5 posts tagged “books”

From Bookmole:

Instructions:

1. Grab the nearest book. *
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the next three sentences on your blog along with these instructions
   

* 'nearest' means you can't rummage around for a 'cool' or 'intellectual' book.  Really, whatever your hand falls on first.  Let's hope it's not porn.  (Or should we hope it is?)

Okay, so I dug under my coffee table and the first book that I found was (the yet unread) Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut.

On page 123, the fifth, sixth and seventh sentences read:

"Did he say anything?"
"No."
"Was he scared?

What's your favorite thing to shop for? 
Submitted by JadedButterfly.

Not surprisingly, my favourite things to shop for are food and books. While I really, really dislike shopping for clothes, I can spend hours browsing grocery and book stores. This is especially true for overstocked, seemingly chaotic used book stores, which are my absolute favourite stores to visit.

Too many books, too little time...what's a girl to do? I currently have five unread/unfinished library books at home:

I've started Hairstyles of the Damned (I'm approximately forty pages in), but I have yet to be really hooked by it, so I am not sure whether I am going to finish it or not. I am also approximately half of the way through Maus, which I am enjoying but finding a little difficult to read on account of the font-style and broken English. The other three books are all books that I have been wanting to read for a while but haven't had the time (or motivation) to start. I am particularly interested in starting West with the Night, as it comes highly recommended by Ernest Hemmingway who wrote:

Did you read Beryl Markham's book, West with the Night? I knew her fairly well in Africa and never would have suspected that she could and would put pen to paper except to write in her flyer's log book. As it is, she has written so well, and marvelously well, that I was completely ashamed of myself as a writer. I felt that I was simply a carpenter with words, picking up whatever was furnished on the job and nailing them together and sometimes making an okay pig pen. But [she] can write rings around all of us who consider ourselves writers. The only parts of it that I know about personally, on account of having been there at the time and heard the other people's stories, are absolutely true . . . I wish you would get it and read it because it is really a bloody wonderful book. 

It looks like I am going to have to get moving on my reading because I just checked my library account and I have one book on hold and two books on their way (both of which are books that I have had on hold for months).

If that isn't enough, I also have the Freaks and Geeks boxed set on the way, and I will likely only have three days to a week to watch the entire series for the first time.

How am I ever going to fit all of this into my days? I really need to discover a way to beam books directly into my brain.

Ever wonder what to read next? Even despite my ever-growing to-read list, I am always on the lookout for more book recommendations. To help me (and others like me) along, I have started to create a list of online reader's advisory resources. Although the list is still in its infancy, I thought that I would start to list some of the links here and then update the list as I find more resources. Feel free to leave comments and suggest your favourite book-related websites, blogs, etc.

• AllReaders.com (http://www.allreaders.com)
  This website allows users to search for book reviews by title, author, plot, setting or character. It also allows users to browse by genre or recent reviews.
  
  
• Gnooks (http://www.gnooks.com/)
  
  
• Reader2 (http://reader2.com)
  This social website allows users to create lists of their favourite books (or their entire collection) and to search for book recommendations based on other books they have enjoyed, on user-created tags, etc.
  
  
• Reader 2 Reader (http://www.reader2reader.net/)
  
  
• Reader's Robot (http://www.tnrdlib.bc.ca/rr.html)
  This website allows users to search for book recommendations by genre, keyword, or "appeal factors" such as book length, writing style, and characterization.
  
  
• Story Code (http://www.storycode.com)
  This website allows users to get recommendations based on books that they have enjoyed.
  
  
• What Should I Read Next? (http://www.whatshouldireadnext.com/books/search)
  This social website allows users to get recommendations based on books that they have enjoyed.
  
  
• Whichbook.net (http://www.whichbook.net)
  This website allows users to search for books based on desired style (e.g. funny, conventional, short, etc.), characters, plot, and setting.

I decided to read The Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery last week after seeing so many recommendations for it over at the ChickLit forums. I didn't really have high hopes for the book (despite enjoying Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables series), but I ended up really enjoying the book and devouring it in a matter of days.

Book Description (from the publisher)

At twenty-nine Valancy had never been in love, and it seemed romance had passed her by. Living with her overbearing mother and meddlesome aunt, she found her only consolations in the "forbidden" books of John Foster and her daydreams of the Blue Castle. Then a letter arrived from Dr. Trent -- and Valancy decided to throw caution to the winds. For the first time in her life Valancy did and said exactly what she wanted. Soon she discovered a surprising new world, full of love and adventures far beyond her most secret dreams.

Strengths

• Rich characters and setting
• Strong female main character
  
• Enchanting fairy tale-like storyline