have suggested impulse buys and re-reads as ways to fill this category.)

There has been no knitting the last few days. I was washing the mandolin on Monday night and sliced my finger with it. It wasn’t especially deep, but it’s taking its time healing since it’s right where I keep opening it back up by typing and washing.

Hopefully, we’ll be back in the saddle again tomorrow or so. When we are, I’ll be casting on a new pair of socks in this yarn, The Fiberists’ Audubon Sport in the Cornus florida colorway:

I’m still working my way through Signed, Sealed, Delivered, reading a chapter every few days. I’m enjoying reading about letters through history. Tonight’s chapter talked about how letters have been used to convict/implicate suspects in crimes, including the Lindbergh baby kidnapping. I put Neil Patrick Harris’ Choose Your Own Autobiography down for a few days in favor of tearing through the first volume of Ms. Marvel (loved it!), but I anticipate being done with it by Sunday, given NPH’s breezy style and the short “chapters.”

Yarning along about books and crafting with Ginny.
 

In honor of the upcoming Valentine’s Day holiday and to combat my continuing low mood, I’m looking for some suggestions of love stories to read.

Before you hop down to the comments, let me clarify: I want a book that leaves you smiling at the end. Think Rainbow Rowell, Jane Austen, or Gayle Forman. (I’m already thinking David Levithan and Stephanie Perkins.)

The biggest caveat is that I don’t want a tragedy. A little sadness is okay, so long as the overall tone is a positive one. (Think The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, for example, over Code Name Verity.)

Thanks!

Look! It’s actual knitting I’ve done this week! I mean, it’s a pathetic amount (and horribly lit, sorry about that), but given how little I’ve knit the last month, I’m pleased. Plus, because it’s a test knit of a cowl pattern, I know it’ll get done in the next couple weeks.

The book I started over the weekend as I was nearing the end of a couple others. It’s Nina Bankovitch’s Signed, Sealed, Delivered: Celebrating the Joys of Letter Writing. I’m only through the introduction and first chapter, but I’m enjoying it so far.