May 1, 2008

Happy Spring!!! I am typing with dried morel mushrooms in glass jars beside me. They are so ugly they are beautiful!! The moon is so tiny this morning that there isn't much light coming in the window, but the coffee has the perfect filler so my fingers are waking up!

Oh, I hope you can come by and see all that has arrived this week! Graduations, Mothers Day, Birthdays - we've gotten so much in now! I'll put pictures at the end of our e-mail today of some of the new and give you ideas for your gifts. Every time we order new lines - you have to realize it's because of your encouragement and business in our little shop. I have so much I'd like to add for you, for our town - classic literature for children is also on it's way, and new sections of cookbooks, large print books, and history are coming. Children's books have filled up the children's side. Science kits should come any day.... how fun for all of us! For you that aren't in our area, I will work diligently over the summer to get our website with all of this on it, so you will be able to see details and order more off of our site.

I was given a beautiful gift this week that I will try to get to always have in the store. Book Notes Journal. This is a journal that has categories including: Recommended Reads, Reading Notes, Favorite Quotes, Books Borrowed & Lent. Each section then just is an organized section for your "book notes" (grin). There are pockets all through the journal for personal scraps of paper. Under each section there is room for who gave you the idea, for when you read the book, for who gave you the quote... I've never seen anything like this & can't wait for you to also have one by your own bedside or couch. Here are some of the quotes from the journal. I have read them several times and thought you'd like to have them today.

O for a book and a shady nook, Either in door or out;
With the green leaves whispering overhead, Or the street cries all about.
Where I may read all at my ease, Both of the new and the old;
For a jolly good book whereon to look, Is better to me than gold. John Wilson

A good book is the best of friends, the same today and for ever. Martin Tupper

Choose an author as you choose a friend. Wentworth Dillon

Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man. Francis Bacon

Never lend books, for no one ever returns them; the only books I have in my library are those that other people have lent me. Anatole France

Knowledge is free at the library. Just bring your own container. Anonymous

Do not read, as children do, to amuse yourself...No, read in order to live. Gustave Flaubert

Book lovers never go to bed alone. Anonymous

Thank you for letting me enter your morning again! Don't forget we're open until 8 tonight (Thursdays) if that helps you in your schedule. Have a beautiful Thursday - it's been so long since I've written the two words, beautiful and Thursday on same line! Spring has finally sprung. The sight of tulips and little friends of birds, the sounds of mowers in back yards, the smells of insect repellant... it's all coming back! If you have had a hard winter, I hope that you are given a peace this spring in the beauty of creation, of new life, of God caring for the most intricate tiny details of our lives and of what he has created - he created the smells, the details for us - let's take the time to notice and look up to the skies - to thank him and to ask for his help... Have a great week! Turn off your electronics, don't send as many e-mails, instead just be. Just sit. Just read. Just think. Just remember. Just plan. Just hope. Don't let the day go by wasted - especially in your own personal mind. Thank you so much for all the business that you bring us. I love adding to our store! Don't forget to keep telling me what you want us to have right here in Aurora for you! Susan

Latin for this week:
Fide, sed qui, vide – Trust but take care whom.

Works Cited:
Curtis, Charles, Jr. and Greenslet, Ferris, Editors. The Practical Cogitator: The Thinker's Anthology. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Publishers. 1962.

Book Notes Journal. New York: Ryland Peters & Small, Inc. 2004.