Books

Books are one of the great joys in our family.  The children were brought up on picture books since they were a few months old and the two boys have now launched into the joys of reading.  My eldest is officially the bookworm of the family, with my husband a close second.  Leo prefers collecting books and looking at the pictures but that is still great - anything related to superheroes or dinosaurs is a hit!  My daughter is into anything featuring  animals or little babies.

The family's current reading

Apart from the odd chocolate bar, and bought sandwich when I didn't have time to make my own, my progress on this project so far this year has been really good - I have had very few slips: knitting equipment, a magazine and a few books.  Are books a necessity? Well that could start a great debate, but for the sake of my journey this year, I am saying that books need to be borrowed from the library, or bought second-hand, or as a gift. And I think that in terms of buying them second-hand, they really need to be thought about before buying.  What are they for? And can I justify buying them? Here's my attempt to do so! ...

A music magazine: 
"Mojo" featuring Leonard Cohen. I rarely buy magazines.  From time to time I will indulge in a Country Living magazine and I have a subscription to The Green Parent which was given as a birthday present some time ago.  Otherwise, I could take them or leave them.  I am not into the glossy mags particularly, although Red has caught my attention occasionally.  I used to have subscriptions to New Internationalist and BBC Wildlife magazines and gardening magazines were also a regular purchase years ago, but I finally came to the conclusion that they were creating a little seat in my home before I have even managed to read them - so those subscriptions were dropped.  So why the music magazine? I can only conclude that being a great fan on Leonard Cohen got the better of me, but it was in no way a necessity and I felt very bad!  It was a good interview and I still have hopes of one day seeing him sing live but I have learnt my lesson - no more magazines on a whim!

Two knitting books:
One on technique: "Knitty Gritty" by Aneeta Patel and one for patterns:  "blankets and throws to knit" by Debbie Abrahams.  Inspired by Soulemama - visit her blog - I decided to pick up knitting needles and have a go.  The only time I have ever knitted was when I travelled around Argentina for a summer as a student - it was the best way to pass time on long bus journeys as I feel travel sick if I try to read on a bus or in a car.  I also thought that if I bought some wool, I could have a go at darning some of my jumpers.  I now have at least three well-loved jumpers which are in need of stitching up in various places - so I'm determined to keep them and not buy more. I will have a go at darning and let you know of my progress in due course.

The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald:
The current book for our book club which needs to be read by mid-April for our next get-together.  I tried two libraries with no luck and then gave up.  I did however, purchase it from Amazon.co.uk where there is a choice of buying it second hand for one penny or new for £1.99 and free postage - so I went for the latter as it worked out the same in the end.  This is the first one this year for my book club that I have had to purchase - which is good going and I will try to continue borrowing them in future months.

The Rhythm of Family, by Amanda Blake Soule: 
This seemed to sneak its way into the parcel with the Great Gatsby!  No excuse - I love this woman's blog - very inspiring about natural living and simple family life: Soulemama, and I couldn't help myself!  It is a great book and full of things to do each month which are free and related to nature and things to make and cook - so a good reference for my year's challenge - ha ha!

A handful of books for work: 
These I don't count - if I can't obtain free inspection copies, then I scour Amazon.co.uk for good deals and I would class them as a necessity for my work - so that one is easy to explain!