Sunday Thoughts and Bad Bloggers

I can't seem to get my reading mojo back for anything :/ I know exactly what's causing it...I guess that's a good thing. It's not that I don't want to read or that I'm not enjoying what I am reading. It's just that there's been no time to really read more than 5 or 6 pages lately. I wake up....go to work...work 8-10 non stop hours depending on what day it is, come home and just want to relax and spend time with my Matt and watch some TV and catch up on our days. And if I try to read before I go to bed...well I get 5 pages in and fall asleep :p Hopefully something will give soon. I had the whole weekend off aside from a client and a massage, yet I still filled every second with catching up with online stuff and cleaning cleaning cleaning. Eventually I'm going to have to find some time for ME stuff too.

Thankfully, there is Dewey's Readathon next weekend and I can't even put into words how fucking happy I am about that!!!! For so many reasons. First, I can't wait to celebrate Dewey again. I've been missing her a lot lately. It's funny how you can miss someone you never actually met so much, huh? But I really do miss her. I get very nostalgic about blogging sometimes, and she just embodied what I miss about book blogging so much sometimes. I don't think it's BAD that book blogging has become so huge now. I think it's great that books have found such a large community. But I really do miss the small, close knit group that was around back then. And I miss the community building that Dewey did back then yet still managed to make that community building have an individual touch to each person involved. I was reminded of this when Ana posted about the All Hollow's Read project that her and Amy were doing (that I sadly missed sign ups for). It's exactly what Dewey would have done. A huge event, that somehow managed to still be so personal in the way that they did it. And it just warms my heart that people like Ana and Amy are out there still keeping that same spirit in book blogging that was there 4 or 5 years ago when so much else seems to change sometimes.

Well that was an unexpected rant :p Every year when I've participated for the readathon, I've donated to charity based on the number of pages that I've gotten read. Normally I get around 1,000 pages read. And I donate 10 cents per page to the charity I choose to donate too which usually comes out to about $100. And this readathon will be no different! I've decided that this year I'm going to donate to the Arbor Foundation. This is kind of selfish too. I plan on using much of my donation as Christmas gifts this year too...I can give family members and some friends trees planted in their honor. I think it's a kind of cool gift. I'd love to know there's a tree out there planted in my honor that will live for over a hundred years. We waste SO much paper at work. And I only have so much control over that. I try to recycle as much as I can...but much of it is confidential stuff that I can't recycle...but what I can, I'll give to the kids unit so they can use it to color on or something like that...so I figured if I planted a bunch of trees it'll offset some of the trees we've wasted at the hospital.

My main goal for the readathon now is just to finish all of the damn books I have started! Still reading The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling, The Brides of Rollrock Island by Margo Lanagan, Dark of the Moon by John Sanford, Macbeth by Shakespeare and Unwholly by Neal Shusterman. It would be a miracle to just get those read! But if I do, I have some poetry I'd like to read too and some graphic novels :) So how about those books that have come in this week? 5 books have entered the house and I actually get to assign blame for two of them!!! Hooray!! :p Books basically need to stop coming into the house though until I can start to finish some of them :p Oh...and I still need to review The Little Stranger! Expect that soon too! Anyway, here's the books:

1. The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling - I've had this one preordered FOREVER. Like since it was announced. I've already ranted about how Amazon didn't deliver mine until five days after it was released so I won't do that again, but I ended up going and buying a copy at my local B&N on release day and dove right into it. I'm enjoying it. It's not Harry Potter. It's not a book that I can't put down. But it's a book that I'm enjoying nonetheless and I actually don't mind taking my time at all with this book. (Bought it)

2. The History of Love by Nicole Krauss - I hadn't even heard of this book before, and apparently I've been living under a rock to have not heard of it! But Amy posted a picture of a page of the book on her tumblr the other day with an absolutely beautiful quote highlighted and I knew I had to have this book. I ordered a copy from Paperback Swap and after looking at it and flipping through it, it took everything I had not to add yet ANOTHER book to the multitude of books I'm currently reading. Because just looking at the style it's written in, I know I'll love it. So a point to Amy for bringing this one to my attention. (Paperback Swap)

3. For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When The Rainbow Is Enuf by Ntozake Shange - If I can catch up on the books that I'm in the middle of reading during the readathon, this will be the first one I go to next. It looks amazing. It's actually called a "choreopoem" a term I've never heard before. From what I gather, it's a play that's read as a poem. And it just looks absolutely amazing. Matt's getting a point for this one. He watched the movie "For Colored Girls Only" a couple of years ago and loved it so much and has been trying to get me to watch it ever since. And I want to, I'm just terrified of the emotional impact it's going to have on me...which is all the more reason to watch it, really. But this is the book that the movie was based on. When I saw it in B&N discount section, I had to pick it up. And I'm absolutely in love with that cover. Point to Matt! (Bought it)

4. The Last Dragon Slayer by Jasper Fforde - I've wanted to read Fforde FOREVER but there is this little voice in my head that always tells me that I won't like him. Which is totally stupid because I'VE NEVER READ ANYTHING BY HIM!!! Well this book sounded excellent so I preordered it and now I haz it!!!! Looking forward to finally discovering Mr. Fforde's work :) (Bought it)

5. A Wrinkle in Time: The Graphic Novel by Hope Larson - Here's another one that I preordered the second I could!!! It's my all time favorite childhood book turned into a graphic novel by an absolutely amazing graphic novelist!!!! Can't believe it's finally here!! Can't wait to see how it came out :D I flipped through it already to see the art and I love it already :) (Bought it)