Weekly Geeks: 2011 Reading Challenges

Recently I joined the Weekly Geeks which means that I post on a particular theme.

This week's theme is to post our reading challenges and goals.

I signed on to the YA Historical Fiction Challenge about 3 posts prior to this one so I won't elaborate on that again.  And quite honestly - between that and my research, I think I'll refrain from joining any more challlenges. 

However, my big reading goal besides 15 historical novels is to read everything I can get my hands on regarding Germany.  My recently "completed" work in progress spawned this idea to do a German story that covers multiple time periods. I'm not going to say much about that yet except to say that I need to learn decades of German history and social dynamics.

On top of that I'm working at learning to speak Deutsch which, so far, is not rolling off my tongue!

ANTIQUE BOOKS

Thanks to Alex Baugh, I just discovered The Weekly Geeks, a blog site which suggests a community blogging idea each week.  I'm signing up because - for one thing, I sometimes need blogging suggestions and for another, this week's suggestion was Antique Books.

The thing is I love old books. Nearly any old book will do. But a brightly colored one with silhouettes embossed on the cover?

They do things to my heart that make my cardiologist nervous. (or would if I had a cardiologist)

Naturally, I keep some old books on shelves.

But I can't hide those beautiful covers so I use plate racks for displays.

I mostly pick up old books at used book stores and flea markets. I've inherited some too but that copy of Heidi was given to me by a media specialist at a school in VA.  So sweet!

Baskets are another way to show off more than just the spines of books.

I'm especially fond of this one.

My favorite used bookstore is going out of business. I'm not happy about this but at least there will be some serious sales as they wind down.

I suppose this means I'll have to buy a few more plate racks!