Recent Book Activity

This page was last updated on 5-30-12.

CURRENTLY READING:

Homer's Odyssey, by Gwen Cooper
Robbing the Bees: A Biography of Honey, by Holley Bishop
The Horse and His Boy, by C. S. Lewis (aloud to my son)
Mockingjay, by Suzanne Collins (reread; aloud to my son)

Next up (to send along in the Wish List Tag game):
Running With Scissors, by Augusten Burroughs
The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, by Alan Bradley


A NOTE ABOUT MY WISH LIST

I have a long wish list! It is my way of keeping up with books I hear about that I want to read someday. It does not mean I want people to send me everything on my list! (There has been some discussion about long wish lists on the forum and I want to be clear - I'm a bookaholic but I don't want to seem greedy.) If a BCer does want to send/offer a book, you can keep these points in mind:

Most of the books on my wish list are books I would like to read but do not necessarily want to own (unless after reading them I decide I can't part with them!), although there are a few that I'm pretty sure I'd like to keep permanently if I obtain them. Otherwise, I'm generally happy to participate in rings, rays, trades, and otherwise keep books moving, especially if it is important to the people who send them my way.


ABOUT ME

I read lots of types of literature, especially since joining Bookcrossing. My all-time favorite authors are T. R. Pearson and Dave Barry, and I'm a huge Harry Potter fan. I also enjoy Anne Rivers Siddons, Pat Conroy, Elizabeth George, Catherine Coulter, Jeffery Deaver, Dennis Lehane, Anne Tyler, and many others. Through Bookcrossing's bookrings and rays, I have really expanded my reading "repertoire." I have been reading more nonfiction and a greater variety of fiction. Isn't Bookcrossing wonderful?!

I have two children (ages 15 and 11), so I also enjoy children's literature (actually I enjoyed kids' books even when I did not have kids). My daughter is caught up in many of the popular supernatural series like Hush Hush. My son's favorite right now is John Flanagan's The Ranger's Apprentice series. He has also participated in our school district's "Battle of the Books" for the last couple of years and has been exposed to some wonderful literature through that. Both kids love the Percy Jackson series and The Hunger Games series as well. I think some of the most exciting things being written right now are for middle school and young adult audiences.

In addition to reading, I enjoy word puzzles, especially crosswords and cryptic crosswords, the harder the better!

My all-time favorite movies include Gone With the Wind, Casablanca, It's a Wonderful Life, The Big Chill, Forrest Gump, When Harry Met Sally..., and the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

I don't watch a lot of network TV but thanks to DVDs, Internet, and Netflix, I can obsess about whole series at a time: The Simpsons, Seinfeld, Criminal Minds, Psych (my latest fave!). My daughter also has me watching anime, which I enjoy. My very favorite anime is Ouran High School Host Club, which I highly recommend even if you're not an anime fan - it's smart and hilarious and sweet. I've also enjoyed Black Butler, Vampire Knight, Special A, and InuYasha (ALL those episodes!). Currently, we're watching Blood Plus and Soul Eater.

I love music of all kinds, too. My collection has included everything from Barry Manilow and John Denver to Quiet Riot and Led Zeppelin, with Rogers & Hammerstein and Tchaikovsky thrown in too. I'm a long-time fan of the Beatles, Rod Stewart, Billy Joel, Bruce Springsteen, Counting Crows, Don Henley, and The Eagles. I also like listening to top 40 so I can keep up with my kids' music.

I work full-time and am married with kids, but I've gotta read! It's like breathing to me. So I love Bookcrossing!

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A FEW OF MY OTHER FAVORITE SITES:

My Library Thing Page!

The Word Detective

Edward McKay Used Books & More (My favorite book source, located in NC)

The Free Rice Site (Take vocabulary quiz - earn rice for needy people!)

I list my bookrings at The Bookring Directory!

Save the Words, a site for adopting words in danger of extinction!


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Here's how I'm going to try to rate books as of October 2005 [stolen from Maddog1404 who stole it from Big Tex who stole it from calicocollie, who adapted it from tnkbl, who got it from Starbytes, who got it from Gizmopuddy, who got it from Sugarkane (now florafloraflora) and Scism]:

10: Excellent, at the top of its category. This book has impacted me deeply, challenged me profoundly, or has simply been a pure delight to read.
9: Great book--just a nitpick stands between it and a 10.
7-8: Good, solid book that I would recommend to others.
6: Decent, but not great.
4-5: Only OK. Barely worth reading. The line between taking it and leaving it is very thin.
2-3: Has major problems. I don't recommend it.
1: It's hard to imagine anyone liking this book.


BOOKS READ IN 2012:

1. The Swan Thieves, by Elizabeth Kostova
2. Lunatics, by Dave Barry and Alan Zweibel
3. Arthur & George, by Julian Barnes
4. America (The Book): A Citizen's Guide to Democracy Inaction, by Jon Stewart, et al
5. Don't Let's Go the Dogs Tonight, by Alexandra Fuller
6. Heart of Darkness & The Secret Sharer, by Joseph Conrad
7. Matched, by Ally Condie
8. Crossed, by Ally Condie
9. The Ruins of Gorlan (The Ranger's Apprentice, Book 1), by John Flanagan (aloud to my son)
10. The Burning Bridge (The Ranger's Apprentice, Book 2), by John Flanagan (aloud to my son)
11. The Icebound Land (The Ranger's Apprentice, Book 3), by John Flanagan (aloud to my son)
12. The Intellectual Devotional, by David Kidder and Noah Oppenheim
13. The Summer of the Swans, by Betsy Cromer Byars (aloud to my son)
14. How Tia Lola Came to Stay, by Julia Alvarez (aloud to my son)
15. Earth (The Book), by Jon Stewart et al
16. Blue, by Joyce Hostetter (aloud to my son)
17. I Am America (And So Can You!), by Stephen Colbert
18. Random Acts of Kindness, by Danny Wallace
19. The Hypochondriac's Guide to Life. And Death, by Gene Weingarten
20. One of Our Thursdays Is Missing, by Jasper Fforde
21. The Battle for Skandia (The Ranger's Apprentice, Book 4), by John Flanagan (aloud to my son)
22. The Glass Castle, by Jeannette Walls
23. The Book of Poisonous Quotes, by Colin Jarman
24. A Week in the Woods, by Andrew Clements (aloud to my son)
25. The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins (reread; aloud to my son)
26. The Intellectual Devotional: American History, by David Kidder and Noah Oppenheim
27. Betty & Friends: My Life at the Zoo, by Betty White
28. Dimboxes, Epopts, and Other Quidams: Words to Describe Life's Indescribable People, by David Grambs
29. Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life, by Barbara Kingsolver
30. Catching Fire, by Suzanne Collins (reread; aloud to my son)


BOOKS READ IN 2011:

1. ADHD & Me: What I Learned from Lighting Fires at the Dinner Table, by Blake E. S. Taylor
2. Ghost Soldier, by Elaine Marie Alphin (aloud to my son)
3. The Bear in the Attic, by Patrick McManus
4. Clockwork Angel (The Infernal Devices, Book 1), by Cassandra Clare
5. 100 Things You're Not Supposed to Know, by Russ Kick
6. The Men Who Stare at Goats, by Jon Ronson
7. The World in a Phrase: A Brief History of the Aphorism, by James Geary
8. The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins
9. Catching Fire (The Hunger Games Book 2), by Suzanne Collins
10. Mockingjay (The Hunger Games Book 3), by Suzanne Collins
11. In a Word, by Jack Hitt
12. Slightly Married, by Mary Balogh
13. The Perfect Bride, by Brenda Joyce
14. Whisper to Me of Love, by Shirlee Busbee
15. Innocent as Sin, by Elizabeth Lowell
16. The Color of Death, by Elizabeth Lowell
17. Word Fugitives: In Pursuit of Wanted Words, by Barbara Wallraff
18. Quirky QWERTY: The Story of the Keyboard @ Your Fingertips, by Torbjorn Lundmark
19. Uncle Boris in the Yukon and Other Shaggy Dog Stories, by Daniel Pinkwater
20. Dissecting Death: Secrets of a Medical Examiner, by Frederick Zugibe
21. The Passage, by Justin Cronin
22. Prayers for Rain, by Dennis Lehane
23. The Year of Eating Dangerously, by Tom Parker Bowles
24. Gone With the Wind, by Margaret Mitchell (reread)
25. Peace Like a River, by Leif Enger
26. Getting Stoned with Savages: A Trip through the Islands of Fiji and Vanuatu, by J. Maarten Troost
27. Frankenstein Book One: Prodigal Son, by Dean Koontz and Kevin J. Anderson
28. The Book of Vice, by Peter Sagal
29. The Year of Living Biblically, by A.J. Jacobs
30. Take the Cannoli, by Sarah Vowell
31. Politically Correct Bedtime Stories, by James Finn Garner
32. A Widow for One Year, by John Irving
33. Born Naked, by Farley Mowat
34. Bud, Not Buddy, by Richard Paul Curtis (aloud to my son)
35. I Am Number Four, by Pittacus Lore (aloud to my children)
36. Nature Noir, by Jordan Fisher Smith
37. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, by Steig Larsson
38. One True Thing, by Anna Quindlen
39. Promise Me, by Harlan Coben
40. Dictionary of Proverbs and Their Origins, by Linda and Roger Flavell
41. Dogbert's Top-Secret Management Handbook, by Scott Adams
42. Lost in Place: Growing Up Absurd in Suburbia, by Mark Salzman
43. The Penderwicks, by Jeanne Birdsall (aloud to my son)
44. Extra Credit, by Andrew Clements (aloud to my son)
45. A Strong Right Arm, by Michelle Y. Green (aloud to my son)
46. Rules, by Cynthia Lord (aloud to my son)
47. Hatchet, by Gary Paulsen (aloud to my son)
48. The Cricket in Times Square, by George Selden (aloud to my son)
49. The Dollhouse Murders, by Betty Ren Wright (aloud to my son)