I'm still reading

Wow! I haven't written in a long time, I have been reading however...but not as much as I would like.

I failed miserable at the summer challenge and it was my first one, I kept changing my selections then threw it all to the wind and started reading the Harry Potter series. I think I did end up reading ten books, but they were not my original 10.

I was in the middle of "Leaving Eden" when my "I Must read Harry Potter NOW!" attack came on, and have been reading HP ever since. I have never read the Harry potter series until the 7th book came out, and DH and I went to the local release party and it got me all excited to read them and there yah go. It has been slow going though. It's been over a month since I started (July 21st) and I am just now at the beginning of book 5.

However, life has been a bit disrupted by summer school, and now I am back in school for Fall Term, so that cuts back on the reading as well. Although all I really want to do is sit and read HP. We'll see, I sorta have a goal to have the entire series read by October 1st, which isn't a bad goal, seeing as how I only have 3 more books of the series to read. (less than actually as I am about 150 pages into #5) So, I think it may be doable, as long as I keep it up, and this thing called life doesn't get in the way. After the Harry Potter series, I plan to return to "Leaving Eden", and move on from there.

I have bought quite a few new books from amazon, of course, and I just found a used bookstore here in my toen that I never knew existed, so I will be going over there when I have finished the pile of books that lay in wait of being read. Gosh, I wish I could just forget life and just READ.

The thing when you're in college, though about fun reading, is that you KNOW you HAVE to read for classes, and when you sit and read for fun, your homeowrk reading is sitting in the back of your brain taunting you, making you feel guilty for not reading what you SHOULD be reading. So, we shall see how the rest of the year goes concerning my reading goals. I wanted to read 50 books this year, and I have to say I am SADLEY behind. But, I will continue to read, and enjoy and if i don't reach my goals, oh well, at least I read SOME this year, rather than nothing at all, which is what happened the first two years out of undergrad school. I had no motivation to read at all, and now I am going to get my masters, and I suppose the lack of reading will return, but I will try not to let it!

Drowning Ruth

I started Drowning Ruth quite awhile ago, and am still not done with it! For some reason...I am not reading this one as quickly as I could/should. I think I have been spending too much time online messing around reading and surfing the net...ah! plus I caught up with an old friend from high school on myspace(any myspace addicts out there?) and spend HOURS IMing with him...So, not a lot of other things going on really...I feel like I'm behind in everything.

But when I first started the book it seemed SLOW...it was hard to transition to this genre...I guess you could call it...the author flips back and forth between the here and now and the past and different character voices, first and third person point of view...I mean she is all over the place! And at first I was thinking "I cannot get through this! This is just crazy writing! How do you keep up with the story like this?!" But I stuck with it and I'm finding it is, infact, a piece of art...it's REALLY good! It is very different and artistically written...from what I'm used to, and yet I took a chance on it and...wow! So, I am slowly plodding through this piece of art, and I have no idea why it is taking me so long! I mean I'm absolutely into the story, it just seems like I never get to sit down with it for more than twenty or so minutes at a time, so it is just slow going...But! I hope to finish it by tomorrow evening, maybe? We'll see. I'm going to see the new Harry Potter movie tonight, so I'm very excited! I find it funny that although I am besotted with books, I have seen all those movies and have yet to read ANY of the books in the series and here the last one is coming out in about a week. I guess it's sort of a good thing though, because now I don't have to wait for the next book to come out when I'm done reading each one, ha ha!

Wow!

Water for Elephants

By: Sara Gruen

Grade I gave it: A+ (or 5/5)

pages:336

Water for Elephants was the GREATEST book! I thoroughly enjoyed it, there were not many lulls, if any, that I can remember. The author sweeps back and forth between the here and now to the past in the memories of an elderly man's mind. His memoirs as a vet traveling with a circus, are exciting, and enchanting.

It made me remember that so many times as a young person I disregard old people and how they think and the things they have seen and done, and yet if you take time to really sit down with them and listen, they have got some gems to tell! This is what I thought of reading this book. I felt as though I was sitting beside this poor lonely old man and listening to him tell me his great adventures traveling with the circus. I couldn't put it down!! I finished it in 5 days, and for me that is a record-at 335 pages!

I think I have said it here before, but this year I have made a pact with myself to branch out in my reading choices, and read some authors I wouldn't before. This was my first stepping- out- of- my- comfort- zone- read, and I was NOT disappointed. I am definitely going to be looking for other works by this author.

Next up: Entering Normal by: Anne D. LeClaire

Also a new author to me...so we shall see if I am satisfied and eager to reach for the next one I have by her: Leaving Eden

Water for Elephants

Well, I was happily reading through my old books when it dawns on me that "Wait a minute!! I have BRAND new books I could be reading!!! Why am I re-reading books that I have read before?" So, I chucked Mitford Years out the window...no just kidding, I would never treat a good friend like that, and went to round up all the books I have on my shelves that still need to be loved...I mean read...I found 30!!! and then I went to the mall and Water for Elephants was on sale-40% off, you KNOW I had to get it! Within a day of buying it, I was half way through!!! It is a true page turner!!! I love it! So, I guess this means that my list for the summer challenge has changed yet once again...I am going for 8 of my new books to be finished. I feel like I wasted so much time reading those other books...and now I'm starting the challenge over, except for the fact that I can't rewind time and go back to week 1...so, I will just keep plodding on...what can I say? Too many books!!! How in the world did I justify re-reading old ones?! Oh well, I am on the right track now!

Another finish!

I just finished What a Girl Wants about two minutes ago. I had read it before, but a few years back, and had forgotten many of the tiny details of the story, so it wasn't completely ruined for me. Now I think I will move onto The first in the Mitford Years series. I have read these too, but again it was such a long time ago I don't think I will remember much of the stories, so they won't be ruined. I have the first 5 in the series, I guess there are like 9 now, but I never bought 6-9, so I think I will read the 5 that I have and then opt to buy the next four in the series.

Which reminds me I spent like 35 bucks on books yesterday at amazon.com. Lets see? What'd I buy?

Three books on Oprah's Book Club list:
~Anna Karenina
~The Heart is a Lonely Hunter
~Drowning Ruth

And three on the Ballentine Reader's Circle list:
~The Mirror
~Leaving Eden
~Entering Normal

And a classic by Henry James:
~A Portrait of a Lady

I have made the decision to try to read more classics and finish more lists (Book club lists and award lists, and classics, etc) than just randomly picking up a book and saying "Oh! That looks good, I want that!" I am also trying to break out of my women's lit addiction. I have a tendency to read only those authors which I have read before and love, most are women:

Maeve Binchy
Nora Roberts
Belva Plain
LaVyrle Spencer
Barbara Delinsky
Kristin Hannah
Luanne Rice

I am really trying to broaden my horizons when it comes to my book choices. And so I think I am doing pretty well with these new book choices. I am breaking out of my comfort zone. plus picking a list and working off it sorta gives one a sence of accomplishment, or a goal.

If you are like me and like lists of books to work through, check out: http://www.listsofbests.com/

There are lists of books galore! Plus music, movies, places to visit, and more. I am working on 13 lists myself...all book lists. Oprah's Book Club being one of them, Pulitzer Prize Winners being another.

Well, I am off to pick up The Mitford Years #1, and check in with Father Tim! LOL

Finished with Anne of Green Gables.

Another book read! Onto #16...which I am already in the middle of, since I was reading Anne of Green Gables and What a Girl Wants simultaneously.

I finished Anne of Green Gables this morning. I wanted to finish it yesterday but that didn't happen as in the afternoon, I started feeling really sleepy and took a 4 hour nap in the afternoon, instead of reading! So, I have finished book #15 for my yearly 50 book challenge, and I finished the first book on my Summer Reading Challenge list.

That's amazing! I originally started off with 10 books for that challenge, and ended up with 12. I thought I had better add the two that concludes the Ashley Stockingdale series as well, so instead of 10 I have 12 now...it really WILL be a challenge. Seeing as how it is already June, and I have barely finished book #15 for the entire year, how am I gonna finish 12 books in two months if it took me over 5 months to read 15!??! I guess that is why it's called a Challenge.

Now I am thinking of starting Emma by Jane Austen as well, get a good head start on it. But we shall see. Right now I am going to concentrate on What a Girl Wants, and maybe start Mitford years #1.

Let the Challenge begin!

Well, The Summer Reading Challenge has started!!! I have to change the list for my SRC, I have Nora Robert's "Blue Smoke" on the list, but I finished it last night, so I started Kristin Billerbeck's "What a Girl Wants" this morning, so that I could add it to my challenge list, and take the Nora Robert's one off.

I am a little over half way finished with Anne of Green Gables already! I forgot how much I loved those books! The scrapes that poor Anne gets herself into...it is so funny! Well, we are in for some big thunderstorms tonight so I think I will go get comfy in my bed with Anne or Ashley (The main character in the Billerbeck book) and read my evening away, while yet another storm pummels us here in the big country.

I will write review of Blue Smoke tomorrow.