BOOKKEEPING: The Reading Status Report
Currently Reading (just started): Escape by Carolyn Jessop
Next in Line, order TBD: Certain Girls by Jennifer Weiner, to “read along” with My Friend Amy one week in June (date TBA), also for 2009 RYOB Challenge; The Unit by Ninni Holmqvist, an ARC received via LTER (June 2009 publication); Fool by Christopher Moore, for the RYOB Challenge, because my husband has already read it and keeps asking me if I have yet
Book reviews posted this week: None – reading time has been curtailed, but I hope to make up for it in the next couple of weeks!
Next review scheduled: The Laws of Harmony by Judith Ryan Hendricks (just finished)
New additions to the “to be read” tag in LibraryThing:
Ladies of Liberty: The Women Who Shaped Our Nation by Cokie Roberts(1)
Waiting to Surface by Emily Listfield(1)
Zoe’s Tale by John Scalzi(1)(2)
Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman(1)(2)
All We Ever Wanted Was Everything, by Janelle Brown(3)
(2) I read the author‘s blog regularly, but haven’t read any of his books yet – seems like I should correct that, don’t you think?
(3) July selection for the Summer Reading Series
Books I’ve noticed on other blogs this week*:
Perfection: A Memoir of Betrayal and Renewal, by Julie Metz
Virgin: The Untouched History, by Hanne Blank
Musing Mondays, hosted at Just One More Page (or Two): “Sticking With It”
Today’s MUSING MONDAYS post is about sticking with it…I don’t have a hard-and-fast rule about this, since I really don’t bail on books very often. If it’s not working for me, I’ll usually stop 1/4 to 1/3 in – but I won’t admit that I’m giving up on it. I’ll set the book aside for awhile and see if I feel getting back to it some other time, and I’ll leave a bookmark in it where I stopped. I rarely do come back, though, unless it’s to admit defeat…after a couple of years. Then I’ll take the bookmark out.
I have yet to quit on a book I’ve accepted for review – but I don’t get a ton of review books, so maybe being picky has helped in that respect. And if it’s for book club, I will stick with it regardless, although there have been several times when I was the only one in the group who did.
Do you have a “book-bailing” policy?
Tuesday Thingers, hosted at Wendi’s Book Corner: “Do You Tweet?”
Do you Tweet?? If you can answer that, you already know what the topic is this week – Twitter! According to Wikipedia,
Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that enables its users to send and read other users’ updates known as tweets.
Did you know that there are three Twitter groups on Library Thing?
Twitter This group is for all the book lovers that also love Twitter. List your ID and follow.
Wossy Book Club So Jonathan Ross has started a book club on twitter. Post your comments here!
Questions: Do you Tweet? If so, what do you like best about Twitter? What do you like the least? Do you have any Twitter applications or extras that you use frequently (TweetDeck, TwitterFeed, etc)? Do you belong to any of the Twitter groups on LT?
My Answer: I’ve been on Twitter for over a year – are we following each other yet? I discussed the ways I use it in a Blog Improvement Project topic post back in March, so I don’t want to bore y’all by repeating a lot of that here. I’m still a fan, but I’m starting to get a little concerned about the effects Twitter seems to be having on blogging. It’s tough to be active on Twitter and be a productive blogger at the same time, and it seems like some people are opting for the less labor-intensive Twitter route – and I miss their blog posts! I don’t want that for myself, so I try to be careful about that time-suck thing (because if you allow it to be, Twitter definitely WILL be a time suck). I do love the way it helps build connections, though – and it’s even a fun place to have a party! Who knew?
I didn’t even know there were Twitter groups on LT until Wendi posted this question, so apparently I’m not a member of any of them. Since I’m not really active in groups on LT, period, it’s not surprising this would be news to me, though.
Booking Through Thursday: “Sticky”
Deb saw this over at Shelley’s, and thought it sounded like a great question:
“This can be a quick one. Don’t take too long to think about it. Fifteen books you’ve read that will always stick with you. First fifteen you can recall in no more than 15 minutes.”
When I first saw the title of this post, I thought this BTT topic might be very similar to the Musing Mondays question above…but no, it’s a different definition of “sticky.” I’ve actually been dodging this one since I was tagged to answer it on Facebook a few weeks ago…but oh well, why the heck not? I’m not including links to the books, though.
These are in no particular order, and are not necessarily all-time favorites (see #5):
- Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott
- A Wrinkle in Time, by Madeleine L’Engle
- Gone With the Wind, by Margaret Mitchell
- The Thorn Birds, by Colleen McCulloch
- Wuthering Heights, by Emily Brontë1
- The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, by Michael Chabon2
- Brightness Falls, by Jay McInerney
- More Tales of the City, by Armistead Maupin3
- The Robber Bride, by Margaret Atwood
- Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, by J.K. Rowling4
- Middlesex, by Jeffrey Eugenides
- The Post-Birthday World, by Lionel Shriver
- Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal, by Christopher Moore
- Family Pictures, by Sue Miller
- A History of God, by Karen Armstrong5
(For the record, that took TEN minutes.)
Whether you participated in this week’s BTT or not, tell me one book that you can’t forget (even if you try).
Friday Fill-ins #127
1. Many of my favorite things can be found right at home.
2. My favorite thing for dinner lately has been meatloaf sandwiches (which is why I try to make extra meatloaf!).
3. The doorbell rang, and Gypsy said “bark! bark! bark!”
4. A nice long walk in the early morning is one of my favorite things to do on the weekend.
5. At last, I have some good news – the auditors are almost finished with us!
6. When all is said and done, it will be very quiet around here.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to unwinding after a hectic week at the office, and tomorrow and Sunday my plans include reading, getting some blog posts written, and seeing Up with the family! (But I’m not sure what will be happening on which day…)
What’s on deck for you this weekend?
*I’m experimenting with using footnotes as a change from parenthetical phrases – what do you think?
I'm looking forward to hear what you think about Zoe's Tale and Anasazi Boys. I haven't read either of them, though I plan to at some point. I've read Scalzi's other books, but I've not read any Gaiman as of yet.
Saturday we have a couple of birth day parties and we'll probably work on getting our stuff together for our Disney trip on Wednesday.
Mike – You may be waiting awhile for those opinions :-). Or not. Aside from the fact I read their blogs, I bought both of those because I think Paul needs some new reading material – but I'll probably have to read them myself before I can get him to try them out.
Oh, I didn't realize your Disney World trip was just around the corner. You'll all have a great – although hot and humid – time!
I love meatloaf – great comfort food!
I enjoyed your 15 book list. Many are faves of mine as well but there were a couple I had not heard of. I will check them out.
Auntie Q – I think I need to make another one next week :-).
Ti – Now you've made me curious; which ones are faves of yours, and which ones were new?
Nice round-up! I should have added Little Women to my sticky 15!
Amy Reads – I really wasn't sure I wanted to do that list in the first place – because I usually avoid that kind of thing – but now I'm glad I did. Since it didn't specifically ask for 15 favorites, it was easier than I thought it would be – and books don't always stick with you because you loved them :-).
You know, I think you really nailed Twitter for me. I much prefer to spend my time on my blog, and feel pulled when I'm on Twitter, so I check in there, but rarely spend much time on it.
Thanks for stopping by and participating in Thingers last week! I've got the post up for this week. ~ Wendi
Wendi – That's the main reason I do so little on Facebook; there's only so much time! Twitter eats up less of it :-), but I think that both it and FB aren't always good for blogging.