Here's to a Wonderful New Year!

Here I am, ready to start reading my first book of the year! Wowsa! I loved The Rosie Project and I was thrilled to get this copy of the sequel, The Rosie Effect, in the mail from the publisher this week.

I've read just a few pages, but I feel sure this will be a perfect choice for my First Read of the Year.

Take a look at Sheila's blog, Book Journey, today and 

see what everyone is reading on this first day of the brand new year!

The enormous live oak tree in our town, all lighted up for the holidays. So beautiful.

I am so hopeful for 2015.

For more wordless photos, go to Wordless Wednesday.

Saturday Snapshot is hosted by West Metro Mommy Reads. To participate in Saturday Snapshot: post a photo that you (or a friend or family member) have taken and then leave a direct link to your post in the Mister Linky at West Metro Mommy Reads.

A Little Nonsense!

I make resolutions every year. And (this is the amazing part) I keep them. Over the years, my New Year's Resolutions have led to some wonderful habits. I exercise at least twice a week. I walk or ride my bike instead of taking the car. I read at least a book a week. I gave up watching tv. I am learning Spanish. 

Lots of people make resolutions. Not that many people keep them². How do I do it?

I set small, do-able goals. I don't resolve to exercise every day; I resolve to exercise twice a week. That's do-able. I don't resolve to read a book every day; I aim for a book every week. That's do-able. I don't resolve to post on my blog every day; I try for posting once a week. That's do-able.

So what are my goals for 2015? Of course I am going to try to keep maintaining some goals: I hope to keep reading a book a week, to keep exercising twice a week, to keep practicing my Spanish, to keep posting here on my blog once a week.

My word for the year is...Play. I want to play this year. Play when I write. Play when I draw. Play when I take photos. Play when I read. Play when I cook. Play when I blog. Play when I work. Play.

We don't know what the future holds, do we? But as St. John of the Cross said, "If a man wishes to be sure of the road he treads on, he must close his eyes and walk in the dark." So let's close our eyes, shall we? C'mon, grab my hand and let's go play this year.

¹"A little nonsense, now and then, is cherished by the wisest men." Roald Dahl
"Combinatory play seems to be the essential feature in productive thought." Albert Einstein

²Forbes Magazine says only 8% of people keep their resolutions. 

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 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 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.

Old Christmas Letter

For more wordless photos, go to Wordless Wednesday.

Saturday Snapshot is hosted by West Metro Mommy Reads. To participate in Saturday Snapshot: post a photo that you (or a friend or family member) have taken and then leave a direct link to your post in the Mister Linky at West Metro Mommy Reads.

Top Ten Books I Wouldn't Mind Santa Bringing This Year

Year of Reading Dangerously

Better Than Before: Mastering the Habits of Our Everyday Lives

The Strange Library by Haruki Murakami

Midnight in Siberia: A Train Journey into the Heart of Russia

Living Color: Painting, Writing, and the Bones of Seeing

My Favorite Things by Maira Kalman

Making Marks: Discover the Art of Intuitive Drawing

HeadButler.com: The 100 Essentials: Books, Music, and Movies for People With More Taste Than Time

The Essential Scratch and Sniff Guide to Becoming a Wine Expert

Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town

What did I forget? Any suggestions for 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 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 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.

Treasure Chest

Have you joined in for my Best of 2014 Giveaway?! Follow me and choose one of my Best of 2014 books and you may win it for your very own!

For more wordless photos, go to Wordless Wednesday.

Saturday Snapshot is hosted by West Metro Mommy Reads. To participate in Saturday Snapshot: post a photo that you (or a friend or family member) have taken and then leave a direct link to your post in the Mister Linky at West Metro Mommy Reads.

Browsable Books, or...(GASP!)... I Don't Always Read Every Word in a Book!

I don't care who knows it...I don't always read every word in a book.

Some of my best book experiences have been these sorts of reads. I might read a few chapters, and then skip a few chapters. I might read Chapter 3 first and then Chapter 7 and flip back to Chapter 2.

I can do that, if I want to.

And that's what I'm doing this weekend and for the rest of the year. I've got a huge pile of browsable books accumulated for this busy Christmas holiday season and I'm RAW (that's Reading At Will).

I've just read bits and pieces of Letters of Note: An Eclectic Collection of Correspondence Deserving of a Wider Audience this afternoon. It's a delightful collection of letters. I've read E. B. White's magnificent reply to a jaded young man twice already and I feel like copying it down to save it for those days when I might need to read it two more times.

I roamed around through The Doodle Revolution: Unlock the Power to Think Differently this morning and I'm inspired to doodle more.

I know that the 818 page Lives of the Novelists is going to be perfect for browse-able-ness later today...what 818 page book isn't?

And doesn't Forty-One False Starts: Essays on Artists and Writers by Janet Malcolm sound like it's going to be quite browsable? I'm pretty sure it will.

Have I shocked you? Are you composing a letter to my former teachers right now, informing them of my scandalous reading behavior?

Well, I urge you to let that go and give this edgy way of reading a try. It's quite freeing.

Then go ahead and really stick your neck out...write down the book you browsed on your official List of Books Read. Do it, if you want. It counts, if you say so.

Do you read this way? Any browsable favorites?

And have you joined in for my Best of 2014 Giveaway?! Follow me and choose one of my Best of 2014 books and you may win it for your very own!

Best Books of 2014...with a Giveaway!

What a year it has been for me! A record 238 books read! Wowsa. You just can't end a banner year like this one with a simple Best of list. Instead, I made lots of little lists of all my favorite books in my favorite categories...PLUS a Best of list.

I'd love to hear what you think. Please be sure to leave a comment about any of the books I've listed that sound intriguing or that you've read. I'd also love to hear about your favorites of the year.

And join in at the very bottom of this post for my giveaway!

And, finally, my Best Books of 2014:

And now...the Best of 2014 Giveaway Hop, hosted by Bookhounds and I Am a Reader!

As part of the Best of 2014 Giveaway Hop I will be giving away 
any book from any of my Best-of lists (above) from Book Depository, 
which is open to worldwide entries. 
The book chosen must have a value of $15 or less.

.Rules for the giveaway are simple:

(1) You must follow me.

(2) You must leave a comment here that includes an e-mail address (posted in an elusive way to thwart the wicked).
(3) In the comment, you must list the book from one of my Best-of lists (above) that you would like to win.

BONUS:
If you really, really want to win this giftcard,

you are welcome to receive extra entries by:

Following me at Twitter

and leaving a comment +1 

Befriending me at Goodreads

and leaving a comment +1

Befriending me at Facebook

and leaving a comment +1

I will leave this giveaway open until Thursday, December 18th, 2014.

Good luck!

Thank you, BookHounds and I Am a Reader for sponsoring this giveaway!

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Any Wonder My Husband Loves Cowboys?

My father-in-law, ca. 1949.

For more wordless photos, go to Wordless Wednesday.

Saturday Snapshot is hosted by West Metro Mommy Reads. To participate in Saturday Snapshot: post a photo that you (or a friend or family member) have taken and then leave a direct link to your post in the Mister Linky at West Metro Mommy Reads.

Best New-To-Me Authors I Read In 2014

I'm never going to be a person who reads bestselling authors. Be forewarned, then, that you probably haven't heard a lot about many of my new-to-me authors. 

But that doesn't mean you shouldn't seek them out. Especially if you are like me and love to read fabulous books that no one else has heard of.

Here are my Top Ten New-to-Me Authors:

Laurie Colwin

Jane Gardam

Betsy Byars

J. L. Carr

Nicola Hodgkinson

Laurie Graham

Alan Booth

Lawrence Osborne

Tove Jansson

Jill Paton Walsh

 

  

 How about you? Who did you discover this year? Any suggestions for 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 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 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.

Busy Reading

             

   

What I Finished Last Week Don't ask me what went on in the world last week. I probably missed the latest celebrity scandal and I'm clueless about what kind of high heels I should be wearing next spring. I was busy. I was busy reading. Count 'em. Ten books. But that's not the amazing thing. The amazing thing is that nine of the ten were good books and five will probably be on my Best of 2014 list.  Here are the books I finished last week: Now I need to get busy and start reviewing! And find a way to fill that sad feeling that always come after finishing really good books, that feeling that I'll never read another book as good as this one.

What are you reading today?!

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.

The Sunday Post is a meme hosted by Kimba at Caffeinated Book Reviewer. It's a chance to share news and recap the past week.

Mailbox Monday was created by Marcia at The Printed Page. We share books that we found in our mailboxes last week. 

 It is now being hosted here.

Stacking the Shelves is a meme hosted by Tynga's Reviews in which you can share the books you've acquired.

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.