Non-Fiction

Two things… first, I have a ton of clutter (heh) and second, I love Laura from OrgJunkie. Meeting her in person at a BlogHer conference was a highlight of that year’s event.

So, when I realized Laura had a book, Clutter Rehab, I decided I needed to check it out.

It does have 101 tips, all of which make a lot of sense and none of which are new or unusual.

It’s a perfectly fine book but Laura’s blog is better. Just stick with her blog, it will serve you well and you will have one less book in your house when you’re uncluttering. Heh.

Austin travel guides are either really good or really bad, there doesn’t seem to be much middle ground. I don’t particularly like the ones that are combined with San Antonio (though I suppose if I was going for a week’s vacation, I’d be more appreciative of those.)

Here’s what I liked and didn’t like:

* Frommers San Antonio and Austin Day By Day — I like these because I like to have some place to start when thinking about planning out my days. I don’t generally follow their itinerary but I do like to start with these.

* Top 10 Eyewitness Travel San Antonio and Austin — I’m a big fan of lists and I’d have liked this one a lot more if it hadn’t been a combo San Antonio/Austin guide.

* Moon Austin, San Antonio and Hill County — I just plain like Moon travel guides. They always have suggestions that are just a little different from all of the others. Again, the darn combo travel guide — but this one did a much better job with Austin than the first two.

* Insider’s Guide to Austin was almost TOO much. I know, I know. I complain about combo guides and then complain when I get TOO much from this one. I’d like this better if I was going to have more time in Austin or if I was moving to the area. I also didn’t like the font or the darn paper. Blech.

I have no idea why I brought Weird Al: The Book home from the library. It jumped into the bag, all on its own. I’m not really a very big Weird Al fan. I find his parodies amusing enough. And I was totally on his side with the whole Lady Gaga thing. But I have never bought one of his albums or cds, though I did mean to buy Perform This Way because of the whole controversy and because he was donating the money to GaGa’s cause. I should go do that before I forget again.

I might like Weird Al more, after reading the book. Smart guy. Nice guy. Amusing guy. Interesting guy.

The Art of the Visit. Hell. I can’t even find full sized sheets for the futon or the air mattress and she wants me to do all of these things? Hell. Ain’t happening and that doesn’t mean that I don’t love the people who come to visit. I swear.

We’re heading to Door County in a couple of weeks for a mini (and much needed) vacation, which means I reserved as many Door County books as I could find (not very many, which is a shame, really.)

The only real travel guide is Moon Spotlight: Door County and it was fine though it assumes all travelers are going during high season rather than off season. There’s barely a mention of winter activities at all.

If you’re interested in the history of Door County then Door County Tales is your book. Easy and quick to read. Nice photos. I enjoyed this one.

Journeys to Door County wasn’t bad but I didn’t love the author’s writing style and I kept dozing off. The pictures were nice, though.

Almost a month ago, I Chatter/Tweeted asking people about the first blogs they read and whether they still read them — someone came along and mentioned Young House Love, a blog I’ve read a few times but never consistently.

The next day, I went to the library and there on the shelf was the Young House Love book. It seemed like fate so I checked it out. (How often does that happen to you? It happens to me quite a lot…)

The book was fun, a little more crafty/decorate-y than I expected and not as much home repair/renovation but still fun. Their IKEA LACK Hacks made me consider running out to IKEA to buy a few more LACKS. (Instead, I’ll just wait and buy a half dozen or so right before we move and we’ll see about doing some fun stuff with them in our new house.)

It’s a pretty nice book to just have on hand and I’m considering sending a copy to Michelle-Belle. If we’d had that when she was fixing up her apartment… and more time to fix up the apartment… there’s cool stuff in there.

It was fun to flip through and talk to TW about. (I was especially glad that we agreed about the various types of door hooks.)