Thursday Thirteen #5 - Excuse Me

Last week's Booking Through Thursday about "volume" gave me the idea for this one. I read quite a bit, but I used to read so much more...

Thirteen Excuses for Why I Don't Spend As Much Time Reading Books As I Should/Want To 1. TV (My parents are addicts, and they've sucked me into their evil web! EVIL!) 2. Magazines (My dad got this weird thing about his frequent flyer miles expiring and we used them to get roughly a zillion periodicals. One of my choices was The Economist - as poli sci major, it just makes my heart go thumpathump) 3. My Attention Span (Uh...what attention span?) 4. Blogs (I write in this one, I've got a growing list of ones I read, I have a growing list of ones I should visit so I could start reading them) 5. LibraryThing (Why read my own books when I can covet other peoples'?) 6. Pets (Obviously, my sole purpose in life is to feed the pets, play with the pets, let the pets outside, let them back inside, give them treats, make sure they aren't being bad, etc.) 7. Chores (You know the ones. The ones you have to do one day and the same the next day and the next day endlessly forevermore - laundry, dishes, yuck.) 8. Guilt (I'm sure there's something "productive" I should be doing. Or there's something that needs done rightnow before I forget!) 9. Employment (Not such a problem at the moment, but that whole earning a paycheck think sure takes a chunk of time out of the day.) 10. Bed (When I lay in it to read, which I often do, it lures me to sleep! Evil!) 11. Family (I love them, but when I pick up a book, they they emerge in force to talk about...well...usually nothing of consequence) 12. Shopping (Can't read, must go purchase more books!) 13. Book lust (I heart my book collection. I like to look at the books and touch the books and smell the books and contemplate reading another book than the one I'm reading or contemplate other peoples' books via their blogs and think of even more books I could/should buy that I can look at and enjoy but oddly not read...)

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The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

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Thursday Thirteen #4 - Sing, Sing a Song

Here's another list brought to you by no creativity minus no creativity = this list. By way of explanation, I love music a lot. My musical tastes are slightly schizophrenic, but here are 13 songs that have personal meaning for me, that I associate with certain important moments of my life, or well...that I just really, really like and can't seem to get out of my mind. Most of the links are to lyrics unless otherwise noted.

Thirteen Songs That I Love 1. I'm Movin' On - Rascal Flatts - This song came out my senior year of high school when I was so ready to get away and be somewhere else and be somebody new. How fitting. "I've lived in this place and I know all the faces each one is different but they're always the same. they mean me no harm but its time that I face it; they'll never allow me to change." 2. Boston - Augustana - "I think I'll go to Boston, I think that I'm just tired I think I need a new town, to leave this all behind... I think I need a sunrise, I'm tired of the sunset, I hear it's nice in the Summer, some snow would be nice..." Because I did move to Boston to start a new life... 3. Home - Daughtry - ....and then I came home. And I'm pretty sure that on the whole I don't regret it, except for when I do, obviously. "But these places and these faces are getting old, So I'm going home." 4. River of Dreams - Billy Joel - I almost moved to Montana, too. My dad and I drove there in the dead of winter in my ancient and not as decrepit as we thought Subaru which made it from Pennsylvania to Montana and back. For some reason I remember listening to this song during some of the prettiest part of our trip through eastern Wyoming with the sun setting and snow falling on the mountains out in the distance. *sigh* 5. One Last Drink - Enter the Haggis - Last year I fell in love with Celtic rock music (partly as a result of my lingering memories of a trip to Scotland - see #10 - and partly as a result of The Departed)...and this song. It made me smile. It still does. The song title link is to their MySpace if you happen to be interested in hearing the song... 6. Only Hope - Switchfoot/Mandy Moore - "When it feels like my dreams are so far, Sing to me of the plans that You have for me over and over again." 7. I'm About to Come Alive - Train - This was last year's song and this year's, too. I feel like I've been in limbo since I graduated from college, and I'm waiting to come alive again. "Don't give up on me, I'm about to come alive..." 8. Damn - Matchbox 20 - "This old world well, don't it make you wanna think damn?" Well, I've had tons of days where I couldn't argue with that line... 9. Both Sides, Now - Joni Mitchell - Come on, who do you want to listen to when you want to be depressed? And gosh, it's depressing when most of your best friends graduate and you've got one year left. Other things are depressing, too, but that's what I was depressed about when I was really into this song... 10. I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles) - The Proclaimers - My best friend and I went on a Haggis tour of Scotland in my junior year of college. What an awesome time, including a few appropriately overcast misty days and one sparklingly, blue-skied astonishingly beautiful day while on the isle of Skye. Our slightly cracked yet hilarious Scottish tour guide really got a kick out of making us all sing this song while he was driving crazily around the mountain roads of the Highlands. You know your bus driver is truly a out of control when you wake up one morning to find one side of your body is sore from gripping the seat in front of you trying to hold yourself in your bus seat all day, right? 11. The Dance - Garth Brooks - This one goes way back. "And now, I'm glad I didn't know the way it all would end, the way it all would go. Our lives are better left to chance; I could've missed the pain but I'd have had to miss the dance." Because lately I've been enjoying things for the experiences...definitely not the outcomes. 12. Both Hands - Ani DiFranco - My college had an acappella group, the Four Scores (in Gettysburg...get it? I'll pause here so you can groan and roll your eyes if you get the idea) that recorded this song and I couldn't get enough of it. I learned the lyrics, and it's still one of my favorites for singing in the shower, of all places. 13. Life for Love - Enter the Haggis - "No man, no man is an island way out on the water all alone to stand, but I am tired of the dry land, ready for a new shore, ready to expand."

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!


The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

Thursday Thirteen #3 - 13 of This Year's Great Reads

I was just going to post my top 13 favorite reads from this year, but those would have included ones that I'd already talked up in my first T13 (Small Island, Black & White, Water for Elephants, and Truth and Beauty). In light of this, I've decided to include 9 of my absolute favorites for the year and 4 runners up, so those 4 can get their moment in the sun, too. The rest aren't really in any order, but the last four are the runners up.

Thirteen of My Favorite Reads From This Year 1. The Other Side of You by Salley Vickers - I could kick myself for not having reviewed this one right after I finished it. It was a slow read, not because it was boring, but because I wanted to absorb the prose and contemplate the themes in this story of a therapist who discovers a breakthrough of his own after hearing the heart-rending story of one of his patients. 2. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling - Because who can say enough about Harry Potter? Actually, I've never been the person that runs right out and buys the new Harry Potter, but I'd certainly grown to love this series and since I was working at a bookstore when it came out decided I'd better get right to it so nobody would spoil its end. Glad I did. Loved it. 3. The Reluctant God by Pamela Service - I read this book when I was in middle school and then came upon another copy through BookCrossing and decided I had to read it again. I'm quite certain I loved it just as much the second time. An ancient Egyptian travels through time to the present where he and his discoverer, an archaeologist's daughter, must seek out something that has been stolen from them. History! Action! Time travel! Awesome! 4. Away by Jane Urquhart - I love to read about the Irish experience in history. I also don't like to be depressed all the time. Luckily, here's a book that allows one to read about the Irish immigrating to Canada without being depressing the entire time. It's a mystical story of a woman who falls in love with a drowned man whose legacy follows her ancestors down through history even after they leave Ireland for Canada. The mystical part of the story, a few slightly kooky characters, and Urquhart's beautiful writing made this a fantastic read. 5. There Is No Me Without You by Melissa Fay Greene - An incredible story of a woman who opened her heart and her door to Ethiopia's orphans. A book that manages to touch your heart and also be a powerful expose of the AIDS problem in Africa. 6. The Perks of Being A Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky - A coming of age story that understands that growing up entails feeling "infinite" but also feeling like crap. Loved the honesty. 7. Shout Down the Moon by Lisa Tucker - Single mother and singer, Patty Taylor, tours with a jazz band that is hostile to her presence while facing trouble from her recently-paroled and very explosive ex-husband. I loved the look into touring with a small-time band, the emotionally charged encounters with her ex-husband, and most of all, watching her learn to stand up for herself and what she wants in her life instead of letting all the forces in her life bowl her over. 8. Hard Love by Ellen Wittlinger - One of the first I reviewed here. I loved that she came at this love story from the straight guy's point of view. You don't see that much. You see it done well even less. 9. Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson - Guterson's descriptions of even the most ordinary things make it feel like you are there seeing, smelling, feeling it. Guterson delves into love, prejudice, the effects of war on its veterans, and even gets a little bit of legal thriller in there, too. Wow. 10. The Rest of Her Life by Laura Moriarty - The narrator of this story is so unlikeable that it is difficult to continue reading about her or it might have made the top thirteen. This story is an all too realistic look at a family in crisis, what they learn about each other as a result, and also what they learn about themselves. 11. The Circus in Winter by Cathy Day - I think I may have mentioned my "thing" for circus stories. This is a novel in short stories about a circus wintering in a small town in Indiana which takes place while the circus is still touring in season and also well after the show has been disbanded. The themes of the stories are woven together perfectly, and Day creates a few characters and scenes that are simply unforgettable. 12. No Great Mischief by Alistair McLeod - McLeod made a slightly bumpy transition from short stories to a full-length novel, but this "blood is thicker than water" tale of Scots in Canada certainly proves its theme that "all of us are better when we're loved." 13. The Descendants by Kaui Hart Hemmings - Matt King, husband and father, seeks out his wife's lover after she falls into an irreversible coma. In the process, he tries to repair his damaged relationship with his daughters, sell off his land-holdings, and come to terms with his own feelings about his wife's imminent death. This novel also suffers from characters that aren't immediately likeable, but I grew to accept them and root for them to work through their problems. All in all, it's a great debut novel from Hemmings.

Thursday Thirteen #2

This list is brought to you by my complete and utter lack of creativity. You're lucky, I almost posted a list of my rejected Thursday Thirteen ideas.

Thirteen Things in my room that are important to me 1. A picture of my best friend and I acting like fools on the London Eye. I went to visit her while she was studying abroad in our junior year of college. We spent a good portion of the time on the Eye thinking of what ridiculous thing we would do when it came time for the picture. We determined to put our hands up and act like we were on the downhill of a roller coaster. Behind us in the photo is a really dour, disappoving looking couple that makes the shot that much more priceless. 2. A picture of my cousin Isaac. He's eight. He still thinks I'm "cool." Gotta treasure these moments. 3. My cell phone. Okay. I know this sounds shallow, but before I started moving all over the country I got one of those Verizon Chocolate phones - a red one. Not only does it make me feel super cool...it has around 120 songs loaded onto it (which came in handy for riding the T in Boston), takes great pictures (it houses the Boston photo documentary - for all those pictures you want to take when you don't feel like carrying a camera around), and I spent about a zillion hours talking to my family on it during all my travels. 4. My computer. Well, this should be obvious. I blog. I BookCross. I keep in touch with lots of friends on Facebook. I apply for jobs (one of which I am greatly in need of). Yeah, I'm lost without this thing. 5. Books! This is another shocker, I'm sure. Seeing as the shelves are in other rooms, only three are in here right now. My last read (The Thief Lord), my current read (Snow Falling on Cedars), and a read I'm considering for after that (Sister Pelagia and the White Bulldog). Wherever I go, books aren't far behind. 6. A Ziggy comic I cut out of the Sunday comics. Most of the frames picture Ziggy racing toward the future. The last shows a picture pointing back toward the present and says "If you spend all of your time racing ahead to the future, you're liable to discover you've left a great present behind." It's something I need to be reminded of constantly. 7. My CD collection. It's grown quite expansive, and I find that unless I'm reading I have a hard time sitting in my room without playing some music. It's got all sorts of stuff - rock, pop, country, worship music, Gaelic music, instrumental movie soundtracks...you name it. 8. Feather Boa. I spent my four years of college in the same work study job in the Office of Annual Giving and really loved the people I was working for. They were very fun and easy going and hard working all at the same time. For a long time we had a pink and white feather boa of indeterminate origins hanging about the office. I once asked my boss if I could borrow the "office feather boa" for an event I was attending, which is kind of funny in and of itself. At the end of my time there, they gave it to me as a parting gift. 9. Stuffed Bear. Okay. Yes. I'm a "grown-up." I just moved back in with my parents. I still sleep with a stuffed bear. He's comfy. Wanna make something of it? 10. A Picture of my two favorite college roommates and I at a lacrosse game. They're still among my best friends, and I've never put so much effort into staying in touch. Our wacky lacrosse playing neighbors brought us all a little bit closer together sophomore year, and I don't know what I'd do without my two best friends now! 11. The Gettysburg Alumni calendar. I have little hope of ever loving my life as much as I did in college. Too bad I didn't realize quite how much I loved it then. *sigh* 12. Wood carvings of a toy soldier, a dog, and a bear. My grandfather carved them for me. He can't really carve anymore, but I still love these things that he made for me when he could. 13. The Memories Jar. This was a gift my grandmother brought back for me from a golfing trip she went on. I've stuck all sorts of tickets to events I've been to and all sort of assorted mementos into this jar down through the years. I love to pop it open every now and then and remember the events associated with the stuff in jar.

Thursday Thirteen #1

Thirteen of the Best Books I've Read in the Last 4 Years Because I've only really been keeping track for the last four years. In no particular order... 1. Wonder When You'll Miss Me by Amanda Davis - I love a good circus story, and the damaged narrator of this story was pitch perfect. 2. No Matter How Loud I Shout by Edward Humes - A view of the LA juvenile court system from just about every possible angle. It's an awesome piece of work that is occasionally heart-wrenching and frustrating but absolutely worth the read. Along similar lines is True Notebooks by Mark Salzman, another great book. 3. The Road Back by Erich Maria Remarque - The relatively unknown cousin to All Quiet On the Western Front that follows the former soldiers after their return from the war. 4. The Last Battle by C.S. Lewis - I'm of the crowd that sees the very strong Christian parallel in The Chronicles of Narnia. That being the case, the final scenes of this one brought me to tears. 5. Spilling Clarence by Anne Ursu - A novel about what happens to people when their memories are set free of their normal restraints. 6. Skylight Confessions by Alice Hoffman - A semi-mystical book about a family actually living in a glass house. It turns out, however, the family is far more fragile than the house. 7. The True Story of Hansel and Gretel by Louise Murphy - This is the best book I've ever read that nobody seems to have heard of. It's a very beautiful and haunting World War II/Holocaust story molded into the Hansel and Gretel story. I can't recommend it highly enough. 8. Black & White by Dani Shapiro - A story of a an artist and her daughter and what happens when the line between her art and her love for her daughter becomes blurred. 9. Small Island by Andrea Levy - It's so hard for an author to write from several different characters' points of view and make them distinct from each other. Levy nails it. Her four characters are perfectly drawn, and their intertwined stories are subtly written and all the more powerful for it. 10. Truth and Beauty by Ann Patchett - If I could write anywhere near as great as Ann Patchett, I could die happy. This memoir of her friendship with Lucy Grealy author of Autobiography of a Face is beautiful and recounts a true friendship at its best and worst. 11. Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman - This story of a mysterious world below London was so good that I took my best friend to Borders and made her buy it. Imaginative, suspenseful, not to mention a very quick read. 12. The Master Butchers Singing Club by Louise Erdrich - I love a book capable of making you feel like you got to know a whole community by the end. Instead of feeling overburdened by getting to know so many characters so deeply, you just want to spend more time with them. 13. Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen - Have I mentioned my weakness for circus stories? This one is great. It's got characters you won't forget - especially the animals! And maybe one of the less recognized elements of the story that sucked me right in was Jacob's narration when he is old and confined to a nursing home. Having spent some time working in a nursing home, I couldn't get over how spot on this character was.

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!


The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

View More Thursday Thirteen Participants