The Weekend

My Altered Book-Recycled Journal workshop took place on Saturday in Arcata.   It was a rousing success.  Everybody who attended learned a lot and had a blast, and very cool altered books were made by all.

This is the book I made ~ it was a newer book to begin with, so I completely recovered it with atlas pages.  The front cover sports a map of western Canada, while eastern Canada graces the back cover.

My new journal is 9-1/4 x 6-1/4 inches, filled with a variety of recycled papers.  There are numerous pockets and fold-outs within, and yesterday I edged many of the pages with washi tape.  Binding stitch is the Double X stitch, ala Keith Smith.

I think I might use this journal for my next Everyday Journal ~ although I don't expect to finish the current one I'm working in until the end of this year.

In other news ~ I've been reading a lot again...and largely I've been focusing on Scandinavian mystery, now called Nordic Noir.  My love of this genre began with Stieg Larsson (The Girl... series) and then Henning Mankell (Wallender series).  Larsson and Mankell are Swedish.  Then I moved on to Jo Nesbo's (Norwegian) Harry Hole series.  I recently began reading Arnaulder Indridason's books -- he's Icelandic -- and I think it was Alice at Weaverly who turned me on to him.  I pulled a new-to-me Danish author off the library shelf the other day and finished the book in a couple days ~ The Keeper of Lost Causes by Jussi Adler-Olsen (Dept. Q series). 

Two other Nordic authors I haven't read yet but will soon are Peter Hoeg (Danish), who wrote Smilla's Sense of Snow among others, and James Thompson, who's Finnish.

And since we're talking about mystery, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention Michael Connelly, my favorite American noir author.  If you haven't yet read him, his book are highly recommended.  But start at the beginning of the series, with The Black Echo.  Here's a list of Connelly's book in order.  Most of his books take place in Los Angeles, my hometown.