I’ve never understood the desire to share a best-of reading (or listening or watching or whatever) list before the very last opportunity to add to it. There is still nearly three weeks left in the year, which leaves me enough time to read ten more books that could supplant those leading my pack right now.

Which is the long way of saying I won’t be doing today’s Top Ten Tuesday topic until the end of the month. So, instead, I’ll share my responses to last week’s topic at The Broke and the Bookish, which asked which bookish settings would you like to visit?

• The Weasleys’ Burrow: I nicknamed our apartment after it. (Also, Hogwarts. Also, Diagon Alley. Also, Hogsmeade.)
• Book World in Jasper Fforde’s Thursday Next series.
• Prince Edward Island, based on the Anne books (and raidergirl3’s photos and descriptions).
• The eponymous Secret Garden.
• Wild Cat Island from Swallows and Amazons.
• Guernsey.
• The Night Circus (Even if I’d have to buy some black & white clothes to wear).
• The Polar Express.
• Queens Museum of Art (to see the miniature version of New York City)
• Rivendell. Or maybe Lothlorian. Or maybe just the Shire.

On a related note, I own a book called Storybook Travels, which offers 30 real itineraries for favorite children’s books, including A Bear Called Paddington, Eloise, and The Watsons Go to Birmingham.

How about you? What bookish places would you like to step into?

Coffeeneuring Ride #8: Cleveland Park Library (4340 Connecticut Ave., N.W.) and Baked by Yael (3000 Connecticut Ave., N.W.)

Sunday, Nov. 19; 3.3 miles

Hot chocolate, everything bagel, raspberry cake pop (more…)

Coffeeneuring Ride #7: Juanita Thornton Library (7420 Georgia Ave., N.W.) and Ten Tigers Parlour (3813 Georgia Ave., N.W.)

Saturday, Nov. 18; 11.9 miles

Keemun Tea

Next on my list of libraries to visit was the Juanita Thornton branch in Shepherd Park near the northern border of the city. Thornton was a retired teacher and neighborhood activist who helped convince the city to build a library on this spot instead of a Wendy’s. (This is particularly relevant since there is a McDonald’s literally across the street from the property.) The library opened in 1990 and was rededicated in her honor after her death two years later. (more…)

Coffeeneuring Ride #5: Benning (Dorothy I. Height) Library (3935 Benning Road, N.E.) and Mason Dixie Biscuit Co. (2301 Bladensburg Rd., N.E.)

Saturday, Oct. 21; 17.4 miles

Arnold Palmer (iced tea & lemonade), biscuit

The Benning (Dorothy Height) Library opened in 2010 and was designed by the same firm that did the Shaw Library. It’s dedicated to Dorothy Height, a civil rights and women’s rights activist who headed up the National Council of Negro Women for 40 years and who spent the latter years of her life in D.C. (Interestingly, this is at least the fourth building in D.C. named in her honor. The others I’m aware of include a post office, an elementary school, and the NCNW headquarters.)

It’s an airy space, designed with a lot of copper on the outside to capture the afternoon sun and beautiful murals on the inside. The ones that line the kids’ section were done by the local artist coalition/nonprofit Life Pieces to Masterpieces. (more…)

I’m done knitting my Little Pumpkin socks and have a talk to attend later this morning, where having a project to work on will be helpful, so I’ve grabbed some Marathon sock yarn in green and white sparkly yarn to cast on a pair of socks with. (I really wish I could figure out where that missing stripey yarn is…)

All the Birds in the Sky and I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter are both overdue with holds on them at the library, so I’m hoping to quickly get through them both and hand them back in for the next person. Obviously, if I feel like that’s going to take more than a couple days, I’ll just return them, but I’d really rather get to finish them.

Head over to As Kat Knits for more posts on knitting and reading.

I forgot to take photos of the Georgetown Library interior when I was there on this day, so the indoor shots are all from a month later.

Coffeeneuring Ride #2: Georgetown Neighborhood Library (3260 R St., N.W.) and Boulangerie Christophe (1422 Wisconsin Ave., N.W.)

Sunday, Oct. 15; 3.5 miles

Tea, chocolate chip Viennoise

The Georgetown Neighborhood Library has been my regular library for the past couple years, when the West End branch closed for renovations. I usually stop by once a week or so and then often head down to the waterfront to read for a while.

The building was opened in 1935 and used to be a much darker place. (I wrote a paper on Siddhartha there when I was a senior in high school visiting my dad, who was working in D.C. at that time.) But it had a fire in 2007 (coincidentally the same day Eastern Market suffered a similarly devastating fire) and was rebuilt at that time, reopening in 2010.

The building sits atop a crest of Wisconsin Avenue, giving it lovely views of the surrounding area. The park behind the library gives the neighborhood its name, Book Hill, and usually is the first place I see spring bulbs forming. (more…)