It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

I spent most of last week slogging through the last half of Anne Fortier's Juliet. Finished it over the weekend. Seems like I've been reading that book forever. Haven't done a review yet – I'm still gathering my thoughts.

I've got a few more reading challenges to finish up before the end of the year, so I'm hoping to get a lot of reading done in the next couple of weeks. Also want to get several reviews posted – I'd like to say at least a few words about the books I read this year, but never got around to reviewing. I'll get to those just as soon as I get all these Christmas cards addressed and outta here!

So here's how things look at the moment:

• Finished last week:
  
  Juliet, by Anne Fortier. (Sorry to say I found this largely disappointing, especially after all the early hype. More on that later.)
  
  
  
• Reading this week:
  
  The Weird Sisters, by Eleanor Brown. (This is an Early Reviewer book from Library Thing, so I want to get it finished up asap. I have high hopes, although the first fifty pages aren't setting me a-tingle.)
  
  
  
• Up next:
  
  I've started reading two books on my iPad: John Buchan's The Thirty-Nine Steps, and Murray Leinster's Operation Terror. Both were free downloads from Amazon, and both should be pretty fast reads so I'll probably finish them up before moving on to something else. Probably should get back to those ARCs that are sitting there on my shelf, radiating guilt vibes.
  
  
  
  First edition, 1962. Berkley Original; cover by Richard Powers.
  Cover image from Amazon.com.
  

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey. If you want to let the world know what books you're going to be reading this week, head on over to her blog and leave your link. It's also a great way to discover new books and new blogs.

Booking Through Thursday: Crappy?

This week BTT asks this question: Do you ever crave reading crappy books? And I had to think a while to come up with my answer.

Which is: No, I don't think I do.

Of course, one reader's crappy is another reader's thrilling entertainment. I indulge in all sorts of reading. If I really considered any of it "crappy," I wouldn't waste my time on it.

Would you?

I'm going to enjoy seeing how others answer this.

Teaser Tuesdays: Operation Terror

This week my teaser lines come from Murray Leinster's sci-fi novel, Operation Terror (my "O" book for the A-Z Challenge). I'm not sure of the exact page number because I'm reading this on my iPad, but it's from the third paragraph of Chapter 6 (Kindle location 897-909).

This snippet is describing the mysterious "something" that has come out of Boulder Lake National Park, causing all humans to flee the area:

No human being could endure being within seven miles of whatever it was. . . . because it swung terror beams before it, and terror beams on either side, and when it was clear of the Park it played terror beams behind it, too. Men who suffered the lightest touch of those sweeping beams of terror and anguish moved frantically to avoid having the experience again.

Sounds pretty awful. Reminds me of my old place of employment in Washington DC.

First edition, 1962. Berkley Original; cover by Richard Powers.
Cover image from Amazon.com.

Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by mizB at Should Be Reading. If you'd like to read more teasers, or take part yourself, just head on over to her blog.

And please feel free to leave me a link to your Teaser Tuesday post in a comment here.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

Last week wasn't a great reading week for me. I really need to kick it up a notch if I'm going to reach my goal of fifty books for this year. I know that seems like a ridiculously low number of books for some of you out there, but for me (the World's Slowest Reader) it would be a real achievement.

Anyway, last week I did manage to finish one book, and make a little progress on another. But I spent a great deal of time (time I should have been using for actual reading) planning my reading challenges for next year (see the list here). Also posted a couple of wrap-ups for 2010 challenges - the Awesome Authors Challenge and the Bibliophilic Books Challenge (here and here). I'm going to try to cut back on challenges a little in 2011; I had about two dozen going this year, and while I enjoyed the reading, I think that was really a few too many.

So, here's my Monday list:

• Finished last week:
  
  The Distant Hours by Kate Morton. Overall, I enjoyed this one quite a bit, and hope to get a review posted in a day or two.
  
  
  
• Reading this week:
  
  Juliet by Anne Fortier. I've had this one going for several months now (!), and really do want to get it finished this week. I'm enjoying it, but it doesn't seem to be grabbing my attention as completely as I was expecting it would.
  
  
  
• Planned for December:
  
  The Killings at Badger's Drift by Caroline Graham. My "K" book for the A-Z Challenge.
  
  
  Zapped by Carol Higgins Clark. My "Z" book for same challenge.
  
  
  

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey. If you want to let the world know what books you're going to be reading this week, head on over to her blog and leave your link. It's also a great way to discover new books and new blogs.

Booking Through Thursday: Firsts

This week BTT asks: "How about First Editions? Are they something special? Or 'just another book' to you?"

Have to admit, I do think of first editions as a little bit special. And generally, if I'm buying a hard cover copy of a current book, I do try to get the first edition. Well, why not? Think about all those people who just happened to buy first editions of Stephen King back in the day. Of course, I know most books are not going to increase in value, at least not in my lifetime. But you never know.

My husband and I share a love of books. And over the years we've picked up a few first editions of older books, too. I suppose if we could afford it, we'd be full-fledged book collectors instead of just book accumulators.

2010 Bibliophilic Books Challenge - Completed

The 2010 Bibliophilic Books Challenge was one of my favorite challenges of this or any year – I just can't get enough of books about books. The challenge was hosted (and is still being hosted, until the end of the month) by Lesley of A Life in Books. I signed up at the "Bookworm" level (three books), and almost made it to "Litlover" (six books). I even managed to review most of the books I read, although I haven't been very good about remembering to post my reviews to the challenge review site (my brain is old and slow – just like my body).

Here's my list of books read, with links to my reviews:

1. The Anthologist. Nicholson Baker
2. The Forgotten Garden. Kate Morton
   
3. The Egypt Game. Zilpha Keatley Snyder
   
4. The Inheritance. Simon Tolkien
   
5. People of the Book. Geraldine Brooks (Review to come)
   

I thoroughly enjoyed them all, even though I wasn't quite as wowed by People of the Book as I had expected to be (explanation to come in my review).

I had hoped to get in a nonfiction work or two, but it just didn't happen. Maybe next time around (if there is one). My thanks to Lesley for hosting and to all the other participants for helping me add many, many new titles to my already overwhelming TBR list!

The Awesome Author Challenge - Completed

The Awesome Author Challenge was hosted by Alyce of At Home With Books, and ran (actually, it's still running) throughout 2010. As Alyce said, the idea behind the challenge was "to read works by authors who have been recommended to you time and again, yet somehow you haven't managed to read any books by those authors. These are the authors that everyone else tells you are awesome, thus the 'Awesome Author Challenge' title."

I signed up at the ten-author ("Challenging") level, and actually read a few more "awesome" new authors than ten. But this is my "official" list (in, roughly, the order read), with links to my reviews:

1. Nick Bantock: The Griffin & Sabine Trilogy
   
2. Nicholson Baker: The Anthologist
   
3. Iain Pears: The Raphael Affair
   
4. Henry Roth: An American Type
   
5. Elizabeth Peters: A River in the Sky
   
6. Lisa Gardner: Live To Tell
   
7. Kate Morton: The Forgotten Garden
   
8. Alex Kava: Damaged
   
9. Zilpha Keatley Snyder: The Egypt Game
   
10. Anne Rivers Siddons: The House Next Door
    

I enjoyed all of the books I read – some more than others, of course. I suppose if I had to pick a favorite, it would have to be The Anthologist, Nicholson Baker's marvelous novel about life, love, and poetry. And, contrariwise, if I had to choose one for the "most disappointing" category, I think it would most likely be Henry Roth's An American Type. Not a bad book and I enjoyed reading it; but it just didn't live up to my expectations (which were probably too high, but you know how that goes).

I want to say thank you to Alyce for hosting. This was a fun (and easy!) challenge, and a great idea!