Exceedingly Mundane

Writing in Books, Part Three

Booking Through Thursday

1) Speaking of writing in books, what about writing the entire thing? Do you write? Aspire to write? Dream about writing? I dream about writing, but I don’t think it’s anything I would ever do. I’d like to think I had the talent it takes to write some kind of book, but frankly, I don’t think I do. I’ve certainly never done anything towards that end. I didn’t take creative writing classes in college and I’ve never written that much. But, believe it or not, Tim and I have talked about it, rather often. Every time I read a book and tell him about it, or we watch a TV or movie and talk about the plot, we always joke “we could write that, we should write a book”. LOL! I don’t think it will ever happen though.

2) If you do write, do you do it for yourself, or because you hope to be published? (Or because you ARE published?) Most of my writing is done here, and I think if you read much of my blog, you’d see that I don’t have much talent for writing or any hopes of being published. A girl can dream though 😀

Click here to go and play along with Booking Through Thursday!

I finished a library book last night, “The Memory Keeper’s Daughter” by Kim Edwards. I have heard a lot about this book over the last year or so and was really looking forward to reading it. While I can’t say it was everything I hoped it would be, it was a good book and I did enjoy it. I am not completely sure why I didn’t love this book as much as others have. My possible reasons include:

1) I had very high expectations for this book. I had heard and read so much about it, and I know it’s a really popular book club choice. I think my expectations might have been a little too high. I think I expected to be totally engrossed and find it impossible to put down – and while it was easy to read and kept my interest, I didn’t experience that “can’t-put-it-down” feeling.

2) This book was harder for me to relate to because I’m not a parent. This book was so much about parents and their children and I had a little harder time relating to it because I’m not a parent.

3) The author’s writing style was a little… long-winded for my taste. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but something about the overall writing seemed really over-done. I think she could have said things in a more succinct manner and a lot of the passages and descriptions were too verbose for my taste.

That said, I really did enjoy the book. It had a good plot, and followed the characters through to the end, which is always really important to me. In case you don’t know the premise, the book opens with the main characters, David and Norah. Norah is pregnant and in a blinding snowstorm, David can only get her to his clinic in time to deliver the baby. His trusty nurse Caroline is there to assist, as another doctor can’t make it through the blizzard. The baby is born healthy, a boy, and then, they are surprised to learn that Norah is carrying twins. The second child, a girl, is born next, and it is apparent she has Down’s Syndrome. David gives the baby to the nurse, to take to an institution in another town, while he explains to Norah that their baby girl has died. The story goes from there, with Caroline unable to leave the baby in that horrible place, and Norah and David trying to cope with the “death” of their child.

I’d recommend the book to others to read, especially if you are a parent. But, I won’t give it my highest recommendation, as it wasn’t my favorite book I’ve read lately. If you’ve read it, and loved it, liked it or whatever, I’d love to hear your thoughts on the book.

For the record, that makes 17 books so far this year, with a total of 5,725 pages read. Up next is another book I got from the library last week, the third book in the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series by Alexander McCall Smith. It’s called “Morality for Beautiful Girls” and I expect it to be very similar to the other two I have read. More like little short stories, easy to read, and comforting in an odd way. Happy Reading!

P.S. I’ve changed up the way I list books on my sidebar. I’m trying to pare down the sidebar so that my blog will load faster for everyone. Rather than listing some of the ones on my TBR shelf (“to be read”), I set up a separate page for them. Then, I started going through my bookcases and realized just how many books I have here to read. It’s a sickness, buying books and checking them out of the library, when I already have so many readily available at home. A sickness, I tell ya, a sickness. We’ll see if I can make it through the rest of March without buying a book (I’ve bought 2 or 3 already, hehehe!)

Lending Library

Do you lend your books to other people? If so, any restrictions? Well, I don’t make a habit of it. I got burned years ago by loaning a cherished book to a friend to read, and I never got it back. It was a first edition hard back too, and I would love to have gotten it back. So, needless to say, these days I am really particular about who I loan my books to. It’s usually just family. I loan a bunch to my sister Gail, but she treats them as well as I do and always, always returns them, so that’s never a problem. My one restriction is that I get it back. Bad, I know, but just me.

Do you borrow books from other people? (Friends or family–I’m not talking about the public library) Basically the same answer as above. I will occasionally borrow, but it’s not my favorite thing to do. I’d much rather get them from the library or buy my own books. But, I will borrow from friends and family, and I treat them very well and try to return them as soon as I can.

And, most importantly–do the books you lend/borrow get returned to their rightful owners?? Always, unless someone sends me or gives me the book with the caveat that they don’t want it back. Then, I read it and pass it on to someone else.

Great questions! If you’d like to play along, check out the meme’s home page here. And leave me a note if you play, so I can come check out your answers!

I just finished the three books in the Yukon Quest series by Tracie Peterson, and thoroughly enjoyed them! I don’t normally read series books back to back to back, but prefer to split them up with other books in between. However, on my last library trip, I was looking for books in the middle of other series I am currently reading, and I was disappointed to not have the ones I wanted available. I saw that my library had all 3 of these books in this trilogy, so I went ahead and got them.

If you like Christian fiction, then I think you will enjoy these books. I certainly did. I liked the characters and the setting was a new one for me – the gold rush to the Yukon in the late 1800’s. The faith of these characters were certainly put to the test enduring the conditions of the time and place, like the forty degrees below zero winters they were subjected to. There was a bit of mystery and intrigue to these books, enough to be interesting, but not too much to take away from the joy and enjoyment of these books.

I plan to read more by Tracie Peterson (she was a new author for me before I started these books), including the next set of books called the “Alaskan Quest”. From the little bit of reading I’ve done at Amazon, she follows on with some of the characters from these books (most notably, Leah and Jacob). I always like reading more books about characters I like, and seeing where the author goes with their lives and loves. I have a lot of other books on my to-read list though, so it may be a while before I get to these!

For the record, I’ve read a total of 15 books so far this year, with a total of 5,054 pages read. Up next is my first ever “cozy” mystery book, “On What Grounds” by Cleo Coyle. I can’t wait to get started!! 🙂

But, Who’s Counting?

Booking Through Thursday

How many books would you say you read in an average month? An average month, I would like to read 3-5 books. I always shoot for about one a week. Sometimes I read more and more often than not, it takes me more than a week to read a book. It definitely will depend on the week and what else is going on. 🙂
In a year? My goal is usually 52 books, which averages out to one a week. This year, though, I think my goal is going to be 70 or 75
Over the last five years? Well, I had to go back and look. I’ve kept a detailed list of the books I’ve read for the last 3 years, but not for any longer. I don’t think I was reading much before 2005, so I guess I don’t have a count for 03 or 04. But, for 2005 through today, I’ve read 119 books. 😀
The last 10? See above!

Don’t forget to leave a link to your actual response in the comments–or if you prefer, leave your answers in the comments themselves!

Writing in Books, Part Two

A couple weeks ago, we asked about how you take care of your books, with one of the questions asking whether you write in your books. Well, what about books that are meant to be written in? Like, say, a journal or diary? Do you keep one? Obviously, if you’re answering this, you have a blog–do you just let your blog be your journal? Or do you also keep one for private stuff also?

OK, another great question! I had previously answered that I don’t mark in my books in any way. I don’t turn down the corner of a page, I don’t underline or write in the margins. The most I *might* do is write my name in the front or write something in it such as “Happy Anniversary Tim, Love, Stacy”. And those are only in special books, that we want to keep and not loan out and lose.

Now, for today’s question: No, I don’t keep a diary or journal. Just my blog. And I don’t blog too much of a personal nature or things that I don’t want the world to know. When I first started, I was writing some private posts that were not published, but I don’t do that much anymore. I’ve actually been really surprised that I’ve been able to keep this blog going for over two years. Growing up, I got several diaries or journals over the years, and I was horrible at keeping them. I’d have a few entries written in January and maybe into February, but by March or so, it was pretty much empty. I still have most of those diaries, so I have the proof! I could just never keep them up. I tried year after year, but never could. So, as I said, this blog has been a real change of pace for me. 🙂

I’ve finished 2 books in the last several days, 2 of the 6 that I checked out of the library on Monday. That’s pretty good for me, I read a lot, but this may be a new record! 🙂 Tim has been out of town on business, and it’s been really cold, so it seemed like a really good time to curl up by the fireplace with a big quilt, a mug of hot chocolate, and these books.

I thoroughly enjoyed both of these books, although they were very different from one another. First, the book by Debbie Macomber (“Susannah’s Garden”) was not one of my favorites by her, but I still liked it. It was a light, easy read, as most of hers are, and although I liked the characters and plotline, I didn’t enjoy it quite as much as her Blossom Street books or her Cedar Cove books. Still a really good book though (and it ended well, which is always a big thing for me). The Elizabeth Berg book, well, I don’t know where to begin with that one. I just read my first book by her earlier this year, “The Year of Pleasures”. I loved and adored that book. This one (“We Are All Welcome Here”) I loved also, but in a very different way. I could relate to the main character in the “Year of Pleasures” book and I really loved Berg’s flowing writing style. This book had a totally different feel to it, yet, it read like her other one in a way. I don’t quite know how to describe it. Probably because the characters and subject matter were so different, but I was equally engrossed in this book. It takes place in the summer of 1964, in Tupelo, Mississippi (birthplace to Elvis Presley), during the Freedom Summer. This is all very familiar to me, as I live in this part of the world and have heard about these events all my life. Yet, the book was really all about a woman and her daughter. A woman who contracted polio, gave birth in an iron lung, and was a quadriplegic who came home to raise her daughter, with the aid of caregivers. The book was hard to put down, and had a very satisfying ending for me, two hallmarks of a great book in my mind.

For the record, that makes a total of 11 books so far this year, with a total of 3,601 pages read. Up next is the last ‘Miss Julia” book, I think, that I have yet to read – “Miss Julia Stands Her Ground”. Another library book from the stack, and after that one, I’ll start on the “Yukon Quest” series by Tracie Peterson. Peterson is a new author to me, and I’m looking forward to reading these. After, of course, I enjoy Miss Julia, little Lloyd, Hazel Marie, Sam, Lillian and the whole gang. I have to see what light-hearted escapades they will be up to next! 🙂

Romance

So, in honor of Valentine’s Day . . .

Love stories? Yes or No? Yes, I love a good romance or love story, or even a good fiction book about relationships. I seem to read a lot of what I term “women’s fiction”, where there’s some kind of conflict, often between the man and woman, and of course, they end up together and in love. As long as it’s got a happy ending, I’m good with it!

If yes, “romances” as a genre? Or just, well, stories that have love stories? (Nobody’s going to call “Pride & Prejudice” a “romance,” right?) I like “romance” as a genre, but don’t misunderstand, it’s not a Harlequin type thing I like. I like stories that have a love element to them, but it’s not always the main plot. An exception might be a book like “The Princess” by Lori Wick, which is mostly about love and falling in love, but it does have the Christian theme to it. OK, I’m just rambling here, I do like stories that contain love, not just a plain love story.

Just got back from a quick trip to the library. I had wanted to get a couple of books in different series I am reading, but the ones I wanted were checked out. I was looking for the fourth book in the Cedar Cove series by Debbie Macomber (44 Cranberry Point) and the third book in the No. 1 Ladies Detective Series by Alexander McCall Smith (Morality for Beautiful Girls). I’ll have to get those on another trip.

So, to compensate, I got an armload of books that I won’t finish in my 3 weeks time, but that’s ok. I would have just gotten 3 or 4, but one of the books is the first in a trilogy and they had all three on the shelves, so I went ahead and grabbed them while I could. I can call on the phone in a couple weeks time and renew any of these for another 3 week block.

Oh, and yes, I have tons of books here to read. I have at least 35 or 40 in my TBR (“to be read”) pile. No, I didn’t want to read any of those next. I wanted something else. Doesn’t that make perfect sense? 🙄

Here’s what I got, and they are also on my sidebar now:

Susannah’s Garden by Debbie Macomber
We are All Welcome Here by Elizabeth Berg
Miss Julia Stands her Ground by Ann B. Ross
Treasures of the North (Yukon Quest, book 1) by Tracie Peterson
Ashes and Ice (Yukon Quest, book 2) by Tracie Peterson
Rivers of Gold (Yukon Quest, book 3) by Tracie Peterson

Since a picture is worth a thousand words, here’s a quick pic:

I finished another book last night, “Blue Smoke” by Nora Roberts. This is a paperback I picked up at the library sale last weekend for a whopping 50 cents. I got it because I knew that this was the next movie coming up on Lifetime TV (Nora Roberts, 4 movies, 4 consecutive Mondays). I have been enjoying the movies and wanting to read more Nora Roberts anyway.

This book was really good! I read it fairly quickly and had a hard time putting it down, which is always the sign of a good book for me. It wasn’t hard to figure out, no big twist, but I did love the characters and the story (and the ending!). Good book, and I’m looking forward to reading more Nora Roberts in the future.

For the record, that makes 8 books so far this year, with a total of 2,724 pages read. Up next is the 4th book in the Abram’s Daughters series by Beverly Lewis. I really love these books too, but am spacing them out, and mixing in other books and types of reads in the middle. I tend to get burned out when I try to read series books back to back to back. Weird, I know, but that’s me and I usually do better not to read them all at one time. One reason is that I really enjoy these books and sort of don’t want to see them end!

I haven’t been able to come up with 13 of anything lately, so I haven’t been playing along with the Thursday Thirteen meme. Instead, I’ve really been enjoying this book-related meme. Click here to go play along 🙂

Booking Through Thursday – TLC

What kind of care do you take of your books? Let’s review, shall we?

1. Are you careful with the spines? Or do you crack your books open to make them lay flat? I’m very careful with my books, whether they are mine, borrowed from a friend or family member, or from the library. It’s just something I was raised with, you take care of things and they will last. I’m as careful as I can be with the spines, but sometimes, on small paperbacks, they will crack a little and be a little worn out from being opened. I don’t crack them open intentionally to flatten them out. Never.
2. Do you use bookmarks? Or do you dog-ear the corners? If you do use bookmarks, do you use those fashionable metal ones? Or paper? I am a bookmark user! I never dog-ear the pages, and only rarely will I use a scrap of paper to mark my place. I have several bookmarks, and a new book “thong” from a dear friend, and I love to use those to mark my place.
3. Do you write in your books? Ever? If you do, do you make small marks, or write in as much blank space as you can find? Pen or pencil? Highlighter? Your name on the front page? OK, sounding like a broken record here already, but no, I don’t write in my books, or highlight them, or write in the margins. I didn’t even do this with books or workbooks in school, any more than I had to. I don’t like to mar or degrade my books in any way. The only exception to that is that sometimes I do write my name in the front, or a small inscription if the book is a gift to Tim (I’ll write the date, like Valentines or our anniversary and the year). I’ve had to start putting my name in some of them, because I’ve had some misunderstandings about loaning my books and not getting them back 🙁
4. Do you toss your books on the floor? Into bookbags? Or do you treat them tenderly, with respect? Well, I tend to treat them pretty well. I must admit that I will stack them up on the floor, on the nightstand, in the bookcase, or shove them into a bag or my purse to take with me.
5. Do you ever lay your book face-down, to save your place? Rarely, I mostly always use bookmarks.
6. Um–water? Do you bathe with your books? Hold them with wet hands? Read out in the rain? Anything of that sort? Rarely, if ever. I haven’t done that in a long time. And now a days, I think if I were to read in the tub, I would probably take a magazine and not a book.
7. Are your books lined up on a bookshelf? Or crammed in any which way? Stacked on the floor? They’re mostly in bookcases, because I’ve been working on that since Christmas. But I do have some piled up in a pile on the floor of my bedroom. I’m a piler. Piles everywhere. 😀
8. Do you make a distinction–as regards book care–between hardcovers and paperbacks? Not really, I treat all my books really well.
9. And, to recap? Naturally, you love all of your books, but how, exactly? Are your books loved in the battered way of a well-loved teddy bear, or like a cherished photo album or item of clothing that’s used, appreciated, but carefully cared for? Cherished and cared for, especially the hardbacks.
10. Any additional comments? Nope, I feel like a broken record, plus I did this book meme below yesterday, so this is pretty redundant!!!

I saw this over at Debi‘s place a couple of weeks ago, and filed it away “for a rainy day”. Thanks for letting me swipe it, Debi!! I love any and all things bookish!

Hardback or trade paperback or mass market paperback?I read all three, but I probably prefer hardbacks. I do like the larger size of paperback that I’ve been finding more of lately. Bigger than the traditional 4×6 or whatever it is, but a bit smaller than a hardback.

Amazon or brick and mortar? Both! I love Amazon, and browse there often. I have tons of wish lists, including a “books seen on blogs” wish list! But I also love going into a bookstore and browsing, maybe having a cup of coffee, and looking through all the books. Bookstores and libraries are like drugs for me 🙂

Barnes & Noble or Borders? Can I possibly say both? I have a Borders card and prefer to shop there because a) their card is free and b) they send me coupons! I don’t like having to pay for a card at B&N. BUT – the Borders here is a lot further from my house, and the B&N is closer, and going to be much closer in the next year. They’re relocating the current B&N to a mere mile or so from my house later this year.

Bookmark or dogear? Bookmark, I never dogear any book I read. Never.

Alphabetize by author or alphabetize by title or random? This is hard to believe, since our DVD’s are sorted alphabetically, but I don’t sort my books. I do group them by author, and sometimes genre, but I don’t alphabetize them. GASP!

Keep, throw away, or sell? Mostly keep. I do occasionally sell some books in a garage sale, donate them to Goodwill or the library, but mostly I keep them.

Keep dustjacket or toss it? I always keep the dustjacket on our books.

Read with dustjacket or remove it? I read them with the dustjacket on.

Short story or novel? I don’t read much in the way of short stories, so novel.

Collection (short stories by same author) or anthology (short stories by different authors)? See above, I don’t really read short stories

Harry Potter or Lemony Snicket? Believe it or not, I haven’t read either yet. But I have given our niece and nephew a bunch of the Lemony Snicket books and one day, I might borrow them back from them and read some of them 🙂

Stop reading when tired or at chapter breaks? Mostly when I’m tired, but I do try to get to a stopping point. If I’m reading before bed and about to nod off, I will just stop where-ever.

“It was a dark and stormy night” or “Once upon a time”? Hmmm, not sure, maybe a mixture of both

Buy or Borrow? Both. I buy them new at bookstores, buy them used at library sales, borrow them from friends, and especially, borrow from my local library.

New or used? A year ago, I would have answered New. But now that I’ve discovered the library sales at my local library, I would have to say both!

Buying choice: book reviews, recommendation or browse? Great question. Another mixture of both. I must admit, I am a sucker for a good book cover. An intriguing cover will draw me in every time. Mostly, I buy books from authors I already read or who have come on a good recommendation. I tend to prefer to try new authors by utilizing my local library. I do love to browse, I love browsing at bookstores, even discount stores like Target, Walmart and Sam’s, and I love to go to the library.

Tidy ending or cliffhanger? Easy one, tidy ending. And it better be happy!

Morning reading, afternoon reading or nighttime reading? All of those listed. I love to read and read every chance I get. I mostly read at night before bed, but if I can, I will read at any time during the day.

Standalone or series? I read both, but I love series books.

Favorite series? Ooh, tough one. There’s so many I love and so many I’ve started and not completed. Favorite so far would have to either be the Mitford series by Jan Karon or the Redemption series by Karen Kingsbury

Favorite book of which nobody else has heard?Hmmm, not sure. I mostly read mainstream type books.

Favorite books read last year? Gosh, that’s too hard to narrow down. I read 70 books and I just looked through the list, and I could easily name 15 or more books as “favorites”. Some of those would be The DaVinci Code, The Red Tent, the Redemption series by Karen Kingsbury, the Cedar Cove series by Debbie Macomber, The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd, and the list would go on and on!

Favorite books of all time? Gosh, these are hard! September and Shell Seekers by Rosamund Pilcher, The Testament by John Grisham, all of the Mitford books by Jan Karon, and on and on and on

I finally finished “The Janson Directive” by Robert Ludlum last night. This is a book we own, that Tim had read and really loved. And, I can see why. It’s definitely a “guy” kind of book, especially after all of the totally gooey women’s stuff I’ve been reading lately! It’s a lot longer than I would have liked and I really struggled to get through it. It had a good plot, with lots of intrigue and twists and turns. You can tell that Ludlum obviously knows this genre and puts a considerable amount of research into his books. The scenes are well thought out and painstakingly described. And therein lies the problem for me – I really don’t want to read a 5 page dissertation on rappelling equipment, on parachute jumping and wind shears, on a torture scene that he is reliving through a flashback, etc. Some sections were just so long-winded, on subjects that I don’t care that much about, so I really struggled with those parts. The overall plot, the characters, the descriptions of the locations were good, but the weaponry, covert ops, surveillance, guerrilla tactics, warfare and torture were not really things I enjoy reading all that much.

That said, I’m glad I read it and I would consider reading another Ludlum book. Tim still insists that his Bourne books are some of the best he’s ever read. But, for now, I’m going to stick to my women’s fiction and Christian fiction. It’s easier for me to read that genre, and more enjoyable. 🙂

Oh, and reading this book reminded me of one thing I don’t like to be reminded of – my vocabulary is not as good as it should be. I literally ran across dozens of words that I do not know. I was stopping and looking them up as I went along, and then realized that it might take me months to finish this book at that rate.:roll: So then, I just started writing them down, and after I filled up an entire sheet of paper, I stopped for a while. Then I picked it back up, and I literally have 50, 60 or maybe 70 words written down to look up. Boy, do I have a lot of looking up to do!

For the record, that makes 7 books so far this year, with a total of 2,284 pages read. Up next is a paperback I bought this past weekend at the library sale – “Blue Smoke” by Nora Roberts. I bought this book for one reason – to try to hurry up and read it before the movie comes out next week on Lifetime TV! They’re still running those 4 Nora Roberts movies on consecutive Mondays. I had a hardback of Carolina Moon (the last of the 4 movies) in my hands, but put it back in favor of other books. I enjoy the movies without reading the books, even though I do like the books too. I’m still trying to figure out if I like Nora Roberts… maybe the verdict will be in after I finish this one!

This morning, I got up early and went to the book sale at my local library. I wish I had gotten there just a tad earlier…as I saw 2 or 3 books I would have wanted in other people’s arms! hehehe 🙂 As it was, I got more than I could carry. One of the older lady volunteers came up to me and said “Honey, let me go get you a bag!” I had more books picked out that I was thinking of getting, but I sat myself down in a corner and went through them several times. I was trying to be good, and a bit realistic about just how many more books do I need to have at home on my bookshelves, so I ended up putting several of them back. As it was, I ended up bringing home 11 books. One is more for Tim (Hades Factor by Robert Ludlum), and one is the only John Grisham we don’t own (Bleachers). But, the rest are all for me!!

I posted a picture of the ones I bought over at my Project365 blog – click here to go check them out. Books, glorious books!

The rest of the day is going to be really busy. We have some errands to run, then a lot of cleaning up and cooking to do before the big Super Bowl party tomorrow. Feel free to stop by, we’re going to have plenty of food and hopefully a great time watching the game 😀

I was going through a very large stack of mail last night, and one of the things I flipped through was a catalog from Sam’s Club. It’s a Valentines thing, and it has tons of chocolates, diamonds and yummy food in it. I got all weak in the knees. Anyway, in the back, there’s a couple of pages about books now available at Sam’s, as well as some coming soon. A couple of my favorite authors are listed, so I thought I would post the books that are coming out, in case anyone else is interested.

February 6 – Family Tree by Barbara Delinsky
February 27 – Shopaholic and Baby by Sophie Kinsella
March 6 – Whitethorn Woods by Maeve Binchy

And some others from authors I haven’t read yet, but have heard good things about:

February 6 – Step on a Crack by James Patterson
March 6 – Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult

And, I get a newsletter from Debbie Macomber, one of my very favorite authors. She has a new hardback coming out in May, called ” Back on Blossom Street”. Yippee!