Currently Reading

It's been a while since I updated my list up there in the header, so don't mind it right now. But I thought I'd give you a list of what I'm currently reading.

I listened to this one years ago driving to and from work. So it's kinda nice to actually read it. Though it is over 400 pages. I found it at the library book sale in town and went ahead and bought it.

This one was recommended at a conference I went to back in October. I'm actually really enjoying reading how the church and the LGBTQ+ community can come to terms with each other.

I'm listening to this one in my car. I have been listening to this series on my drive to and from work. I had just picked it up the weekend before they closed the schools. So now I'm not very far into it. It's kinda driving me nuts that I don't get to listen to it much, but at the same time, I know my due date has been extended and any fines will be forgiven.

Return

I am returning to this blog, though I'm not entirely sure why. Maybe it is just to get my thoughts out right now. I'm not sure. I'll be editing it to add graphics and whatnot, but that will come with time.

I think the biggest thing I just want to get out right now is about books.

It sure is something when you go into the little library in your new town (which is only open 2 days a week and literally the size of my living room and dining room put together!) and you check out books. Not that I had gotten used to the "new system" (RFDI tags) a whole ton, but now when you go back to literally finding books on the shelf and taking them to the desk, it's a little bit of a shock to your system. I used to be able to run into the library literally ten minutes before work, snag the book that came in off the hold shelf, check it out and be out the door and to work on time. So I guess it's just a little culture shock.

The other thing about it is when you are sitting there reading a book that was entered in 2017 but feels like it's never been opened, it really kinda makes you think. Then you start thinking about the whole bookshelf of books you had. There were so many on that shelf I hadn't gotten to read yet. So many I was getting ready to read. So many I'm not sure I'm going to be able to find again.

I guess I'm a recovering book collector. I want to collect books but I don't want the clutter anymore. Yes, I have three books on my nightstand right now. All three are library books. At some point, all three will be returned. There's also this weird feeling when I go into my GoodReads account and see my "owned" shelf and those mixed in with the "To Read" shelf. I guess some of those books need to be put on the "To Find" shelf.

I'll update more here later. This is just kind of a rambling book blog post.

WriYe Reading Challenge 2014

Okay, I'm not entirely sure if I'm going to be able to complete this, but I'll fill in what I can on this list now. 

Horror/Thriller: "Under the Dome" by Stephen King
Mystery:
Mainstream/Literary:
Sci-Fi/Fantasy: "Ender's Game" by Orson Scott Card
Romance:
Steampunk:
Young Adult (any additional genre accepted): "Teen Idol" by Meg Cabot
Banned Book: "The Catcher in the Rye" by J.D. Salinger
LGBT:
Non-Fiction (subject is your choice): 

Okay, this list is WAY incomplete! I'm going to work on it.

And as for the Author Alphabet Soup, I think I'll make that page. I think I'll just update that page as I read books.

Update on Books I've Read

Okay, so since the last time I posted here are things that I have finished reading on the list:

1. "The Princess Diaries" Series -- Finally finished all 17 books!

2. "Shade" trilogy

3. "Star Trek: Terok Nor" trilogy

4. "Vampire Academy" book one -- Finished this one as well!

5. "Left Behind" Series

Here are other books I have finished since the last post:

"Roswell: A New Beginning"
"The End of Molasses Classes"
"Pukka"

It's not a whole lot, but I am getting books crossed off my list.

Book to Read

Okay, Words n Books put the challenge out there to create a list of "To-Read" books on GoodReads. I have my list on there, but here is what I'm REALLY aiming to finish by the end of the year:

1. "The Princess Diaries" series. -- I'm on book 10 and am now working on getting the supplemental books through the library. This series should be done relatively soon.
2. "Shade" trilogy. -- I have book 2 waiting for me at the library.
3. "Star Trek: Terok Nor" trilogy. -- Book 3 is on my eReader. I want to finish it!
4. "Vampire Academy" book 1. -- I just got this book from the library and am curious to see about the series. I may add more from this series, but we'll just have to see.
5. "Left Behind" series. -- I am 2 books away from the end of the series. I still have the "Before They Were Left Behind" trilogy" but I'll worry about that later.

So this is the start of the list. I'm sure I'll be adding more to it later.

Cross posted on One in a Million

Happy Hunger Games!

"The Hunger Games" comes out today. Well, technically I guess it came out last night at midnight. I'm currently reading Mockingjay.

Here's the story on that book, it's surprisingly similar to how I found The Hunger Games, except, instead of having to search for the book, I found it EXACTLY where I thought I would be. The only difference is that when I went to the express checkout to check out my book, the RFI reader wouldn't read the tag in the book. Therefore, I had to go to the desk. No big deal. As long as I have the book. I am currently 79% of the way done with it. I'm hoping to be done with it before I see the movie tonight. Yes, I am going to see "The Hunger Games" tonight. I've had my tickets for a week, and they were FREE! Yes, I got them on gift cards, so the only thing I'm going to have to buy is junk food! I think this is the first movie I have seen since May 2009 when I saw Star Trek at the IMAX. I'm not counting last year when I saw the Hubble thing at the IMAX in SJ, because that was a 45 minute thing, not a full length movie.

So I'm off to go see if I can finish reading Mockingjay before I see the movie tonight.

May the odds be ever in your favor!

Hunger Games and a story

I finished Hunger Games yesterday. It took me less than 48 hours to finish it. This must say something about the book itself, as it usually takes me about a month to finish a book. Well, that and it was slow yesterday at work. So I was able to sit there and read. I was done with it by 5 and I was regretting not bringing my other book to read for the last hour. But that's okay. I somehow managed to survive.

The strange thing was that in reading The Hunger Games, I somehow got some inspiration for a story I'm working on. No, it's not Hunger Games fanfic. Instead, it's a post-apocalyptic story that is possibly going to be a YA thing, but I'm not sure yet. The main character doesn't even have a name yet, but he's close to getting one. The story itself is only 700 words long right now, but some of it has been plotted, via generator, so I'm not going at this totally blind.

The Hunger Games

So, on WriYe, everyone is going off on the Hunger Games. (Well, not everyone, but a bunch of people in my circle of friends there.) Anyway, I wanted to know what the deal was about this book, so I looked it up in the library database. I was FLOORED! It was obviously INSANELY popular, as there were over 400 holds on it! That was the regular copy of the book. There are about 100 copies of it in the 45 libraries our system encompasses. I looked up the large print edition and found that there were 125 holds on that one! (I didn't even bother to look at how many copies at that point.) So I decided to try the electronic editions. We have a free online library system, might as well look. I found that the audio book download even had something like 7 holds on it! So I figured I wouldn't be reading this book any time soon.

Last week, I was at Walmart and saw it there. I contemplated buying it, but I need another book at home like I need another mouth to feed. So I decided not to.

This brings us to yesterday. Yesterday, one of my kids received Mockingjay in the shipment. I know this is the last book in the trilogy, so I looked up Hunger Games again to see if it was still crazy like it was two weeks ago. It was. For some reason, I scrolled down the list and saw that some of the copies were marked "express." Now there's a couple things about books marked "express." "Express" books can only get checked out for a week and they don't get sent to other libraries. (That last part is like our DVDs or our loaned books at the library I work at.) "Express" is usually saved for new books or books that are INSANELY popular as Hunger Games obviously is. So I limit my search to my local library. (I work out of town, so sometimes looking at my local library is a good thing.) And wouldn't you know, they have 3 copies of Hunger Games and one of them is listed as "ON SHELF." All three are "Express" copies. This was a 4p that I noticed this. So for the next two hours, I watch this book. I go as far as to going to the online catalog and looking it up. The copy that is "ON SHELF" on my screen, says it's "Recently Returned" in the online catalog. This tells me a few things about where I might find the book. I look up my local library's hours, just to reassure myself, and find that they are open until 8 that night. So I decide to go by there on my way home from work.

When I get there about 6:45 last night, I head straight for the YA/Teen section. I look on the cart that reserved for "Recently Returned" books. Hunger Games isn't there! So I look on the shelves reserved for "Express" books. I don't see it. So I head over to the online catalog just to see who the author is. Maybe I overlooked it. I find the author and it still says "Recently Returned." I go back into the Teen section and look around. Before I even get to the cart or the wall of "Express" fiction, I find Hunger Games lying on a table! I snatch that book up like someone is going to take it from my hand, even though I'm the only one in the area besides the aid who is shelving books, and I think he left by the time I went back to get the book.

I go to the express checkout (because at my library, the only reason you need to go to the desk for the librarian's help is getting a library card, renting a movie, or checking out a book on hold) and find the few changes that had been made the first of the year but I never saw because my library is too small to see any of the changes. This confuses me momentarily, but I manage to get the book, get my due date receipt and head home. Yay! I can finally read Hunger Games and find out what all this noise is about!