Bookish Places I’ve Visited

Anywhere I go---from New York City to Paris to Montana, from work to home---is a bookish place. 

Left to right in a clockwise motion: Super Readers at the library's book fair; Doctor Buks in the library showing children how to take care of books; kids and me at the library; the Library Hotel in NYC; bloggers and me in NYC at Book Expo; our book club at my friend's bookstore, Rae's Reads; installation of a Little Free Library in a town of 200 people with no library; my take from the library conference; my reading spot at home; Inprint with Salman Rushdie in Houston; my overflowing bookshelves at home.

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. Each Tuesday That Artsy Reader Girl assigns a topic and then post her top ten list that fits that topic. You’re more than welcome to join her and create your own top ten (or 2, 5, 20, etc.) list as well. Feel free to put a unique spin on the topic to make it work for you! Please link back to That Artsy Reader Girl in your own post so that others know where to find more information.   

The Sunday Salon: The Joy of Blue Polka-Dotted Piggy Squeak Toys

 

Welcome! I am delighted that you joined us here at the Sunday Salon. 

What is the Sunday Salon? 

The Sunday Salon is a place to link up and share what we have been doing during the week. It's also a great opportunity to visit other blogs and join in the conversations going on there. 

What I Read Last Week:

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

What I'm Reading Now:

Stillmeadow Daybook by Gladys Taber

The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham

What I Posted Last Week Here at Readerbuzz:

The Sunday Salon: A Classics Club Spin

SciFi and Fantasy and Other Book Series I Might Like to Read

The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham: Book Beginnings on Fridays, First Line Friday, The Friday 56, and Book Blogger Hop

I began to list 3 Good Things every day during the pandemic. Now I've established a regular routine of writing down my 3 Good Things. Here are 3 Good Things from last week:

Good Thing #1:

We went to see The Odyssey. 

Good Thing #2:

A Mississippi Kite in our backyard.

Good Thing #3:

I accidentally bought 

two blue polka-dotted piggy

squeak toys for dogs,

and my husband is finding it quite amusing to

make the pigs grunt.

Weekend linkup spots are listed below. Click on the picture to visit the site.

        

I hope you will join the linkup for Sunday Salon below.

The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham: Book Beginnings on Fridays, First Line Friday, The Friday 56, and Book Blogger Hop

Today's Featured Book: 

The Day of the Triffids

by John Wyndham

Genre: Science Fiction/Horror

Published: December 1951

Page Count: 241 pages

Summary: 

Bill Masen undergoes eye surgery and awakes the next morning in his hospital bed to find civilization collapsing. Wandering the city, he quickly realizes that surviving in this strange new world requires evading strangers and the seven-foot-tall plants known as triffids—plants that can walk and can kill a man with one quick lash of their poisonous stingers.

 

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAY is hosted by Rose City Reader. What book are you happy about reading this week? Please share the opening sentence (or so) on BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAY! Add the link to your blog or social media post and visit other blogs to see what others are reading.

Happy Friday and welcome to the FIRST LINE FRIDAY, hosted by Reading is My Superpower! It’s time to grab the book nearest to you and leave a comment with the first line.

When a day that you happen to know is Wednesday starts off by sounding like Sunday, there is something seriously wrong somewhere. 

I felt that from the moment I woke. And yet, when I started functioning a little more smartly, I became doubtful. After all, the odds were that it was I who was wrong, and not everyone else—though I did not see how that could be. I went on waiting, tinged with doubt. But presently I had my first bit of objective evidence—a distant clock struck what sounded to me just like eight. I listened hard and suspiciously. Soon another clock began, on a hard, decisive note. In a leisurely fashion it gave an indisputable eight. Then I knew things were awry.

Wyndham, John. The Day of the Triffids, p. 1. Kindle Edition.  

THE FRIDAY 56 is hosted by Anne of Head Full of Books. To play, open a book and turn to page 56 (or 56% on your e-reader). Find a sentence or two and post them, along with the book title and author. Then link up on Head Full of Books and visit others in the linky. 

I said: “I wonder just how many of us have escaped and can still see? I’ve come across one other man, a child, and a baby; you’ve met none. It looks to me as if we are going to find out that sight is very rare indeed. Some of the others have evidently grasped already that their only chance of survival is to get hold of someone who can see. When they all understand that, the outlook’s going to be none too good.”

Wyndham, John. The Day of the Triffids, p. 56. Kindle Edition. 

The Day of the Triffids is my Classics Club spin. I'm delighted that the spinner stopped on this book. Jinjer of The Intrepid Angeleno rave-reviewed it last November here and I could not resist buying a copy and then adding it to my latest Classics Club list. 

The Day of the Triffids is not what I expected. I'm a scifi book and film person from childhood, and I thought this would be a standard scary-monsters-invading-earth sort of story. It's not; instead, it's scifi integrated skillfully into literary fiction. 

I followed up my reading of the book with watching the film, and the movie, it turns out, is loosely based on the story---with a man who retains his sight while most everyone else goes blind; a world unable to cope with the sudden loss of vision; and plants that walk and kill humans. 

The purpose of THE BOOK BLOGGER HOP is to give bloggers a chance to follow other blogs, learn about new books, and befriend other bloggers. THE BOOK BLOGGER HOP is hosted by Ramblings of a Coffee Addicted Writer.    

Do you follow book trends and bestsellers, or do you prefer hunting down lesser-known titles? (submitted by Billy @ Coffee-Addicted Writer)

I am a person who loves to find little-known, beautifully written books. If you have titles of books you've loved that no one else has read, I'd love for you to share them with me.

  

SciFi and Fantasy and Other Book Series I Might Like to Read

When I first became a school librarian, I had to play catch up. And fast.

So I read the first book of every series. I wanted to be able to familiarize myself with the books my students were reading. 

This has become a way of reading for me. I read book one. I don't read on.

The truth is that book two is a disappointment. The author carefully worked out book one. Perhaps she never even planned to write book two. Or she wrote book two as a bridge to the far-better book three.

But now I see that I've missed a lot of great books. I'm starting a list of book series I might like to read. 

What would you recommend to me?

Here are a few that have been suggested so far:

Xanth by Piers Anthony. My aunt recommended this.

Fourth Wing (The Empyrean Book 1) by Rebecca Yarros

Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky

The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu

If you have other suggestions, I'd love to hear them.

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. Each Tuesday That Artsy Reader Girl assigns a topic and then post her top ten list that fits that topic. You’re more than welcome to join her and create your own top ten (or 2, 5, 20, etc.) list as well. Feel free to put a unique spin on the topic to make it work for you! Please link back to That Artsy Reader Girl in your own post so that others know where to find more information.   

The Sunday Salon: A Classics Club Spin

Welcome! We're glad you're here at the Sunday Salon. 

What is the Sunday Salon? 

The Sunday Salon is a place to link up and share what we have been doing during the week. It's also a great opportunity to visit other blogs and join in the conversations there. 

What I Read Last Week:

The Wide Wide Sea: Imperial Ambition, First Contact, and the Fateful Final Voyage by Captain James Cook by Hampton Sides

The Otherwhere Post by Emily J. Taylor

I Eat the Stars: How to Live Fully and Beautifully in a Collapsing World by Sarah Wilson

What I'm Reading Now:

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

The Swerve: How the World Became Modern by Stephen Greenblatt

The Classics Club has issued the announcement of the Classics Club’s 43rd CC Spin.

What is the Spin?

It’s easy. At your blog, before next Sunday, August 16, 2026, create a post that lists twenty books of your choice that remain “to be read” on your Classics Club list.

This is your Spin List.

You have to read one of these twenty books by the end of the spin period.

On Sunday, August 16, The Classics Club will post a number from 1 through 20. The challenge is to read whatever book falls under that number on your Spin List by Sunday, October 4th, 2026. 

Let's see who can make it the whole way and finish their spin book!

I have a lot of books to read on my latest Classics Club list. Let's see where the needle stops.

So here is my list. I picked the ten books from the list that I most want to read and listed them twice.

1, 11. A Glass of Blessings by Barbara Pym

2, 12. So Long, See You Tomorrow by William Maxwell

3, 13. The Saturdays by Elizabeth Enright

4, 14. Emily of the New Moon by L. M. Montgomery

5, 15. Meditations by Marcus Aurelius

6, 16. Indian Summer by William Dean Howells

7, 17. Glimpses of the Moon by Edith Wharton

8, 18. The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham

9, 19. Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser

10, 20. Jane and Prudence by Barbara Pym

Have you read any of these?

Do you recommend any of these?

And the spin lands on...

The Day of the Triffids!

What I Posted Last Week Here at Readerbuzz:

The Sunday Salon: Two Wonderful Re-reads; Persian Food; Jury Duty; and a New Ukulele

Books I Was Reading On This Day Over the Last Ten Years

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir: Book Beginnings on Fridays, First Line Friday, The Friday 56, and Book Blogger Hop

I began to list 3 Good Things every day during the pandemic. Now I've established a regular routine of writing down my 3 Good Things. Here are 3 Good Things from last week:

Good Thing #1:

I experimented with some new 

chocolate chip cookie recipes.

Good Thing #2:

Our book club read The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency this month,

so I reread the book and watched the series in prep for leading

the discussion.

Good Thing #3:

I was delighted to see my first

Julia Heliconian butterfly

this week.

Weekend linkup spots are listed below. Click on the picture to visit the site.

        

I hope you will join the linkup for Sunday Salon below.