Let's Talk About Books, Baby

If you haven’t noticed, or just in case I haven’t mentioned it enough, I love to read. I cannot sit still without distractions for more than two minutes before I start looking around for something – anything – to read. Want to make the drive-thru lane at Taco Bell move faster? Whip out a book! This also works with those pesky red lights; nothing makes a light change from red to green faster than finding your spot in the book you’re reading.

Where do you find your next book? When I had the money to buy my books at brick & mortar stores, I would wander the sections that interested me, looking at titles and covers. It’s how I chose a lot of my books; something would catch my eye, I’d read the synopsis, and if it sounded good, I bought it. I still do this, but now it’s at the library. The problem is that our library is about the size of a 7-11, so there’s not as much to choose from.

In swoops my saving grace – a freebie magazine that the library hands out called, “Book Page”. It features the newest releases in all kinds of genres: fiction and non-fiction, young adult, children’s, cooking, audio, romance, mystery, etc. There are author interviews, my favorite one being in the children’s books section where the author gives his answers in pictures. I LURVE this little magazine and after snatching it up I dutifully study it cover to cover, turning down the corners of pages and marking books that I am interested in. Then I go to my library’s website and search for those books. At times I have had 20+ books on hold, waiting for them to arrive; one time I had six books come in all at once! YIKES! If they are really new and other people have holds on them, you can’t renew them. I had a bunch of overdue fines that month! If your library doesn’t have this little gem, you can check it out online at bookpage.com.

Here are the books from the October issue that I am going to check out:

This House is Haunted by John Boyne
The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion
Identical by Scott Turow
Mother, Mother by Koren Zailckas
One Summer by Bill Bryson (a rare non-fiction choice for me)

I recently finished The Cuckoo’s calling by Robert Galbraith, aka J.K. Rowling. I never read any of the Harry Potter books, but I did read her other book, The Casual Vacancy, a while back. I liked this book a lot, and I hope she writes a couple more as sequels. I enjoyed the way she has an eye for detail, and I liked the characters.

I also put a bunch of different cross stitch books on hold – I can’t wait for those to come in! Here they are:

All Our Yesterdays: 33 Charming Designs From Bygone Days by Faye Whittaker
Art Nouveau Cross Stitch by Barbara Hammet
The Art of William Morris in Cross Stitch: Over 40 Projects Inspired by the Design Master by Barbara Hammet
Oriental Cross Stitch by Debbie Minton
Star Trek Cross Stitch: Explore Strange New Worlds of Crafting by John Lohman
Twisted Stitches: 30 Corrupt Cross Stitch and Embroidery Designs by Phil Davison

What are you reading these days?

I plan on going to Portland tomorrow to visit a cross stitch store I found online – very, very excited about this. I also want to visit the Fabric Depot to look for fabrics for some purses I’d like to try my hand at. It is THE most awesome fabric store around, and this is coming from someone who knows pretty much zilch about sewing. I’ll let you know how it went.

TTFN.