I’ve waited to share this with the internet at large until I told my colleagues at work.  But I’ve done that, so now I can tell you:

I’ve been accepted to (and enrolled in) the School Media Coordinator program at the School of Information and Library Science at UNC-Chapel Hill.

In case you aren’t familiar with library schools, UNC-CH is tied for #1 in the nation.

So I feel pretty special.   

From Booking Through Thursday:

What is the best book you’ve never read?

This is hard for me to decide.  The Time Traveler’s Wife immediately came to mind.  I can’t think of any others right now, but that might be the sleep deprivation talking.  I’m sure there are tons, but that’s the only one I keep thinking, "Oh, so-and-so recommends that highly.  I should read it."  ("So-and-so" is more than one person.)

What about you?

Over at Read Roger, The Horn Book editor Roger Sutton wants to know:

I’m curious to know what rules other people out there might have for Giving Up. (And Fessing Up: how much of a book do you have to have read in order to say that you read it?)

How long do you wait to stop reading a book?  Do you slog on through anyway?

I used to give a book 100 pages, but now I usually give it 50.  I figure if after 50 pages I don’t care what happens, I won’t care after 100 either.  But then there are books where I kind of don’t care but they are interesting enough that I will go on and finish them.  I recently read Queen Victoria’s Bomb, which falls into this category.

I usually don’t say that I’ve read a book unless I completely consumed the narrative.  Sometimes this does involve the kind of dual-level reading though, where while you are sort of taking in the words on the page, you’re really thinking about something else.  I’m never sure how to determine if I’ve fully read a non-fiction book.  Do I need to read all the appendices to claim I’ve read it?  What if it’s got recipes sprinkled throughout?  If I don’t read "Preheat oven to 400 degrees," does that mean I haven’t really read the book?

What do you think?

Clear Your Clutter With Feng Shui, by Karen Kingston, is both an organization book and a spiritual text.  The book is divided into three parts: Understanding Clutter, Identifying Clutter, and Clearing Clutter.  In Part 1, Kingston introduces Feng Shui and her method of Space Clearing.  She explains what things are clutter and how it affects you.  She discusses why we keep clutter and how we can begin to let go of it.  In Part 2, she explains the Feng Shui Bagua, "a grid that reveals how the different areas of any building you occupy are connected to specific aspects of your life," in great detail.  She identifies common clutter zones within the home and types of clutter we may find there.  Finally, Part 3 explains how to clear clutter from your home, body, mind, emotions, and spirit.

Clear Your Clutter is a great book for readers who want a quick introduction to Feng Shui and are ready to make a change in their lives.  The chapters are short, and Kingston’s voice is both no-nonsense and encouraging.  I read this book more than a year ago; I have since removed much clutter from my life, though much remains.  Perhaps it is time for a re-read.

I recommend this book to anyone who wants to get her or his home and heart in order or who is looking for a quick, simple introduction to the principles of Feng Shui.

Book: Clear Your Clutter With Feng Shui [affiliate link]
Author: Karen Kingston
Publisher: Broadway Books
Original Publication Date: 1999
Pages: 192
Source of Book: Borrowed
Related Links: FlyLady, UnClutterer

From Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast:

As a reminder, these Sunday posts are our weekly meeting ground for taking some time to reflect on Seven(ish) Exceptionally Fabulous, Beautiful, Interesting, Hilarious, or Otherwise Positive Noteworthy Things from the past week, whether book-related or not, that happened to you. Absolutely anyone, of course, is welcome to list kicks — even if, or especially if, you’ve never done so before.

This Week’s Kicks:

1. Today I bought this amazing crown, which I may or may not wear in my wedding: www.etsy.com/view_tran…

2. Yesterday the Mr.Me-to-Be and I headed down to the beach to visit possible wedding sites and explore. While it was kinda rainy and gross, and the first place we looked at disappointed a bit, it led to some productive thought and research.

3. Friday I received some very good news that I’m not quite ready to share with the world yet, but I will as soon as I can.

4. Thursday was a rather restful day for me.

5. Wednesday, one of my colleagues who accidentally broke the driver’s side mirror on my car paid to have it fixed. It was very good of her to take care of this promptly, when she could easily have just driven off and never told me she was the one who’d done it.

6. Tuesday I went to dinner with my sister and her fiance.

7. Monday I didn’t have a meeting (because my colleague and I scheduled ours for Tuesday instead) which meant I had time to prepare, which made my Tuesday much less hectic.

I do a lot of blog reading, in topics including blogging, craft, educational technology, fashion, video games, children’s and young adult literature, organization, personal branding, personal development, personal finance, productivity, and writing. Via a post on the Personal Branding Blog, I found this excellent post: You don’t need a blog topic. Just start writing.

I’m forever starting new blogs on niche topics. Currently I have them on the topics of craft/design, personal development, reading, and theatre. But I’ve felt a new project coming on, and Monica’s post inspired me. Her advice:

Write about what you’re learning.

I’m learning all the time. It is my favorite thing to do. So here at kimberlyhirsh.com, that’s what I’m going to do: write about what I’m learning. This may fall under any of the categories about which I read.  Learning is always bringing in something new, and will always give me plenty about which to write.

So welcome. I hope you learn from my learning!

Over at Just One More Book, Andrea and Mark are celebrating their wedding anniversary with a meme. Here’s the question:

Which children’s book best represents your marriage? your life?

I’m not married (yet! July 22!), but I’ve been with Will (that’s his name) long enough to know exactly the book for this:

Cinderella Skeleton (The link takes you to my earlier post about the book.) A little bit morbid, very sweet. Not at all serious. And that’s us.

(It was that or the one from Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark where the girl wears the green ribbon around her neck and if she takes it off, her head will fall off. For my 18th birthday, Will gave me a necklace that I take off so rarely that I do tell people that if I take it off my head will just roll right to the ground.)

As for my life, I have to go with Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen. Lola Cepp is excessively dramatic, wears really strange but carefully calculated outfits, and is a flamingo in a flock of pigeons. That’s me.

 I know that Non-Fiction Monday is supposed to focus on non-fiction for kids, but I don’t read much of that and I still wanted to get in on the party.  So here we are.

How to Be a Budget Fashionista is a guide by Kathryn Finney, founder of thebudgetfashionista.com.  The book is divided into three sections, labeled as “Steps."

Step 1: Know Your Budget.  In this section, Kathryn provides advice for fashionistas who maybe have been letting their money get away from them.  This section is essentially a mini-lesson in personal finance, and could benefit even those who do not want to become fashionistas.

Step 2: Know Your Style.  Every fashionista has a distinctive style, but these can be grouped into certain types.  Most people have more than one style.  In this step, you take a quiz and create a look book to determine what your style is.  Then, Kathryn supplies a list of designers and stores that fit your style.  PLEASE NOTE: Designers are not budget-friendly most of the time, so it might be best to look at these designers and use their work for inspiration, rather than plan to actually buy their designs.  (My style is mostly Romantic, with secondary styles of Conservative and Urban Trekker.)

Step 3: Know Your Bargains.  In the third part of the book, Kathryn discusses how to find bargains in department stores, online, from designer outlets, and more.  One review on Amazon pointed out that Kathryn’s idea of a bargain sometimes does not seem like a bargain at all: $50 for a blouse, $90 for a skirt.  While these aren’t bargains I can afford, if you look at the percent markdown from their original prices, the items she cites are true bargains.  Worrying about the specifics, however, isn’t what the book is about anyway.  Even if your clothing budget is such that you have no choice but to buy all of your clothing in thrift stores, there is advice here for you.

In addition to fashion and shopping advice, How to Be a Budget Fashionista includes ideas on how to supplement your income, how to arrange a clothing swap with friends, and how to make several beauty products from things you have lying around the house.

If you are looking to learn how to put an outfit together, this is not the book for you.  (That would be The Lucky Shopping Manual.)  But if you already know how to do that and just need some help doing it cheaper, you should check this book out.

Book: How to Be A Budget Fashionista [affiliate link]
Author: Kathryn Finney
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Original Publication Date: May 30, 2006
Pages: 240
Source of Book: Purchased from Amazon

 Sometimes, I take it into my head to get a really good handle on a topic/genre.  I often ask Little Willow for a custom reading list.  But this time, I’ve generated my own.

I am going to acquaint myself with the genre of Steampunk.  I’m so usually surrounded by people intimately familiar with this, at least as a cultural phenomenon, that I find it absurd when I have to explain it.  But I find it more refreshing than absurd, so in case you aren’t familiar with it, it’s a subgenre of speculative fiction (sci fi/fantasy) that deals with alternative futures based on an imagined past.  Basically, ask yourself what life would be like if the great classic Sci Fi of the Victorian era (Jules Verne, H. G. Wells) had been real.

Sound fun?  The name is a combination of Steam, the primary way of powering technology in such an imaginary world, with the affix -punk, taken from the genre of Cyberpunk.  Steampunk often has an anti-establishment sensibility, but with a more optimistic bent than Cyberpunk and other speculative genres.  This suits my personality perfectly, I think.

Additionally, there is a Steampunk aesthetic, generally Neo-Victorian with lots of gears and buckles, which really appeals to me.

Here’s my reading list:

Proto-Steampunk
Gormenghast Novels (esp Titus Alone), Mervyn Peake
Worlds of the Imperium, Keith Laumer
Queen Victoria’s Bomb, Ronald W. Clark 
A Nomad of the Time Streaks, Michael Moorcock

If you enjoyed this post, please subscribe to my feed so you will get my other book list posts.

 You can find it at their site.

If nothing else, this is an excellent way to find new books to read.

What are the Cybils?  They are the Children’s and Young Adult Bloggers’ Literary Awards.

From the About Page:

Our purpose is two-fold:

• Reward the children’s and young adult authors (and illustrators – let’s not forget them) whose books combine the highest literary merit and “kid appeal.” What’s that mean? If some la-di-dah awards can be compared to brussel sprouts, and other, more populist ones to gummy bears, we’re thinking more like organic chicken nuggets. We’re yummy and nutritious.
• Foster a sense of community among bloggers who write about children’s and YA literature, highlight our best reviewers (and shamelessly promote their blogs) and provide a forum for the similarly obsessed.