Happy birthday to Astrid...and me

Today is Astrid Lindgren's birthday; it would have been her 101st.  It's also this blog's birthday: its first!  I'm celebrating by making plans for bookstogether's future.  All of which include...more posts, for starters.  Thank you for reading and commenting thus far!

And check out this gorgeous edition of Pippi Longstocking (Viking, 2007).  Tiina Nunnally's translation is described as sparkling; I like it, but I definitely prefer "thing-finder" to Nunnally's "thing-searcher" (does anyone know what that is in Swedish?).  I love Lauren Child's illustrations, though; her Pippi is sweeter somehow than Glanzman's (the one I grew up with), but still sassy.  And I really love the book's design, which occasionally merges text and illustration (full-color throughout) in all kinds of interesting ways.  Our new favorite Pippi.  And we do love our Pippi.

[N.b., it's not actually my birthday; that's October 5, and I share it with Toot of Holly Hobbie's Toot and Puddle (see A Present for Toot).  Although I'm probably more of a Puddle than a Toot, except when it comes to European travel.  And definitely more of an Annika than a Pippi, for that matter.]

Not reporting from Miami

We were on vacation in Miami Beach for the last two weeks.  The first week the weather was gorgeous.  After a day of playing in the white sand and clear blue water, the kids and I would clean up and go out to the wide tiled terrace overlooking the ocean, to sort through the day's collection of seashells and sit on deck chairs reading Pippi in the South Seas (this image is of my childhood copy, illustrated by Louis S. Glanzman; Puffin, 1977).  I think this is my favorite Pippi book, and the chapters that take place on board the Hoptoad (Pippi's father's ship) and on Kurrekurredutt Island made perfect on-location reading.

Pippi and Tommy and Annika set off for home before the start of the rainy season.  We mistimed our departure, and it rained for most of the second week of our vacation [see Tropical Storm Fay].  Now reporting from Arlington, VA:  we're home.

Goodreads

I've been looking for a way to keep track of what I'm reading since January (see this post) and finally decided to commit to Goodreads.  You can find me (and add me as a friend) there at www.goodreads.com/profile/bookstogether.  If you're on Goodreads, please consider adding me as a friend; and if you're not, please consider joining.  I would love to see what you're reading.

N.b, the Goodreads widget in my sidebar is showing someone else's books at the moment!

[Updated to add:  I switched to a different widget.  And, Goodreads is addictive.]