Books!

Reading is a hobby that I will manage to fit into my life any way I can.  I’ll grab a half hour before bed almost every night, no matter how tired I am.  Reading at work on lunch is a common occurrence (and also why I hide in a room away from everyone so people don’t ask me the dreaded question “What are you reading?”  Seriously…I hate that question except from a select few that I know are already readers.  But if you are just trying to make conversation?  Don’t.  For serious.  You don’t care.  Also, I’m not going to want/be able to answer the inevitable follow up question of “What’s it about?”.  Just leave me alone to my book.  Don’t worry, I will recommend the heck out of anything I love already!

In fact, if you’ve read my blog at all, you’ll find a few posts about books and authors and book signings….

I love when I have too many books to read.  Well, love and hate.

Right now, on my side table, I have Mockingjay**, which is the third in The Hunger Games** trilogy.  It’s about halfway done.

Then, right underneath it is The Way of Kings** by Brandon Sanderson.  Also about halfway done.

Underneath THAT is Knife of Dreams** and The Gathering Storm** the most recent books in the Wheel of Time series.  I’m hoping to read this and the subsequent books to get refreshed before November 2nd when Towers of Midnight** comes out.  (BTW….it has a trailer.  Which, really….AWESOME!  I’m loving this trend of book trailers that look they are for movies.)

At work, I’m reading Outlander (again) on my iPhone via the Kindle app because I can.  Also, thanks to the lovely Diana Gabaldon’s blog, I discovered that the ebook is free on Amazon**.  So if you are at ALL interested in the historical fiction with a twist of time travel and romance and action and, oh, just go get it.  For seriously!

**Please note, I am not an Amazon affiliate.  Just wanted to give you links to the books to take a look at if you are at all interested and maybe read a few pages.  These are my own opinions and blah di blahblahblahzzzzzzzzz…….

The Hunger Games

Last week, I got a package in the mail.  It was a box full of books from my dear sweet friend Heather.  She doesn’t update her blog nearly enough, but that’s just because she is crazy busy with her full time job and also her garter business.  I still love her though and we stay in touch with email and Google Chat.

So, opening the package was almost like Christmas!  She’d been meaning to send me these books for ages and they finally arrived.  Life had to settle down a bit…but last night, I finally was able to read the first one.  The Hunger Games.

I’m sure anyone that has been around has probably already read it.  Compared to the other books I’ve been reading (Brandon Sanderson’s 1,000+ page The Way of Kings for example) 375 pages with larger font type was nothing.  In fact, it’s a good thing it was shorter because I stayed up to finish it.  Almost to 1am late in fact.  To someone that normally goes to sleep at 8, 1 is WAY late.  But I could not put it down.

It felt like the first time I read Twilight, but with better writing.  Now, don’t get me wrong!  I enjoyed the Twilight Saga.  Not necessarily for the great writing style…but for the fun read it is.  It’s on my list of “Candy” books along with Harry Potter.  And now, The Hunger Games.

The first thing that came to mind as I started the book was “Wow!  This reminds me of The Lottery (a short story I read in High School which can actually be read here)”   Then, further into the book, I thought “Wow…the title of the book is NOT a metaphor”.  So often, authors get creative with their book titles (which, I totally enjoy btw) but this one was NOT allegorical.

I won’t go into the plot or anything….but I was hooked.  Can’t wait to read the other two books and will definitely need to add these to my collection.

I just need to start earlier in the day I think.

Authors

I am a huge reader.  I love books and I love re-reading books.  The stories that people come up with are amazing.  As a child, I learned to read very early, if only so I could be transported into other worlds whenever I wanted.  Being sent to my room was never horrible, because I could always read and escape. The biggest punishment was being restricted from reading.

Some of you may remember that I met my husband from an online book community.  Our daughter is named after a book character.  Books have always been a significant part of my life.

One of my all time favorite book series is Outlander by Diana Gabaldon.  It’s a series that is difficult to explain, but is kind of a historical fiction fantasy.  An English nurse from 1950 gets transported through standing stones back to the 18th century Scotland.  It has action, adventure, romance, history….so many things.  The writing is superb, the characters are so full and the story is just amazing.

Last night, I had the priveledge of meeting Diana Gabaldon.  She was so sweet and unbelievabley smart.  With a bachelor’s in zoology, a master’s in marine biology and a Ph.D. in ecology, she is not your usual novelist and it shows in how she speaks, the stories she tells and the books she writes.

Diana Gabaldon, myself, my mom and my mother-in-law

The new book is phenomenal and well worth the wait.

If you are looking for another book series to read, I highly recommend Outlander.  It has anything and everything one could want in a series.  If you’ve read it before, let me know so I can attack you and see if you’ve read the most recent book.  My mom is finishing her re-read and my mother-in-law is still on book 4, so I don’t have anyone to talk to about it!

And with that, I leave you with a poem from last night that she gave us:

In days of old

When nights were cold

Before condoms were invented.

They wrapped wool socks

Around their cocks

And that’s how babies were prevented.