Books by the bedside

I love to read and I love to collect books. Here is the current stash that I have next to the bed. They are scattered about in a cluttered hodgepodge, in, around and on the nightstand. There is 'Il Quadro che Uccide' that I am currently reading, that I ordered from the Italian Internet Bookshop a few weeks ago and under that is 'Soluzioni a practical guide to Italian grammer' a new addition to my monstrous collection of Italian self education books. Next to those is a stack which include 'Food for Love', 'The Middle Window' (by Elizabeth Goudge a childhood favorite) and a collection of plays written by Natalia Ginzburg. I can't wait to get started on 'Food for Love' as it is about an art historian studying in Rome that decides that she will only go out with a man that can cook...intrigue to follow. At the bottom of that pile is 'A Kiss from Madalena', a book that I am almost done with, but kind of stalled out on. I plan on finishing it, but the descriptions of Italy during the war, as the Germans were pulling out and leaving destruction behind them got a bit too tedious and so I moved on to my Italian thriller dective story as a brief respite.

On the floor is 'L' Affair' by Diane Johnson. I don't know if this will be any good, but I had a gift certificate to Barnes and Nobles and I liked the cover and the description on the jacket so I am anticipating a good read. Under that is 'Firm up in 3 Weeks', a book of proverbs written by Benjamin Franklin (we were just in Philadelphia visiting his house or more precisely the musuem occupying the space where his house used to be) and 'Il Codice da Vinci' (the Italian version of the Da Vinci Code).

The basket to the side is filled with various and assorted Italian grammar books and magazines. Roberta, my friend from Milan gave me the magazine 'Focus' which is filled with amazing factoids about science, human behavior, and weird historical tidbits. Behind the basket is a pen and ink scribble I did of Sargent's Madame X, way back in graduate school.

Inside the nightstand is 'Casa Rosa', a rather depressing, but interesting book about three generations of women dealing with a tragic family secret. Behind that is a Sidney Sheldon novel in Italian. Amongst the rest is Peter Mayle's 'A Good Year', Harry Potter books and 'The Miracles of Santa Fico', a book I read last spring. From the photo I can't tell what the rest of the mish mash of journals and books are, but they have been well loved during the amount of time that it took me to read them all.

Keeping company with my stacks of books, is a paper weight that I bought in Venice, one of the scented candles my friend Stacy gave to me in a collection of six, my alarm clock which hasn't been used all summer long, but is about to returned to service starting next Thursday, the first day of school. And last but not least, is a picture of my grandmother Edie, taken on her graduation day from Swathmore College sometime around 1907. And that's it. There you go. Go grab a book and get reading!