Category: Ruminations

7 Deadly Sins (of Reading) Meme

On By cherylmahoneyIn Ruminations6 Comments

I saw this meme pop up on my friend Lynn’s blog recently, and thought it would be a fun one to take for a spin!

GREED – What is your most inexpensive book?

That’s hard, because I regularly go to the Library Warehouse Sale to buy books for 50 cents…  Here’s one, not actually the most inexpensive but the most jaw-dropping “it’s really that cheap?” purchase: A Window in Thrums by J. M. Barrie, 1897 edition, with the lovely handwritten inscription “For Grandmother from Mary Eunice, December 25th 1898,” sold online for the ridiculously low price of…$2.62.  !!!

I kind of feel like Greed should really ask about my most expensive book…which is a massive, two-volume set on my favorite artist, William Bouguereau, one volume of which is almost entirely images of his gorgeous paintings…and it cost me $300.  It was a moment of madness in a museum gift shop–but I’m pretty sure this is THE definitive book on his work.  And I haven’t regretted it yet!

Now I just need to muster up the courage or madness to drop another $300 (or so) on a signed J. M. Barrie.  Signed L. M. Montgomery, sadly, is FAR out of my price range.

WRATH – What author do you have a love/hate relationship with?

Edgar Rice Burroughs comes to mind.  I love reading his books–I have over fifty of them!  But I sigh a lot about his pathetic heroines, a few of his books have some pretty appalling racism in them, and after reading a biography…yeah, I’m pretty sure Burroughs and I could not have been friends.

GLUTTONY – What book have you devoured over and over with no shame?

I Want to Go Home! by Gordon Korman.  I think by the time I was twelve, I had read it twelve times–and it stayed just as funny.

SLOTH – What book have you neglected reading due to laziness?

I neglected finishing Winston and Clementine, a collection of letters between Winston Churchill and his wife, for years.  And there’s no excuse, since I loved the first part that I read–then got distracted–and didn’t get back to it. But I finally got it read as part of my chunkster challenge last year.

PRIDE – What book do you talk most about to sound like an intellectual reader?

But I never name-drop books to sound intellectual… 😉  Actually, I really don’t, mostly because all my friends like fantasy and sci fi and we have too much shared reading experience to impress each other.  Although if I was going to name-drop, Les Miserables would probably be my best bet.

LUST – What attributes do you find attractive in male or female characters?

Give me a green-eyed book hero and I am lost.  Which is funny, because I don’t particularly look for that in actors or, you know, real life!  It’s strictly a book thing.  I also have kind of a thing for brooding heroes with hearts of gold (in books.  Ahem).

ENVY – What book would you most like to receive as a gift?

Yeah…I don’t know.  I have an Amazon wishlist, but nothing particularly jumps out as MORE desired than any other.  I’d actually really like the soundtrack of Once Upon a Forest, because I love the one song on the soundtrack that Michael Crawford sang but, um, I can’t quite bring myself to spend $25 for basically one song (well, three, I like two of the others…)  I’ll probably do it eventually, I’m just working up to it…but that’s not a book.  Though kind of on the subject, I’d be over the moon if someone gave me an autographed J. M. Barrie book!  And autographed L. M. Montgomery–I would be your best friend for life!

But I’ll feel friendly towards you too if you leave a comment with your answer to any of these questions! 🙂

Blog Hop: Replying to Comments?

On By cherylmahoneyIn Blog Hop5 Comments

book blogger hopThis week’s Book Blogger Hop question: Do you reply to comments on your blog or do you figure folks won’t be stopping back to read your reply so you don’t bother?

I try to reply to comments consistently and in a timely fashion…but rather like my blog reading, it actually tends to happen in bunches when I carve out some time. And I miss comments sometimes too. I tell myself it’s a good exercise in letting go of perfection to allow that to happen…yeah, that’s still something of an internal argument!

But in general I’m pro-comment replies. I know not everyone will see the response, but some of you do—because some of you reply to my replies! I know WordPress helpfully tells WordPress users about comment-replies on other WordPress blogs, so while I don’t keep track of which comments are coming from WordPress users, I do know some replies are being seen that way. Besides, if someone asks a question, even if they don’t see the answer, maybe a later reader will, and will find it valuable!

And I feel like a practice (even imperfect) of replying to comments adds a lot to the feeling that a blog is a conversation, not just a broadcast—and conversation is certainly what I am aiming for!

Thoughts? Comments? I promise I’ll (try to) respond!

New Feature: Favorites Pages

On By cherylmahoneyIn Ruminations1 Comment

You all know I recommend lots and lots of books…and while I love giving you many different book reviews to explore, I also know the archives are large (almost four years of blogging!)  SO–I’ve put together new pages listing my favorite, top recommended books.  Because I’m sure you all needed new ideas for something to read, right? 🙂

My apologies if I’m expanding an already-long To Be Read list…but hope you will enjoy my new lists of Recommended Reads anyway!

Blog Hop: Comments on Comments

On By cherylmahoneyIn Blog Hop19 Comments

book blogger hopThis week’s Book Blogger Hop question: Do you have a pet peeve about when someone posts a comment on your blog? For example, no link back to their blog.

Aww, I don’t have any pet peeves about commenters. I love comments! Well, if they’re from real people—I do get annoyed by spam comments that sneak past the spam filter, especially the ones that look almost like real comments and are only given away by their general vagueness and poor grammar. That’s my only comment pet peeve.

So I thought I’d flip this around and mention a couple of favorite things about comments. I love it when commenters…

  • …talk to each other. Replies to other people’s comments are so much fun, especially when someone answers another reader’s question (often with better information than I have!)
  • …tell me something interesting about the book or author I didn’t know. All the better if it’s an insight that addresses something I mentioned in the review as bothering me.
  • …write virtual blog posts in response. I’m pretty sure there’s no length-limit to comments, and there really shouldn’t be!
  • …give me a new book suggestion, or tell me they’re going to read something on my suggestion.
  • …agree with me about a book—or argue with me! As long as it stays friendly and respectful all around, of course.

Bloggers out there, do you have pet peeves—or favorite things—about comments? Feel free to write a blog post, answer each other’s questions, or volunteer a book suggestion, but spammers are not welcome. 🙂

Blog Hop: Bookcase Delights

On By cherylmahoneyIn Blog Hop10 Comments

book blogger hopThis week’s Book Blogger Hop question: How many bookcases do you have, and how do you organize the shelves?

My primary goal in organizing my apartment, when I moved in, was to fit in plenty of bookcases! I still feel short of space sometimes, but I make do… I have three large bookcases (six feet high)—one for children’s fiction, one for scifi/fantasy, and one for general fiction (which should give you a not-unexpected sense of the balance of my reading…) I have two much smaller bookcases, one for classic children’s fantasy, and one with nothing but L. M. Montgomery books.

My books are in fact meticulously organized, although they might not look it. Books are arranged alphabetically by author, within the aforementioned subject matter divisions. It looks more haphazard because several authors have their own shelves—J. M. Barrie, William Shakespeare, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Tamora Pierce and all Star Trek titles. Multiple titles by one author are usually in series-order or alphabetical if that’s not relevant. The Star Trek books are loosely in order by internal chronology. Montgomery, who did not write all of her series books consecutively or even in order, is the most organized but looks the least, because I put her books in chronological order by original publishing date.

It all makes sense to me. 🙂 And I can find any title quickly, which is really the end-goal, right? Do you have an organizing system, and does it make sense to other people, or just to you?