It's Monday. What are you reading?

 

This event is hosted by Sheila from Book Journey. Go check out her blog.

Here's what I've got on tap for this July 4 week:

Reading:
Blog, Inc.: Blogging for Passion, Profit, and to Create Community by Joy Deangdeelert Cho
Finding Colin Firth by Mia March for review next week
Mrs. Lincoln: A Life by Catherine Clinton

Listening:
Pawley's Island by Dorothea Benton Frank

Working on:
Edits on chapters of a Southern historical fiction novel
A feature article for Georgia Connector magazine
A grant draft for a nonprofit organization
Wrapping up syllabi for this fall's Advanced Composition and American Literature
Editing an article for an academic journal

And more blogging!

Monday....

DYI Redecorating on a Budget: Miss Mustard Seed

My husband and I are on plan B of living in our house a lot longer than we originally thought when we bought it in 2007. As it turns out, I can't imagine living on any other street. We've got friendly neighbors who have relocated from other parts of Georgia and all over the world. When I work with my office window open in the evening, I can hear children riding their bikes up and down our street and laughing. I know where I can go to borrow a cup of sugar (yep, I've actually done that), park an extra car or share a meal. As a result of living in this house longer than we thought we would, we've been in the process for over a year now to redecorate the living room. What felt like an easy project in the beginning has been slower going than I thought, but we're nearing the end of the journey. Only a few things (mostly pictures for the walls) are left to complete the project.

Knowing that, my in-laws gave me a book for Christmas that speaks to this process and how to do it on a budget (an important part of why it's taking so long to get it done). The book, Inspired You: Breathing New Life into Your Heart and Home, came out of a blog by Marian Parsons aka Miss Mustard Seed. It's full of great ideas for things to do, both big and small, to change up your living space from a DYI, budget-friendly way.

Here's what I most liked. Parsons makes no bones about the fact that yes, the pictures in the book are of her own home. That she lives in. All the time. With a husband and children. And, no, it's not that clean all the time. She's brave enough to include a few photos of how lived-in it looks when the art directors and photographers aren't around, and real life is happening.

Book Review: Manners in Emily Post's Digital World: Living Well Online

The Emily Post Institute, the authority on all things etiquette, has just published an up-to-the-minute guide called Manners in Emily Post’s Digital World: Living Well Online. In keeping with the times, it’s the first-ever e-book to come out of the organization. The book’s author, Daniel Post Senning, has been at the helm of technology at the Emily Post Institute for years, building their first website, figuring out analytics and e-newsletters, and a WordPress blog to answer etiquette questions from the general public, among other things.

In a relatively short book, Senning covers a lot of ground. The book effectively targets the social media/mobile device novice as well as the more experienced user. It suggests the right way to coexist with technology as well as the people you interact with offline: family, friends, coworkers and even store clerks. It discusses in-depth the circumstances under which it’s acceptable to play a game on your mobile phone in public (sometimes OK), take a phone call in a public bathroom (never OK), friend an ex or a coworker online (sometimes OK), or stir up trouble in a chatroom or forum (never OK) .

The book outlines the wonderful advantages of touting your business on Facebook and other social media platforms. It gives advice on determining a website’s credibility. It suggests ways you and your family members can make rules about turning off mobile devices in favor of quality time together.

Perhaps the most power takeaway from the book appears in Chapter 4: Facebook: “You can always delete something you decide you don’t want on your wall [or on Twitter, in an email, on a dating profile, etc.], but you can’t take back the impression it made while it was visible.”

You can follow the Emily Post Institute on Twitter @EmilyPostInst and see what others are tweeting about with the #etiquette hashtag.

A History of Blogging

NC State University is hosting History Weekend on campus February 17 and 18. One of the events is a lecture on the history of blogging given by Dr. Robert Darnton, director of the Harvard University Library. According to NC State's College of Humanities and Social Sciences blog, Darnton will "share how the bits and pieces of written material from years past were our ancestors’ ways of blogging. Darnton will take audience members back to 18^th century blogging in France and lead them through blogging history up to our present time." For more information on this event, visit CHASS' blog.