A Floating Library and March Reads

March came in like a snowy leopard, if not a lion, with cold temps, followed by warm spring temps of 60 degrees or higher, designed, no doubt, to lure us into thinking that we could turn off the heat in the house, but wait! Last night and this morning winter temps and loads of snow made a reappearance in Maple Valley, with windy wet flops of snow falling from the skies and delaying school for two hours. Once afternoon set in, the temps rose enough for the snow to become slushy and messy, and dangerous to drivers, of course, since this evening is book group at the Library, where we will be discussing "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" by Jonathan Safran Foer.
Meanwhile,I finished "The Witches Daughter" and "The Secrets of Madame Olivetti." I'm almost done with Elizabeth Cohen's "The Empowered Patient" which is making me rethink all my docility in following my doctors advice and not questioning their diagnosis.

I think this is a marvelous idea:


From Shelf Awareness:
Keeping an Indie Afloat... Literally
Word on the Water
http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz12843804 is a
London bookbarge
http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz12843805
that "stops for two weeks at each mooring to sell books donated by the
public and by charity bookshops," the Telegraph reported, noting that it
is one of more than 2,300 boats on British waterways that are
businesses. The bookstore is run by "The Doctor" Paddy Screech, "The
Professor" John Privett, and "a mysterious Frenchman called 'The
Captain,' " who owns the vessel.

Screech believes his business is drifting toward the mainstream: "We
live in times where young people have Debussy mustaches, and listen to
Sixties and Seventies music. They are interested in the past. I don't
remember there being a youth cult before where the past was so
fascinating. There's a hunger for authenticity.... Younger people are
becoming interested in things that machines can't do: talent."

Operating under the motto "Quirky is the word," the owners of Word on
the Water are "not aiming at what people want, we're trying to make
people want what we give them, and business is going very well--we are
exceeding our projections quite significantly," Screech observed. "This
is a bookshop where you are taken on a journey down the shelves and keep
bumping into things that you otherwise wouldn't have."


I've gotten more books from Baker Street, for half price, and am now desperately trying to send off the ones for family and friends while trying to wrestle my TBR stacks into submission. Admittedly, it is a good problem to have to not know what one wants to read next. Still, I am hoping that inclement weather will afford me time to just sit and read...that, and the fact that many of my favorite shows are on hiatus and have been cancelled helps, too.