Exceedingly Mundane

Habit-Forming

What are your reading habits? Do you tend to read at specific times during the day, or does it vary from day to day, hour to hour, minute to minute?

I am a creature of habit, to be sure. My sister once coined the phrase “routinized” about me, which means I stick to a routine, like clockwork. I do break out from time to time, but the majority of time that I spend reading is in the evenings, before bed. Sometimes, if there’s not much on TV or Tim doesn’t coerce me into watching a movie, I will read earlier in the evening. But mostly, it’s just a half hour or so before bedtime. The only other time that I might read is on the weekends, when Tim is playing golf, hitting practice balls, or at the driving range. I am not a golf fanatic like him; I’d rather spend my time reading.

Click here if you’d like to go participate in Booking Through Thursday and play along at your blog 🙂

I finished another book this weekend, a small paperback I had picked up for 50 cents at a library sale last year, called “It Had to Be You” by Susan Elizabeth Phillips I had read one other book by this author, “Match Me If You Can”, last year, and liked it. This book had a lot of the same characters in it, but had occurred earlier in time, so it was nice to go back and see how this couple met and fell in love. I liked the book, but I’d have a hard time recommending it to most people. It had quite a few raunchy scenes in it, a bit more than I would have liked, so if you’re not into fairly explicit love scenes, then this book definitely wouldn’t be for you. The rest of it was good though, so I don’t completely discount it. 🙂

For the record, that makes #6 on the year, with a total of 1,737 pages read. I have been going through my pile of books, trying to decide what to read next. Tim saw me skimming the bookcases and said “when are you going to read some of my Ludlum books?” As in Robert Ludlum, the guy who wrote the stories that the Bourne Identity, Bourne Supremacy and upcoming Bourne Ultimatum movies are based on. Although, according to Tim, the books are totally and completely different from the movie. Anyway, he has some other Ludlums I have bought him through the years as Valentines, anniversary or birthday gifts. They are a little more stand-alone and he hand-picked one for me to try. It’s called “The Janson Directive” and it’s a whopper, nearly 600 pages. That’s almost too long for me, and I’m not totally committed to reading it. I’m going to give it 50 or 75 pages and if it doesn’t grab me or hold my attention, I am SO going to abandon it and go back to my “girlie books”. 🙂

P.S. I used my new booklights I had bought a couple of weeks ago last night. You can check them out over on my photoblog 🙂

TBR

How many unread books do you have in your house, right now? (Your own books, that is–not ones that belong to other family members–and not counting things like school books, if you have them.) Clearly, an estimate will do. OK, instead of an estimate, the OCD in me had to run into the den and my bedroom to look on the bookshelves and my nightstand. My quick eyeball count is about 35 books, but that does include all of the John Grishams we own in our collection, that I’m not sure I’ll get around to reading. That does include a few books I have borrowed from my mother-in-law and a friend, so the actual count is probably closer to 30, really. 🙄

To the best of your recollection, what is the OLDEST unread book in your collection? How long has it
been waiting? That would be some of the hardback John Grishams that we own, but I have not gotten around to reading. Some of those are 3 or 4 years old. I buy them new for Tim when they come out, and because we like to own all of the Grisham books in first edition, hardback (since he’s a local boy, “done good” and we both like that genre of legal thriller). After that, the oldest is probably some of the ones I bought last summer at the bookstore and haven’t gotten around to reading yet.

Do your TBR books (that’s “To Be Read,” if you didn’t know) haunt you, make you feel guilty that you haven’t read them yet? Just a little, but not really. I like having books here on hand to read, when the mood strikes me. I usually get the majority of books I read from the library, but sometimes I like not having to go and get them and return them. But, I think the library really helps me. Checking out a book and knowing it is due back in 3 weeks really propels me to read a lot more, as opposed to knowing I own a book and it’s in my TBR pile and I can read it anytime. Something about a goal, or a deadline.

Oh, and library books don’t count . . . not unless you absolutely don’t have ANY other unread book except what you checked out last Tuesday.

I finished another book last night, one that my dear friend Susie sent me to read because she read it and liked it. It’s called “All That Matters” by Jan Goldstein and I must admit that I didn’t realize until the very end that Jan is a man and not a woman. This is very much a woman’s book, and it seemed to be written by a woman, and not a Jewish Rabbi. It was a good book, a really quick read, and a very thoughtful one as well. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I liked the characters, Jennifer and her feisty grandmother Gabby, and the stories what wove throughout the book. I love the things that Gabby tries to teach Jennifer, about how each day is a gift and for her to find one good thing each day to write down in her journal. A wonderful lesson for us all. I thought briefly of trying to write a review, but I decided to cheat and copy one from Amazon.com instead. Click on the extended entry to read their published comments, verbatim, of this book.

This book left me with one overriding feeling – a sense of hope. In spite of the some of the main threads of the book (Jennifer, the granddaughter, attempts suicide, and Gabby, the grandmother, is a Holocaust survivor), this book was one of joy and hope. It was a very easy read, no hard words or difficult plot lines here, and it really ended all too quickly. 🙂

For the record, that makes #4 so far this new year, with a total of 1,014 pages read. Up next, I think I’ll read book 3 in the Abram’s Daughters series by Beverly Lewis, called “The Sacrifice”. My mother-in-law gave me the last 3 books in this series that I lacked, and I’m so looking forward to reading them. 🙂 After that, I think I’ll read something light from my ever-growing “to-be-read” stash. Books, glorious books!

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The book that I just finished (“A Year of Pleasures” by Elizabeth Berg) contained quite a few words that I have never run across. I always like to think of myself as a person with a pretty good vocabulary, but this is one of those books that makes me rethink that statement. It seems I found quite a few words that I have no idea what they mean. I’m one of these readers who likes to know all of the words in a sentence, so I tend to stop and look them up. If I run across a word that I’m pretty sure I know what it means but I am not completely sure how it’s pronounced, I will often just “make up” a pronunciation in my head and keep going. But a definition, that one always stops me in my tracks. I have to stop and look it up if I can’t figure it out.

Anyway, here’s some of the ones I ran across:

somnambulate– it means to sleep walk
exophthalmic – condition marked by protruding eyeballs
aphorism – an adage
sybaritic – marked by pleasure and luxury

(P.S. You can click on the link above and not only see the definition, but hear the pronunciation. If you’re silly like me and like to hear how things are pronounced. 🙂 )

So, that’s today’s Question of the Day: If you’re reading a book or article and run across a word you do not know the meaning of, do you stop and look it up or do you just try to make up a definition and keep going? Leave me a comment and let me know 🙂

I finished a most enjoyable book last night, “The Year of Pleasures” by Elizabeth Berg. I’m not quite sure what it is that first attracted me to this book; I know the cover grabbed me right away. The title also piqued my interest, and both of those, along with the blurb on the back made me buy it, even though I have a fairly hard and fast rule about buying books by authors I have never read. I rarely branch out and buy (aka pay my own money!) a book that I have not heard of or have previously read other books by that author. I usually prefer to take my chances and get a book from the library for my first time reading a new author. But, I had heard good things about Elizabeth Berg’s work and this book really sucked me in at the bookstore 🙂

I think one thing that I so enjoyed about this book was that I could totally relate to the character. Betta Nolan is a 55 year old woman, who has been married to the love of her life for most of her adult life. After he dies of cancer, she fulfills a dream they shared, and he insisted that she pursue, of moving from Boston to the Midwest. She buys the first home she sees and likes, and moves to town. She makes old friends and rekindles her friendship with her three college roommates. She meets a younger handyman and an older gentleman named Tom. She debates on opening up her own store for women, another dream she has had and one that her husband John always encouraged her to do. And, she grieves and tries to learn to live her life without her soulmate.

The book wanes a little in spots, but it’s the writing and the plot that appealed to me. First, I see myself in the character of Betta, a woman who was unable to conceive and spends her life devoted to one man and her marriage, forsaking most everyone and everything else in her life. Second, the book is really about learning to enjoy the simple things in life, small pleasures, and about how all of those strung together can make for a peaceful, happy existence. This is my philosophy on life, to be sure. I live a simple, abundant life full of small things that make me happy. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and am so glad I read it! I hated to see it end and would have liked for it to have gone on a bit further and seen more of what would happen to Betta in the coming months and years.

For the record, that makes #3 on the year, with a total of 816 pages read. Up next is a book that my dear friend Susie sent me, that she read and really enjoyed – “All That Matters” by Jan Goldstein. I can’t wait to get started on it, thanks Susie!!!

P.S. I decided to follow Dianne’s advice and post a “bit from something you’re reading”. Thanks Dianne! 🙂 Click on the extended entry if you’d like to read a few of the passages that I really enjoyed or that moved me in some way. Or I just really liked how they were written!

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I have some bookshelves that need cleaning out (and a myriad of other cleaning out, purging and organizing projects that I *want* to do but never seem to get started). One of the bookshelves contains a bunch of old annuals or yearbooks from when Tim and I were in school.

I don’t ever look at them, but I can’t seem to throw them out. I really need this shelf space though, for books I have bought over the last year and books I received for birthday and Christmas last year.

So, that’s today’s Question of the Day: Do you have annuals or yearbooks from your school years? If so, do you still have them “out” somewhere, or are they packed up? Or were you stronger than me and have you gotten rid of them? Inquiring minds want to know!

I finished this book a couple of nights ago and have been meaning to write a blurb about it. Not really a book review. I’ve decided after reading many “book reviews” at other people’s blogs that I cannot write a good review. I don’t think I write well enough to compare with most of you, LOL! So, I’m going to call them book blurbs and stick to that 😆

This is a book that I borrowed from my mother-in-law over the Christmas holidays. She had several of these, and I borrowed three, I think. They all say “Love Inspired” at the top, and the tagline “heartwarming inspirational romance”. So, I guess you could call them a Christian romance, but I didn’t really consider this book a romance book. It was a love story yes, but it’s not a romance in the sense of the Harlequin romance type of book.

I really liked it, and am glad I read it. It was light and predictable, but a good read. This particular one is about Elizabeth, a woman living with a “spoiled heiress” reputation, when in reality, she’s neither spoiled nor an heiress, but is hiding behind a mask of hurt and pain from a traumatic event that happened to her as a teenager. She was raped and has never been able to get close to a man since it happened. She has friends, family that she doesn’t like or respect, and a job she enjoys. Then, she meets Jackson, a man who moves to the horse ranch next door to become their foreman. He has his own reasons for being there, having just found out that he was adopted. He’s looking for his family and doesn’t realize at first that he will now find the woman of his dreams. It was predictable, it was light, it was easy to read, and it had a Christian slant to it. My kind of book. 🙂

For the record, that makes #2 for the year (I had previously finished “The Betrayal”, book 2 in the Beverly Lewis series I am reading), with a total of 610 pages read. Up next is a book I just started and I know already that I’m going to love, “The Year of Pleasures” by Elizabeth Berg. Berg is a new author for me, but one I have been wanting to read for a while. I think this one is going to be wonderful – so far, I am totally entranced and in love with her style of writing. Check back soon for the review of that one 🙂

I saw over at Dawn‘s blog that she had tagged me and also my sister Gail with a book tag. Fun, here we go!

Here are the rules/requirements:
1. Grab the book closest to you.
2. Open to page 123, go down to the fourth sentence.
3. Post the text of the following 3 sentences on your blog.
4. Name of the author and book.
5. Tag three people of your own.

OK, the closest book is “The Betrayal” by Beverly Lewis, a book I just recently finished. I’ve flipped to page 123, and gone down to the fourth sentence. Here’s the next three sentences of text:

“Well, I daresay none of them has ever had such a defiant streak.” Mamma had frowned and shook her head. Clearly aggravated, she groaned a bit as she bent down to hoist the wicker hamper filled with damp clothing.

Hmmm, not very exciting, that passage. It’s a good book though, book 2 in a series of 5 books about the Amish as told by Christian author Beverly Lewis.

I won’t tag anyone specifically, but please feel free to play along. Leave me a comment if you play, and I’ll be sure to come and visit and leave you a comment! 🙂

I had posted here, way back in November, that I had completed the Fall Reading Challenge sponsored by Katrina over at Callapidder Days. I really enjoyed this, and look forward to finding more challenges like this one next year. Katrina mentioned she might be doing a Spring one, so I’ll look forward to that.

I referenced the “Mr. Linky” at Katrina’s site to my original post, then later realized that she had asked these questions of the challenge participants… I thought I would answer as best I could! Remember, I only read fiction books for the challenge, not any non-fiction ones:

The best book you read this Fall – I’d have to say that the second and third book in the Cedar Cove series by Debbie Macomber were my favorite. She’s a favorite author of mine, and I love the way she writes. It’s very simple, very heartwarming, very easy to read, and always leaves me feeling good. Typical “women’s fiction” for me, but it is my favorite genre to read.

The book you could have lived without – Easy Peasy. The Last Days of Dogtown by Anita Diamant. I loved her book “The Red Tent” and saw this one on the new release shelf at the library and picked it up without even reading the jacket cover. I did NOT like this book and struggled to finish it. If it hadn’t been for the challenge, I might not have finished it!

Whether or not you read more than you would have without the challenge – No, I read a lot, and I probably would have read the same amount of books. In fact, I picked books that I own and needed to read, as well as a couple of library books. All of mine were fiction, which *might* have been a bit of a cop-out 😳

The best thing about joining in the challenge – Easy – seeing what other people are reading, getting ideas for books and authors to check out, and even finding blogs of fellow readers that I like to read!

If you discovered (and enjoyed) a new book or author after reading someone else’s list – I have several new books and authors that I have added to my “check out at the library sometime” list, and I hope to get to them in 2007!

Any other insights, enjoyments, thoughts, or impressions! – I loved this, and so hope that there is a spring one, as Katrina indicated. I like having a goal and getting to meet it, and anything that relates to books or reading is always a ton of fun for me! I love reading, reading about books, finding new authors, getting good book recommendations, and finding blogs of other people who love to read 😀 Thanks again to Katrina for hosting this, and to all those who participated.

Mindless ramblings on books and movies… 🙂

I was out running errands the other day and I just couldn’t resist stopping at the library. I had been purposefully staying away, trying to read some books that I have here at home, but the lure of the library (and the bookstore) are sometimes just too strong for me to resist. I went with a purpose though, to try to find a short, light, Christmas type book to read here at the holidays. Last year I bought a paperback in Walmart by Debbie Macomber, one of my favorite “women’s” authors, and I enjoyed reading it during the holidays. I like having something Christmas-y to read this time of year. I looked under her name first at the library, and found two Christmas themed books, and grabbed both of them. I’ve already read one of them, a really short, small book called “Can This Be Christmas”, about a group of weary travelers stranded by a blizzard, stuck at a train depot in the Northeast on Christmas Eve. It was a really short book, but sweet and happy and had a good message about the real meaning of Christmas. I also picked up another one called “The Christmas Basket”, that I haven’t read yet. I’m still working on the second book in the Beverly Lewis Amish series, and I am really enjoying those books.

I also picked up a cookbook from the New books section at the front of my library. It’s called “Eating Well Serves Two” and I hope to get time to go through it and maybe copy out some recipes before it’s due back after the new year. Since I cook almost exclusively for two, and this one is a healthy type book, it seemed perfect for me. Can’t wait to go through it… I tend to read cookbooks like regular fiction books!

I went and got my hair cut yesterday and the girl that cuts my hair had a big bag of paperbacks that she was going to give away. All she asked was that if I read them, that I bring them back another time and leave for someone else to pick up and read. That kind of plan suits me just fine, and so I just quickly grabbed a couple of books from the bag. I saw Nora Roberts name and realized she had a trilogy, called the Circle Trilogy, and without reading the jacket, just said, I’ll take these and read them and get them back to you next year. Well. I have liked what few books I have read by Nora Roberts, but when I got home, I read the inside jacket and found out these are about vampires and witches and sorcerers, so not at all what I thought they were going to be! I’ll see after the holidays if I like them, they were free and I can give them a try. I sort of hate to take them back without reading them… I don’t want to appear ungracious, but I’m not sure these are the kinds of books I want to be reading! 🙄

As for movies, we’re still watching a lot of movies on our new digital cable and free HBO. They are not having a lot of good movies available “On Demand” right now, although we’ve watched a couple of mediocre, older movies lately. Last night, we thought about going to rent one, then decided to be lazy and finally enter the 21st century. Yes, we had never done a Pay-Per-View movie until last night. We went through the list and found 2 or 3 that are on my rental list, and Tim was being very sweet and offered to let me pick one (aka, a “girl” movie). I picked “The Lake House” with Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves. I liked it, it was sweet and sappy and predictable, but more than that, it was clean and had a happy ending. My kind of movie. I really liked it and enjoyed it. Except, that our company came in about 3/4 of the way through it and proceeded to heckle and make fun of my movie. Because of the time sliding aspect of the movie and the overall sappiness of it. I told them to please not make fun of my movie, I wanted to enjoy it. Which I did, but they got Tim going and then he proceeded to make fun of it. Anyway, Tim gets the next choice and he indicated that he wants to watch… sigh….why do guys like things like this… his choice is — Larry the Cable guy, or Inspector something or whatever that movie is. Big Sigh. I’m sure I won’t like it nearly as much as Tim, but then again, I’m sure I enjoyed “The Lake House” a lot more than he did too! 🙂

How about another Question of the Day: What was the last movie you rented that you really liked?

I finished a really wonderful book last night, the first in a series of 5 books by Beverly Lewis, called the “Abram’s Daughters” series. The first one is entitled “The Covenant” and introduces us to the Ebersol family, an Amish family living in Lancaster PA during the 1940’s. Abram and Ida have 4 daughters – Sadie, Leah and twins Hannah and Mary Ruth. I believe each of the books will continue to focus on this family, the daughters, their extended family and the Amish community.

As I expected, I really enjoyed this book. I had not ever read a Beverly Lewis book, but from what I had heard and read, I wanted to like it, and I did. I enjoyed the slow, simple pace of this book, and the reflections into the Amish way of life and their beliefs. This book was a great choice for me to read this time of year, when everything else is so frenetic and hectic and fast-paced. This book helped me to relax, slow down, and remember the important things in life – faith, family and my beliefs. I am very much looking forward to finishing this series and also reading more books by Beverly Lewis. I think she will eventually become a favorite author of mine. 🙂

For the record, that makes #68 this year, with a total of 23,603 pages read. Up next is the second book in this same series, called “The Betrayal”. I can’t wait to get started!

P.S. After I finish the second one, I will have to decide what to read next (I don’t own the remaining 3 in the series, but I’ve asked for them for Christmas… so I have to either wait or check my local library!). I got some books for my birthday that I want to start, but they are another series (by Christian author Leisha Kelly, has anyone read any of her books? I was attracted by the book jacket cover picture and the synopsis on the back!) and I’m not sure if I want to start another series before I finish the several I have in progress already. I’ve started books in the No 1. Ladies Detective Agency series by Alexander McCall Smith, the Cedar Cove series by Debbie Macomber, the Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich and then there’s a ton of other books I want to read (either that I own or at the library). Decisions, decisions. Or as I love to say “So many books, so little time!” 😀

Slowly, over the years, I have been buying Christmas CD’s. I absolutely love Christmas music, but I sort of hate to spend the money on a CD that I really only listen to for a month or so out of the year. I don’t spend a lot of money on music to begin with, and before I got my iPod, I mostly listened to the radio. But, I do love Christmas music and so I would splurge and buy myself one CD every year or two.

Then, a few years ago, I discovered the CD’s that Target marketed at the holiday season. They are called “Sounds of the Season” and they usually run them at really good prices, like 5.99 or 6.99. They used to do them by genre, and I would almost always buy the country music one. I have several of those, probably 5 or 6. I bought the NBC one last year that has a mix of music by artists like Rob Thomas, Amy Grant, Michael Buble, Gavin DeGraw, Chris Botti, etc, and I do love that one. I also have some other Christmas CD’s by artist, like Harry Connick, Clay Aiken, Celine Dion, and I have one of Billboard classics from years ago that has the original versions of White Christmas, etc on them (and it’s a great CD!) Anyway, I got excited about looking for the new music in Target this year, only to be disappointed that they’ve changed their format. Now, they have them by artist, which is great, but I really miss them doing them by genre (like country or jazz or the NBC collection). This year, the featured artists seem to be Enya, John Legend and Lionel Richie. I might want to get the John Legend one, but I looked at it, and there’s only 6 tracks on there (for 5.99, so a buck a song, which is the same as iTunes). Sigh. I always hate it when I find something I really like and then they go and change it on me 😆

Anyway, here’s some of the older “Sounds of the Season” CD’s that I have bought at Target…

Last year, I started uploading some of my Christmas CD’s to my iPod and I made a Christmas playlist. This year, I have uploaded a few more, and there are probably 2-3 more that I want to get on there. Now that I have my iHome iPod/clock radio (check it out here), I can pop my iPod in and listen to my Christmas music while I’m in our bedroom or bathroom. I also load up our CD changer in the living room with all Christmas music, so that I can listen in there.

So, that brings us to today’s Question of the Day: Do you have a lot of Christmas music? Do you listen to your CD’s in the car, on the computer, on your iPod or just around the house? Do you have a favorite Christmas CD or maybe a favorite artist that you love to hear sing Christmas music?

I finished a sweet little book last night, called “Christmas Past” by Robert Vaughan. I always like to read a small Christmas type story this time of year, and this one really fit the bill. Light and easy to read, but with a good heart and message. A high-powered man and his wife are so immersed in their careers, that they don’t have time for each other, much less their two children. In a last-ditch attempt to have a nice Christmas for their kids, they sign up to go to an antebellum mansion to celebrate a “Christmas Past”, a recreation of a Victorian era Christmas. What they don’t realize until they get there that they are no longer in the present, but have been magically transported back to a simpler time. When families spent time together, did things for one another, made gifts for one another, and remembered the reason for the season by putting Christ first. This was a really short book, at only 141 pages, but it was a really good one. 🙂

For the record, that makes #67 so far this year, with a total of 23,285 pages read. Up next is the first book in the Abram’s Daughters series by Beverly Lewis, called “The Covenant”. I am really looking forward to it 🙂

12/21/06 UPDATE: I posted this original entry below back in November. I just completed a new post, where I answered the questions Katrina posted in her blog, at the top of my blog. You can click here to read that one with my answers 🙂

I finished the last book on my list for the Fall Reading Challenge last night. Woo-hoo, it’s nice to reach a goal! I had originally picked 10 fiction books to read, and ended up adding one more that I found at the library, so I have completed all 11 books on my list. Several of these were sitting on my bookshelves, waiting to be read, so this challenge really helped me read books I have bought, and not buy more books. 😀

Last night I finished “Confessions of a Shopaholic” by Sophie Kinsella, which I really enjoyed. I had read most of the other Shopaholic books, but had apparently missed this one, the one that started it all! I found this one at a recent library sale, and picked it up for $1, so I went ahead and read it. I have loved most every Sophie Kinsella book I have read, although I do think I liked her stand-alone books (Undomestic Goddess and Can You Keep a Secret?) better than the Shopaholic ones. But they are all light and easy to read, which fits the bill for me a lot of the time.

For the record, my challenge is complete, and I’ve read 66 books so far this year, with a total of 23,144 pages read. Up next is a very short book I borrowed from my mother-in-law, called “Christmas Past”. After that, I will either head back to the library (haven’t been in a while, I’ve been reading books I own for a change!) or start on the Abram’s Daughters series by Beverly Lewis. Not sure, part of me wants to go back to the library and check out the rest of the Cedar Cove series of books by Debbie Macomber and finish those first!

P.S. Question of the Day: Are you reading a book right now? If so, which one and are you enjoying it? 😀