2014 goal...accomplished!

I have already finished my 2014 reading goal.  Instead of spending my holidays reading, I used my time off to weed out my TBR, my home library, AND my ebooks.  I whittled my TBR down from 800+ to 420.  And added my ebook titles to my TBR.  I'm pretty proud of that.  I have a little bit more space on my bookshelves and my hard drive now.  And I plan to only buy books I have already read and plan to reread in the future.  So now my 2014 reading goal is to read from my TBR and my home library.  I can be flexible enough to include titles that I don't have yet but I need to focus on reading what I already have.

And now that I've done all that, I can sit pack and read.

Read on,
Paula

BTT: Dinner Party; and Peer Pressure

Dinner Party (from Booking Through Thursday)

1. Which three authors would you invite to a dinner party (they can be dead)?
2. Why?
3. Would they get along?

I can only think of two authors.  I would invite Robert J. Sawyer and Kerry Greenwood because I love their books.  It's hard to know what people you have never met would be like as dinner guests though.  I've met Rob Sawyer and he seems like a genuinely nice, polite, gracious man.  From what I have read from her bio, I imagine that Kerry Greenwood would be a fascinating person to learn more about.


Peer Pressure (from Booking Through Thursday)

Have you ever felt pressured to read something because 'everyone else' was reading it?  Have you ever given in and read the book(s) in question or do you resist?  If you are a reviewer, etc, do you feel it's your duty to keep up on current trends?

Everyone keeps telling me to read the "Hunger Games" series by Suzanne Collins.  And now that the series is being made into movies, it's being recommended again.  I wouldn't say I've felt pressured to read anything.  Titles are highly suggested by the people in my life and I choose whether or not to follow through on it.  Even if the suggestion comes with a certain force or urgency, it is still my decision in the end.  Having read the synopsis of the books, I have no interest in reading the "Hunger Games" series.  But here is the tricky part with this particular suggestion.  My sister-in-law made my interest in it go up a little when she said that Katniss is a strong female character.  But having heard other not-so-strong-female comments from other friends, my interest is now gone.

Of all the 'it' books that have been recommended to me, I can't think of any that I have given in to reading unless I was already interested in it.  Apparently, I am a resister.

I am not a professional reviewer; I do this all for my own enjoyment (and hopefully yours if you are reading this) so I have no professional obligation to keep up with trends.  And when trends coincide with my interests, I can balk.  For example, "The Fault in our Stars" by John Green.  It was on my TBR before it became a bestseller.  Now that it's all the rage, I have decided to read it later when the hoopla dies down.  And no, I won't be seeing the movie.

Read on,
Paula

Books and food

I have 6 days off for the christmas holidays and I chose two books with winter themes to enjoy during my time off.  I picked "The Snow Child" by Eowyn Ivey and "August Frost" by Monique Roffey.   I heard about "The Snow Child" from an episode of The Readers podcast and I read a brief baldness-focused synopsis of Roffey's "Sun Dog" (the original title of the book) in "The Novel Cure" by Ella Berthoud and Susan Elderkin.

In "The Snow Child", Mabel and Jack are a childless couple living in the wilderness of 1920s Alaska.  The descriptions of Mabel's life in their homestead made me feel grateful for my own skills with cooking and baking.  Reading about the pioneer experience in this book made me want so much to go off and bake my own bread.

The main character, August, in "August Frost" works in a London deli.  Descriptions of the varieties of cheese, meats, salads, and condiments in the deli and of August's forays in the local food market make me want to go discover new foods.  I had never heard of such a thing as coconut marmalade until I read it in this book.  Perhaps I will try making my own.

I like cookbooks that include a personal story.  I bought myself a copy of "The Healthy Gluten-Free Life" by Tammy Credicott, not only because I want to try almost every recipe in the book but also because of the personal notes that are included with each recipe and the story of their gluten-free home business, The Celiac Maniac.  I am thinking about also getting a copy of her "Make-Ahead Paleo".  Also on my TBR are "Life Is Meals: A Food Lover's Book of Days" by James Salter, "Odd Bits: How to Cook the Rest of the Animal" by Jennifer McLagen and "Cooking With Jamie" by Jamie Oliver.

Read (and eat) on,
Paula

Keeping track of my books

After much consideration, I decided to give up my Shelfari account.  Since Goodreads and Shelfari are both owned by Amazon now, it seemed even more redundant.  And I'm still using Library Thing to keep track of just the books I own.  I have only one friend who uses Shelfari (hence the reason I joined) and she doesn't use it or read very often.  I have more friends and more activity on Goodreads.

It's taking me a while to get used to adding titles to my TBR and recording books I've read in only one place.  And since I have the Goodreads app, this is so much more convenient and easy.

And as the holidays approach, I am looking forward to some uninterrupted reading time.

I have come to the realization that I am an in-the-moment reader.  I want to read what takes my fancy right now.  I believe this is why my 2013 goal of reading books from my home library didn't pan out so well.  Because my books have been there for quite some time and the longer that a title has been on my TBR, the less likely I am to get around to reading it.  So my 2014 goal is to weed both my home library and my TBR of items I doubt I will ever read.  The ones that don't have enough of a draw to entice me to actually pick them up.  Once I have done that, I will endeavour to truly read a minimum of one book from either my home library or my TBR.  And then I will continue to read by whim the rest of the time.

Read on,

Paula

BTT: The Knights of the Round Table; and Fantasy Anyone?

The Knights of the Round Table (from Booking Through Thursday)

1. Do you enjoy reading the legends of King Arthur and the knights of the Round Table?

2. How long ago did you read them?

3. Will you ever read more of them or re-read any that you've read before?

Surprisingly, I have never read them.  This is one of the instances where what I know about them is based on movies and references to the stories I've read elsewhere.  I'm not sure why the legends don't interest me.  I have read other historical fiction, other legends, and I have a Robin Hood retelling on my TBR.  I just have no interest in seeking them out.  *shrug*

Fantasy Anyone? (from Booking Through Thursday)

Roger Zelazny’s Amber series, J.R.R. Tolkein’s Lord of the Rings, David Eddings’ Belgariad, and Stephen R. Donaldson’s Thomas Covenant trilogies, are all classic examples of fantasy. None of them are books either of my parents would ever consider reading. I’ve devoured them all… And more.

1. Do you like to read fantasy?

2. What’s your favorite (or least favorite if you don’t like the genre) thing about reading fantasy?

3. Do you prefer regular people placed in alternate realities, like the Thomas Covenant stories and the Amber books, or do you prefer the whole world to come from the author’s imagination? Or something else?

4. Do you have a favorite author or theme that you go back to again and again?

I used to read a lot of fantasy when I was a teenager but not so much anymore.  I choose my reading based on plot and themes more than genre now.

I like fantasy for the non-realistic aspects, the things you can't write about in general realistic fiction, like shapeshifters and magic.  I also find that fantasy has stronger characters, perhaps because of the journey/quest they must take on.

The Harry Potter series were set in an alternate reality and I loved the series very much.  Middle Earth of the Lord of the Rings series came from Tolkien's imagination and I enjoyed the series enough to read all three books.  I have no preference as to the setting.

I have enjoyed a lot of fantasy books that feature witchcraft as an acceptable aspect of normal life.  I like fantasy books with strong female characters and a little romance thrown in.

Fantasy series I have liked/loved:

*Parasol Proctectorate - Gail Carriger

*All Souls Trilogy - Deborah Harkness

*Jane Jameson - Molly Harper

*Jane True - Nicole Peeler

*Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences - Philippa Ballantine

*Rogue Angel - Alex Archer

*Witches of Eileanan - Kate Forsyth

*Cemetary of Lost Books - Carlos Ruiz Zafon

*Harry Potter - J.K. Rowling

*Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan

Read on,

Paula

BTT: Celebrate Freedom

Celebrate Freedom (from Booking Through Thursday):

I bought a sweatshirt for my husband some years ago that says, “Celebrate freedom. Read a banned book.” The shirt then goes on to list ten books that were currently banned somewhere in these United States. Here are a few examples: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger, The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, The Call of the Wild by Jack London, and Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell.

1. Have you ever knowingly read a banned book?
2. Have you read any of the books I listed above?
3. Knowing that the above books have been banned, would you read them now? Why?

I have knowingly read banned books.  Every year we have Freedom To Read week in our library.  Last year, I deliberately read "To Kill A Mockingbird" by Harper Lee during Freedom To Read week...and loved it so much.

I have read "The Catcher in the Rye" by J.D. Salinger...and didn't like it.  Maybe because I was an adult when I read it, I just didn't get what the hype was all about.

I wouldn't read the other titles listed.  Not because they are banned but because they don't appeal to me.  I don't decide to read a book based on whether or not it is a banned book (with the exception of "To Kill A Mockingbird" last year).  Knowing that a book is banned or challenged doesn't make them more appealing to me.  I read what I want to read regardless of what other people think of it.  Although talking about books we've read is a social activity and one I enjoy, reading is a very personal and private activity.  What books you love or hate (or ban) will not necessarily be the same books I love or hate.  That is the reason why I don't believe in banning books.  Just because you find something offensive about a book doesn't mean I will.  I think people ban books because they are afraid that other people will emulate whatever it is that makes them uncomfortable about the book...which is silly.  Most people don't read fiction books as though they were instruction manuals.  For example, the Harry Potter series.  People banned that because of witchcraft.  Really?  If you ban it for that reason alone, you are proclaiming your belief that magic and witchcraft are real.  In our predominantly Christian-based Western society, I find that ironic.  I read and loved the series but that didn't make me want to become a Wiccan.  If reading the Harry Potter series made kids want to do magic and cast spells, in my non-magic-believing opinion I imagine that wouldn't last long when nothing happened.  And depending on the age of the kids who read it, they probably knew enough about the real world to be able to tell the difference between fiction and reality.  But in the end, I firmly believe that the people who ban books are the people who don't know how to do their job as parents*.  If you know how to talk to your child about what they read, then they can read anything because they will know they can talk to you about the stuff that confuses or upsets them and you can talk to them about the stuff that makes you uncomfortable.

Banned books I have read (from the ALA's 2000-2009 Top 100 Banned/Challenged Books list):
To Kill A Mockingbird - Harper Lee
The Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger
Harry Potter series - J.K. Rowling
And Tango Makes Three - Justin Richardson & Peter Parnell
Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck (assigned reading in high school)
Slaughterhouse-Five - Kurt Vonnegut (assigned reading in high school)
The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
A Wrinkle in Time - Madeleine L'Engle
Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret - Judy Blume

*The ALA 1990-1999 Top 100 Banned/Challenged Book list has "What's Happening To My Body? Book For Girls: A Growing-Up Guide For Parents & Daughters" and "What's Happening To My Body? Book For Boys: A Growing-Up Guide For Parents & Sons", both by Lynda Madaras.  I could rant about that but I won't.

Read on,
Paula

BTT: Children's books

Children's books (from Booking Through Thursday)

1. As an adult, do you own children’s books?
2. If you do, do you still read them even when there are no children around?
3. What were your favorites as a child? Now?

Yes, I may be an adult but I do own children's books.  I own some from when I was a kid and some I have bought as an adult.  I think the best children's book writers are the ones that can write books that appeal to all ages.

Since I am a child-free woman, I read all of my children's books without children around...unless I am at the library where there are children in the vicinity.

As a child, one of my favourite stories was "The Five Chinese Brothers" by Claire Hutchet Bishop from the 10-book Collier's Junior Classics set.  I also loved a lot of the Golden Books series and the Barbapapa series.

Now, as an adult, I like the Scaredy Squirrel series by Melanie Watt.  I love Oliver Jeffers (especially "The Heart and the Bottle"), Nick Bland and Nicholas Oldland.  I loved the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling and enjoyed the Percy Jackson series by Rick Riordan.  And I've previously mentioned the Neil Flambé series by Kevin Sylvester.  I don't read a lot of children's books now unless the cover art or title strikes my fancy.  But working acquisitions and cataloguing in a public library means I have more exposure to them than some.

Read on,
Paula

"Ready Player One" by Ernest Cline

Synopsis:

It's the year 2044, and the real world is an ugly place.

Like most of humanity, Wade Watts escapes his grim surroundings by spending his waking hours jacked into the OASIS, a sprawling virtual utopia that lets you be anything you want to be, a place where you can live and play and fall in love on any of ten thousand planets. 

And like most of humanity, Wade dreams of being the one to discover the ultimate lottery ticket that lies concealed within this virtual world. For somewhere inside this giant networked playground, OASIS creator James Halliday has hidden a series of fiendish puzzles that will yield massive fortune--and remarkable power--to whoever can unlock them. 

For years, millions have struggled fruitlessly to attain this prize, knowing only that Halliday's riddles are based in the pop culture he loved--that of the late twentieth century. And for years, millions have found in this quest another means of escape, retreating into happy, obsessive study of Halliday's icons. Like many of his contemporaries, Wade is as comfortable debating the finer points of John Hughes's oeuvre, playing Pac-Man, or reciting Devo lyrics as he is scrounging power to run his OASIS rig. 

And then Wade stumbles upon the first puzzle. 

Suddenly the whole world is watching, and thousands of competitors join the hunt--among them certain powerful players who are willing to commit very real murder to beat Wade to this prize. Now the only way for Wade to survive and preserve everything he knows is to win. But to do so, he may have to leave behind his oh-so-perfect virtual existence and face up to life--and love--in the real world he's always been so desperate to escape. 

A world at stake. 

A quest for the ultimate prize. 

Are you ready?

My review:

I first heard about this book on The Readers podcast.  I listened to it again after having read the book and I firmly agree with all of the points Simon and Gav make.

Before I began reading the book, I was worried that I wouldn't get the pop culture references.  Although I belong to the demographic of children of the 80s, my family was poor and we lived in so small a town that it couldn't even be called a town.  I lived a rather sheltered and backwater childhood.  I think most of the references to 80s pop culture that I understand are mostly ones I know about from later in life.  Although we had a Commodore 64, that wasn't until the 90s.  I think our family and myself have been the opposite of early-adopters.  Even though we wanted those things when we were kids, we couldn't afford them and so I think we've just gotten used to having to wait until most of the hype has died down before we get it, if we do at all.  The time in one's life when most people tend to become gamers, I was too poor and never had the opportunity for that obsession to grow.  Although it is set in a gamer environment, it's not so over my head as to be inaccessible.  Most of the video game-related references were lost on me simply because I'm not a gamer.  And sadly, "Ghosts 'N Goblins" and "Frogger" were never mentioned.  So I just assumed that, aside from OASIS, all of the games, TV shows, and movies were real.  And, frankly, I just can't be bothered to actually check if that's true.  Whether they are or are not real is just irrelevant.  And aside from the video game-specific references, my fears about the book were allayed when I read the definitive reference to the movie "The Last Starfighter".

Getting sidetracked by rereading BBW romances for a few days, I feared that I would lose interest in "Ready Player One".  But luckily once I picked it up again, I was sucked back into it.

I was able to connect with Wade's character, mostly because of growing up poor, being good at school, and experiencing unrequited love.  And it was easy to root for him and keep reading just to see what would happen next.  There's a lot about the futuristic world and OASIS to be described but there is enough of the plot and character development interwoven with it that there's never too much of one aspect.  The quick pacing of the story was great even with the exposition.  The three main questions I had were "Will he or won't he win the contest?", "No matter who wins the contest, what will happen after?", and "Will Wade and Art3mis end up together or not?"  And I am happy with the way those questions were answered.

It was a great book that I thoroughly enjoyed and would recommend to anyone.  Because it is a quest novel, it is difficult for me to be interested in rereading it once I know how it ends.  I really liked the book a lot but I won't be keeping the copy that has been hovering on my bookshelves since I bought it.  But if you are a gamer and/or a geek, you should definitely add it to your own bookshelves.

Read on,

Paula

BTT: Come Again?

Come Again? (from Booking Through Thursday)

1. What author that you remember having read does the best character development?

2. What book/series do you think is that author's shining work with regards to character development?

3. What was (were) your favorite character(s) in that book or series?

4. Do you ever find yourself really liking a character in a book that you're certain you would never be friends with in real life?

5. Do you ever re-read a book to visit a character because you miss him/her?

I have a hard time answering question #1 without it intermingling with question #2.  To me, picking an author who does the best character development is based on the book or series in which their best character development appears.  So my answer to question #1 is Kerry Greenwood and question #2 is her Corinna Chapman series.  Each of the main characters in this series are vivid people and that is an aspect of the reason why I love the series.

My favourite characters in the series are Corinna Chapman, her lover Daniel Cohen, and her cats.  Yes, even her cats are characters.  Although I do not have any cats to compare (damn allergies), Kerry Greenwood is very good at capturing cat behaviour and attitude in her writing.

In this series, I like the character of Jason Wallace, Corinna's ex-junkie apprentice.  I'm not sure of his age but he comes across as a late-teens, early-twenties young man.  I find him fascinating.  And we would never be friends in real life because I would probably lose my patience with him.

My answer to question #5 is an absolute YES!  In fact, I am eagerly awaiting the next installment in the Corinna Chapman series (due out any day, if her website is anything to go by) and I will probably re-read the six books in the series before I get my copy of the newest one.  I have also re-read L.M. Montgomery's "The Blue Castle" and Markus Zusak's "I Am The Messenger" because I missed the characters.

Read on,
Paula

Reading revival

I'm not sure what stole most of my love of reading earlier this year...but thankfully it was only temporary.  I would like to thank the prettybooks website and the literary podcasts The Readers, Adventures With Words, and Book Riot for reviving my biblioholism.

I'm doing very poorly on my GoodReads challenge of reading 150 books.  It is November and I've only read 84 books so far.  Although I know I won't make it to my goal, I am okay with that.  Despite my book slump, I've still managed to read a fair number of books.  I currently have a few on the go at the same time.  And I am re-excited about a few I meant to read earlier in the year but didn't get around to.

My other goal for 2013 was to read more books from my own collection.  So far that goal has practically fizzled and died.  However, I finished Judging A Book By Its Lover by Lauren Leto earlier this month and it is from my collection.  So I plan to revive this goal.  I've decided that if I read more of my own collection and don't like the book, I will give it a new life by donating it somewhere and therefore making more room on my bookshelves for books I truly want to have there.  Although I love looking at pictures of large book collections and wish for my own collection to grow, I am aiming to have more of the ones I've read and loved and fewer of the ones from my TBR.  Since I started out 2013 with similarly lofty goals, we'll see how this goal works out.

Read on,
Paula