All stars.

I went to my bookcase and looked at my books and picked out the ones I read and reread- everything on this list I read at least twice a year. More if I'm being honest.

And what I actually read makes me laugh:

I love the struggle in Guy.

I love that it's short and that doesn't make it less great.

I bought a new copy of this in Paris but knowing me I'll give it away to someone before 2013!

Comfort poetry. He loves the sea, I love the sea.

When I can't sleep I read this book out loud and it lulls you like the waves. Not joking.

If you're extra awake you can read it in spanish (this version is bilingual).

I enjoy this entire series but this one is my favorite: it's James' time in WWII and some of the funniest vet stories. There is no one in the world I can think of who wouldn't enjoy James Herriot. I've given copies of his books as gifts more than I've given anything else.

The first Chuck book I ever read, and also the best.

Love the biographical way it's told. "We'll never be as young as we are tonight."

The exception to my read twice a year books is Fermor, I still haven't finished A Time of Gifts just because I have this thing about finishing books I really love! It's so dumb but the magic of reading a book for the first time.. I don't want it to end! A travel memoir, he walked Europe in 1938 and then writes the book twenty years later with the help of his journal and his hindsight about the coming war.

A school book that I actually loved.

If you like the Middle East (Wait, everyone isn't obsessed with Islam?) try it out.

Nick Horby (favorite) + Arsenal (favorite) = GUARANTEED SUCCESS.

I read this book more than any other- I went through a period where I kept it in my purse and just read it over and over. I'm glad this wasn't the first book I ever read, I would have been ruined! Hornby's voice (especially his non-fiction and columns) is so relatable. He is what I want to sound like and what I want my best friend to sound like all at once.

This shouldn't count as a real book, it's a conglomeration of Reader's Digest jokes.

I'd say don't laugh, but that's kinda the point.

Whoa nerdy!

I love the second Hunger Games book (one is great too)!

I love the arena, I seriously love every single character and every single situation.

Adaptations.

Sense and Sensibility is my favorite Jane Austen movie adaptation. I know how serious that sounds (when Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy is in the running he hardly ever loses) but I've watched it so much more than Firth's six hour epic. It's on my short list of homework movies.

Turning books into movies is a tricky business.

Do you add extra excitement if it's a slow book about relationships? How do you shorten a 500 page Harry Potter novel but retain the little pieces that make everything make sense at the end of the series? How do you take the intense moments from The Hunger Games or Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and translate them into something kids can watch/adults can stomach?

One thing I like about movie adaptations is that it helps entice people into reading. Our close friends have young kids and we read The Hunger Games together in anticipation of the movie coming out- we read the City of Ember as well and we're going to rent the movie to watch. I know girls who haven't read a single book reading the entire anthology of Jane Austen. Boys who will read anything that involves WWII after watching Band of Brothers.

My dad says the only book he's read that was worse than the movie was Forrest Gump (he does a wicked Forrest Gump impression as well).

BOOK WEEK.

Did I mention it's book week?

I like them so I'm talking about them.

For a whole week.

Done and done.

Everything books that's not books.

Sky high arched bookcases!

Made from ikea bookcases, I think even I could pull of this easy diy!

A place to rest your books (via hip hip gin gin).

A nightstand wouldn't be truly finished without it!

Books on clothes.

I got this one for my birthday and I've already worn it to death!

Sometimes when a great idea happens it's so simple that I can't believe it wasn't invented before. Like book candles.

How to read.

One of my favorite childhood memories is my mom reading to my brother and I after we finished dinner. We read adventure books sometimes like The Lost World but we also read Wind in the Willows which has no dinosaurs or guns. And we looked up every word we didn't know (Scottish people and their big words). Dinner was for family time and books.

The National Endowment for the Arts has some interesting reading on literacy in America. I love to read but I know lots of people who are not as enthralled by the smell of dust and bindings... Nick Hornby talks about reading for the joy of it and makes some perfect points. Even reading these links is going to be a turn off to some!

Maybe being an introvert (despite being loud) gives me an extra push toward loving books- they are quiet companions.

Uniqulo.

When are you coming to town!?!?! I'm so sad they aren't on the west coast yet... hurry!

Any company that focuses on the basics and has two grey striped tunics is designing with me in mind!

Prints.

I'm accidentally into huge photos.

It's the lazy decorator's dream... one graphic pop and you're done.

A hallway with a gallery style for smaller multiples and everything is displayed, no pain.

I will own before I am 25 a Corey Arnold print.

Corey.

Peaceful.

Beautiful.

Nighty night.

The best way to end the night is definitely video chatting with brother and boyfriend!!

We laugh together.

Whipped these up today for some twins who go to our church, we're making them a basket of goodies. Ombre baby hats, they'll be so in for spring!

Today the music died (in 1959).

Article.

BBC.

Breakfast nooks.

My friend has been putting together her dreams about a home for a while now and her kitchen photos reminded me of an old obsession.

My only requirement for a kitchen is this: a breakfast nook. Really what this entails is a bench at the table and a corner it can be tucked into. I spend 0% of my time in the kitchen UNLESS it's sitting with people who are cooking. Or getting ice cream from the fridge. So for a kitchen to be useful to me it has to have a place to read a book or drink some chocolate milk and not be in the cooks way. Besides, if we are going to have a small house (which I desperately want) a nook might be the only option!!

(photos via apartment therapy and the kitchn)

Seven more nooks!

Schloss Neuwaldegg.

(image here)

I can't believe I lived here sometimes!

I desperately want to live in a small house (think: less stuff, less cleaning, keeping what I really need only) but I look at pictures of my one time home and I loved being able to literally wander it. Can't wander in a tiny house!

A brief history of a real castle.

Hubble.

How mind boggling is space!?! And so so pretty.

I will blow up a picture of space for my guest room one day.

Get lost in space at NASA or with the Hubble.

Shoes!!

I've been reading JG's old Smitten articles and these ones crack me up!

Guy pretty: button downs

Girl Pretty: gladiator sandals

I got lucky with a fashion forward boyfriend but some days he still looks at my outfits and thinks I'm outrageous! Is there one style that you feel you rock best? I own such a variety of things- mostly I feel confident when I'm showered and I get a long appreciative look from mister that he thinks I don't see...

(guy pretty)

(girl pretty)

Yarn is heavenly.

(An etsy blanket that is now gone)

I'm making a new blanket and for the first time I don't have anyone to give it to! It's half done and I have a long drive to Portland this weekend so it'll be almost complete by this time next week... I don't want it to sit around my room but I want it to go to the right person you know? It's a chaotic thing this blanket, lots of colors.

I'm going to switch my efforts to baby booties when it's finished I think since everyone at church gives baby blankets and I can't imagine needing seven newborn blankets. Here are two patterns. Crocheting keeps me from picking at my cuticles, I think it's my gum to cure my smoking habit you know?

What I'm listening to:

I make fun of Joshua because he calls Martin Scorsese "Marty" and Robert DeNiro "Bobby." But I do the same thing with my music! Always comes back to bite you doesn't it!?!

In alphabetical order by first name (as they appear in my ipod like we are bffs):

(not my photos.. duh.)

Jon is obviously top dog but surprisingly Ellie came in a close second this year!!

Did you want a listen? Oh good cause here they are:

Ben Howard

Buddy Holly

Ellie Goulding

Explosions in the Sky

Jon Bon Jovi

Jonsi

Mumford and Sons

Noah Gunderson

Facebook.

So I got caught in an awkward facebook moment this week!

Here's how it went down.

I have a couple terrible facebook habits:

1. I hate to add people so I rarely do.

2. I like to let people stew in my added friends list while I decide if I like them enough to take the time to delete them if I quit liking them (this sounds ridiculous but follow my logic here: it's a ton of work to delete people these days so if I'm not willing to consider going through a refresh cycle for you then why bother adding you in the first place).

3. In addition I don't like especially to add church casual acquaintances. So I ignore them. Without guilt.

So the new preacher calls me out for leaving him in limbo in church today... well played. Can't avoid the guilt of not making the friendship official now! If I have to delete him in six months I"m going to be pissed though!

A facebook surprise from my mister.

Aaaaand a funny.

Sickpants.

I've been in bed all day.

To combat sickness I've slept, dreamed of this eye pillow, watched live versions of a million British bands WLT and BB, and had chicken noodle soup in bed (and drugs). Stanley makes a great food thermos- that classic green is perfection.

(Same song, it's been a constant in my life for a month and it's still going strong)

Is anyone else freaking out?

I actually squealed when this trailer came on during Hugo. Loudly.

Embarrassingly for my companions.

First weekend.

Done.

Mauthausen.

Can I tell a story?

It might be kinda long but I think that it's worth it.

Like a typical college student I worked as a waitress. One of the people I met working was a WWII soldier in the 65th infantry. He ordered dessert to go and always smiled and was my favorite person to wait on. One day he was reading a hand bound book about the work the 65th division did in the war and we chatted about his role, he casually mentioned that he'd even helped free a concentration camp and of course my interest was 100% engaged. I could interact in the conversation somewhat!

Mauthausen.

He helped free Mauthausen.

What are the chances that he freed the one camp I'd been to?

After reading the 261st regimental journals and personal testimony and hearing stories returning to Mauthausen was an entirely different experience. The previous trip I remember being completely immersed in the silence and death of the place but I was honored to have the memories and firsthand accounts of the salvation as well this time to temper the atrocity. Not that what happened was any different, or walking the stairs was any less heartbreaking, but it was a perspective not many people can approach the site with.

We often overlook our history and soon we won't have any WWII vets left to overlook. The oral history they can convey is a limited quantity and I feel so lucky to have shared in it.

I don't have much to say about the photos... they are a smattering of the famous points of the camp: the cliffs which lead to the quarry, the stairs (a then and now photo), and a memorial for the 65th infantry division. We walked the three miles from the train to the top of the large hill where the camp is situated- it's a gorgeous landscape. Sometimes it's hard to believe that something so awful could be surrounded by something so lovely.

One last photo, this one is from the DC Holocaust Museum.

Don't skip it if you're in the area.

Of the day this is the photo that has stuck with me from that entire experience. I don't have another concrete vision of that day, this one is seared into my mind so fully.