Category: Ruminations

Blog Hop: Book Club Edition

On By cherylmahoneyIn Blog Hop, Ruminations5 Comments

book blogger hop

First of all, Happy Friday the 13th!  I’m definitely going to have to find something spooky to read or watch today…how appropriate that it came during the RIP challenge!

Now then, this week’s Book Blogger Hop question: Are you in a book club? How does your book club choose books? How far in advance do you choose?

I am in a book club!  Have been for…wow, about three years now, and I’m happy to say I met some of my closest friends through my book club.

How we choose our books…well, that’s a bit complicated, because it’s changed at times.  Originally, one person would volunteer to bring several options to each meeting, and we’d vote for the next month’s book.  Then we tried voting all at once for six months in advance.  That seemed like a good idea…until we ended up feeling locked into the choices for far too long.  It really wasn’t so good as new people joined, or people who had originally voted dropped out.

Then for a while one member devised and ran a very elaborate and impressive system.  It involved nominating books on Facebook and doing a five-book poll each month, randomly selecting books to vote on from the larger pool of suggestions.

That method eventually got too complicated and time-consuming…so we’ve pretty much reverted back to a more informal method of choosing books for the next month at each meeting, though there’s still some elements of nominating book ideas online.

So there you go–if you’re thinking about running a book club, there are lots of ways to do it! 🙂

Saturday Snapshot: Knitting Cables

On By cherylmahoneyIn Saturday Snapshot9 Comments

I don’t plan to share every knitting project, but this one is particularly fun visually…  Now that I’m better at knitting and purling, I’m working on cables.  Most recently, I’ve tried knitting cable bracelets.

Knitting CablesI can still only knit rectangles, and it’s amazing what you can do with rectangles!  I watched this video for the pattern.  This is a pretty quick project, more complicated than a scarf but not TOO tough.  I have to actually keep track of rows and count a few stitches for this one, so it’s not as relaxing–but it keeps me from getting bored too!

Visit West Metro Mommy for more Saturday Snapshots.  Enjoy your weekend!

What Are You Reading, RIP Edition

On By cherylmahoneyIn Ruminations, What Are You Reading?9 Comments

What Are You Reading RIPThis past week saw the launch of the latest reading challenge from Carl at Stainless Steep Droppings: the Readers Imbibing Peril autumn reading experience.  This one focuses on the darker side of books, like mysteries, gothic and horror.  Read my launch post here.

I expect my reading to get a bit more shadowy in coming weeks…though not so much just yet, because I have to get some of my shadowy reads from the library still!

Right now I’m midway through The Professor by Charlotte Bronte–because it’s Charlotte Bronte and I madly love Jane Eyre.  So far, I’m not quite sure if I like The Professor, but I like reading it…if that makes any sense!  There’s just something about how Bronte puts words together, and I can’t explain it beyond that.  I’m also reading Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking by Susan Cain.  It’s a little heavy on the science but is still very readable and has really interesting insights, particularly about how society tends to favor the extrovert ideal…which may not be the right fit for all of us who like curling up alone with books!

Next up I plan to reread the wonderful, amazing, incredible The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making, to be followed by its sequel, The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There.  This, of course, is to prepare for the release of Book Three next month: The Girl Who Soared Above Fairyland and Cut the Moon in Two.  I LOVE those titles!!  I’m counting these books for RIP too, with a creepy autumn scene in the first and lots of shadows in the second.

If it arrives soon enough from my library, I think I’ll read Victor Hugo’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame in between the two Fairyland books.  I’ve been wanting to read it ever since I went to Notre Dame to see Quasi’s gargoyles–and even more since reading Les Miserables.  It’s another good one for RIP too, and for my goal to read more long and intimidating books!

A Hidden Magic by Vivian Vande Velde (new) and The Chessmen of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs (reread) are a couple I have on my shelf that I’ve been meaning to get to–and which ought to keep me busy if I finish the others while still waiting on the rest on my library’s hold list.

Speaking of which–I’m up to #44 in line for The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman.  I was #125 when I joined the list, and it’s since grown to 266…not that I’m keeping track or anything.

So much for me!  Visit Book Journey for other What Are You Reading posts.  And…what are you reading?

Saturday Snapshots: Researching the Phantom

On By cherylmahoneyIn Saturday Snapshot10 Comments

I’m currently waist-deep in research for a retelling I’m writing of The Phantom of the Opera, and thought I’d share a couple of recent book purchases–which were for research, of course!  They’re very visual so they seemed appropriate for sharing in photos…

Phantom Photos (1)The Paris Opera has some good information about the building…but mostly I bought it because it’s full of gorgeous pictures!  I actually got a copy out of the library, and then decided to buy my own.  How could I resist a giant coffee table book with photos of the Opera Garnier?

Phantom Photos (2)As for Leroux’s Phantom, well, of course I already had a copy (three, in fact–one in French, one good translation, and one bad translation that I highlighted all over–for research) but you see…this one is illustrated!  And it was only four dollars at a used bookstore.  I don’t think either of these points convinced the friend I was with that I’m not crazy…

Phantom Photos (3)I don’t generally buy books for the pictures…though I do have a gorgeously-illustrated copy of Peter Pan.  Hmm, perhaps something to share another Saturday!  Do you have any beautiful books you bought for their illustrations?

Visit West Metro Mommy for more Saturday Snapshots–and have a great long weekend!

Blog Hop: Missing the Ending?

On By cherylmahoneyIn Blog Hop, Ruminations5 Comments

book blogger hopThis week’s Book Blogger Hop question: Have you ever ended up reading a book with its last or last few pages missing? What book was it? And how did you manage to get the end?

I’m pretty sure this has never happened to me, which says something good about the reliability of my library (and the sellers of used books on Amazon).  However, I do have a similar story to share…

I have about 45 battered paperbacks by Edgar Rice Burroughs, picked up from all sorts of different places, and I think all of their pages are intact…except one.  My copy of Tarzan of the Apes starts on page 13, missing any title pages and the first half of Chapter One.  I’ve known this for years–but I’ve never taken any steps to do anything about it.

You see, Tarzan starts slowly.  It’s odd, because there’s a mutiny going on, but even still, the first few chapters are dull.  The story doesn’t get really interesting until the last page of Chapter Three.  So somehow I contrived to be very fortunate–of all the pages of all the books I could stand to spare, it’s definitely these few I can live without!

Do you have any books with missing pages?  Or are there any books you think you could easily lose part of without distress? 🙂