Clubbing

I haven't done a Booking Through Thursday for a few weeks. Here is this week's question:

A combo of two suggestions by: Heidi and by litlove

Have you ever been a member of a book club? How did your group choose (ot, if you haven’t been, what do you think is the best way to choose) the next book and who would lead discussion?

Do you feel more or less likely to appreciate books if you are obliged to read them for book groups rather than choosing them of your own free will? Does knowing they are going to be read as part of a group affect the reading experience?

I have been a part of a number of different book clubs over the years. One was a face to face book club, and another couple were online clubs. Generally the book clubs choices have been decided democratically. Everyone brings a number of suggestions to the table, and then everyone votes/discusses which ones they would like to read.

I have to say that being part of a book club has generally enriched my reading experience of a book. For example, for a long time I was a member of a number of reading groups over at Oprah's Book Clubs. Firstly, there are books that I would probably have never read, if it was left to just me, that I read with Oprah. I also think that I enjoyed reading some of those books far more than I would have had I just read them by myself. I am thinking specifically of books like One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy that I just don't think I would have picked up, let alone loved as much as I did without the discussion that went along with reading those books as part of a group. I haven't read along with the last few choices, but I do always keep an eye on whatever her new books are, just in case there is something really interesting coming up!

A few years ago I was also part of a face to face group. Whilst I enjoyed it while I was going I don't think I got as much out of it as I did for the online groups, because there was an hour to discuss a book, whereas with the online group, you could talk daily about where you were up to, ask questions etc.

These days I am an active member of one online bookclub group, and keep an eye on another with the intention of participating. The reason I say that about the second group is that often the books for each month are chosen either too late for me to fit into the reading schedule for the next month, or the books aren't easily accessible here in Australia.

The other group that I am a member of is called Genre Stew, and is a combination of book club and group that chats about books, if you get the difference. With this group we get a fairly eclectic list of books that are voted on months in advance, and there are pretty good discussions of the books that are being read. In terms of leading the discussions, whoever suggested the book in the first place gets to lead the discussion, and therefore for this month's discussion, I am leading! Newcomers are always welcome! Books that are going to be coming up over the next few months are:

• Jun 10-North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell
• Jul 10-Jack Maggs by Peter Carey
• Aug 10-The Monsters of Templeton by Lauren Groff
• Sep 10-Family Matters by Rohinton Mistry
• Oct 10-The Birth House by Amy McKay
• Nov 10-World Without End by Ken Follett

Interestingly enough, both of these groups are offshoots of Oprah groups, and so I have been chatting about books and sharing my life with some of these people for a number of years now.

Reviews?

When I sat down at the computer today, I was thinking that it felt as though I hadn't written a review for days! Turns out, it is more like weeks (with the last review I wrote having been published on May 8)! I promise I do have lots of reviews either started or half written, but just haven't got to finishing them off yet.

Actually, I don't really know what is up with me this last week. I haven't even managed to write my Booking Through Thursday post (even though I knew what I wanted to post), I didn't do Weekly Geeks, and I haven't really said anything at all on the blog! I have still been reading a bit though. Not as much as usual, but enough I guess.

What I have been busy doing is keeping the Georgette Heyer Season going over at Historical Tapestry, and this afternoon I have indulged myself by watching the first two episodes of North and South again....sigh.

Maybe later I will get around to finishing a review post off. Note I said maybe though! Now I should probably go and cook dinner.

Manual Labour Redux

This week's Booking Through Thursday question (Late again!)

Following up last week’s question about reading writing/grammar guides, this week, we’re expanding the question….

Scenario: You’ve just bought some complicated gadget home . . . do you read the accompanying documentation? Or not?

Do you ever read manuals?

How-to books?

Self-help guides?

Anything at all?

I do read the manuals, usually after I have first attempted to do it myself! I do have to say though, the most recent user manuals that I have tried to use were anything but user friendly! Even the ones that rely on pictures to give the instructions tend to be pretty darned confusing!

I do love looking through cookbooks and recipe magazines, so that could be considered How-To books I guess, and I have several diet books which I read through occasionally. They could be considered Self Help right? One of these days I will do something more than just read them though, and actually put a plan into action!

Manual Labour

This week's Booking Through Thursday question:

Writing guides, grammar books, punctuation how-tos . . . do you read them? Not read them? How many writing books, grammar books, dictionaries–if any–do you have in your library?

Well this is an easy answer! None! If I want to use a dictionary I go online, and I don't have any writing books or grammar books at all!


In other news, I joined another library today. Back in March my work moved into a new premises, and it just so happens that there is a second hand bookstore about 50 metres away, and there is a library about 4 or 500 metres away. So far I have resisted going into the second hand bookstore.

As it so happens, I have been looking at the library's online catalogue and it turns out that they have a few books that I really want to read but that I can't get through my normal library. I will still continue with my normal one as the main one, but for the odd book I am intending to use this new one. So that makes a total of four libraries that I am a member of, but I really don't go to two of them anymore because they are too far away.

Mayday!

This week's Booking Through Thursday question:

Quick! It’s an emergency! You just got an urgent call about a family emergency and had to rush to the airport with barely time to grab your wallet and your passport. But now, you’re stuck at the airport with nothing to read. What do you do??

And, no, you did NOT have time to grab your book bag, or the book next to your bed. You were . . . grocery shopping when you got the call and have nothing with you but your wallet and your passport (which you fortuitously brought with you in case they asked for ID in the ethnic food aisle). This is hypothetical, remember….

Well...let's start with the never going to happen part of this scenario. I always have one, or sometimes two books in my handbag, so if I have my purse...I have a book. Also, our passports have expired and so it would have to be an emergency with 6 weeks notice!

Now that I have that out of the way, the other assumption that will be made is that I will have my child with me. So, once we get to the airport the first thing we have to do is to go and look at all the different planes, and try and work out which airline is which. Then we will have some wheedling and whining to go and get some airport food (is it just me or is airport food only marginally better than airplane food) and after that is the true shock of not having a book with me will kick in.

It's fair to say that I would definitely end up buying a book or two to read, because I seriously can not imagine having to catch a long flight without anything to read. I would check out the newsagent/bookshop, and even though it is highly likely that there would be nothing new to me there, I would still manage to find something to read. It may just mean that I end up feeling a little guilty for buying a book that if I had of been a bit more prepared I could have ended up reading a library book and therefore saved myself a little money!

Springing

This week's Booking Through Thursday question:

Well, here where I live, Spring is sprung–weeks early, even. Our lilac bush looks like it will have flowers by this time next week instead of in the middle of May as usual. The dogwood trees, the magnolia trees–all the flowering trees are flowering. The daffodils and crocuses are, if anything, starting to fade. It may only be April 24th but it is very definitely Spring and, allergies notwithstanding, I’m happy to welcome the change of season. What I want to know, is:

Do your reading habits change in the Spring? Do you read gardening books? Even if you don’t have a garden? More light fiction than during the Winter? Less? Travel books? Light paperbacks you can stick in a knapsack?

Or do you pretty much read the same kinds of things in the Spring as you do the rest of the year?

I think it is fair to say that the seasons don't affect what I read at all. I read what I read...regardless of anything! It never occurs to me to contemplate the seasons as I choose my next book to read!

Vocabulary

I haven't been doing all that well with Booking Through Thursday questions for the last week or so. Here's this week's Booking Through Thursday question:

I’ve always wondered what other people do when they come across a word/phrase that they’ve never heard before. I mean, do they jot it down on paper so they can look it up later, or do they stop reading to look it up on the dictionary/google it or do they just continue reading and forget about the word?

Every now and again I come across a word that is new to me, and that I can't work out a meaning in context. On those occasions I will visit an online dictionary, but because I am usually reading during the commute to and from work that is often now accessible either, and by the time I get home I have other things to think about!

Lit-Ra-Chur

This week's Booking Through Thursday question:

• When somebody mentions “literature,” what’s the first thing you think of? (Dickens? Tolstoy? Shakespeare?)
• Do you read “literature” (however you define it) for pleasure? Or is it something that you read only when you must?

My initial reaction is definitely to think of the classics like Tolstoy, Shakespeare, Dickens, Bronte etc. Maybe my definition of literature would be books that I know that I should read...one day! I do know that I really should read Pride and Prejudice, Jane Eyre, War and Peace and all of those other classics, and I will...eventually.

In addition to those older books that have stood the test of time though, there is also the new literature that comes out. In this case I am thinking of authors such as Ian McEwan, Alan Hollinghurst. I have read some of them (for example the two mentioned) with mixed results. McEwan I don't mind. Hollinghurst writes beautifully but also with a pretentiousness that means that you can't read in a noisy place, you have to be able to concentrate word for word to be sure that you grasp the meaning.

Maybe another way that I define literature is by some of the prize lists - if a book makes the Orange Prize list I would expect it to be completely readable and absorbing but accessible. If however the book makes the Booker Prize lists then I would expect it to be somewhat less accessible to a normal reader (i.e me), more challenging but that would also be part of the reason why I would want to read it.


BTW, I just realised I didn't post last weeks BTT question - I'll put it up later today!

The End

This week's Booking Through Thursday question:

You’ve just reached the end of a book . . . what do you do now? Savor and muse over the book? Dive right into the next one? Go take the dog for a walk, the kids to the park, before even thinking about the next book you’re going to read? What?

(Obviously, there can be more than one answer, here–a book with a cliff-hanger is going to engender different reactions than a serene, stand-alone, but you get the idea!)

I notice a lot of people have said that their answer depends on the book, but for me the answer depends less on the book than on where it is that I am when I finish the book.

Every morning I have a look at how much I have left in my book, and decide whether or not I think I am going to finish the book I am currently reading or not, and if I think that I will I put my next book in my bag as well. Then, if I do finish it on the train, I immediately pick up the next book and start reading.

If the book that I finish is my at home book, that usually means that I am reading in bed late at night and so I won't start reading a new book that night.

Either way, as soon as I am able, I come onto the computer and start my review post by finding the blurb, finding the cover picture and then update my lists that I keep of books that I have read, want to read etc etc. It doesn't actually feel like my reading experience for that book is over until I do these things.

Playing Editor

Not much blogging this week I am afraid. Busy at work and then tired when I get home, and it is hot, hot, hot here!

This week's Booking Through Thursday question:

How about a chance to play editor-in-chief? Fill in the blanks:

__________ would have been a much better book if ______________________.

The response I am about to give is honestly the first one I thought of, despite the fact that I read the book over three years ago. Maybe part of the reason that I thought of it is that I have just finished reading People of the Book this week by the same author. Not sure.

So my answer:

Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks would have been a much better book if it didn't have such a stupid ending!

If you've read the book you will understand - it kind of takes off an this completely unbelievable tangent that just doesn't fit the rest of the story. Of course, that is just my opinion!

Hero

This week's Booking Through Thursday question:

You should have seen this one coming … Who is your favorite Male lead character? And why?

I actually did a post not all that long ago about my favourite types of heroes, so I am going to link back to that one as a starting point for this question.

Other memorable heroes are the three main male characters from Black Jewels trilogy by Anne Bishop - Saetan, Daemon and Lucivar - yum, yum, yum!

Maybe because I have a bit of Sara Donati/Rosina Lippi excitement going today, I also wanted to mention Ben from Queen of Swords. When he enters the narrative, he is resourceful and competent, persistent without being overly forceful, good looking and charming, and yet he resides in a place between two worlds - not really comfortable in either. He is exactly what Hannah needed at that point in her life, and a worthy addition to an already strong cast of male characters in the Into the Wilderness series.

Heroine

This weeks Booking Through Thursday question:

Who is your favorite female lead character? And why? (And yes, of course, you can name more than one . . . I always have trouble narrowing down these things to one name, why should I force you to?)

Well this looks like an easy question doesn't it! And yet it is not. How to go through the characters who live in my memories and pick just a few of them. That task is not helped by the fact that I definitely am more hero centric in my reading, particularly in romances. A lot of times if the hero is to die for, the heroine can be kind of wishy-washy and it will not bother me at all. Unfortunately the same can not be said if it the characteristics are the other way around.



Onto the actual question then!

Eleanor of Aquitaine - as portrayed by Sharon Penman in When Christ and His Saints Slept and the Justin de Quincey novels, and by Elizabeth Chadwick in her William Marshal novels. Passionate, feisty, powerful, only woman to be queen of both England and France - what a woman!

I have to confess to being fascinated by Eleanor and even just the smallest of glimpses of her in a novel make me extremely happy!




Others that I thought about mentioning for a variety of reasons:

Claire Randall from the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon

Tatiana from The Bronze Horseman trilogy by Paullina Simons

Amelia Peabody from the Amelia Peabody series by Barbara Peters

Eve Dallas from the In Death series by J D Robb

Surely it's no coincidence that these strong and fascinating women have equally strong and fascinating men in their lives?? Just in these cases the author manages to give both characters balance in their books!

Format

This week's Booking Through Thursday question:

All other things (like price and storage space) being equal, given a choice in a perfect world, would you rather have paperbacks in your library? Or hardcovers? And why?

I don't buy a lot of hardcovers, and I do buy a lot of mass market paperbacks, but it is the larger size trade paperbacks that are my favourites. They aren't so heavy to carry around in my handbag as hardcovers, and are a bit better quality than the smaller, cheaper paperbacks.

After the Honeymoon

This week's Booking Through Thursday question:

I had a post ready for today, but I liked this suggestion from Chris even better, so … thanks, Chris!

Here’s something for Valentine’s Day.

Have you ever fallen out of love with a favorite author? Was the last book you read by the author so bad, you broke up with them and haven’t read their work since? Could they ever lure you back?

You know...I don't think there is really! The thing with me is that if I enjoyed a few books by an author and then I start not really enjoying them, then I will still keep reading them because there is a chance that the next book will be the just as good as the ones that I did enjoy! I have a similar reason when I keep reading a book even if I am not really enjoying it - it could start to get really good in the next 10-15 pages!

The keep on reading an author regardless is especially true if I am part way through a series. Even if I am hating it, I find it really difficult to not read a series until the very end. The only time I can think of that this wasn't the case is if the series is one that I was borrowing books from the library to read, but then in order to keep reading I would start having to buy the books myself. One of the few things that is worse than giving up a series part way through is only owning bits and pieces of a series!

Loved the question this week!

But enough about books.....

This week's Booking Through Thursday question:

Okay, even I can’t read ALL the time, so I’m guessing that you folks might voluntarily shut the covers from time to time as well… What else do you do with your leisure to pass the time? Walk the dog? Knit? Run marathons? Construct grandfather clocks? Collect eggshells?

What...not read all the time??

Well, okay..I confess, I don't read all the time! A lot of the time I blog about reading, or read other people's blogs about reading. Then there is the time I spend in various forums where I also talk about reading!

Other things that I do is to make cards, although I don't do them as much as I really should! I did manage to make all my Christmas cards that I sent out this year. The rest of the time I am being mum.

I do enjoy going out with a few friends occasionally but I do limit that because it means imposing on other people for babysitting! And I do enjoy watching sport - most sports in fact!.

Of course, then there is my newest obsession that I am sure you all know about! I am actually watching the second DVD of North and South as I type this up!

Quirky

This week's Booking Through Thursday question

This week’s question is suggested by (blogless) JMutford:

Sometimes I find eccentric characters quirky and fun, other times I find them too unbelievable and annoying. What are some of the more outrageous characters you’ve read, and how do you feel about them?

Quirky huh? Lets start with a definition:

Quirky - having or full of quirks

Hmmm, that doesn't really help

Quirk -

1. A peculiarity of behavior; an idiosyncrasy: "Every man had his own quirks and twists" (Harriet Beecher Stowe).
2. An unpredictable or unaccountable act or event; a vagary: a quirk of fate.
3. A sudden sharp turn or twist.
4. An equivocation; a quibble.
5. Architecture A lengthwise groove on a molding between the convex upper part and the soffit.

When I think of quirky characters I definitely think of those with idiosyncrasies outside the norm. There is no doubt in my mind that it takes quite a skilled author to take those quirky characters that populate book world, and make them into characters that do not eventually irritate and annoy.

When I was trying to think back to books that I have read not in the not too distant past and which I have quirky characters, the first series I thought of was the Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich - her books are chockful of them! I do wonder if in some cases the quirkiness that started in her earlier books have not become the characters in the later books. By that I mean that there are certain things that you know the characters are going to do in every book. Lula is going to maneuvre herself into clothes that are too tight and too skimpy, Stephanie is going to be inept, Grandma Mazur will be just a tad crazy! Not that I don't like that, because I know now what to expect, but in a lesser series it could definitely become tiresome.

How about some other examples - Amelia Peabody and family from the mystery series of the same name by Elizabeth Peters. I definitely don't get tired of them. It seems that cozy mystery series seem to give us more than their fare share of quirky characters. Another one that came to mind was Phryne Fisher from the Phryne Fisher mysteries by Kerrie Greenwood. Maybe it is that quirkyness gives the author a hook to carry a book on - something that can carry through a series of books without having to come up with completely new characteristics every time.

Thank goodness that there are some authors out there that are skilful enough to come up with quirks, and quirky characters, that don't irritate after a while. There are some that just don't have that skill, or who think that being quirky equate to being bitchy or horrible in other ways!

I am sure that there are loads of examples, but for now this will do!


*Definition from Dictionary.com

Huh?

This week's Booking Through Thursday question:

What’s your favorite book that nobody else has heard of? You know, not Little Women or Huckleberry Finn, not the latest best-seller . . . whether they’ve read them or not, everybody “knows” those books. I’m talking about the best book that, when you tell people that you love it, they go, “Huh? Never heard of it?”

And, folks–Becca was nice enough to nominate Booking Through Thursday for a Blogger’s Choice Award–while you’re here, why don’t you head over and vote for us, too. Because, a vote for BTT is a vote for all of us who play each week!

I think my answer to this question really depends on who 'people' are! If we are talking about in real life, then the list of books that I love that other people haven't read is extensive. If we are talking about in blogland, then it is a little harder to narrow it down!

In terms of my family and friends, there are very few that I can talk books with. The girl I sit next to at work and I do, but we read very different genres. Basically I think I could talk just about anyone to them and they wouldn't necessarily have heard of them, with the exception of probably Diana Gabaldon, Paullina Simons and Bryce Courtenay! The first two is because they have heard me rave on about, the other because when he has a new book out he does get saturation coverage here!

In blogland, I decided that I would look at the least known book out of my best reads of 2007, and that would have to be Barbed Wire and Roses by Peter Yeldham. I really, really enjoyed that book, but I don't think I have ever seen this author mentioned on any other blogs. Actually, I don't even see him in the shops at all either, so I guess that his sales weren't all that great, given that Barbed Wire and Roses only came out six months ago. If that is the case, it is disappointing because the book itself is a really good read. I am now on a mission to read his backlist, and have another of his books out from the library to read.

Let's Review

I am off work this week because it is school holidays, and it was something of a surprise to me that it was Thursday! And now it is even more of a surprise that it is late on Monday night! How bad is that! Anyway, last week's Booking Through Thursday question was:

This week’s question is suggested by Puss Reboots:

How much do reviews (good and bad) affect your choice of reading? If you see a bad review of a book you wanted to read, do you still read it? If you see a good review of a book you’re sure you won’t like, do you change your mind and give the book a try?

I get most of my book recommendations from reader reviews or because the author is one that I already know that I like so I would say that reviews do affect my choice of reading quite a lot. Having said that, if there is a book that I wanted to read and it gets a bad review I will still read it because there are some books that people love that I just don't feel the same way about and vice versa. Just recently, I read a review of a book that I gave 5/5 a couple of years of ago, but the reviewer thought it was a wall banger. This was a person that I normally totally agree with, but I guess it was bound to happen. Different strokes for different folks I guess.

Getting a book on my TBR list isn't all that difficult - if I see a mention and it looks remotely interesting I'll add it. What good or bad reviews might do is actually encourage me to move it up or down the list.

I have to admit though I am someone who can be tempted to read a book if there is a passionate disagreement between people about. A while ago there was a big kerfuffle on one of the boards I moderate on about a specific book that ended up being quite a hostile situation. At first my reaction was something along the lines of "well if you think that I am going to read that book you must be joking" but after a couple of days I was still wondering if it was going to be as good or as bad as the various parties suggested so when I noticed it on the library catalogue I borrowed it. In the end, I returned it unread just because I ran out of renewals, and haven't reborrowed it again, and probably won't because the people who were so fanatically divided have not bothered to revisit the site again, and so apparently were just in it for the argument, so I can't be bothered anymore with it.

May I Introduce....

This week's Booking Through Thursday question:

1. How did you come across your favorite author(s)? Recommended by a friend? Stumbled across at a bookstore? A book given to you as a gift?

2. Was it love at first sight? Or did the love affair evolve over a long acquaintance?

Before I can answer these questions I need to take a step back and think who exactly would I classify as my favourite authors. We'll start with Diana Gabaldon.

I was given Cross Stitch for my birthday from my sister about 5 years ago I think. It sat on my shelf for months until one day I felt like reading something and so picked that up, started and finished it, and then basically devoured the rest of the series as quickly as I possible could.

Reading Cross Stitch led me to the Ladies of Lallybroch board where everyone raved about Sharon Kay Penman, so I read Sunne in Splendour and loved it which led me to read all of her other books, except for Time and Chance which I will read when I know for sure how long I have to wait for Devil's Brood.

Still over at Lallybroch, there was mention of Claire, Jamie and Young Ian making a brief appearance in a book called Into the Wilderness by Sara Donati, so I started reading that series and anything else that Sara/Rosina puts out.

Then there was much excitement over a book called The Bronze Horseman and my love for Paullina Simons' books was born.

Then I started getting involved in blogging and other online forums, and started reading more romance. Liz Carlyle and Lisa Kleypas' books caught the eye. Then JR Ward mania hit and I started reading more and more paranormal romances

Another favourite is Diana Norman and I am pretty sure that I first heard of her over at Dear Author. I think I first heard of Susan Carroll over at Historical Fiction, and have been introduced to loads of great books over there.

Really, I could go on and on, but I won't. I will however say that I am always grateful when people blog about great reads, that lead me to discover lots of new authors...so thanks everyone!

Anticipation

This week's Booking Through Thursday question:

Last week we talked about the books you liked best from 2007. So this week, what with it being a new year, and all, we’re looking forward….

What new books are you looking forward to most in 2008? Something new being published this year? Something you got as a gift for the holidays? Anything in particular that you’re planning to read in 2008 that you’re looking forward to? A classic, or maybe a best-seller from 2007 that you’re waiting to appear in paperback?

I have quite a few books that are coming out in 2008 that I am very much looking forward to reading, most of which I have listed as my books for the Pub 08 Challenge. They are:

Daughter of York by Anne Easter Smith (out February)
Fire Study by Maria V Snyder (out February)
Mistress of the Sun by Sandra Gulland (out March)
The Serpent's Tale by Ariana Franklin (out January)
The Seduction of the Crimson Rose by Lauren Willig (out January)
The Pajama Girls of Lambert Square by Sara Donati (or Rosina Lippi depending on where it is to be published)
People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks


In addition I am also looking forward to:

Tangled Webs by Anne Bishop (out in March)
The Other Queen by Philippa Gregory (hopefully later this year)
The Wild Rose by Jennifer Donnelly (although this may not come out until next year)
An Echo in the Bone by Diana Gabaldon (another one that might not be out until next year)
Twilight of a Queen by Susan Carroll

I'm sure there are more, but that will do for now!