Well, I can’t really tell you the actual F because I don’t think that would be fair to the family… F is the first letter of the last name of the family I want to talk about. I babysit for them (back in Vancouver) and I have done for nearly 8 years. They have three kids now – 10, 8, and 2 – the girls are older and the baby is a boy.

My babysitter from when I was a kid still remembers my birthday and we chat by email. So while I’ve been in England, I sent them cards and small presents for their birthdays and a nice long letter. My babysitter used to write me letters and I’d write back — I was hoping the girls would do that, but they are so busy! The girls both play 2 instruments each (piano, violin, cello, double bass) and now that their brother is walking & talking, I’m sure he’s up to everything. They also go to gymnastics and field hockey. They are certainly action-packed and it’ll be nice to be back in Vancouver and play with them again. I certainly miss their smiling faces, their stories, and them jumping up and down excitedly when I arrive at the front door.

They didn’t have time to write back, but their mom sent me a nice email with some photos attached:

And here are some photos from earlier (excuse the quality, they are scans):

Halloween 2006

Booking Through Thursday this week is about book’s covers:

While acknowledging that we can’t judge books by their covers, how much does the design of a book affect your reading enjoyment? Hardcover vs. softcover? Trade paperback vs. mass market paperback? Font? Illustrations? Etc.?

As a designer, I have to say that covers are very important to me. The cover is part of the book — they create an interesting and exciting prospect in one entity. I like to see an attractive design, perhaps slightly abstract but not crazy-out-there-indistinguishable. Font is very important to me, again as a designer and editor. I like it to be attractive, have the right feel, style, and tone for the novel’s topic, genre, and title. When there is a book that has been made into a movie, I try not to buy the movie-poster cover, although sometimes it is unavoidable.

Hardcover vs. Paperback is an entirely different issue (already covered by me as part of Booking Through Thursday).

I usually dislike mass market paperback because they tend to be riddled with errors and often very uninspiring. I find the covers to be quick-n-dirty designs and not as creative as trade paperbacks. In fact, Nathan and David can attest to this as they recently had a copy of To Kill A Mockingbird delivered to their new flat (part of mail-order books offers). The only way to show my distaste is through the images:

You NEVER hyphenate a title… muchless on the COVER!!

Can you spot the 3 errors? They’re dead obvious if you actually read the text!

Did you catch them? How could something like this actually make it to print?

ETA: Well caught Danielle & Jessi! I was so pissed about the hyphenation on the cover, I didn’t even see “oversease”. I updated the images to reflect it!

Instead of joining Once Upon a Time II, I decided to join the Spring Reading Challenge, as I can set my number and pick books off my TBR list! The Spring Reading Challenge was designed to pick books for March, April, and May. But I decided to use the dates for Once Upon a Time II and go from the First Day of Spring (March 20th) to Midsummer Night’s Eve (June 19th) the day before the First Day of Summer.

These are on my TBR Shortlist as they just caught my interest:

• The Shakespeare Secret by J.L. Carrell (finished April 4, 2008)
  
• Runemarks by Joanne Harris
• Pay it Forward by Catherine Ryan (finished May 9 ,2008)

These ones are some “classics” that are on my TBR Classic List.

• The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells (quit April 28, 2008)
• Catch-22 by Joseph Heller

I’ve owned these ones for some time and still not finished them (started several times):

• She’s Come Undone by Wally Lamb
• Watership Down by Richard Adams

These are some “easy reads” that were recommended by some girl-friends from camp:

• Twilight by Stephenie Meyer (finished April 19, 2008)
• New Moon by Stephenie Meyer (finished May 11, 2008)
  
• Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer (finished May 14, 2008)
  

So that’s 10 books that I can read in any order or not at all, but I hope to finish a few. The last three are if I get too “bogged down” by some serious stuff. I’ve already started The Shakespeare Secret and it reminds me very much of The Da Vinci Code, which I enjoyed very much. I might finish up the reading with A Midsummer Night’s Dream just to bring the ideas full-circle!

I’m knitting a cuddly bunny.

This yarn just screamed Easter, and I know that I’ve missed Easter but shut up I don’t care. I wanted to use it to knit those Easter Eggs too (I have the pattern that Michelle knitted)… but I don’t have any DPNs. I’ll share the pattern when I’m done the bunny… if I finish it. Remember the Penguick (penguin/duck)? I threw it in the garbage — didn’t even bother unravelling. I just wanted it out of my sight.

Everyone scoot over to Nannybird Crafts and tell her why your blog is titled what it is… and tell her I sent you! She has been running weekly contests for her entire blogiversary month!! WOW!

I told her that my nickname is Monnibo and that used to be my URL (back on WordPress.com). The blog used to be called “Still Thinking” because I couldn’t think of a good name back when I moved from DeadJournal & subdomains. But Nathan who stalks me via the blog (he lurks and has only ever left one comment) began calling me “MONNIBLOG! whenever he saw me. So I bought the domain and moved!

As the banner explains: Monnibo + blog = Monniblog