Top Ten Bookish Confessions

10.  I always asked Santa to bring me books for Christmas,

but he never did.

9. I love illustrated books.

8. The only kind of book I really loathe is the textbook.

7. I sometimes read the ending first.

6. I love romantic movies, but I don't like romantic books.

5. I don't like books with male protagonists.

4. I only read the first book in a series.

3. I never finish books I don't like.

2.  I prefer short books to long books.

1.  I (almost) never reread.

How about you?

What are your biggest bookish confessions?

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish. This feature was created because we are particularly fond of lists here at The Broke and the Bookish. We'd love to share our lists with other bookish folks and would LOVE to see your top ten lists!

Each week we will post a new Top Ten list that one of our bloggers here at The Broke and the Bookish will answer. Everyone is welcome to join. All we ask is that you link back to The Broke and the Bookish on your own Top Ten Tuesday post AND add your name to the Linky widget so that everyone can check out other bloggers lists! If you don't have a blog, just post your answers as a comment. Have fun with it! It's a fun way to get to know your fellow bloggers.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?!

                 

               

What I Finished Last Week Fire in the Ashes: Twenty-Five Years Among the Poorest Children in America by Jonathan Kozol (Review coming soon) Educating Alice by Alice Steinbach (Review coming soon)

What I'm Reading Now  I'd love to hear your recommendations.

What are you reading today?!




It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? is where we share what we read this past week, what we hope to read this week…. and anything in between!  This is a great way to plan out your reading week and see what others are currently reading as well… you never know where that next “must read” book will come from!

I love being a part of this and I hope you do too! As part of this weekly meme Book Journey loves to encourage you all to go and visit the others participating in this meme. Book Journey offers a weekly contest for those who visit 10 or more of the Monday Meme participants and leave a comment telling BJ how many you visited.

Top Ten Favorite Books I've Read During The Lifespan Of My Blog (That Were Recommended by Bloggers)

A librarian friend was telling a story the other day

about the time she and her husband

forced her two teenage sons to go to see a Broadway play.

The boys begged to be left back in their hotel room,

but the librarian and her husband made them go.

When the librarian and her family got into the taxi,

after the play was over,

there was a long silence.

Then the younger son said abruptly,

"The next time I don't want to do something

you want me to do...please make sure I do it."

I've been blogging since 2008.

That's four years of blogging.

I read reviews in newpapers and in magazines,

but the best recommendations I've ever had for books

come from bloggers.

Here are ten favorite reads from the last four years

I never would have read

except for the urging of bloggers.

The 13 Clocks

by James Thurber

Illustrated by Marc Simont

Game of Thrones

by George R. R. Martin

So Many Ways to Begin

by Jon McGregor

Rabbit, Run

by John Updike

The Things They Carried

by Tim O'Brien

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

by Philip K. Dick

Andorra

by Peter Cameron

A Meaningful Life

by L. J. Davis

The Fault in Our Stars

by John Green

The Hunger Games

by Suzanne Collins

So,

the next time I don't want to read something

you want me to do...please make sure I do it.

And thank you for your recommendations.

Keep them coming.

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish. This feature was created because we are particularly fond of lists here at The Broke and the Bookish. We'd love to share our lists with other bookish folks and would LOVE to see your top ten lists!

Each week we will post a new Top Ten list that one of our bloggers here at The Broke and the Bookish will answer. Everyone is welcome to join. All we ask is that you link back to The Broke and the Bookish on your own Top Ten Tuesday post AND add your name to the Linky widget so that everyone can check out other bloggers lists! If you don't have a blog, just post your answers as a comment. Have fun with it! It's a fun way to get to know your fellow bloggers.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?!

                 

               

What I Finished Last Week Maine by J. Courtney Sullivan (Review coming soon) The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett (Review coming soon)

What I'm Reading Now Educating Alice by Alice Steinbach A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle

What I Might Read Next Fire in the Ashes: Twenty-five Years Among the Poorest Children in America by Jonathan Kozol

What are you reading today?!

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? is where we share what we read this past week, what we hope to read this week…. and anything in between!  This is a great way to plan out your reading week and see what others are currently reading as well… you never know where that next “must read” book will come from!

I love being a part of this and I hope you do too! As part of this weekly meme Book Journey loves to encourage you all to go and visit the others participating in this meme. Book Journey offers a weekly contest for those who visit 10 or more of the Monday Meme participants and leave a comment telling BJ how many you visited.

Top Ten Book Romances That Would Make It In The Real World

I'm a dreamer, yes, but I'm also a realist.

And I studied psychology in graduate school,

so, trust me, I know about disfunctional relationships.

So it is with great regret that I tell you that

none, absolutely none, of the romances in books

would last in real life.

That's right.

And I'm not just talking about the romances in books like these:

    

I don't think really we need to waste time discussing the future of these relationships,

do we?

You say, How about

Anna and her charming Étienne

in Anna and the French Kiss? 

Please. They fell in love in Paris.

After they return home?  Ha.

Hadley and Oliver, who meet in an airport and fall in love

in The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight? 

(C'mon, we all know the real statistical probability of that!) Ha.

The relationship of Ed and Min in Why We Broke Up

didn't even make it to the end of the book. Ha.

That's it, then.

None, absolutely none, of the romances in books

would last in real life.

We know these wonderful book relationships

could never make it in real life,

and that’s what we love about them.

So, how about you?

Do you see hope for book character relationships?

Share with me.

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish. This feature was created because we are particularly fond of lists here at The Broke and the Bookish. We'd love to share our lists with other bookish folks and would LOVE to see your top ten lists!

Each week we will post a new Top Ten list that one of our bloggers here at The Broke and the Bookish will answer. Everyone is welcome to join. All we ask is that you link back to The Broke and the Bookish on your own Top Ten Tuesday post AND add your name to the Linky widget so that everyone can check out other bloggers lists! If you don't have a blog, just post your answers as a comment. Have fun with it! It's a fun way to get to know your fellow bloggers.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?!

                 

               

What I Finished Last Week The Unconquered by Scott Wallace It’s all here in this book.  Anacondas. Alligators. Poisonous plants.  Stinging insects. Heat. Rain.  And, best of all, a tribe of natives known only for...more Law Man by Shon Hopwood Here's an interview with the author. Don’t let this three buzz rating  stop you from reading this book.  True, it’s not especially well written, but...more We Sinners: A Novel by Hanna Pylväinen To tell you the truth, lately I’ve felt burned out on Sad Stories...more

What I Reviewed Last Week Paris, I Love You But You're Bringing Me Down  by Rosecrans Baldwin Rosencrans Baldwin has loved Paris since he was a little boy  and when he is given an opportunity to move to Paris and work there,  he is jubilant. Real...more The Breadwinner by Deborah Ellis Parvana is a young girl living with her family  in a bombed apartment building in Afghanistan.  Her father is taken away by the Taliban and Parvana is...more Le Road Trip:  A Traveler's Journal of Love and France by Vivian Swift You really have to see this book to really appreciate how lovely it is...more

What I'm Reading Now Educating Alice: Adventures of a Curious Woman by Alice Steinbach

What are you reading today?!

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? is where we share what we read this past week, what we hope to read this week…. and anything in between!  This is a great way to plan out your reading week and see what others are currently reading as well… you never know where that next “must read” book will come from!

I love being a part of this and I hope you do too! As part of this weekly meme Book Journey loves to encourage you all to go and visit the others participating in this meme. Book Journey offers a weekly contest for those who visit 10 or more of the Monday Meme participants and leave a comment telling BJ how many you visited.

In Which I, Once Again, Rant About the World and, Then, Find Hope in a Small Bookstore

Apparently yesterday was Australia's National Bookshop Day (thank you, Louise at A Strong Belief in Wicker!)  I'm not in Australia and I'm a day late to the show, but I'd love to use Australia's holiday to share a bookshop story of my own.

I often feel sad when I consider my great state of Texas (see my rant...that is, my blog post Book Sale? Or Gun Show? You Decide! or take a look at any of Bill Crider's Once Again, Texas Leads the Way posts, especially the recent link to a story about a new $60 million Texas high school football stadium).

So much potential.  We are Texas, after all.  But we could be so much more than we are. Must we take pride in our many Texas citizens who find themselves in the People of Walmart videos? Is that all we've got these days? Sadness.

And then I take a trip with four of my fellow librarians to the amazing Blue Willow Bookshop in nearby Houston and my hope is restored.

You wouldn't know Blue Willow was there if you weren't told about it. From the street it's just another tiny little space in a strip center. But don't let first appearances fool you.

Blue Willow is all about books. And reading. And authors. And good writing.

My four librarian friends and I spent Friday chatting with the wonderful owner of Blue Willow, Valerie Koehler, and the events coordinator, Cathy Berner. What a great day!  Hope in the universe restored!

Now I must prod all of you out there to take action. Visit an independent bookstore. Visit it often. Buy something there. Buy one more book. And another.

We must show our love. We must not let the bad guys win.

What is the Sunday Salon? Imagine some university library's vast reading room. It's filled with people--students and faculty and strangers who've wandered in. They're seated at great oaken desks, books piled all around them,and they're all feverishly reading and jotting notes in their leather-bound journals as they go.

Later they'll mill around the open dictionaries and compare their thoughts on the afternoon's literary intake....

That's what happens at the Sunday Salon, except it's all virtual. Every Sunday the bloggers participating in that week's Salon get together--at their separate desks, in their own particular time zones--and read. And blog about their reading. And comment on one another's blogs. Think of it as an informal, weekly, mini read-a-thon, an excuse to put aside one's earthly responsibilities and fall into a good book. Click here to join the Salon.

"I AM OZ....the Great and Powerful! Pay No Attention to that (Wo)man Behind the Curtain!"

Our challenge this week at Top 10 Tuesday:

List the ten blog posts that best reveal who you are. 

Here, then, is a random selection of ten blog posts

that tell a little bit about me.

10.  TLA:  A Photoblog Post

This photo says it all. I'm a reader

and I love books.

So much so that I am willing to spend 

large amounts of time at a conference

nabbing free books.

Some might call me obsessed,

but those people are probably just jealous.

9. My TBR

Of course this leads to another thing 

that you have probably surmised about me:

I have an enormous TBR.

No surprises there.

Admit it:  you have a big shelf like this at your house, too, don't you??

8. Why I Read:  Random Passages from This Week's Reading

Random. I'm very random.

7. The Texas Book Festival

Love the Texas Book Festival.

Who wouldn't love sitting on the floor of a tent

for two days

watching authors read their books aloud

and illustrators

showing children how they draw?!

6. Best Reads Ever

A long, long, long

list of my favorite reads.

5. Readathon or Readathon Lite?

The first event I participated in as a blogger.

Knocked my socks off.

I vow to do it every year.

4. Wire Monkeys and Cloth Monkeys

Random thoughts about motherhood.

Photo was taken at my Older Son's wedding.

A happy day.

3. Book Sale? Or Gun Show? You Decide!

One of the (many) things in life that perplex me to this day:

Who would choose to go to a gun show over a book sale??!

Makes me honestly question my identity as

a Loyal Texan.

2. Only 662 to Go!

I love a challenge!

1. The New Me

How going to France made me a shiny new person.

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish. This feature was created because we are particularly fond of lists here at The Broke and the Bookish. We'd love to share our lists with other bookish folks and would LOVE to see your top ten lists!

Each week we will post a new Top Ten list that one of our bloggers here at The Broke and the Bookish will answer. Everyone is welcome to join. All we ask is that you link back to The Broke and the Bookish on your own Top Ten Tuesday post AND add your name to the Linky widget so that everyone can check out other bloggers lists! If you don't have a blog, just post your answers as a comment. Have fun with it! It's a fun way to get to know your fellow bloggers.