Old School

This post disappeared but it was for Nancy Drew's The Bungalow Mystery.  This is what I said on Goodreads.

I picked this up at the library because it said it was the original story printed in 1930. I’m sure I read the 1957 reprinting.

The first page is basically a disclaimer from the publisher saying that readers may be “extremely uncomfortable” with the stereotypes and racial language used. I didn’t see any racial language in this particular story and while I was always impressed by Nancy when I read the books as a child, I had to laugh at the fact that she didn’t do any sleuthing to solve this particular crime. She instead overheard the bad guy, who conveniently spoke out loud to himself and detailed all of his plans. I know these are for younger readers – but come on!

3.14 The Bungalow Mystery

I Can Drive 65

“‘If there’s anyone I wish to stun at dinner, I’ll hit him in the face.’” Truth.

65.12 Graceling

I made it!  For the year I set a goal of reading 80 books, and while I ended up reading 67, I amended the original goal to really wanting to get 65 reviews on the blog.  And by the skin of my teeth…

This is a YA that I needed to read in order to read the sequel for a book meeting this month.  So I went into it knowing nothing and it seems to me that this is a great advantage when reading YA for me. 

Katsa is an awesome character and while she and her actions are a bit predictable, I loved that she felt unsure of things.  She was confident in what should could do but not always sure of why she was doing them.  I love the idea of the Graces, but won’t spoil it here.  The ending was a bit of a let down, but I certainly look forward to reading the next in the series. It was a nice fun way to bring the year to a close, let’s do it again in 2013!

2012 Reading Stats

67 Books Read – Goal was 80

28,996 Pages Read – Goal was 20,000

Average Pages Per Day 79 - Very happy with that!

% Female Writers – 44%

% New to Me Authors – 80% (Wow!)

20% YA books

I paid for 38% of the books I read.  Thank you friends and the Eugene Public Library!

And my favorite read of the year was: Mr. Penumbra’s 24-HourBookstore

Not a perfect book, but a perfect escape (which were in great need this year).

Ah, The Fly in the Ointment

I knew nothing technical could be as seamless and easy as I would hope.  Although, I guess that isn’t really my complaint here.  Kindle books from the library are as easy to download and read as I said, but I just discovered that a few days before your book expires you get an email from Amazon reminding you how easy it would be to buy the book from them. 

That’s right… A crummy commercial.

True Love

I love the library.

I love the smell.  I love the endless shelves.  I love wandering and finding a treasure.  I love the big comfy chairs.  I love that there is a kid’s section.  I love that the last time my dad went to the library he took out his wallet to pay.

Books for free are magic to me.  They give anyone willing to read the opportunity to learn about anything that interests them.  Continuing Education at your fingertips for FREE!

As a kid, I remember walking up the glassed in ramp of the Boulder Public Library, my heart rate rising from both my speed and my excitement.  I wanted to stop and look at the artwork that lined the walls but I was too excited to get to the books.  Many were favorites and many were brand new.  There were beanbags to sit on and librarians to help.  But in the end it was up to me to decide how I would spend my time, what books I would choose to take home.  I checked them out with my own card.  Really it was my first foray into the adult world, as it was also up to me to treat the books well and get them back on time so that I could go through the experience all again. My first taste of freedom and responsibility; power.  The library has since been remodeled but I will always remember it this way.

Library for Kindle

I own the first generation Kindle, in all its quirky wonder, and it became my most prized possession when I was breastfeeding Darren.  One of the many things I didn’t know about breastfeeding was that it usually leads directly to nap time and it is very hard to turn pages in a book with a sleeping baby in your arms.  So my Kindle and I were connected and it was invaluable to me to be able to escape in to a book during that time.  But since I haven’t even picked the thing up.  I guess I just like regular books better, and quite frankly I want Darren to see me reading books not machines.

I discovered that my library is now lending books for the Kindle and I thought I would check it out just to see how it worked, and I have to say it works incredibly well!  I think a lot of things with technology are needlessly invasive.  You have to provide email and credit card numbers to do just about anything anymore and so I had my doubts, but this was a very simple thing.  No different than putting a book on hold, except that instead of an email saying your book is ready to be picked up you get an email saying it is ready for download: you click the button, sync your device, and voilá!  I know I won’t limit myself to this service because I love actually going to the library, but I have to say that I think I will use it frequently because of the ease.

Feeling Dumb

For the past week I have been in a funk of sorts. A technological funk.  A time wasting funk.  A worthless feeling funk.  Instead of striving to be something I feel like I have decided to give in and be nothing.  So I sit and surf gossip sites, going back again and again to see what is happening in other people’s lives instead of being present in mine.  And the worst part is, I stopped reading and that makes me feel dumb.

While surfing, I stopped by a favorite web site of mine, Out of Print, and found that they were going to be trying out an online book club reading of Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 and they had a little video of him talking about his life.

He is passionate and happy and excited.  All the things I am not; but I watched, and I smiled, and I listened:

"Things that you love should be things that you do, and things that you do should be things that you love."

"Libraries are people; thousands of people."

"But if you don't know how to read, you don't know how to decide."

And now it is up to me.  I can decide to be nothing, or I can decide to continue to be imperfect.  So I will pick up my book and write about it because I love it and not worry about the fact that the writing isn't prefect because how can it improve if I don't keep trying?

**The part with the cat is the capper!

TBR Pile(s)

My TBR piles are infringing on my life!  They make me feel guilty and mock me for wasting time.  They have become a source of stress instead of comfort.  In fact, I feel like I no longer enjoy what I am reading because I feel like I need to just get it over with to get on to the next one.

My main pile resides in the bookshelf directly across from my place on the bed.

The TBR are those laying on their sides, the ones behind have been read (mostly!).  The shelves are BOWING!  BOWING PEOPLE!

My more immediate TBR pile resides next to the bed.  It has limited space which makes me feel like it is more under control.  See it even has space for a new addition! 

My final TBR pile is a new addition.  It consists of library books.  The library is truly a magical place, I mean books for free!  However they come with an expiration date which makes me antsy.  These are always at the top of the list because they have to go back, so they are the most stressful pile, when really they should be the most celebrated and enjoyed.

I would need several lifetimes to get through all of these books (and they don't even include all the other unread treats residing on the many bookshelves in the house, or the many books I have on my Kindle and iPad!) and I wouldn't have it any other way, but I wish I wasn't letting it stress me out!

Crap, I just remembered the stack of New Yorkers...

Remember When...

I remember when, as a kid, we would go to the library.  The Boulder Public Library was very open with a lot of windows, a lot of light, and I can still remember the smell of all of those books.  You would walk up a ramp to the second floor, passing widows and art displays.  Then, to the left, was the kids section.  Shelves and shelves of books, higher than I could reach.  There were bean bag chairs and stuffed animals (I think).  And the librarians were very nice, but best of all...  I used my own card, to pick my own books.  I learned a lot of responsibility from using the library as a kid.  You had to take care of those books and get them back on time - thank you mom! - under no circumstances did you want to disappoint those people by ruining a book.

What happened to wanting to take care of others peoples' things even better than your own?  I still love library books, I love the way the hardbacks stay open, and how the paper smells, but they seem to be used much more harshly than I remember.  Last week I got a book that hasn't even been out that long and was struck by the fact that it was water damaged already.

I understand that we live in Oregon, but come on!  Then I started to notice other things...

I NEVER dog ear book pages, and I would certainly never do it to a book that wasn't mine!  And I often eat while I read yet never seem to leave little morsels behind.  One page was even sparkling with glitter and I just figured that I didn't really want to know.

Sad that libraries are losing more and more money to keep up their building and to buy new books, but then hey have to pay to repair stuff like this?  Pathetic really.  People need to take pride in things like this.

Can't Look Away

I picked up this book, Never Look Away, from the library based on an article Stephen King wrote in EW about it. He said it was a great thriller that would keep you up at night to read. Truth be told, I picked it up because I couldn't find the book I really wanted.

Reading the back, it didn't really sound like my thing and, in my experience, advertising somethings a "thriller" generally means it isn't. Anyway, I started it the other night and kind of groaned my way through the first few chapters, but yesterday decided that I just needed to give it my full attention and get into it, and now I can't stop! I am still not sure if it is my thing but there are all these plot lines that he has linked up in such a way that at the end of each chapter you take a moment to reassess what you have learned and make a new guess as to what the heck is going on! It is fun in a real who-done-it kind of way and I am totally engrossed. But right this minute I am really hoping it doesn't all turn out to be dumb and cliched because I will be pissed!

Another Review

13. The Devlin Diary

I said when I started this blog that it would be about the reading of the books and not just reviews, but after the experience of reading a book on my iPad I didn't want to take my hands off the pages of this book long enough to type on here.  I just needed some unplugged time.  Truth is that I need much more of it!

This wasn't even a great book but it was just what I needed.  A simple plot with back and forth plot structure that progressed along nicely and drew me in.  Plus it was a hardback from the library and are there many other things as wonderful? Those soft pages and the broken in spine.  The way it lays open on your lap with no effort.  The way it doesn't cost anything so you don't have to feel guilty when you are done.

But now I am back to the iPad and Middlemarch - two things that I do not find comforting.  Both my mother and I have strayed from Middlemarch but we have also both agreed to come back to it and give it our full attention until we are done.  the fact is that we both like it but I think it is a bit too close to how real life works and so as far as an escape it falls short.  But we are going to do it, and we are going to do it together which leads to a certain excitement that I hope will help me get through.

The Swan Thieves

I liked The Historian, but I wasn't as wild about it as most people so when I read the not-so-great reviews about this one i stayed away. But now I am on a library book kick and this one was actually in (probably not a good sign!) so I picked it up and started yesterday.

So far it is okay. It has going for it that I woke up this morning excited to give it a chunk of time so I could really get in to it, but it has going against it that about 30 pages in I had to read the back cover to figure out the sex of our hero (I thought it was a heroine!), but let's blame that on the reader for the time being.