Talent, and lots of it

This week, I'd like to post about my friend Glenny. Glenny is trying to get into the Guinness Book of World Records, and I think he should. Soon, you'll see why, and you'll think he should too.

Glenny is part of our maintenance team at the hotel where I work. I've known him for over a year now, and he never ceases to amaze me. He suffered from depression for a long time, and to help get him through it, he turned to art. This week's post will feature some of the items he displays at the hotel, and when he makes new items, I'll be posting them everywhere because they're incredible. I'll also be taking some pictures of the drawings he's made. All of the creations you're about to see are made out of cardboard. Yep, cardboard. Like cereal boxes and recycled items. Eco-friendly AND awesome.

He's also decided that if people want certain things made, he will take commissions. You can contact me for more information, and I'll speak to him about it. He does not have Facebook or Email for now, but he will soon. If you want one of your very own Glenny Creations, just let me know.

For now, take a look at some of the FEW things he's done for the hotel.

Meet Glenny:

This is R2D2 (in case you don't know anything about Star Wars). R2 was in our front lobby for a long time, but has been relocated to the basement because fascinated kids were damaging it. It stands about 3 feet tall, and is made entirely out of cardboard.

This is Glenny standing next to R2. Glenny is about 5'6" or so, so this gives you an idea of how big the robot is.

This is what he calls his Avatar Spaceship. It hangs above our Front Desk Area.

This is one of my favourite pieces: Space City. He imagined it as a city that hangs among the clouds.

I'll be taking some more pictures soon so you can see how detailed the city actually is.

(OR you could come check it out yourself at the Super 8 Hotel in Campbellton, NB!) 

Space City from the side.

This is what I call the Gleninator Spaceship. A spaceship made out of cardboard which he then coloured.

We no longer have this one, as he gave it away to a very lucky little boy.

Not only does Glenny make spaceships and other sci-fi memorabilia, he also makes regular things into robots.

For example, here is his Robotic Grizzly Bear.

 Here is a closer look at his face.

Here is his Robotic Lizard. It hangs in our front lobby and is really cool. Once again, all made out of cardboard.

This is The Toy Soldier. Glenny made this a few years back, and made it into the Tribune with it. 

I find he looks like King Lear. 

He stands 9 feet tall, and is made 100% out of recycled cardboard.

This is a closer look at his smiling face. Please note the details of every single accessory.

Here are his big feet and cute shoelaces.

Here is (a rather dark) picture of Glenny working on his newest project. 

It's a four foot long Star Destroyer.

Here he is putting some detail on the top of the ship.

As soon as it's finished (which should be within the next few days), I'll be posting some new pictures so you can see the end product.

So there you have it. Just a slight glimpse into Glenny's genius with cardboard. There are many more pictures to post, but all in due time. He works really hard and ridiculously long on these projects, so I hope you all take a minute to appreciate them. Feel free to stop by the hotel to see them in person or meet Glenny himself. Hopefully they'll blow your mind and amaze you as much as they amaze me. <3

Finally!

This was supposed to be posted a week ago, but I've been super lazy since I've been sick. Here it finally is though. This weekend, my man put my bookshelf together, and I put some of my books away in it. Here are the products of my addiction:

This was the Empty Space in my Office that prompted me to "need" a new bookshelf.

And those are all the homeless books that needed shelter. 

These are my Paperback Fiction Books.

This is what my new bookshelf looked like before assembly.

(I unfortunately forgot to take pictures of all the pieces, as well as the progress of my man's handiwork, 

so this will have to do.)

I also forgot to take a picture of what the shelf looked like sans books. Oh well.

But here's what it looks like with all my books in it! Yay! 

Isn't it pretty!?!? 

(That's a Cinnamon Cherry finish bookshelf from Canadian Tire.)

If it looks kind of weird, it's because I had to lean it against the frame of my closet because my house is old and the floor is a little crooked in that corner. Let's call it my home's little "quirks."

These are the top two shelves.

They contain some of my favourite fiction books ever (so far).

These are the bottom shelves, full of some of my other favourite fiction books!

(Honestly, I think all my books are my favourites.)

So YAY for new bookshelves. To celebrate, I went out and bought about a dozen books to help fill up some of the "empty spaces." I'll no doubt be filling ALL the spaces of all my shelves soon enough, and will then need yet another new bookshelf. Or a bigger house. We'll see.

The Space for Books

Today, in celebration of my new bookshelf (yep, my boyfriend has given in and decided to support my book addiction: he bought me a new bookshelf for my birthday - which is over a month away haha), I have decided to post pictures of my current bookshelves. I literally have books in every single room of my house. Just for fun, 'cause you know, I like books and stuff. So here we go:

In my Office:

This is my Classics and Antique Books shelf.

Bookshelf is made of wood, with Espresso finish.

Linguistics books, Writing Craft Books, Anthologies, Special Interest, and School Notebooks.

 Bookshelf is fairly cheap (from Wal-Mart), but surprisingly sturdy.

Because I'm still studying in Uni, here are my current School Books:

Shakespeare Studies, Renaissance Literature, Medieval Literature.

Oh, and several Dictionaries, Grammar books, and MLA Form and Format.

In my Reading Room:

 Small bookshelf of 

Children's Literature and Personal Writing Notebooks.

Poetry, poetry, and more poetry.

Fiction and Non-Fiction Mass Market Paperbacks.

In my Living Room:

Biographies, Hardcover Fiction, Arts and Travel Books, and Non-Fiction Shelf.

Along with a close-up so that you can observe my cat Ginny sleeping on top of the bookshelf (that's HER spot), as well as my special owl Sheldon (named after my favourite character from The Big Bang Theory).

 In my Entryway/Hallway:

Anthologies and Collections of Short Fiction.

As you can see, there is still space here for me to buy more books! YAY!

And here is the reason my boyfriend bought me a new bookshelf:

An empty space in my office, along with a large collection of Contemporary Fiction books 

that need a place to sleep.

(The books you see are just a fraction of that particular collection. It's getting out of hand!)

So now, I have the lovely task of putting together my new shelf, and tomorrow or Friday, I will post pics of the end product, along with commentary and pics of my Contemporary Collection. Wish my luck everyone; I am not the greatest handywoman.

lovelovelove xoxoxo

Where's your favourite bookstore?

Two of my favourite bookstores are right here in New Brunswick!! The first one is the Owl's Nest in Fredericton, and the other one is our Used Books Store here in Campbellton. The former is deceivingly huge and varied, whereas the latter is fairly small, but has a surprising amount of books. And of course, I love Chapters and those kind of chains, but nothing compares to hole in the wall bookstores.


That being said, I would absolutely LOVE to visit these places:
http://flavorwire.com/254434/the-20-most-beautiful-bookstores-in-the-world 

Love Trivia? Love Books?

If you're like me and you love trivia as much you love books, then you'll love this blog post!! 

I follow a lot of random things on Twitter, and I often find some really interesting articles about authors and the little things we don't know about them or their books. Here are some of my favourites right now:

Fifteen Weird and Mysterious Books

One of my biggest fantasies/wishes/things on my bucket list is to have a personal library like the one Beast gives to Belle in the movie Beauty and the Beast. My collection is coming along nicely, but seeing as how I'm obsessed with rare and antique books (I have an 1868 version of a Dickens Notebook and a published-once-only version of E. H. Strain's book A Man's Foe - a book that once sold at an auction for 10 000$), I would LOVE to add any of these to my collection!

http://www.businesspundit.com/15-weird-and-mysterious-books/ 

Books Lost to History

It's always incredible to imagine the books that could have been, or that must have been, or even the books that were and disappeared. Here are some of the most famous books lost to history - if only we could turn back time!

http://www.cracked.com/article/18368_7-books-we-lost-to-history-that-would-have-changed-world/ 

Books You Never Realized Were Racist

I really love Cracked articles. Mainly because they're always pointing out stuff that I never knew, but really should have. Here is a really good example.

http://www.cracked.com/article_19610_the-6-most-secretly-racist-classic-childrens-books.html 

Accidental Masterpieces

Do you want to learn the horribly disturbing secret behind Alice in Wonderland? Then read this Cracked Article. It explains how some of the most famous and beloved books in history happened by accident.

http://www.cracked.com/article_17221_6-writers-who-accidentally-crapped-out-masterpieces.html 

That's all for now folks, but I'll be posting again soon, probably some book reviews and then some more fun articles to browse. 

Hope you are all enjoying a good book!! 

Oh and P.S. If you're NOT reading a good book right now, then I strongly suggest you pick up J.D. Thompson's book Silver and Stone. If you're curious at all, (which you should be because the book is fantastic), then head over to her blog http://jdthompson.blog.com/ and support some great local talent!! :)

Starting Discussion Topics

Well, because I've been ridiculously busy with readings for school, I haven't had the chance to update this; however, that does not mean that I haven't been taking notes or thinking about it!!
I thought I would suggest some discussion topics before choosing a book to read, that way people could maybe start talking about some of their favourite books and characters, and it might lead us to a good starting point. So here are some of the things I've been thinking of lately:


-Jan Berenstain, co-author of the Berenstain Bears, died on February 24th 2012 at the age of 89, and Dr. Seuss, whose real name was Theodor Seuss Geisel, had a birthday on March 2nd - he would've been 108 had he not died in 1991. I bring these two people up in discussion because it got me thinking about some of my favourite kid's books. I read a lot of Berenstain Bear books as a child, and I still watch the cartoons nowadays (even when I'm NOT babysitting my nieces or nephews). I only recently started reading Dr. Seuss books, and I have fallen in love with them. We can learn so much from children's literature. Which brings me to the question: What are your favourite childhood books? Are there any that you still read today? I've always been a big fan of Fairy Tales and Folk Tales, so I still read a lot of Grimms, Perreault, and foreign tales. Two of my favourite books from when I was kid though (and I still have them today) are The Little Old Woman Who Used Her Head and Old Bones. Are your kids readers? What books do you like reading to them? Do they have a favourite story?


-March 8th was International Women's Day, a day to celebrate all the fantastic women in your life and the world. I have a lot of favourite women authors, so it's hard for me to pick just one. In my second year of university, I had an Atlantic Canadian Literature class. We had to read An Audience of Chairs by Joan Clark. It remains to this day one of my top five books. It's the story of a woman struggling with Bipolar Mood Disorder (ironically, four years after reading the book, I was diagnosed with Bipolar Mood Disorder; no wonder I sometimes identified with the protagonist). I'm also a huge fan of Gretchen Rubin's The Happiness Project. I read this book not long after my diagnosis, and it was really helpful when it came to finding ways to be happy again. I still find myself following her advice almost every day. And of course, I couldn't talk about women authors without mentioning Margaret Atwood. Her book The Handmaid's Tale was the reason a friend of mine decided to become a writer. I find the book eerily prophetic when I think of our present society and where I think the world is going. Do you have a favourite female author, or several? Why these women in particular? Is it them and their personality, or their books and characters? How have they influenced your life?


-Finally, my last question for the day is: If you could become any character for a day (or a year or a lifetime), who would it be and why? Alternatively, if you could fall in love and marry any fictional character, who would it be and why? What attracts you to these characters; is it because they seem so real, or because they have qualities you wish you had? I would probably choose Sherlock Holmes for both answers because I greatly admire his intellect and observational skills, not to mention the fact that every single description of him reminds me of an old century Sheldon from Big Bang Theory, and everyone knows that I'm head over heels in love with Sheldon. 


So that's it for today everyone. Hopefully some of you will answer and come up with some great ideas for books to read, or if you have some discussion topics or questions you'd like to bring up, feel free!! I always enjoy talking books, to everyone and anyone about anything and everything. Enjoy your reading all! xoxo

Chapter One, I suppose

Well, here goes.
I'm Nancy, and I am addicted to books.
If you're reading this, then you probably are too. I am currently living in Campbellton, NB, Canada, and I would love to start a book club where other book lovers could get together and discuss their favourite books, or anything they fancy really.
Now, that being said, I do have several friends and fellow bibliophiles who would love to partake in the discussion, but live too far away to actually physically be here. So I figured, HEY! why not make a blog where we can still all get together and chat? Of course, there are probably MILLIONS already out there, but this one here is "mine" and thus of course, for anyone who really knows me, this blog will be unique, quirky, bizarre, sometimes downright crazy and batshit insane, but will be forever interesting. That, I can promise you.
So for starters, I'm writing this to welcome anyone at all who would like to join, and if you are indeed interested, I'd love to hear some suggestions as to the first book we could all read and discuss and gush or rant over. I welcome any suggestions at all, whether it be fiction, non-fiction, romance, horror, or even foreign (I'm a little handy with languages, and I do tend to love translations and translating). 
So happy reading, and hope to hear from you!! 
lovelovelove xoxo


"If one cannot enjoy reading a book over and over again, there is no use in reading it at all."
-Oscar Wilde