Read it through once

Three months later she wrote:—“I have grown exceedingly fond of this little place. I love it of all things—have taken root completely—could be content to live and die here.... My method of doing nothing seldom varies. _Imprimis_, I take long walks and get wet through. _Item_, I nurse my flowers—sometimes pull up a few, taking them for weeds, and _vice versâ_ leave the weeds, taking them for flowers. _Item_, I do a short job of needlework. _Item_, I write long letters. _Item_, I read all sorts of books, long and short, new and old. Have you a mind for a list of the most recent? Buckhardt’s _Travels in Nubia_, Bowdich’s _Mission to Ashantee_, Dubois’ _Account of India_, Morier’s _Second Journey in Persia_. All these are quartos of various degrees of heaviness. There is another of the same class, La Touche’s[19] _Life of Sir Philip Sidney_ (you set me to reading that by your anecdote of Queen Elizabeth’s hair). Southey’s _Life of Wesley_—very good. Hogg’s _Winter Evening Tales_—very good indeed (I have a great affection for the Ettrick Shepherd, have not you?). _Diary of an Invalid_—the best account of Italy which I have met with since Forsythe—much in his manner—I think you would like it. Odeleben’s _Campaign in Saxony_—interesting, inasmuch as it concerns Napoleon, otherwise so-so. _The Sketch Book_, by Geoffrey Crayon—quite a curiosity—an American book which is worth reading. Mr. Milman’s _Fall of Jerusalem_—a fine poem, though not exactly so fine as the _Quarterly_ makes out. I thought it much finer when I first read it than I do now, for it set me to reading _Josephus_, which I had never had the grace to open before; and the historian is, in the striking passages, much grander than the poet, particularly in the account of the portents and prophecies before the Fall. These books, together with a few Italian things—especially the _Lettere di Ortes_—will pretty well account for my time since I wrote last, and convince you of the perfect solitude, which gives me time to indulge so much in the delightful idleness of reading.”