Double-Stacked Bookshelves

Teaser Tuesday:  Let The Right One In Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly meme hosted by Jenn @ A Daily Rhythm . Here are the rules: grab whatever you're reading, open to a random page, select no more than two sentence (NO SPOILERS), share the title and author, and GO! Here's today's teaser: "Earlier that morning Hakan had been exploring his new face with the fingers on his feeling hand.  A rubber-like bandage covered his whole face but from what little he was able to make out after painfully exploring the contours protruding under the bandage with his fingertips, he concluded he no longer had a face." --page 216- 217           Let The Right One In   by John Ajvide Lindqvist This book is pretty stellar so far! Happy reading!

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish and it's a way to share what you're loving in list form. The topic changes every week, so there is always something new to discover! This week's topic is:  Top Ten Books I Plan To Have In My Beach Bag .  Now, I am not going to only list books that are beach-y reads.  Instead I'm going to list books that I hope to read this summer.  Here we go! The Walking Dead, Compendium 2 by Robert Kirkman   Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty A Dance with Dragons by George R.R. Martin A Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling   by Ross King The Shoemaker's Wife by Adriana Trigiani   The Night Strangers by Chris Bohjalian The Heir by Kiera Cass Whew...it will probably take me much longer than thi...

Edinburgh Castle.  Photo taken May 19, 2008 Between September 2007 and September 2008 I was living in Edinburgh, Scotland working on my Masters in Comparative Literature at the University of Edinburgh .  While moving away from family and friends is difficult, it is also very rewarding.  My time spent living overseas gave my family the opportunity to travel to countries that had never been on their vacation radars.  This picture was taken in May 2008 when my sister and her best friend came for a two week visit. I am incredibly proud of this photo for many reasons.  1) I think it looks pretty damn good.  2) It offers an amazing reminder of just how awesome this city is.  And 3) It brings back so many fantastic memories.  I really wish I could walk out my front down and stroll through that garden right now... Nice weather like this was few and far between in Edinburgh, but this particular day was one for the books.  Taken while str...

Teaser Tuesday:  The Cutting Season Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly meme hosted by Jenn @ A Daily Rhythm . Here are the rules: grab whatever you're reading, open to a random page, select no more than two sentence (NO SPOILERS), share the title and author, and GO! Here's today's teaser: "She lay down and closed her eyes, thinking of the strangeness of running into Bobby Clancy again, and the things he'd said about his brother, Raymond.  She lay in the stillness with it.  Only then, in the dead of night, her body on the very edge of surrender, did an image finally pop free: the dead woman, her face, the black eyes drawn in charcoal.  She finally remembered where she'd seen her before." --page 92           The Cutting Season by Attica Locke Pretty engrossing so far! Happy reading!

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish and it's a way to share what you're loving in list form. The topic changes every week, so there is always something new to discover! This week's topic is a freebie, so I'm going with:  Top Ten Bookish Memories .  Oh man, books and reading hold very special places in my heart and there are so many events that I can vividly remember being associated with reading.  These are my top ten book-related memories. The Reading Fort .  Being a top reader throughout elementary school and having the privilege of utilizing the "Reading Fort" in the library.  This was the highlight of all library visits for students.  The fort was three levels, where the first level was an alcove on the floor, the second was a platform that you could easily climb onto, and the third (the most coveted) was accessible by a ladder and filled with comfy pillows.  Those days were the best!  Books associa...

Bout of Books Progress and Challenge Tracker I will be keeping track of my progress for the Bout of Books 13 Reading Challenge on this page, updated daily.  It's so much easier to do it this way than to write separate posts for every single day.  Final Challenge Stats: Books Finished :  4!  Granted, I had already begun two before the challenge, there was still a significant chunk left in each book.  Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert, Annie Freeman's Fabulous Traveling Funeral by Kris Radish,   Marvel Zombies 4 by Fred Van Lente and Kev Walker, and Left Drowning by Jessica Park Total Pages Read :  854 Total Challenges :  Two - Bookish Survey and Book Haiku Final Thoughts :  The beginning of this Bout of Books got off to an incredibly slow start for me.  Selecting a classic is something I definitely do not recommend doing for this specific challenge because it was difficult to read a lot.  I felt l...

Day three in the Bout of Books 13 Read-a-Thon and I'm hoping to get a little more reading in today than I did yesterday.  Fingers crossed!  Regardless, I'm definitely participating in today's mini challenge:  writing a book haiku. The Book Haiku challenge is hosted by Kristina @ Kristina Horner and is quite fun, simple, and to the point.  Write a traditional haiku about the book you're currently reading.  Easy peasy. I'm currently working on Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert and here's my attempt at a haiku: Emma Bovary. You are kind of a hot mess. No, really.  You are. And another for your reading pleasure :) Kind Charles Bovary. You inept country doctor. Hippolyte was doomed. What haikus can you think of for the book you're reading? Happy reading, fellow Bout of Bookers!

Teaser Tuesdays:  Madame Bovary Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly meme hosted by Jenn @ A Daily Rhythm . Here are the rules: grab whatever you're reading, open to a random page, select no more than two sentence (NO SPOILERS), share the title and author, and GO! Here's today's teaser: "Her tenderness, in fact, grew each day with her repulsion to her husband.  The more she gave up herself to the one, the more she loathed the other.  Never had Charles seemed to her so disagreeable, to have such stodgy fingers, such vulgar ways, to be so dull as when they found themselves together after her meeting with Rodolphe." --page 118            Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert Though hard to get into because of the super descriptive nature of classical French literature, I am quite enjoying the train wreck that is Emma Bovary! Happy reading!

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish and it's a way to share what you're loving in list form. The topic changes every week, so there is always something new to discover! This week's topic is a doozy:  Top Ten Authors I Really Want to Meet .  AGH!  There are so many.  So many!  I think I'm going to divide my list into two parts:  five authors still living and five who have passed.  Here goes! Five Living Authors JK Rowling.  How can she NOT be on your list!!!    She's perfection. Salman Rushdie.  I think he would be so fascinating to talk to. Chris Bojhalian.  Hands down, he's my favorite American writer and I'm so bummed I missed his book signing when he was in Portland :( Alexander McCall Smith.  Just so I could talk all things Scottish with him.  I want to know even more about Bertie, Angus, and all the characters from 44 Scotland Street ! Jenny Lawson.  ...

Bout of Books 13 kicked off its loveliness this morning at 12:00am.  Now, I didn't start reading at that time, as I like to sleep, and I haven't even read anything as of yet because of that pesky little thing called work, but there are still a lot of hours in the day!  Aside from reading all you can read during this challenge, there are also a multitude of mini challenges you can participate in.  This is the first for the week! The Bookish Survey is hosted by Lori @ Writing My Own Fairy Tale  and is quite simple, actually.  She's posted five book-related questions and you only have to answer them.  So easy!  Here are my answers: How do you organize your shelves? There is definitely a rhyme and reason to my shelf organization, though you might not guess it by looking.  I have two full size (6-ft) bookshelves that are both double stacked.  One is filled with books that I have read and cannot bear to part with (aside from the very top ...

Bout of Books 13 is just around the corner (May 11th) and I am super duper excited!  I already posted my pseudo-goals in my participating post , but didn't list what books were on my radar for the event. So, here ya go! B.O.B TBR Let the Right One In by John Ajvide Lindqvist:  I am so excited to read this book!  It's been on my radar for a while and I finally got it from the library. Left Drowning by Jessica Park.  I randomly picked this one up from the library as well.  Added bonus:  it will work for another challenge I'm participating. Annie Freeman's Fabulous Traveling Funeral by Kris Radish.  Mainly because I'm more than halfway through it and I set it aside to work on some other books for a different challenge. A few comic books (because the bf keeps pestering me about reading them).  Probably some of the following:  Deadpool , The Logan Chronicles , Black Dynamite ...who knows. Hoping to finish up the two...

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish and it's a way to share what you're loving in list form. The topic changes every week, so there is always something new to discover! This week's topic is:  Top Ten Books I Will Probably Never Read .  While I'm of the mindset that I will read everything, I know this isn't feasible...or enjoyable.  And I never like saying "no" to a book, but sometimes I just know that I will not be reading a specific book...ever. Here's my list: Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert.  I think my reasons all stem from the movie...which I refuse to watch.  I don't have any specific reasons why.  I like Julia Roberts.  The book sounds like it would probably be okay.  I just feel very meh about it.  Under the Tuscan Sun by Frances Mayes.  Sounds boring.  Boring!  I've never seen the movie either... Looking for Alaska and Paper Towns by John Green.  I was not imp...

The A-Z Blogging Challenge has come to a close and now it's time to reflect on the month-long event...  Overall, this time around (my fourth) was a resounding success...personally.  Though I didn't garner many comments throughout the challenge or a boatload of new followers, it was refreshing to post on a non-book related topic.  It was also really nice to rediscover music that I had completely forgotten about or hadn't heard for years.  So many memories! This idea of reminiscing, though completely unintentional, perfectly aligned with this year's challenge and its dedication to Tina.  What a beautiful community she was a part of and what an honor it is to be a participant.  I had tossed around several ideas for this year's challenge, but remembering music seemed to really stick.  How fitting in reflection. Until next year...