Bookshelf Crash

So on Monday I was trying to pull a book off a shelf in my bedroom when the whole shelf started to tip! Ack!!!!! Then since it was a backless shelf, some of the books on the top shelf started to slip down behind, making it impossible to right the shelf.

Now I think I need to explain the shelf: it is made from 4 2x4s that have holes drilled up the wide side, pegs are put in the holes and 2x2s with holes are put onto the pegs, the shelves are set onto the 2x2s, there are screw in attachments on the tops of the uprights that make it so you can adjust them against the ceiling, there are no nails holding it together. I guess I didn't have the screws tightened against the ceiling and when it started to come down, it did. So there I am trying to keep from being smashed by all those books on the top and trying to let down the uprights slowly so they don't crash into the window. Tuesday I had to get up at 4am to go to work a double and didn't get home till after 8:30pm so there all the books stayed, blocking the closet door. Wednesday was my day off so I spent the whole day putting the shelf back up and getting the books back on it. I decided that while I was doing that I would catalog them, so I took my laptop up to the bedroom and created a new shelf on my Goodreads list called "bedroom shelf". Basically, all the books on that bookshelf are ones I have acquired that I haven't read yet, so they are really TBR but I wanted to have them separate. I was amazed that there are 244 books there. I think I really can't justify buying any new ones! lol
Now I can maybe relax and read a few chapters from one of my "currently reading"!!

Day 228 - Presidential Cookies

8/16/2010
One of the speakers and vendors at our recent Cookie Cutter Collector's Club Convention was the author of "Presidential Cookies", Bev Young. This delightful book has cookie recipes and stories from each of the presidents from Washington to Obama.

Day 55 - Read my pins

2/24/2010

Today I read a book by former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright called "Read My Pins: Stories from a Diplomat's Jewel Box". I was inspired to take some photos of some of the pins in my own jewelry box. The one on the left is called "Bad Hair Day" and was bought in 1998 at a teacher's convention. The top right pin belonged to my Grandma Berg and the red enamel pin on the bottom right was one of my Mother's favorites.

Day 48 - Books

2/17/2010

Some of the books I haven't read yet on the shelf in the bedroom.

Day 7 - Morning

1/7/10

Dawn looking West out the back window

1/7/10

book I finished at 7am

Two photos just seem to say how I started the day!

What I read in 2009

I read over 90 books in 2009 if you count several that included more than one book inside one cover. They totaled over 33,793 pages. I started keeping track of my books on GoodReads this summer. I found this project to be very interesting.

How do you decide what to read?

I have always been a "book-a-holic". I used to get books every month from the Mystery Book club but I have stopped buying them recently. I have a book shelf in my bedroom with many of those books on it that haven't been read yet. [see my Goodreads ID photo:] I walk down the book shelf when ever I go to Sam's or Safeway to see if there are any new books I can afford and want. There are several authors and series that I just buy the next book in line (although I hope I can find it at a discount). I love browsing at a library book sale. I worked one year for a school book fair company and I got a lot of YA books with my employee discount that year. I borrow books from my quilt club library. I trade and borrow books from my friends. (We had an informal book club called "The Bingo Ladies and Jay" when a club I belonged to was doing bingo every week.) I now work at an airport and all of the gate agents, ramp agents and airline crews usually have books to read on breaks or during slow times during the schedule. They leave books in the break room and sometime passengers even give us books. I subscribe to Ellery Queen and Alfred Hitchcock short story mystery magazines and always have one in my bag for those minutes I may have to wait in a line. When my Mom died, I brought home most of her library including a set, "The World's Popular Classics". My husband is also an avid reader, but often he reads non-fiction that I am not interested in. Once in a while we do read the same books. My younger daughter got me onto Goodreads and we often share books [although this year she is in the Peace Corps in Albania so that is harder right now - I have sent her some books:] And now I am also sharing books with my almost 12-year old granddaughter. I like my Goodreads list because it is helping me keep track of what I am reading, what I have on my shelves and what I would like to read.
So with all that, I just pick a book that I have that tickles my fancy at the time and read it. Sometimes I will go for all the unread books by a particular author and get on a kick. I recently joined the Goodreads group "Pick a Shelf" and that is helping me focus on a theme each month. Basically, I don't usually know what I am going to be reading next and that's half the fun. My friends and family will tell you that I am always reading.

People of the Book

People of the Book: A Novel by Geraldine Brooks

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
I picked up this book because we found a copy of the Sarajevo Haggadah when we were in Yugoslavia in 1974. The commentary by Cecil Roth with a facsimile of the beautiful Haggadah was only published the year before in 1973. People of the Book is a fictional story that traces the book back through history. The story is disturbing because of the tragic history of the times. The book is traced from the Inquisition, the ghetto in Venice, the Holocast and the Bosnian war. The work has wonderful episodes of the best in human behavior and heart renching stories of the worst. I would recommend this book to everyone, especially to those who really don't know much about history.


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I Am a Bookaholic!

I LOVE BOOKS.
I don't drink beer and only occasionally have a glass of wine. I don't smoke. My major "vice" is reading. I always have a book that I am reading - sometimes more than one. I have a book stand that I keep on the table at home where I put my book so that I can read while I eat. Sometimes I am multi-tasking, watching a program on TV, reading a book, and eating. I keep another book stand in my lunch bag. I use it at work in the lunch room so I can read while I eat there. I subscribe to Ellery Queen and Alfred Hitchcock short story magazines. I keep one of them in my back pack just in case I finish a book and don't have another one ready to read.
The first book I remember reading was a mini-book with Longfellow's poem "The Song of Hiawatha" that my first grade teacher had in her little closet library. My sister and I used to walk several blocks to where the book-mobile parked in front of the Community Church each week (we didn't have a library in our town). We would walk home with a grocery sack full of books, read them during the week and take them back the next Saturday. I have over 50 Bobbsey Twins books that I bought with my own money when I was a kid. I read Michener and Jean Auel as each of their new massive novels came out in paperback. I was angry when I found J.R.R.Tolkein on the Science Fiction shelf in the store but soon discovered the appellation "and Fantasy". Now one of my favorite authors is Anne McCaffrey. I love all of her series especially the Pern books. I read Steinbeck, Solzhenitsyn , and Issac Bashevits Singer and I love Sholem Aleichem. I read the Little House books as an adult and the Anne of Green Gables series. As a college student I was introduced to Winnie the Pooh and am a fan of "Piglet" and "Heffalumps".
I read novels, mysteries and sci-fi. I don't like "terror" books. The only Stephen King I have read is "The Stand" but I liked it. I even read some romance novels and am a great fan of Harry Potter. I rarely read non-fiction but I loved "Three Cups of Tea".
I have been spending some time updating my books on "goodreads" from the pile of books I have read in the last few years. You can see see from the list that I read James Patterson and John Grisham and another of my recent favorites is Alexander-McCall-Smith.
I LOVE BOOKS!!

Home to Holly Springs

Home to Holly Springs by Jan Karon

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
I like the stories about Father Tim. This one takes him home to Mississippi after many years. He confronts his past with several surprises. What he finds there shakes him to the core. A very satisfying read.


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The Appeal

The Appeal by John Grisham

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
This is another scary Grisham plot. I live near an EPA super fund site in Colorado but not as horribly bad as this one in Mississippi. I don't know what is more awful, the toxic waste or the election of Supreme Court justices?


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Candy Cane Murders

Candy Cane Murder by Joanne Fluke

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
Hannah Swensen follows a trail of candy canes and finds yet another body in her Minnesota home town of Lake Eden. Hannah owns a bakery called "The Cookie Jar" there and seems to always find the bodies. This one is Santa, who was just inside the Lake Eden Inn giving presents to children from the County Home. Sprinkled among her adventures in trying to solve the mystery of who killed Kris Kringle are wonderful recipes for Holiday quiche, Peppermint Martini and eight different cookies. Several of the cookie recipes use crushed candy canes as ingredients - yum!



Well worth the quick read.




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