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Hallelujah! I finally discovered audiobooks I love!

A God in Ruins

If I seem unduly excited about audiobooks, it’s been a long road: I’ve been trying to get into them for three years. This is because reading is my favorite pastime, but I also need to exercise. Or so they tell me.

Ergo: Listen to audiobooks while exercising. A match made in heaven! Except …

I like to go at my own pace. I hear something I want to pause and think on, but the narrator keeps yammering on. Plot points are missed. Confusion abounds. Crankiness ensues.

But I was determined! Because cardiovascular health. Continue reading “Hallelujah! I finally discovered audiobooks I love!”

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#BBAW: 5 books that inspired me to do and be better

Fireside reading

Today I feel inspired by The Estella Society’s Book Blogger Appreciation Week, going on Feb. 15 – 19. The day one challenge: “Introduce yourself by telling us about five books that represent you as a person or your interests/lifestyle.”

Beautiful old booksI love this because it feels so impossible. At first, I couldn’t think of any books and then I couldn’t narrow down the list. In the end, I picked five whose characters and stories have inspired me to do and be better, in some way. In my heart of hearts, I’d like these books to represent me as a person, but I’m happy for them to represent what I aspire to live up to and be. Continue reading “#BBAW: 5 books that inspired me to do and be better”

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Why are people lying about the books they’ve read?

Classic novels

Years ago at a party, one of my cousins introduced me to a schoolmate of his with the description, “She’s studying English Literature.”

“Really?” the friend asked (slyly, I thought). “Have you heard of the book Gobbledy Gook“?

I told him (haughtily, I hoped) that no, in fact, I’d never heard of Gobbledy Gook. That’s when he laid some truth on me: the book didn’t exist. He’d made up the title, apparently to test whether I was legit. At the time, I thought it was kind of a douche move, but maybe he had a point.

Lying about books is apparently a thing. Continue reading “Why are people lying about the books they’ve read?”

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3 ways reading Edith Wharton is like a dementor attack

demon hounds

If you’ve spent time reading Edith Wharton, amiright?

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Full disclosure: I haven’t read Wharton’s most well known novels, The Age of Innocence and The House of Mirth. I think I was assigned the former, at some point, and the latter, well, I’m guessing there’s little actual mirth involved.

My experience of Wharton is limited to Ethan Frome, Tales of Men and Ghosts, and the short story “Roman Fever.” Each is so shudder inducing in its own way that I’m a bit wary of tackling one of her longer works. Though her writing is so beautiful. I don’t know. I’m torn. Continue reading “3 ways reading Edith Wharton is like a dementor attack”

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5 New Books to Look for in February

New books for February 2016

New month, new books! In the interest of pursuing my 2016 reading challenge to read the books I own, I’m restricting new purchases. I’m only buying books I’ll read in the near future. Or (*clears throat*) trying to, anyway. (January results were slightly less than stellar.)

Still, that doesn’t mean I can’t keep a running list of books to read in the unspecified future. And if I share said list with you, maybe you’ll read one (or three or all – whatever works!)? And tell me which I should move up to the top of my list? Continue reading “5 New Books to Look for in February”

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“Groundhog Day” as Expressed by 7 Revered Writers

Groundhog Day makes for a festive mid-winter distraction, when it’s not going horribly wrong. But it’s not exactly the stuff around which writers have penned great books. It does, however, provide the backdrop for one of my favorite films, “Groundhog Day” starring Bill Murray and Andie MacDowell.

Murray plays self-absorbed Phil Connors who is grudgingly sent to Punxsutawney, PA to cover the goings on of a certain groundhog (with whom he shares a name). MacDowell is his loveable and sweet-natured news producer. Grumpy and derisive of everything around him, Phil can’t wait to leave Punxsutawney. But after a blizzard grounds him, he gets trapped in a time loop, reliving the same despised day over and over and over… and over … until he learns the lesson he’s meant to absorb. Which is a little something like what the following authors have touched on in their work. Continue reading ““Groundhog Day” as Expressed by 7 Revered Writers”

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Updated #ReadMyOwnDamnBooks: January Reading Wrap-Up

Honestly? I had no intention of doing a reading challenge in 2016 until I discovered #ReadMyOwnDamnBooks at Estella’s Revenge. For the uninitiated, it’s where you read the books you already own. Sum total. How you choose to interpret it is all you, as suggested in the challenge’s subtitle: “The ‘You Do You’ Reading Effort.”

Can I tell you how much I love this challenge? Continue reading “Updated #ReadMyOwnDamnBooks: January Reading Wrap-Up”

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Does reading great books ruin you for reading good books?

When I finish reading a Charles Dickens novel, a sort of malaise comes over me. I fret that no other novelists writing in or translated into English could possibly engage my imaginative faculties such that I will enjoy and benefit from reading their novels as much as I do from reading Dickens’s.

*sighs dramatically whilst draping back of hand against forehead* Continue reading “Does reading great books ruin you for reading good books?”

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Bookish Literary Characters: A Baker’s Dozen

We have quite a snowstorm underway here in New England. Outside my window, it’s all blankets of white draped across the landscape, swirling winds and snow. It makes me think of gingerbread houses encased in a snow globe.

In other words, it’s the perfect day to curl up under a cozy blanket with a good book and a steaming mug of hot chocolate. And if that book were to feature a bookish literary character, the kind that feels like spending time with a like-minded friend, well, so much the better. Continue reading “Bookish Literary Characters: A Baker’s Dozen”