Booking Through Thursday-- Collectibles

• Hardcover? Or paperback?
• Illustrations? Or just text?
• First editions? Or you don’t care?
• Signed by the author? Or not?

When I search for some of the books I want to read, they're rare enough that I can't be too picky about which edition they are; I take what I can get. For the most part, that doesn't bother me in the slightest. I'm a reader, not a collector. Since I no longer keep most of the fiction I read, I'd prefer that they were all paperbacks because paperbacks are cheaper to mail when you're a member of Paperback Swap. But once again, the bottom line is that I want to read the book, so I don't care if it's hardcover or paperback!

When reading fiction, unless it's KidLit, I'd rather see no illustrations because I prefer my own mental ones. KidLit is different; however, because illustrations can be a major part of the book. Illustrations can also be an integral part of non-fiction as well. If I'm reading a biography, I do like seeing photos of the person. Art books are nothing without examples of the art being discussed, and if I have a book in which travel plays a large part, maps are very nice! Yes or no to illustrations all depends on the type of information being imparted.

Since I've already stated that I'm a reader, not a collector, I could care less if my book is a first edition. I do have some firsts, but I normally don't think of them as any more special than the rest of the books in my library. The only exceptions to that are the first editions I have of novels written by Dora Aydelotte, a woman who lived in and wrote about the small farm town in which I grew up, and the signed, numbered edition of a book featuring the art of Richard Stone Reeves. Reeves is a pre-eminent artist who's painted many of the most famous race horses in the world, and I've seen some of those horses. In both instances, I have a very personal connection with the books.

Authors' signatures don't mean all that much to me either. They might if I made an effort to go to author signings, but the vast majority of signings clash with my work schedule, so I can't go.

I guess you could say that, unless I have a very special connection with a book, I'm a reader-- not a collector. The words on the page are much more important to me than print runs, bindings, or signatures. I do know people who collect certain types of books, and I do enjoy the way their faces become luminous when they tell me about their treasures, so I understand the allure.

What about you? Do you collect certain types of books, or are you primarily a reader like I am? Share your stories!

Booking Through Thursday-- If They Blog It, Will We Come?

Do you read any author’s blogs? If so, are you looking for information on their next project? On the author personally? Something else?

Although I often search for author blogs as part of my book review process, I have to admit that I seldom give them more than a cursory glance unless they're blogs of favorite authors. If so, I'll give them the once-over to see if I should be keeping an eye out for new titles. I do have a few author blogs in my Google Reader, but they are seldom updated which makes me think that they're busy writing their books instead of telling me what they ate for breakfast. (Gotta be happy about that!) The only author blog I pay attention to which is updated fairly regularly is Stuart MacBride's (my favorite mystery writer from Scotland). His blog, Halfhead, is always good for a laugh.

Booking Through Thursday--When Does Inspiration Strike?

Since “Inspiration” is (or should be) the theme this week … what is your reading inspired by?

When I first read this question, I came up a total blank. Reading has never been something I needed to be inspired to do. It's not a task. It's not something I write down on a to-do list. It's something that's a very basic part of me. If a geneticist went strolling through my DNA, I'm sure that person would find a big clump of genes with sewn (not glued) pages, a soft leather binding and 8-point Verdana.

But as I gave the question more thought, I came to understand that inspiration can come quietly, on little cat feet, in ways that one doesn't even remark upon when they happen. A very small girl sees the look of undeniable pleasure on her mother's face while she reads a book, and she wants to be able to experience that, too. A little girl sitting at a desk in school is bored with the slow progress of the class. Instead of whispering or doodling or passing notes, she learns to hide her library book inside her textbook. A gaudy-colored bird lands on a branch above a little girl's head. She wants to know what it is, so she heads to the library for a guide book.

Yes, I am that little girl. Every time I've seen something and asked, "Why?" or "How?" or "Where?", I've been inspired to find the answers within the pages of books. Each time I was snowed in during the winter, each time I was ridiculed because of my height, I was inspired to reach for the friends who never failed me: books. Each time a character in a book made me laugh or made me cry, each time the plot made my heart beat faster, each time I read the words aloud and heard how beautifully they fit together, I was inspired to reach for another book. And another. And yet another.

My entire life has been a series of little cat feet inspirations. From a desire to mimic my mother's pleasure of reading, to a desire to know why, to a desire for the beauty of words, I have been inspired. I can't imagine my life without these tiny, quiet, but oh-so-profound inspirations.

Booking Through Thursday--New Year's Resolutions

So … any Reading Resolutions? Say, specific books you plan to read? A plan to read more ____? Anything at all? Name me at least ONE thing you’re looking forward to reading this year!

I've mentioned this before in various posts: I am a contrary reader. If I had a theme song that described my reading habits, it would be "Don't Fence Me In!" I've never had difficulty in finding books to read. I've never had problems in choosing a volume from my crowded TBR shelves. The only thing that has ever given me grief is finding the time to read all the books that I want to read! Since I am a mood reader, I don't commit myself to any reading challenges; I'm so contrary that I would be setting myself up to fail.

I have the same two reading resolutions every year:

• Read one more book than I did the previous year.
• Enjoy myself.

I've had these same two resolutions for the past decade, and I've met with success each year. If it ain't broke, don't fix it....

I have at least 300 books on my TBR shelves, and the first title that comes to mind when the phrase "looking forward to reading" is used would be Jo Nesbo's The Redbreast. I can hear it tsk tsking me now!

If you'd like to join this fun meme or just read more responses, click on the Booking Through Thursday logo at the top of this post!

Booking Through Thursday--World Enough and Time

1. Do you get to read as much as you WANT to read?

2. If you had (magically) more time to read–what would you read? Something educational? Classic? Comfort Reading? Escapism? Magazines?

I may have been in an enviable position: I used to have exactly the time I wanted to read. The weather was warm, my husband worked a job which involved 15-hour shifts on the weekends, and I'd come home from work, do what needed to be done, grab my book, and head off for an afternoon's reading in the pool. When there was no difference between me and a prune, I'd go back inside the house, do a few more things, grab something to eat and then go back to my book for a couple more hours. I was reading a book per day, or at the least every other day.

Now Denis has a different job. No more 15-hour shifts on the weekends, and we're spending a lot more time together. The pool water is too chilly for me to indulge, and I'm spending more time in the house where I can hear these tiny voices saying, "You really shouldn't be reading, you should be taking care of me!" or "Didn't you say you were going to get me done months ago?" Although I love my husband dearly and I truly enjoy our home, my reading time has been drastically curtailed, and I'm beginning to feel grumpy.

If the Book Fairy tapped me with her wand and I had world enough and time to read, I would dive into my TBR shelves with abandon. Since all reading to me is comfort reading, there isn't one specific genre to which I'd turn. There are mystery series that are calling my name (both familiar and new-to-me ones), a biography of a pirate, a multi-generational historical saga that I've been reading for years, a couple of books about old houses that have been lived in for centuries.... I'd dive in and never look back!

If you'd like to participate in this fun meme, or just read more responses, click on the Booking Through Thursday logo at the top of this post!

Booking Through Thursday--Why Buy?

I’ve asked, in the past, about whether you more often buy your books, or get them from libraries. What I want to know today, is, WHY BUY?

Even if you are a die-hard fan of the public library system, I’m betting you have at least ONE permanent resident of your bookshelves in your house. I’m betting that no real book-lover can go through life without owning at least one book. So … why that one? What made you buy the books that you actually own, even though your usual preference is to borrow and return them?

If you usually buy your books, tell me why. Why buy instead of borrow? Why shell out your hard-earned dollars for something you could get for free?

As some of you know, I grew up in a library. For the first eighteen years of my life, they were all around me--not just because I worked with them almost everyday, but because my mother bought books for herself, and they were around me when I was walked into the apartment. As I grew up, having books around me was just another definition of being home.

As I grew old enough to start mentally planning my own home, one of the things highest on my wish list was a room just for books. I've got that. One entire room of my house is filled with bookshelves and books, a comfy recliner, a small table, and a lamp. My books are categorized and alphabetized. When I see them, I know that I'm home.

My moving to Phoenix marked the first time that I was completely out of a library system, and it felt strange. A part of me was disconnected. I went to the main branch of the Phoenix Public Library system, noticed that it had greatly curtailed hours of operation for summer (this was in the early to mid-1970s before Phoenix really became a Big City), got my library card, and started to browse. That's where I hit my first snag. I didn't think my reading tastes were that out of the ordinary, but it seemed they were. I went several times with a notebook filled with all the titles of the books I wanted to read. I was lucky if I found one or two. Not acceptable! That was when I became a real book buyer and not a book borrower.

Being a book buyer actually fits my reading habits more closely. I am a mood reader, and in my constant gathering of authors and titles to read, I can be easily sidetracked. If I buy the books I know I want to read, it doesn't matter if it takes me months or years before the mood actually strikes to pick one of them up and read it. The few times that I checked books out of the library here, I often found myself taking books back before I'd read them in order not to accrue fines.

Gone are the days when I kept every book I read. I have no interest in buying a much bigger house. I love this house, so the books have to fit this floorplan, and I refuse to have them piled everywhere. I don't turn on the lights at night when I'm walking from Point A to Point B, so I don't want to run the risk of stubbing toes and causing avalanches. I joined Paperback Swap this summer. I've already sent over 200 books to new homes through this service (and gained about 100 new additions to my own library). I check each book I want to set free against the PBS database. If there are already many copies of a book in their system, I put it in a bag for donation. Those donation bags are given to the library and local nursing homes. I'll still buy the books that I can't get my hands on through Paperback Swap or through publishers. I'll still have a room in my house devoted to my friends...books. As Thomas Jefferson said, "I cannot live without books." It just took me a while to find a happy medium between collecting and sharing.

If you'd like to read more answers to this fun meme, just click on the Booking Through Thursday logo at the top of this post!

Booking Through Thursday--The First Gift Out of the Starting Gate

What, if any, memorable or special book have you ever gotten as a present? Birthday or otherwise. What made it so notable? The person who gave it? The book itself? The “gift aura?”


The very first book that sprang to mind was Classic Lines by Richard Stone Reeves and Patrick Robinson. It is a huge (over 12 inches tall and at least 18 inches across) art book showcasing the foundation sires of the best Thoroughbred race horses of the time. (It was published in 1975.) Due to its publication date, it's difficult to find a JPEG of its cover, so I sat it on my desk to photograph it. I didn't adjust the lighting, but you can get an idea of the cover anyway.



It is a numbered copy and signed by the author. When I first found out about the book, I drooled over it, but it cost $75 and I couldn't afford it. I didn't think Mom could either, but when I opened a large wrapped box at Christmas...there it was. I don't think I left it alone until I'd read the entire thing and had soaked up each illustration! (Good thing she gave it to me last, isn't it?)


What made the book so special? The book itself. I love horse racing. I love art. And I love the fact that Mom went to so much trouble and expense to get this book for me. You should've seen the smile on my face when I learned that, during one of her trips to Kentucky, Ronald Reagan gave Queen Elizabeth II a copy of this book!

If you want to participate in this fun meme or if you just want to read more responses to it, click on the Booking on Thursday logo at the top of this post.

Booking Through Thursday--Conditioning

Are you a spine breaker? Or a dog-earer? Do you expect to keep your books in pristine condition even after you have read them? Does watching other readers bend the cover all the way round make you flinch or squeal in pain?

If the book is not mine, I read it and give it back in the same condition it was in when it was handed to me. If it's mine, it can be an entirely different ball game. I do not break spines or dog-ear pages. Dog-earring is something my husband used to do until he found out it drove me nuts. I have a huge bookmark collection I've gathered over thirty years. There's no need for dog ears in this house! I make sure he has bookmarks; he makes sure he doesn't dog-ear. (For anyone who likes bookmarks but doesn't like the fact that they can fall out of a book easily, take a look at the link section on my left sidebar that's titled "It's All About BOOKS" and click on Magnetic Bookmarks. They're cheap and wonderful!)

In my high school and college days, I used to notate comments in the margins of my books and go to town with a highlighter. Now the only books I notate things in are cookbooks, and the only books I use an erasable highlighter on are reference books from which I get a lot of use. I don't do it to the fiction books I read. I have a folder on my computer for quotes, and I'll just add ones to it as I read. Especially now that I've joined Paperback Swap, I don't want to mail out books in which another reader has to wade through my own personal highway markers!

One thing I learned very quickly when I moved here to Phoenix is that some climates are not kind to books that are left out in a car. I think I only had two books disintegrate in my oven-like car before it became habit not to leave them in there!

I wouldn't say that my books are in pristine condition, but they are taken care of and loved. Do I flinch or scream in pain if I see someone else breaking spines or dog-earring or highlighting or notating in their books? No. Before you point out that I've already said that my husband dog-earring pages drove me nuts, I'll point first: those books are jointly owned by a non-dog-earrer. If a person has purchased a book and wants to break its spine, dog-ear it, write in it, or highlight page after page, that person has the perfect right to do so. I don't have a problem with it. I draw the line at wanton destruction--particularly if the miscreant does not own the book he is destroying.

If you'd like to see more answers to this fun meme, just click on the Booking Through Thursday graphic at the top of this post!

Booking Through Thursday--Life Is Better When Shared

Name a favorite literary couple and tell me why they are a favorite. If you cannot choose just one, that is okay too. Name as many as you like–sometimes narrowing down a list can be extremely difficult and painful. Or maybe that’s just me.

It's definitely not just you. I refuse to choose one favorite book, how on earth could I choose just one favorite literary couple? I have to admit that I've been a bit distracted this morning. I had a young Cooper's Hawk at the birdbath in front of my office window. Why it chose to visit the middle of metropolitan Phoenix is anyone's guess. It's a gorgeous bird, so I'm glad it did! Anyway...here are my favorite "couples" who sprang to my fractured mind first:

--Jamie and Claire from Diana Gabaldon's epic Outlander series. It's a combination of two people from radically different time periods and loads of mutual attraction, humor, disagreements and experiences.

--Duncan Kincaid and Gemma James from Deborah Crombie's award-winning mystery series. Their relationship is spiced up a bit because they both work for Scotland Yard. Normally when I read mystery series, I do not want the two main leads falling in love with each other, but Crombie is doing such a marvelous job at developing the relationship that I can't resist.

--Elizabeth Bennett and Fitzwilliam Darcy from one of my all-time favorite books, Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. Two people from very different levels of society who are willfull in misunderstanding each other but ultimately willing to change and grow because they finally realize they're two sides of the same coin.

--Sir John Fielding, a blind magistrate of the Bow Street Court and the young boy, Jeremy Proctor, he takes into his household from Bruce Alexander's excellent mystery series. Orphaned Proctor is brought before Sir John on a trumped up charge of theft. Sir John gets to the truth of the matter and takes the young boy into his household, ostensibly to be his eyes on various murder cases. Their relationship grows into one of mutual respect, trust and love.

--Sarah Agnes Prine and Captain Jack Elliot of Nancy E. Turner's excellent These Is My Words, based on the life of Turner's great-grandmother. The way that Turner has Sarah slowly realizing that she's in love with Captain Jack is enchanting.

--Gabriel Du Pre and his Madelaine from Peter Bowen's excellent mystery series set in Montana. Du Pre and Madelaine are Metis Indians, and the lure of their relationship is based upon their culture and a life well-lived together.

--Granny Fox and her grandson Reddy from Thorton Burgess's animal stories for children. Wise, cranky Granny. Sly and slightly bumbling Reddy. They were my very first favorite couple!

If you'd like to see more answers to this excellent meme, just click on the graphic at the top of this post!

Booking Through Thursday--Patience Among the Shelves

“What tomes are waiting patiently on your shelves?“



I've kept up with my fiction reading over the years. Outside of my designated TBR shelves, there are extremely few fiction books I own that I haven't read. What I tend to buy and hoard for future years are history and biographies; books on subjects that I've been interested in for a long time. They sit on the long run of bookcases along the living room wall, and every time I walk past them, I smile. I know that Here Be Delight. Books on Arizona history. Books on medieval British history. Books on battles my grandfather fought in during World War II. Books on the Civil War and World War I. Books about famous ships. Biographies of intrepid Victorian female explorers in Africa and the Middle East. Biographies of writers like Edgar Allan Poe, Edith Wharton, Jean Rhys and Dorothy Parker. Biographies of pirates and kings and architects and courtesans and rebels. It's not unusual for me to have one of these books in my possession for a decade before I pick it up, read it, and savor each page. But pick them up and savor them I most certainly do.

Now that I think about it, I have no earthly clue why I seem to treat fiction like denim and non-fiction like silk. Both types of books are as essential to me as breathing.

Booking Through Thursday--Inquiring Minds Want to Know!

What was the last book you bought?
I'm in the middle of a book-buying moratorium. However, the last book I received from Paperback Swap (yesterday) was Nancy Pickard's The Virgin of Small Plains.

Name a book you have read MORE than once.
Re-reading is something I haven't done for years other than a stray page or paragraph or two here and there. The last books I remember re-reading are Pride and Prejudice and Jane Eyre.

Has a book ever fundamentally changed the way you view life? If yes, what was it?
Yes! It was a case of reading the perfect book for that particular time in my life. It was East of Eden by John Steinbeck.

How do you choose a book? e.g. by cover design and summary, recommendations or reviews
It's been a couple of months since I actually stepped foot in a bookstore and even then I was armed with a list of specific books for which I was looking. A lot of times when I'm looking through books at Paperback Swap, the covers aren't shown. I'm just not a cover-driven reader. I would say that the way I choose my books is by summary and recommendations.

Do you prefer Fiction or Non-Fiction?
Both are frigates that often take me lands away.

What's more important in a novel--beautiful writing or a gripping plot?
Plot and characterization are the cake. Beautiful writing is the icing.

Most loved/memorable character (character/book)?
The ones that just landed in my mind firmly on both hob-nailed, booted feet are Barkis ("Barkis is willin'!") and Mr Micawber from Charles Dickens' David Copperfield. That book is loaded to the gunnels with marvelous characters!

Which book or books can be found on your nightstand at the moment?
None. I'm one of these dead boring readers who read one book at a time, and it follows me wherever I go. So, Kindred by Octavia E. Butler is sitting here on the desk.

What was the last book you've read, and when was it?
The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton. I finished it two days ago.

Have you ever given up on a book half way in?
Land o' mercy, YES! I used to be obsessive about finishing every book I started to read. That bad idea went away years ago. Now I have a fast-and-loose 50-page rule. If a book hasn't grabbed me by then, I usually stop right then and there. There are exceptions, though. Sometimes I hit that page 50 mark and just have a feeling that things are going to pick up. Sometimes I hit page 10 and say, "No more!"

Person David Copperfield

Right click for SmartMenu shortcuts

Booking Through Thursday: The Best of Snooze Sisters

What, in your opinion, is the best book that you haven’t liked? Mind you, I don’t mean your most-hated book–oh, no. I mean the most accomplished, skilled, well-written, impressive book that you just simply didn’t like.

Like, for movies–I can acknowledge that Citizen Kane is a tour de force and is all sorts of wonderful, cinematically speaking, but . . . I just don’t like it. I find it impressive and quite an accomplishment, but it’s not my cup of tea.

So . . . what book (or books) is your Citizen Kane?

You know...I'm actually having a difficult time coming up with an answer to this one. I think my brain is hardwired to forget instantly any book that just isn't my cuppa. Wait a second...I think I feel a couple of titles slowly, ever so slowly, rising up through the ooze.

Both of them are books that I was forced to read in high school. George Eliot's Silas Marner was a total snooze for me. So much so that I don't remember a single thing about it other than the title. In the years since, I've tried other Eliot titles like Middlemarch and Adam Bede, and I kept nodding off and dropping those books in the floor. So...I think Eliot herself just isn't an author for me.

The other title, Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, was a bit different because I remember the plot and the characters. I can picture reading it and thinking that this was, indeed, a good book--I just didn't like it.

Not much of an answer for me this week. I believe I just tend to forget the Eh and move on to the next book in the stacks. So many books, so little time, right?

Booking Through Thursday--Seasonal Reading Disorder?

Autumn is starting (here in the US, anyway), and kids are heading back to school–does the changing season change your reading habits? Less time? More? Are you just in the mood for different kinds of books than you were over the summer?

The change of the seasons doesn't change my reading habits at all. That probably hinges on two facts: (1) I don't have children or the sort of job that has seasonal differences, and (2) I live in Phoenix, which means that the seasons are basically recognized by the waxing and waning of the temperature. I read the same sort of books throughout the year, and the only major difference as the seasons change is where I read. When the heat waxes, I'm sitting in the pool in the shade close to a waterfall. When the heat wanes, I'm either sitting outside by the pool or inside on a daybed in front of the fireplace. Boring, eh?

Booking Through Thursday--The Bad Guys

Today is the 7th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. I know that not all of you who read are in the U.S., but still, it’s vital that none of us who are decent people forget the scope of disaster that a few, evil people can cause–anywhere in the world. It’s not about religion, it’s not about politics, it’s about the acknowledgment that humans should try to work together, not tear each other apart, even when they disagree.

So, feeling my way to a question here … Terrorists aren’t just movie villains any more. Do real-world catastrophes such as 9/11 (and the bombs in Madrid, and the ones in London, and the war in Darfur, and … really, all the human-driven, mass loss-of-life events) affect what you choose to read? Personally, I used to enjoy reading Tom Clancy, but haven’t been able to stomach his fight-terrorist kinds of books since.

And, does the reality of that kind of heartless, vicious attack–which happen on smaller scales ALL the time–change the way you feel about villains in the books you read? Are they scarier? Or more two-dimensional and cookie-cutter in the face of the things you see on the news?

The bad guys have never been just movie villains to me. My grandfather fought in World War II and came home profoundly affected by what he had had to do and by what he had seen. I was four years old when that was brought home to me in a very chilling way. I loved my grandfather more than anyone else in the world, and I knew he wasn't a bad man; the "bad men" had done this to him. Fortunately my grandfather was able to overcome his war experience. I was eight years old when the bad guys struck again. I didn't want to watch John Fitzgerald Kennedy's funeral cortege, but Mom insisted. And it just kept happening over and over and over again. Robert Francis Kennedy in the hotel. Martin Luther King, Jr. The Vietnam War where American soldiers seemed to be every bit as bad as the bad guys they were fighting. The bad guys even reached out and touched me in the forms of a stalker and a rapist. Over and over and over again, but mainly everywhere else in the world--not America. Not my home. I remember the eerily quiet skies here in Phoenix during the days following 9/11-- the day America got a small taste of what so much of the rest of the world has been experiencing for years... decades... centuries.

Has always knowing that the bad guys are real changed my reading? No. I've always had an inquiring mind. I read about the natural world because it's so much a part of what makes me tick. I read history and see that, when it comes to the human race, there seems to be little new under the sun. We humans have such a capacity for either forgetting what's unpleasant or never forgetting it--to our detriment in years to come. I read biographies and see that extraordinary people from all centuries, from all walks of life and levels of society, have the power to reach out and touch my spirit, the power to teach me. I read fiction and non-fiction about my own culture and about the peoples and cultures of the rest of the world. We are so very similar and still can't seem to live together in peace! I read true crime and mysteries in an attempt to learn what makes the bad guys tick, to learn what it takes to bring them to justice, to learn how not to create them.

In all my reading, I read primarily to escape and to learn, and I do both in great measure. Through all the words, through all the pages, through all the ideas, I've also learned that I have a capacity for being a bad guy. We all do. It's what we choose to do that makes all the difference.

Booking Through Thursday: Marching to a Different Drummer

I was looking through books yesterday at the shops and saw all the Twilight books, which I know basically nothing about. What I do know is that I’m beginning to feel like I’m the *only* person who knows nothing about them.

Despite being almost broke and trying to save money, I almost bought the expensive book (Australian book prices are often completely nutty) just because I felt the need to be ‘up’ on what everyone else was reading.

Have you ever felt pressured to read something because ‘everyone else’ was reading it? Have you ever given in and read the book(s) in question or do you resist? If you are a reviewer, etc, do you feel it’s your duty to keep up on current trends?

I am a contrary soul. I always have been, but it's no surprise since I come from a long line of contrary souls. I am particularly contrary when it comes to my reading. I don't join book challenges of any sort because I want to read what I want to read when I want to read it. People have been trying their best to get me to join all sorts of reading challenges, but their best just isn't good enough. That "read what I want to read when I want to read it" holds true for the latest crazes in the publishing world. I'll read a craze only if it's something I truly want to read. If I'm not interested in it, I might feel a bit proud of myself for being the only bookaholic in the world not to have read it. See? Told you I was contrary!

The only times I've felt pressured in my reading are:

• in school when I had to read something I didn't want to (I still hold a grudge against George Eliot and Silas Marner)
• when Life hits me like an eighteen-wheeler and I can't find a spare moment to read--we addicts can get ugly when we're jonesing for a fix

The world was a-buzz about Harry Potter, but he was barely a blip on my radar. I didn't even know the Twilight books existed until last week. Just call me Fadless in Phoenix. However...I have read all the Harry Potter books, and within the past few days, I've read Twilight. Why? Because friends of mine who are also bookaholics kept raving about them until what they were saying pierced my fadless fog. In the case of Harry Potter, it took them until the fourth book before I made any sort of move. Last week one of those same friends told me about her granddaughter wanting to be the first in line for Breaking Dawn and then insisting that Grandma read all the books, too. Jeanie did and didn't surface for air for almost a week. She raved about those books by Stephenie Meyer. Jeanie just doesn't rave, so when she does I pay attention. I've had quite a bit of reading enjoyment from Young Adult books within the past few months, so I looked up Twilight. Looked like something I'd be interested in, so I bought a copy. I almost didn't surface for air on Sunday, and today I'll be getting the rest of the books in the series. I just don't blindly stagger into the latest craze in the book world. I have friends who have very similar reading tastes, and I pay attention to what they say. I don't always follow their advice, but when they talk about something that does interest me, I'm prodded into taking action.

I've found that having a book blog now has fired a desire in me to keep closer track of publishing trends, but I don't feel a desire to pack up my piccolo and follow the band. I belong to a LibraryThing group for book bloggers. One of the discussion threads asks us book bloggers what our niche is. I know what my niche is--rather eclectic with a strong focus on mysteries. I read--and talk about--books and happenings in the book world that interest me. I am a contrary soul, but I seem to be finding others as I continue to blog!

Person Harry Potter

Right click for SmartMenu shortcuts

Booking Through Thursday--Tell Me a Story!

If you’re anything like me, one of your favorite reasons to read is for the story. Not for the character development and interaction. Not because of the descriptive, emotive powers of the writer. Not because of deep, literary meaning hidden beneath layers of metaphor. (Even though those are all good things.) No … it’s because you want to know what happens next?

Or, um, is it just me?

No, it's not "just you"! Although I often describe myself as a character-driven reader, those characters in the books I read certainly wouldn't be worth much if nothing ever happened to them, would they? I have to admit that one reason why I've never seen the movie My Dinner With Andre is that I heard it was about two men having dinner in a restaurant and doing nothing but talking. To this day it doesn't sound like a film I want to waste my time on. Why? Because it sounds as if nothing ever happens to them! Characters, to me, are the most important part of a book, but they need something to strive for, something to escape, something to make them grow and develop and seem real. If there's no plot...no story...no what happens next...then even the most exquisitely drawn characters in the world may as well sit in a restaurant and stare at each other across the table.

Booking Through Thursday--I Grew Up in Heaven

Whether you usually read off of your own book pile or from the library shelves NOW, chances are you started off with trips to the library. (There’s no way my parents could otherwise have kept up with my book habit when I was 10.) So … What is your earliest memory of a library? Who took you? Do you have you any funny/odd memories of the library?

I grew up in a small farm town in central Illinois (population 1800). My mother was a single mom back when that was a very strange thing to be. She raised me on a widow's pension and a variety of part-time jobs. Her primary job was librarian in that village. My mother was a bookaholic, and she gave birth to one. I grew up in that library, so that's what I mean when I say I grew up in heaven. To this day when I'm trying to remember a certain book, my mind's eye roves the shelves of that little library, which had a greater circulation than the county seat of Shelbyville (population over 5000)--all due to my mother, of course! I was Mom's chief cook and bottle washer from the get-go. I was responsible for keeping the large children's section at the back neat and tidy, and as soon as I knew my alphabet, I started shelving returned books. I did my homework at the big wooden table back in the children's section, and I certainly read a lot of books back there. When I was twelve, I started helping patrons choose books to read. The older ladies in town all seemed to read light romances. They'd call and tell Mom to have me choose anywhere from 8 to 12 books for them, and they'd be in to pick them up. They always told me that I chose the best books for them when all I was doing was checking the cards to see if their library card number was on them.

I have many memories of that library. Of the huge jacks in the basement that were holding the floor up. Of one of my classmates trying to sneak a racy novel in with the stack of books she was checking out, in hopes that Mom and I wouldn't notice what she was up to. Of the old guy who'd check out books and use a black marker to cross out any words he considered swear words--only to write a table of the words and their page numbers inside the back cover. Of all the people in town who would come in for gossip, laughter and the latest books. Of Mom's motto for the children's section: "Keep it to a dull roar back there, kids!" Of having book shipments come in and being the first to open the big cardboard boxes of wonders...of being the first person in town to touch each and every new book...of being allowed to choose the ones I wanted to be the first to read.

You've got me all nostalgic now!

Booking Through Thursday--On Your Mark, Get Set....GO!

You, um, may have noticed that the Olympics are going on right now, so that’s the genesis of this week’s question, in two parts:

First:

• Do you or have you ever read books about the Olympics? About sports in general?
• Fictional ones? Or non-fiction? Or both?

And, Second:

• Do you consider yourself a sports fan?
• Because, of course, if you’re a rabid fan and read about sports constantly, there’s a logic there; if you hate sports and never read anything sports-related, that, too … but you don’t have to love sports to enjoy a good sports story.
• (Or a good sports movie, for that matter. Feel free to expand this into a discussion about “Friday Night Lights” or “The Natural” or whatever…)

During my misspent youth, I loved to play volleyball and basketball. I also loved to watch horse racing and remember fondly the times I went to the Illinois State Fair and watched harness racing in the afternoon and the horse show in the evening. A man from my small farm town was one of the farriers for the Budweiser Clydesdales. (I know, not a sport, but it's horse-related!) I can still tell you where I was when Secretariat won the Belmont, and the Triple Crown, in 1973. When I got a bit older and blew out both knees playing basketball, I became more of an armchair sports fan. I still watched horse racing, but I added figure skating to the mix. When Torvill and Dean came to Phoenix, I had a front row seat. Until I moved away, I'd spend several Sunday afternoons laying on the grass and listening to Cubs games on the radio with my grandfather. When I got a computer, something had to give because there weren't enough hours in the day to do everything. I seldom watch sports anymore, except for Phoenix Suns basketball. As for the Olympics, I stopped watching them when they started allowing pros to participate. That really went against my grain.

As for reading about sports, I have to say that I've never read any books about the Olympics. They've just never interested me. The only sports books I do read are about horse racing, both fiction and non-fiction. Lauren Hillenbrand's Seabiscuit is a marvelous book, and for once I can say the movie is just as good. (That's a rare occurrence!) I also enjoy a good sports movie like Seabiscuit or Chariots of Fire, and there's one coming out soon called The Express that sounds good.

Booking Through Thursday--Other Worlds

Are there any particular worlds in books where you’d like to live? Or where you certainly would NOT want to live? What about authors? If you were a character, who would you trust to write your life?

I'm one of those rather boring readers who like to keep at least one foot in the recognizable world. You know...a world where trees look and behave like trees, dogs look and behave like dogs, and humans look and behave like humans. Yes, I have branched off into the world of elves, wizards and giants, but dragons are about as other-worldly as I want to go. Besides, those elves and wizards and giants still look human, I just have to take care not to get zapped, spelled or stomped.

I like to read books set in medieval England. Would I want to live there? Uh...NO! I like my computer, daily showers, books, and other creature comforts. I like to read post-apocalyptic fiction. Would I want to live in a world like that? Uh...NO! I like to read mysteries, but I wouldn't really want to live in that sort of world because I'm just the sort of character who'd stick her nose in the wrong place while searching for clues and wind up getting that pug nose of hers blown off. So...I'd be content to continue living in this present-day, flawed world and just take short hops in a time machine. I'm a coward, aren't I?

As for being a character and trusting one certain author to "get it right", I'd choose Craig Johnson, author of the Walt Longmire mystery series. I love the way he portrays all his characters. Supposedly "simple folk", they're anything but when Johnson gets through with them. They're filled with humor, insight...they're real. Johnson's gift of nuance is incredible. Yup. He could write me in as a character any day.

Booking Through Thursday--Endings

What are your favorite final sentences from books? Is there a book that you liked specially because of its last sentence? Or a book, perhaps that you didn’t like but still remember simply because of the last line.

In thinking about this question, it's dawned on me that I remember first lines much better than last lines. I'm not sure why. Here are the ones that sluggishly made their way to the top:

1. It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known. Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities.
2. After all, tomorrow is another day. Margaret Mitchell, Gone With the Wind.
3. So, into all the little settlements of quiet people, tidings of what their boys and girls are doing in the world bring refreshment; bring to the old, memories, and to the young, dreams. Willa Cather, The Song of the Lark.
4. So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past. F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby.
5. He was soon borne away by the waves and lost in darkness and distance. Mary Shelley, Frankenstein.
6. All that is very well, answered Candide, but let us cultivate our garden. Voltaire, Candide.

I remember endings better than last lines. An example of this would be the ending of The Dramatist by Ken Bruen. That has haunted me ever since I read it.