First book read in 2011

I love books. I usually have one on my bedside table and read a bit before I go to sleep and I have one more in my bag because you never know when you will find some time to read (on the bus,while waiting at a queue or at a doctor's). Another of my New Year's resolutions is not to buy any book before I read all the unread ones I already have. I must do that not only because there is no more space in my flat for any more books but also because money is an issue. With all those reductions on our salaries last year and more are expected to come in 2011 one has to be serious about "wasting" on....things one already has many of! Books have become a luxury,too! Anyway....one good thing about newspapers in Greece is that they used to give lots of free DVDs and free books. So we have collected many of both and it is high time we watched all those DVDs and read all those books. We have stopped buying newspapers anyway.We hear the news on TV and verify them with lots of blog reading!

So one newspaper was giving a year ago the whole series of  Robert Van Gulik's detective stories. As I love the Orient I thought it would be a good idea to collect them and I managed to read the majority of them. I admit that I was really enthusiastic at first but after having read about five I realised that they are very similar in plot so if you have read a couple then they are very repetitive.This time I read The Lacquer Screen. I started it some time ago and there it is finished. My first read book in 2011.Good! I keep a notebook with the books I read every year and try to read more the next year to beat my own record. That's something my cousin S. taught me. I also try to read different styles of books so that I don't get bored. For instance one in Greek,one in English, a Greek author, a foreign author, a detective story, a romantic story, social literature etc. In between I read magazines to make things lighter.Oh yes I also bought glasses to be able to see better and read better. "Age does not come by itself alone" said the ancient Greeks, it brings company.

For those of you who didn't get enough of my Lemon Drop pendant arrival  here are a couple of photos with better light as well as some photos of my new sea glass frame. I loved the very cheap frames at  a supermarket and thought of mounting in them photos of sea glass I was sent by sea glass friends Sara and Dorothy and my own sea glass and then put them on my walls in my beach house.