Category: Reading

WWW Wednesday: it’s here again!

Again, courtesy of Should Be Reading, comes WWW Wednesday:

To play along, just answer the following three (3) questions…

  • What are you currently reading?
  • What did you recently finish reading?
  • What do you think you’ll read next? 

Currently reading:

  • Leaving A Trace: On Keeping a Journal by Alexandra Johnson (Taking a cue from Oh! and going through some of the many writing craft books I own. This one is very low key.)
  • The Hollow by Jessica Verday (commute book on audio)
  • An awesome manuscript written by a friend (on the Kindle. Man, I love my Kindle.)

Recently Read:

  • Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo (Why hadn’t I read this before? It’s utterly charming.)
  • Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly (I just finished this … OMG. I. Loved. It. It’s incredible. I’m going to have to do a fangirl post/review of this one.)

Up next:

  • Rita books. The box has not yet arrived, but I expect it any day now.
  • Charles and Emma: The Darwins’ Leap of Faith by Deborah Heiligman

Teaser Tuesday: Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

  • Grab your current read
  • Open to a random page
  • Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
  • BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
  • Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

“History is a Rorschach test, people,” she said. “What you see when you look at it tells you as much about yourself as it does about the past.”

~ p. 300, Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly

Booking Through Thursday: Reading resolutions

From Booking Through Thursday this week:

Any New Year’s reading resolutions?

I would like to up my reading again this year. I read 60 books last year (this includes audio books). This year, I want to read one print/e-book per week, for 52 books, plus whatever I listen to in the car during the commute.

Rough goal: 75 books this year. Can I do it? We’ll see.

I’m going to participate in a reading challenge this year. I didn’t last year and I missed that. War Through the Generations is doing a Civil War reading challenge. And hey, I’m one book in already. My goal is three to five, but I hope to read more than that.

What I plan to read:

  • Two Girls of Gettysburg (halfway done and I’m enjoying it)
  • Louisa May Alcott’s Civil War (All her Civil War writings in one volume—I’m on a LMA kick)

Possible Re-reads:

  • Little Women (see above re: LMA)
  • The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara (read, more than once, back in the day as officer professional development)

How about you? Any reading plans? A challenge or two? Tackling the TBR pile?

It’s WWW Wednesday!

From Should Be Reading:

To play along, just answer the following three (3) questions…

  • What are you currently reading?
  • What did you recently finish reading?
  • What do you think you’ll read next?

Currently Reading:

  • Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly (in the car)
  • Two Girls of Gettysburg by Lisa Klein  (print)

Recently Finished:

  • The Driving Force by Michel Tremblay (still need to write the evaluation)
  • The Romanov Bride by Robert Alexander (yeah, I’ve been craving historical fiction lately)

Up Next?

Not sure … there’s a box of Rita books heading my way soon. I may go for something short, just so I don’t get caught reading too many things at once.

Oh, the weather outside is frightful

It really is, at least here. It’s all of one miserly degree, plus it’s snowing. Not big, pretty snowflakes, but small, sharp, mean-spirited ones–and the wind is blowing them all around for good measure.

Yeah. It’s a good day to stay inside. In fact, I’m glad it’s a federal holiday. That way, I don’t have to traipse out to the mailbox this afternoon to get the mail–although I do have to venture out in a bit to pick up Kyra from a New Year’s Eve sleepover. I will make my first prediction of 2011. I predict a nap is in someone’s future.

In any case, it’s a good day to curl up in a chair, make plans for 2011, maybe do some reading, or perhaps a little writing. One activity I started last year that I want to carry into this year is volunteer script reading for one of our local theaters, Park Square Theatre.

Essentially, they send me a script, I read it, fill out an evaluation, then mail that (and the script) back to them. Not only is it fun, but from a writer’s perspective, it’s a great exercise for studying character, plot, and structure.

Speaking of which, I’ll be reading this today:

He’s a Canadian playwright, but that really matches our weather today. I don’t know if maybe I should be reading something more tropical on a day like today, but I’m going to brew a big pot of tea and dive in.