Knitting and Reading Round Up – Week 12 of 2020

How many times have I said how much I love Wednesdays? I love them! I participate in two link ups on Wednesdays:

• Kat at As Kat Knits hosts Unraveled Wednesday: a weekly gathering of readers and knitters to share their current reads and projects; and
• Sam at Taking on a World of Words hosts WWW Wednesday. The Ws stand for: What are you currently reading? What have you recently finished? and What do you think is next?

Please go visit their blogs and check out the other bloggers participating today!

Reading

Finished This Week:

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The Anne books are the perfect antidote to everything going on right now. Anne of the Island is no exception — Anne has left Avonlea for college and meets a variety of new people. I was struck by how well Anne kept in touch with people from home without social media, texts, or email. They all wrote letters to the people they cared about! I wish we did more of that.

I was nervous about reading another Wendell Berry because I was worried that it wouldn’t live up to my first love by him, Jayber Crow. But I was totally wrong to be worried – Hannah Coulter was just as amazing. Wendell Berry is an incredible writer and I am so excited to pick up more Port William novels.

Abandoned This Week:

My first abandoned book of the year! Bye bye to The Voyage of the Dawn Treader AND the rest of the Chronicles of Narnia. I realized that I was gritting my teeth and rolling my eyes when I was reading this. There’s no reason I have to read this series and I’m not enjoying it – so I’m letting this commitment go!

Currently Reading:

House of Trelawney is good fun so far! This is a castle in Cornwall that has been in the same family for 800 years. It’s massive and contains so much history – yet, the family has absolutely no means to take care of it OR pay their bills. On top of it all, the novel is set in 2008 and, as we know, there is about to be a massive meltdown in the financial industry which is about to add to the chaos of the Trelawneys.

Up Next:

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A Literary Education will be a reread for me. I’m hoping for a Charlotte Mason refresher and to be reminded about some strategies for fitting in even more reading for the kids. I’d like to minimize the TV use over the next few weeks (months?!) and am hoping to get some ideas here.

Housekeeping will be a new read for me! I’m excited to return to Marilynne Robinson over the next couple of months.

Deep Work is a reread as well – but the first time I “read” it was on audio in 2016. I love Cal Newport’s work. I ate up Digital Minimalism like candy when it was published in 2019 and I subscribe to his emails which I also heartily enjoy.

The Body in the Library is yet another reread for me, but I remember absolutely nothing about it. It’s Miss Marple Number 1, in case you’re interested in that sort of thing!!

Knitting

I have not knit a stitch since our last gathering. I hate that I have nothing to report, but understand how it happened. I simply didn’t prioritize it! It’s so much easier to collapse on the couch with just a book than to gather up my knitting, spread it all out, figure out where I am in a pattern, and get to stitching. I just never know when I’m going to get interrupted and I have to put everything completely away when I’m not working on a project. So I think I’ll be very slow to share any progress on my sweater in the next several months!

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I expect that my reading will slow down soon because I am so distracted by the news. Lately I’ve been lulling myself in the evenings by watching The Big Bang Theory and Dateline instead of reading. Reading requires more concentration than I currently have! Maybe once this cold passes then I’ll be able to either turn off the TV or at least add a stitching project while watching TV.

How are you doing with everything going on? Yesterday I wrote that this was going to be a difficult time for my family and I immediately felt selfish and self-centered about writing that. Yes, it’s going to be difficult but we’re going to be fine. There are so many other families who are facing much more financial instability and chaos than we are. Childcare isn’t an issue with us – I am home. Our refrigerator and deep freeze are packed with food. We have a big yard for the kids to run and play. We have books, computers, internet, lots of school supplies, plenty of things to keep us busy. Other families aren’t so lucky. So I’m filled with gratitude and I’m thinking about the experiences other families are having. I am hoping that things turn out much better than what is predicted.

Until then, please stay as cozy as you can and find ways to do the things that bring you joy! And let’s stay connected through our blogs, even if it’s just quick posts with very little content. I imagine everyone who blogs finds at least a little comfort in sitting down and sharing some of their thoughts, so I hope we can all find some normalcy in this process.