Friday Cozies 1.17.20

Friday! It’s been a strange week – the weather has been up and down, inside out. We had a huge snow melt at the beginning week and we’re ending the week under a new blanket of snow. We’ve battled a strange illness that took down my children one by one and now I’m on the receiving end of it. But I’ve been plugging away with my little routines and feeling grateful for every second.

On Fridays I like to share a few things that have brought me joy or that I’ve been pondering. I hope you find something helpful in today’s post!

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There was a recent conversation in the comments of my blog that reminded me how ashamed I used to be of reading ebooks. I know! There continues to be a large segment of people who say they’ll never read an electronic book and I sometimes feel guilty about my own use of them. Am I putting bookstores out of business by using my Kindle? Am I missing some essential part of reading without the feeling of paper on my hands?

But my shame of ebooks went away when I read this post by my reading role model, Maria Popova. In it and other interviews with her, she mentions that she reads a ton on ereaders. It’s so easy to highlight and save quotes and thoughts onto other platforms on which you can organize and recall passages when writing about them later. You can tag books with labels that allow you to see links between works that you might otherwise miss. And if you’re looking for a certain quote, all you have to do is “ctrl+f” to find it; there’s no more tearing through mountains of books to find what you’re looking for.

I love electronic books on so many levels. First of all – the physical accessibility of them. It’s easier for a person to adjust print size or download an app that will read the text to you if eyesight is a challenge. You can also control for the weight of the book – no need to lug around War and Peace. Just put it on your e-reader, slip it into your satchel, and off you go. Then there’s the accessibility of cost. Most libraries now loan e-readers to patrons. Zero extra cost to you. And most libraries have access to some sort of electronic system that you can use to check out books. Again, zero extra cost to you.

But I also love the minimalism approach to electronic books. I love that I can read something, love it, and know that it’s easily accessible to me without taking up any extra space in my home. I can easily link into a family sharing program, so my husband has access to anything he might want. When my children are older, this might also come in handy.

And no – I’m not putting bookstores out of business by reading on my e-reader because I’m not shopping at bookstores anyway. In 2019, 64 of the 81 books I read were from the library — that means that I utilized the library for 80% of my reading, which is a number that I’m proud of! So I’m embracing my love of ebooks and ereaders and I hope you do, too!

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Okay, I just went on and on about the virtues of electronic books, but some books are just begging to be owned and loved in book form. The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady is one of them. Last week I shared that I was enjoying tracking the weather and nature in my phenology chart and then I found this beautiful diary of another nature lover. I haven’t bought it yet but am seriously thinking of breaking my “no book buying” rule for it. What a fun guide to have – not only for learning to track the weather and the natural world, but also for learning how to draw and paint. I can see this as an essential book in my home! I’ll give it a little while before I make a decision about purchasing because I don’t want to do anything rash, but I think it belongs on my shelf!

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And a humongous thanks goes out to Juliann at Chasing Stories for introducing me to Sojourner USA. I ordered a (very early) birthday present for myself and it arrived this week. I’m thrilled with this cover for my Hobonichi Weeks! It smells amazing and I love this natural color. There are lots of little pockets – I think I’m going to put blank index cards in them because I’m always digging around for those! I’m looking forward to loving this for years to come.

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And I’m leaving you with this image, because who doesn’t love to see a 20 month old hard at work on her masterpiece? One of her favorite things to do is scribble in her notebook, just like her mama! My heart is singing.

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I hope you all have a great weekend! I can’t wait to join you all again on Monday!