A (somewhat) bookisly thankful post

I am hoping that I will feel more thankful after a day of hard work has mirculously transformed my home into something in which people can leave pleasantly (or at least made good progress in that regard). It is painfully slow to renovate a house while living in it, when both grown-ups work full time and the children are too young to weild power tools successfully. Set backs (the wrong hardware arriving with the two new storm doors, resulting in said doors decidedly Not helping with gracious living; tension regarding whether or not to polish the old light fixtures in the sunroom; the one remaining chicken deciding it wants to live in the boot room, and sneaking in every chance it gets, with distastful results, etc.) are not being offset by Remarkable Progress. But perhaps today will be the day to change all this, and I can be truly thankful ere the sun sets (which actually, this being winter, doesn't give me a heck of a lot of time).

I am trying very hard to be thankful that I am in no danger of running out of books to read. I hope to be even more thankful about this after the weekend is over, and there are fewer books piled up around the house waiting to be read, and that those books are the ones that make me feel all happly anticipatory (like the toothsome little arc of Sarah Prineas' new book, Winterling that made my day when it arrived at work some time ago. What a great cover!)

Viz the books read last year that made me thankful, the one that stands out most is The Demon's Surrender, by Sarah Rees Brennan, because I didn't have to feel sad for my beloved Alan any more.

And I feel very thankful for Tuesdays at the Castle, by Jessica Day George, not only for filling my mind with castle-ish wonderful-ness, but for reassuring me that my 11 year old, when given the right book, can be just an avid a reader as anyone else.

I'm thankful for the pleasure of having read many other great books this past year, but those are the two that stand out in my mind! (What books are you most thankful for?)

In short, I am somewhat less thankful than I was this time last year. But I am sincerly grateful that I don't have to go to work (and that I have a job), and I can go downstairs and have a second cup of coffee and then, oh joy, glaze the final six panes of glass that need glazing!

Finally, and very importantly, many thanks to all of you who read my blog, and those of you whose blogs give me so much happy reading! I hope you have lovely thank filled days of your own!