Shutzie27's ROOT 2014

I wasn't going to join this group until I was done cataloging my books but then thought, cataloged our not, there are still plenty of books on my shelves that should be read before acquiring new books. So, here we go.

I'm almost done with O Jerusalem by Laurie King, and hoping to move forward smartly.

Good luck to everyone else!

Welcome to the group! I, also, am cataloging and ROOTing at the same time. Do you know how to make a ticker? This is even more fun with your own ticker marking your progress.

Welcome,Shutzie!! A very good idea to join the ROOTers! Do you have a goal for this challenge?

Welcome and good luck! :)

I haven't figured that out yet, but I'm looking into it. My goal is to read at least 20 of my own books this year.

Thank you all for the warm welcome!

Presenting my ROOT Ticker! (I just discovered this whole ticker thing so I'm a bit disproportionately excited about it.)

That's a nice ticker. And I can promise you that watching the ticker move along is even more exciting!

Yes! A ticker, very good Shutzie!

Is it in the ticker thread too? And is 50 ROOTs your goal?

http://www.librarything.nl/topic/162053

You just copy the HTNL code in there! You update in one place and it alter everywhere you use it!.

I know what you mean. A couple of months ago I didn't know tickers existed. Now I'm ticker crazy. Yours is lovely. :)

Thanks everyone!

connie53: I had no idea there was a TICKER thread! I tried to put my ticker there but couldn't see where to add it....? Also, I noticed the page is in German! Both my parents are from Berlin, so it was a pleasant surprise to see that.

Merryann: I suspect I'm going to be the same way....

When I follow my link I get an English page. You just add it at the bottom of the page in a new post. Chèli can see by your name in the pink ribbon at the top of your post who posted the ticker and she can add your goal to the group total.

I see the issue. The link above goes to wwwmlibrarything.nl ; by changing it to .com I found the thread. Thanks!

Well, two more for me. How is everyone else doing?

Hi, Shutzie, I think we are all doing just fine. You can follow every member's threads or the Progress Thread to keep up.

You are reading right along. Way to go! :)

Whoo hoo! One more down a possible chunk of reading time this weekend. I'm thinking of reading Full Dark House, the first of the Peculiar Crimes Unit series. A dear friend of mine read some excerpts to me and I howled with laughter. Anyone here read any?

I've read several installments of the series and quite like it. Arthur Bryant alone is worth the price of admission :)

OK, well that settles it! That's what I'll spend the weekend doing!

Well, as I said on my thread, I ended up rescuing a cat last night and this morning, so I haven't started The Peculiar Crimes Unit Series yet. However, I did read Neil Gaiman's Sandman: Worlds' End and remembered I had re-read Pride and Prejudice over New Year's because I was *going* to read Death Comes to Pemberly (and never did, hence the ROOT membership, lol!)

So, the ticker's up to seven. I'm going to bake and go see a movie tonight and then probably read all day tomorrow. Although we did get the cat bathed, washed, fed, etc., after crunching the numbers the hubby and I ultimately had to decide we couldn't swing the extra pet insurance and, realistically, don't really have enough room for another cat.

Still, it was rough on me. The only other times I gave a cat away they ended up with my parents. This hand-off, though to a perfectly fine non-kill sanctuary where I'm sure she'll be loved and cared for and likely adopted quickly, felt much different and I have to admit I'm struggling with it.

Here's a pic of the lil' girl, all fluffed up after her bath:

https://scontent-b-sjc.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn2/t1/1656025_731926731545_1215736...

What a pretty kitty! I hope she is adopted quickly.

Welcome to the group and good luck on ROOTing!

She is a cutie!! I'm glad you rescued her!

Rabbitprincess: Me too!

tess_i_am48: Thank you! Proceeding apace, I think.

connie53: Me too. Tough not keeping her, though.

Here's the sweet swirl bread I made, with maple sugar and cardamom.





Started Full Dark House late last night and can tell I'm in for a treat!

Today I'll be cataloguing books, writing some emails, getting ducks in a row for work and reading.

Bread looks yummy!

> 26: It was! I ate an untoasted slice as dessert today.

Well, it's already 9:30 p.m. (time flies when you sleep in egregiously late) and I have to work out (uuuugggghghghghghgh whine stomp stomp stomp pout) but am hoping to reward myself by settling in the A Full Dark House. It's kind of my "last chance" to do some really uninterrupted reading since I'm working for the Dispatch Monday through Wednesday and for Lyft Thursday and Friday. BUT, I don't go in until noon tomorrow, so I can read a little bit later tonight.

I, for one, am pretty nocturnal. I'm happiest waking up at 9 a.m. and staying up until about 2 a.m., and generally am at my most alert and best around 7 p.m. Anyone else here a night owl? I often wish someone would do a survey and to see if there's a tendency readers lean towards.

Secret life goal: To open my own all-night book shop/bread bakery, The Night Owl, open from 4 p.m. to 6 a.m. I would bake the bread in the shop, so it always smelled like books and bread, and have couches, chairs, loveseats and the like scattered about the place so people could plop down with a book. Possibly a toaster bar, with a toaster and jam at each place at the counter.....

Wow, that bread looks incredibly good - especially since I have a weakness for cardamom...

>27 Shutzie27: I'm a night owl, too, and do my best reading after 8pm. Getting back to the office on Monday morning is difficult when you crawled into bed way after midnight!

Night owl here, too. That's why I had to put a 'bedtime ticker' on my thread...to try to shame myself into going to sleep on time rather than sitting up on LT reading threads and posting thoughts. If I can ever get 30 consecutive nights of going to sleep on time/waking up early in the morning, I get to take that ticker off. And I expect then my entire world will magically fix itself, with tons of work getting done, books getting listed into LT, and the house becoming spick and span clean. All because I get up at six a.m. instead of going to sleep at three a.m.

That's the theory anyway. Sigh.

Hm. Going to bed on time is one thing, but do you actually go to sleep then?

I'm one of those night owls too. It's now almost 11.00 pm. I won't be going to bed for at least an hour. I almost always fall asleep quickly but I'll be wide awake at 5.00 am and only dozing a bit until the alarm at 7.00. Sometimes I decided to read but most of the times I hope to fall asleep again

Your schedule sounds perfect to me: 2 am to bed, up at 9 am. Luckily, I am a teacher, so I do live my summers like that. Even during the school year, 1 am is my most usual bedtime, which is WAY too late, but after I get through a sleepy time in the early evening, I'm good to go.

>31 MissWatson:, No, Miss Watson, not on any predictable basis. And I'm not nearly as productive in the daytime as I am at night...but since I can't listen to music and clatter around all night, I'm determined to (finally) learn to function 'properly' during the day.

It's a bit of an experiment: I may really like getting up early one I learn to sleep at night, but if not, it's just a few years until my young ones done with college and maybe don't live with me anymore (I dread the thought, but dread it or not the day will probably come). Then I'm probably going to get a 3rd shift job and sleep when I was naturally meant to.

Shutzie, your 9AM to 2AM works for me, too! Actually had a sleep disorder and went to an overnite clinic. They said my REM (restorative) sleep was between 5am-9am. Therefore, when I have to get up at 5AM during the school year, that is why I am always tired, but not tired on vacations, etc.

Tess, were they able to tell you what to do about that? Or is it just the way it is?

>28 Caramellunacy: Thank you! It is a snacking and toasting delight, if I do say myself! We've almost eaten the entire first loaf. Sometimes I wonder why I bother freezing the second loaf at all....

>29 MissWatson: Exactly!!! One advantage to the hour drive is it gives me a chance to shake off the cobwebs and at least imitate consciousness....

>30 Merryann: I'll have to try that! It never occurred to me make it a TICKER goal. Hmmm.....

>32 connie53: Connie, my life would be much better if I also got up around 5 a.m. Then at least it wouldn't be such a scramble to get to work on time!

>33 raidergirl3: Glad to know I'm not the only one! I've seriously considered taking up teaching for that reason, but I don't think I'd be a very good teacher at all. My pitfall is when I have 2-3 days off; just like that, I'm back on that schedule, not conducive to being in the car by 8 a.m. to get to work by 9 a.m. ...

>34 Merryann: I hope things work out better for you than me. I've been waking up at 6 or 7 a.m. now for almost two years due to my commute and even when I've gone to bed at 10 p.m. or earlier, morning still feels like an itchy wool sweater that just doesn't fit.

>35 Tess_W: I've thought of going to a sleep clinic. Do you think that's something an employer could be cajoled into using as a reason to grant flex time?

I worked graveyard for three years and really underestimated how much happier I was in some ways doing that.

OK, it's 10:43 p.m. Technically, I should be going to bed right now. But I'm trying to do a 12-week workout streak. So, treadmill for half an hour, then I'll set a goal of being in bed by 1 a.m. Up at 7:30 a.m. and at work by 10 a.m. latest (which isn't really optional, as I have a staff meeting!).

G'night all! I won't tell if you stay up late :-)

I have to take you up on the 'won't tell if I stay up late'. But I told myself I can still count this on my ticker as long as I get up in the morning on time.

Do you find that exercising at night makes you unable to fall asleep? Recently my daughter told me that my walking releases something-or-other (endorphins?) that will make me feel alert. I didn't want to believe her (because I'd rather walk right before bed than in the middle of the day) but it does seem that no matter how tired I am when I start walking, when I'm done I'm keyed up and awake. Have you ever heard of this?

Hi Maryann,

Yes, exercising releases endorphins and does give you a short, quick burst of energy. I have the same problem. By the time I'm home from work, it's usually 7 or 8 p.m. Then when I work out I'm all awake for quitel some time. But then again, the thought of working out in the morning is laughable; it's all I can do to make the bed and be dressed.

I am excited about tonight, however. I'm done working for the paper for the week (though I did manage to squeeze in a few chapters) and don't work until 10 a.m. tomorrow. So I'll be settling into my book tonight!

> 33 What do you teach?

I teach high school physics and math. I'm correcting some assignments right now before I go to bed. We had a storm day today and there is a chance that it will snow enough tonight to cause a storm day tomorrow, so I am trying not to piss off the storm gods, and I'm getting correcting done tonight.

Ha! Taking the storm gods into account sounds like something I would do, too!

Well, I admire you, both for the physics and math and for the ability to teach teenagers. I have slight dyscalculia and aside from skimming around in The Physics of Superheroes, my understanding of physics is limited to a vague understanding of fast things staying up in the air, things generally fall to the ground when my cats bat them off surfaces and being a pretty decent pool player. In short, I'm a Humanist. :-)

My hubby's a scientist, a geophysicist to be exact, and I always admire the way he and his colleagues seek understanding of the world. He says I understand physics fine until the math gets in the way, which I've chosen to take as a compliment.

#36, Mary Ann: I was given a drug that was supposed to increase seratonin, which allows one to sleep. It was actually a drug that is used by epileptics which supressed seizures. It worked great for about 6 months, slept like a baby. However, then I started getting muscle weakness and took myself off the med. Basically, you can't change your natural rhythm; that's how it is. Some people can adapt to a non-natural rhythm and some can't. I can function but it's not easy or pretty. I'm up and down all night during the school year. However, come June 1--I'm a "free" woman, set free to stay up till 2 AM and sleep until 10AM! Once I retire, I'm sure this will be my permanent schedule.

<42Wow Tess, that medication does sound a bit drastic.

I admit to taking Unisom on nights I have to work for the paper because I don't want to drive sleepy and endanger others, but since I kind of sort of set my Lyft schedule, I generally don't take anything the nights before Lyft shifts, which let me sleep in anyway, or days off. I have to say, I sleep soundly, don't have severe cotton mouth or anything and, unless I'm in denial, it doesn't seem to be habit forming. Would an over the counter solution be one you'd be up for, or had you already tried that?

Also, you're retirement schedule sounds pretty good to me over here.

It's 3:24 a.m. here in Arizona.

It all started when I realized, via "Favorite Author" search, that I still haven't read some of Chaim Potak's works. I don't often discuss Potak with anyone because I don't think any one author's voice has ever rippled so deeply in my soul. I have read "The Chosen" twice, and I am not one for re-reading books. Religion, spirtuality, etc. are all very, very personal things to me, and obviously can be extremely contentious, so Potak I tuck away inside my heart.

At any rate, THAT led to me looking for these teal Penguin Steinbeck classics, which somehow led to the Folio Society, and now here I am, not only having squandered valuable night reading time but getting into the danger zone of not getting enough sleep for tomorrow's Lyft shift.

Sheesh. The problems of nocturnal bibliophiles.

You sound like me, Shutzie! When I sit down at my computer, I turn a timer on, because I can go from group, to net, to group and waste 2 hours of time surfing instead of rooting!

I've had to do that myself, Tess! Especially when I'm sitting down to do hafta stuff like budget or download grocery coupons. If I don't set a timer I look up two hours later and nothing is actually done.

Funny nocturnal person story: Last night, I thought I took a Unisom and settled down to read, thinking that sleepy feeling would come. I read until 3 a.m. (gaaah!) and had to be up by 7 a.m. Apparently, the cat had knocked the pill off the counter which is why when I reached for it, it wasn't there.

And why I thought I'd taken it. And why I never got sleepy and just kept happily reading along. And why the hubby found the pill on the floor this morning. Needless to say, I dragged through my workday today. But did I get to sleep early? Nope. Now it's 11:12 p.m. here and I'm not in the least sleepy. I did work out tonight, though, so the plan is to actually take the sleep aid, read and then actually get sleep. :-) Hope y'all are having sweet dreams (or lovely night reading sessions)!

I can relate! I am a night owl that society has forced to get up at 5:30 AM. I dread it! Right now it's 3:03 AM...I've been up since 2:30 (bathroom) and can't go back to sleep. Surprised the cat didn't take the Unisom! Hope you get some sleep.

I can relate! I am a night owl that society has forced to get up at 5:30 AM. I dread it! Right now it's 3:03 AM...I've been up since 2:30 (bathroom) and can't go back to sleep. Surprised the cat didn't take the Unisom! Hope you get some sleep.

Okay,you can't sleep, but I would not start up the pc or laptop to go to LT. I would lie there in the dark hoping sleep would come!

Well, I slept from 9-midnight, laid in the dark from 12-1:30 AM, read from 1:30-2:30, was still awake at 3am...the comp is always on..so I sat down..........

Okay, that is a whole other story. I thought you woke up for a bathroom visit. Not that you were lying awake since midnight. ;-)) .

I'm fortunate (kind of) that I don't seem to wake up once I'm asleep. Mostly, the problem is falling asleep too late. Today's a very busy day off, but I woke up at 9 a.m. in hopes of getting back on a "normal" track.

On the bright side, I'm moving right along with Full Dark House (and love love love the characters, especially Bryant!). I'm really enjoying all the little details woven in about living in London during the Blitz and learning about the grand theaters and their traditions. I'm recommending it, even though I'm not done yet.

I'm glad you're enjoying Full Dark House! :) Bryant continues to be a cantankerous delight as the series progresses.

Not that I want to start up the night owl conversation again, and encourage us all to stay up later, but please allow me this one funny thing:

Regarding, Msg. 44, "Sheesh. The problems of nocturnal bibliophiles"

One day, I daydreamed up a new business (drum roll please)

THE MIDNIGHT LIBRARY!

It's located in an old house, you know, the creaky wooden floor kind. It opens at 10:00 P.M. and closes at 5:00 A.M. People pay a monthly membership fee to, well, to be there. Reading in the quiet room. Talking with friends in the social room. Browsing the shelves of books and checking out what they like. Buying and eating food in the cafe.

It's a safe place for young adults to go at night (my town has nothing for young ones to do). And, it's a perfect place for all the reading night owls!

With great excitement, I ran the idea by family and friends. Every single one looked at me as if I've totally lost my marbles. Overwhelming opinion was, "Nobody will pay you to sit in a room full of books at two in the morning."

Sigh. They're probably right. But thank you for letting me say the idea here, in the only place where people would 'get' it. :)

Now hold on there, >54 Merryann: , allow me to redirect your attention to >27 Shutzie27: in which my Secret Life Goal is eerily similar to your business.

Now, that makes two of us with this idea, and clearly, judging by this thread, there's a market of nocturnal readers out there. So the only logical question is where do we find a venture capitalist imaginative/eccentric enough to invest in this idea....?

Oh, I would frequent the place!

I would too! Great idea!

>55 Shutzie27: and 27, OMG! OMG! OMG! That's SO COOL! I bet I subconsciously stole your idea. I'm sorry! It IS a great one though, isn't it? Can't you just see the teenagers hanging out in the library (and you better believe they'll be there with the smell of your baking drawing them!), trying to be all tough and reading the books about kittens when they think nobody's looking?

The little 'directing a person to an earlier message' thingie has changed, hasn't it? Gee, I go away for a week and when I come back...

Hee hee, I'm just grumbling because I spent the last few minutes trying to edit my post to get it to look the way it used to look when I put a > and a number, before figuring out that it's changed.

>56 Tess_W: and >57 connie53: Fantastic! Our first two customers! You'll both get free bread and a few books. :-)

>58 Merryann: You didn't *steal* anything! It's really a perfectly natural thought for nocturnal book lovers to have, especially those of us forced into the harsh light of Day with its Real Life, Responsibilities and Things to Do.

I think your idea of paying a monthly membership fee and having it in a creaky old is pure GENIUS.

In fact, I was just talking to my hubby about how I wish they still had gentlemen's clubs like the ones I often read about in Victorian mysteries, but open to everyone. You know, you pay a fee and can eat dinner there, hang out, crash there for a few nights if need be. Your place sounds like that, only better because it's centered around reading. Maybe add a movie theater room, but only show movies based on books. You know, The Book Was Better Theater. Just a thought.

Really, if we could get some funding behind this, I'm certain we'd have a perfectly viable business model.

And yes, I can definitely see what I affectionately call "Punk Ass Kids" doing exactly that! I agree with you about kids needing a place to go. I was born and raised in Las Vegas, where of course there's a curfew and anything for teens to do, like the bowling alleys or movie theaters, were in casinos. Which meant as a teen you couldn't go to them because they were inside casinos, which you had to be 21 to be in after 8 p.m.

>59 Merryann: I just discovered how to link to earlier messages, myself, so I couldn't speak to any changes.

Oh geez, I almost forgot why I logged on .

I've finished Full Dark House! That brings me up to......Drumroll......EIGHT! Eight whole books in three months, lol!

Well, given my crazy work schedule, I'll take it. Next up is In the Woods, and I'm almost done with Fables: Inherit the Wind, which is my car charging book.

>61 Shutzie27: At least you finished 8 books! You are one ahead of me. I'm reading # 8 and 9 now.

De offerplaats is awesome. Enjoy.

I found this quote from The Haunted Bookshop that I thought was apropos to our discussion:

"It may be remarked that all bookshops that are open in the evening are busy in the after-supper hours. Is it that the true book-lovers are nocturnal gentry, only venturing forth when darkness and silence and the gleam of hooded lights irresistibly suggest reading? Certainly night-time has a mystic affinity for literature, and it is strange that the Esquimaux have created no great books. Surely, for most of us, an arctic night would be insupportable without O. Henry and Stevenson. Or, as Roger Mifflin remarked during a passing enthusiasm for Ambrose Bierce, the true noctes ambrosianae are the noctes ambrose bierceianae." ~ Christopher Morley, The Haunted Bookshop

>62 connie53: I'm sure I will! And that does make me feel better that I'm not the only one still in single digits.

Let me know how you like In the Woods! With the number of us that have finished it lately, you'll have plenty of people to talk about it with!

I love the quote and it's so true!

>60 Shutzie27: Gentlemen's clubs, yes, a great old idea that needs to come back. Lets the guy get de-stressed from work so when he gets home he's relaxed and ready to be enjoyable to be around. :)

You know another old idea I think should return? Restaurants with booths that have curtains around them, to close off the booth for private dining. This was before my time, but I read about such restaurants in Perry Mason books. Wouldn't that be cool?

My Dad has a bunch of empty land. Maybe we should just go build an entire brick-and-mortar alternate reality town. Who needs virtual reality if you can go experience your make-believe world and take your body with you?

#67, believe it or not Merryann, in in Pittsburgh, just last year, we went to a McCormick and Schmitts, a mid-priced American seafood restaurant, sat in a booth, and it had a curtain! I have been to McCormick and Schmitt's in a different state and they did not have curtains. It was delightful! Felt a little naughty ! LOL!

I would not really like the curtain thing. It would feel like I have something to hide!

>65 Caramellunacy: I sure will! I love how we started an inadvertent Mini-group read, lol!

>67 Merryann: Or we could at least build our nocturnal library/bookshop! I like the idea of curtained booths, though I have to confess I'd probably feel much the same as >68 Tess_W:. Too much fun! ;-)

Yesterday I made a from-scratch deep dish pizza and a couple of friends came over and played the board game Pandemic with us. It's a cooperative game where you save the world from spreading diseases.

The pizza seemed like it turned out OK, but was waaay too crunchy, though not burnt. Normally I'm a good baker, but I just don't know what went wrong this time.







Here's the last two photos:

Today I'm going to bake an apple coffee cake and hopefully read this evening. I found an apple corer/slicer/peeler on sale and am excited to try it out.

Hopefully I can get some reading in as well.

Ohhhhh the pizza looks so good!

My daughter, who bakes, has an apple corer, slicer thingy and loves it. With its help, she makes me wonderful apple pie. I hope yours works as good. I say this thinking of your friends and family who, if they are anything like my Sarah's, will eat all the baked apple goods that you want to produce with your new labor-saving device!

>68 Tess_W: Now I want to go to Pittsburgh and eat in that restaurant!

The sad thing is, I would want to feel like it's naughty, but have nothing at all to hide. Lol, sigh.

Merryann: that's how I felt, naughty! But all we did was talk!

>74 Merryann: Well, it works, except you're supposed to be able to remove the slicer corer bloade and that butterfly nut seems to be stuck. But that doesn't bug me too much. Most of my friends and family are in Vegas, and for whatever reason I haven't made all that many friends here in Phoenix. Those I have made are from work, which I commute to, so they don't come over often. Still, I often give baked goods to my husband to share with his co-workers, who seem to enjoy them.

Today I had to do a bunch of errands, but I'm going to catalog some books and maybe putter around a bit. I tried reading, but every time I try to read in the afternoon I just fall asleep.

Things have been so busy I haven't even started reading In the Woods yet! But I did read a few more stories in 1001 Arabian Nights, which is my go-to book to read before bed when I'm in between books. I think the translation is a bit clunky, but the stories are truly fantastical! I just finished Sinbad the Sailor's Sixth Adventure. It seems likes there's two stories in each adventure.

That's a great idea, Shutize! I have Greatest American Short Stories and Russian Short Stories, I may just start reading them individually when I'm between books or know that I only have a few minutes.

>78 Tess_W: It does work out well. I have the Kindle edition of Suddenly, A Knock on the Door that I could use for that purpose as well. You just made me realize that, lol!

I think I'm a fan of Russian literature so please let me know how the short stories are. I threw myself into a self-guided, three month long reading of War and Peace (with the help of a very, very patient mother of my friend, who has two PhDs in literature and could translate much of the French for me), really enjoyed Anna Karenina, though the ending made me angry and also enjoyed Crime and Punishment. I have a collection of Anton Checkov's plays that I need to read as well.

Because of those experiences, I think it never occurred to me there was Russian *short* stories, ha!

On a cataloging note, I found out today that comic books are actually periodicals, so you can't catalog them here (I'm on our comics and graphic novels shelf). There is special software for cataloging comics, but it's a bit spendy for us. My hubby and both pick up comics on occassion, and might end up with a story arc, but we're not serious collectors. Still, it was a bummer since that's most of hubby's collection.

Oh well, I'll just catalog the trade paperback graphic novels and go from there. Sigh.

I tell ya', I was a bit skeptical at first, I'll admit, but I'm so glad I decided to use this site as more than just a catalog and be social. So many good people and books, too.

>79 Shutzie27: If you like Russian literature and are looking for short stories, both Anton Chekhov and Ivan Turgenev wrote lost of those. And Leo Tolstoy, too.

>80 MissWatson: Thanks!

OK everyone, I finally started In the Woods last night and WOW. The introduction alone, with that wonderful description of childhood summer, was so beautifully written it blew me away. I'm also impressed with Tana French's ability to capture a totally different voice. I read Faithful Place prior to this and absolutely loved it, but this could almost be written by a different person!

Needless to say, I was up until 2:30 a.m. (whoops) reading and slightly overslept today. Fortunately, I kinda-sorta-sometimes have flex time at work, so it worked out OK in the long run.

Hi Christina! I'm happy that you like the Tana French book! I'm a huge fan of her books!

>80 MissWatson: Just an FYI, added Ivan Turgenev on to wish list. Thanks again for the recommendation!

Boy what a week. Just popping in because I finished my car charging book, Fables vol. 17 Inherit the Wind and wanted to mark that down.

Today I had off of work, but I spent all day doing online traffic school. Ugh, it is awful. I'm quitting now because I really can't take any more. And I want to read some of In the Woods. I got sucked into watching "Freaks and Geeks" on Netflix this week, so that took up most of the week's evening reading time.

Topping it all off, I seem to have a stomach bug and am kind of sick. Last night I had a fever. Today I feel a little better, but my stomach's still off.

But, I'm off until Tuesday and have every intention of reading and recuperating.

Hope you feel better soon! Stomach bugs are the worst.

Feel better soon, Christina!

>84 rabbitprincess: and >85 connie53:: Thank you both! I am feeling much better now, though my allergies are kicking in today.

I had grand plans to clean today, but I'll probably do the April budget and loll a bit. Tomorrow I think I'll get rid of some sour cream in the fridge from a coffee cake I baked last week by baking some apple walnut muffins. I hate sour cream except for baking with it.

Last night I read In the Woods (my first chance to have a good, solid reading session in four days!) until about 3 a.m. and slept in. I am about halfway through and am enjoying it very much and already thinking about when I can get some reading time in tonight. So I can't deny that's definitely one reason I'm less than eager to clean, lol!

Glad you are feeling better. Tis better to read and cook any day than clean!

Indeed! :) Reading is cleaning for your brain.

HUZZAH!!! Finished In the Woods last night, woohoo!!! Really enjoyed the writing and the complexity of the characters.

Congratulations! :)

Yay! Glad you liked it!

Congrats!

I should soooo be in bed right now (it's 12:47 a.m. and I have work tomorrow...). But I just had to update my ticker because I finally finished Around the World in 80 Days. Woohoo!!!

The only problem is now I'm not sure what I'm in the mood to read. It feels to early for baseball nonfiction, I'm not quite feeling true crime, I don't quite feel like one of my mystery series, maybe a novel....? Argh, usually books kind of "call" to me, I just get this gut feeling like, "Yeah, now's the time for that one!" but sometimes I feel like this and it drives me bonkers!

What did you end up choosing? Or did you yet?

How did you like Around the World in 80 Days? I started it once, but couldn't finish it. I did see the stage production of it though, and loved it! I love it when I finish a book and the "hunt" is on for my next read!

What did you choose, Christina!

>94 Merryann: and >96 connie53:: I ended up going with Tug of War, a Joe Sandilands mystery by Barbara Clevery. I like that series because Sandilands isn't as dark and brooding as say, Ian Rutledge and so I think the books feel like a lighter read, though they're just as long and well-writtten as any other historical series. So far, I am enjoying it very much.

>95 Tess_W: I enjoyed it, but it was one of those rare books that felt like I was reading something I should be watching on a screen, if that makes any sense. It makes total sense that it would make a great stage production.

I loved Jules Verne as a kid but found his writing in this book to be a bit shallow, maybe because I'm older now? The detective is kind of the goofball foil and Phileas' manservant is the kind of comic relief. The adventurous ways found to complete the journey are fun, but there isn't very in-depth character development. Phileas is unflappable, but nothing else. The inevitable damsel in distress is beautiful and thankful, but that's it. It wasn't bad; it's imaginative and entertaining. But I think I thought it would be better somehow.

I don't think I've read the 'Around the World' book, and probably won't hasten to do so now that I read your thoughts on it. But both movies I've seen, the David Niven version and the Jackie Chan version, have been delightful (although, truthfully, those are two of my favorite actors and I can't recall a movie featuring either of them that I haven't found delightful.)

What's your thoughts on the movies? Have you seen them?

>98 Merryann: I haven't seen any of the movies, but I adore Jackie Chan and am definitely putting that on my "to watch" list!

This weekend I should get in some good reading time. I'm recovering from my very first root canal. It wasn't as bad as I thought it was, but my tooth has two roots instead of one, apparently, and as the day has gone on it's been getting more achy. :-( Still, it wasn't too bad.

Oh! These are not the good kind of ROOTS to have to focus on! Surely you are feeling better by now, right? I sure hope so!

>100 Merryann: I do too! Root canal, Yikes. I'm glad it wasn't as bad as you did expect. Happy Reading and ROOTing.

Owww! Hope the tooth feels better soon.

>100 Merryann: >101 connie53: >102 rabbitprincess: Thanks for the well wishes, everyone. I'm happy to report that yes, my tooth does already feel much better. I am getting the cap put on it this Friday. While it certainly wasn't as scary as it seems from television and movies, I'm not exactly looking forward to another one.

Hello everyone! I've been on a bit of a mini-staycation of sorts since the Hubby's been out of town for some BLM training in Vegas since Tuesday. He stayed with my parents this weekend and will go to his hotel where the training is today.

I worked Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday but cleaned on Friday, went out a wonderful little restaurant here, have been watching television, reading, hogging the bed, spoiling my cats and generally indulging in everything and anything my heart's desire. Yesterday, I went to a Cult Classics screening of the 1989 Tim Burton version of "Batman." It's in this really fun theater called the Tempe Pollack Cinemas with life-sized wax figures of actors, animatronic puppets, collector edition lunchboxes and lobby cards and more.

http://pollacktempecinemas.com/gallery.php

Now, don't get me wrong, I love my husband and our wonderful marriage. But the second he's out of town, I go back to my bachlorette ways.

I eat dinners that require one dish and come out of a box. I stay up until 4 a.m. I watch too much TV. Maybe it's because I never even wanted to get married growing up and always enjoyed living alone. Again, I don't regret marrying my hubby (though my motives were extremely unromantic; his accident made me appreciate the limitations of power of attorney and the convenience of being able to pick up a loved one's medication), but every now and then it's good to be just with me.

Does anyone else here do something similar when the significant other is gone, or am I just weird...?

I even treated myself to a lovely brunch this morning.



Now, I'm going to pretend to be writer and update my murder mystery reviews blog then play Sid Meyer's Railroads. Then, some dinner and Dexter (I'm on Season Five and have been binge watching remorselessly) and then I'm going to read.

I have tomorrow off but am going to have a long, hard week at work and so am trying to take advantage of it as much as possible.

Oh, that looks lovely! And while I'm not at all qualified to answer your question, that won't stop me from doing so anyway, lol. It sounds to me like you are very healthy, comfortable in your own self and able to enjoy your own company, and also fully appreciative of your husband in giving him more of your time when he is home. And after all, a little time apart makes the time together ever so much sweeter!

And you write very well, so the editor in me strikes the 'pretend' from your post. :)

That sounds like a fantastic way to spend time without the hubby. I do much the same thing when my SO is away. What I like best is being able to play my music without headphones ;)

>104 Shutzie27: I recognize that feeling immedeatly! I'm a very happy person on my own. When Peet is away for a few days I can do the things I like to do when I like to do them. Reading, watching TV (with my favorite programs, and not just Steven Segal movies or football/soccer) and indeed playing my music outloud.

I'm not familiar with the accident story, Christine. I suppose that happend before I became a 75-er.

I have been married for 40 years. My husband is a "good" guy. However, I do so enjoy when he is away....I don't have to cook, especially meat.....as I age my dislike for all meat is increasing, and I don't have to be considerate...I enjoy that from time to time....am I bad?

No, you are NOT. I'm just the same, including the meat thing.

>105 Merryann: , >106 rabbitprincess: , >107 connie53: , >108 Tess_W: Thanks, everyone! That does make me feel better. And, though it has been fun, I'll be glad to pick up the hubby in a couple of hours from the airport.

On the bright side, I've finished another ROOT, huzzah! I've gotten hooked on "Dexter" on Netflix so that's impacted my reading. But, I've decided to start The Lemon Tree. It's a bit dense and heavy, but I'm in the mood for that right now and don't work until Tuesday. I'm only about 27 pages in and so far it's wonderful!

Speaking of lemon trees, tomorrow I'm going to bake my hubby lemon bars to welcome him home. He loves my lemon bars, so it should be a nice treat for him.

Now to read to distract myself so time goes by more quickly! :-)

I hope all of you have a wonderful weekend!

>110 Shutzie27: Mmm, lemon bars - what a treat to come home to.

Love lemon bars! Also, key-lime bars!

Hi All,

Just popping in to say hi (been a while). I've been stalking most of your threads but haven't said anything, mostly because I didn't really have anything to add to the conversation.

The lemon bars turned out well and I recently attempted a Bumbleberry pie from a King Arthur Flour recipe. I am good at baking breads but pie, not so much. I think the bottom crust should have been thicker.









The hubby took it into work and said his co-worker liked it. I enjoyed my piece and he ate most of his (he's not a fan of berry pie). Still, I'm sure in a bit I may want to try again. Until then, though, I think I'll stick with breads.

Meanwhile, I'm slowly but surely progressing on The Lemon Tree. As a reporter, I'm really enjoying the footnotes and the care Tolan took to verify his information. What a fascinating book it must have been to research!

I've been stalking most of your threads but haven't said anything, mostly because I didn't really have anything to add to the conversation.

I know exactly what you mean! You are me. But you made a comment that made me comment - bravo!

>112 Tess_W: Tess, do you have a recipe for key lime bars?

>114 raidergirl3: Glad I could spur you to action!

>113 Shutzie27: that really looks delicious! I want some!

#113-Shutzie, I love berries and pie! However, I consider myself a good baker, and am told I am, but can't bake a nice crust for the life of me! So I stick to buckles and cobblers. My favorite is blackberry buckle.

My recipe for key lime bars:

Ingredients:
Crust

2 cups finely crushed *crunchy* gingersnap cookies (or graham crackers, or chocolate graham crackers))
3 Tablespoons salted butter, melted

Filling

4 ounces cream cheese, softened to room temperature
4 large egg yolks
14-ounce can of sweetened condensed milk (not fat free)
1/2 cup key lime juice (KEY lime juice, not regular lime juice)
2 teaspoons lime zest (about 1 lime)

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350F degrees. Spray a 9 x 9 pan with baking oil spray, or generously grease the pan with Crisco.

Make the crust: Pulverize the crunchy gingersnap cookies into a fine crumb with a food processor. Pour into a medium sized bowl and mix with the melted butter. Press firmly and evenly into the prepared baking pan. Bake the crust for 10 minutes as you make the filling.

Make the filling: In a large bowl using a handheld mixer, beat the cream cheese on high speed until smooth. Beat in the egg yolks, scraping down the sides as needed. Beat in the sweetened condensed milk, lime juice, and lime zest until combined. Pour into the warm crust.

Bake for 15-18 minutes, or until the edges of the bars begin to brown. Allow the bars to cool at room temperature in the pan on a wire rack. Once cooled, place the the refrigerator to chill completely, at least 2 hours.

Once chilled,cut into squares. Makes 16 squares. Store squares in the refrigerator (covered) for up to 1 week, if they last that long!

>117 connie53: Connie, if I could think of a way to send you some, I would! It all got eaten, so it must've been OK in the end.

>118 Tess_W: Tess, those sound soooo good *and* easy to make, too! Definitely going to be making them this summer. Also, I know what a cobbler is but what's a buckle...? I've never heard that term before!

A buckle is truly American! A Cobbler is when you put fruit on the bottom and it breaks through the top--more like a pie consistency. A buckle is more like a cake batter that you add fruit to on the top. The fruit will eventually "fall" through the cake. I prefer the buckle myself, especially made with blackberries from my own bush!

>120 Tess_W: Another kind of recipe to try. It sounds like I'd enjoy a buckle as well, though I never turn down warm cobbler.

I was planning on making your key lime bars for the hubby's birthday (it's on Monday), but couldn't find any key lime juice and the store was out of key limes. I might be able to sneak in a trip tonight and see what can be done.

In the meantime, I'm excited to share that I took a break from The Lemon Tree and read a couple of graphic novels and what I call a bathroom book (fun, small books, usually full of snippets or quotes that are good for putting on top of the toilet), The Wit & Wisdom of Tyrion Lannister. I wasn't sure if I should count it or not, but decided at the end of the day it *is* a book is a book is a book.

I counted it towards my ROOT total though, though maybe I shouldn't have...it was a gift to the hubby from a friend of ours. Hmmm.....

Either way, we've never watched or read Game of Thrones, but I have to admit this book certainly made me interested in reading it, though it's not a genre I usually enjoy.

Anyone here read/seen the book/show?

>120 Tess_W: I changed my mind and decided to bake the key lime bars for the hubby's birthday tomorrow. He LOVES them, and I do too, even though citrus isn't normally my thing. I also baked a vanilla almond pound cake to use as a base for strawberry shortcake. Phew!



And here's the pound cake:

>121 Shutzie27: I own the Game of Thrones books, have read them twice (it takes some time) and enjoy the show, but I'm not an avid reader of the genre either, so I can't really compare them to other offerings. To me, it reads like the War of the Roses with some additional clans and families and all the grubby bits left out by historians. There's huge amounts of violence and sex, and to my mind the sex has become very repetitive in the last two books, it was distracting before and is annoying now. I'll continue because I want to know what happens to Tyrion, but I do hope GRR Martin gets his act together.

>123 MissWatson: Thanks MissWatson, that's exactly the kind of thing I wanted to know. I have enough books I'm excited about reading that it sounds like Game of Thrones can wait a bit.

#122--I'm glad you liked them. I tried them with regular limes before and didn't really like them, didn't have the bite I was looking for!

That Lime Bar looks great, Christina!

Oh! Everything looks so delicious!

(Having been gone for so long, I am reading messages from the berry pie onward.)

Hi All!

Whew!!! Back from a crazy few weeks. In addition to tying up loose ends at the paper, I got a double whammy of pneumonia and tonisilitis simultaneously. I had to call in sick for my last day at work! Fortunately, I'm feeling much, much better now.

I also *finally* finished The Lemon Tree and have started The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach, which I am thoroughly enjoying. It's the kind of novel that is totally immersive, which I need right now. Harbach reminds me, just a little, of John Irving, though not quite as good.

I'm transitioning back from working from home and, while I am much happier and this is a better choice for my husband and I's quality of life, it always feels a bit like I'm doing something wrong somehow when I'm not using my journalism degree. But I was tired of the one-way, one-hour commute and I already can tell I'm less stressed.

And, with me at home and cooking again the hubby and I have both been feeling better and even lost a bit weight. Plus I can now be a night owl again and even have time to finish more than one book a month again! I might just make my ROOT yet!

Looks like you're having some quality time for yourselves, that can't be bad. Happy reading!

Glad to hear that you're feeling better and that you can be a night owl again! :)

Glad you are feeling better. Perhaps you can find something locally? My friend, who wrote for a paper until the paper closed. She then was not employed for about 18 months but then saw an ad in the news magazine that their electric cooperative puts out for a recipe tester/writer. They wanted somebody to focus on local produce and how it could be used for everyday dishes. She applied, wrote a sample column, and got the job. She had come to love it! Also glad you can get back to reading.

> 129 Thanks! So far so good.

>130 rabbitprincess: Thanks! I always forget just how much better I feel, overall, when I sleep when it feels right to. Although, I may be overdoing it just a tad. Last night was my second accidental read-until-5-a.m.-stint, and even I should be in bed by 2 a.m.

>131 Tess_W: "Locally" here is a pretty slim pickings pool. Once I've taken a bit of a "breather," if you will, I'm hoping to start earnestly seeking out some freelance work, and I think that'll be good enough for me when the time comes. I loved reporting, but I also kind of want to move on, too.

For now the caption writing gig will pay the bills and keep me busy enough. I'm kind of trying to take this time to figure out what I want to do next (well, within reason; if it were that simple I'd just of gone back to law school) and how to go about whatever that is.

So, I meant to write a Facebook status and inadvertently wrote an essay instead. It doesn't really fit in anywhere on my other two blogs, and this seemed like as good a place as any to post it, so here it is. Feel free to ignore it; like I said, it just seemed like after taking the time to write it I should do *something* with it.

********

BIBLIO VICTORY or Why Editions Matter Even to Non-Collectors

Though I am a book lover, I'm not a book collector or really too much of a book snob. Growing up, new books were, and continue to be, a luxury.

Most of my library, somewhere around 400 volumes, is the product of my family and friends' generosity over the years and Paige Gordon's mother, who was a mentor to me growing up. How I got to be so lucky when it comes to the people in my life I will never know.

According to LibraryThing, I have self-purchased only about 15 percent of my library, and most of those are graphic novels or were bargains. I am proud of my ability to find used books in near fine conditions, particularly from overseas, for a song.

In terms of snobbery, for the most part I'll admit I don't like creased spines or highlighting and markings, but don't mind some shelf wear. I don't need Folio Society editions (though I wouldn't turn them down, certainly) or first-editions or signed copies. Usually, it's what in the book that matters most.

There are, however, a few exceptions.

Some books, like the The Three Musketeers or the Doyle Holmes canon are so deeply associated with joy in my heart that I had a "carrying" copy and a hoity-toity copy for my shelf, a kind of homage, if you will.

Until I'd read Chaim Potak's The Chosen, I never knew writing could carry one away as completely as a thunderstorm at sea or an operatic aria. I'd always lost myself in books, but the notion that the internal life of fictional, written characters could be so utterly real and human left me in a state of awe for weeks. When I put the book down after reading it the first time, something in me, in the way I saw the world and the act of writing itself, had irrevocably changed.

I have tried, at times, to articulate this in a better way, but have invariably failed. Though I am certain other readers will understand why consequently, I have made it a point to get rather nicer editions of Potak's books when I can.

Another example: I only considered going to college in New Hampshire because of John Irving's A Prayer for Owen Meany. When Franklin Pierce met my only other two requirements (those being that I could get a degree in journalism, specifically, and that it was, in fact, as physically far away from Las Vegas as I could get without leaving the country) it seemed like fate.

And so I spent four years constantly scanning the New Hampshire woods for Owen's grandmother's yellow house from the passenger seat of cars and repressing ridiculous urges to wander about the tombstones in cemeteries and find Owen's -- knowing all the while how utterly absurd that was.

Consequently, however, I am forever searching for a copy of Irving's work that somehow matches the monumental role it played in my life, as the tattered, falling-apart mass market paperback permanently on my headboard fails somehow to do.

The first Christmas present my then-boyfriend-now-husband ever got me was a twice-signed edition of Christopher Morley's Parnassus on Wheels. He had remembered my telling him, in passing no less, how I was certain that book was the only reason I graduated college.

One snowing winter night, when I couldn't afford to go home for the holidays and the campus was hollow with silence and occasional footsteps, I accidentally brought that book home from the school library.

It was during one of my most lonely and difficult periods in college. I was completely brokenhearted from my first real love's loss, bone-weary from being perpetually cold, sick of the very sight of snow and seemed to feel every inch of the 3,000 miles separating me from a comforting hug from my father or someone who knew me beneath the bereft shroud I couldn't seem to shake.

My intention that night had been to work on a 15-page paper arguing that Nixon had very little to do with opening the doors to China. But before that, I planned to seriously look into transferring, credit loss be damned. With each silent, sinister inch of relentless snow that fell dropping out again and getting a job somewhere warm was beginning to seem not only more appealing, but the only logical thing to do.

Instead, annoyed with my own carelessness, I opened Morley's book and automatically read the first page, more to see what it was than anything else. Within two sentences my soul was warmed, my heart lightened and, when I finally put the book away in the grey, mirror-still hours of early morning, finally warmed after a night bundled in my bed, I realized perhaps I could make it to the spring and graduation yet.

The fact that my now-husband even remembered that story, to say nothing of the book's title, and thought to get a very nice edition of it for me after only a few months of dating is illustrative of just how deeply fortunate a woman I am.

And then there are my beloved Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics editions of John Steinbeck.

Because I didn't particularly enjoy The Pearl or Of Mice and Men, I thought I disliked -- even "hated," in my youthful arrogance -- Steinbeck for the longest time as a teenager.

Then Mrs. Alcorn, my English II Honors teacher in high school, convinced me to read Cannery Row when I dropped out in high school.

She was the one teacher I hated having to go to and have sign the slip. The overworked, underfunded Clark County School District, perhaps in a half-hearted, no-funding-required effort at deterring Nevada's abysmally high drop out rate, made students do a kind of walk of shame from class to class and have each of your teachers sign the slip before you could leave campus when you dropped out.

This meant interrupting an ongoing class and literally dropping out in front of everybody. These interruptions were usually greeted with pregnant silences punctuated by stares that were alternately apathetic, pitying or full of smug righteousness. The latter stares or smirks usually from the allegedly "good" kids in Honor Society who binge drank just as much as the "bad" kids between their college application padding car washes and soup kitchen stints.

Truthfully, I didn't attend school enough to really care what the other 2,499 students though of me dropping out, but I still didn't want to face Mrs. Alcorn. She had let me in to her honors class even though my truancy had made me lose credit the previous semester for her English I Honors class and I had, after all, promised to show up, do homework and be the student equivalent of a productive citizen. At the time I had even meant it.

Whatever I was at that point in my life, I took no pride in breaking promises, particularly to those I knew had been kinder to me than I deserved. But I was going to lose credit again due to absences and, though I could do another mind-numbing summer school stint and get the credits back, as I had the previous summer, I already knew that my high school experience would never be successful within the windowless cinder block walls of Durango High School.

Mrs. Alcorn didn't even sigh or raise an eyebrow. She walked to her desk from her place in front of the class and told me something along the lines of, "Do us all a favor, Christina, get your GED, hit the road the like Kerouac, get an apartment with friends or just go the library, I don't care what you do from here on out but just get on with it and start taking yourself and your writing seriously. Go to college. Don't go to college. But read Steinbeck. Cannery Row. Just give Steinbeck another chance."

She signed the pink paper with a pen from her desk and handed it back to me without even looking at me. I left the classroom nonplussed and wondering what made Steinbeck, apparently, such an advocate for high school education.

So, with a pretty good chunk of my first Hollywood Video paycheck, I got the Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics edition of Cannery Row.

I read in one sitting and to this day remember where I was when I read it, how it felt that day, the delicious new-book smell of it. Nothing in the book had anything in it, really, for me to relate to, at all. But I loved the writing. And there was a healing in reading it, though to this day I don't understand why.

I had bought the book new as an act of triumphant defiance -- see, I'm buying new books now; I don't need your diplomas or education, look at how successful and independent and grown-up I am! -- but it became a symbol for me of how, just maybe, perhaps, I hadn't quite thought this decision through. I knew traditional high school would always chafe and suffocate me, but Cannery Row seemed to somehow hint that, perhaps, the choice to leave school wasn't an ending or a solution as it had seemed to be at the time.

The sentiment remained attached to the book as though its pages had been permeated with smoke.

I've been in love with Steinbeck ever since. In fact, it was sheltering within the pages of East of Eden that finally got me through, once and for all, the aforementioned collegiate broken heart.

And I kept buying more of his books, always the same teal-spined editions. They weren't fancy or special, but for reasons I still cant' articulate it seemed important somehow that they matched. Because these books were Important To Me, as a person, as a reader, as a writer.

I thought finding Steinbeck's other works in the same binding in good condition would be no big deal, but the last 10 years has proven that to not be true. The East of Eden edition is literally hundreds of dollars....or a few dollars, if you don't mind a torn/marked copy. Which is this case, I do. I simply can't settle when it comes to one of the only books I'd take with me if I were marooned on a desert island.

And this leads me, finally, to my recent triumph. It turns out this bookseller in New Mexico has a *near fine* edition of The Grapes of Wrath inexplicably selling for under $20 after shipping! I have been searching for this book (in near fine condition, anyway) for YEARS. And now, it's on its way to me, where it will join my other Steinbecks.

I'm so very, very glad I didn't settle for a different edition.

Thank you for sharing these thoughts. I've done the same with a couple of books.

Wow, a great write/story! Thanks for sharing.

>134 MissWatson: and >135 Tess_W:: Thank you both for taking the time to read it! And for the compliments; that's really flattering. Like I said, I just figured I'd put it somewhere.

Woohoo! Another two ROOTS. They're graphic novels, but never the less, two books is two books. Next up I'm going to read The Summer of 1787: The Men Who Invented the Constitution.

Every summer I like to read nonfiction, and I generally read something about the Constitutional Convention because I'm kind of a Con Law geek.

This week my brother and sister-in-law are going to visit for a couple of days. I'm a little nervous; my brother and I aren't especially close and, even though I tried to hang out with my sister-in-law when we lived in Vegas, too, she never said yes. Part of that I suppose is because I guess she's shy.

But, they'll be going with us to our Wednesday team trivia night and I'm sure my brother will be a help there. Our team name is In Third Place We Have because we haven't been able to break out of third place. But my brother will be able to fill in a lot of sports trivia knowledge we're missing, though my hubby does know football and another teammate is up on his soccer. Should be fun.

Hope the visit goes well and that everyone has fun at the trivia night! Sports is a hard niche to fill. I played trivia in high school and university and it was always difficult to find someone with that level of knowledge. But we were never short of literature or history buffs! ;)

>138 rabbitprincess: Thanks! I'm the only lit/history person on our team; everyone else is a scientist like my hubby. There's a neuro-nurse, an astrophysicist (I'm not kidding; he's leaving to study at Cornell in the fall), another geologist and a gemologist. Everyone is really nice and we always have fun, but it does sometimes feel a bit intimidating.

Trivia night sounds wonderful! I coach our school's Quiz Team, but I think participating would be fun! I am a history teacher and surprised to see anybody reading non-fiction history about the Constitutional Convention, but you go girl!

>133 Shutzie27:, Beautiful writing. Several times I thought, "Yes, that's right. She's described that feeling perfectly!"

I'm still so behind in reading the threads here that there's one good thing: by now your Grapes of Wrath will have arrived and you can satisfy my curiousity: is it indeed the correct cover and in as good a condition as you hoped?

>140 Tess_W: It is an odd area to be fascinated with, I grant you that. But I love the clash of personalities, the historic political machinations, the idea of a basically secret meeting forming a new nation. I'm always amazed at how many different angkes the story can be approached from, too.

In this book, Stewart plants the reformation around quibbles over the Potomac. In another, it's a decision that came about because of conpeting state currencies. Etc. Etc. My favorite is still Ellis' Founding Brothers, but we'll see.

I wish my school had a trivia team!!!

>141 Merryann: Thank you! Yes, it arrived in wonderful condition. I was especially impressed with how it was packages. It was wrapped in thick paper, then bubble wrapped, then put in a padded envelope. There was even a handwritten thank you note, which I thought was lovely.

I found your thread and have starred it, but haven't yet had a chance to review.... just poking my head in to say "hi!"

Hi avanders, and welcome! If you want to see Mary Ann's GENIUS idea about a midnight library, go to > 54. Her idea to have a membership fee and a reading room and a socializing room is brilliant.

Agreed! :)

Ooh, I love that I come here and see 'Mary Ann' and 'genius' in the same sentence. Ha ha ha! I started to feel bigheaded, but then I made about five typos on my first attempt to type that sentence, so now I'm calmed back down.

I'm glad the Grapes of Wrath arrived in good shape! It's good that the seller took time to wrap it carefully. I just don't know what to do about my favorite bookseller, Better World Books. They've decided to become so cheap about packaging that I actually try to NOT buy from them now. I've contacted them more than once about it, and they've kindly refunded money to me for damaged books, but they seem to feel overall it's more cost effective to eliminate any kind of padding and save shipping costs than it is to do it right and not have to give the occasional refund. Sigh.

lol... sometimes it takes some typos to do that.. ;)

Woohoo! Another ROOT down! Next up, Neil Gaimen's The Ocean at the End of the Lane. I need a bit of light reading after Stewart's clear, but dry, recap of the Convention.

As a Con Law geek, I found it to be a good read overall, but as my review states, think the title is really a bit misleading. It's more about the Three-Fifths Compromise and the epic battle over representation than anything else.

Ooh, that's one that I keeeeeeep hearing I need to read!

>149 avanders: It's very, very good, avanders. And it's pretty short, so it's a good night/weekend fluffy read.

I borrowed it from the library! :) And now that I see how short it is, I'll surely finish quickly :)

Read another ROOT, Art Spiegelman's In the Shadow of No Towers,his giant 9/11 comixx commemoration/memorial. It was really amazing, though at times difficult to read.

Spiegelman 's daughter was just three blocks away from the towers at the United Nations High School when the first one got hit, and he, her and his wife all saw the towers fell from about a block and a half away. Spiegelman worked through his not-so-minor PTSD by reading historical comic strips. He then -- often times disturbingly or jarringly -- uses those old characters to work through the political and social aftermath of the towers falling in these huge, one-page panels printed on pages the size of old broadsheets.

Anyway, I bought it several years ago and have always meant to read it around Sept. 11, but never did until this year. It sure does bring back a lot of memories.

Just re-posting my ROOT ticker for easier access:

Woohoo!!! With everything going on, it took a ridiculous three weeks, but I finished The Water Room.

I am wondering, though, if I should count my class textbooks for my 75 Books challenge? I mean, I am in fact reading the entire book for both classes through the course of the semester, but it doesn't feel like a goal book.

Hmm....

Is the 75 book challenge a challenge to simply read 75 books? Any books? Then I think it counts!
Congrats on finishing your book! (It took me something like that to read Winter's Tale.. sometimes life gets so busy!)

>154 Shutzie27: I counted text books in the 75 challenge before. A book is a book and how often do you really read the whole text book anyway? When you finish one it should count double!

>156 Familyhistorian: lol I agree!

Thanks, guys. I actually had to read a nonfiction book on writing and do a book report on it (I chose On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King, and just finished that last night, so on the ticker it goes!

Oh I've heard good things about On Writing! Did you like it?

>159 avanders: Hi Avanders! Sorry for the late reply, but I really did, and I say that having gone into it a bit unwillingly. King gives a very blunt, pared down chronicle of his own experiences with writing (dating back to childhood and his first "sale" of a short story to his mom and aunts) and solid writing advice. It's a bit pat and predictable (don't use adverbs or unclear pronouns, focus on story, etc.) but his voice is engaging and that makes it a quick and good read.

OK, so I've been MIA but we've been moving in, doing some minor home makeover stuff and decorating for Christmas, whew! I am, however, done with library (except curtains, which I still have to hang and iron) and there's room for at least three more bookshelves, wheee!!! So, I'm going to post pictures of everything that's been keeping me busy. The man is the pictures is my hubby, Judd.

I did finish another textbook Writing and Being and one graphic novel Unwritten Vol. 2 and Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake. None of those are ROOTS, but I can put them in my book bingo and on my 75 books ticker at any rate. Tonight I'm hoping to start a Charles Tood Ian Rutledge, but I forget which book I'm on.

Anywho, here's some pictures:





And here's some Before/After of the laundry room and garage:

Thanks for your thoughts on on writing! Also, beautiful reading space, and thanks for sharing your pics! Nice renovations!

I love those bookcases! And all the best wishes for a happy home.

What MissWatson said! Those bookshelves are very nice indeed. :) And welcome back to LT!

Thank you everyone! I missed being on here. I'm still working on catching up on everyone's threads, but I'm hoping to pop by a bit more.

>162 avanders: avanders, I can't seem to find your thread, though I know I've looked for it more than once. Can you shoot me a link please?

Ha so weird how that happens! Here you go: http://www.librarything.com/topic/177838 sorry I didn't disguise it..I'm on my phone :)

No prob, thanks!

Nice library! I wish I had a room dedicated to solely that!

Thanks, Tess! I have to admit, it's kind of a life goal achieved. I always had to read in my room growing up, which was tiny, and even tinier because of all the bookshelves. So the choices were always bed or floor, but I've always preferred reading in a chair, which is why I'm so ridiculously excited about having a reading room (an entire room!).

A very happy Christmas and a good New Year in your new home!

>171 connie53: and >172 avanders: Thank you so much!

A Merry Christmas to you as well!