I'm loving Paperback Swap. So far I've received 2 books that I've wanted to read just not bad enough to go out and actually spend money on them and couldn't find at the library. This site could become my new best friend. It will also be nice to start getting rid of books that I know I will never read again and are just cluttering up every. single. room. in. my. house.

Booking Through Thursday

1. Does what you read vary by the season? For instance, Do you read different kinds of books in the summer than the winter? Reply here


2. If so, do you break it down by genre, length of book, or...?
   What I read depends on the seasons of my life. Last week was a hard week, so I put down the heavy book I was reading and read Full Blast by Janet Evanovich, just to relax and loosen up. I like to read light mysteries and chick lit when I'm feeling stressed and just want to not think or get too caught up in a difficult storyline. this is also when I read my organizing type books.
   A couple of weeks ago I was feeling very spiritual, so I read The Power of a Praying Nation by Stormie Omartian and Never Alone by Fr. Grizone (I think I misspelled his last name).
   I am kid free right now, so I can afford to block out the noise around me and get wrapped up in a good story so I'm reading The Last Templar by Raymond Khoury. I leave the more involved mysteries or can't put down thrillers for when my kids aren't home and I can really get into the book.
   I carry classics in my bag to read on the bus, while waiting at the doctor, etc. It forces me to read them a bit at a time because I want to read them slowly and more carefully so I can appreciate why they are considered classics.

Most barriers to your success are man-made. And most often, you're the man who made them.

- Frank Tyger

Booking Through Thursday

'Fess Up

Okay, there must be something you read that's a guilty pleasure . . . a Harlequin romance stashed under the mattress. A cheesy sci-fi book tucked in the back of the freezer. A celebrity biography, a phoned-in Western . . . something that you'd really rather not be spotted reading. Even just a novel if you're a die-hard non-fiction fan. Come on, confess. We won't hold it against you!

I don't have a problem displaying any books I read. Reading is reading is reading and I read everything from biographies, classics, current best sellers, chick lit to the Fabio covered smut books. Sometimes I read to gain knowledge, sometimes it's to get caught up in a fabulous story, and sometimes I read trashy romances because I just want to read, but don't want to do a lot of thinking.
I hide certain books in my home simply because I have a curious 10 year daughter who also likes to read and I really don't need her asking me about the fantasy she read about in Nancy Friday's Men In Love or Zane's lastest novel.

Booking Through Thursday

Have you ever missed an important appointment because you have become so engrossed in a book you forgot the time or were up so late reading that you didn't wake up in time? Been late to work because you couldn't resist the temptation and left the house too late?

I've never actually missed an appointment, but I've been late for this very reason. I always have a book with me to read in case I have to wait, but if the book is particularly good, the problem is putting the book down long enough to get ready and get to the appointment.
I do most of my reading at night before going to bed, so it's very common for me to forgo sleep because I just can't put the book down. Now that I have kids, oversleeping just doesn't happen, but a good book makes for a very cranky mommy in the morning. And did you know that you can change a diaper and read a book at the same time?

I am saddened by the death of Kurt Vonnegut.

"Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read."

~ Groucho Marx

It's probably unusual to have a pregnancy manual as a favorite book, but this is one of my all time favorites. If you are one the tens of people who've read one of my other blogs in the past few months, you know that I am pregnant with baby #5. With every one of my pregnancies I've read Your Pregnancy Week-by-Week. This is a fantasic book, with great advice and the cutest hand drawings of the developing fetus. That's what hooked me. Unlike most other preggo manuals, this had very few pictures of what the mother looks like which I love because, well, I have a mirror. If I want to see how my stomach is growing all I have to do is look down. I've recommended or giving this as a gift to every pregnant woman I've known.

To be a book-collector is to combine the worst characteristics of a dope fiend with those of a miser.
Robertson Davies, "The Table Talk of Samuel Marchbanks"

For lots of reasons, I love the Bible. I love having reasonable, honest and open discussions about the Bible regardless of what faith the other person belongs to. Some of my best discussions are with a friend who is a Jehovah's Witness and some of the most frustrating are with one of my best friends who grew up in the same church as I did.

Say not, 'I have found the truth,' but rather, 'I have found a truth.'
Kahlil Gibran
Lebanese artist & poet in US (1883 - 1931)

Booking Through Thursday

1. Just out of curiosity, as we enter into Passover and Easter season... have you ever read the Bible? Just the odd chapter or Psalm? The whole thing? (Or, almost the whole thing? It's some heavy reading, of course, and those "begats" get kind of tedious.)
   Yes, to all of the above. It is heavy reading, but it's fasinating. I believe that no matter how long you have been a Christian, Jew, Buddist, whatever, you are still learning about your faith. Since I consider myself a Christian, I feel as if I have to read the Bible to grow in my faith.
2. If so, was it from religious motivation or from a literary perspective? Stuck with nothing else to read in a hotel room the Gideon's have visited? Any combination?
   Yes, again, to all the above.
3. If not, why not? Against your religious principles? Too boring? Just not interested? Something you're planning on taking care of when you get marooned on a desert island?
   I have too many discussions with people not to read it so that I know what I'm talking/praying about. I don't believe in blind faith.
4. And while we're on the subject... what about the other great religious works out there? Are they more to your liking?
   I read religious and/or spiritual books on a regular basis. I have tried to read the Koran, the Book of Mormon and others, but I just couldn't get into them. Even though I no longer practice, I was raised Catholic, so I've read the Apocryphy which I guess some would consider separate from the Bible.

My oldest sister is currently undergoing treatment for breast cancer and my middle sister has been cancer free for about 2 years now. How could I not participate in the Sister Study? If you have a sister who's been diagnosed with breast cancer you should participate too.

Inspiration is wonderfull when it happens, but the writer must develop an approach for the rest of time.... The wait is simply too long.
--Leonard Bernstein