Bookcase Progress part 2

WHEE! I have a bookcase! It is almost finished, but as it is now, I can put books on it!

So... what did we do? Well, I didn't read anywhere near as much as I was hoping over my holiday. In fact, I read less than I usually do while working! But, you don't want to hear that. Let me get on with the bookcase!

 After we managed to get the perfectly square base set against a particularly non-square or straight wall (that took effort, folks. Imagine trying to put a square in a circle.) we then started putting the actually bookcase part together. We assembled it sideways, working from the corner to the doorway. It took us an entire day to do two sections because, with the risk of repeating myself, the lack of straight lines just made everything so darned difficult. Both my mom and I wanted it to look perfect, and that meant that we didn't want gaps behind the bookcase. The other delay was that it was ever so slightly a bit heavy.

As you can see on the left, we would screw the shelves into the upright and then raise it. Next, we would screw the shelves into the next upright and raise it too. One of us would hold the thing up, while the other would screw like crazy.

I am now an expert at screwing. (Oi! You have a dirty mind!) Pine is not the softest of woods out there and screws don't just land in the right place. We drilled holes in the uprights for the screws, but they went into the shelves without. I was convinced at one point that I would be returning to work with one arm looking like The Hulk's, and the other as normal as ever.

The second day of assembly went so much better. By then, the only thing we were concerned about was that all the tweaking we had had to do would have moved the top piece beyond the edge of the base. Thank Merlin that was not the case. This project started to resemble Mark Watney's time on Mars...

 In case you are wondering how we got the shelves level, you will note that only every other shelf is screwed in. The others rest on clear plastic shelf pegs. I did not want my shelves uneven and the method we had thought of to get it that way without pegs would have required Gummyberry juice, radio active toxic waste dips and a stretch on a non-deserted island filled with danger. In other words, strength to the point where one might wonder if magic was involved. So we didn't do that in the end - obviously.

The first night, I emptied all my bookcases and planted books. I started off trying out the rainbow effect, because I have always thought it looked pretty although I knew it would drive me nuts as far as organisation goes. That lasted until I was too tired, and then they were just put there. This was to clear my other, older bookcases. I then broke those down and, between my mom and I, we stripped off the old paint and redid them. I can't say that they are now in the most logical place in my room, but at least I can now get to all my books (and sleep without the security light on my neighbour's house shining directly in my window at night).

You are probably wondering why I am saying that the bookcase is almost finished. Well, the top pieces that go up against the ceiling must still go in, and the part that goes above the door must still be done. We didn't want to cut the wood until we knew for certain exactly the size we would need (I refer you back to the issues with putting squares in circles and my walls not being straight. They look like brackets actually.) I will probably save that for a long weekend (one is coming up next month) or the next holiday.

Now I need to sort out my books and revert back to my more comfortable alphabetical arrangement.

The Rainbow Readathon

For the past week, I have been working on categorizing and capturing my library in a database. (I will have a post about that at some point.) It has become quite the mission and to be honest, I am regretting having started. Because now I have incomplete data and a mission that no longer feels like an entertaining quest into the treasures on my shelves. Now I just feel like a data capturer with a very flat backside.

But this mission has led me to the realisation that my TBR is getting a bit out of hand. Perhaps it isn't radioactive, and hasn't quite achieved a life of its own - yet, but it is definitely starting to concern me. I am happy when my TBR pile is in the 30s. It means I have a variety from different genres to read. It is no where near the 30s. I have been buying a lot more than I should recently. But it isn't just that my TBR is threatening to acquire life - it is that these are just a teensy, tiny iota of all the books out there that I want to read. So I need to get reading - more and faster.

So this has led me to consider doing the Rainbow Readathon. Once again, the timing is a bit off. If it were in 2 weeks time, I would be bouncing off the walls to join. It will be the holidays (which were made for teachers, not kids, because dammit man, we deserve it!)! But today and tomorrow I have off from work (tomorrow being a public holiday, and the powers-that-be, under no illusion that kids are going to come to school on Monday if Tuesday is an off day, gave us today off too). But tomorrow is a BIG day for my books. My mom and I, weather permitting, are going to make my wall-to-wall floor-to-ceiling bookcase. I bought all the wood today! So I hope to be incredibly busy tomorrow. But... the weather does look a bit dubious... (When the bookcase happens, there will definitely be a post about that!)

The Rainbow Readathon requirements:
Either read 6 books that make up the colours in a rainbow, namely: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple OR read 6 books of any one colour above. You can double up on 2 colours with two books.

So, in the event that it rains, that I can mark the last exams that are written between Weds and Friday in record time, and that I can email out the marks and comments pronto, I will be reading these:

RED:
Choices, choices. I can never choose. I just want to read everything! But I have narrowed it down to The Girl who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of her Own Making by Catherynne M. Valente. I know Jen Campbell loves this book and I see it was even blurbed by Neil Gaiman. One could not ask for more, could they?


ORANGE:
The Accidental Apprentice by Vikas Swarup. I bought this one last year and I was keen to read it then. I really enjoyed Q&A by the same author (which was made into the movie Slumdog Millionaire - which I have not seen), and the first paragraph of this book - WOW. Talk about getting stuck in a plot! Very keen to get through this one.

YELLOW:
Mr Penumbra's 24-Hour Book Shop by Robin Sloan. This was a recent acquisition and it looks so nice to read. (I didn't get the glow in the dark yellow cover, but this one has enough yellow on to qualify. It also has orange and blue on in case I don't get to either of those colours.)

GREEN:

This one is easy. I have been reading it slowly but surely since last month. I don't really plan on finishing it this week, because I think rushing through short stories really kills them. I do hope to finish it this month though. So for green, it is Trigger Warning by Neil Gaiman. Got to have some Gaiman on the list!

BLUE:
The Kalahari Typing School for Men, the 4th book in the Number 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith. I have been enjoying this series (as you would know if you have been following me for any length of time) and I must admit that they are nice for readathons. I can finish a book in a sitting and yet feel that I have read something worth while. This book also has the advantage that it can double up with another colour.

 PURPLE:
And to add the cherry to the cake, I am adding some Sanderson. I have read the first story in this bind up, but there is the 2nd one left to go, The Emperor's Soul. It is also the only book I have not read that I know has purple on it. (Legion was brilliant by the way! It was a great introduction into Sanderson. And if people who love him say that it isn't the best, well, I only have great things awaiting me!)

I must admit that this really makes for a pretty TBR pile! I can't promise that I will be able to get to all of them (as I have hinted at and rather bluntly stated, I am a bit busy) but I will definitely give it a good go - unless I get to build my bookcase, in which case, I will be outside (gasp, shock, horror!) with power tools!

Are you doing this readathon? If you are, leave a link to your TBR in the comments. I would love to see what you are reading!

Ten Books I Plan To Have In My Beach Bag This Summer

This post is inspired by Top Ten Tuesday!

OK, southern hemisphere gal here. I am not torturing myself thinking about summer when I still have winter staring me in the face. So, I am changing this topic - slightly. It is now, 'Ten Books I Plan to have in my Bag this Winter!' (I don't know if this is against the rules, but the alternative topic, 'Ten Books I Think Make Great Beach Reads' just seemed unappealing as beaches just aren't exactly conducive to relaxing reading really as their is wind, sand, no shade and lots of noisy people, particularly under the age of 21. Trust me, I live on the coast.)

This winter, I have a few books planned. I can't say that I plan reading according to the seasons (as there is about a 10 degree Celsius difference between summer and winter here), but I do save my longer reads or fantasy series for my longer holidays. Thank Merlin a longer holiday is coming up - in just a hair over a month.

The list:
The Mistborn Trilogy by Brandon Sanderson.
I have been wanting to read this series since my mom read it last year. We both agree I will love it!

The Kingkiller Chronicles by Patrick Rothfuss.
Another one my mom got to first. From what she has had to say about it, and from what I have heard from Booktube, I am really looking forward to this. Plus, they have gorgeous covers!

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke
Neil Gaiman blurbed this. I then also heard him mention it in the interview he had the day after Terry Pratchett passed away. I have read the first page, and enjoyed how it was written. Now I want to enjoy the seven hundred plus pages that follow.

The Stand by Stephen King
I find really long books are a drag when the reading is constantly being interrupted by real life. I want to save this one also for my holiday as I want to read it this year for the one reading challenge I am doing. (I need to read a book published the year I was born.)

...at this point, common sense is pointing out that my holiday is 3 weeks long and those books already surpass 5000 pages in reading. So as something short-ish, I will add:

The Abhorsen series by Garth Nix
A colleague and friend from work lent me these books. I suppose I should really get to them so that I can return them. Otherwise they might just end up merging with my own collection.

Oh! And just because I really do not have any grasp on reality and am completely in denial as to how much I can read in 3 weeks, I am going to add an 11th book.

The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
I have been wanting to read this one for years and the other day I found it at my favourite book shop at a wonderfully reduced price. It would have been mine even if it wasn't at the reduced price!

I do not know what I am going to do if my favourite bookshop ends up getting the other books I want in time for my holiday... Maybe I should try and put a dent in this before then... It is so close to being winter after all.