Another Snow Day Another Challenge

Oh the weather outside is frightful, which means another snow day for yours truly! It also means another day of reading.

Yesterday I finished Deadly Little Lies and posted my review. Today I plan on finishing another novel too, and I just signed up for another challenge, National Just Read More Novel Month. Thanks to J. Kaye for posting the link to this challenge. I am going for the 10X category and will hopefully be at the half way mark by tomorrow. I added this to my 2010 Challenge Post that I started in order to keep track of all the books I am this year.

Enough talk, back to my books.

Snow Day = Reading Day

Today is officially a reading day as my school district just closed school. I am really excited about having a whole day to do nothing but read. I have been having reading withdrawals since Monday because after going back to school, I have had very little time to just sit and get into my books. Reading, party of one, your chair awaits!

Thoughts on a Tuesday Morning

Reality hit yesterday as I had to gave up my comfy chair and my book to go back to work. My kids had the day off, but I had to go in and finalize grades and plan for the next semester. Since I am an earlier riser (anywhere from 1:30-3:00 AM) I am also in bed usually before 9:00 PM. Needless to say, I did not get any reading done yesterday. I worked on, make that agonized over a review this morning, and then went back to lesson planning ... so no reading this morning. I am beginning to have withdrawals. YUK!

Blogging about books as I am discovering is not for the faint of heart, and yet, many of you lovely book bloggers make it look sooooooo easy. Does it get easier? Do you get to a point where every review you write doesn't feel like you are sweating blood each time you write a sentence? Just wondering. Between trying to create a blog page worthy of being read and viewed, I am just concerned that I may not measure up. OK enough commiseration.

I do want to gushingly thank J. Kaye for her support, and not just for me, but for all book bloggers. She was my first legitimate follower  of the three I currently have. The other two I threatened with blackmail if they didn't join. I read her blog sometimes three or four times a day, and she always has great ideas, and glowing things to say about other bloggers. I have already learned a lot about blogging from her.

I also would love to hear about other bloggers' experiences especially when you were first starting out. Insight is a good thing. So if you have a mind to give me your advice, criticism, regale me with your anecdotes about your early days, and hey hears a novel idea become a follower (it won't cost you anything),  and I promise to do the same.

Book Geek

As a kid I loved to read. I also loved to be around books. In seventh grade, the neighborhood elementary school I attended had one room that served as the school's library. It was not run by a librarian. Student volunteers helped restock the books once or twice a week. I was one of those volunteers. I can still remember spending an hour or two every week alone in that room, shelving books. I would take my time reading titles and picking out new books I wanted to read. Being in that room, filled with books, always brought me a feeling of tranquility. I also had this feeling that some of the wonderful knowledge housed in those books might by means of osmosis seep into my brain and make be smarter.

Today I still get those feeling inside a library or a bookstore. I love walking around looking at the shelves and tables filled with colorful jacket art, and wishing that I had time to read all the books there. Like a kid in a candy store the vast array of choices can still make me giddy. Picking up a book, reading the back, thinking about the possibilities each book's prose offers, and knowing all I have to do is begin reading and I will be a part of the story within is intoxicating. However, there is one drawback. After choosing the books, they begin calling to me, and sometimes life gets in the way. Especially this time of year. My semester is almost over, and Christmas is approaching. With so much to do, it is difficult to press the pause button and lose myself in a story, which is exactly what I do when I pick up a good book. Once I begin reading I am lost to the story. Thankfully, winter break is only a week away, and if I have been a very good girl this year, I might just get a book or two from Santa.

How about you? Any childhood memories about books? What's on you Christmas book list?