One of my many literary pilgrimages while I was in London and Paris included a trip to a very famous address–221B Baker Street, the home of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson. I had heard it was a tourist trap and was pleasantly surprised that it was better than reported. I wrote more about it as part of a book review earlier this week, so today–pictures!
It all rather makes me want to read another Holmes book.
Check out At Home with Books for more Saturday Snapshots!
I got back last week from my trip to London and Paris 🙂 and still need to do a lot of sorting through my nearly 800 photos! So rest assured, you’ll be seeing many travel photos in weeks to come…
This week, because I haven’t figured out yet which shot of Admiral Nelson or which angle of the Peter Pan Statue is best, I have something travel-related but different. I asked blog readers for advice on books for while I traveled, so I thought I ought to share what I ended up reading!
It is SO much fun to sit in Kensington Gardens reading the last chapter of J. M. Barrie’s The Little White Bird or Adventures in Kensington Gardens, or to sit in the lower level of the Paris Opera House reading Susan Kay’s Phantom (while waiting for a tour, I wasn’t just prowling…)
I always try to bring books that will connect me to the cities I’m visiting. My trips tend to turn into literary pilgrimages to places I’ve read about, so it makes sense to read about the places while I’m there. Not everything in the stack is set in London or Paris, but Susan Kay’s Phantom was brilliant for setting me in Paris, and all the others are at least British–except The Poetry of Lucy Maud Montgomery which has nothing to do with anything. But L. M. Montgomery falls into the “don’t leave home without it” category.
And I had a nice time reading Montgomery’s nature poetry while on a boat on the Thames. So it all worked out.
And these were all good books, most of which I plan to review. Besides sorting photos, I have lots of book reviews to write…
Come back soon for book reviews and more photos! In the meantime, check out At Home with Books for more Saturday Snapshots.
I thought I’d share a couple of recent book purchases this week.
A Tale of Time City is one of the first Diana Wynne Jones books I ever read, and oddly enough, is the first of her books I’ve deliberately set out to buy. I’ve read many, many of her books, but all from the library, and the only ones I own are ones I happened to stumble on at a library book sale, or got as a gift. My collection is woefully small, and I thought I’d better do something about that–so I started by buying this lovely new edition of one of my favorites.
The Poetry of Lucy Maud Montgomery is my last L. M. Montgomery book. I have read and own every other published book of her writing. Novels, short stories, poetry, letters, journals, autobiography–I have it all. This is the last one. At least, until someone, somewhere, somehow decides to publish the 200-odd additional short stories that exist in an archive but are not currently available. In the meantime, I’ll just have to have a bittersweet read through the last new-to-me book of L. M. Montgomery writing. Although the name makes me laugh–having read everything else, I’ve read her journals where she commented that she didn’t like having her full name written out. Now I’m always amused when people do that!
Visit At Home with Books for more Saturday Snapshots!
I was looking around for inspiration this week, and decided on my own walls. I like all of my art to have a story. A few have songs, and I thought I’d share those today. Sort of meldings of art mediums.
These two pictures were a gift from a friend, who got them from her friend who bought them from an artist selling them by the Thames. The hard-to-read lyric in the middle (sorry for the glare!) is “Part of me still has never come back from London,” from the beautiful song by Barry Manilow, “London.” And it’s true–I went to London when I was sixteen, and part of me has never come back. I suppose that’s why I’ve been dreaming of getting back ever since. I don’t plan to ever move there; I have too many ties on this side of the ocean. But part of me has never left London.
I bought this poster because I wanted to put up the song quote. I had to hunt quite a bit for a good picture of the sky (harder to find than you’d think). The line is from “A Piece of Sky,” a song from Yentil, but what counts for me is that Michael Crawford put it on his A Touch of Music in the Night
And just to tie it together, going to London is definitely a dream I chase. 🙂
Check out At Home with Books for more Saturday Snapshots!
I anticipate getting some wonderful shots of London and Paris in the near future–but in the meantime, this week I have fake Paris.
This is the Paris Hotel in Las Vegas. The Eiffel Tower is immediately obvious, but I had to get farther away and at this angle before it was clear that the middle building is meant to resemble the Paris Opera House. Or possibly the Library of Congress…
Here’s the real Opera House, until I can get there for a picture myself!
Check out At Home with Books for more Saturday Snapshots!
Tales of the Marvelous 