...4.8...Friday Update...

...well...I had intended to get the Dollie all boxed up...but that will have to happen later...there's just too much happening here for that little project right now...

...but the Man got me a little pressie...y'all know that I don't have a 'dedicated' place for working on my puzzles...and we just use the dining room table...the puzzle is on a sheet of poster paper and I can just lift it off and set it on the floor when (on those rare occasions that we actually sit at the dining room table) we need to use the table...

...years ago...when Our Airman was little and used to work puzzles with me...we made a felt mat...but I've go no idea where that thing is...

...but the Man noticed that I often stand up and bend over the puzzle for a better view...so...he got me a stool that I can sit on when I'm working that gives me a much better vantage point...I absolutely love it...

...and the puzzle progresses...sometimes just a couple of pieces a day while I wait for the tea water to boil...haha...

...and on the reading challenge...I've penciled in a few more choices...I'll have to wait until I get back to the library to fill in the literary magazine...because they're pretty much unknown to me...so if you have any suggestions I'd appreciate it...

...and I'm not quite finished with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Complete Sherlock Holmes...so I've not inked it in yet...but I should finish soon...maybe over the weekend...we'll see...it's pretty long...

...so here's a little 'story' about that book...there was this shelf at my Grandma's house...with these five or six red and black bound books on it...

...it was on the wall...or half wall where the stairs go up...in the living room...above Grandma's Lamp...there's a whole post about the lamp...

...but when I was a tweenager...my sweet sissie and I would sometimes get to spend a week at Grandma's house...and she was so good to us...devising all kinds of treats (french fries made with her Veg-O-Matic...or decoupaging TV trays...or going to the YWCA to swim...or going to the (big) library downtown...even riding the city bus to get there...just because it was so novel for us country girls)...

...and of course this was 'back-in-the-day'...before grandma had cable tv (i.e., nothing to watch)...internet...or cel phones...so if we got 'bored' Grandma would tell us to READ SOMETHING...haha...

...and there was this shelf with these red and black bound books...

...so that summer that I turned 12...I took down The Works of Poe...and read...twelve is a good age to read Poe I think...I was so absorbed...during my 7th grade year...I memorized The Bells as a 'project' in my English/Literature class...(not English Lit...but English and Literature)...

...anywhoo...needless to say Grandma let me take the book home with me...and I read it cover to cover...and when I took it back...I borrowed another one...and so forth...

...the books were all published by Black's Readers Service...I've searched the interwebs and haven't found anything much about them...but you can 'borrow' several of them from the Open Library...

...and I found a couple of blog posts about the Reader Service...this one is really sweet...and this one...which gives a bit of history...not sure where he found the info...

...all of this is a preface to the fact that I was also a member of Black's Reader Service...it was a 'book-of-the-month' club...featuring only the classics...I think the first book I got was Shakespeare...but soon I had my very own copy of Poe as well...

...and of course I also have A Conan Doyle...the covers of my copies...they're all the same...are gold stamped tan fake leather...I love them...they're so 'classic'...

...you can see another one (Longfellow) in this post from long ago...

...and the pages are gilt edged...'fancy'...and there's a shiny red ribbon to mark your place...

...the cover pages are pretty fancy as well...

...y'all know that I still love to hold a book...I do have and use my sweet sissie's hand-me-down kindle...I use it mostly for traveling...and it's very handy to have...but I prefer a paper book...

...how about you...are you a book fan or do you prefer the digital world?...

~Have a lovely day!