Beware the Ides of March!

Recently I went to Barnes & Noble. I cannot spend a lot of time in a place like that because I find quickly that I have no self control. I love books and I want to own them all. I purchased 5 books on that trip - a soup cookbook, an ethnic food cookbook (both from the bargain priced section), The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom, Grimm's Fairy Tales and a copy of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. The cookbooks are because they were really good deals and sounded like they had some good stuff in them. I read cookbooks for pleasure sometimes. I think I might have more cookbooks than my parents do now. I do use them!

The Hiding Place is just a good book that I would like my own copy of. It didn't break the bank, either ;). Grimm's Fairy Tales is a classic and I would like to be able to read it and read it to others. I have a two year old moving in to my apartment in one week, so it might get some use while she is here. If nothing else, I'll read it.

Julius Caesar is an interesting choice for me. I have not historically been a big Shakespeare fan. It is mostly because I find plays harder to read than novels. I also tend to prefer prose over poetry, so a play written in verse isn't usually the first thing I would choose to read. That and Shakespeare just reminds me of required reading in high school. So when I wandered through the Shakespeare section I perused the titles for any of the plays that I remembered enjoying more than others. I picked up Julius Caesar because I have never read it. Why this one wasn't required in high school is something of a mystery, especially since we read other plays of his multiple times over the course of 4 years. I chose to try this one out because the play is only on the right side of the book and the notes are on the facing page, so there's no jumping to the bottom or end of the book to check the notes - they are there for you as you go along. So now I am reading Shakespeare. So far the experience has been pleasant. Hopefully I'll start reading more now. I tend to read in spurts and I've been going through a literary famine for too long.

Speaking of reading, I have gotten magazine subscriptions somewhat mysteriously. I had a subscription to Newsweek that just ran out. I have no idea where it came from and really don't like Newsweek, so I never read it. Yesterday I got Men's Vogue in the mail. What on earth? I threw it away. Really not my thing. Where are these things coming from?

So my new sofa is arriving tomorrow. This is sooner than I had planned, so the living room is going to be full of places to sit for the next week. Things are going to have to be moved around a lot to accommodate the furniture then moving. It will all be over soon! I'll try to take pictures of things in their various stages so you can all see what fun I'm having. ;)