Born to Read

Hello all!

Well, I am on the last leg of our trip and should be back in Kentucky the first of May. We are enjoying visiting with my husband's family in Texas and letting the puppies swim in the nearby lake.

Speaking of families, my lovely aunt sent me this photo of me and my older brother. I thought I'd share since it looks like I've always loved reading. Do you all have fond memories of reading when you were a child?

Can I Read That?

I was sitting on the subway on my way to work this morning, listening to my iPod and reading as usual. I like to balance my iPod, purse, book, mug-o-coffee, and sometimes other odds and ends all on my lap. It's a talent I'm perfecting. Anyway...a nice lady sat down next to me, balancing her backpack on her lap and started writing in her journal.

After a while I noticed that she had stopped writing and was reading my book along with me. I actually don't mind people reading "over my shoulder" so to speak. After about five pages and getting close to my stop to get off, I took off my earphones and let her see the cover. She was all smiles, wrote down the title in her journal, said, "Thank you, I'll have to read that book". That kind of made my day.

In case you're curious, the book was The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time and I had just started reading it this morning.

Question: Where do you get ideas of books you want to read?

Books by the Season

I finished up reading Charlotte Bronte's classic novel Jane Eyre. You may know Charlotte by her sister, Emily Bronte who wrote Wuthering Heights.

I was sitting at home talking to my husband and pondering upon my next "classic" book to read. I mentioned that I was thinking of reading a Charles Dickens book since I've never read his work before. "NO!" my husband stated. I looked at him stunned. "Why not?" I asked. "You CAN'T read Dickens in the summer." This seemed logical.

So I am reading Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte, sister of said Charlotte and Emily.

So do you read books according to the season? If you do...what books/authors can you only read in certain seasons? And why?

UPDATE: I decided that Agnes Grey felt a little to, well, grey for me for a sunny summer day. So I took some fellow book lovers advice and have switched to reading Summer by Edith Wharton. Now this seems like a book I have to read during the summer :)

Thanks to Chris and Lisa!! And thanks to Heather, Steinbeck will probably be next on my list.

Where I Learned To Read

Have you always loved reading or is it something fairly new to you? Or do you even like to read?

My parents were great at always keeping a plethora of books around and reading to us.

Here's a photo of me at seven months old which just cracks me up. Guess which one I am:
Here I am at three and a half probably pretending to read:
I loved my parent's bed frame growing up. What read-a-holic wouldn't love to wake up surrounded by books:

Where Do You Read?

So where do YOU read? Do you read when you travel? Have a comfy couch you curl up on? Do you fall asleep reading or read before bed?

On a ferry boat to Vancouver Island:

Waiting for dinner at Tough City Sushi in Tofino, Canada:

Books and more books

I love summer time because for some reason the daylight makes my mind more active. That and since I'm taking the summer off from classes I want to cram in as many fun books as I can. So here's the books I'm reading:

Right now my riding-the-subway book is Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale. It's sort of an Orwell's 1984-ish type of book. My old riding-the-subway book was Graham Swift's book The Light of Day. It's a private detective mystery type story which is ok but wasn't really grabbing my attention. Thus the switch. I'll come back to it though.

My sometimes-I-read-before-going-to-bed book is Zora Neale Hurston's novel Their Eyes Were Watching God. It's a thin book but slow reading because it's one of those books where the accent is written into it so it's a bit of deciphering to figure out what they are saying.

My book I read at work since it's free online (Google books full-view) is Wilkie Collins' classic spooky book The Woman in White. It's great so far! A mysterious lady in white, two star-crossed lovers, and wonderful narration.

And I'm still only half finished with Anna Karenina by Tolstoy and need to finish that sometime.

Oh and my book club book just came in at the library which is Dava Sobel's Galileo's Daughter. I'm going to pick that up tomorrow and start reading it this weekend.

Oh...and I'm only half-way finished with Michael Chabon's The Yiddish Policeman's Union. I stopped reading it when I went to Las Vegas for a vacation because, while a good book, it's not really a summer-time read. So I will come back to that one too.

My husband thinks I'll never finish all these books. What do you think?

Beautiful Places to Read

Speaking of being thankful...

I am thankful I've been to some pretty cool libraries in my day. I love checking out movies and CDs as well as books. The main library on Denali street in Anchorage is wonderful with a beautiful fountain outside that freezes in the winter to simulate the Aurora Borealis. I found the picture of the fountain at this site.











AND of course the cool Denver Public Libary. That's sort of what I was expecting the New York City one to be like...only better. But of course it wasn't.

And Colorado State's Morgan Libray which looks like an open book....was my home away from home sometimes which of course had a coffee stand :)

Library Rant

I have to post this. One of the first things I learned upon moving to New York City has to do with that beautiful New York Public Library with the famous lions and architecture. I was so excited to see it...to go study and do graduate school stuff. You know...experience the New York Public Library. But upon asking our New York friend where it was...he told me it is a "research" library...you can't check anything out there. Insert picture of me being sad...I think I pouted.

Then he told me the "real" library is right across the street. Oh!! Ok!! So I trotted my little self with my computer to the Mid-Manhattan Public Library to do some important graduate homework (insert me being slightly sarcastic). Anyway...I was so not impressed with the library. The level where it's ok to whip out your laptop and do work had a total of five outlets (not really being sarcastic)...with people on standby watching people leave like hawks swooping down to snatch the spots. So fortunately I finished my test before my computer's battery died. I don't think the library has been renovated or updated since maybe the sixties or seventies. Hmmm...

Oh and this was after I went to our local branch. At our branch I was looking for a book for my husband...a Neil Gaiman book called Neverwhere...and I swear the library had eight titles in the "G" section. Seriously....I think I have a better selection at home.

I was so disappointed that I haven't yet taken a photo of the famous library. The photo above is from this website.

Ok...enough of my rant...it's out and now I can spend the rest of the weekend being Thankful :)

Whale of a Tale

Since I have a little time on my hands at the computer at work, I've decided to read Moby Dick. It's been on my list of "To-Reads" for so long that I decided to buckle down and read it. I was first interested in reading it when I read an excerpt of Bartleby the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street which I still want to read all the way through. I've been on this "adventure" book kick so I decided to check it out. Amazingly, Herman Melville had a sense of humor.

For instance, the main character Ishmael states:

"and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people's hats off -- then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can."

Hahahaha...he sounds like my husband on a rainy day with people's umbrellas :)

Oh! And good tip...many older books are past their copyrights...and are thus free online. If you ever get an inkling to check out a classic, here are some great places to find them:

My absolute favorite - Project Gutenberg
Online Books Page
Alex
The Internet Public Library
Bibliomania
Classic Authors
Digital Book Index