Sunday Stealing

It's been a while, so maybe you'll forgive me for indulging in yet ANOTHER meme all about me!!   LOL!


Sunday Stealing: The Books Meme

1:Favorite children's book?   

Absolutely love Winnie the Pooh even though I didn't discover it until I was in my teens!  (Thanks, Flossie!)

2:What is the next book you plan to read?    

I just got "The Last Original Wife" by Dorothea Benton Frank.

3:Books on your "to read" list?  

I generally don't keep a list.  If a book interests me, I'll buy it and read it right away.

4:Top 5 authors?   

My current favorites, in no particular order --  Robyn Carr, Susan Elizabeth Phillips, Emily Richards, Kristen Hannah, and Jacqueline Druga.  Over the years there have been many, many more.

5:Favorite genres?   

Women's Fiction, Science Fiction, Humor (Again this is currently. There have been others over time.)

6:Do you have multiple books in process or just one at a time?  

Usually have 3 or 4 going at once.  

7:A book that you've cried over?   

I cried every time I have re-read "Little Women".  Must be about 20 times by now!

8:A book that made you laugh out loud?  

"The Princess Bride"  I laughed out loud on practically every page!  Funniest book I've ever read.

9:Fiction or nonfiction?    

Reality is full of non-fiction!  When I read, I want happy endings!!   FICTION!!

10:First book you've read by your favorite author?  

I don't have just one favorite author.  And generally when I find an author I like, I will try to read everything they've written, so it's difficult to remember what came first.

11:Best book-to-movie adaptation?  

I will not usually see a movie adaptation of a book I liked because they are rarely even half as good.  I did, however, like the movie of Leon Uris', "Exodus", but that was mostly because they cast Paul Newman in the role of Ari Ben Canaan.  Perfection!   :)

12:Do you read comics/manga?  

You're kidding, right??  I'm a little beyond comics!

13:Hardcovers or Paperbacks?   

Or Kindle!!  Yes to all three!

14:Do you buy books as soon as they come out or wait a while?  

For certain authors I will even order them pre-release!

15:Do you buy books spontaneously without any prior knowledge of what happens in it?  

Generally not, I need at least a short synopsis before I decide to buy. 

16:Have you ever bought a book based on the cover alone?   

Hate to admit it, but yes!

17:Where do you usually buy your books?  

Amazon, Goodwill, Half-Priced Books, Costco, garage sales, Barnes and Noble, flea markets, drug stores......I'm not picky!

18:Book that had a strong impact on you?   

There have been so many...."Anne Frank --  the Diary of a Young Girl," "Atlas Shrugged,"  "To Kill a Mockingbird," "Exodus," "Time and Again."

19:Historical or science fiction?   

Science Fiction....(but definitely NOT fantasy).

20:Dystopian or Utopian?  

Dystopian  (I'm going through a phase!)

21:Once you start to read a book, do you feel compelled to finish it?   

Heavens NO!  If a book does not capture my interest after about 30 pages, I stop reading it!  If I don't like a book even after reading more of it, I stop reading it!  .   There are too many wonderful books out there to waste my time on something I don't like!!

22:What genres do you refuse to read?   

horror, porn, graphical violence, among others.

23:How many books do you own?   

Hundreds (over the course of my life, it might have been thousands.)  I have to periodically purge otherwise my house would have no room for furniture!!

24:Do you go the library?  

Not so much anymore, because of the ease of finding things to read among e-books.

25:How many books do you read a year?  

Since I retired it has usually been around 275-300 a year on average. (I'm a fast reader!)

26:Do enjoy reading the "Classics"?    

Not usually.

27:Do you ever re-read a book?  

I will often re-read a book I loved.   It's like visiting an old friend!

"Paperback Writer"

While I'm on the topic of books, a few more words about "Paperback Writers" (sort of a carry-over from yesterday).   I have recently discovered author websites, blogs, and even Facebook pages of a lot of my favorite writers.  I am actually "friends" with two of them, Facebook says so!

It's a lovely thing to be able to get "insider" information directly from the writer.  You can find out all sorts of interesting things.  Sometimes they have short excerpts from their next book, or they'll tell you the next date of publication, or they'll talk about their inspiration, their history, their backgrounds.  All of a sudden the writer becomes a real person who is sharing a real-life picture of who they are. 

They often discuss characters from their books, talking about them as if they were almost real.  I guess when you spend the months and months required to write a noval, the characters you create can take on a life of their own of sorts.  I love that.  

With books that I love, I also come close to thinking of some characters as real!  So much so that I want their story to go on and on.  "But what happens next?" is my frequent thought as I finish the last few pages. That's a great testament to the ability of the writer.  For that reason I'm happy when there is an epilogue or a  sequel or trilogies, or an on-going series of interrelated stories. I can hold on to the character and the story a little while longer. 

Back on the subject of social networking with writers (paperback and otherwise!),  sometimes you find out something that doesn't make you so happy.  For instance, one of my very favorite authors noted that it takes her about 2 years to write a book!  Two Years!!  In two years you could have two children, or sail around the world in a canoe, or read the collected works of Shakespere....twice!   Gee whiz, her books are good and all, but they're not "War and Peace" for heaven's sake! 

Of course, I know that you can't hurry these things, writing is a very personalized talent, you can only write the way you can write!  It is just frustrating for the reader.  When I get a new book by one of my favorite authors, I must force myself to ration my reading.  I have to limit myself to only reading a small portion each day.  In this manner, I can make a new book last for a maximum of about 4 days, 5 days IF I've had a busy week!  Otherwise, I'd finish them in one sitting!  But even if rationing is successful, there is still a 2 year wait till the next one!  It does make me appreciate her books more, and thankfully, hers are of the sort that I can read multiple times, so that helps fill the gap....some!

That's a pretty selfish point of view, I guess, thinking only of my own reading habits.  Still, if you were to go to her FB page, you would see comment after comment from her other readers, expressing similar impatience for the next book.  Some of the comments are funny or well done, but my very favorite comment was simply, "Write faster."   LOL!    Concise and to the point!  I didn't write it, but I wish I had!  Gotta love it!

Anyway, if you are interested in the personal side of your favorite
"Paperback Writer", look for them on Facebook or Google,  I'll bet they are there somewhere....fooling around with clever comments and talking to people, when they KNOW they should be back at work.... writing faster!!

"Bookends"

I have or have had a lot of different interests, activities, or hobbies over the course of my lifetime, everything from Acting to Zoos.  Many have lasted quite a while, like music, singing, games.  Others have come....and gone....in the flash of an eye....like needlework, and crafts of all sorts.  But there has been one constant that never has gone away and I seriously doubt it ever will.  Reading! 

Books are kind of the "bookends" of my life.  I cannot remember ever not being able to read.  There is some speculation that I might very well have been born with a book in my hand!  The consensus is that while I might not have been actually born with a book in hand... I probably picked one up on the way to the newborn nursery!

At the opposite end of life, if I were to die having just finished a wonderful book, I would die a happy woman.  See?  "Bookends!"  And if there is some kind of afterlife, if there aren't books and reading, I'm not going!

Everywhere I go, I have a book with me....either in my purse or somewhere close at hand.  If I go out to eat, I take a book.  If I have a doctor or dental appointment, I take a book.  Hairdresser??  I take a book.  Babysitting???  I've got a book.  Vacation or business trip???   SEVERAL books!!

If I don't have a book or something else to read, I don't know what to do with my hands or where to look.  Books are my escape, my refuge, my best friends!  I LOVE books. 

Writers of books are like idols to me.  I can put a sentence or a paragraph or two together, but write a 400 page novel or a biography or whatever?  I could never do that!  Ever!  The people who have the ability write must have an extra chromosome or something that the rest of us don't have.  And there are hundreds of thousands of people who are (or were) considered AUTHORS.

Of course, there are many levels to writing.  Not everyone has the same ability or style or command of language.  There are poor writers who nonetheless have managed to put together a book and convince somebody to publish it!  Actually, poor writers who have enough concentration or talent or whatever it is, to string enough words together to end up with a "book", albeit a poor one, still amaze me. 

And then there are the plots (I'm speaking about fiction now).  Great ideas that get fleshed out with  fully-developed characters that are believable and that you end up caring about.  Words that not only tell a story, but give a message or a moral, or make you laugh.  That's why books are so powerful!    It's what makes the difference between a Bronte and a Bozo!  

Most of the time when I read, I don't do a bunch of analysis on the message or the moral.  I have no interest in taking a book apart like they do in book clubs.  I read for enjoyment, not to critique.   I don't read anything heavy (either in weight or content).  I don't particularly like short stories or novellas either.  I will read one or two in a pinch, but I read very fast and I just go through them like the wind!  Besides, you are just beginning to be interested in the characters or the story and, BAM, its over.  I find that very unsatisfying.  I've gone through mysteries, political thrillers, and science fiction phases.  After a while those genres get tedious, predictable, unbelievable or sometimes all three!

For the last several years I have been reading "womens' fiction".  Authors of this type of book are overwhelmingly female (is that a given??) who are exploring the relationships women have with their spouse, their mothers, their children, their friends.  They can be written humorously or deadly seriously.  They can have a little love or romance. They can be deeply moving or superficial.  They can have happy endings or not and that's okay. 

There are some wonderful authors writing in this genre.  There are the masters:  Nora Roberts, Judith Kranz, Maeve Binchy, Danielle Steel, Sandra Brown, Debbie Macomber, and the Queen of them all, Anne Rivers Siddons.  There are also the newcomers (at least new to me):  Dorothea Benton Frank, Sheryl Woods, Robyn Carr, Marion Keyes, Emilie Richards.  And in a special group, my favorites!  These are the ones that I will run to buy their new hardcovers as soon as they are published:  Susan Wiggs, Barbara Bretton, Barbara Delinsky, Jennifer Cruisie, Kristin Hannah.  And in a class by herself, the hysterical and masterful  and incomperable Susan Elizabeth Phillips!  For my money, she's the best of the best!

 I love reading these ladies' work.  Some I have read again and again. There are many, many more writers, of course, that I haven't discovered yet.  Not to worry, I'll get to them.  These days I have lots of time to read and that's a dream come true!   So, I'll keep reading until the other end of the "bookends" crops up and there's no more time.   

It's not original to me, of course, but an appropriate epitaph for me just might be:

"So many books, so little time"  

"I'll Be Seeing You"

Some time back I wrote about my dismay at discovering I had catarracts.  Well, my dismay is growing because it seemed as though the dumb things are getting worse!  The vision in my left eye is seriously blurry, especially for distance (as in driving!), with glasses, without glasses, makes no difference.  So I went back to the eye doctor and she did the exam, and the bright light (!) picture thing, and showed me the comparison between my last visit and now.  The damn thing doubled in size!  In less than a year!  

So I asked what my options were and basically what it boiled down to is that there's really only one.... eye surgery!   Holy Crap!  I've got to let somebody poke little knives INTO my eye, let them pull out the lens COMPLETELY, and replace it with a new lens.  Knives into my eye???  Oh, and the kicker?  I get to be awake while they do it!!!  Are they nuts?  Do they truly expect me to just sit there and let them mess around with my EYE?  One of only two eyes I've got??  And they expect me not to freak out?????  Obviously, they do not know me at all.  The very idea of sticking a contact lens in my eye always makes me shudder and they want to use KNIVES??

So being a coward of the first order, I asked what happens if I don't get it fixed?  She told me the blurriness would continue to increase until I lost vision in that eye completely!  Oh great, now there's an option!  I can do nothing and wait to go blind or I can have the surgery and risk losing my eyesight NOW!

Cripes, what a choice!

Of course, I'll have the procedure.  I am not willing to lose the ability to SEE.  After its done, "I'll be seeing you" a lot better than I can now!  At least that's the plan....

Soooo, fellow bloggers, anybody out there who's already gone through this?  Is it as awful as I expect?  Does it hurt??  Tell me your experience.  (Actually, I'm hoping it will reassure me!)  I'm going to see the surgeon for the preliminary exam etc. next Wednesday.  Don't know the doctor, but my doctor told me he wasn't a particularly warm and fuzzy kind of guy, but he was a great surgeon.  Well, I guess if I had to choose, I'd go with great surgeon too....but it sure would be great to have someone who would coddle me just a bit at the same time.

What do I need to ask?  I've never known anyone who went through this so I really don't even know what to ask!  So I need your help, pretty please?  And maybe somebody to come hold my hand.....

"The Unfinished Symphony"

With the exception of my mom, everyone in my family loves to read. Me, Mikey, Ratchlet, Little Sis, her kids, T.A., Maddie the Great, and my dad -- we all spend as much time as physically possible reading a book, newspaper, or magazine (or in a real pinch, the milk carton or cereal box on the kitchen table!) Its been that way for as long as I can remember. If Mom needed my dad, Little Sis, or me, she didn't even usually try calling us more than once. She would just stand in the doorway of the room we were in and sort of stare at us....even though we would inevitably be reading and oblivious, particularly my dad. Eventually she would get frustrated enough to walk over to where we were and rattle the newspaper or tap the book to get our attention. Then, depending on whether or not she was really mad, she would either roll her eyes and grumble angrily, or she would just walk away shaking her head as if to say, "Hopeless!" I don't know if she ever understood it, but she did come to accept it. Her family was full of readers.

Little Sis and I, of course, inherited this from Dad. He loved to read. Most children never really know their parents very well, but this was the one thing about him of which I was absolutely certain. He never had enough time to read as much as he would have liked.

He was a pretty eclectic reader too. He read what ever was handy. For most of the time I was growing up, there wasn't a lot of extra money for dad to buy things for himself, like books! No such thing as Half-Priced Books and going to the Library never seemed to be an option. (I don't know why. It would have been heaven-sent for my dad.) When LS and I got old enough to pick out books for him as gifts for his birthday and Christmas, I think he was thrilled. It was the only way he got books of his own.

Looking back I finally see how hard this must have been for him. I cannot imagine not having books available to read whenever I want. He didn't have that availability. It was a running joke in our family that, anytime dad would take us into the city to go shopping (we lived in a very small town and Mom didn't drive), he would disappear within about a minute and a half of our entering the store or mall. Mom, LS, and I would spend the bulk of the day, getting what we needed and when we were done, there was no question that we find Dad in the nearest Book Section. There he would always be. Standing by the shelves, holding a half-finished hard cover book in his hands, which he immediately returned to the shelf. Never once do I remember him actually buying the book he had spent the afternoon with. He left unfinished books all over town. I don't know how he could bear it.

He picked up all sorts of random knowledge about a wide range of things. He would never admit to being smart (even though he was), he would just say he was like a Jack-of-all-trades -- he knew a little bit about a lot of things, but not a lot about any one thing. In some ways that sort of summed up Dad's life.

I always felt he never quite figured out what he wanted to be when he grew up. Mainly, I suppose, because of lack of opportunity due to the Depression, no college, WWII, and right into marriage and family responsibilities. He never had the chance or the choice to find out what he wanted to do, where his own gifts would lead him. He was always too busy working to support himself, his mother, or his family. His life, like the books he left on the shelves, had that unfinished quality....the pieces never quite came together, never tied up all the loose ends, never fully explored the possibilities.

So he took his refuge in reading. I am glad that he had that love of reading. It was the one thing that always made him happy.

My dad died much too soon and somewhat unexpectedly 3 months before his 60th birthday. He died of a heart attack at 2:00 a.m. on December 26th, after a lovely holiday celebrated with the whole family. The last photograph we have of him was taken that Christmas evening just a few hours before he died. That photo caught the essence of my dad as we knew him best. In it, he is reading the book that we had just given him for Christmas, oblivious to having his picture taken. He was doing the one thing he loved -- reading a book. I'll never know, of course, but I've always hoped he had time to finish it.