Plot Line Disappointments and

Things That Make You Say, "Oh, uh uh!"

So I’m listening to the latest Hollows book, Ever After, by Kim Harrison, when I had my latest "Oh, uh uh!" moment.

"What exactly is that, Ashley" you ask me with a quirk of your eyebrow.

Well, faithful blog follower, I’ll tell you.

That’s what I call a moment in a story where either the plot has taken a turn down Disappointment Lane or where the writer has done something I find remarkably boneheaded. In the case of Ever After, it was a bit of both, but more about Kim just acting the bonehead.

One of the quickest things a writer can do to make me say, "Oh, uh uh!" is to relate a major (or simply ground shaking) event without actually presenting it. You know the old adage, show me don’t tell me? This is generally sound advice.

I don’t want to spoil anything literary, so I’ll use the television series Charmed as an example. One of the original cast members was Shannen Doherty. She played Prue, one of the charmed sisters, for three seasons. When the fouth season begins however, Prue is just gone. They introduced Paige, a half-sister played by Rose McGowan, to fill the glaring hole.

Now if you are familiar with Charmed then you see the problem, I’m talking about. If you aren’t let me just explain that the series is about three sisters who discover they are witches. They fulfill a prophesy of the "charmed ones," the most powerful witches ever born. The series details their battles with the forces of evil keeping the world safe from demon invasion and other nasties of the sort... more or less... it’s been a while.
At any rate, Prue was one of those three sisters, and therefore a key character in the story. Prue apparently died.

"How’d she die?" you ask.

Good question. I don’t rightly remember, because it was NEVER SHOWN TO US. We get a strange one liner dropped about her death and the first episode of Season Four continues on establishing Paige as the replacement sister.

Now in TV land I understand why something like that happens, but in a novel?

When something big happens in a book, I don’t want to hear about it second hand and after the fact from another character. I want a front row seat. Prue spent three seasons kicking ass along side her sisters. She was a bad ass. Whatever took her down had to have been some amazing stuff, and as someone who had become emotionally invested in the trials and tribulations of her character I didn’t get the closure I needed from her departure.

I see stuff like this happen in books far more often than I care for. Plans are made and we don’t get to see the execution, only a report that the attempt failed or succeeded; the plot involves a war or rebellion that seems hopeless and all of the sudden the rebels have taken all the cities except the last one; and of course, someone of importance dies or otherwise leaves the series and all we get is a "they were here and now they aren’t." There are countless other examples, but you get the picture.

Plot disappointments are a little different, although they also sometimes result in "Oh, uh uh" moments for me. The difference generally being, that I sometimes feel guilty about my reaction. I’ve read countless books where the plot began so brilliantly and yet the writer decides to take the story down a different, often less interesting and sometimes just flipping ridiculous, road.

These are harder for me because it’s not my story and I want to respect the writer’s individual creative drive. I feel guilty saying the story sucked just because I personally didn’t care for where the writer went in the end. So much so, that I generally DON’T say it. I just think it VERY LOUDLY to myself.

If the story’s well written and logically consistent, I might rate it higher than I really felt about it owing to the fact that just because I didn’t like the direction the writer took doesn’t mean someone else won’t. That being said if the plot disappointment is of the flipping ridiculous variety, then I’ll probably tell you about it ad nauseam.

So what about, y’all? Do you feel guilty for not liking a book when it’s about a reasonable plot choice? How about "Oh, uh uh’s" is anyone else out there feeling me? I’d love to ask some of yours, but... spoilers... ya know.

Still, without saying what, here are a few books that have caused me one or more "Oh, uh uh" moments. Note that the fact that these books caused them in me doesn’t necessarily mean I hated the book... although for some...

Ever After (Obviously)
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
Mockingjay
A Storm of Swords
Bloodrose
Drink Deep
House of Night <– This series is full of them, I have no idea why I keep reading it.

I promise there are others, but I’m going to stop before my frustration level maxes out. Cheers!

Where Books and Movies Come to Life

My family just took it's first trip to the place where magic lives. Yup. We went to Disneyworld. I've been there several times before, but this is the first time I've ever been there with kids. It was a slightly different experience. My husband asked me while we were down there what it was about that place that made people want to drop their cash in crazy ways. And, I told him that it's because they make the books and movies that our kids love come to life.

Snuggle time with Gaston from Beauty and the Beast

And, they do it very, very well. My kids weren't the only ones in awe of the sets and characters come to life. You know when you read a book, you have a picture in your head of what the setting is supposed to look like? Or what the characters are supposed to sound like? At Disneyworld, it's like taking your mind's pictures and painting them with a really expensive brush.

Rapunzel's tower amongst other new buildings in an unfinished portion of Fantasyland

Cinderella's castle, Gaston's tavern, Rapunzel's tower - they were all there, and they were all larger than life. The books that I read to my daughter at night only made the visit that much sweeter. She had all the stories in her head - now she has the 3D visuals to go with them.

Disney's newest princess - Merida from Brave

I have to admit to thinking about my GReeps often while I was on vacation. They were on my mind as I went on the ride in the big Epcot golf ball that talks about the history of the written word. And while watching the Beauty and the Beast show when Belle was in wonder in the Beast's library. It was a fantastic trip where dreams and fantasies came to life.

Cinderella's castle at night

Friday Favorites: Songs

  Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens Brown paper packages tied up with strings These are a few of our favorite things.   We all talk a lot about books on our blogs, but what about other things we like? Friday Favorites is a meme hosted by Epic (Chocolate) Fantasy that gives book bloggers a chance to gush about something other than novels.   This week's topic is 'Songs'
My favorite type of music is rock! I've been to a bunch of rock concerts and the only thing I listen to in my car is Octane on SiriusXM.   I couldn't possible list them all but here are some rock songs I like:   -Away From Me, Control, & Psycho by Puddle of Mudd -Head Against the Wall & Done by Anew Revolution -White Rabbit, Taking You Down, & You Make Me Sick by Egypt Central -Nightmare by Avenged Sevenfold -Bad Company & The Pride by Five Finger Death Punch -Unraveling by Sevendust -Rocky Mountain Way, Awake, Keep Away & Whatever by Godsmack -Like I Roll by Black Stone Cherry -Tonight, Fake It, & Remedy by Seether -Chaulk Outline by Three Days Grace   And because I don't want this list to get too out of hand, here are some additional rock bands I like:   Staind, Korn, Hinder, Buckcherry, Papa Roach, Theory of a Deadman, Slipknot, Disturbed, Breaking Benjamin, Rev Theory     And a few random non-rock songs:   -Call Me Maybe by Carly Rae Jepsen -Somebody That I Used to Know by Gotye -Black Horse & A Cherry Tree by KT Tunstall -Rolling in the Deep & Rumor Has It by Adele -Mercy by Duffy -At Last by Etta James -Black Velvet by Alannah Myles   Thanks for reading! GReep Jen

Bookahollic

I think I can easily say, we all love reading, but how far do you go in your book obsession?

Every book I loved needs to be in my bookcase, even though I already own them in eBook (I read on my KOBO most of the time). And that's not all, from my favorite writer I own the dutch editions of the books, the UK and the US editions! I just need to have them all! (If I ever win the lottery, I'm gonna buy the AU editions too)

My MVS bookcase, isn't it pretty!?!?!

And when I'm not reading, I'm browsing the internet for cool bookish stuff! Etsy is great for original book-presents for yourself and for others others.

The Bracelet contains a quote from MVS's Spy Glass: "love trumps logic?" "everytime."
I've bought both items from Bookfiend

And this one I gave to my fellow blogger Jen. I've got this one from Storiarts

Just browse through Etsy.com, there is much much much more!

And ofcouse I collect all kinds of stuff from my favorite writers. I own loads and loads of swag! From bookmarks to guitar picks to cards to everything. But my crown jewel is my one of a kind Darksness & Light T-shirt, signed by the amazing Julie Belfield!

YAY!

But how far do you go? Do you have a shire for your favorite books/writer or don't you get the fuzz about swag at all and do you just read and nothing more?

Please share!

Favourite actors ever

Some male actors sparkle of the screen. And I don’t mean in an Edward way. I mean in that special way. They just have that thing. “What special thing?” I hear you ask. Why is one actor sucky and why do you drool over Johnny Depp? I think everyone sees that sparkle in different actors. Today I want to talk about my favourite actors. Everyone rates their actors differently. I fall for acting abilities and cheeky smiles.

So what’s my top 3?

1. Joseph Gordon-Levitt
I want this guy. He is such a great actor. He played in many amazing movies. All his movies have a certain quality to it. He’s not super sexy. He is not the cheeky guy or the tough guy. But for some reason that makes him even sexier. The way he is on screen, gah! I am so jealous of his acting abilities. 

 

   2.  Leonardo DiCaprio

I hate this guy. I seriously do. Titanic? Throw up much. Hate that movie. (Sorry guys). Anyways. I despise that guy for getting in this list. But I have to admit.. he is an awesome actor. I don’t like him for some reason, I don’t like him in interviews. But I can’t deny that I want to watch every movie he shoots. Why? Because they’re good. Damn you Leo. 

3.  Heath Ledger

Why did you die?! Damn. He was my favourite actor ever. I can honestly say I like every movie he starred in. His smile is just so darn cheeky. But, what got me in the end… His acting abilities. He can play the craziest guy and not be Heath Ledger. When you look at the Joker, do you see Heath? No! He is the Joker. And I think it’s that way with most of his roles. He becomes the character and that is what makes those movies so believable, funny and just good.

So what’s your top 3? Why do you like your favourite men? What makes them so special?

 

Books that weren't worth the time

We all have those books we've read that just weren't all that wonderful. These are some of my least favourite reads.

Dragon's Tears by Dean Koontz


One of the worst books I have ever read in my life. One of those books with an interesting concept that never gets off the ground. I didn't like any of the characters and was thankful when I was done.









Feast for Crows/Dance with Dragons by George RR Martin

I LOVED the first three books of this series and I wish it would have ended there. Between the waiting for 6 years for books and the fact that the story line basically doesn't move killed these for me, I still haven't finished ADwD. I hated that he chopped the books into two parts so that you dont get all POVs in one book. Not a fan, but sadly I will probably finish the series assuming it ever ends.






Siren's Call by Devyn Quinn

There isn't much in particular to like about this book. Characters were relatively one dimensional and the mermaid mythology was boring. Not a series I wish to continue.










Hades' Daughter by Sara Dougless

This is a bit of a cheat as I haven't quite finished it yet. I wanted to love this book, I expected to. It's based on the labyrinth of Greek myth, on of my absolute favourite time periods of history. This book has been nothing but a terrible let down. It's predictable and slow. Nothing really starts to happen until about page 423. That's far too long to wait for a book to get interesting. Even now it's still only mediocre. The explanations for the 'game' are long and drawn out but somehow not explained fully. I'm sure I could go on, but you get the point.




So I know you've read them too, what are some of the books you've read that you really wish you hadn't wasted your time in doing so?

Friday Favorites

Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens

Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens

Brown paper packages tied up with strings

These are a few of my favorite things

We all talk a lot about books on our blogs, but what about other things we like? Friday Favorites is a meme hosted by Epic (Chocolate) Fantasy that gives book bloggers a chance to gush about something other than novels.

To join in, grab the button code, write a post about your favorites for the category of the week, and post your link below. Thanks for participating!

This Friday's Topic is:
TV Shows

Doctor Who

^He's lovely right? I know, I know. I want his babies too. Doctor Who is one of the greatest TV shows out there and if you haven't seen it, you are MISSING OUT. I'm sad to say that I attempted to watch Doctor Who two years before I actually fell in love with it. I watched the pilot episode and I didn't see what the big fuss was about. Then I had a friend talk me into giving it another try. Well, I did, and I was hooked. Now all I talk about on my FB is Time Lords, the Tardis, and David Tennant. In fact, I'm so addicted my boyfriend bought me nothing but Doctor Who merch for Christmas (as in The Limited Edition Gift Set of ALL 6 Seasons and Doctor Who Monopoly- yeah, totally throwing that out there to make you jelly).

The Walking Dead

Unless you've been living under a bridge (or going through a zombie apocalypse), then you've probably at least heard of The Walking Dead. This show is simply amazing. There's never a dull moment- I mean, hello, ZOMBIES- and it keeps you on the edge of your seat. If I had to use one word to describe it would be: EPIC.
p.s. Dibs on Glenn.

The Big Bang Theory

What's not to love about this show? Seriously. When I've come home from a long day at work and I just want some good comedy, BBT is perfect. 

The New Girl

This is one of the best shows on TV right now. Remember when (back in the day) Friends use to come on every Thursday night and you'd laugh until you about peed yourself? Well, there's finally a show on TV that is filling that Friends gap you've been missing for the last 10 years. 

True Blood

Uh... what? What was I saying again? Oh yeah, right. TV shows. ERIC NORTHMAN Ahem, I mean, True Blood. I've been watching TB since the beginning and I am in LOVE with it. Okay, really I'm in love with Viking god Eric Northman, but it's practically the same thing. TB keeps a fresh spin on the vampire fandom by putting them in "real" life (at least if you live in Charlaine Harris's world). And why the books can sometimes be a hit and miss, the show never disappoints. 

A few other really good shows that you should keep an eye out for: Vampire Diaries, Bones, Duck Dynasty (which I didn't talk about but totally should have), and How I Met Your Mother. 

Hope you all have an awesome weekend!

GReeps Through The Shelves: Episode I: What the ?!?

So in addition to my Tongue-in-Cheek Reviews, this is the second semi regular feature I envision for my Thursdays.  Don't ask me how often, I don't know.

The idea is to write a story using our contributors as the main characters. The story will primarily take place in the GReepsville Public Library where our heroines work as Librarians.  It will be a series of vignettes each more or less self contained.  It's mostly silly stuff, but I hope it'll warrant a chuckle from time to time.

The impetus for most of the stories will be odd, library related pictures I find on the Internet. If, in your Internet wanderings you find a picture you think you would like me to build a story around... place a URL to the picture in the comments below.  If I like it and can come up with somthing for it, YOUR picture will take center stage!

At some point I am planning to set up some form of metaplot at which point the series will become somewhat of a mystery / who dun it.

So without any further adieu...
******
A long time ago, in a library far far away...

Dramatic orchestral music blares into existence.  As the blue glowing sentence fades to black, it is  replaced by the title written in an outlined semi blocky script

GReeps Through the Shelves

Episode I: What the ?!?

The title shot, at once large slides backwards into the far reaches of space.  As it disappears, text begins to scroll across the screen.

It is a period of civil war. Rebel spaceships, striking from a hidden base, have won their first victory against the evil Galactic Empire. During the battle, Rebel spies managed to steal secret plans to the Empire’s ultimate weapon, the DEATH STAR, an armored space station with enough power to destroy an entire planet.

Oblivious to the greater happenings in the galaxy at large, a rag tag band of librarians struggle in a conflict of their own to bring piece and tranquility to the stacks. Custodians of the card catalogue that can help the people of Greepsville find what they want to read and restore order to the bookshelves...

As the crawl completes it’s journey into inky blackness, the camera pans down revealing the glowing blue orb of earth.  Quick zoom through the atmosphere sliding in until we see the continent then the town of Greepsville, thru the roof of the Greepsville public library finally focusing on Ashley sitting behind a computer at the circulation desk.

Kate enters through the sliding glass doors of the library entrance, passes through the anti-theft scanners, and walks up to Ashley.

Kate: What’s the word, Chica?

Ashley’s mouth quirks into a smile.  She continues to stare at the monitor and type

Ashley:  Don’t let Jen hear you ask that question.

Kate: Gah! ASH!! Now it’s friggin’ stuck in my head... Thank you, very much!

Ashley: What? It’s not like I started singing it.

Krista leaving the office behind the circulation desk comes to stand behind Ashley

Krista: Singing what?

Kate: Don’t you dare, Ash...

A maniacal look crosses Ashley’s face as she stops typing and looks into Kate’s eyes.

Kate: I mean it, Ashley, don’t yo-

Ashley pushes away from the desk. As the chair rolls away she begins singing

Ashley: Bird bird bird, the bird is the word!
             Bird bird bird, the bird is the word! Yeah!
             Well everybody's heard, about the bird!

Krista [laughing]: I had to ask...

Kate: Damn you Ashley... now I’ll NEVER get it out.

At that moment, Sonnie comes racing to the counter from behind the shelves of the Science Fiction seciton

Sonnie [to loudly]: No. F’ing. Way!!

Library patrons hiss at her to keep it down.

Krista: What?!

Sonnie [urgently whispering]: I just saw a frigging JAWA over in Science Fiction

Kate: Get out!

Sonnie: No, seriously! Glowing eyes and everything!

Krista: You saw a REAL jawa?

Ashley: Like from Tatooine?

Sonnie: F’ing right!

Kate’s eyes become large and glassy. The smile on her face is like a kid’s at Christmas as she bolts back in the direction Sonnie came from.  Sonnie, Ashley and Krista follow.

As they round a shelf in science fiction, a storm trooper sitting at a computer terminal comes into view.

Storm Trooper One: The Death Star plans are not in the main computer!

Kate: NO WAY!

By the shelves, two more storm troopers and a Jawa are going through the books on the she shelf. At Kate’s outburst, the one kneeling on the floor rises, book dangling from his left hand, blast in his right raised toward Kate

Ashley: Erm... Kate... maybe we should just take a step back... ya know? Nothing to see here.

Storm Trooper Two [draws blaster threateningly]: How long have you had these books?

Sonnie: Ummm... Two or three seasons?

Sonnie [continuing excitedly]: They’re up for sale if you want them!

Storm Trooper Two: We’re going to need to see some identification.

Kate [Laughing, waves her hand in front of the storm trooper’s face]: You don’t need to see her identification, these aren’t the books you’re looking for.

The other two storm troopers draw their blasters and advance toward Kate.

Ashley: Yeah... see, that wasn’t a very good idea, Kate... what’s with all the hand waving anyway, you think you’re some kind of Jedi or something?!

Kate: Well, it worked in the Movie! They’re just costumes anyway.

A storm trooper points his blaster at the chair by the computer terminal and blasts it.  The Chair melts into so much slag.

Ashley: Wow... that looked pretty real, Kate.

Krista: Hey! You can’t run around blasting Library property without a care in the world!  Who do you think has to pay for that! The tax payers, that’s who! I bet the Empire collects a hefty chunk of change out of your salary too, doesn’t it! You trying to get them to raise taxes or something?! I guess you like working for PEANUTS. You should be ashamed of yourself.

The storm trooper hangs his head dejectedly

Krista [gesturing at the remaining two storm troopers]: AND YOU! Don’t you realize who we are?  We’re LIBRARIANS that’s who!  You can’t be tearing up our shelves, threatening patrons and staff, and destroying the furniture in some willy nilly quest for the Death Star plans! This is a Library and order MUST be maintained!

Storm Trooper Three: We... we’re sorry, ma’am... hor...horribly rude of us.

The jawa titters, Krista shoots him a stern look and he quickly falls silent. Ashley, Kate, and Sonnie stand there gaping at Krista

Krista: If you can’t find these plans you’re looking for did it even occur to you to ASK one of us... we ARE reference librarians, don’t you know?!

The storm troopers kick the ground and sway from side to side looking down in a dejected fashion

Krista: Now.  Kate, I believe your shift was just starting? Take these fine storm troopers up to the front, and see if you can find them what they’re looking for in the card catalogue, please?

Kate: Uh... yeah... sure, Krista.

Kate leads the trio of storm troopers and the jawa back to the circulation desk and sits behind the computer.

Ashley [watching the retreating storm troopers]: OMG, Krista that was da bomb yo diggity.

Krista: Yeah, storm troopers are just clones of Jango Fett’s they’ve had no real upbringing to speak of.  I had a hunch they’d respect parentalesque authority!

Ashley [laughing]: Only you would have thought of that... well, maybe, M, would have... but I mean really... that rocked.

Sonnie: Let’s go up to the desk and make sure everything’s all good with Kate.

Krista: Good idea.

Back at the circulation desk...

Kate: Let’s see... Death Star Plans... hmm... Death Star Plans

Storm Trooper One: I already looked, they aren’t in the main computer.

Kate: Let the master librarian work, okay?!

Kate begins humming "Bird is the word" under her breath...

Kate: Ah! Here we go.

Storm Trooper One: NO WAY!

Kate: Way! Star Wars: Death Star Technical Companion by Bill Slavicsek. That’s in Gaming SLA 301

Sonnie: I’ll get it!

Storm Trooper Three: This is so great... Wait til we get this back to Vader... We are going to be soooooo set.

Storm Trooper Two: I know right?! And the rest of the squad is on that stupid desert planet roasting away under two suns!!

Sonnie comes running back, book in hand

Kate: I don’t suppose any of you have a library card do you?

Fin

Cover Love?

As many of my GReeps know, I am not the sort of person who goes crazy over covers. In point of fact, I can't even pretend to understand the degree of fascination many people have with book covers. Sure, sometimes they're pretty, I guess, but on the hierarchy of Book Things of Importance, they rank somewhere below the consonance of the author's name.

However. While all of that is still true, it is not the point of this post. The point of this post is this: the other day (calendrically appropriately), I had an epiphany. I'm actually not totally indifferent to covers! For the first time in my life, I looked at a book (The Assassin's Curse, on the left) and said, "Ooo, pretty. Waaaannnnt," without even looking at the description (which does, as a matter of fact, sound like something I would really enjoy, so double bonus there). Isn't that great?

Yeah, yeah, you don't really care. But what I want to talk about here is the part of my calendrically appropriate epiphany where I realized what I like in a cover and the reason I thought I didn't care for so long. See, most covers out there, especially ones that make bloggers ooh and ah, have one of three things: a) a girl, preferably in either a lovely gown that is somehow appropriate even though no girl has ever worn a dress even remotely like that for anything other than her prom, or looking questionably under-clad for a super bad-ass warrior mage shapeshifter vampire whatever, b) a shirtless hunk, which, while appealing enough to look at, somehow fades to mediocrity among all the other shirtless hunks out there, or c) a single object with a monochrome background, a la The Hunger Games or Twilight. And while all of these things are fine, they don't really wow me.

Here are a few things I have recently discovered I like in covers.

-A cool font. I realize that "cool" is among the most subjective and least helpful adjectives I could have chosen, but I have never taken an art class in my life and can't come up with anything significantly better. Just look at the covers here, okay?

-Clean design. Nothing crazy going on, not too many colors, but attractively simple. Or maybe simply attractive.

-No people. I can't think of a single cover with a person on it that I really, really like. Of course, since the list of covers I really like has approximately four entries, that's not actually saying much, but there are so many covers out there with people on them, you'd think I'd have liked one of them if I were ever going to.

So I don't not care about covers! Granted, the list of covers I love wouldn't even cover half of a top ten list, but I consider this progress. Go me.

What kinds of covers do you like?

Audiobooks - Yay or Nay?

Eleven months ago, I discovered a new way to read books - a way that has now become a regular thing for me.

Audiobooks.

Now, some say that listening to a book doesn't really count as reading. Others think that they can't listen to a book and do something else at the same time. Silly people.

First of all, listening DOES count as reading. You're reading with your ears. The best part about books is using my imagination to take me places and learn about people. I can still do that when I listen to a story. The words paint a picture - how they get in my head doesn't matter.

As for doing two things at once - I'm a mom. I'm not comfortable unless I'm multitasking. But, seriously, I've listened to books while cooking, walking and folding laundry. Usually, though, I listen to books in my car on my way to and home from work. Before I started regularly listening to books in my car, I would always fight to stay awake on the road in the morning. That NEVER happens anymore. I have something else to focus on instead of how sleepy I am.

Sometimes the narrators grate on the nerves a bit. Sometimes the voices they do are a bit overdramatized. And, sometimes they pronounce words wrong, which to me, is one of the greatest offenses. Then again, it's rare to find a printed book 100% free of mistakes too, isn't it?

If you've never tried audiobooks, I recommend you throw your preconceived notions out the window. Listen to the experts (that would be us). Audiobooks are fun and a great way to mix up your reading experiences. Go borrow one from the library today and you be the judge.

Words that Inspire

I am pretty sure everyone has seen those inspirational photos with words under them. They are notorious at Doctor's offices, schools, dentist offices, etc. 

But, are those words ones that inspire you? 

Do you have your own set of words to motivate you in your life?

There are thousands of beautiful words out there, and so many that can inspire people in many ways.  

Here is my ABCs of my favorite words:

• Absolute
• Believe
• Cancerous
• Devilish
• Effervescent
• Fluffy
• Gossamer
• Humble
• Incandescent
• Juxtapose
• Kiss
• Lyric
• Memory
• Nifty
• Opulent
• Plethora
• Quirky
• Resonant
• Sublime
• Treacherous
• Umbrella
• Vile
• Xanthene  (yes I looked that one up, it's a real word)
• Youth
• Zit (because who really knows any other good word that starts with Z?) 

What are some of your favorite words???

 I would love to know! They might just inspire someone to write a story!

Back to the Chaos!

~M

My Bookish Habits (Part 2)

This is part 2 of my bookish habits list…although it’s starting to feel more like bookish confessions ;-)

Click here if you missed part 1 of my list.

Book buying bans don’t work for me…I find loop holes….lots of loop holes. Like buying birthday presents for others or free kindle books…they’re free so I’m technically not BUYING them right?!? And book signings…it’s very possibly the only time I’ll see such and such authors so I have to buy books to have signed, right?!!?

I cannot read up to the time I go to bed. If I do I just lay there thinking about the book and its FOREVER until I can get to sleep. I usually stop reading an hour and a half before bed.

I don’t loan books to my mom…unless I don’t plan on keeping it. She’s really forgetful so I know if I want her to read something that I’m not willing to part with I have to buy her her own copy.

I never dog ear pages, which is another reason I don’t loan books to my mom! BUT if I buy a used book and its beat up well loved then I have absolutely no problem breaking the spine a little more. In fact, sometimes I prefer reading used book so I can do just that.

I skim. If a paragraph or page doesn’t flow or is overly complicated I tend to skim over it. I think that’s why I don’t read a lot of fantasy; it feels like work to figure out the intricate world building.

I (don’t) like big books and I cannot lie. I know it’s just a mental road block but I have a hard time starting a book if it’s really long. For example, a friend convinced me to read The Gamble by Kristen Ashley and even loaned me the ebook. It ended up being a really good book but very loooong, 555 pages long. I want to continue the series but I haven’t because I KNOW the rest are as long (or longer) than the first.

I own more books than I could read in 10 years!! It’s ridiculous but I keep buying more…dang Kindle and their one click buying!!

I like to switch back and forth between ebooks and paper books. Sometimes I’ll have the same book in both formats so I’ll read it on my iPhone at work then switch to the paper book and pick up where I left off. If I see that a book is free on the Kindle I’ll ‘buy’ it even if I already have the paper copy so I can read it both ways.

I have never read any of the Harry Potter books and I don’t plan to. I’ve never seen the movies either.

My husband’s bookish habit…

Saying hi to me every ten minutes while I’m reading…or trying to show me dumb Facebook posts.

 

Thanks for reading!

See you next time!

Greep Jen

My Bookish Habits

Miss Thursday, Lolita, has a lot going on so I'm filling in for her today. And since tomorrow is my normal day to post, I'm splitting this into two parts.


I will use anything and everything as a bookmark…even though I have a huge stack of bookmarks in the room next to me. I do use bookmarks but I won't go out of my way (aka get off the couch) to get one. Because of that I have used my phone, the TV remote, a blanket (that one doesn’t always work out), mail, tissues (clean tissues), my leg, my phone charger cord…with my phone attached, pens, and my ‘girls’ (just tuck books between the girls and your chin and you’re good to go).

I have read while doing other tasks. Like driving…I know, I know it’s definitely not safe but in my defense it’s usually while at red lights. I have read while straightening my hair which was surprisingly easy. All I had to do was prop my phone (or ipad) against the wall. I have read, on my phone, while doing laundry…not recommended. I end up worrying that my phone accidentally made its way into the washer!!

It’s VERY rare for me to reread books. It’s not that I’m opposed to it, there’s sooo many other books out there that I want to read. I think the only books I have reread are Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte and Poison Study by Maria V. Snyder

I sometimes do judge a book by its cover and I have bought books based solely on the cover. Sometimes it works out for the best, sometimes not.

I always take the dust jacket off hard covers because I don’t want them to get hurt.

I had a library card that expired…and I’m sure the one I have currently will expire as well. Did you know they expire?!?!

Sometimes I will carry a book back and forth to work every day for a week and not read a word of it. I can’t explain this one.

Thanks for reading!

Don't forget to stop back tomorrow to see more of my bookish habits!

GReep Jen

Top Ten Tuesday - Reading Goals 2013

Top Ten Tuesday is an original meme hosted at Broke and Bookish! The top ten of this week:

Your Top 10 reading goals of 2013.

This is the year I want to try new things (like 4 and 5) and I want to stop buying so many books and read the ones I own! Sigh.


1. Read at least 21 books I own!
2. I have challenged myself to read 100 books, but I want to at least read 75.
3. Read the last two Sookie Stackhouse books (stop stalling and get on with it!)
4. Read an anthology.
5. Listen to an audio-book. (Probably while doing the dishes.)
6. Buy/read the Walking Dead comics.
7. Read one book of my couldn't-finish list from Goodreads.
8. Re-read Harry Potter.
9. Buy/read Iced. (Why am I not buying this book?)
10. Eh?


Sooooo, what are your top 10's? What is your main reading-goal in 2013?