Booking Through Thursday: Recent Best

What’s the best book you’ve read recently?

This week's is a pretty easy question. July's reading wasn't so great, but I read two fantastic books in June.


The first was The Well and the Mine by Gin Phillips. This wasn't really a fast-mover of a book, but by the end I dearly loved the characters as if I knew them. I was sad, when I finished this book, to have to leave them. Phillips did such a beautiful job of giving each of her characters a unique voice and setting the stage for them to really come alive.


The other was The Truth About Forever by Sarah Dessen. For a long time I'd heard people rave about Dessen, but despite adding many of her titles to my wish list, hadn't managed to read a one. At long last, I opened up The Truth About Forever, and that was it - I was in love, too. I related so much to Macy, the main character, and Dessen has a real knack for getting at your emotions. This is one of the only books to ever make me cry several times in the reading of it, and I like it.

Booking Through Thursday - I prefer....

Ah, how I love it when BTT is easy. But I'm sure I'm going to write more than I'm supposed to...


Which do you prefer? (Quick answers–we’ll do more detail at some later date)

Reading something frivolous? Or something serious? Serious. A couple of years ago, one of my friends asked me to recommend something to read that was just fun and enjoyable and I totally drew a blank. I've since remedied the problem somewhat.

Paperbacks? Or hardcovers? Paperbacks. But they have to be trade. None of this mass market madness. Blargh.

Fiction? Or Nonfiction? Fiction. Though I do like some good non-fiction on occasion, my bookshelf definitely leans heavily toward fiction.

Poetry? Or Prose? Prose. Poetry is way more likely to make my poor brain hurt.

Biographies? Or Autobiographies? Autobiographies.

History? Or Historical Fiction? Historical fiction.

Series? Or Stand-alones? Stand-alones mostly, but if a series is really good, I'm not opposed to jumping the bandwagon.

Classics? Or best-sellers? Both. Or maybe neither. How about some nice mid-list contemporary literary fiction? Where's that option? ;-)

Lurid, fruity prose? Or straight-forward, basic prose? Each in their own time.

Plots? Or Stream-of-Consciousness? I heart plots.

Long books? Or Short? Good books. Doesn't matter how long they are.

Illustrated? Or Non-illustrated? Non-illustrated.

Borrowed? Or Owned? Owned. I can't hack time limits.

New? Or Used? Both as long as the used ones are in pretty good condition.

Booking Through Thursday: Sticky Books

No, not really sticky. That would be gross.

Speaking of gross, I'm taking a sick day today, and despite feeling like a pile of crap, it occurred to me that I haven't done a Booking Through Thursday in a while. Luckily, this week's is pretty easy and right up my alley.

I saw this over at Shelley’s, and thought it sounded like a great question for all of you:

“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.”

Well, I think I managed it in 15 minutes, but they weren't consecutive minutes because I was trying to reschedule my day's appointments, somewhat unsuccessfully. =(

In the order that I thought of them...

1. The Devil's Arithmetic by Jane Yolen
2. After You'd Gone by Maggie O'Farrell
3. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
4. Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
5. The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene
6. The Lord of the Rings (particularly The Return of the King) by J.R.R. Tolkien
7. The Rest of Her Life by Laura Moriarty
8. White Fang by Jack London
9. Little House on the Prairie (is it fair for me to include a series or two?) by Laura Ingalls Wilder
10. How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff
11. Peace Like a River by Leif Enger
12. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
13. Schindler's List by Thomas Keneally
14. The Bible (well, that counts, right? Actually, I'm surprised it took me until #14 to think of it...it's gotta be one of my stickiest!)
15. The Other Side of You by Salley Vickers

There you have it. 15 books in 15 minutes. And I have no idea if the authors are correct because I was doing it off the top of my head, so if I totally bungled one, feel free to make fun of me in the comments.

Introspecting...I mean..Booking Through Thursday

But, enough about books … Other things have words, too, right? Like … songs!

If you’re anything like me, there are songs that you love because of their lyrics; writers you admire because their songs have depth, meaning, or just a sheer playfulness that has nothing to do with the tunes.

So, today’s question?

What songs … either specific songs, or songs in general by a specific group or writer … have words that you love?
Why?
And … do the tunes that go with the fantastic lyrics live up to them?

Wow, I haven't done this meme in a long, long time, but today's topic just begged for a little navel gazing on my part, and who doesn't love a little shameless navel gazing on occasion? I love all of my music collection with a fiery passion, but my favorite songs are the ones that have lyrics that connect to how I'm feeling or whatever is going on in my life. There are certain song lyrics that lurk inside my subconscious associated with all the more important times in my life. I love the tunes, too, but it's the lyrics that really make these songs "sing." Here's a few...

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 summer, some snow would be nice...

The Dance - Garth Brooks

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 have missed the pain
But I'd have had to miss the dance

I'm Moving On - Rascal Flatts

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 it's time that I face it
They'll never allow me to change
But I never dreamed home would end up where I don't belong
I'm movin' on

Life for Love - Enter the Haggis

Arms stretched
To catch the next horizon
A line to keep your eyes on
And I'm inclined to stare
But you close
Your eyes and wish for rainbows
Anywhere the wind blows
You will find me there
You pull your coat around your shoulders
You don't know what I know
Wind is only air

My Old Friend - Tim McGraw

My old friend, I recall
The times we had are hanging on my wall
I wouldn't trade them for gold
Cause they laught and they cry me and
somehow sanctify me
And they're woven in the stories I have told
And tell again...

Only Hope - Um...I like the Mandy Moore version.

Sing to me the song of the stars
Of your galaxy dancing and laughing
and laughing again
When it feels like my dreams are so far
Sing to me of the plans that you have
for me over again

When There's No One Around - Garth Brooks

This is a glimpse of a child that's within
He's so immature but he's still my best friend
If he could learn how to fly he'd never touch down
He's the kid that I am when there's no one around

This is the dance I do every day
I let my feet go and get carried away
I let my soul lead and follow the sound
It's the dance that I do when there's no one around


There they are - a song about Boston, oddly popular just as I was moving to Boston hoping to leave behind a string of disappointments. A song about not regretting the things that I've done, even though I'm often tempted to think so many of them were mistakes when it comes to the practical everyday living of life. A song about leaving a part of my life where I couldn't grow or change because everyone already had an idea of who I was that I desperately wanted to escape. A song that simultaneously encompasses the part of me that is game for every new experience and the one that's scared and wants to sit and wait and see if something comes along. A song about the friends that I love more than anything, yet fail to keep in touch with as life sweeps me along. A song about God's plan that want to trust in, and a song about getting in touch with my truest self - you know, the one I shuffle off and stash on a high shelf when there are people around.

Maybe not all what the songwriters intended as the meaning but their meaning to me. They all have meaning for me, and that's what makes the lyrics seem especially good to me, though, hopefully they seem good to some other people, too, or else I bet you're all quite bored with all this.....well...self-reflection (*ahem* navel-gazing). I did kind of warn you, didn't I?

Booking Through Spring

Do your reading habits change in the Spring? Do you read gardening books? Even if you don’t have a garden? More light fiction than during the Winter? Less? Travel books? Light paperbacks you can stick in a knapsack?

Or do you pretty much read the same kinds of things in the Spring as you do the rest of the year?

I have to say, I read pretty much the same stuff, but I read it sitting in different places - like out on the front porch with a glass of iced tea, sprawled out on my bed with the breeze coming through my window (my bedroom gains a lot of charm in the spring, what can I say?), at the cabin in the woods, or by the river while my dad is fishing. Weirdly, in the spring - especially this spring - I like to read more because I can read in these lovely places with this warm comfy atmosphere. My house is not especially conducive to reading in the winter - my room is too cold and the rest of the house is wide open so it's hard to grab a spot that's peaceful enough for good reading. So, I guess I read more in general in the spring but the same sort of stuff that I would read the rest of the year. Spring and summer used to be when I would tackle huge books because there was no required reading for school which gave me lots of time for more massive undertakings but now that I'm out of school, I can't even say that.


Look - there - I posted on my blog! Jeez, what do the rest of you book blogger sorts post when you're not posting book reviews? I really need to work on this lull between finishing books thing. But it'll have to wait, because I'm about to finish a book - so soon there will be a review! And uh, Grey's Anatomy is new tonight, which means more TV that I simply must watch which is another hour of my free time sucked into the abyss...but I'm sure I'll at least finish the book before that comes on!

Well, I haven't Booked Through Thursday in a while, have I?

While acknowledging that we can’t judge books by their covers, how much does the design of a book affect your reading enjoyment? Hardcover vs. softcover? Trade paperback vs. mass market paperback? Font? Illustrations? Etc.?

Ah, this is a great question and allows me to explore my weird book neuroses in greater detail. First, I have to get this off my chest. I do judge books by their covers. I can't help it. There aren't any pretty pictures inside the books that I read, so is it too much to ask for a pretty pictue on the outside that make me drool in anticipation?

When it comes to hardcover or softcover, I have no preference except for when I need a book to be particularly portable. I did a lot of reading on the train back when I lived in a place where there was public transportation, and paperbacks are just more conducive to that. That's not to say I didn't still carry hardcovers back and forth for my train reading, I did (even that hulking Harry Potter finale!), but it certainly wasn't as convenient.

I'm a total nut for trade paperbacks. I like that they're a little bigger but they're still portable. I just like how they feel in my hands, and they just generally seem like a better quality book. I'm also a little put off of mass markets because the types of books I read aren't typically made in that format - though there are notable exceptions to that including one book that I'm reading now. I'm a lit/fiction sort, and when I see mass market, I guess I'm usually expecting something genre. I read genre fiction on occasion and enjoy it, but usually when I'm looking for a book, I'm looking for a trade paperback.

This brings us to font. I'm so picky about fonts that I start to feel like Goldilocks. This font is too big! This font is too small! This font is just riiiiight! But I have to say, if I can't have my ideal font size, I'd rather the font be a little too small. If the font is a little small, I can usually suck it up and deal with it. Oh but if it's too big, that really bothers me. That's my chief problem with some of the young adult books I read. I mean, why is it that a teenager needs a book with slightly oversized font? Does that make it more approachable or something? Not for me. Really large print books that aren't written for small children, frankly, give me the creeps. Gosh, I hope I never lose my eyesight because reading one of those large print books might possibly drive me insane. Weird much?

Booking Through Reviews

How much do reviews (good and bad) affect your choice of reading? If you see a bad review of a book you wanted to read, do you still read it? If you see a good review of a book you’re sure you won’t like, do you change your mind and give the book a try?

It's come to my attention that I haven't done anything cool on my blog on Thursday in a while and it so happened that I thought this was a great question.

I'd say that reviews influence my reading quite a bit. If I read a lot of great things about a certain book, I'm that much more likely to pick it up. I find, however, that I'm somewhat less influenced by bad reviews than I am by good. If I think the subject matter of a book sounds really interesting to me, but there are one or two glaringly bad reviews of it, I might still pick it up and give it a shot out of sheer interest in the topic.

There have been a few occasions when reviews have persuaded me to consider reading a book that I originally thought I wouldn't be terribly interested in. For example, I had no interest in The Maytrees by Annie Dillard but not long ago, I read a fantastic review of it which prompted me to reconsider and add it to my wish list. The same goes for On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan. Though I read the summary and didn't think it was something worth checking out based on that alone, having read a few reviews, I think maybe I'll check it out after all.

In this final paragraph, I'm sure I'll convince everyone reading that I'm a big obsessessive compulsive lunatic, but uh, here goes. As I troll the web, I record in a rather gigantic notebook, books that sound of interest to me - from blogs, from Amazon, from BookCrossing, from magazines, and so on. I used to be quite a nut about putting things that I had a passing fancy for on my wish list...now (and this is where the real craziness comes in) I consult my massive written list and often look up the books on LibraryThing to read some reviews from some fellow serious book lovers' reviews to see if they thought the book was any good and so narrow down the list before I stick them on my BookCrossing wish list. Go ahead, point and laugh if you like, but I think it's working out pretty well!

So I'm a procrastinator...

...which is why I'm Booking Through Thursday on Friday.

1. What fiction book (or books) would you nominate to be the best new book published in 2007?
(Older books that you read for the first time in 2007 don’t count.)
2. What non-fiction book (or books) would you nominate to be the best new book published in 2007?
(Older books that you read for the first time in 2007 don’t count.)
3. And, do “best of” lists influence your reading?

Thanks to Elle magazine, I got in a bunch of new reads this year that I very likely wouldn't have picked up on my own. In general, I don't think I tend to read many brand new books, but with the advent of amateur reviewer Megan, I've been reading some newer stuff.

Here's a few that deserve some kudos this year for fiction:

Black & White by Dani Shapiro (for just being an out and out excellent read)

The Other Side of You by Salley Vickers (for beautiful, absorbing prose and a plot that really made me think - in a good way)

The Rest of Her Life by Laura Moriarty (because I thought I didn't like it, but a week after finishing it found myself still thinking about and wondering if maybe I did like it after all)

And Harry Potter. But that goes without saying, right?

As for non-fiction, I only read one book published this year in the realm of non-fiction. Unfortunately There is No Me Without You by Melissa Fay Greene didn't quite make the cut as it was originally published in October 2006, but it is definitely a great book! As it stands, though, after some inspection of my "read this year" list, I remembered I did read Jenna Bush's Ana's Story, but I probably wouldn't nominate it for a "best of." To be fair, though, it was a good way to illuminate some big world problems for younger readers and goes so far as to suggest ways the average person can get involved (instead of merely saying "here's a problem, someone should fix it!" which seems to be oh-so-popular these days), and the pictures were fantastic!

To the third question, I have to say I love best of lists. Love them. When I see them in magazines or on websites, my heart goes pitter-pat. Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating, but I do quite enjoy them. I love to make my own, and I love to read other peoples' lists of their "best ofs" for the year (I've found lots of great books this way!). That's not even to mention the many lists put out by websites and in print publications (where I've found even more great books!). No, I don't sit down and read everything off any one list, and there are definitely books on best of lists that I really didn't like, but I find that the lists are a great way to look for books that might strike my fancy that obviously someone thought had some merit. I think they're a very fun way to keep up with what's new and good or what's been under-loved down through the years or even what from the literary past should be a part of my current reading repertoire. In my opinion, they're great fun if you don't take them too, too seriously.

Booking Through...Yes, It's Still Thursday!

Do you get on a roll when you read, so that one book leads to the next, which leads to the next, and so on and so on?

I don’t so much mean something like reading a series from beginning to end, but, say, a string of books that all take place in Paris. Or that have anthropologists as the main character. Or were written in the same year. Something like that… Something that strings them together in your head, and yet, otherwise could be different genres, different authors…

Hmmmm...this is a good question to which I will answer yes and no. I get burned out really easily when I read too much of the same thing at once, so I would say no, I don't really get on a roll in that sense. I try to mix up my reading so everything's a little new and fresh so I don't get bored and fall into the dreaded reading lull. I find myself wanting to join all the sparkly reading challenges in the litblogosphere and then quickly second-guessing myself because I don't know if I'll have the attention span to stick to any one theme because of this whole "variety is the spice of reading" thing I've got going, and I fear that I'd miss my reading being a bit unpredictable.

On the other hand, though, if I read something I really love about a certain topic or decide some random topic is wildly interesting to me this week as a result of something I'm doing, something I'm thinking about, somebody I met who has an interesting job that I happen to know almost nothing about, I'm very prone to going on crazed wish list addition fests. For example, I read two really great books about circuses, found that was something that really interested me and combed Amazon all night to find more ideas for books about the circus. No, I didn't want to read them right then, but I did want to file them away for the future while I was thinking about it, so I'll have no shortage of circus books when I decide I'm ready for another. Last year in January I took a road trip from Pennsylvania to Montana (yeah, I know, some time for that road trip, right?) and decided I just had to read more about the American west/ranching/Native Americans and found myself wandering the bookstore in Wall Drug with a notepad writing down titles of books to read about the west which have been deposited on my wish list for, again, future enjoyment.

So, no. But, well, yes.


-----

In other news, I just finished my 53rd book of the year which makes this year a record year of reading in terms of quantity since I've begun keeping track of what I read. I think it's been about 5 years that I've kept track, so it's been awhile since I've read this much in a year...and it's not even over yet. Yay me!

Booking Through Thur...Friday

Due to the fact that Snow Falling On Cedars, though shaping up to be an excellent book, is rather a long and involved read, I'll have no choice but to entertain my readership (*crickets chirp*) with a sequence of memes and introspection at random. Hey! Wait! Come back! I promise it'll be interesting! But as my cousin sagely recommends, "People should never make promises they can't promise!" Ah, the simple genius of it all. But anyway, on with the show!

I would enjoy reading a meme about people’s abandoned books. The books that you start but don’t finish say as much about you as the ones you actually read, sometimes because of the books themselves or because of the circumstances that prevent you from finishing. So . . . what books have you abandoned and why?

Hmmm, this question appealed to me because I tossed a book aside early this week. Like a lot of people, I used to be the sort that was rather unable to give up on a book. Then I joined BookCrossing and that all changed. I have roughly a zillion books. Rather, the total, I believe is hovering in the 900 range. Books come in a good deal faster than they seem to go out. That and I've undergone a pretty major shift in my reading preferences. I used to be wild about mysteries and horror novels and even the occasional romance. Now, literary fiction is my bread and butter, but I like to keep the others on hand as well for those many moments when I just want to breeze through something quickly. However, I've become a lot more critical of them, so if they aren't calling out to me right away when I start reading them, I usually don't hesitate to let them go. There are so many books in the house that I'm excited about reading, so if books don't grab me in pretty quick they get thrown by the wayside. I try to give everything a fair chance and try to divine when my mood is what's keeping from like a certain book rather than the book itself so I can save it to try again later. That said...here's a few that have remained unfinished...

Alentejo Blue by Monica Ali - I dug into this one earlier this week. It didn't even last long enough for me to put it up in my Books I'm Reading thing on the sidebar. I have to admit, I read Brick Lane by the same author, and despite all its critical acclaim and the fact that I've been to Brick Lane in London (which made me all the more excited about reading it)... I found it to be kind of boring, which was so unfortunate because I thought I was going to love it. I don't know why, but I thought the premise of Alentejo Blue sounded good, and maybe I'd enjoy her sophomore effort. Not so much. I tried twice...forced myself through about 30 pages, failed to get a sense of where it was going at all and upon reading a very unpleasant scene involving a dead cow and a truck decided I'd had just about enough. I have a really hard time with stuff that is just straight out gross and if I didn't love the book to start with, I'm so much more likely to put it down after something truly unpleasant.

Enemy Women by Paulette Jiles - Please don't write your books without using quotation marks when people speak. Unless your book is absolutely spectacular, I think it's a big stumbling block for readers...or maybe just for me...

Of Human Bondage by W. Somerset Maugham. This was a book I had to read in high school. I was always the kid who liked to read and would dutifully read all my summer reading (even if I didn't like what was chosen and was irritated at having to read something assigned during a portion of the year where I should have been allowed to read whatever I felt like...but that's another story). This is the only one I ever deliberately said, "I really can't stand this. I'm not going to finish it." and then consulted some Cliffs Notes to know the end for class. I was bored from the first page and couldn't understand the main character and his willingness/need to continually return to the ugly and self-serving Mildred (I think that was her name). He certainly was enslaved to her - as perhaps the title makes reference to - but I certainly had no interest in being enslaved to this.

The Stand by Stephen King - This falls into the category of books I didn't mean to abandon. I started reading it while on vacation, was really into it, then returned to school (or maybe I had to finish my summer reading, the cursed Of Human Bondage) and got distracted. Unfortunately, by the time I was able to get back to it I had forgotten so much of what happened I knew I would have to start it over in order to enjoy it at all. So back on the shelf it went. And there it remains.


Hmmm...well, that's all for today. Tune in tomorrow when it's possible that I'll discourse on my newfound verbosity (I'm sure you haven't noticed) and argue that it's okay to continue buying books regardless of the amount of books you already have, your total lack of funds, and the amount of friends and family members crushed by your collapsing book shelves.