Booking Through Thursday

Wow. How did it get to be Thursday again already?!! Anyway, that means it's time for Booking Through Thursday. This week's question turns last week's on its head...

Imagine that everything is going just swimmingly. The sun is shining, the birds are singing, and all’s right with the world. You’re practically bouncing from health and have money in your pocket. The kids are playing and laughing, the puppy is chewing in the cutest possible manner on an officially-sanctioned chew toy, and in between moments of laughter for pure joy, you pick up a book to read . . .

This is a little bit harder to answer than the opposite scenario. When I'm happy (which I am blessed enough to say is most of the time), I can read just about anything. One thing I can add is that I'm much more likely to reach outside my usual genres and try something new when I'm feeling especially content or happy or carefree. (As opposed to "down times" when I really just want the comfort of old friends.)

Booking Through Thursday

This week's Booking Through Thursday:

Okay . . . picture this (really) worst-case scenario: It’s cold and raining, your boyfriend/girlfriend has just dumped you, you’ve just been fired, the pile of unpaid bills is sky-high, your beloved pet has recently died, and you think you’re coming down with a cold. All you want to do (other than hiding under the covers) is to curl up with a good book, something warm and comforting that will make you feel better.

What do you read?

(Any bets on how quickly somebody says the Bible or some other religious text? A good choice, to be sure, but to be honest, I was thinking more along the lines of fiction…. Unless I laid it on a little strong in the string of catastrophes? Maybe I should have just stuck to catching a cold on a rainy day….)

I think I'll have to go with The Stand by Stephen King. My all-time favorite book. An old friend. One of those stories where you just totally lose yourself. (And besides, a cold won't seem nearly so bad compared to "Captain Trips"!)

in my own little world of books

This week's Booking through Thursday...

There was a widely bruited-about statistic reported last week, stating that 1 in 4 Americans did not read a single book last year. Clearly, we don’t fall into that category, but . . . how many of our friends do? Do you have friends/family who read as much as you do? Or are you the only person you know who has a serious reading habit?

I was one of the people who found this statistic surprising. Almost everyone I know is a fairly avid reader. (Of course, I should probably admit that I don't actually know that many people!)

**************

I'm a wee bit behind in my reviews...well, because I hate writing them so much. Because, well, I'm simply not good at it. But I guess I've procrastinated long enough, as tomorrow is the last day to get up this month's Non-Fiction Five.



I finished up And The Band Played On, by Randy Shilts, last week. I'm having a hard time putting into words how I felt about this book. It's not the kind of book that you feel you can say you "enjoyed"...if you know what I mean. But it was a wonderful, powerful story, and I'm definitely glad that I read it.

The subtitle, "Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic," gives one a feel for what the book is about. Randy Shilts tells the story of the early years of the AIDS epidemic in fascinating detail. In fact, as Rich said to me as I was just starting the book, "He probably could have adequately told the story in half the pages." And I would have to agree with that...the story might have adequately been told in less than the 600+ pages of this book. But I don't believe "adequate" was Shilts' goal. He told the complete, uncut version of this real-life drama.

It was a heart-breaking book. At times, I was brought to tears by the overwhelming sadness of it all, and at times, I found myself feeling so angry that I was brought to tears of another form. Somehow AIDS managed to bring out the worst of humankind's failings...indifference, greed, callousness, bigotry, egomania. And sometimes even more damage was done "with good intentions". That's not to say that there were no heroes in the fight to identify and battle this new disease. This book also told their stories.

I can't say that I would recommend this book to everyone. Don't get me wrong...I think it's a wonderful book. For one thing, as I mentioned earlier, it is a long, exhaustive telling of the story. And for another, there are parts that are probably a bit too graphic for some people. (It is not graphic for purposes of sensationalism, but simply for truth's sake.) I would, however, definitely recommend the movie to everyone. The movie obviously leaves much out, but it is very well-done.

One last note, it goes without saying, that I wish Randy Shilts was still alive today. But, on a selfish note, I have to say that I wish he were here to write the sequel to And The Band Played On. The book ends in 1988, but we all know the story of AIDS does not.




I also finished Lethal Practice, by Peter Clement last week. Another one down for the Medical Mystery Madness Reading Challenge. This is the best one I've read for this challenge so far. Still not among the best of this genre that I've read in my lifetime, but really not a bad book at all.

The general story follows the chief of emergency medicine in a Buffalo, NY hospital. He has a true sociopath working for him...he just doesn't know it. But said sociopath fears disclosure, and all kinds of nastiness follow.

A fairly quick read. Was a nice change a pace from the heaviness of my non-fiction choice.




On a final note for the day, I guess it's time for me to concede defeat in Southern Reading Challenge. Tomorrow night it will come to its official end. And I am only half-way through my final selection, A Time to Kill, by John Grisham. (A book I am enjoying immensely, by the way.) I feel bad that I won't finish "in time"...but I will finish. And I have to say a big "Thank You" to Maggie for hosting this challenge. It not only gave me an "excuse" to read To Kill A Mockingbird again, it introduced me to The Secret Life of Bees, which touched my heart (and I doubt I ever would have read if not for this challenge).

in my own little world of books

Time again for this week's Booking through Thursday. I feel silly even playing this week, since my answer is simply "no".

This week's question:

Have you ever written an author a fan letter?

Did you get an answer?

Did it spark a conversation? A meeting?

Like I already said, No.


So onto other book news...

I finished my second of eight for the Newbery Challenge a couple nights ago. Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell. I hate even saying this, but I was somewhat disappointed in this book. It may be that I just had overly high expectations for it. I don't know. I've read more children's and YA lit lately than I have in a very long time. And I've read a few that I really fell in love with. Like Kira Kira and Esperanza Rising. And I think I was hoping this would be another of those. Especially since it was a Newbery Medal winner.

I'm not saying that this wasn't a good book. It was. I enjoyed it. I just didn't fall in love with it. And I must say, I have a feeling that I would have enjoyed this book much more when I was young. (Annie read it a couple years ago, and enjoyed it much more than I just did.)

Anyway, that's just my opinion, for what that's worth.

on the book front...

I haven't played Booking Through Thursday for a while. Though I still loved reading the answers of others, I just didn't have much of interest to contribute. Still don't, but I missed playing, so here I am back at it.

This week's question:

"Who’s the worst fictional villain you can think of? As in, the one you hate the most, find the most evil, are happiest to see defeated? Not the cardboard, two-dimensional variety, but the most deliciously-written, most entertaining, best villain? Not necessarily the most “evil,” so much as the best-conceived on the part of the author…oh, you know what I mean!"

This is such a fabulous question, isn't it? But a tough one! There's lots of evil dudes out there between the pages of books. I'm going to go with Randall Flagg from The Stand (Stephen King). He pops to mind, probably because this is one of my all-time favorite books. But evil he most certainly is. And just to be difficult, I'm going to throw in another...Capricorn from Inkheart (Cornelia Funke), because I found him so creepily original.




And now on to other book ramblings...

I finished my second book for the Medical Mystery Madness Reading Challenge. This book, Terminal Condition, by David Shobin, was much more what I was hoping for! (I was rather disappointed in my first choice.) Shobin is a new author to me, but I will probably eventually search out more of his books...if I can ever find time between all these challenges, that is. Terminal Condition was a fast-paced, suspenseful ride. Very reminiscent of Robin Cook or Michael Palmer. In fact, at one point it was almost a little too reminiscent of a scene from Cook's Coma. But the scene worked none-the-less, even if it was eerily familiar.

The basic storyline involves the discovery of new wonder-drug, which can dramatically help people with severe dementia. But as can be predicted before this discovery is even made public, greed muscles its way into the story, and all kinds of evil monkey-business ensue.

I do have one small complaint...it's not really that big of a deal, but it was a tad annoying at times. David Shobin is a physician, as many of these medical thriller books, are. But while most of these authors seem to grasp that their audience will be far broader than the medical community, Shobin sometimes seemed to forget this. Take for example, this sentence, "The copper-jacketed slug transected the right carotid and chipped off the transverse process of C-3 before exiting the upper trapezius muscle." Sure, I understood what he was saying, but come on...

And there was one other thing I just have to mention, because it made me laugh. I even had to interrupt Rich's reading to tell him about it. The mafia plays a role in this book, and in the page where we are first introduced to these characters, we meet Vinnie, Vito, Salvatore, Anthony, Joey, and Dominic. Just made me giggle...I mean couldn't there just once be a mob guy named Tim or Dave or Bob. Okay, forgive my silliness...I just found it amusing for some weird reason.

And with that I am off to go fix the monkeys some breakfast. Then I can't wait to read what other "villians" made the cut.

Booking Through Thursday

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?

--I probably should skip playing this week, because again my answer is simply boring. My reading doesn't vary at all by season. In the past, I've just always read whatever I happened to be in the mood for, and I don't think that has ever following any kind of pattern. Maybe the one exception would be that I occasionally read some kind of Christmas themed book around the holidays.

Anyway, these days I think my choices are dictated a lot by homeschooling--and all the reading challenges I can't seem to stop myself from signing up for.

Booking Through Thursday

This week's question for Booking Through Thursday:

*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!

--Almost didn't play this week, because my answer's simply boring. I don't think I do have any guilty pleasures. Maybe I should be embarrassed about everything I read, as none of it is particularly enlightening. (Except, of course, the stuff I read for homeschooling.) My favorite books are psychological thrillers. But I read for fun, and I'm just going to refuse to feel guilty about it! See, told you it was boring.

Booking Through Thursday

This week:
Location, Location, Location...
Where do you do most of your reading? Your favorite spot? (Show a picture, if you want to!)
(And yes, I understand that these might not be the same thing--your favorite spot could be the beach, but you do most of your reading at home . . . in which case, tell me about both!)


This is where I do most of my reading. Snuggled up under the covers, with Rich reading beside me, and 9 times out of 10, with Aldo curled up sleeping on my chest.

As far as my favorite spot, that's a little tougher. Anywhere I can get some reading in is okay in my book. But I think my favorite spot is sitting in the shade of our enormous pine tree in the back yard as the kids run around playing.

Booking Through Thursday

Forgot all about Booking through Thursday until I hit Stacy's place.

Booking Through Thursday:

1.Short Stories? Or full-length novels?
--Definitely novels. Don't read many short stories on my own. But I've been doing a short stories unit with Annie the past 2 quarters of homeschooling, so I've ended up reading several lately.
2. And, what's your favorite source for short stories? (You know, if you read them.)
--Many of the ones we've read for school have come from Stories and Poems for Extremely Intelligent Children of All Ages selected by Harold Bloom. Wonderful, varied selection.

Booking Through Thursday

Booking Through Thursday:

1. Speaking of writing in books, what about writing the entire thing? Do you write? Aspire to write? Dream about writing?
--I really enjoy writing. Snippets of this and that. Poetry. But never a whole book. Rich often encourages me to try my hand at writing a mystery thriller. But I know I'll never do it.
2. If you do write, do you do it for yourself, or because you hope to be published? (Or because you ARE published?)
--Definitely for myself! Adding the idea of being published to the mix would feel too much like pressure, and I'm afraid that would take all the fun out of writing for me. (Besides, I know my limitations!)

books, books, wonderful books

Decided to finally join in the fun with Booking Through Thursday...

Lending Library:
*Do you lend your books to other people? If so, any restrictions?
--There's a general sequence of events when I finish a book.
1. If Rich wants to read it, it goes to his pile.
2. After Rich has read it (or if he doesn't want to), I pass the book along to Mom.
3. After she reads it, she sometimes passes it along to my aunt.
4. The book is returned to me, and I then send it along to my friend Kim.
*Do you borrow books from other people? (Friends or family—I'm not talking about the public library)
--I never ask to borrow books, but several people pass books along to me if they think I might enjoy them. In fact, on my nightstand at this very moment, is a book from my brother, a book from my mom, and 4 books from my friend Kim.
*And, most importantly—do the books you lend/borrow get returned to their rightful owners??
--I ALWAYS return a book to its proper owner! (Unless, they say they don't want it back, that is.) And as for the ones I lend, my mom and my aunt always return them. And Kim always used to, but I've recently told her to not bother mailing them back. I usually just gave them to the library for their book sale anyway. But if it was a special book that I wanted to keep for some reason, she would definitely return it.