Reading Habits
April 7, 2009
I have a lot of strange little quirks when it comes to me and books. It borders on compulsive, these problems habits of mine.
First, I can’t seem to stick one book at a time. I don’t know how it happens, but I always wind up in the middle of at least three books - more often six or seven at a time. I think it’s because if the original book that I started reading isn’t closest to me, I just grab whatever is near and start reading that. Then I like to keep a small paperback in my purse. You know, just in case. Then I have people loaning me books all the time and I like to work my way through those pretty quickly so I can return them to their rightful owners. Lastly, I always seem to be in the middle of that book that I just can’t seem to get through…
Which leads me to my next book-ism. I can’t leave a book unfinished. I’ve only done it once with Frank Herbert’s Dune and I don’t doubt that one day I will go back and finish that. It doesn’t seem to matter how awful the book is or how long it takes me to get through it, I am determined to give the book its chance to the very end. The book that I’m reading currently is one of those ones. It’s good, but not great and I’m finding myself overwhelmed by the sheer amount of characters and the similarities in all their names and titles. I’ve been reading this book since November. Of course, I’ve completed well over a dozen books since then, but this one is still a work in progress. I’m making it my goal to finish it this week.
Another oddity of mine is my need to read all the books by an author in the order they were published. Especially if it’s a series. It doesn’t matter if the novels can stand alone; I have to read them in order. I get a bit twitchy if I find out after the fact that I’ve read something out of order. I hate it when people tell me that it doesn’t matter if I read them correctly or not because damnit, to me, it matters. I used to even wait until a series was completed and published before I’d even start to read them, but I’ve gotten over that quirk. Mostly.
I often find myself staying up late to finish a good book. This wouldn’t be weird in and of itself except that when I finish it, I can’t sleep unless I get at least a page into a new book. I hate the feeling of not having moved on to something else. This probably also contributes to the first bit I mentioned - where I sometimes wind up in the midst of more books than any one person should be reading at any one time.
So as you can see, I’m a bit weird about my books. I also don’t get rid of anything in my collection. Not even when it sucks. If it’s awful I just stick it on a shelf out of sight, but I can’t seem to get myself to pass it on. I tried taking part in this really neat project (whose name I can’t remember or I’d link to it) where you’d leave a book in a public place with a note and a link in it telling the finder to read it and pass it on with the same link. When they went to the link they’d find a page where they could register where they found the book. Then you could see how far and how often your book travels. I was able to do it with one book and it hurt. So I stopped. I like to keep my pretties where I can be surrounded by them. I love sitting and reading the familiar titles and figuring out which books I’d like to read next and remember which were good and which were stinkers.
I just love books. What are your weird reading habits?
I Don’t Say That I Dreamed It, I Dreamt It, Damnit
March 7, 2009
I am a huge reader. I love to read, I read all the time. One thing that I am working really hard to do is to cultivate an early love for reading in my daughter. I buy her books all the time. I try to read to her every night and we look at books throughout the day. I read in front of her.
With my love for reading and my want for a daughter who also loves to read, I was overjoyed to receive books at my baby shower. Books for the baby. However, once I got home and looked at them, I was really really annoyed. You see, these books use what I consider to be incorrect grammar and it uses this grammar in the title. ANNOYED.
I looked it up and apparently the language they used in the book is technically also correct, but still, I don’t like it.
What do you think about these title?
I Dreamed I Was A Mermaid
I Dreamed I Was A Princess
Shouldn’t it say this instead?
I Dreamt I Was A Mermaid
I Dreamt I Was A Princess
Weigh in, please. Am I insane to be really irritated at the way they phrased that?
Lucky You - Three Memes In One Post
February 3, 2009
I swear to Hades, people, my brain is fried. Lucky for you, not so fried that I can’t be a trendy follower and post up some memes for ya. The 25 things one is on my Facebook as well so likely you’ve all already seen it, but whatevs. Read it again.
First. 25 Things About Me. ‘Cause 100 Things wasn’t enough.
(1) I love cupcakes. I think that they’re beautiful and tasty and fun and I love them.
(2) I put $70 onto an online poker site and was actually able to play with the same money for a year and a half before I ran out. I’m not that great at poker, but I’m not always terrible.
(3) I’m going to Mexico in April! Tickets were purchased yesterday and I’m ridiculously excited. Yay for my friends getting married in the Mayan Riviera!
(4) I used to read obsessively. Now, because I’m way too much of an internet geek, I read far less. It bothers me. In fact, once I finish this note, I’m shutting the computer for a bit and reading a book. So there.
(5) I get really attached to people and have a very hard time letting go. It’s why I love sites like Facebook where I can find people from my past.
(6) I’m not religious. At all. Yet somehow, I manage to have a lot of very religious friends. Not just religion-lite, but the real deal. Sometimes it makes me a little uncomfortable because I used to be very religious, too.
(7) I dressed like a tramp whenever I went to church when I was younger. It wasn’t intentional. Well, I wanted to look HOT, but not so much like a hooker.
(8) I haven’t seen a lot of movies that supposedly EVERYBODY has seen. Pulp Fiction was one of those until a few years ago when I watched it and didn’t like it. Yup, that’s right. I didn’t like Pulp Fiction.
(9) I am completely and totally obsessed with Lost. I love all the mysteries, the twists… I’m madly in love with Desmond. I watched the first four seasons in a period of about two months and now I wait eagerly for Wednesday’s when I have Lost parties with an awesome similarly obsessed friend.
(10) I find it weird when people tell me that I’m strong because I don’t think that I am. At all. I can never come up with anything that I’ve done that would give them reason to think that I’m strong.
(11) I don’t cry in front of my friends. I get really weird about it. I called my best friend in tears last night and I think I shocked the hell out of her. I think she was afraid that someone had died. (No one had.)
(12) I function mostly fine on very little sleep. Eventually though, I get really giddy. Then I get really emotional and will cry in frustration.
(13) I overuse the word really.
(14) Next on my list of places I’d like to travel is Greece. I’m fascinated with Greece and I cannot wait to set foot there.
(15) My favorite movie is The Princess Bride and I can quote extensively from it. And will. At random times.
(16) If I ever manage to lose the 50 lbs that I want to drop, I’m going to have professional semi-nude pictures taken. No, I won’t put them on Facebook or the blog or any other public site.
(17) I love reading and studying about body image in women. Eating disorders and general self-esteem issues are really interesting. My own opinion of my own body is lousy.
(18) I have so many songs on my iTunes that I can’t name every one as it comes up on my shuffle. Like right now, some song is playing and I really like it, but I have no idea who does it or what album it’s off it. I’m also too lazy to get up and check because my iPod is on its dock and not playing off the computer.
(19) I love Apple. I would probably buy an Apple product JUST because it’s Apple and not because I need it. I love them that much. I won’t pressure PC people to change, though. I’m not one of THOSE crazy Mac fans. (But I will say that once you go Mac, you’ll never go back. Hee.)
(20) I beat Guitar Hero on the easy level and I’m too intimidated by that damn blue button to try to do it on medium.
(21) I read a book called Youth In Revolt over ten years ago and it remains in my list of top favorite books. I just found out that it’s going to be made into a movie soon which has me both a bit excited and bit nervous. I always get nervous about favorite books being made into movies.
(22) My favorite author is Jennifer Crusie. I got to meet her (on a few different occasions, actually) and I was just as nervous as if I was meeting a bona fide rock star. She’s fantastic. I’d still be nervous around her, though. I can’t help it. She’s like, my idol. Her books are so well-written!
(23) I used to buy a lot of movies and then I would never watch them. I still have movies in their shrink wrap. New house rule: No buying movies unless they’re Disney classics and/or for the kid. We NEVER watch movies at home.
(24) I really don’t like football and I’m really annoyed that the Super Bowl is on right now so everybody is busy with Super Bowl stuff. BLEGH.
(25) I don’t like coffee. Or cider. Or tea. Or any hot drink excepting hot chocolate.
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This one is courtesy of Odette and looks like fun so here goes. I’m supposed to take the fourth picture from the fourth album in my pictures folder and post it up for y’all to see. It’ll be an old one because all my pictures are sorted by date, but here goes. Actually, heh, turns out it’s not that old.
That’s my cat trying to fit into a box that’s far too small for her. I was still pregnant and trying to put away baby clothes.
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Last, but not least, comes this bookish meme from Toni. I’m supposed to grab the book nearest to me (When Christ And His Saints Slept by Sharon Kay Penman) and go to page 56. Then type the fifth line and the next two to five lines that follow.
There were many men, though, drawn by her brazen earthiness, reassured by her easygoing approachability. And for the others, there was Sybil; tall and slender, with small wrists and feet, high breasts and unblemished skin, so prideful and poised that a man could easily indulge in fantasy, could pretend he was bedding a lady.
Heh. Of course, that particular section would be about a prostitute.
No tags ’cause that’s not how I roll, but feel free to take part if you’d like. Let me know if you do.
Book Review: Who By Fire, by Diana Spechler
January 7, 2009
First and foremost I want to thank Lara-B of Red Red Whine for enabling me with the opportunity to get this book and review it. Awesome.
Second, I love the title of this book. It comes from a section of prayer discussing different ways of death. In the book, the character Ash says this about the prayer:
I envision a sudden orange fire, and I think of the paryer we say on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur: Who by water, and who by fire; who by sword, and who by beast. Every year after Alena disappeared, my mother would cry when we got to that part in the service. It’s about God’s having already decided who will die that year, and how.
This is one of those books that I would pick up off of the bookshelf in a giant bookstore because the title draws me in.
Here’s a basic recap of the book. It’s not thirteen years since Bits and Ash’s younger sister, Alena, has disappeared. Bits buries her grief in multiple meaningless sexual encounters and Ash has escaped to religion. The family is Jewish, but Ash has taken it to a whole other level and has moved to Israel and is living as an Orthodox Jew - following all the rules and studying in Yeshiva Hillel. Their mother, Ellie, has decided that Ash’s form of Judaism is akin to a cult and joins a support group for parents of children in cults. Now Alena’s remains have been discovered and nobody can get ahold of Ash to bring him home for the funeral. Bits brings it on herself to bring her brother home and so begins the story.
I really enjoyed the book and there was a nice twist at the end that I didn’t see coming. The characters were fantastic - my only regret being that I wanted to know more about them. I felt like their flaws - their sexual deviancy, obsession with absolving guilt through religion, and trying to save your remaining children - were a little too heightened and wiped away some other aspects of these characters’ personalities. I wanted more.
I read the book quickly because it was a great and easy read. I found myself reading slower in the beginning - learning each character’s voice and figuring out who was narrating each chapter - and then just plowing through the end to find out what was going to happen.
One other aspect of the book that I loved was learning about what it means to be an Orthodox Jew. My father-in-law’s family is Jewish and it was fascinating to learn more about the religion and the difference between what i see and what the other end of the spectrum is. I had no idea about a lot of the formalities and I loved learning about it through a good story.
Overall, I’d rate this book a 4 out of 5 and I would gladly pick up another book by the author.
A Book Review Of Sorts: Blood Noir
January 3, 2009
Dear Laurell K. Hamilton,
Please return to the original Anita Blake stories that you started the series with. The plots were fantastic, the character development was awesome and the books were amazing. Now, it’s sex sex sex orgy sex with a little tiny bit of plot thrown in.
Find some more plot. Please. You have the Merry Gentry series to write your erotica.
Thank you very much.
A reader who is thisclose to abandoning the series completely.
I Can’t Sleep, So This Is What You Get
November 21, 2008
Ah, it’s a damn good thing I didn’t try to do NaBloPoMo because dude, seriously, I’d have failed on day one. Kinda like I’m brutally failing NaNoWriMo. I’m supposed to have 50,000 words by midnight on November 30th. I currently have 2,000. That means that I’d have to write more than 7,000 words a day between now and the 30th and that includes an entire day in plane travel (I leave on Sunday to go visit my parents in Idaho), Thanksgiving, and two days spent driving from Boise to Eugene to pick up my stepsister from college. Somehow, I don’t see me hitting 50K.
There’s a police helicopter circling my neighborhood with its spotlight on. Oh, how I love living in the ghetto. Seriously. THE GHETTO.
Christmas is starting to annoy me. I think a lot of the fun has come out of it. I’m asked every year to give out Christmas lists and I get what’s on the list, but… there’s no surprise. My MIL this year has asked for a crock-pot and has even given us the brand name that she wants. That’s great, I don’t have any other ideas for what to get her, but what’s the fun in unwrapping a gift if you already know what it is? Meh.
I have a post in my drafts, an idea stolen from another blog, of 27 things to do before I turn 28. I’m kinda thinking that maybe just writing out 27 things will be a success at this point. I have NOTHING on the list. I also have a draft full of links, half of which are now irrelevant because I’ve taken so long to add to it and haven’t published it yet.
I posted a long long time ago about Wii Fit. I never posted that I finally got it about two months ago. Love it. Love love love it. My only gripe is that the exercises are so short. I’m hoping that they put out some aerobic games to use with the board. I’d so buy an entire game of step-aerobics or rhythmic boxing or hula hooping. Because seriously? I look like a jackass when I hula hoop, but I’m a jackass that is having a blast.
I should be reading right now. I’m still reading the same books that I was reading last time I posted about books and that was, erm, a long time ago. I’m a slacker.
I’ve had a lot of random thoughts through my head lately. Like, how long can a helicopter stay up in the air before they have to come down to gas up? What is the life span of a cow? I know. Random.
Do you watch Survivor? Did you see tonight’s episode? I’m not going to put any spoilers here, but no guaranteeing that there won’t be any in the comments. Holy awesome! I haven’t laughed that hard at a TV show in a long time. Best Survivor episode EVER.
I think maybe I shall try to go back to sleep now. Just because I’m up past midnight doesn’t mean that The Ana will sleep in later. Speaking of The Ana, she rolled over for the first time on Monday! Yahoo! I’ve copied Dooce and am writing her letters for each month, but I’m not posting them here. If you’re interested, you can check them out over here.
Th-th-that’s all folks.
A Rambling Post With Nothing To Tie It All Together
October 28, 2008
Oh, internet, it’s been a while since I’ve written a real post. Mainly because I’m a whole lot of tired and a whole lot of occupied with baby and also because I’ve been a bit blah and overwhelmed.
In reading news, I’ve been reading slowly but surely. I just finished a book (Acheron by Sherrilyn Kenyon). I’m about 20 pages into a romance on my nightstand (Just For Kicks by Susan Anderson) and a book in progress on the coffee table (Toddlers Gone Wild by Rebecca Eckler). I have another book that I’m a few pages into on the end table (Blood Noir by Laurell K. Hamilton) and another on the bookshelf that I’m also a few pages into (When Christ And His Saints Slept by Sharon Kay Penman). I’m also carrying a book in my purse (Pieces Of My Sister’s Life by Elizabeth Joy Arnold) that I haven’t managed to crack yet. So the reading is happening, albeit at the pace of molasses.
The baby is an amazing little girl. She’s just over eleven pounds now and babbles away at nothing. She kicks up a storm and loves to watch hockey. She had her first shots last week and was quite angry (understandably so), but forgot it all by the same evening. She sleeps like a champ through the night, but hardly at all during the day. Which brings me to a plea for advice - the baby has been sleeping with us in bed since she was eight days old. She refuses to sleep by herself. She’ll sleep great in my arms, she’ll sleep alright in her swing, but she will not sleep in her crib or bassinet. Just won’t do it. We’ve tried using a stuffed animal with a heartbeat sound to soothe her, we’ve tried rolling up a blanket next to her so it feels like she’s curled up next to someone. We’ve tried putting her in there when she’s already asleep, but she wakes as soon as she hits the mattress and won’t resettle. So tell me. How do I get her to sleep on her own? I’m not ready to let her cry it out yet, but I just have the feeling that it’s going to come down to that. Advice is welcome.
I took on a new mission recently to start commenting on the blogs that I read. I’m usually a lurker and then I thought about it some more and realized that if I love to receive comments, other people probably do, too. I mean, us bloggers tend to be a vain bunch and we want feedback. So now I comment. It means it takes me a hell of a lot longer to get through all my blogs, though, so if I’m commenting three or four days after you post, well, that’s the soonest I could get to it. I subscribe to so many sites that if I don’t read for three days I wind up with well over a hundred new posts to read and catch up on.
I’ve also been looking for some good new recipes. I’m not a really great cook and I’m a really picky eater which means that I make my five or six tried and true meals and not much else. It’s getting old. I need some variety. If you have anything good and yummy that I should try you should send it my way. Just remember that onions are from the devil. The devil, I say!
I’m going out on the town on Thursday and I’m getting really amped for it. A group of us (the same group that I went to see Gwen Stefani with) got a limo again and we’re heading to see Madonna. It’s going to be AWESOME. I’m a little nervous about leaving Derek with Ana for that length of time as he’s never had her by himself for more than an hour, but I’m sure he’ll be fine. My bigger crisis is that I have nothing to wear. Zero clothes. Nada. Nilch. I own two pairs of jeans that fit me (you can hate me, but I’m actually smaller than I was pre-pregnancy so everything is too big) and well, none of my shirts fit right. I’m also on the broke side until the day AFTER the concert so a new outfit is out of the question. I’m really not sure what the hell I’m going to wear.
My poor friends. I feel like I’ve really been neglecting my friendships as of late. It goes back to that feeling blah and overwhelmed thing I mentioned. I don’t like talking to other people when I’m feeling a bit down and so I haven’t been talking. Or posting. Or doing anything. I am amazingly in love with my daughter, but lord, she sucks the life out of me (no pun intended).
Lastly, I’m getting excited (and nervous) for an upcoming trip. I’m taking Ana to go see her grandparents in Idaho for two weeks. It’ll be great to get away and it will only be the second time my parents have met their granddaughter. She’s changed SO much since they met her last at just 2 weeks old. I’m just nervous about the airport and getting through security with the stroller and then wondering if she’ll nurse good enough to stop the ear popping and will she sleep on the flight or will she be a pill and cry the whole time… oh goodness, I’m going to give myself a panic attack just thinking about it.
So that’s that. That’s what is going on with me. How about you? How’s life out there in the world of the internet?
Storage Solutions
April 14, 2008
I have a dilemma.
In playing this new game of fit-baby-into-our-one-bedroom-apartment, I’ve run into some problems. I recognize that I’m going to have to make a lot of sacrifices in the name of space. My biggest and most painful compromise is the necessary evil of putting my books into storage. Not all, but most. And by most I mean about 900 of my approximately 1000 titles. The plan is to sit in this apartment for a year before moving to a bigger house where I can then unpack them all again and sit surrounded by books for days while I weep in joy at having my lovelies back around me. I love my books.
Here’s my problem. We have a very small storage unit that is already full. I have about four large bins worth of books that still need a storage home. Where in HELL am I going to put them? I can fit one in my closet, but I need to save room in there for more baby stuff that’s coming. I can put one in Derek’s closet and hope that he doesn’t notice. Beyond that, I’m stuck. The worst part? There’s MORE items that have to go into storage than just books. We have clothes that won’t fit me for at least a year, but I’m not willing to part with and we have items that we use and enjoy, but just don’t have the space for right now.
Rargh. I need a bigger house.
In other news, the diabetes thing has become a little more manageable, if still entirely obnoxious. I did have to go on insulin, which I suspected, and I’ve become accustomed to giving myself my daily shot of insulin before dinner. The hardest part is eating on a schedule and staying away from carbs. I heart carbs and I never realized how much until I had to put such severe limitations on how many grams I get to eat! It’s alright, though. I’m on my way to a happy healthy motherhood, right? Right? It’s all good.
Books Books Books
March 23, 2008
I realized the other night that I haven’t updated my blog at all this year on what I’ve been reading. There’s a good reason for that, I promise. I had joined Goodreads a few years ago, but just recently I had a flux of friends begin recent updates to it and now I’ve found myself doing the same.
For each book that I’ve read I’ve written a review and posted a rating. You can find all of that at the site as I find that I am far too lazy to repeat all the info here. Plus, if you sign up, you can add your books and then I can see what you’re reading, too. Always a good thing. So pop on over, sign up (or not), and share some book love with me.
(As always, if you don’t feel like doing that, my book list on this very site is always updated. Just click on the books link at the top of the page.)
My Little Guilty Pleasure
February 4, 2008
I have a confession. I love romance novels. I know what you’re thinking, that you already knew that. But no, I’m talking about the really bad romance novels. The ones with titles like, Sicilian Husband, Blackmailed Bride or one of my personal favorites, The Last Virgin In California.
I was at Value Village the other day and I love that store. I love that store because I can buy up these romances at 2 for 0.99 with every 5th one free. I think I bought 20 of them. And they’re so awful! The covers are embarrassing, the titles are worse. And yet, I can’t help myself.
You see, sometimes, the writing isn’t so bad. A lot of authors get their start by writing these serial romances. Hell, Nora Roberts, the most famous of all romance authors, got her start this way.
As I was buying these books up by the dozen, I started to think about my reading list and I almost considered not adding them when I read them because, well, they’re a little embarrassing. But I shouldn’t be ashamed of this love. Even the bad ones make for a great escape and, if nothing else, something to mock.
So this is me uncovering my little guilty pleasure. I read Harlequin and Silhouette romance novels. And I’m not afraid to admit it. So there.