Tag Archives: Reading

New Year’s Day Book Hunt

Posted on by
8

My favourite New Year’s Day tradition doesn’t involve parades or football games or overindulging in sweets. For this girl, it is all about books. Shocking, no?

A pile 'o books and calendars.

A pile ‘o books and calendars.

This pile ‘o goodies is the result of my annual New Year’s Day Book and Calendar Hunt. As you can see, the 2013 edition was quite successful. I decided to by-pass literature in favour of selections from the genres of art, biography, and silent film. Here are a few of the highlights:

Egon Schiele by Sandra Forty

Egon Schiele by Sandra Forty

REASON: Egon Schiele is my favourite artist (in a three-way tie with Modigliani and Pissarro).

Frontier Madam The Life of Dell Burke, Lady of Lusk by June Willson Read

Frontier Madam The Life of Dell Burke, Lady of Lusk by June Willson Read

REASON: Who could pass up a book with a title like this? Continue reading →

One Year Later

Posted on by
8

It has been a year (or thereabouts) since I moved A Small Press Life from Blogger to WordPress. It was a snap decision, but I haven’t regretted it for one second. Even though I have expressed this opinion a few times in the past, it is worth bringing forth once again: the WordPress community is awesome. A blog isn’t a blog without an interactive group of readers. With your keen commenting skills, you make every post an interesting, organic and unique experience.

2012 has been an incredible year. We have seen our stats steadily climb, and then soar. A Small Press Life was featured in both The Daily Post and  Freshly Pressed. Then, again, there’s all of you. Heading into 2013, you can be sure of two things: that we are truly grateful and feverishly excited to make the blog even better (more on that soon).

“I stay cool, and dig all jive,

That’s the way I stay alive.

My motto,

as I live and learn,

is

Dig and be dug

In return.”-Langston Hughes

Proof That It’s Always About Books

Posted on by
10

I received many bookish gifts for Christmas (more on those later). In fact, most of the gifts with my  name on them turned out to be delightfully literary-based. I’m easy to buy for like that. One of the only non-literary themed gifts was from The Chef, who gave me a fancy, shiny, amazing new phone: a Samsung Galaxy S III. It’s heavenly, and I am in love (with both it and my husband). Really, it is perfection. Except, of course, for one small detail. It isn’t bookish enough. My solution? This, dear readers. This.

If it looks familiar, it’s because I wrote about something similar here. I’m over-the-moon with nerdy glee! A plain case would work just as well, but if you can put a bookish spin on something utilitarian…why not?

 

 

 

 

The Dead Writers Round-Up: 26th-30th December

Posted on by
5
  • Henry Miller was born on 12/26/1891. “Back of every creation, supporting it like an arch, is faith. Enthusiasm is nothing: it comes and goes. But if one believes, then miracles occur.” (Tropic of Cancer; Black Spring; Tropic of Capricorn)
  • Charles Lamb died on 12/27/1834. “Anything awful makes me laugh. I misbehaved once at a funeral.” (Tales from Shakespeare; Essays of Elia)
  • Theodore Dreiser died on 12/28/1945. “In order to have wisdom we must have ignorance.” (Sister Carrie; An American Tragedy)
  • Christina Rossetti died on 12/29/1894. “Hope is like a harebell trembling from its birth.” (Goblin Market; In the Bleak Midwinter) Continue reading →

Here’s a Nifty “Poster” Featuring a Quote from One of My Essays

Posted on by
9

I made this “poster” from an excerpt of one of my essays. It was fun! If you want to make a quote poster of your own, go to Recite This. A big thank you goes to Gala Darling for introducing me to this site.

A quote from one of my essays.

A quote from one of my essays.