Books, Books, Books!!!

I love Books!  Do you love books?  I always have a book I am reading.  I carry a book with me wherever I go...you never know when I might be sitting somewhere waiting for someone or something and have a few minutes to catch a few more pages.  Some might say that I am escaping reality a bit and they might be right...who cares?!   
A couple years ago, I started to write down all the books I read.  If you are anything like me, I forget what I have read and what a book was about (I call it "mommy memory").  Once I start a new one I forget a lot of the details of the last one only because I get so in the next.  Because of my "mommy memory" I started keeping a little journal where I write down the books I have completed, the author and a brief summary of the plot.  This helps...a lot.  I also started using a great website called goodreads.com...I highly recommend it...helps keep track of book you have read, books you want to read and books you are currently reading, and recommends great new books to read.  You can also link up through facebook, find your friends and send out your own recommendations, do your own review of a book, and set reading goals.  I am happy to say through goodreads.com I set a reading goal of 15 books for 2011...I just completed my goal!  This seems quite exciting to me as I have 3 kiddos and love to watch tv...this can cause issues with getting books completed but I did it!  Yea me!
   
Here is my most recent favorite...I just finished this book today...A Vintage Affair by Isabel Wolff. You can check out my other recent books (some good, some bad) with the little widget on the right side of my blog...just scroll down a bit and you will see it...maybe they will be one of your favorites.  You can read about it here and then maybe sign up for your own Goodreads account.  It's so worth it! 

I also must say that I LOVE the library.  This has been an acquired love...I used to love Barnes&Noble but when things got a bit tough financially for our family I couldn't afford to buy books like I used to.  I knew I still needed/wanted to read so I had to use the library.  Thank goodness for the establishment of libraries!  I still go to B&N but for a whole different reason (to their dismay)...I go there when I need to run away (all you moms understand this), get my Starbucks Venti Skinny Caramel Machiatto, grab my notebook out of my bag and browse.  When I find a book I want to read I write it down along with the authors name.  I run home, check the library's online catalog and find out whether they have the book and grab it up if they do!  It's like finding a treasure!  The other great thing about the library...books are due by a specific time...you must get them done an turn them back in.  If you have too have kiddos and like to watch tv, this due date can be very motivational. 
LOVE, LOVE, LOVE!! 

So the kiddos and I are headed to the library in just a bit with my Mom In Law (cookies, milk and tea to follow at Baba's!).  This makes for a good day...I have 3 kiddos who love to read nearly as much as I and love to get new books.  Off we go...!

Thoughtless....

No big thoughts today.  I guess I will fill you in on what I have been up to...

-I finished a bag for a friend (no Shana, not you)
-working on some embroidery projects to do in KS
-finishing a Maggie Bag for etsy site
-laundry (a bazillion loads)
-procrastinating about figuring out what's for dinner
-sending kiddos outside to play...inside to do homework all too soon

-7 days till we go to Kansas!!!  Yay!
-a book I recently finished and loved...

Next book...Second Chances by Jane Green
Just another Monday!

I LOVE to read!

I always have a book (or two!) that I am reading...I don't go to bed without my book, I don't get up and go downstairs in the morning without my book, I don't leave the house without my book because who knows when I might find a moment when I am waiting for someone/thing or just a moment of peace and solitude where I can sit and enjoy.  It's amazing how completely refreshing and totally relaxing a few stolen moments to myself and my book can be. 

I love all kinds of fiction!  Yesterday I started reading The Help by Kathryn Stockett.  It's already great and I'm only in chapter 1.  I just finished Lauren Weisberger's The Devil Wears Prada...so fun (the movie is good too!).  There are some that I have read and instantly became a favorite like Adriana Trigiani's Big Stone Gap series.  I loved every minute with all 3 books.  I truly enjoyed Margaret Mitchell's Gone With The Wind.  It's a big commitment but such a classic.

Some of my favorite authors...Kristin Hannah (Firefly Lane was great!), Elin Hilderbrand (Barefoot-great book too!), Jennifer Weiner (Best Friends Forever), Jane Green (The Beach House), Lois Battle (Bed and Breakfast) and Elizabeth Berg (can't wait to read Home Safe)!

One of my favorite "moms-night out" activities is go (by myself) to B&N, grab a decaf and just wander the aisles.  I have a little notepad I take with me and I write down all the books/authors that I am interested in reading.  I then either go online to my library and reserve them right away or go wander my library in person!  I'm sure that is not B&N's idea of a good night but every once in a while I do find a book I can't live without so they get a little bit of my $. 


Here are some next-ups on my list...The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger, The Buernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows (too long but hopefully good), Home Safe by Elizabeth Berg, True Colors by Kristin Hannah and Amy and Isabelle by Elizabeth Strout.

There are so many more great books to read...it's truly never ending and that is what I probably love the most...I can always count on having a great book to enjoy.  The hardest part...when the book ends and it feels as though you will never find another that you enjoy so much and then you magically do and the cycle goes on and on!

Happy Friday everyone and send me your favorites books...I always need more to add to the list!!!  

I so love to read!