Bundled Up With a Book: How to Survive the Chilly Weather

{Found this on Pinterest this morning, and no amount of web sleuthing could find me a source... well, whoever had this clever sign posted outside their door, it's a good one! Congrats on your untitled Internet fame, fellow bookworm.} 

So, from what I gather from news outlets around the country, everything's a bit chilly right now, isn't it? I mean, when you live in Washington, and people are having even worse of a time with the weather than you are, it's a little extreme. Even here, we're in temperatures below freezing, without the novelty and aesthetic benefit of snow to even stall our shivering. You'd think that living in a house with over 100 people would result in some fun penguin huddles... but no. In fact, my sojourn home from college for the weekend is at least partially motivated by the fact that my house actually has central heating. 

While the rest of the country moans and groans, at least us bookworms can relish the abysmal weather as yet another reason to stay inside, curl up with a good book, and spend the day in a book-bound land far away. Then again, sometimes there are days when you maybe need to take a little break from books... whether its a book hangover or just lack of material, it's occasionally a good idea to take a vacation from your favorite form of brain vacations. But then, what are you supposed to do on chilly days like this? 

Here's some smart ideas on how to capitalize on the cold, and have a successful bookish day indoors! 

Courtesy of Buzzfeed, figure out which Austen heroine you are!

Make yourself a little book mascot! (and be careful in your choice of books, please: thrift store novels that are falling apart already are best!) 

Amp up an old scarf with your favorite quote! I've made these for my sister and for my Greek family for all sorts of occasions, and they're always a big hit! 

Personalize a favorite hardcover with an under-cover surprise (like Team Epic Reads did with Ignite Me on this week's episode of Tea Time)!

One can never have too many bookmarks, right? Take some inspiration from around the web for a new set! 

• Bow bookmarks
• Animal bookmarks
• Butterfly bookmarks
• Artsy hipster nature-loving Free People bookmarks 

Or maybe you're looking to add some new material to your Goodreads TBR lists...

• Buzzfeed's list of 32 Books Guaranteed to Make You Laugh! 
• PopSugar's reading guide for Surviving your Quarter-Life Crisis! 
• EpicReads' 25 Adult Books for Fans of YA! 
• BookRevel's 25 Standalones to Read After Series Burnout! 

However you choose to spend your time indoors this weekend, here's to books, hot beverages, and a nice warm blanket! Happy reading! 

Many Adventures

When flipping through the last few pages of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, by Mark Twain, yesterday afternoon, and preparing to gather my thoughts for this blog post, I had to stop, and laugh for a moment. This book - this precious bundle of pages - is my favorite novel, of all time. Most people who learn this information are a little surprised, expecting something a little more... I don't know... romantic? British? More stereotypically fitting of the "classic" title? No. This book is my most beloved.

And I was laughing because I realized, that the first time I had ever read this book, was exactly a decade ago.

That's right. This little precocious reader first became acquainted with young Tom Sawyer at the age of eight, after having received his book as part of a Scholastic Book Orders (remember those?) bundle the year previously (it's companions being 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, which I have actually yet to read, and My Side of the Mountain, which I hold in the utmost esteem). Upon my first reading - over a cumulative week of quiet-learning periods at our Montessori summer school - I found myself unfamiliar with about half of the words inside of it... and yet, still safe and snug in the flow of the story. Despite having only just graduated the 2nd grade, I not only followed, but rejoiced in, Tom's escapades, and wound my way through all of St. Petersburg, Missouri, with him, Huck, Joe, and Becky, while my classmates sat coloring, doing math pages, or practicing for spelling tests.

Little did they know what sort of trouble I was up to. Safe inside the pages, I was far from quiet. I was fighting in the forests and in the streets, filling the cat up with painkiller, creeping into graveyards in the dead of night, paying witness to murder, lying, plotting and scheming, running away from home to become a pirate, getting trapped inside a labyrinthine cave, from which I might not ever escape... and none of my desk neighbors would ever know the difference, unless an unchecked laugh made its way through the silence of the class. And so, the daughter of a Sunday School teacher - who was not even allowed to walk through the grocery store alone - found herself a world filled with possibilities, opportunities for behaving badly, and no one could stop her.

I've read this book every summer since. My vocabulary and comprehension have grown, as is to be expected, and my tastes in literature have varied as well, and yet, to me, this book always remains the same.

This book has stuck with me throughout three different elementary schools, middle school, and high school, and has traveled with me to campgrounds, slumber parties, Sun River, and even church camps, over the course of the past ten years. I have read it EVERY SUMMER, without fail, and even a bunch of times interspersed throughout the years as well. Every crack in its spine, ridge in its covers, stain or rip on its pages, marks another trip inside the wonderful mind of Mark Twain, and another encounter with the mischievous champion of childhood, Tom Sawyer. I. Love. This. Book.

And yet, it made me cry yesterday - no, seriously cry - after I was done laughing. I realized that yes, this is a book I've been reading for the past ten summers, since I was eight... but that means, I'm eighteen. I'm going to college in less than a month. I'm growing up, shipping off, moving out... saying goodbye. I'm far passed the age for digging for buried treasure, or believing in witches. I'm trying hard to become an adult now, there's no time for dwelling in the adventures of years past. I've got to be a big girl, no more kidding around. But... does this mean, I've outgrown Tom? Is a book I've spent a decade loving now simply something I have to leave behind?

It was a major Toy Story 3 moment. Looking down at the bent cover, the well-studied artwork, and dented and creased spine, I contemplated my future, trying hard to ignore my past.

Then, with a flick of the pages, I couldn't ignore it anymore, when the crackling, yellowed paper issued the scent of freshly cut grass, reminding me of reading the book on our back patio in the summer sun, while my dad mowed the lawn. Then came the scent of hot sand, when I took Tom along to Long Beach. The scent of strawberries, when the cousins came over for a Fourth of July party and we had strawberry shortcake, and I accidentally spilled a little on a page of my book. I smelled bug spray, and sun lotion, and chlorine from a pool. I smelled the peanut butter sandwiches my mom packed for me the entirety of the 1st grade, and the mix of perfumes from the Stadium girl's locker room. This book has been with me everywhere. If it has already stuck along for the ride this far in my life... why should I give it up now?

So I decided Tom and I were in for another ten years, at least. I can't think of another book that has impacted me in such a way as this novel has. This post isn't a review, and it's not a recommendation either. It's an overly-long post, filled with effusive praise and fond memories, made while reading my favorite book in the entire world.

Thank you Mark Twain, and Tom Sawyer. Happy Tenth Anniversary.

Outdoors

Seeing as though later today I'm leaving for a camping trip (3rd one of the summer!), I thought about which books in my "To Be Read" Pile are coming with me. While sorting through various titles and covers, it led me to think, what are my favorite books I've brought with me in the past? Which are my favorite books to go camping with?

After some deliberation, I've come up with my Top 3. All deal with the outdoors, though in different ways, and all are books I'd highly recommend. Though you may think that one or two of them are more for a younger set, I believe that if you haven't read them yet, screw the age limit, and read them anyways. They're that good.

BOOK 1: THE VARIOUS BY STEVE AUGARDE

I read this entire book nestled up in a chair in my backyard in the sixth grade, and only when the sun was setting. I felt it lent the book a certain magic. This book isn't about the outdoors the same way the other books are, in the way that it deals with a girl, rather than a boy, and involves mythical creatures, like pixies and sprites and fairies, instead of the all-too-real dangers of the actual world. However, the story does include the woods behind this girl's house, so I feel it is worthy to make this list. The story always reminds me that there are things lurking in the trees that we don't know exist, and that nature has secrets of its own. Perfect things to remember when it's two o'clock in the morning, you're stuck in your tent with only a flashlight and a sleeping bag, and you can't remember which path leads to the camp bathrooms.

BOOK 2: MY SIDE OF THE MOUNTAIN BY JEAN CRAIGHEAD GEORGEI love this book. I originally got it in the second grade, read it, and promptly decided I was going to run away into the woods like the main character, leaving this shallow world behind for a natural lifestyle. The only reason my plans were thwarted were because a) I didn't know where to find any woods, and b) my parents are too observant. These crushed dreams haven't stopped me from revisiting this book series many times in my life, and wishing I could live like Sam. This is a perfect book for anyone going on a camping trip, especially if they are in elementary or middle school. How I envy anyone reading this book for the first time. And do you want to know a secret? Up until last year, I buried this book at the bottom of my camping kit every trip, just so I could use it as a sort of manual if I ever got lost in a forest.

BOOK 3: INTO THE WILD BY JON KRAKAUERIf assigned reading during the school year has the power to ruin books for high schoolers forever, you'd think that a book assigned for summer reading would only double the destructive power. However, this book was assigned to me last year, and it changed my life forever! This book is amazing. Everyone should be required to read this spectacular nonfiction book, the doomed journey of Chris McCandless into nature. This is an incredibly powerful one and I'm only repeating how fantastic it is because I feel like I have to really get the point across. Just, please, please, please, read it.

So there are my Top 3. All three great, and all have journeyed onto campsites with me sometime in the past. Now I've still got to find which books are coming with me this time...