Wanderlust

Musing Monday's is hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading!

This week’s question asks:

Do you ever read a word or phrase that sparks a specific place or setting in your mind and makes you crave to read a book with that type of place/setting in it?

This happens to me frequently. I love books that are set in New England (Boston in particular) and England. For me, reading books rich in setting appeals to my ever present wanderlust. I love to travel but it's not the easiest thing to do with small children. So, I open a book and travel these days. I can't wait to take my children to many of the places I love. For now, I'll visit them in the pages of books.

Long Weekend

I love long weekends. I briefly forgot that we all have tomorrow off (no work or school). Now that I remember, I am ecstatic! Hopefully this means that we'll all sleep in a little bit tomorrow morning. Since we don't have any solid plans - I think a movie, a BBQ, playtime with the kids and lots of reading sounds perfect! :)

Books at my Bedside

Booking Through Thursday is a weekly meme about (mostly) books and reading. This weeks pondering:

"What books do you have next to your bed right now? How about other places in the house? What are you reading?"

I have a small bookshelf next to my bed rather than a nightstand. I had to do this because the nightstand I used to have was over run with books anyway and became unsafe. This particular bookshelf has many books on it - including the ones I have checked out from the library.

The next two books I'm going to read are actually in the library pile on the bookshelf next to my bed. The books are: Shanghai Girls by Lisa See and The Help by Kathryn Stockett.

I am currently reading The Girl Who Played With Fire by Stieg Larsson. What an amazing book. Once I finish the above library books I am going to read the final book in the Millenium trilogy - The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest.

The Girl Who Played With Fire Teaser

Teaser Tuesday's is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

Grab your current read -
Open to a random page -
Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

My teaser, from page 346:

I don't know what went wrong between us, but you and I discussed friendship once. I said that friendship is built on two things - respect and trust.

The Girl Who Played With Fire is the second book in Stieg Larsson's Millenium Trilogy. I almost gave up on the first book but thankfully went back to it. I ended up liking the first book quite a lot and I'm liking this one even more. The third book in the trilogy - The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest - is being released in the U.S. today. I will definitely be reading that one in the near future.

Making Time to Read

Musing Monday's is hosted by Rebecca at Just One More Page. This week, Rebecca asks:

Do you have to carve out time in your day for reading (due to work and other obligations), or does your reading just happen naturally?

Question courtesy of MizB PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT with either the link to your own Musing Mondays post, or share your opinion in a comment here (if you don’t have a blog). Thanks.

Yes, I absolutely have to make time in my day (or rather, night) to read. While I am the woman who constanty has a book with me (just in case) I don't have a lot of opportunity to read during the day. My kids keep me happily busy. The domestic chores keep me annoyingly busy. So, while I do read for a couple of minutes here and there through my day - the majority of my reading occurs at night after my kids are asleep and I have spent time with my husband. Reading is always the last thing I do at night before going to sleep. It makes my husband a little nuts but I just can't go to sleep unless I've had my reading time.

Beautiful Day

It was such an amazing and beautiful day. The kind of day you feel thankful to be alive; I know I do. And I feel especially blessed with my wonderful family and friends. Thanks to all of those who helped make this day so special. :)

Halfway

Booking Through Thursday is a weekly meme about (mostly) books and reading. This weeks pondering:

So … you’re halfway through a book and you’re hating it. It’s boring. It’s trite. It’s badly written. But … you’ve invested all this time to reading the first half.

What do you do? Read the second half? Just to finish out the story? Find out what happens?

Or, cut your losses and dump the second half?

I recently read The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson. Halfway through the book, I put it down and didn't think I was going back to it. I didn't hate the book at that point but I didn't love it, either. I was also quite annoyed and disgusted by something I had read in the book just before putting it aside. A week later I was curious about how the mystery would unfold and went back to it. Plus, it was my book club choice and I wanted to finish it for that. I have to say, I'm quite glad I did - as the second half was so much better than the first!

However, there have been times when I have been so utterly bored or annoyed by a poorly written book that I will just walk away from it without feeling guilt or taking a backward glance. There are far too many amazing books waiting to be read to waste time on one that I dislike.

Savor the Moment Teaser

Teaser Tuesday's is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

Grab your current read -
Open to a random page -
Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

My teaser, from page 52 of Savor the Moment by Nora Roberts:

She tried not to dwell on it. A punishing schedule of summer weddings helped keep her from thinking about what she'd done, at least for four out of every five minutes.

Nora Roberts is one of my favorite authors so I am quite certain to like this book. Actually, I'm not far into it and I'm already enjoying it. Also, I know it's a little silly, but I LOVE the cover of this book! It is so pretty and elegant.

101 Books in 1,001 Days

So, I started doing this book challenge on October 2, 3008 and I am about to finish it tonight, It has taken me one year and seven months to read 101 books. The timeframes is two years and nine months so I feel pretty good about my timing. Yes, I know some people read 100 books in one year but I am not one of them. As much as I love reading, I simply don't have the time to read 100 or more books per calendar year.

This challenge was fun and I am going to do it again - starting tomorrow. Let's see if I can do it in eighteen months this time. LOL

It's May -- Already

I can not believe that is already May. I absolutely love and adore this month but I just can't believe that it's here. This year is flying by so fast. Oh well. I'm hoping this month will be better for me interms of having time to read and blog more. April was quite slow in both regards. I only read three books last month! That is bad for me. lol

I guess we'll see how much reading I actually get done. This month is probably going to be even busier than April. There either needs to be more time in the day or I need to get better (and faster) at how I spend my limited free time. Something for me to think about.

Booking Through Thursday

God* comes to you and tells you that, from this day forward, you may only read ONE type of book–one genre–period, but you get to choose what it is. Classics, Science-Fiction, Mystery, Romance, Cookbooks, History, Business … you can choose, but you only get ONE.

What genre do you pick, and why?

*Whether you believe in God or not, pretend for the purposes of this discussion that He is real.

Ah man, this kind of question is always so hard for me. There are so many books that I love -and so many that I still want to read - from most of the genres. I suppose, if I really had to choose just one genre though, it would be Romance. I'm a sucker for a happy ending. I'm also a sucker for books with strong characters (male and female) and love. The romance books I like have all of these ingredients. Plus, my favorite authors in this genre rarely disappoint me. I know if I pick up a Nora Roberts books I'm guaranteed a great journey through the book. I also like Julie Garwood and Andrea Kane for the same reasons.

Musing Monday's

Musing Monday's is hosted by Rebecca at Just One More Page. This week, Rebecca asks:

Are you a reader of war books? And if so, do you have any favourites?

I don't intentionally go on the hunt for books set in or about wartime. However, I have read a few that have stuck with me. I would even say that I enjoyed the books even though they were incredibly sad. Is there such a thing as a 'happy' wartime book?

The first wartime book I can remember reading is The Diary of Anne Frank. Recently I read The Postmistress by Sarah Blake and The Geurnsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows. All of these books have very differnt takes on war but I found them all engagin and in their own way educational. It seems, based on these choices that I go for books about World War 2 but I also find the American Civil War a very interesting (and again, sad) era to read about.

Giving Up on a Book

I am not one to give up easily on a book. Even if I'm a little bored in certain parts of a book - I'll usually skim until it picks up for me again. However, I am pretty certain that I am about to give up on my current book The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. The thing is, until tonight, I was enjoying the book. Yes, it has taken me a while to read some of it but that's mostly because I've been busy. I'm halfway through it and it took a wild turn that actually makes me really sick.

I don't want to spoil the book for anyone still wanting to read it but I just can not stomach what I read tonight. It was not entertaining or educational (the two biggest reasons I read); it was just disgusting. I feel like I'm ranting. Actually, I guess I am but I'm really annoyed. I'm bummed because I picked this for my book club and I feel badly. Plus, I'm disturbed that this book, with this atrocious content, is so popular. As I said though, I'm only halfway through the book. So, in case I'm speaking out of turn and the rest of the book is redeemable I'd like to know that. Plus, I don't mean to offend anyone.

For now though, I'm angry and disgusted and I'm putting this book aside. Whether I pick it up and finish it someday remains to be seen.

Teaser Tuesday's

Teaser Tuesday's is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

Grab your current read -
Open to a random page -
Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers! My teaser, from page 68:

"We can scare up some new clients. Wennerstrom may be a big wheel, but he dosn't own everything in Sweden, and we have our contacts."

I am enjoying The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo but it is taking me forever to read it. I have a lot going on and when I do read, of course I get interrupted. I need to get it done though because it's my IRL book club choice. Fortunately, I have a couple of weeks to finish it. I hope it doesn't take me that long though, there are other books waiting to be read. LOL

Wordless Wednesday