Heat Wave

I'm a BIG fan of ABC's television show, "Castle", so when I heard that Richard Castle was actually publishing a book, I just couldn't help myself. I bought it, was slightly disappointed at its length (198 pages), but wound up loving it. It isn't the greatest book I've ever read or anything, but it was certainly entertaining!

*source*

I laughed out loud in places. Got chills in a few. Despite being short, it was a well-told story that was believable and I really don't think it lost anything in being short. If you're a fan of the show, pick this up sometime! And...seriously, this might rest on my bedside table for a while, face down, because look HERE at the gorgeousness that is the back cover! (I think that link goes to the front cover, but there's a link from there to the back...I couldn't find one that'd work directly.) Seriously...he is one good lookin' man! :-) I like that it sort of pulls you into the show that much more...I know it's a PR thing, but it's fun!

I'm not sure what I'm going to read next! I'll probably take a break this weekend, as I'll be away from my place. I'll let you know, though!

retail therapy :-D

I've been oh-so-homesick lately, but I won't be able to make it home until after Christmas. So today, I went to Barnes & Noble and engaged in some retail therapy. Here's what I bought:

Love, Rosie by Cecelia Ahern - one of my favorite authors!

What difference do it make? by Ron Hall, Denver Moore, and Lynn Vincent - a sequel, of sorts, to The Same Kind of Different as Me by Hall & Moore, which was an incredibly touching book written by the unlikeliest of friendships.

Heat Wave by Richard Castle - a fictional author, haha! Fans of ABC's hit show, Castle, will recognize it, though, and fans of Nathan Fillion will appreciate the author's picture on the back of the book! I read the first eleven chapters online before ABC took all but the first ten down, and I just couldn't leave it unfinished! I bought what I believe was the last copy at the Barnes & Noble in Jonesboro, after seeing on Twitter that the books were sold out. I was quite happy to see this copy on the shelf!

The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Prisoner's Dilemma by Trenton Lee Stewart - This is the third installment in the MBS series. I loved the first two, and heard a while back that there was a third. It came out this month!

The Best of Mystery: 63 Short Stories Chosen by the Master of Suspense by Alfred Hitchcock - Anyone who knows me knows that I positively adore Alfred Hitchcock. This compilation of stories from his Mystery Magazine was all of ten dollars and, according to the back flap, "is not recommended for late night reading. These masterful tales are guaranteed to unnerve." Sounds wonderful to me!

There's No Place Like Here

*source*

I'm definitely a fan of Cecelia Ahern! This one wasn't her best, but it was still quite good. The tagline on the back cover was what really drew me to this book: "Sometimes it takes losing everything to truly find yourself..."
I felt like I'd identify well with the lead character, and in a sense, I did, though my losses came in quite another manner from hers. This was a sort of modern-day Wizard of Oz, with references throughout the story. Sometimes, losing everything includes losing yourself, and in finding yourself, you find your way home again. And like I said...it's not her best book, but worth the read!
I find Ahern's writing to be absolutely delightful. She manages to instill real emotions without ever feeling too heavy. I think she's a gifted writer and I will most likely pick up everything she ever publishes. In fact, I bought another one today :-D

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie

*source*

This book was SO. MUCH. FUN!!! It is to be a series, and I look forward to getting my hands on the next installment.

The heroine of the novel is Flavia de Luce. She's eleven years old and has an odd fascination with chemistry, poisons in particular. She finds a dead man in the garden and decides to deduce for herself what happened.

The book is chock-full of references to other works of literature, films, and music. It really pulls you back in time (the book is set in the 1950s)and away to the English countryside.

I can't wait until Flavia's next adventure! It won't come out until next year, though, so...what next? :-)

Wuthering Heights (finally!)

I've finally finished Wuthering Heights! If you read my other blog, you know that this has been a HUGE week for me, so the fact that I also managed to finish this in the last few days is a pretty big feat. I've just had SO much going on lately that it took me a lot longer to read this than it normally would have.
This was a wonderful novel! It is very dark, but it is still a great romance. It is a tale of a love that is so intense it destroys all those it touches...pretty amazing stuff! Heathcliff, devil that he is, still manages to win the sympathy of the reader in his love and heartache for Catherine.
I find it very sad that this is Emily Brontë's only novel (or at least, the only one that survives). It is a classic, and a good read! It is beautifully haunting, and I will eventually re-read it, and hopefully at a somewhat faster pace next time. I feel like some of the intensity got lost in the length of time it took me to read it. I'd read a few chapters and then have to put it off for a while before picking it up again, and I rather think it would have been even better if I'd been able to read it in a more compact time frame. At any rate, I very highly recommend it! If you have trouble with reading accents, check out the link I put in my last post. It was a great help in interpreting Joseph's extreme Yorkshire dialect.

Next up: The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley, a mystery. The cover and title caught my eye, and the description sounds delightful! It is the winner of the Crime Writers' Association Debut Dagger Award, and I'm just really looking forward to reading it! I imagine that it'll go a bit faster than Wuthering Heights...we shall see!

Happy reading! :-D

Wuthering Heights, continued

I'm about half-way through Wuthering Heights. In the midst of moving and arranging my new place and taking on a full-time job, I haven't had as much time to read as I'd like, but I'm picking up pace again.

Wuthering Heights has a great story so far, but one of the characters, Joseph, is written with an accent so terribly thick that it is difficult to understand, and his passages are quite long, since he's a pompous, long-winded religious fanatic. I can't bear to skip over his parts, even though they're often explained later, so even when I've got time to read, some parts have been a struggle to get through.

I found a great resource today, though:

http://www.wuthering-heights.co.uk/josephspeech.htm

This site takes all of the major passages wherein Joseph speaks and follows them with an easy-to-read translation. I'll probably still try to figure out the strong Yorkshire accent, but I'm glad to have this to reference, and I wanted to pass it on to anybody else that might want to read this book. It really is wonderful so far!

15 Books

This is a Facebook note that's been making the rounds for a while. I decided to post it here, but along with the titles, I wanted to tell you why I chose these books. :-)

Rules: Don't take too long to think about it. List 15 books you've read that will always stick with you. They should be the first 15 you can recall in no more than 15 minutes.

Here's my list, in no particular order...


1. Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers
This is simply one of the most powerful stories of love I've ever read. I'll never forget it, and would recommend it to absolutely anyone.

2. Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt
This man's story is wonderful. He's just a man...an Irish immigrant who came to America with nothing. He tells his story with candor and wit, and I love that when I read this book (and the two that followed) I can hear an old man speaking with a lovely Irish lilt, just telling me stories.

3. To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Just...wow.

4. Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury
This book is summer and childhood and wonder, all wrapped up in the wonderful style of Ray Bradbury. It will forever be my go-to book when I want something to relax with.

5. Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls
I must have read this a thousand times when I was little, as evidenced by the condition of its cover. It is actually taped on...and I think this is my second copy! It is also the first novel that I specifically remember reading.


6. The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien
This is just such a magical tale! I love the fantasy creatures and the descriptiveness of the writing. I love the dreams that come after reading it. I love everything about it!

7. Dragonsdawn by Anne McCaffrey
My very first foray into the sci-fi/fantasy genre. Dragons have always fascinated me - I used to make my dad draw me a dragon at night before I'd go to sleep! I've got at least 15 books from this series, but this one is the first, and it got me completely hooked on the world of Pern and her dragons and riders and threats and way of life. I just love it.

8. The Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Andersen
Beautiful, beautiful story. The copy I have has absolutely gorgeous illustrations, too, by Charles Santore. I've loved the story since I was little, and was thrilled when I received it as a gift.

9. Oh, the Places You'll Go! by Dr. Seuss
Starting in third grade, I was in my school district's gifted & talented program, known as E.A.G.L.E. Don't ask me what the acronym was for...I've completely forgotten! However, I have NOT forgotten that every year, through the completion of the program in ninth grade, my teachers would read this to the class on the first day of school. It is a wonderful illustration of the promise and potential of youth, put in the way that only Dr. Seuss could put it.

10. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis
I love the way this story grows with the reader. It can be read at a fairly young age and appreciated, and then read again, twenty years later, and have a completely different meaning. The symbolism runs very deeply and it is wonderful to read and re-read, unfolding its layers.

11. Dracula by Bram Stoker
This was my first Gothic horror read. It completely freaked me out for weeks! The linguistic style is off-putting to a lot of people...it's an older style of writing and takes a bit of work to get into...but once you're in, it's kind of consuming. I was thrilled to find, in the reading of this classic, that Dracula wasn't quite the monster that Hollywood has made him. He was terrible, yes, but he knew it and simply could do nothing about his nature, but seemed, at the end of his 'life', to be relieved that he'd be able to do no more harm. I liked the aspect of redemption there, and think it's sad that most people will never realize that Bram Stoker wrote it into this story. Reading this opened my eyes to the fun of Gothic horror...it's actually one of my favorite genres!

12. Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen
Classic! I love Austen's wit and writing style. This was the first one of her novels I read, and I've read three others since. If I can ever find copies of the other two, I'll read them also, and I'm sure I'll love them! Her world is such a wonderful escape from the hubbub of the present-day. It is a quiet life, where one's entertainment comes from watching the neighbors and from the thrill of falling in love. I always end up wishing I'd lived back then!

13. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J. K. Rowling
When Harry Potter first came on the scene, I rolled my eyes. I thought it was just another mediocre story that a bunch of squealing kids were going nuts over, and I hoped that the insanity would wear off. I went with a friend to see the second film, and immediately went out and bought the first four books (all that were out at that time) and wound up forsaking college course work in favor of reading them. I've been a fan ever since...I waited on pins and needles for the mailman to show up with my copy of the last book on the day it was released, and read it all that night! I love the magic and wonder of Rowling's fantasy world.

14. The Giver by Lois Lowry
This is another book that can be read at a very young age and loved, and then picked up again, much later, and loved just as much. Lots of symbolism and depth. I've read it several times and never cease to be amazed.

15. P.S. I Love You by Cecelia Ahern
This was my first chick-lit read. I saw the movie first, before realizing that it was a book. Upon finding out about the novel, I bought it, read it, and fell in love with it. It made me literally laugh and cry right along with the characters, and that's unusual for me. After finishing this one, I bought the rest of the books by Ahern, and have loved them just as much!

Rest in Peace, Frankie :-(

Sad, sad day :'-(

Praying

I'm sure it is fairly obvious by now that Frank McCourt is among my very favorite authors. Please say a prayer for him and his family...I just saw this article that says he is in the hospital with meningitis, and is not expected to live. He is 78 years old. Pray for his health and comfort, and the same for his family.

He's such a very talented man. I wish I'd gotten to meet him (and still hope to...maybe he'll pull through this!)

Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

I decided, since the Disney bio is taking me so long, to pick up another book at the same time. I've always been a one-at-a-time reader, but I'm going to try this. Maybe when I don't feel like reading the biography, I'll feel like reading the novel instead. The novel of choice is Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë. It is a classic and I've felt ashamed for a long time that I've not yet picked it up. I've had it on my shelf for ages, but just never got around to it. I'm going to right that wrong now :-)

*source*

I'd like to add a bit of an aside here. I've long been annoyed with the practice of people replacing curse words with the first letter (ex. "effing"). If you're going to say it, just say it. Preferably, though, don't say it at all. I'm guilty of cursing, too, but I don't like to, and while I don't take personal offense, I'd rather not hear it, either. However, I'm more bothered by people making lame attempts to mask the words than I am by the words themselves. All this sprung from something in the Editor's note in this book:

"The practice of hinting by single letters those expletives with which profane and violent people are wont to garnish their discourse, strikes me as a proceeding which, however well meant, is weak and futile. I cannot tell what good it does - what feeling it spares - what horror it conceals." Currer Bell (a.k.a. Charlotte Brontë)

Harry Potter

I'm *still* reading the biography of Walt Disney. It's slow-going, simply because that isn't typically my genre of choice. Still interesting, though! I just wanted to post a little clip from an article I read today. It actually refers to the movie series rather than the books, but I think it sums up quite nicely what I like so much about the books.

"This is the true wonder of the Potter series: How it expresses not simply the fantasy that in our time of need we might have magical miraculous powers but, rather, the real hope that in our time of need we might have the miracle of true friendship."

*source*

This theme definitely speaks to me, now more than ever. After everything I've been through in the last ten months, I've learned just how important true friendship is. I am SO blessed.

Short Stories

I'm still reading Neal Gabler's biography of Walt Disney, but it is long, and I don't want to wait until I'm done with it before posting here again.
I LOVE Alfred Hitchcock, as most of my friends know. I have something like twenty of his films and three seasons of one of his television shows, Alfred Hitchcock Presents. Many of those episodes were written by Ray Bradbury, who is a favorite author of mine. I inherited my love of Bradbury from my dad, and I've essentially absconded with his (autographed!) copy of The Stories of Ray Bradbury, compiled by Alfred A. Knopf.

source

I took it out last night after trying to watch an episode of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour called "The Jar", written by Ray Bradbury. My parents and I were trying to watch online and for some reason, it wasn't streaming correctly, and we only got a few minutes into it before we gave up...but Bradbury and Hitchcock stories just can't be left unfinished that way. When I got home, I checked to see if "The Jar" was included in this book, and lo and behold, it was! I read it and my spine was completely tingly afterward. I'd recommend it if you want to give yourself a bit of a chill ;-)
Since I was reading in bed, intending to sleep, I followed it with a long-time favorite: "The Picasso Summer". This one is short and sweet and leaves you feeling peaceful, but more than a little jealous. What a treasure it would be to witness something so special as George Smith did! I'll not say what he saw...you'll just have to read it yourself!

Neal Gabler's biography of Walt Disney

This is the very first biography that I have ever chosen to read. I don't know that I've ever read a complete one for any reason, actually...but I love Walt Disney's work, and would like to know more about the man behind the magic. I'd heard a while back about Neal Gabler's biography, so I picked it up one day, and thought I'd tackle it next. It is well over 700 pages, so I'll be working on this one for a while...biographies read more slowly than novels.

The full title is Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination and it (as well as the image below) can be found here.



I'll try to keep posting updates while I'm reading this one...tidbits that I find especially interesting, perhaps, or something...just so that I don't get out of the habit of posting :-)

If You Could See Me Now, part two

Wow! This was SUCH a lovely, magical story! Cecelia Ahern, I think it's safe to say, is now one of my favorite authors. I would recommend this book to absolutely anyone who likes to be filled with wonder and imagination.

If You Could See Me Now was a sweet reminder not to worry about "the most unimportant things imaginable, like mortgages and bank statements, when everyone knows that the majority of the time it's the people around them that put the smiles on their faces." (42-43)

I LOVED this book, and I'll be buying everything else that this author releases. I've already got P.S. I Love You on my shelf at home, and she's got one other, called Love, Rosie, that I intend to go and buy tonight. :-) Absolutely wonderful! It just might come out on film, too...I hope it does!

If You Could See Me Now by Cecelia Ahern

I LOVED P.S. I Love You by Cecelia Ahern. I saw the film before I knew of the book, and upon that discovery, I picked up the novel and loved every bit of it. The novel and film were significantly different, but not detrimentally so. A couple of months after reading that book, I was wandering around in Barnes & Noble and came across a handful of other books from the same author, so I chose one at random and wound up with If You Could See Me Now.



I'm a couple of chapters in, and I know already that it will be magical and fantastic, and I think it'll be perfectly light-hearted, following the heaviness of my last read. I'm sure I'll enjoy this one!

A Long Stone's Throw by Alphie McCourt

Before I really get started, let me first say that I normally am not particularly interested in biographies or autobiographies. On a few occasions, a person's life has caught my attention enough to make me want to read more about them, but generally, it's just not my thing. That being said, here's what I thought about Alphie McCourt's A Long Stone's Throw.

I picked up A Long Stone's Throw because I hoped it would capture me in the way that Frank McCourt's books did, but sadly, that was not the case. It is rare that I have trouble finishing a book, but this simply did not grab me.

I think that the difference was that Frank McCourt's works are about his struggle to overcome hardship, but also his continual success in doing so. Alphie McCourt seemed, on the other hand, to be what I fear becoming myself. He struggles constantly through this memoir, and time after time, he fails. The underlying message, I suppose, is that you simply cannot give up. You must trudge on and try something else if whatever you're doing isn't working. It may be that I had difficulty in finishing this book because I saw too much of myself in it, but I just prefer to read stories with more hope than this one offered.

Frank and Alphie McCourt have another brother, Malachy, who is himself a published author, and I believe has done some work in the film industry, and I still intend to check out his work...but for now, my favorite McCourt author is still Frank. However, I am not at all sorry that I read this...I think a dose of reality is healthy from time to time, no matter how hard it can be to take.

I haven't yet decided what to pick up next, but when I do, I'll let y'all know!

*EDIT*
I do want to make one thing clear: this book did end well. It wasn't completely devoid of hope or happiness. It just took a lot longer for Alphie McCourt to find stability and contentment. I very much respect the fact that he trudged on and struggled through in spite of failures. I don't want you to think that it was a complete downer. It was heavy, but it did end well.

Major Works of Literature-a survey

It's strange, but I haven't been in a reading mood lately. I was loving Alphie McCourt's book, but I'm at a bit of a standstill in the reading of it. It will pick up again soon, and I'll post about it. In the meantime, here's a little survey that my friend Karen posted on Facebook this morning. I completed it and am posting for you. I'd love to see which of these you have read, loved, and/or are planning to read. I have no idea how true the statement at the beginning is, but whatever... :-)

Apparently the BBC reckons most people will have only read 6 of the 100 books here.
Instructions:
1) Look at the list and put an 'x' after those you have read.
2) Add a '+' to the ones you LOVE.
3) Star (*) those you plan on reading.
4) Tally your total at the bottom.
5) Tag the person who sent you this

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen X +
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien *
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte X * (required reading in high school, so I didn't enjoy it...that'll change, though)
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling X +
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee X +
6 The Bible (I've read part, but not all) + *
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte *
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell *
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman *
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens * (I started it once...I'll finish someday)
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott *
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare +++ * (I've not read all, but I've loved all that I've read so far!)
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier *
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien X +
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliott
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell *
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald X
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy *
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy *
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky *
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck X
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll X +++
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame X +++
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy (I've started it before...I'll finish it someday!)
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens *
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis X +++
34 Emma - Jane Austen X +
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen *
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis X + (why is this listed separately from Chronicles?)
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres *
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden X ++
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne *
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell X
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown *
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving *
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery *
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood *
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding X (I HATED this one!)
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan *
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen X +++
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens X
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley X + (This one scared me...)
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck X +
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas X +++
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding *
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville *
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens *
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker X +++ (scared me out of my mind...I loved it!)
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett X
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce X
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray *
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens X +
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker *
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro *
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert X +
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White X +
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom *
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle *
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery *
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams *
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas X +++
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare X ++
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl *
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo (I've read bits & pieces...but I can't find a nice, unabridged copy...) *

TOTAL READ: 28 plus several partials
TOTAL LOVED: 22
TOTAL PLAN TO READ: All of the remaining are in the plan...the *s are the ones I especially want to read.

A Long Stone's Throw by Alphie McCourt

In high school, Angela's Ashes, by Frank McCourt, was required reading for most of the school. I was in the gifted & talented program, though, and had a different set of required literature. Everyone hated Angela's Ashes, as I remember, but something about it intrigued me, and I desperately wanted to read it. As soon as I got my hands on a copy, I read it and was hooked from page one. I proceeded to read the sequels: 'Tis, and later, Teacher Man, each purchased on the day of release. I want very much to meet Frank McCourt someday. I can only hope I have the chance. These books are his memoirs, written in such a way that in my head I hear his accent and even inflection, and can imagine myself sitting in his classroom listening to his stories, rather than reading them from across the country.

Alphie McCourt is the youngest brother of Frank, and in wandering in Barnes & Noble last weekend, I recognized his name immediately upon seeing this book, A Long Stone's Throw, on the shelf. I had to buy it! His writing style is a bit different from his brother's, but equally easy and engaging. I'm half-way through and love it.

These books, all of them, have a common thread in my mind: hope in the midst of hopelessness, overcoming all odds. They are sad, funny, bitingly honest, but hopeful even when despairing.

My favorite quote so far:

Newspapers, spread and layered among old overcoats and blankets, provide great
insulation against the cold. And our tablecloth is a newspaper. But when we try
to read books at the table, Mam despairs of us. "Yee always have yeer heads
buried in a book." We persist in trying to read at the table, but she won't
allow it. Such a practice is bad manners, she tells us, but we read anyway. We
read the newspaper tablecloth, even upside down. Reading, a terrible addiction.

I especially love that last sentence! I'll post again when I've finished it!

Hello!

The love of learning, the sequestered nooks,
And all the sweet serenity of books.
~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

There is very little that I enjoy more than reading. I spend more money on books than on anything else. A few months ago, I started keeping track of what I was reading, and why, as well as what I'd recently finished reading, through a box on my Facebook profile. However, I only keep my last two reads and my current read on there, and there is no way to save my previous "entries" there, so I decided to start blogging it. My opinions might not be worth anything to anybody else (I'm too prone to liking everything I pick up...) but I wanted a registry for myself that was more lasting than that little box on Facebook. This will provide a place to copy out passages that I like, without marking up my precious books, and allow me to look back later to remind myself of particular favorites that perhaps I'd like to pick up again sometime. Also, if you happen to read this and pick up on what I seem to like, I'm always open to suggestions, so feel free to make recommendations!