Sunday, March 10, 2019

Mythology, A New Book Challenge, and My First Sunday Salon Linkup

Read...


How odd is this? Here's what I finished last week: Edith Hamilton's Mythology and The Desert Fathers: Sayings of the Early Christian Monks. I loved both of them, by the way. The links take you to my reviews at Goodreads, if you want to know more.




Reading...



I'm currently reading Fifty Things That Aren't My Fault by the creator of the Cathy comic, and A Gentleman in Moscow. Plus, of course, Don Quixote and Jude the Obscure.





Book-ish...




The 'My Own Books' Reading Challenge? It sounds like it will be quite fun. The goal is to try to read 1-10 of your own books by May 15th. You are asked to make a list of ten books you own and write the titles on separate pieces of paper. You randomly draw names of titles to create the order you are to read. You read a book and then post about it and add the link to a linky so others can visit and comment. If it sounds interesting, join in at Anne's My Head is Full of Books.






The longlist for the Women's Prize for Fiction has been announced. Check it out here.





Baking, photography, drawing, and other projects...



I tried Apple Spice Muffins this week. Meh. Just meh. On the plus side, however, five apples made 96 mini-muffins.






The Sunday Salon 

I have had a nice round 50 responses to my Sunday Salon post. The results?








I was most fascinated by the answers to the third question; 60% of you have been blogging for more than 10 years! 

The last question, the most important question, had scattered responses: some people want to keep the Facebook group, and some would like to change Sunday Salon to a linky on a blog. I decided, for now, to go with popular opinion: I will keep the Facebook group and I will offer a linky here. 

I would be very happy if you would spread the word about the Sunday Salon. Encourage others to post here and/or on Facebook. Post a graphic on your blog or Facebook page or Instagram. 


My first linkup for Sunday Salon is here. If you wish to also post a link at Facebook, you can also do that. My hope is that you will post here and/or at FB and then visit other bloggers; Sunday Salon is to encourage conversations about books and book-ish things.



61 comments:

  1. I am excited to participate in the Sunday Salon again! I finally found my fiction reading groove again this year (been dormant for the last several years) and I want to share my rekindled love of literature with others.
    Not sure I will have a post ready for link-up this week... but as soon as I retire in May, I hope to be a weekly contributor :)
    Thank you so much, Deb, for continuing this online community.

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    1. I'm happy you will be joining in. I love to see what you think about books, and I've missed hearing your thoughts in recent times.

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  2. NOt sure I have ever left a review on Goodreads

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  3. Fifty Things That Aren't My Fault sounds like fun!

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    1. It is what you might hope for from the creator of the Cathy comic.

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  4. Apple muffins are good but some recipes are very blah. I am such a muffin fan you now are making me want to make them! :) lol

    Have a great week Deb! Happy Reading!

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    1. I'm going to work on this recipe a little. Appe muffins should be amazing.

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  5. Ooohhh...am I first to link up? Thank you for hosting the Sunday Salon, Deb! Have a great week!

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    1. Thank you for being first...I'm nervous about doing this. Would anyone link up? I wondered.

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  6. I love the look of Mythology and your apple spice muffins sound fun, but I'm trying hard to cut right down on sugar so won't be making them! The questionnaire results are fascinating - right now I've too much on my plate, but if and when LIFE stops being so pushy, I may well come back to this one, Deb.

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    1. I hope to get to the point where my baked goods have a minimal amount of sugar, but right now that is not true. There are lots of ways to add flavor, I think, with less sugar.

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  7. Great study, and I like those results. I have also been blogging for more than ten years! I like the idea of the linky here, as well as the FB group.

    Enjoy your week, and thanks for visiting my blog.

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  8. The Sunday Salon sounds fun. ;)
    Those results sure are interesting. And Apple Muffins sure sound yummy.
    Have a great week and happy reading.

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    1. I was given a bag of apples, and I didn't want them to go to waste. I wish they had a stronger taste.

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  9. Linking up, excited to see some more people join :)

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  10. A Gentleman in Moscow is on my TBR. It looks wonderful though I've heard it can be a bit slow at the beginning. Too bad about the apple muffins I've found apple muffin recipes can either be meh or wonderful. I loved the Sunday Salon answers and was surprised to see how long everyone has been blogging! I'll be linking up next week. Have a great week!

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    1. I think the next time I make apple muffins I will use larger pieces of apple. The apple seemed to disappear into the muffin, and, overall, the muffins were very tasteless.

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  11. Thanks very much for administering The Sunday Salon! I've been enjoying everyone's posts there for years and was sad that so many people had stopped linking up their posts. I think the addition of the linky on your website might help since a lot of people are leaving Facebook. I hesitated before linking my post there just now because it's a Public group, not Private and I didn't know if all my FB friends were going to see that I posted a link. I might take it off of FB and just use your linky. In fact, yah. That is what I'm going to do! Like, right now.

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    1. I can think about making it a private group, too. That's something I haven't thought about.

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  12. Found you!!!! And yes more than 60% are blogging for over 10 years that's awesome! I would never have believed it. Have a wonderful Sunday!

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    1. I had no idea there were so many bloggers with so much blogging experience.

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  13. I have heard only good things about A Gentleman in Moscow so far. Hope you enjoy it.
    Good luck with Sunday Salon!

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    1. Thank you. I'm nervous about creating a linky here. I hope it works.

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  14. I don't know how you can read so many books at once. I sure can't do that.

    You're probably loving A GENTLEMAN IN MOSCOW, right? I read that. It is a pleasure to read! The writing in A GENTLEMAN IN MOSCOW is delightful. It is full of elegant language, reflecting, I assume, the language of a gentleman; stories of the count’s past and of the lives of others in the hotel; friendships to last 30 years; and plenty of sarcasm and philosophy.

    Frankly, I read A GENTLEMAN IN MOSCOW because I loved RULES OF CIVILITY. But they aren’t alike; A GENTLEMAN IN MOSCOW is better.

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    1. I was given a copy of A Gentleman in Moscow this week by a librarian friend, and, yes, I am loving it. I will look for Rules of Civility once I finish. Thank you for sharing your thoughts.

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  15. I cheated and put in last Sunday's link since I do Sunday Salon every other Sunday. :-) I am so pleased that you've made it a linky from your blog for those of us who aren't doing Facebook (anymore).

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    1. I'm not thrilled with Facebook, but it is certainly a nice way for me to stay connected with people who live far away.

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  16. Cool! I will try to remember to put a link to your post on next week's Sunday post and link up :)

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    1. That would be great. I want to encourage all of us to have conversations about books.

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  17. Looks like I need to join the Sunday Salon! I'll make note of it. Thanks:)

    My Sunday Post

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  18. Good luck with the Sunday Salon!

    Here’s my Sunday Post!

    Ronyell @ Rabbit Ears Book Blog and join in this week’s Book Photo Sundays

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  19. The Desert Fathers book looks intriguing I might have to seek that out.

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    1. I would be happy to send this one on to you, if you think you might like to read it.

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  20. The discovery of the Desert Fathers, back in 1985 ( i can still remember the look and feel of the book, as it had a homemade leather binding!!), was instrumental in my becoming Orthodox, though it only took me 20 years lol. I'm not familiar with this edition. I assume there's an introduction explaining all the different collections of the Sayings, so rejoice, there's many more to discover. We often think we modern have discovered human psychology, but these 4th century monks knew already everything about the human heart and psyche...

    Congrats for the Sunday Salon. I was actually surprised that 60% had been blogging for over 10 years. so, how many people are we talking about here, I'm curious

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    1. It's a fascinating book for me. These early writers remind me of classic zen monks. It's an aspect of Christianity that I was not taught in Sunday school.

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    2. Sunday Salon at Facebook has 430 members. I had 50 responses to my poll.

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  21. I also meant to ask, how do you perceive The Sunday Salon to be different from Kimba's Sunday Post??

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    1. I think that is something I should post about soon, but basically I feel like I have had long lasting ties to those at Sunday Salon since I've been using it for so many years. I want to keep those connections.

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  22. Thanks for also hosting a linkup here. I'll be checking out other posters.

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    1. I hope it will work out well. I love to visit other bloggers and I find it difficult to do so at times.

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  23. Bummer about the apple spice muffins. I hate it when a recipe doesn't turn out the way you hoped because it's time and effort.

    I've been blogging for almost eight years now, but I'm surprised at the percentage that have been blogging for over ten. Good luck with the Sunday Salon!

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    1. I was completely surprised to find that so many of the bloggers at Sunday Salon have been blogging for so long.

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  24. Thank you for promoting my challenge and good luck! I like the linky for Sunday Salon. It will ultimately invite more bloggers to join in since all the sign ins are in one spot.

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    1. I've never done a linky before now, and I didn't realize that most of the linkies have a charge. This one doesn't...yet. I hope this new approach to Sunday Salon will be successful.

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  25. I think the linky's a good idea.
    I have a signed copy of A Gentleman in Moscow but haven't gotten around to it yet. I may have to join Anne's challenge and put it on the list.
    I'm still plugging away at Don Quixote. I may just have to read it straight, nothing else until I finish it. I don't want to give up on it, but I'm not sure that I want to keep dragging it out either.

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    1. I think you should join into Anne's challenge and put Gentleman in Moscow on the list.

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  26. Nice assortment of books. I'm sorry that your apple muffins weren't more exciting. Come see my week here. Happy reading!

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  27. Nice books but I got stopped at the apple muffins. Sorry they weren't better.

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    1. It’s quite annoying that they were so bland. And I have 96 of them.

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  28. This week I'm linking to the It's Monday ... meme but in the future I will try to write something separate.

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  29. Fascinating survey and results. Anne - Books of My Heart

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  30. I have fallen far behind with Don Quixote. I haven't given up on it, at least. It's been ages since I thought of Cathy. I used to loved that comic strip. A Gentleman in Moscow is on my TBR pile. I hope you are enjoying all of your current books! There are a lot of us who have been blogging more than 10 years! That's awesome. Yay for the return of the Sunday Salon linky! Congratulations on becoming the new host. I know you will do a great job. Have a great weekend, Deb!

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  31. Mythology sounds awesome! I'll hop onto the Sunday Salon this weekend. :)

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  32. I read Gentleman in Moscow when it was still only available in hardbook--newly published. I used a Barnes and Nobel Christms gift card to splurge on it. Later I bought a copy in another format for a friend. I sure hope she read it. It was wonderful!

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