Have no fear! This is not one of those New Year’s Resolution-y, touchy-feely, mystical kinds of posts. The dream is an actual dream I had last night. There was a new bestselling book that I wanted to read, and I found the Amazon Kindle version for $1.67. But alas! I had no Kindle to read it on (and as in real life, not much chance of getting one in the near future). Oh, the disappointment. No doubt this dream is a reflection of the fact that I have been thinking much of books in my waking hours. It is also possible that the dream is a metaphor for some other, completely unrelated, great lack in my life.
The journal is this one, which I made yesterday. This is my first try at a “chain-stitch” binding, which directions I found in Alisa Golden’s Creating Handmade Books. Apologies to Ms. Golden, for I’m pretty sure I didn’t do it quite right. First of all, I used the wrong kind of thread, but it was all I had on hand on a Sunday afternoon. Secondly, I always have trouble following diagrams. My brain does not like to work on both a visual and a textual front at the same time. (This trouble goes back to my school days and diagrams in science textbooks; I also suffer the same difficulty with math word problems, firmly believing that numbers and words shouldn’t try to mix.)
I’ll keep practicing! (I never stop dreaming.)
The Daring Book for Girls by Andrea J. Buchanan and Miriam Peskowitz. OK, this is a copycat of the book I gave the boys (
The Dangerous Book for Boys by Conn and Hal Iggulden (whose names are pretty dangerous in themselves). I discovered this book while browsing my favorite internet bookstore, and thought it would make good father–son bonding material. It includes how-to instructions on such important boyhood arts as making a paper airplane, hat, boat, and water bomb; making a simple electromagnet; building a tree-house; skipping stones; playing table football; and the list goes on. I was also drawn to the fact that sprinkled among these how-tos are chapters on history, such as famous battles through the ages, the story of the Wright brothers, an overview of the golden age of piracy, some Shakespeare basics, the story of the Declaration of Independence (this is the American version of the originally British-published book), and more.
