books — Page 198

What are you Reading??

July 14, 2012 at 8:15 am by Claudia

Reading a book = almost the best thing ever.

I’ve been an avid reader since childhood. Nothing seemed as exciting to me as cracking open a new-to-me book from the bookmobile (which stopped at my elementary school parking lot every Thursday.) Or, be still my heart, a pile of Scholastic Books that were ordered just for me through my school. My very own books!

I have a regular feature on my sidebar that shows what I’m currently reading and what I’ve just finished reading, because I think you might like to know about that. I love to hear what others are reading; it tells me a lot about that person and, bonus, I just might find something I haven’t heard about and would love to try for myself.

Reading is always an escape for me, unless it is the kind of reading you have to do for classes and homework which is not an escape. At this moment in my life, I really need an escape, so I grabbed some Daniel Silva thriller/espionage books from my local library. That magazine you see under the book is called Secondhand Treasures – all about collecting and vintage and flea markets – and is one of those special editions that cost too much money. What was I thinking? Escape.

So tell me on this Saturday: What are you reading?

Mail Order Book Clubs: Are They Still Out There?

June 28, 2012 at 7:55 am by Claudia

Love the late afternoon sun shining through the plants on the porch. I managed to make my way out of my chair to take this picture yesterday afternoon. I’m having a hard time, my friends. Riley can barely walk, which means I have to lift him all the time – all 60 pounds of him. Even though my back went out yesterday, I still have to tend to Riley because Don is away. I’m in pain, Riley’s in pain; it’s not a pretty picture here at MHC. Scout, as evidenced by the brief video I posted yesterday and which is now deleted because my blog disappeared for an hour this morning and I’m deleting anything questionable!!!, is back to her feisty, funny self.

Whatever your own particular method of meditation or prayer, will you send some thoughts our way? I so want Riley to improve a bit, as he has drastically worsened ever since Monday, when I had to be away for several hours. I need healing so that I can take care of him. I’d so appreciate a shot of your positive energy sent across the miles to our little cottage.

And now, on to another topic. Remember this book that I found on Monday in that marvelous used book shop? I’ve always loved mysteries and in my early teenage years, Mary Stewart’s romantic suspense novels were my favorites. I read and re-read each one of them. Her heroines were British ladies who were intelligent and sexy in that understated, cool British way and they smoked because that was the accepted thing to do in those days before pesky government warnings. Stewart was a wonderful writer; snappy dialogue, beautiful and detailed descriptions of the setting, and a great plot. She’s still alive, by the way. She’ll turn 96 this year. This Rough Magic takes place on Corfu and Stewart’s vivid descriptions of the island make me want to hop on a plane and go there. Now.

On the inside of the cover: Book Club Edition. I believe my original copy was a book club edition. Do you remember book clubs? Are they still out there? I bought a lot of my books through book clubs because they were extremely affordable and I could keep up with all the newly published books out there in those days before I was able to drive to a bookstore on my own. If I had any babysitting money in my hands, it went to books and records. Certainly, this was well before the Internet made book buying fairly easy, before mega bookstores pushed out independent booksellers and well before e-readers came along. The landscape has changed dramatically. I am still a fan of the actual book; the kind you can hold in your hand, with pages you can turn and paper you can feel.

I know there were a lot of book clubs out there. Many of them were specialty book clubs – science fiction, mystery, cooking. I belonged to The Literary Guild and The Book of the Month Club. It was a big deal for a book to be chosen as the Book of the Month. Then there were Reader’s Digest Condensed Books. They were very popular, though the purist in me doesn’t like the idea of ‘condensing’ a book. If I were the author, I surely wouldn’t like it. There was a book club for every literary taste.

Here’s my question: Did you belong to a book club? Are there any more book clubs in existence? Or have they gone the way of the dinosaur?

Happy Thursday.

Books & Threaded Comments

January 15, 2012 at 9:30 am by Claudia

It’s Sunday morning. I’ve been awake since 6 am. A mite too early for my taste.

:: My current stack of reading matter:

The Prime Suspect mysteries – these were the inspiration for the British television series starring Helen Mirren and the current series starring Maria Bello (both of which are excellent, I might add.) I’m reviewing these in March and April.

A Novel Bookstore by Laurence Cossé – A wonderful read by a French author that has been translated into English. My friend who owns a bookstore in Spring Green, Wisconsin recommended it to me last summer. I’m just now getting to it and I really love it.

Starting an Etsy Business for Dummies – If I can, I will always consult a book for ‘how-to’ knowledge. I need to see all the information on the page. And I like being able to go back to the reference book again and again.

Country Gardens magazine – Because when I am in the midst of Winter, I desperately need to see green things growing.

:: Someone recently asked me about compiling blog posts in book form. I’m sorry but I can’t remember who it was! There are several programs available. The one I use is Blurb. It’s very simple. All you have to do is download the software – then you can have fun editing and designing your book. I have another one ready to print, but I’ve been lazy about pushing the publish button. I like the idea of having a book for each year of my blog. My 4 year blogiversary is around the corner, so that means I’m about 2 books behind!

:: I’m going to try something out. My friend at Olive Out recently wrote a post about how to add threaded comments to a post. That means that the blogger has the ability to respond directly to a question or a comment within the comments section. I get a lot of questions and, as you know, there are still many bloggers out there who have a “No Reply-Comment” address which makes it impossible to respond via email.

I’m a little hesitant because I know that I rarely go back to a post I’ve commented on to see if there is an answer to my question. This means there will no longer be a pop-up window when you comment, which I’ve always liked. But, let’s experiment! I’m willing to give it a go – who knows? It may be the perfect way to respond to your questions.

Let the thread begin!

It’s absolutely frigid here. Is it cold in your neck of the woods?

Update: I did some googling and it looks like bloggers who use IE are having problems commenting on posts with embedded comments. I don’t want anyone left out, so I’ve reverted back to my pop-up window until the issue gets fixed. So…I’ll definitely do this in the future, but let’s hold off until everyone can comment.

What are you Reading??

Mail Order Book Clubs: Are They Still Out There?

Books & Threaded Comments

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

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