Wordless Wednesday

Teaser Tuesday

Teaser Tuesday is  hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading.

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page.
• You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve  given!

 

If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you’ll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but i don’t feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth. In the first place, my parents would have about two haemorrhages  apiece if I told anything pretty personal about them. (1)

The Catcher in the Rye – J.D. Salinger

Musing Mondays (April 26)

Today’s MUSING MONDAYS post is about the war books

With yesterday being Anzac Day, I thought I’d ask a theme question this week. Are you a reader of war books? And if so, do you have any favourites?

PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT with either the link to your own Musing Mondays post, or share your opinion in a comment here (if you don’t have a blog). Thanks.

 

I am a fan of war books, actually – though I hesitate to use the word ‘fan’ when the subject matter runs to the horrific.

I think the first war-time book I ever read, or at least can remember reading was Anne Frank’s Diary of a Young Girl. I read it while still in primary school and it was the first time I really started to understand what war meant on an individual level – up until then war had simply been a concept talked about during history.

I have also enjoyed John Boyne’s The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, Morris Gleitzman’s Once, and Geraldine Brook’s March – but these are just the ones I can think of off the top of my head. I’m sure you’ll all remind me of the ones I’m forgetting.

Lest We Forget

 

They went with songs to the battle, they were young. Straight of limb, true of eyes, steady and aglow. They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted. They fell with their faces to the foe. They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old. Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning, we will remember them.

Wordless Wednesday

Teaser Tuesday

Teaser Tuesday is  hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading.

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page.
• You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve  given!

 

She seems so cool, so focused, so quiet, yet her eyes remain fixed upon the horizon.

You think you know all there is to know about her immediately upon meeting her, but everything you think you know is wrong. (207)

Fragile Things – Neil Gaiman

Musing Monday (April 19)

Today’s MUSING MONDAYS post is about the ‘best’ books'.

Last week I had you all to suggest your top 5 books – and I was surprised by just how different all your choices were! There’s no real question this week, except to look over the list and consider it. Do you agree with the choices? Is it more worth of a “Best Book” title?

PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT with either the link to your own Musing Mondays post, or share your opinion in a comment here (if you don’t have a blog). Thanks.

Books that had more than one vote were listed first, then they were listed alphabetically by author.

To Kill a Mockingbird	Lee, Harper	6
Pride and Prejudice	Austen, Jane	3
The Chronicles of Narnia	Lewis, C.S.	3
The Time Traveler's Wife	Niffenegger, Audrey	3
Harry Potter (series)	Rowling, J.K.	3
The Book Thief	Zusak, Markus	3
Little Women	Alcott, Louisa May	2
Hunger Games (series)	Collins, Suzanne	2
The Shining	King, Stephen	2
Anne of Green Gables	Montgomery, L.M.	2
Lord of the Rings	Tolkien, J.R.R.	2
The House of the Spirits	Allende, Isabel
Sense and Sensibility	Austen, Jane
Hasse Simondochter	Beckman, Thea
The Manual of Detection	Berry, Jedediah
The Moon Below	Bickmore, Barbara
Fahrenheit 451	Bradbury, Ray
Jane Eyre	Bronte, Charlotte
Arthur (series)	Brown, Marc
A Scandalous Freedom	Brown, Steve
Cold Saddy Tree	Burns, Olive Ann
Enders Game	Card, Orson Scott
Gifted Hands	Carson with Cecil Murphey, Dr. Ben
Kushiel's Dart	Carey, Jacqueline
Graceling	Cashore, Kristen
Death Comes for the Archbishop	Cather, Willa
The Canterbury Tales	Chaucer, Geoffrey
Seventeenth Summer	Daly, Maureen
The Maze Runner	Dashner, James
Loose Change	Davidson, Sara
Life is So Good	Dawson, George
Libra	DeLillio, Don
Great Expectations	Dickens, Charles
Going Too Far	Echols, Jennifer
Invisible Man	Ellison, Ralph
Middlesex	Eugenides, Jeffrey
One for the Money	Evanovich, Janet
The Great Gatsby	Fitzgerald, F. Scott
The Likeness	French, Tana
Outlander	Gabaldon, Diana
American Gods	Gaiman, Neil
Memoirs of Cleopatra	George, Margaret
Old Yeller	Gipson, Fred
Lord of the Flies	Golding, William
An Abundance of Katherines	Green, John
Looking for Alaska	Green, John
Paper Towns	Green, John
The Boleyn Inheritance	Gregory, Philipa
The Eden Diet	Hancock, M.D., Rita
An Eye for an Eye	Hannon, Irene
Switch	Heath and Dan Health, Chip
Catch-22	Heller, Joseph
Losing the Moon	Henry, Patti Callahan
Goblin Quest	Hines, Jim C.
Never Let Me Go	Ishiguro, Kazuo
Fire and Hemlock	Jones, Diana Wynne
The Phantom Tollbooth	Juster, Norman
Nancy Drew (series)	Keene, Carolyn B.
Mountains Beyond Mountains	Kidder, Tracy
The Unbearable Lightness of Being	Kundera, Milan
She's Come Undone	Lamb, Wally
The Girl Who Played with Fire	Larsson, Stieg
The Girl with a Dragon Tattoo	Larsson, Stieg
Devil's Bride	Laurens, Stephanie
Shutter Island	Lehane, Dennis
Shoot the moon	Letts, Billie
Dare to Dream	Littauer, Florence
The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks	Lockart, E.
The Light Princess	MacDonald, George
16 Lighthouse Road	Macomber, Debbie
Daughter of the Forest	Marillier, Juliet
Son of Shadows	Marillier, Juliet
The Necklace (series)	Martin, Kay
Esther: It's Tough Being a Woman	Moore, Beth
Sula	Morrison, Toni
The Forgotten Garden	Morton, Kate
Mozart's Sister	Moster, Nancy
Cat on the Edge	Murphey, Shirley Rousseau
The Last Surgeon	Palmer, Michael
First to Die	Patterson, James
Sunday at Tiffany's	Patterson, James
The Adoration of Jenna Fox	Pearson, Mary E.
Life as We Knew It	Pfeffer, Susan
Boneshaker	Priest, Cherie
His Dark Materials (series)	Pullman, Philip
The Lightning Thief	Riordan, Rick
Ride the Wind	Robson, Lucia St. Clair
The Sparrow	Russell, Mary Doria
The Forest of Hands and Feet	Ryan, Carrie
Once an Arafat Man	Saada, Tass
Walk Away the Pounds	Sansone, Leslie
Romeo and Juliet	Shakespeare, William
Frankenstein	Shelley, Mary
Beneath a Marble Sky	Shors, John
The Corner	Simon, David
I Capture the Castle	Smith, Dodie
The Changeling	Snyder, Zilpha Keatly
Raven Stole the Moon	Stein, Garth
East of Eden	Steinbeck, John
The Grapes of Wrath	Steinbeck, John
Shiver	Stiefvater, Maggie
The Help	Stockett, Kathryn
These Granite Islands	Stonich, Sarah
The Hobbit	Tolkien, J.R.R.
The Thief	Turner, Megan Whalen
It's All Too Much	Walsh, Peter
Tipping the Velvet	Waters, Sarah
Brideshead Revisted	Waugh, Evelyn
Uglies	Westerfield, Scott
A Certain Slant of Light	Whitcomb, Laura
To the Lighthouse	Woolf, Virginia
My Enemy's Cradle	Young, Sara
The Pigman	Zindel, Paul

Wordless Wednesday

Musing Mondays (April 12)

Today’s MUSING MONDAYS post is about the ‘best’ books'.

There’s been some discussion on my blog this week about what should or shouldn’t make a ‘best' books’ list. What elements do you think lands a book in that ‘best’ category? Think of your top 5 best books and tune in next week to see the collated list.

PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT with either the link to your own Musing Mondays post, or share your opinion in a comment here (if you don’t have a blog). Thanks.

 

Okay, I know I asked the question, but can I take it back? It’s too hard!

I suppose for me, for a book to put into the ‘best’ category, it needs to be well written, have a good story, characters, be original … but that seems obvious.

When it all comes down to it, I guess the ‘best’ books are the ones that , once I’m finished, I just HAVE to go tell someone. My book friends, my non-reading family, the cat – anyone who’ll even pretend to listen.

On the other hand, there’s something to be said for an old favourite. I’m not likely to run to Wendy and say “Oh my gosh, I just read Little Women, you HAVE to read it!” I’ve read it a hundred times, I know she already loves it, so there’s no need – but this doesn’t diminish it’s status high on my ‘best’ list.

So I guess it’s a bit of both.

• Little Women – Louisa May Alcott
• Anne of Green Gables (series) – L.M. Montgomery
• The Time Traveler’s Wife – Audrey Niffenigger
• To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee
• The Book Thief – Markus Zusak

Readathon Wrap-up

I can’t say that I read as much as I would have liked this readathon – my time being punctuated by some good old fashioned family interruptions – but I had fun all the same. I do so enjoy the dedicated reading time the readathon affords.

I had no real aims except to try to meet last years results (which I did not) and get through some books from my tbr pile (which I did).

 

I’d like to thank all the AMAZING cheerleaders who came to visit over the past 24 hours – you’re all the best cheerleaders I ever did see!

Readathon Update #4

Accumulated Reading Hours: 15

Books finished this session: 1 (and a half)
Pages read this session: 246

Accumulated Pages Read: 846
Total Books Read: 3.5

Flowers for Algenon – Daniel Keyes
Dresden Files Graphic Novels: Welcome to the Jungle – Jim Butcher and Ardian Syaf
The Colour Purple – Alice Walker

Currently Reading: 
Chronicles of Avonlea – L.M. Montgomery

Readathon Update #3

Accumulated Reading Hours: 10

Books finished this session: 1 (and a half)
Pages read this session: 340

Accumulated Pages Read: 600
Total Books Read: 2

Flowers for Algenon – Daniel Keyes
Dresden Files Graphic Novels: Welcome to the Jungle – Jim Butcher and Ardian Syaf

Currently Reading: 
Chronicles of Avonlea – L.M. Montgomery

&

The Colour Purple – Alice Walker

 

Notes:

• discovered I’m not a fan of T.S. Eliot
• my cat was true to form and showed her jealousy of the readathon. Don’t read, pay attention to me!

Readathon Update #2

Accumulated Reading Hours: 6

Books finished this session: 0
Pages read this session: 44

Accumulated Pages Read: 260
Total Books Read: 1

Flowers for Algenon – Daniel Keyes

Currently Reading: 
Chronicles of Avonlea – L.M. Montgomery

&

The Colour Purple – Alice Walker

 

Notes: Just like last time, I laid down for a nap and ended up sleeping seven hours. Next time I’m moving to a time zone that doesn’t start at 11pm ;)

Readathon Update #1

Accumulated Reading Hours: 5

Books finished this session: 1
Pages read this session: 216

Accumulated Pages Read: 216
Total Books Read: 1

Flowers for Algenon – Daniel Keyes

Currently Reading:
Chronicles of Avonlea – L.M. Montgomery

24 Hour Readathon

This is my second attempt at the readathon – any excuse to have a  designated reading day! Last round I managed to read six books off my tbr list so this time I’m aiming for seven… okay, to be honest I’ll be happy to get through whatever I get through.

Like any animal settling in for their hibernation I’ve set up my nest with all the essentials: blanket (yes, the same comfy blanket that was dragged out for last time), pillow, cat, chocolate, tea (well soon), and of course BOOKS.

 

This is the pile I picked out, but now that I look at it, I realise that a fair few of them are ‘in between books’ that I picked out at the library this week, I’ll likely do some wondering to the bookshelf.

The pile as it stands

• Flowers for Algenon – Daniel Keyes
• The Colour Purple – Alice Walker
• Avalon High Graphic Novels #1-3 – Meg Cabot and Jinky Coronado
• The Chronicles of Avonlea – L.M. Montgomery*
• Selected Poems – T.S. Eliot
• Elizabethan Sonnets – Maurice Evans
• Collected Poems – Sylvia Plath
• The Dresden Files Graphic Novels: Welcome to the Jungle – Jim Butcher

 

 

*I know the picture has Anne of Avonlea but I picked up the wrong one and I’m too lazy to retake the photo – you’ll forgive me, yes?

‘Best’ books

I try to reply to comments directly through email, but not everyone who commented on my last post had attached emails, and enough people made the same/similar comment that I thought I’d do a follow up post.

I’d certainly agree with you that the books on the Dymocks Booklover list are not the ‘best’ books – I think we can all agree that if we were to compile our own list (now there’s an idea), that Twilight would not be in top billing.

For those not in the know, the Dymocks list is compiled mostly by (I believe) the VIP customers/members. Each year a poll is set up on the Dymocks website where you can submit your all time favourite book. This data is collated and used to formulate the this.

Unfortunately ‘favourite’ and ‘best’ do not always coincide – I’m sure we all have at least one chicklit-y, escapist book amongst our favourites!

But why don’t you start thinking about what you consider to be the ‘best’ books – come up with your top five. Start thinking now – I plan to make it next week’s MM.

The 2010 Booklover’s Best 101 List

I get very excited when Dymocks updates their Booklover list. Seriously. There’s markers and stickers involved.

I pull out the one from the year before and I look to see what’s risen and what’s fallen – and the worthiness thereof. Much consideration is given to the new books that find their way onto the list. Are they really the BEST? Or just new?

All in all, I sit there at the dining room table squealing with nerdy glee while the rest of my family runs away in fright.

Anyways, for those NOT lucky enough to get the catalogue, I thought I’d share. I’ve marked the ones I’ve read – why not see what you’ve read yourself?

 

1 The Twilight Saga by Stephenie Meyer
2 The Harry Potter Series by J.K. Rowling
3 Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
4 The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
5 The Lord of the Rings Trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien
6 The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak
7 To Kill a Mocking Bird by Harper Lee
8 The Millennium Trilogy by Stieg Larsson
9 My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult
10 The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
11 The Bronze Horseman by Paullina Simons
12 Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
13 Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
14 The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
15 Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead
16 Magician by Raymond E. Feist
17 Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
18 The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown
19 Cloudstreet by Tim Winton
20 The Host by Stephenie Meyer
21 Mao's Last Dancer by Li Cunxin
22 Atonement by Ian McEwan
23 The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
24 Angels and Demons by Dan Brown
25 A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
26 Cross Stitch by Diana Gabaldon
27 Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts
28 The Slap by Christos Tsiolkas
29 Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell
30 Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
31 The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
32 Tomorrow When the War Began by John Marsden
33 Obernewtyn by Isobelle Carmody
34 The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne
35 The Inheritance Series by Christopher Paolini
36 The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde
37 Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer
38 The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
39 The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
40 Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
41 Ice Station by Matthew Reilly
42 The Power of One by Bryce Courtenay
43 Persuasion by Jane Austen
44 Tully by Paullina Simons
45 Seven Ancient Wonders by Matthew Reilly
46 Breath by Tim Winton
47 The Mortal Instruments Series by Cassandra Clare
48 Life of Pi by Yann Martel
49 A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry
50 The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
51 Emma by Jane Austen
52 The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory
53 The Bible 
54 Six Sacred Stones by Matthew Reilly
55 A Fortunate Life by A.B. Facey
56 We Need To Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver
57 The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
58 Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
59 The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
60 The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
61 People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks
62 The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown
63 The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova
64 Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice
65 Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
66 The Sookie Stackhouse Series by Charlaine Harris
67 Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom
68 Five Greatest Warriors by Matthew Reilly
69 On the Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta
70 The Princess Bride by William Goldman
71 The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom
72 Wicked by Gregory Maguire
73 Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
74 Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama
75 Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
76 Dewey by Vicki Myron
77 Dirt Music by Tim Winton
78 Marley and Me by John Grogan
79 Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
80 Dune by Frank Herbert
81 The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
82 The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards
83 Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
84 War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
85 The Road by Cormac McCarthy
86 Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
87 The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis
88 The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton
89 Possession by AS Byatt
90 Finnikin of The Rock by Melina Marchetta
91 No 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith
92 Graceling by Kristin Cashore
93 The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
94 The Secret History by Donna Tartt
95 Silent Country by Di Morrissey
96 Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
97 Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger
98 The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
99 Still Alice by Lisa Genova
100 The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
101 Gallipoli by Les Carlyon

Anne of Green Gables Challenge

Those participating in the Anne of Green Gables reading Challenge can now visit the blog to post their reviews!

Musing Mondays (April 5)

Today’s MUSING MONDAYS post is about the upcoming readathon.

Are you planning on participating in the upcoming readathon? Why not tell us a little about your plans: reading solo or with a partner/group? How long to do plan to read? Do you have your books chosen? If not reading, do you plan to be a cheerleader? The floor is yours.

PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT with either the link to your own Musing Mondays post, or share your opinion in a comment here (if you don’t have a blog). Thanks.

 

I really enjoyed participating in last years Readathon and so I’ve definitely signed up for the one on the 10th. I haven’t made any concrete plans yet, beyond a general ‘hmm, I might read [insert book from trb pile here]’. This is, in fact, the main reason I’m asking this question – I like to hear what other’s have in mind.

I do plan on reading books from my tbr pile – it’s getting to the ‘staggering’ end of the spectrum – with some poetry (already borrowed from the library) in between.

I’ll be reading solo again this readathon, but my family were very good last year in leaving me be and providing regular cups of tea, so I imagine things will go well.