A "special" day

I am having a very "special" day - poured a cup of coffee twice over myself - twice!!! Grrr, managed to get it all over my desk and keyboard at work and all over myself, cleaned it up, cleaned myself up, dried everything, came back and did it again all over.
Definitely a special day, once of those that you just want to pack everything up and go home.

On a more positive note, I've started feeding my starter last night, converting a first white starter (50% hydration) into a liquid rye one (100% hydration). I've started feeding it 30 g water / 30 g light rye flour every morning and every evening.
I received a request for a 100% rye bread, and am thinking of trying out one of the recipes from Andrew Whitley "Bread Matters" book. I've had that book for a few years now and still yet to make a single bread out of it. For some reason I find that book quite scary - there is a lot of explanation of different ingredients, and I tend to skip through them a lot. Meaning that when it comes to the actual recipe description, it all looks a bit confusing and I give up and go for one of my tried and tested recipes instead. But I do love a challenge, so looks like rye bread baking is on the cards this weekend!!
Might also do a Walnut Bread out of Nancy Silverton "La Brea Bakery" book if I have enough starter for it. I must say, this is THE best book on sourdough, like EVER. I haven't used Nany's instructions for starter, I use my own, but every single bread I made out of this book turned out very very tasty and very pretty too (which is important). I have tried using rye, wholemeal and white starter, regardless of what the recipes say, and all breads turn out great, as long as I remember that Nancy keeps her starter at 125% hydration, and I just add extra liquid to the recipe to make up the liquid for my 100% hydration starters.

Speaking of books - I think its time I got me a new book. Mr Ranty did a bit of research for me and came up with a list of all the new books out there, I just need to choose one - just one, cause I already ran out of shelf space, and would need to do some serious re-arranging even to fit that extra book.
Here are my choices :
I've been obsessed with "Village Baker" by Joe Ortiz for a while, ever since I saw a recipe for Apple bread, adapted from his book. However, its quite expensive, over 30 quid, and I would like to know more about it before I buy it.
A new version of "Italian Baker" by Carol Field is about to come out (or only just came out) and I wouldn't mind getting that one, but I'll wait until I read a few more reviews before I decide.
"Bourke Street Bakery" by Paul Allam looks really good, I have nearly bought it a couple of times, but its more of a generic baking book, rather than a bread book, and I am not sure I want to expand outside bread / cakes territory just yet.
"Dough" by Richard Berninet is a very pretty book, and I love him - his videos, his mixing techniques, would LOVE a course at his bakery in Bath. However, his recipes are mainly yeasted breads, rather than sourdough, and he's only got a couple of dough recipes, the rest is about adding different flavours and creating different shapes.
"Artisan Baking" by Maggie Glezer has very good reviews, and might be a good book to have.
"Tartine Bread" by Chad Robertson is a very popular book at the moment, and I have seen a lot of good reviews of that book. However, I would like to see the actual book before I buy it.

Sounds like I need to get out there and do a bit of research. Looks like I need to get myself down to "Books for Cooks" in Notting Hill again. Its onle of my favourite books in London, its got thousands of cook books - imagine, a shop full of nothing but cook books - bliss!! They have a little cafe at the back as well if you get a bit peckish and feel like a snack, I am telling you, I can spend hours in there!! Thats my weekend sorted