Books and Tea

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Tag: goals

My Reading Plans for 2017

By

On January 1, 2017

In Books, Thoughts

the-new-youI hope that the holidays have treated you well. 2016 wasn’t a bad year for me on a personal level, but I did really fall down when it came to writing reviews regularly. I do hope to pick up the pace in 2017.

In years past I’ve pledged to read a certain number of books or certain types of books. However, I don’t know if that tactic really works for me — over time, the books that I haven’t yet read become imposing, and the fact that I’ve “promised” to read them makes them less attractive prospects. A lot of what I read depends on gut feelings and moods and recent events. So here’s a list of books that I’d like to read in 2017, as well as ones I’ve promised to review because I was given a copy by the author/publisher.

Books About Politics

  • Hope in the Dark by Rebecca Solnit (I’m currently reading this)
  • The Canadian Constitution by Adam Dodek (Another one I’m currently pecking away at)
  • The Authoritarians by Bob Altemeyer (You can get it for free!)
  • Fascism: A Very Short Introduction by Kevin Passmore
  • The Origins of Totalitarianism by Hannah Arendt
  • The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William L. Shirer
  • Rhetoric for Radicals by Jason Del Gandio

Books for Myself

  • Borderline by Mishell Baker
  • Wintersmith by Terry Pratchett
  • Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler
  • Trade Me by Courtney Milan
  • Arrival/Stories of Your Life by Ted Chiang
  • Company Town by Madeleine Ashby
  • The Soul of Rumi by Rumi (a collection of poems translated by Coleman Barks)
  • Take Me to Your Chief by Drew Hayden Taylor
  • Meditations by Marcus Aurelius (translated by Gregory Hays)
  • All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders
  • House of Shattered Wings by Aliette de Bodard
  • Hild by Nicola Griffith
  • Her Smoke Rose Up Forever by James Tiptree Jr
  • Girl Mans Up by M-E Girard
  • Travel Light by Naomi Mitchison
  • The Starlit Wood, edited by Navah Wolfe and Domink Parisien

Books for Which I’ve Received Review Copies

  • Invisible Influence by Jonah Lehrer
  • The Wall of Storms by Ken Liu (I still need to read The Grace of Kings first! Ack!)
  • The Kissing Booth Girl and Other Stories by A.C. Wise
  • World Atlas of Tea by Krisi Smith
  • Strangers Among Us: Tales of Underdogs and Outcasts, edited by Lucas Law

Will I read all of these books? I have no idea. Chances are that something new, or some resurfaced classic, will capture my attention in 2017. But these are the books that are taking up space in my mind at the moment.

State of the Tea Cabinet, 2016

By

On January 1, 2016

In Tea, Thoughts

Happy New Year, folks!

It’s officially 2016, and I’ve been blogging here at Books and Tea for just over half a year. In order to keep the blogging up, I bought a LOT of tea in 2015. So much tea, in fact, that I’m pretty sure that I won’t run out this year even if I drink it every day and buy none at all during 2016.

But where’s the fun in that?

Of course, I won’t stop buying tea cold turkey. But I certainly can afford to slow down for a few months, at least. I figure that with past sample requests, past purchases, and incoming tea orders from 2015, I still have enough untasted tea to justify writing reviews for at least the next 3-4 months even if I make no additional purchases.

Let me repeat: I have A LOT of tea waiting in the wings to be reviewed. Hell, I even spent a good chunk of this past week going through my cupboard and tallying up all the tea I have. The numbers are quite intimidating.

Total number of teas in my cabinet: 156

Total weight of all teas: 3,449 grams, 3 blooming teas, and 50 individually-wrapped bags. That’s about 7.5 pounds!

Breaking it down even further, here’s what things look like:

Tea Type Number of Varieties Weight in Grams
Herbal 22  557.8 (plus 20 bags)
White 7  143.6
Green — Unflavoured 17  199.7 (plus 7 bags)
Green — Flavoured 13  195.8 (plus 2 bags and 2 blooming teas)
Black — Unflavoured 20  304.1 (plus 7 bags)
Black — Flavoured 20  291.6 (plus 10 bags and 1 blooming tea)
Pu’erh 35  1,422
Oolong 15  176.8
Rooibos 5  138.3 (plus 4 bags)
Yellow 2  19

Clearly, I have a lot tea to drink. (And I’ve got about a dozen more teas on the way!) I should be able to stay above water if I drink about 10 grams-worth of dry leaf a day.

If you’re a tea junkie, how much tea do you have in your cabinet? What are your tea buying plans for 2016?

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