I've met Donna Alward a couple of times, and she's just so friendly and nice! Others I'd like to meet are Susan Mallery, Suzanne Brockman, Holly Jacobs, Lynne Marshall, Stephanie Newton, Marin Thomas, Marta Perry, Terri Reed, Christine Rimmer. . . and about two dozen others {:-)
I love trilogies and series books. Usually I read them as I get them because most of the time I'm not paying attention and don't realize it's a trilogy until I've read #2 or 3 and then have to go looking for the first one or two.
I just collected a mini-series of 6 books, waited until I had them all (very unusual for me) and then found that I couldn't read them all in a row, read the first 3, read a couple of other books in between, and now I am ready to read the last three.
My favorite trilogy is Nora Robert's Donovan series, and I actually picked up book #4 by accident. (whew!) I re-read them at least once a year, sometimes oftener.
Cool! I actually got here on a Sunday. Hopefully it will happen oftener after this. {:-)
Wendy, you're not alone -- I always talk to myself, too, but they say you're okay until you start answering yourself. {;-)
Mary, I know Donna Alward personally, and she will be tickled pink to know that you consider her a friend. BTW, she's on facebook -- Donna Alward, Romance Author, if you want to look her up.
I'm not sure if I had an imaginary friend or not, but I did act out imaginary plots, etc. I love the hometown feel of Janet Tronstad's "Dry Creek" series, and Nora Robert's Donovan Legacy is another good place to "visit". I have so many favorite authors that I love to visit with there is no way I could list them all.
Julie, 25 years -- that's GREAT!!! My husband and I just celebrated our 44th anniversary last week. He totally surprised me by coming home early and taking me out to supper. {:-) I don't know what I would do without him, either. {:-)
Sandi, wonderful topic, as usual. I'd be ripping my hair out trying to come up with a new topic each week. You do a wonderful job of it! {:-)
LOL! Seems like life happens to quite a few of us while we're busy making plans. . . That's exactly what it's like around here, too.
Last Friday was our 44th anniversary. I didn't bother planning anything because my husband was busy helping his brother pull a motor, and we were also getting ready for company the next day for the week-end. My husband got done early, and comes home to say come on, let's go out for supper.
That was a nice change from the usual having to cancel plans at the last minute. {:-)
I don't know how long you keep a topic up, but it's Friday today, and I just found this.
Hmmm, I'll go without lots of things, but I refuse to go without my books. I'll pick up a new-to-me author if the cover catches my eye. Then I'll read the back-blurb, and if I'm still interested, I'll read the last 3 or 4 pages. If I'm still interested then, and only then, will I buy the book.
I read very few books from the library because I am a hoarder. I'm also a re-reader. But I'm also frugal, and very seldom do I pay full price, even for new books.
I very seldom actually break down and cry, but do get emotional at times, tears in the eyes, throat clogged up. . . I'd much rather laugh, though, as the world is tough enough.
If a book is going to make me cry, it had better do it in the middle somewhere, as if I cry at the ending, it won't get a high mark from me. I want my HEA, like most everyone else.
Aw shucks. I had a party all planned for such a beautiful mansion of a house, and it's not even yours. . .
I remembered Nora Roberts' Angels Fall after someone else mentioned it, and found Summer After Summer by Ann DeFee. It's an Everlasting Love book from Sept '07.
I've got tons of books that have Christmas, Valentine, and Thanksgiving in the titles. Other than that not much for seasons, but I do have several hundred that have Mommy or Daddy in the title in some form or another.
I'm about as un-technical as you can get, and still make use of these modern conveniences. I have an mp3 player, but my grandson had to teach me how to download the music I wanted on it. Same goes for my computer -- any time there's a problem, he has to come and rescue me. I have a cell phone, but it's strictly for emergency purposes, and I don't ever use it to play games on. Though he has tried to teach me. About the most it does is it takes pictures of the inside of my pocket because it always turns itself into camera mode when I put something else into that pocket with it.
What I've heard of Kindles makes me kind of want one -- when they come down to about 1/3 the price they are now. . .
LOL! We should all get together. It sounds like our perfect days would almost be exactly the same. . .
I'd include in my perfect day -- besides the reading, etc -- a day when whatever woodworking project I'm making would go together the first time without having to be refitted a dozen times. {:-) And did I say reading? Yes, lots of reading. A good cup of hot chocolate, my favorite chair. . .
Hmmmm. Interesting comments, everyone. I've never really thought of putting a date on "historical" before. I very seldom (never) read historicals, so I probably really shouldn't even be commenting. To me, anything I won't read are the stories where the women still wear long bulky dresses -- though that one's debatable -- and where the main mode of transportation is by horse and buggy/covered wagon. I love cowboy stories, but they need to be the modern ones, where at the end of the day they jump into their 4x4 and go home, sort of thing.
I also love reading series books, but I am terrified that I'll miss one along the way, so I don't like it when they're too long. If it were possible for a person to sign up somewhere so you wouldn't miss them, I'd love that.
Reading wins, hands down, but of course, there always comes the time when my hubby won't wait any longer for supper, so I must put my book down. . .
I have been known to cook and clean while reading at the same time. The kids are gone, it's just the two of us now, so once I do get some cleaning done it usually stays that way, at least for a while.
I have allergies, too, but I figure if I stir the dust up, it will only bother me more. . .
I didn't exactly plan anything for the week-end, but it ended up busy anyhow. On Fri. my daughter-in-law's father passed away, so I had their kids all day and most of the evening. Saturday I went to my grandson's very first ever home game football game. They lost, but it was still a good game, and he got his name mentioned a few times. Once he intercepted a pass, and once he tackled someone and stopped them from making a touch-down. Sunday was kind of ho-hum. Went to church in the morning -- oh, I forgot. We had a pancake breakfast at church for the fall kick-off. Had a nap in the afternoon, and watched a movie with my husband in the evening. Today I had two loads of laundry washed, dried, folded and put away plus the dishwasher loaded and we went for a 2 km walk -- all before we left for Regina at 10 a.m. Had a family BBQ to attend there, and got home about 8:30 this evening.
I also read His Baby Bombshell by Jessica Matthews and Twice in a Lifetime by Marta Perry, and I'm half done A Silent Fury by Lynette Eason.
For someone who had no plans at the start of the week-end, I did pretty good, eh?
Wow! What a lot of great comments! And, as always, a great topic to comment on. . .
In all the, um. . . decades (whispered). . . that I've been reading, I have no idea how many books I read from first person pov. Then, about 2 years ago, I read one that was so horrible I swore never to read a first person pov ever again. Until then I hadn't actually realized there was a difference.
However, when you order your books online -- like I do -- you don't always know until you already have the book in your hot little hands. I read one just a couple of months ago that was so well done I was half way through before I noticed.
Not helping much, am I? I hope this new week is better than last week for you, Sandi.
I loved some of the comments, like the one about reading the grocery list. :-)
My husband thinks my books are empty calories -- "trash", as he puts it. Last time he made that comment I threw one at him and told him until he read one and knew what was in it he was not allowed to comment on what I read. I actually said to him, "At least I exercise my brain, instead of sitting and staring at the boob-tube all evening." He didn't like that very much at all, and actually has held his tongue about my books since then.
I'll read almost anything that falls into my hand, except historicals and anything war-like. Gore doesn't bother me, but violence does. I guess I'm just weird.
I usually have a cover on my books. Not so people can't see "what" I read, but so my husband can't keep track of "how many" I read. ;-)
I am a keeper, and a re-reader. I plan, someday, to donate my whole library of Love Inspired books to our church library. "Someday" may never come. . .
I have my favorites, like some of the others, that I re-read many times. Whoever called them "comfort food" hit it right on the button!
As to ways to inspire others to keep and re-read, I have no idea. It's either in you or it isn't. Not having space wouldn't deter me -- I have stacks of books everywhere in my house, even the bathroom. . .
My TBR pile is more like a whole range of mountains.
I'm in with quite a few of you in the book buying department. With Lynn -- I'm a cash-only person. I do have a debit card, and a paypal account, but not for books. With Donna M -- my book buying budget is very small. Which pretty much leaves out hard-cover books, e-books, and audio books.
I think publishers should be honor-bound to finish a miniseries before they cancel an author's contract. How would they like it if someone suddenly took away their favorite book when they were half done reading it? And then there's authors who have books published simply because they've made a name for themselves. I won't mention any names, but I read a book not that long ago by someone who used to be my all-time favorite. It was junk. I could have done better. Publishers would be better off making those people re-write their junk than cutting a miniseries in the middle.
In this part of the country the economy is already back on it's way up, so I don't think the depression is going to last too much longer. Hopefully that will result in some contracts being re-instated.
Good topic as usual, Sandi. Keep up the good work. I had to go searching in my junk box again to find your column. How some of these people find your email address is beyond me. "Does your bed-partner have trouble finding your little friend?" "Turn your mouse into a monster." It's enough to make your eyes roll back in your head. Out of the 50 - 60 messages in my spam box today, there were three that I moved to my inbox. All the rest got garbaged. Do people really answer that junk?
Anyhow, that's my 2-cents worth for this week. Or has inflation booted it up to a dime? ;-)
I very seldom use the library as I am a keeper. I re-read more than half of my books. I've never put my name on a reserved list at the library, but they have gotten in a couple of books for me over the years. We are a small library, affiliated with a large regional one, so they move the books around from one to the other.
I've seen Nora's Black Hills on the Walmart shelves, but I won't spend that much on one book, so I'll have to wait either until my daughter picks it up or until it comes out in soft-cover.
The ones I wonder about are Nora Roberts' Donovan family. As the series progressed some of the characters had children that showed promise of having some of the paranormal talents of their parents. I'd love to read about them.
I'd like to read of the next generation of some of the other books I read, but I only want this generation to be sitting in their rocking chairs, not to be dying.
My relatives regularly live well into their 90's as do my husband's, so we should be able to read of at least three generations of families before there's any deaths.
Truthfully, I've never even heard of most of the books mentioned here. Guess I live too far north. . .
I almost hate to mention the title, because I'm not real sure of it, but Dating Can Be Deadly by Wendy Roberts did nothing for me. It was because of the language. I struggled through almost a third of the book before I finally gave up, all because quite a few friends had raved about it. The story line was great, and had I been able to handle all the 4-letter words, I'd likely have loved it.
When the Blaze line came out, I listened to all the hype, and bought me a Blaze book. I don't remember the title or author, but the couple was in bed together by page 3, and didn't resurface until the story ended. It had no story line at all. It simply didn't go anywhere. So when I saw the titles of a mini-series in that line that caught my eye, I really struggled with a decision to buy them. In the end I did, and that series is now on my keeper shelf.
I lent Lakeside Cottage by Susan Wiggs to my daughter (I haven't even read it yet) and she said it didn't go anywhere. She didn't finish it. So now it isn't moving up my TBR pile very fast. Yet, I've loved everything else I've read of SW.
Generally speaking, I will notice a typo and frown a little, but carry on reading. One character in the book being called by another character's name will get a bigger frown, but I'll still carry on reading. Grammatical errors get a growl. What really makes me scowl - and growl - is when there are inconsistencies in the story. I just finished reading a book where the heroine was drugged by the villain putting something in her punch. She put the (paper) cup down and attempted to walk away, only to fall, unconscious. Then, 5 or so pages later she was trying to prove that she was not on drugs and "happened" to remember that she had crushed the cup in her hand when she fell, thus finding it in her effects at the hospital. Things like that - or errors in distance while travelling (in books) - REALLY irritate me.
I've only met one author in person, and that is Donna Alward. She's a wonderful, cheerful, bubbly person, and my husband and I sat and had coffee with her for over an hour. That was when she still lived in Calgary. Now she's in Halifax, so it isn't going to happen again any time soon.
I'd love to meet Nora, too, as well as Terri Reed, Lynne Marshall, Missy Tippens, Linda Barrett, Robin Caroll, Suzanne Brockman, Susan Mallery. . . basically every author whose work I've read.
I met Serge LeClerc, author of "Untwisted", his autobiography. He spoke at a dinner I was at, and then the next day he had a book-signing in our local Christian Bookstore. What a friendly, dynamic person! It was a real shame that there were less than a dozen people at his signing -- at least while we were there. We sat and talked with him for over an hour. We were the first ones there, and we just visited with him until a couple more people came. If you want to read a true story that will make your hair stand on end, get his book. It's a Canadian publication, though.
I've never read Pride and Prejudice, and I can't say as I have any plans to ever read it, either. The only one of the other required reading that was mentioned that I've actually read was Little Women. In high school we were forced to read Shakespeare: Hamlet, Romeo & Juliet, Julius Caesar. . . I hated all of them. My mother was required to read Jane Eyre, and she hated it. I read it after I was out of school, and loved it.
One of my daughters is an avid reader, one is a so-so reader, and the other three kids wouldn't be caught dead anywhere near a book. In the school where 3 of my grandchildren go they have reading contests, and the student in each grade who reads the most books gets a prize at the end of the year. I think all 3 of my "kids" have gotten the prize every year since they started the contest.
I'm in a group now where I review new books for authors who request it. I do have the option of turning the books down if they're of a line I don't think I would enjoy, but I must say I've enjoyed every single one I've received so far.
Sandi, I'm tickled pink that I actually got this message today, instead of in my junk box tomorrow. Did you do something differently? Or have my junk box guys finally decided that as I keep moving it into my inbox I must want it? Now I probably jinxed it by mentioning it. . .
Hi all. I'm a little bit of both. Sometimes I plan a purchase for a long time before spending my hard-earned $$, and the next time "poof" and the $$'s gone.
I very seldom visit the book store, I do 99% of my book shopping at eHarlequin where I find it only to easy to click on the "purchase all" button. . .
For other shopping I can usually control my impulses (my wallet won't let me do otherwise) but if I've been thinking about buying something and suddenly see it on sale, I can usually justify picking it up right then, and leaving something else for later.
Sharla, my grandkids have had a Wii game (with all the different activities included) for quite a while, and I've watched them use it on many occasions. Quite frankly, it's the best thing my daughter has spent $$ on in a long time.
Sandi, I'm glad you enjoyed FOTR. We don't have a lot of occasions for things like that around here. Mostly it's dance and piano recitals for us. . .
I'm still having trouble with these things ending up in my junk mailbox. I did notice today that it came up with a capital M, so maybe that's the problem. I'll change it and see what happens next week.
I'd love to be an early-bird, however, that gene seems to be missing in my makeup. I try. My husband is always ready at least half an hour before I am, even if I start getting ready to go before him. Though I do always have a book along, in case a miracle happens and I'm early. I'm very seldom late, though, just barely on time.
By the way, who won the book bag from last week? There was a problem with something, and my message is the only one I saw.
My mother, too, was a big influence in me reading. For every birthday or special occasion I got books. First The Bobbsey Twins, and then Nancy Drew. They also bought me drawing equipment, as I'm quite good at art-type stuff.
I don't remember my sisters or my brother getting books, though.
Hi Sandi, I'm with Donna M -- mostly I only read one book at a time, though I have read more than one if really necessary. I do reviews, too, so those books come first. After that, I usually stack my TBR pile according to which one I want to start next, but that doesn't always work. There is no way my TBR pile would fit on my night table (unless my night table took up half a wall) ;-) I've got over 300 books in my TBR bookcase. I keep telling myself I'm not going to start a new series until I've got all the books. It hasn't worked yet, and by the time I get the next one in line, I'm champing at the bit to get it started. Every once in a while I will put a book down to start a new one, and then go back to the first one, but very seldom. I spend way more time reading than I should, and my house shows it. Right now I'm supposed to be making a salad for a ladies night out salad supper tonight. . .
Oops, I forgot. I have a protective cover that I use. Not necessarily so no one can see what I'm reading, but so my husband can't tell when I'm changing books, so he can't tell how many books I actually read. . .
Hi Sandi, Good topic. I have to agree with Summer on the "Get Lucky" cover. He was more than just CHUBBY. The whole cover was downright ugly!
I do have to admit, though, that a favorite author or line could have just about anything on the cover and I would buy it. I am especially drawn to covers with babies on them. But what the back blurb says will draw me to purchase a lot sooner than what's on the cover. Or a good title.
If I do happen to notice the cover and then realize while reading that the cover does not match the story (H/h, or castle vs shack, etc) that bothers me a lot.
I didn't realize until I met a few authors that they have very little say in what goes on the covers of their books. Or even what the title is, for that matter. This would irritate me no end. I'm surprised a lot of them are still writing. I probably wouldn't be.
Hope you had a good Easter, and didn't eat too much chocolate. . .
Hi Sandi, Now that I've registered, maybe my newsletter will come to my inbox instead of my junkmail box. I've got the address in my address book, but it didn't make a difference.
I'm with Shauna -- my TBR pile is more like a bookcase rather than a pile. The few times I've stepped outside my comfort zone I've usually ended up disappointed. I try and stay away from supernatural books as they leave me feeling very uncomfortable. However, I love Nora Roberts' Donovan series -- go figure. I'm thinking of getting one of the In Death books by J.D. Robb that I've heard so much about -- they're on at Walmart for 30% off right now. I don't do audio books, but that could change. When we travel I read while my husband drives. Works for us.
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