... continued

When this excessive book buying habit formed, I don't know, but it may have really taken hold last fall when a (genuinely horrific) writing assignment allowed me to work off-site. In fact, without a desk for me, I was required to work from home.

For years I read during my 80-minute daily commute, but then I started freelancing and working off-site and now I drive to work.

So I piled the books on the coffee table and read through the titles: The Portable Dorothy Parker, The Way the Crow Flies, Me Sexy, Love in the Time of Cholera, Middlemarch. In a separate pile, I put Consolation because I finished reading it only by skipping chapters, adding The View from Castlerock, which I've owned since November 2006, because I don't know if I'll ever finish it.

There were others, too, like The Copywriter's Handbook, but I suppose I'll be able to read that one on the job.

In the my first trimester of pregnancy, I'd begun reading The Mackin Charm, a novel by Jack Hodgins, but I couldn't finish it. Like our refrigerator's freezer, the book grew a sudden, funny smell to it that made me queasy. Or, queasier.

This was the first book I gave away without having read it. Recently, You On a Diet got the heave-ho without so much as a guilty thought. Today, I returned a book recommended by a tech writer colleague, who really ought to know better. I exchanged it for Excuse Me, Your Job is Waiting. It's a good thing, because man am I getting bored with the one I got.

The same tech writer suggested Jacob Cass' Just Creative Design website, which I love and visit often and on which I found this: http://justcreativedesign.com/2008/03/02/30-best-font-downloads-for-designers/.

When you look at Jacob's "best font" list, notice all typefaces are serif typefaces, plus, he references one of my favourite non-fic titles The Non-Designer's Design Book. That's on my bookshelf, too. In fact, I had to move it because it was taking up space in my newly created UNREAD section.

Just for fun, I access Cass' website often at work in hopes that the firewall nerds will notice the inordinate number of time I spend there and bam! I'll have the perfect opportunity to present my case.

See, my company has banned use of Times Roman -- an industry standard for print documents -- and oh, how I am beside myself with worry that users won't read my technical documentation.

Comments

[vb]

Hi Jacob. What a delight to find your comment posted here. You are most welcome! I am serious about how much I love your site, which, now that I have this opportunity, I'd like to thank you for creating and running the site. It's full of useful information and I always learn something when I visit. The name of the gal is Chris. I'll ask her who passed along the site's name to her and get back to you. And thanks to you for stopping by.

[Jacob Cass]

Hello Valerie, Jacob here... thank you for your kind words regarding JCD... I was wondering who this "tech writer" is that you speak of who recommended me. Thanks!

Jacob