Goodreads Reading Challenge

I completed my Goodreads reading challenge today!  Luckily the year is not over yet and I plan to read more during my holidays.  Because of my reader's block earlier this year, my Goodreads reading challenge was set at a measly 50 books, compared to the 130 I read last year.  I haven't decided yet whether or not I will participate in the challenge again next year.  There are two articles from BookRiot: one for participating and one against participating in the challenge.  Both have very valid points.  I, too, feel pressure when I'm behind or when I fail to reach my goal (only 130 of 150 last year).  My original goal for this year was again 150 but the longer my reader's block lingered the less achievable that goal seemed to be.  So I lowered it to a more manageable 50 and even then I've only just managed to complete it.  Also, I made a point of reading less Amazon ebooks.  Since most of the ones I read last year were more like short stories than actual novels, it didn't seem right to count them towards my reading challenge even if I was actually reading.  I guess it's all about our own self-imposed rules or lack thereof.  As Jessica Pryde wrote in her article about NOT participating: "The challenge was exacerbated by the guilt that I had so many books in the house, both paper and electronic, and felt that I needed to push through them".  I have this problem, too.  I recently culled my library of titles I knew I would never read.  And yet I still have hundreds of books I do want to read.  I have even more ebooks stored away to work my way through.  I have plenty of reading material and not enough time.  Between my reader's block and becoming a pet owner for the first time, I feel like my reading time is even rarer than it was before.  I lament how little reading I have done this year.  Even though I have read some great books.

Read on,
Paula

On being a book lover

I love books.  I love reading books; I love reading books about books.  I love talking about books.  I love pictures of books; I love quotes about books and reading.  I am a book lover.

Later today (probably) I will finish reading "Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader" by Anne Fadiman.  I started it yesterday.  It is a short (162 pages) collection of essays about being a reader and writer.  The best part so far was finding the term 'persistent intellectual curiosity'.  Finally, I have found the words to describe my constant mental state.  I also love the essay on proofreading; I am happy to know that I am not the only one who has no way to shut that part of my brain off.  It's not that I consciously seek out errors but that my brain seems hardwired to find them anyway.

Yesterday, I travelled to Toronto for the Mythbusters Behind The Myths Tour.  I had dinner across the street from the Sony Centre at the Oliver & Bonacini Cafe Grill.  I ate my dinner while reading "Ex Libris" at a booth with a book-themed wallpaper.  I just HAD to take a picture of it.

Finding new-to-me titles to add to my TBR is one of my favourite activities (even if I will never read them all).  For me, books I want to read take on a certain aura or personality based on my expectations of the content.  I build up anticipation of reading a book based on these expectations.  Inevitably I will be wrong about how the content and I will mesh but not always for the worse.  Most of the time I will very much enjoy a book even though my interpretation of the blurb (aka the publisher's interpretation of the content) will be vastly different from the actual content of the book.  There are times when this results in a book and I parting ways before I have completed reading it.  But I think that is the nature of a reader.

Read on,
Paula

Halloween reading

I don't like to be scared.  I am not a fan of horror movies or scary anything.  And yet, listening to the latest episode of The Readers podcast has induced me to read "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" by Washington Irving and "Hound of the Baskervilles" by Arthur Conan Doyle for Halloween.  Since "Hound of the Baskervilles" is a part of the complete Sherlock Holmes book that I'm reading, I will be making progress on that too.  And the only version I know of Sleepy Hollow is the animated Disney version that I haven't seen in ages so I have forgotten how it ends.

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow:
Wow!  The most drastic difference between the original text and the animated Disney version is that Ichabod Crane doesn't get nearly enough description in the movie.  In the text, Crane is useful and agreeable and surrounded by a bevy of females drawn to his "gentlemanlike personage" and his intelligence.  He believed in witchcraft and superstitions but was easily spooked.  I listened to the Overdue podcast episode about "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" and was happy to discover that I am not the only person who found the actual text of this story to be disappointing and so not scary at all.  Basically it is a story of a love triangle that ends with a prank.


Hound of the Baskervilles:
Yet another story that disappoints if you're looking for a spooky read.  I guess I am too preoccupied with trying to solve the mystery to be susceptible to vague supposition.  Also, it is debated throughout the plot as to whether or not the hound is real or supernatural or whether it exists at all.  Aside from that, I did enjoy reading it.  There is just enough suspense to keep you reading.  This is a Watson-focused story where Holmes doesn't show up until close to the end of the story.  It has a number of side plots that eventually each get tied up until you all you have left is the main mystery.  The Book Fight podcast episode about "Hound of the Baskervilles" discusses a lot of ideas that I had myself about the pompous nature of Holmes and how looks down on Watson (Succinctly stated as 'Mike wants to know: Is Sherlock Holmes supposed to be a giant dick? Why does Watson keep working for him?')

Overall, it was enjoyable reading but not nearly as spooky or scary as implied by the various television/movie adaptations.

Have you read either of these stories?  How spooky or non-spooky did you find them?

Read on,
Paula

"Flee, Fly, Flown" by Janet Hepburn

Synopsis:
When Lillian and Audrey hatch a plot to escape from Tranquil Meadows Nursing Home, "borrow" a car, and spend their hastily planned vacation time driving to destinations west, they aren't fully aware of the challenges they will face. All they know is that the warm days of August call to them, and the need to escape the daily routines and humiliations of nursing home life has become overwhelming. 
 Flushed with the success of their escape plan, they set out on their journey having forgotten that their memory problems might make driving and following directions difficult. Their trip is almost over before it begins, until they meet up with the unsuspecting Rayne, a young man also heading west in hope of reconciling with his family. 
As Lillian and Audrey try to take back the control that time and dementia has taken from them, Rayne realizes the truth of their situation. But it's too late - he has fallen under the spell of these two funny, brave women and is willing to be a part of their adventure, wherever it leads them.

Review:
The story is told from Lillian's point of view and she has Alzheimer's Disease.  I am lucky never to have had anyone in my family with this disease so I can't verify the validity of the author's portrayal of it.  But if this accurately describes what Alzheimer's Disease is like, I hope I never get it.  I also hope I live a long, active life.  Being young, I can't predict what my future holds but this book has made me think about what kind of old age I would like to have and how I will treat my mother as she ages.

I consider this book to be the Canadian female version of Jonas Jonasson's "The Hundred Year Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared" because it's another book about elderly people escaping their nursing home/retirement home/whatever politically correct euphemism you want to use.  It just doesn't have as much suspense and historical events.  "Flee, Fly, Flown" focuses more on the personal lives of the main characters.  Some readers might find the plot somewhat far-fetched simply because it runs primarily on circumstance.

"Flee, Fly, Flown" is one of the titles nominated for the 2014 Ontario Library Association's Forest of Reading Evergreen Award.  It is the only title on the shortlist that was/is of any interest to me and I am glad I read it.  It gets my vote!

Read on,
Paula

Another Terry Fallis visit

I attended another Terry Fallis author talk.  It reinforced what a great speaker and how naturally humorous he is.  Having read his novel "No Relation" earlier this year, it was nice to get the rehashed version during his talk.  Listening to him read a scene from the novel also reinforced that authors are the best people to read their own works because they have a unique personal insight and so can bring more life to it than anyone else possibly could.  I mentioned in my review about wanting to listen to the podcast versions he has made of all his books but I have not previously done that.

During his talk, he also gave an overview of Ernest Hemingway's life.  I am not overly familiar with Hemingway aside from reading "The Old Man and the Sea" in high school.  If the ending hadn't been so defeatingly depressing, I would have liked the book a whole lot more.  So it was surprising to learn that his later years were overshadowed by depression and illness that affected his ability to write.  This has revived my own interest in writing, even if it is just for myself.  Terry Fallis said he didn't write his first novel until he was 45 so it's not too late for me if I decide to try it.

Terry also gave us an overview of the novel he is still in the process of writing now.  This is the second time that the brief synopsis of his upcoming novel has had me eagerly awaiting its publication.  It happened that way with "No Relation" and now again with "Poles Apart", the working title.

There was a book signing at the end of the talk and my friend bought a copy to get signed.  I told him that because of the James Moriarty storyline, I visited the Toronto Reference Library just to see the Sherlock Holmes collection they have.  I had not heard of it until I read about it in "No Relation".

It was a bookishly inspiring night for me and I am so glad I went.  Terry says that his new book should be out sometime in the fall of 2015.  Just in time for the Word on the Street festival??  If so, perhaps we will see him there.

Read on,

Paula

Book bingo update

Well, it is officially autumn now so I thought I would let you know the results of my summer Book Bingo.  I am happy to say that I did get a Bingo!  I happened to read one book that qualified for four squares in a row.

"The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out The Window And Disappeared" by Jonas Jonasson:

• By an author of a different gender
• Translation
• Borrowed from the library
• By an author of a different culture

And I am halfway through the complete Sherlock Holmes collection but I have finished "A Study in Scarlet", "The Sign of Four", and the twelve stories in "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes".  I counted that for the 'A classic that you should have read in school'.  If I had read a cozy mystery, I would have had two bingos on the same card.  I liked doing the bingo and would be interested in doing it again next year.  This year I read what I wanted and hoped it would fit something on the bingo card.  Next year I would like to try finding titles that specifically fit the bingo card.

Did you get a bingo?

Read on,
Paula

Ah, the golden days of autumn

Whether it is a biological urge due to the shortening of days or a societal rule about the season, I find autumn to be the time of year when I just want to cook.  All the time.  I am now aware of a desire to experiment with international foods and ingredients I have never tasted before.  In general, I love seeking out new recipes to try.  Whenever we get a new cookbook at work, I am flipping through it to see if it is worth taking home for a better, more in-depth look.

I recently took home "Aida Mollenkamp's Keys to the Kitchen: The Essential Reference for Becoming a More Accomplished, Adventurous Cook" by Aida Mollenkamp.  Part reference book and part cookbook, I am finding I am taking a long time to read it because it has so much information in it.  What I have read I have thoroughly enjoyed and will most likely end up buying my own copy.  I am planning a reorganization of my kitchen storage of pots, pans, and food storage containers.  And this book is great for motivation.  The more I read, the more time I want to spend in my kitchen.

As it is autumn, I am also thinking of trying new autumnal foods that I haven't tried before.  Luckily, when I flipped through Aida's recipes, the book fell open to her recipe for Roasted Squash Pasta With Sage Brown Butter.  Two ingredients I've never cooked with before: butternut squash and sage.  The recipe sounds tasty and easy enough for me.  Although I haven't finished the book yet, I would recommend it to people who like to cook (no matter the skill level).

Read/cook on,

Paula

BTT: Interactive?

BTT: Interactive? (from Booking Through Thursday)

With the advent (and growing popularity) of eBooks, I’m seeing more and more articles about how much “better” they can be, because they have the option to be interactive … videos, music, glossaries … all sorts of little extra goodies to help “enhance” your reading experience, rather like listening to the Director’s commentary on a DVD of your favorite movie.

How do you feel about that possibility? Does it excite you in a cutting-edge kind of way? Or does it chill you to the bone because that’s not what reading is ABOUT?

I've been reading the complete Sherlock Holmes stories.  I own a massive trade paperback version but, because I want to keep it in mint condition, I am only reading it when I am at home and reading it in ebook version when away from home.  For me, the best feature ever about ebooks is the dictionary function that allows me to get a definition of words I don't know.  This is particularly beneficial when reading older fiction such as Arthur Conan Doyle, Jane Austen, etc.  Unfortunately, it does not work for foreign languages in my iBooks app on my iPhone4.

I am one of those people who reads both print books and ebooks.  I like ebooks for their portability and my ability to have a huge stack of books on my phone.  But I love holding a print book in my hand.  I love the artistry of the covers that some of my ebooks don't have.  I am not one-or-the-other.  As long as I am reading, I don't care what format.  Even listening to someone read to you (audiobook) still counts as reading.  Your brain has absorbed the information just the same.  Who cares how you read as long as you do it?

Read on,
Paula

BTT: Visual; Not In Theaters

BTT: Visual (from Booking Through Thursday)

So … the books that you own (however many there may be) … do you display them proudly right there in plain sight for all the world to see? (At least the world that comes into your living room.) Or do you keep them tucked away in your office or bedroom or library or closet or some place less “public?”

I have three 6" tall x 2" wide bookcases in my livingroom where my personal library lives.  They are not completely full...I have two empty shelves.  And I have one shelf in my kitchen for my cookbooks.  I am also contemplating putting a bookshelf in my bedroom instead of having a pile on my nightstand.  As I continue to add to my collection, I will eventually need to add more bookcases.


BTT: Not in Theaters (from Booking Through Thursday)

Name one book that you hope never, ever, ever gets made into a movie (no matter how good that movie might be).

The All Souls trilogy by Deborah Harkness.  Having both read and watched the Harry Potter and Twilight series, I know that cinematographers will not be able to capture it to meet the standards in my imagination.

Read on,
Paula

World events: Jonasson versus Doyle

It wasn't intentional.  It just happened that I read Jonas Jonasson's "The 100 Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared" while reading Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's "The Penguin Complete Sherlock Holmes".

While I enjoyed reading Jonasson's book, it eventually got to the point where I couldn't suspend my disbelief any more.  The main character, Allan Karlsson, just happens to be involved in certain world events during his lifetime (the atomic bomb, the Korean War, the Spanish Civil War, etc.).  While many people are involved in world events, by the end of the book I just couldn't believe that one person could coincidentally be involved in so many of them.

I have only read two stories from the complete Sherlock Holmes so far ("A Study in Scarlet" and "The Sign of the Four").  These also involve world events.  In these stories, so far it is the culprit's backstory that involves the telling of the historical events.  In the first it is the history of the Mormons in Utah and a bit about their religious behaviours.  In the second, it is the Indian Rebellion of 1857.  There are history lessons in both the Jonasson and Doyle books; however, I find them more palatable in the Sherlock Holmes stories.  Even though the events are recounted briefly (within a chapter) in both the Jonasson and Doyle books, I find that Doyle's writing style makes the world events far more interesting to read.

The way that Doyle has incorporated the world events into the two stories I have read so far intrigue me as to what other events will be mentioned in upcoming stories.

Read on,
Paula

"The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared" by Jonas Jonasson

Synopsis:
It all starts on the one-hundredth birthday of Allan Karlsson. Sitting quietly in his room in an old people’s home, he is waiting for the party he-never-wanted-anyway to begin. The Mayor is going to be there. The press is going to be there. But, as it turns out, Allan is not… Slowly but surely Allan climbs out of his bedroom window, into the flowerbed (in his slippers) and makes his getaway. And so begins his picaresque and unlikely journey involving criminals, several murders, a suitcase full of cash, and incompetent police. As his escapades unfold, we learn something of Allan’s earlier life in which – remarkably – he helped to make the atom bomb, became friends with American presidents, Russian tyrants, and Chinese leaders, and was a participant behind the scenes in many key events of the twentieth century. Already a huge bestseller across Europe, The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared is a fun and feel-good book for all ages.

Review:
Each character has a backstory and each backstory is intertwined with the main story.  The main character, Allan Karlsson's story is told in alternating segments of the current story and his backstory.  I found the writing style helped make this meandering novel an entertaining read.

Because Karlsson's life is woven into political and world history, part of the plot featured famous world leaders and famous world events.  Since I am only vaguely aware of such historical events, I found it difficult to differentiate between fact and fiction.  I guess this allowed me to suspend my disbelief more than others might because to me, aside from the main character's participation, it could all have been true.

The plot and the characters were intriguing enough that I wanted to continue reading.  I liked the writing style and the happy ending(s).  I liked that there was a full-figured, red-haired woman nicknamed The Beauty...I love when a character resembles me.

Read on,
Paula

"No Relation" by Terry Fallis

Synopsis:
This is the story of a young copywriter in New York City. He's worked at the same agency for fifteen years, and with a recent promotion under his belt, life is good. Then, one morning this copywriter finds himself unceremoniously fired from his job, and after he catches his live-in girlfriend moving out of their apartment a couple hours later, he's also single. Believe it or not, these aren't the biggest problems in this copywriter's life. There's something bigger, something that has been haunting him his whole life, something that he'll never be able to shake. Meet Earnest Hemmingway. 


What's in a name? Well, if you share your moniker with the likes of some of the most revered, infamous, and sometimes dreaded names in history, plenty. This is Earnest's lifelong plight, but something more recent is on his plate: His father is pressuring him to come home and play an active role in running the family clothing business. And as a complex familial battle plays out, Earnest's inherited name leads him in unexpected directions. Wry, clever, and utterly engaging, No Relation is Terry Fallis at the top of his form.

My review:
I loved Fallis' book "Up and Down".  It was the first book I had read by him.  I found it quite funny and understood why it won him the Stephen Leacock Award for Humour in 2013.  A friend has read and loved his other two books "The Best Laid Plans" and "The High Road" because of how funny she found them; they are on my TBR.  So knowing that he's good at humour, that's what I was expecting this time around.  When I saw him in July 2013 and he told us the basic synopsis of "No Relation", I knew I wanted to read it because of how funny it sounded.  I have to say that, in my opinion, it is not as funny as "Up and Down".  But that's not a bad thing.  It's still a great book.  I did find humour in it and chuckled at parts.  My friend, who is also reading it at the same time as me, also found it less funny.  Despite that, I still found it an interesting and gripping read.  The plot and characters drew me into the story and kept me wanting to know what would happen next.  I love books with happy endings and this ties up all the loose threads and rounds everything up nicely.

Part of the plot involves a character named after Professor James Moriarty, Sherlock Holmes nemesis.  This leads Earnest to read the Sherlock Holmes stories.  I have had "The Complete Sherlock Holmes" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in a lovely Penguin giant paperback edition and in e-book format.  Reading "No Relation" has re-ignited my desire to read the Sherlock Holmes book.

One of the things I love most about Terry Fallis is that he offers audio versions of his books as free podcasts on iTunes.  After hearing him read an excerpt from "Up and Down" at the author talk at my library, I downloaded all the episodes of his other books.  Even though I have already read "Up and Down" and "No Relation", I will be rereading them by listening to him read them to me.  I plan to do the same with the other two.

Read on,
Paula

Bookish quotes and art

I don't know why I have never posted any bookish art on my blog.  I browse through other book-themed blogs that post such things in order to download them, print them out, and add them to my book journal/scrapbook.  I just don't know why I never before thought of putting them here for others to enjoy.  I have decided I will do so occasionally.  I don't want to overdo it.  Just my favourites, I think.

*

I like to look through these blogs in order to find inspiration for my home library: ways to enhance it, furniture I would like to add, books I would like to read, etc.

 *

This is the background on my laptop*:

And this is the background for my iPhone*:

Reading/browsing these book-related blogs always fires my desire to read.  And since my reader's block seems to have mostly dissipated, I will soak up all the inspiration I need.

*I apologize that I have not been keeping track of the sources since that seems to be a thing other bloggers do.

Read on,
Paula

BTT: Restrictions

Restrictions (from 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.

I love non-fiction books of the popular science/history genre.  I love Malcolm Gladwell and Mary Roach, for instance.  I have Mark Kurlansky, Sam Kean, and Erik Larson, among many, on my TBR.  I have books about the history of food, neuroscience, psychology, and science in general on my TBR.  GoodReads has a list of "microhistories" of which I have read 5 already and have 14 on my TBR.  These are the types of books I gravitate to in general so if I was limited to just one genre it would be this one.  However, I would prefer to limit it to non-fiction in general.

Read on,
Paula

BTT: Weeding

Weeding (from Booking Through Thursday)

When’s the last time you weeded out your library? Do you regularly keep it pared down to your reading essentials? Or does it blossom into something out of control the minute you turn your back, like a garden after a Spring rain?
Or do you simply not get rid of books? At all? (This would have described me for most of my life, by the way.)
And–when you DO weed out books from your collection (assuming that you do) …what do you do with them? Throw them away (gasp)? Donate them to a charity or used bookstore?  SELL them to a used bookstore? Trade them on Paperback Book Swap or some other exchange program?

A few months ago, I culled my TBR from 800+ down to 400+, I also culled my home library.  I seem to feel the need to weed my library about once every year or two.  In previous years, I have done a lot of book buying (via Amazon, Chapters, and The Word On The Street festival in Toronto).  I have learned my lesson the hard way to borrow books from the library first before wasting my money buying a book I end up not liking.  I now prefer to buy only books I know I loved and want to reread.  The rest of my library is made up of books I have bought, were free, or had given to me that I haven't read yet.  When I do weed my library, I either donate them to one of the two libraries I work at, offer them to friends, or (depending on age and condition of the book) I recycle them.

Read on,
Paula

All I needed was a little time??

It seems I fell into the terrible self-perpetuating hole of the reading equivalent of writer's block.  Is there such a thing as reader's block?  According to Mr. Google there is.  Anyway, I noticed today that I am doing much better.  I took a week off work last week and managed to finish two books that I had been slowly working my way through.  That made me feel so proud of myself.  I am currently working my way through my e-book version of "Bad Science" by Ben Goldacre.  It's good and I am enjoying it.  And I have evidence that I am retaining what I read because I have noticed a few times now that there are chunks of pages that repeat themselves.  Because of that, I have no idea how much more of the book there actually is to read.  Although my iBooks app says I am on page 985 of 1474, I don't know how many of those remaining 489 pages will be repeats.  I'm hoping to finish it in the next few days either way.  I have so many enticing books taunting me to read them so I hope my reading habit will continue to pick up its pace but all I can do is be patient.  Like writer's block, if I stop thinking about it and just give it a chance, hopefully the inspiration to read will come flooding back.

Perhaps this would be a good time to read a book about reading.

Read on,
Paula

Book bingo

The Books on the Nightstand podcast has created book bingo cards for your summer reading pleasure.  I printed two cards for myself because I am hoping it will finally eliminate my reading slump.  I am reading but not nearly as zealously as usual.  However, the book I am currently reading (slowly) checks off four of the boxes.  Here is an example of one of the cards available.  Because they are random, I couldn't find again the ones I printed off for myself.

One of the things I love about this is that it is timeless.  You can reuse them over and over no matter what time of year it is.

Read on,
Paula

"The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" by Rebecca Skloot

Synopsis:
Henrietta Lacks, as HeLa, is known to present-day scientists for her cells from cervical cancer. She was a poor Southern tobacco farmer who worked the same land as her slave ancestors, yet her cells were taken without her knowledge and still live decades after her death. Cells descended from her may weigh more than 50M metric tons.

HeLa cells were vital for developing the polio vaccine; uncovered secrets of cancer, viruses, and the atom bomb's effects; helped lead to important advances like in vitro fertilization, cloning, and gene mapping; and have been bought and sold by the billions. Yet Henrietta Lacks was buried in an unmarked grave.

The journey starts in the "colored" ward of Johns Hopkins Hospital in the 1950s, her small, dying hometown of Clover, Virginia -- wooden slave quarters, faith healings, and voodoo. Today are stark white laboratories with freezers full of HeLa cells, East Baltimore children and grandchildren live in obscurity, see no profits, and feel violated. The dark history of experimentation on African Americans helped lead to the birth of bioethics, and legal battles over whether we control the stuff we are made of.

My review:
Due to my reading slump, it actually took me months to finish reading this book.  I started it at the end of September 2013 and I just finished it this week.  It was an interesting read and I did enjoy it very much.  Despite the complex science involved in biochemistry and genetics, the writing is done in such a way that you could understand it.  The main focus of the book is the search for the identity of HeLa and the personal history of Henrietta Lacks and her family.  It's a mix of biography and science history book with more emphasis on the personal story.  The writing style felt like the author were talking to you rather than trying to teach you something.  I liked how the topic of race relations in general but most specifically regarding Lacks and her progeny was interwoven with the history of biochemistry and genetics.  It was an enjoyable read and I'm glad I finally finished it.

Read on,
Paula

Rereading

Sadly, I am still suffering from a reading slump.  That being said, I am still reading.  I have been rereading books I've already read.  And I have been dipping in and out of a variety of non-fiction books. I think part of the reason for my book slump is an underlying fear of reading a book that I don't like.  I have so many books on my TBR that I worry that anything I pick to read won't appeal to me and I won't like it but that it's just a matter of timing.  Most of my reading is done by whim based on how I'm feeling.  And since there is so much change in my personal life, I am having difficulty finding previously unread books that interest me enough to actually read them.  But I long for the days when I can get lost in a book that I love.  I miss them very much.

Read on,
Paula

Rereading children's books

Listening to The Readers podcast episode about children's classics reminded me of when I reread the first book in the Nancy Drew series (The Secret of the Old Clock) last year.  I had bought a reprinted edition a few years ago and had never gotten around to reading it.  I LOVED the Nancy Drew series when I was a girl.  I loved that it was a smart young woman who solved mysteries.  I loved the stories that featured hidden passageways.  I had such fond memories of the series.

And then I reread the first book in the series.  Bad idea.  As an adult, the book just didn't stand up to my childhood fascination.  The plot was unrealistic.  I found it so different from my remembered expectations and so unpalatable to my adult mind that I couldn't even finish it.  And that's part of what the episode of The Readers is about: how rereading childhood favourites can be detrimental to your love of the books.  I have also found this to be so with beloved childhood television shows.  They just don't stand up to the test of adulthood.  And I so wish that were not the case.

Read on,
Paula

Getting out of my reading slump *fingers crossed*

Listening to book-related podcasts is always good for boosting my mood.  I almost always find a title that either I want to read or I think patrons of the libraries I work at would be interested in.  My current reading slump included not listening to book podcasts.  Yesterday I listened to 13 back episodes of Books on the Nightstand, two episodes of The Readers, and a few of Dear Book Nerd and BookRiot.  And they have fired up my interest in reading again.  One of the BOTNS episodes talks about book slumps and I feel better now.  Until I heard that episode, I felt guilty and uncomfortable about being in a book slump.  Especially because I work in two libraries and therefore surrounded by twice as much reading material.  And somehow, I forgot about the iBooks app on my iPhone that I have loaded with 68 books.  And then there is still my home library with books I haven't read yet.  I have plenty of material to read.  The problem is that where I used to automatically pick up my book and read for hours, I have not been doing that for a while.  I still want to read, I just haven't been.  But hopefully that won't be for long.

Read on,
Paula

What could be worse than not reading?

It took me a month and a half to read "Invisible Chains: Canada's Underground World of Human Trafficking" by Benjamin Perrin because I was only reading it on my hour-long meal breaks at work.  Currently at home I have three titles on the go and another one waiting to be started.  They, too, are taking me so long to read because I am distracted by other things going on in my life.  I still love reading...I just don't do it as often as I used to.  Tonight I actually broke down and cut my 2014 Goodreads Reading Challenge in half just because I'm not sure this current trend will change.  We'll see how it goes.  I miss being such a prolific reader though.  I see others reading and wonder where their imagination has taken them.  I am still finding titles of interest since that is a by-product of working in libraries.  I find I am reading predominantly non-fiction these days though.

Read on,
Paula

BTT: Conditioning

Conditioning (from Booking Through Thursday)

Are you a spine breaker? Or a dog-earer? Do you expect to keep your books in pristine condition even after you have read them? Does watching other readers bend the cover all the way round make you flinch or squeal in pain?

I prefer my books to stay in pristine a condition as possible.  I have learned this the hard way.  I keep contemplating replacing my copies of the Harry Potter books because I made the horrible mistake of highlighting parts I thought foreshadowed events to come and wrote notes in the margins.  It HORRIFIES me to see it now.    I regret it so much.

Any curling of the paperback covers during reading will eventually be pressed out by being shelved generally tightly in my home library.

I am definitely not a dog-earer.  On the rare chance that I do not have a bookmark with me, I will use anything (a scrap of paper, kleenex, paper towel, any flat object) to use as a bookmark.  In fact, I am so not a dog-earer that I will un-dog-ear any dog-ears I find in books I'm reading.

Granted, this is how I feel about my books and this is my opinion.  But I still cringe when I see the way other people treat books.  Working in a library makes this a common occurrence when you see people return books ruined by food, drink, or other unacceptable substance and think that the book is perfectly fine for other people to read.  *shudder*

Read on,

Paula

Cookbook expectations

I borrowed "Gordon Ramsay's World Kitchen" by Gordon Ramsay and "Jamie Oliver's Food Escapes" by Jamie Oliver recently.  I have only ever seen a few episodes of each of their television shows and have formed an opinion of the men based on those shows.  So when I picked up these books, I was expecting Ramsay's to be pretentious and convoluted and Oliver's to use common ingredients.  Wow, was I wrong!  In fact, it was the opposite.

Jamie Oliver's book is more of a travelogue with food.  It focuses on the stories and photos of his trips.  The recipes stay true to the country's food culture and it was nice to read but I found no recipes I was interested in trying.  The recipes called for ingredients that I couldn't find because I live in a small town, not in London or the appropriate country.

Gordon Ramsay's book was more to my tastes since I found a few recipes I would like to try.  There was a French recipe for Brandade with Garlic Toast that sounded complex but is really just cooked fish shredded and mixed into mashed potatoes.  Perhaps it is the nature of cookbooks to seem more complex than it really is just because of the step-by-step process that is required.

I guess you could say that I have learned not to judge a cookbook based on the chef's personality.

Read on,
Paula

BTT: Book Meme

Book Meme (from Booking Through Thursday)

1. What was the last book you bought?  "The Healthy Gluten-Free Lifestyle" by Tammy Credicott

2. Name a book you have read MORE than once  "The Blue Castle" by L.M. Montgomery

3. Has a book ever fundamentally changed the way you see life? If yes, what was it?  "Quirkyalone" by Sasha Cagen didn't change the way I see life but it did teach me that there are other people in the world like me

4. How do you choose a book? (eg. by cover design and summary, recommendations or reviews)  By plot summary

5. Do you prefer Fiction or Non-Fiction?  Although fiction is more prominent, I prefer to read both

6. What’s more important in a novel – beautiful writing or a gripping plot?  I prefer both but plot in general (not necessarily gripping) is more important to me.

7. Most loved/memorable character (character/book)  Corinna Chapman from Kerry Greenwood's Corinna Chapman series

8. Which book or books can be found on your nightstand at the moment?  "Dancing With Mr. Darcy" compiled by Sarah Waters, "Red Plaid Shirt" by Diane Schoemperlen, "Soulspace" by Xorin Balbes, "Leave Me Alone, I'm Reading" by Maureen Corrigan, and "Reading In Bed" edited by Steven Gilbar

9. What was the last book you read, and when was it?  I finished "August Frost" by Monique Roffey on 26Dec13

10. Have you ever given up on a book half way in?  Even though I love non-fiction books about the science of music, I just could not finish "Musicophilia" by Oliver Sacks

Read on,
Paula

BTT: Villainy; Autumn reading

Villainy (from Booking Through Thursday)

Terrorists aren’t just movie villains any more. Do real-world catastrophes such as 9/11 (and the bombs in Madrid, and the ones in London, and the war in Darfur, and … really, all the human-driven, mass loss-of-life events) affect what you choose to read?  And, does the reality of that kind of heartless, vicious attack–which happen on smaller scales ALL the time–change the way you feel about villains in the books you read? Are they scarier? Or more two-dimensional and cookie-cutter in the face of the things you see on the news?

I do not read anything that involves terrorism, war, crime, or any kind of scary topics as a general rule.  Scary topics freak me out because of my active imagination and I prefer not to be uncomfortable.  This is why I don't read crime novels and murder mysteries because of the typical amount of gory detail they contain.
  

Autumn Reading (from Booking Through Thursday)

Does the changing season change your reading habits? Less time? More? Are you just in the mood for different kinds of books than you were over the summer?

For the most part, my reading habits don't change from season to season.  The only thing that changes is where I read: I read outside more during warm weather.  I try to read more winter/holiday-themed books during the winter/holiday season.  Aside from that, I generally continue to read the same amount and read by whim.

Read on,
Paula

Year-end book review 2013

1.  Best book(s) I read in 2013: "Dust and Shadow" by Lyndsay Faye, "August Frost" by Monique Roffey, "Up and Down" by Terry Fallis, and "Half The Sky: Turning Oppression Into Opportunity For Women Worldwide" by Nicholas Kristoff and Sheryl WuDunn.

2.  Most disappointing book of 2013: I would say "Vampires in the Lemon Grove" by Karen Russell except that it was so disappointing that I didn't finish it.  Of the ones I actually finished, it would be "The Museum's Secret" by Henry Chancellor.

3.  Most surprising (in a good way!) book of 2013: "The Rosie Project" by Graeme Simsion...I was surprised at how funny this book was.

4.  Books I recommended most to people in 2013: "Up and Down" by Terry Fallis

5.  Best series I discovered in 2013: The Coldwater Springs series by Jenn Roseton

6.  Favourite new author(s) of 2013: Jenn Roseton

7.  Most thrilling, unputdownable book of 2013: "Dust and Shadow" by Lyndsay Faye

8.  Book I most anticipated in 2013: "Tempest Reborn" by Nicole Peeler

9.  Favourite cover of a book I read in 2013: 

10. Most memorable character in 2013: It's a tie between August Frost ("August Frost") and Don Tillman ("The Rosie Project")

11. Most beautifully written book of 2013: "The Snow Child" by Eowyn Ivey

12. Best book that was out of my comfort zone or was a new genre for me in 2013: "Half The Sky: Turning Oppression Into Opportunity For Women Worldwide" by Nicholas Kristoff and Sheryl WuDunn

13. Book that had the greatest impact on me in 2013: "The Unapologetic Fat Girl's Guide to Exercise and Other Incendiary Acts" by Hanne Blank

14. Book I can't believe I waited until 2013 to FINALLY read: "To Kill A Mockingbird" by Harper Lee

15. Book I read in 2013 that would most likely be reread in 2014: "August Frost" by Monique Roffey

16. Book that had a scene in it that had me reeling and dying to talk to someone about it? (A WTF moment, an epic revelation, a steamy kiss, etc.  No spoilers!): "Dust and Shadow" by Lyndsay Faye


Some fun stats:
Books completed: 127
Books by male authors: 34
Books by female authors: 93
Fiction: 95
Non-fiction: 32
Children's books: 11
YA books: 3
E-books: 57
Longest book title:
Longest book: "A Tree Grows In Brooklyn" by Betty Smith
Big fat books (more than 500 pages): None, my longest book was 496 pages long.
Shortest book: any one of the BBW romance ebooks I read
Re-reads: 2

Although I didn't fully accomplish my Goodreads Reading Challenge, 127 out of 150 isn't bad (that's 10.5 books a month).  Even though I don't like that I couldn't finish it and thought I wouldn't do the challenge again this year, I've decided to put my challenge goal lower than last year.  Knowing that I have intentions to do more adventurous stuff outside of reading, I think 100 could legitimately be a challenge.  I got an iPhone in September and so I now have the Kindle and iBooks apps to take advantage of any unplanned reading time (like waiting for cabs to arrive) and it also gives me access to more e-books than before.  Having whittled down my TBR, I have high hopes for my 2014 reading.  I hope 2014 brings you much great reading too!

Read on,
Paula