Tag: Books

Updates

Lunchbreak Interlude IX

Geoff W

This past weekend my sister and I flew down to North Carolina to surprise our mom for her birthday. And it was hilarious – my mom saw me screamed and then cried, and then realized my sister was there too, screamed and cried again. It was a good surprise and a good trip down. It was an incredibly fast trip, but it was relaxing to get out of the city for a day and see family, even if the travel was a bit stressful.

One of the advantages of going home, aside from seeing family, was that I got to raid my book boxes I have stored at my mom’s house. Unfortunately, I could not find my copy of Wuthering Heights, but that’s okay because I bought a beautiful compilation version of it, Jane Eyre and Agnes Grey a few months ago. However, I did find a stack of books to bring back and was sorely tempted to bring my entire box of Harry Potter books back! (But I restrained myself to 11—and one awesome pamphlet.)

Click here to continue reading.

Meme, The Classics Club

The Classics Club – August 2012 Meme

Geoff W

I don’t usually participate in memes, other than the random ones I do in my head, but I think I’ll participate in The Classics Club meme as it’s only once a month and it’s such a great community. If you haven’t checked it out, click the image to the right! Or click here. (I feel like most of you regular commenters are already a part of it!)

My instinct was to say one of the Jane Austen novels. I’ve read each of them at least once and most of them at least twice and I did read my favorite already for this challenge, Mansfield Park – but I decided not to go with Jane Austen.  My next thought was to go with one of the ‘young adult’ novels that I love like something by Madeline L’Engle, J.K. Rowling or Louisa May Alcott, but I vetoed that too.

And then I realized rather than choosing my favorite classic of all time, I’m going to choose my favorite classic I’ve read for the challenge so far. I don’t read a lot of classics in general, as you can see by my very short re-read list for this challenge, so I’m using this challenge to broaden my classic (primarily Western) literature reading.

Click here to continue reading and to see my choice!

Updates

Lunchbreak Interlude VIII

Geoff W

It’s July.  It’s hot and humid and I don’t want to be in an office right now.  I don’t really want to be outside in the heat either, so the real question is how do I escape?  And we ALL know the answer to that…READING! 😀  (And as no post is complete without at least one picture – look at the great quote.  I’m not sure where I found it, but it’s one of the two backgrounds on my phone at the moment.)

I’ve decided to take the month of July off on my reading challenges.  It’s a bit late in the month to inform everyone, but as I’ve not read any and don’t plan on reading any I thought I should make it official.  I’ve enjoyed reading the random books I have read and just picking up whatever I want.  I’m comfortable doing this as I’m over 50% on all of my challenges and still have 6 months to go.

Click here to continue reading, and to find out the origin of ‘Keep Calm and Carry On.’

2012 Challenges

Mount TBR: Climbing Mt. Vancouver (Checkpoint 2)

Geoff W

Bev of My Reader’s Block has called for the second check in of the 2012 Mount TBR (To Be Read) Reading Challenge and I’m a little less pleased with my progress this time than I was at Checkpoint 1, but still pleased at the steady progress..  For this challenge I have read   For this challenge I have read 17 of 25 books which is 68%! I’m in the process of wrapping up Anna Karenina so I’ve counted it towards my progress. (As it will be done before the 30th – hopefully tonight!)

In addition to our basic check in – Bev has asked us to do a couple of things.  The first is how far we’ve made it up the mountain (that’s above) and if possible convert it into actual distance – that would be 10,735ft or 3, 272m (Mount Vancouver is 15,787 ft/4,812m tall according to Google). The second thing she asked us to do was to compose a poem (with extra words if needed), write about our favorite character or explain if any of the books surprised us.  I’ve decided to do two of them. My poem is below and after that is my surprise read of the year!

Click here to continue reading!

Updates

Lunch Break Interlude VI

Geoff W

So apparently this is turning into a regularly occurring post – which is great, but who knows if it’ll last 😀   I’m making my way through Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina and I’m thoroughly enjoying it. I didn’t know if I would like it this much, but geez it is a LONG book.  I’m just over half way through (pg. 604) and will have to take a break when I get to Part 5 (in about 40 pages) to read The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde for my Books into Film book group next Monday.

So you know how I’ve been on a book ban for June – well it’s going decently well.  I ‘accidentally’ (not really, but I’m sticking to that story) bought A Weekend with Mr. Darcy by    Victoria Connelly for $2.99 for a fun light summer read later this summer (it reminded me a lot of What Would Jane Austen Do?). But the best part is, coming home from the gym Saturday morning (GO ME!) there were two boxes of free books at the end of the street and I of course went through them 😀 I picked up a copy of A.S. Byatt’s Still Life and Vladimir Nabokov’s Pale Fire (this makes me nervous) for me and there was a copy of Arthur Golden’s Memoirs of a Geisha I picked up for Tom (and I’ll probably re-read).

Click here to continue reading.