Tuesday Thingers (hosted by The Boston Bibliophile)

I do tend to glance over at the “Members with your books” box whenever I go to my LibraryThing profile, mostly out of idle curiosity, but haven’t really done much with it. The LT member whose library has the most books overlapping with mine (currently 309 of my 518) is on my “interesting libraries” list, and I’m on hers, but other than that I haven’t explored it much – I haven’t actually looked to see which books we share. When I add a new book to my LT library, I’ll look at the list of other members who have recently added it too and see whether I recognize any of the names – but again, I don’t follow up very much. I just don’t spend enough time hanging out on LT to do more with these potential connections, I guess.

Teaser Tuesday (hosted at Should Be Reading)

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given!
• Please avoid spoilers!

As usual, I’ll “tease” from my next read, since I quoted from my current one last week. But I’m not sure exactly what I want to read next. I’ve read several consecutive review books, and the only one I have left right now is an ARC for a book coming out in October. I’ve also been reading mostly fiction lately, and I like to mix it up with nonfiction a little more regularly, so I think the next book I read will be something non-fictional that I bought myself for no particular reason.

But other than that, I’m not sure what I want to read next, so I’ve pulled three books out of TBR Purgatory to consider them as candidates.

“They said that except for all the slime involved, frog hunting was a good way to make a living. On the other hand, bell peppers are not a good way to make a living – a neighbor of Tom Fennell’s had twenty thousand dollars’ worth of them stolen out of his fields.”
 – (page 153) The Orchid Thief: A True Story of Beauty and Obsession, by Susan Orlean (this has been in TBR Purgatory for literally years)

“During college, I had a summer job working construction on Chicago’s Lake Shore Drive. My parents had moved to Arizona, so my summertime residence was a YMCA not far from Cathy’s house.”
 – (page 40) The Ride of Our Lives: Roadside Lessons of an American Family, by Mike Leonard

“‘This dog is gonna be Duane Allman. A southern dog.'”
 – (page 91) Love is a Mix Tape: Life and Loss, One Song at a Time, by Rob Sheffield

But after reading this essay by Lionel Shriver a couple of days ago, I started thinking that maybe I would read one of her novels instead – I have two of them in TBRP.

“This turn of the wheel wasn’t quite in the same league as the collapse of the Soviet Union, but in Britain it came close.
‘This is absolutely incredible.'”
 – (page 107) The Post-Birthday World

“‘Kev, this is a little awkward,’ you said, ‘and haven’t done anything wrong. Not a thing.'”
 – (page 330) We Need to Talk About Kevin

And an update from one of my Twitter friends reminded me that I’ve got a couple of Anne Lamott‘s books in TBRP as well; maybe I should get my nonfiction fix from one of them.

Decisions, decisions…I just might have to put the TBR Randomizer to work on this.

Peer Pressure – Booking Through Thursday 

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’ll address the last part of the question first. As a reviewer – which, in this context, I assume means someone who accepts ARCs and new releases from publishers and authors in order to read and write about them – I feel a responsibility to keep current on my reading and posting of reviews. If someone sent me a book to read, they’ll probably be looking for a timely review of it, so I tend to move those books to the front of the TBR line. But trends really aren’t a factor. I don’t solicit or accept any books that wouldn’t interest me if I were spending my own money on them – it’s kind of like not buying something just because it’s on sale when it wouldn’t appeal to you at the regular price – and my personal reading tastes usually aren’t trendy.

But having said that…

Sometimes I’ll get curious enough about one of those “everyone’s-talking-about-it” books that I’ll just have to read it for myself and see what the buzz is all about. But too often, when that happens, I’m reminded that much of the time that buzz is circulating because the “everyone” who’s reading the book often includes a lot of people who…well, don’t tend to read much except for the books everyone’s talking about, and I guess that maybe the non-habitual reader looks for different things in a book than I do. More often than not, when I’ve caved in to the hype – which is a better description of my impulse in these cases than giving in to “peer pressure” – and finally read the thing, it’s been a disappointment (well, except for the Harry Potter books – but they’re exceptional anyway – and maybe The World According to Garp), such as:

On the other hand, if you read the last part of the “Teaser Tuesday” section of this post, where I’m dithering over what to read next, I’m definitely not immune to outside influences in my reading choices!

Friday Fill-Ins #88 (hosted by Janet of Fond of Snape)

This week Janet decided to use rather obscure song lyrics; “You can fill them in with the correct words if you know ’em…but wouldn’t it be more fun to do it a bit differently?”

I could place two of these lyrics in the correct songs right off the bat, and the missing lines were what I filled in. I Googled the rest – and no, I really didn’t know those songs at all. You’ll probably be able to tell which two responses have the real lyrics – bonus points in the comments if you can name the titles and artists! (Or you can just go to Janet’s post at her own blog and find them there.)

1. If I was to walk into your life, would you correct my grammar because I said “was” instead of “were”?

2. Catch a bright star and place it in a generator – solar power is the future!

3. And you can send me to 7-11 to buy your lottery tickets – but if the numbers come up, I’ll say they were mine.

4. I sometimes feel I should just go home but I’m dealing with a memory that never forgets.

5. I’m the innocent bystander / Somehow I got stuck / between a rock and a hard place / and I’m down on my luck.

6. What’s keeping us apart isn’t selfishness, it’s that restraining order that you filed last week.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to a quiet wind-down from the week, tomorrow my plans include coffee with my sister and grocery shopping, a/k/a “the usual Saturday routine” and Sunday, I want to relax and enjoy the pedicure I have scheduled in the morning!

So what are you looking forward to this weekend?

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