I’m actively reading two books right now. The Amazing Thing about the Way It Goes: Stories of Tidiness, Self-Esteem and Other Things I Gave up On is Stephanie Pearl-McPhee’s 2014 book essays. They feature her typical humorous, yet poignant approach to storytelling, but this time are about things other than knitting. The two essays I read tonight, for instance, were about competing in hurdles back in school and the importance of photos. One or two in a day is about my speed, though, so the book, although small, is lasting me a few days, which is nice. The fiction I’m working on is 2 a.m. at the Cat’s Pajamas by Marie-Helene Bertino. Set around the holidays in modern Philadelphia, it’s the story of a young girl, who’s recently lost her mother and whose father is having issues coping, who wants to sing and the jazz club she discovers is not especially far away. It’s told in alternating points of view from a few different people, including one of her teachers and the club owner, in short chapters according to the time and I haven’t quite figured out how it’s all going to fit together into a cohesive whole. It appeared on several best-of lists last year, though, so I’m hopeful that it does.

I haven’t been knitting much at all the last couple months. I’ve been feeling down and getting past where I’m stuck on every in-progress project seems insurmountable. I know that dealing with that is a two-pronged approach (1) Start a new project and 2) pick one work-in-progress and knit a few rows on it each day until stops being hard/stuck/not done.), but I just haven’t had it in me to match up yarn, needles, and pattern.

I have been poking around Ravelry, though, and one of the designers I follow had a bunch of patterns she wanted test-knit by early February. One of them was a scalloped cowl that seemed more than reasonable to accomplish in three weeks, so I contacted her and downloaded the pattern this evening. I think I’m going to knit it in this pretty single-ply from Plain & Fancy Sheep Company, but we’ll see how it feels once it’s wound up. I also pulled out my Lightning Shawl and may see about making it my first reinstated project of the year.

Yarning along with Ginny.

Today’s Top Ten Tuesdays topic at The Broke and the Bookish is 2014 Releases I Meant To Read But Didn’t Get To:

1. 2 a.m. at the Cat’s Pajamas by Marie-Helene Bertine (currently reading)
2. Endangered by Eliot Schrefer (started but didn’t finish)
3. All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
4. I’ll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson
5. The Eye of Zoltar by Jasper Fforde
6. Salt & Storm by Kendall Kulper
7. Yes Please by Amy Poehler
8. Five, Six, Seven, Nate! by Tim Federle
9. Neil Patrick Harris: Choose Your Own Autobiography
10. An Unnecessary Woman by Rabih Alameddine

I’m looking to get to all these titles this year and am on the wait list at the library for five of the eight titles not currently in my possession.

How about you? Any regrets among new releases you missed last year?

My first Bout of Books has come and gone.

Here’s how I did on my goals:

I’m not sure I read every day, but I definitely read most days. (Things got a little weird in the middle of the week.) Better still, I started pulling out a book at the times when I’ve been more recently reading Twitter or playing games on my phone, like while waiting for the metro.

Page totals and quick thoughts on the books:

• My True Love Gave to Me: 172 pages (This was the only book I finished this week, but I started it on Boxing Day. It really was a superb collection of YA Christmas-themed romance stories. I liked each one and loved quite a few.)
• When I Was the Greatest: 66 (I hit the point where the book was getting stressful & it was overdue to the library, so I returned it a quarter of the way in. I may get it back out or I may not.)
• Christmas at Thompson Hall & Other Christmas Stories: 9 (This was in my bag, so it didn’t get read except during commuting times, but I’m looking forward to reading a the rest of this this week.)
• The Amazing Thing about the Way It Goes: 50 (Non-knitting essays from the Yarn Harlot. It’s okay. Some essays have been funnier than others so far.)
• 2 a.m. at the Cat’s Pajamas: 24 (I feel like the author never met a sentence she didn’t feel couldn’t be improved by her thesaurus, but I’m enjoying it so far. Obviously I’m not far in yet, but I think it’ll be good and I plan to finish it this week.)
• Texts from Jane Eyre and Other Conversations with Your Favorite Literary Characters: 84 (I should really only read this when alone, because I keep wanting to read bit aloud when there’s an audience.)

Without padding and to my great surprise, that means I did hit my page goal for Bout of Books, even if I didn’t read a single whole book during the week. Not bad!

I’m counting my blogging goals as accomplished, too, since technically my mid-week update and this post count.

So, overall, a success! And I took part in the final Twitter chat of the event as a bonus!

I’m looking forward to the next Bout of Books, which is in May. Maybe you’ll consider joining it, too?

A quick update about my Bout of Books progress:

Day 1: I got a little more than 50 pages of When I Was the Greatest by Jason Reynolds, one of the Cybils YA finalists, read. It’s fine, but hasn’t grabbed me.

Day 2: Not much time for reading. I read Holly Black’s story in My True Love Gave To Me, which was less scary than I’d feared it’d be.

Day 3: I started the title story from Anthony Trollope’s Christmas at Thompson Hall & Other Christmas Stories, in addition to reading Gayle Forman’s story in My True Love Gave To Me, which was as cute as I’d expected it to be.

Overall, slower progress than might have been hoped for, but still perfectly acceptable.

I’m in a bit of a reading lull at the moment as I attempt not to hurry through the short stories of My True Love Gave to Me, so I thought I’d sign up for next week’s Bout of Books 12.

The Bout of Books read-a-thon is organized by Amanda @ On a Book Bender and Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal. It is a week long read-a-thon that begins 12:01 a.m. Monday, January 5th, and runs through Sunday, January 11th, in whatever time zone you are in. Bout of Books is low-pressure, and the only reading competition is between you and your usual number of books read in a week. There are challenges, giveaways, and a grand prize, but all of these are completely optional. For all Bout of Books 12 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. – From the Bout of Books team

My 2013 reading output (input?) was nearly 1.25 books or more than 300 pages a week. So I’d say my goals for next week are:

1. To read every day;
2. To finish two books OR to read 400 pages; and
3. To blog about books at least twice next week. (The posts do not need to be long, and all topical posts do not have to relate to my current reading.)

I have two finalists from this year’s Cybils Award due back to the library this week, a shiny pile of literary Christmas presents, and a plethora of languishing titles in my To Be Read mountains to choose from. I look forward to seeing what I settle on as my starting read at midnight.

Feel like reading along, too? Goal-setting is optional and non-binding. You can sign up at the link above.

Happy Boxing Day! Did you have a relaxing day after Christmas/Friday? I did. I didn’t leave my parents’ house. I read two stories from one of the new books Rudi gave me for Christmas (My True Love Gave To Me (appropriate, right?!)), hung out with loved ones, did a crossword puzzle, made a batch of cookies, ate leftovers, and watched The Hundred-Foot Journey (which we all enjoyed and heartily recommend). I did not wrap a single present, drive long distances, get up early, or do any shopping. It was lovely.

(If you normally receive my Christmas mix or a Christmas card from me, but haven’t yet, I’m behind, but am working on it. I hope to get caught up this weekend.)

In the meantime, may I offer you some (90 minutes of) ear candy of another sort? Here is Neil Gaiman reading Charles Dickens’ personal script to the readings he did of A Christmas Carol, the action of which ends on Boxing Day: