The other day i was over at my MIL's house and was telling her how i have kinda ran out of books to read. Until i have some money to go out and get some i just am stuck.
her being the great person she is told me she had a stack of books on the porch and to take what ever sounded interesting. I rummaged through and found Lord of the Flies.
I knew nothing about it other than it is a classic and suppose to be good, so i decided what the hay i will give it a go. Well that was just a great idea right.
Now to preface this, i consider myself a smart person. I read a lot. A lot of different types of books. I have read about 100 books just this year. All ranging from far out fiction to true stories. But i do not get Lord of the Flies.
Maybe it is the words from a time and place that i dont really understand. Maybe if it was written in all English(USA) then i might get it more. I dont really know what it is but it is just making me feel really dumb.
I like the plot well enough and i have been told to just hang in there and it does get good, but it is only a little over 200 pages long and i am more than half way through. When does it get better?
I guess i will just have to finish it and then see what my overall opinion is. At least i am reading and i guess that is what truly counts. i am showing my kids that reading is fun and enjoyable. And they will hopefully follow in my footsteps and become great lovers of books.
Showing posts with label Books. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Books. Show all posts
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
The Love Dare: Day 1 Thru Day 3
I think i mentioned on here once before how i was thinking about reading and following The Love Dare by Stephen and Alex Kendrick with Lawrence Kimbrough. If i didnt then consider this you notice (cause i dont really know what else to say).
I heard about this book from some fellow mommy bloggers. They talked about the movie Fireproof which features the book. I do have the movie but have yet to watch it. I must say that i didnt think there was any real problems in my marriage which probably says more than anything how ignorant and selfish i am. I just figured i would read and play along with this book for fun and see how it worked. If nothing else it wasnt like it would make my marriage worse right.
So on Saturday i started The Love Dare. Day 1 was no gentle ease into the water. It was a giant leap into a pit. Patients was the lesson of the first day and boy could i use that lesson. I didnt realize until after i read the chapter how negative i can be. I jump quickly to conclusions and if i dont get my own way i tend to beat (not physically) my opponante into submission. I can be a bit of a negative nelly or debbie downer. In other words i am a bit pesamistic. I always pick the bad in the situation to focus on and rarely the good.
This in turn leads to a lot of unneseccary fights between me and my husband. Now he is not a confrontational type of man. He would rather bend and let me have my way than fight with me. Sometimes this is great but most of the time it just enrages me even more (whats wrose than trying to fight with someone who wont fight you back). So the point of all this is to say that Day 1's lesson of paitents and dare of "Resolve to demonstrate patience and to say nothing negative to your spouse at all" was going to be a little difficult. So much for that cake walk i was looking for.
But Day 1 came and went and you know what i found? Go on take a guess!
It was simple and quite natural to be patient and postive to my husband. Yes a few times i had to bite my tounge and change my words to more kind options, and i even had to walk away once so i could calm down for a minute. But it came so easily i thought it had to be a fluke. So i went to bed happy that night and looking forward to the next dare. Thinking maybe this is a cake walk or maybe i just dont have anything in my marriage to fix.
Day 2's lesson was all about kindness and the dare was "In addition to saying nothing negative to your spouse again today, do at least one unexpected gesture as an act of kindness". Now this got me a little. Being positive for one day proved easy but nothing negative for a second day in a row might just prove to be my downfall. It isnt that i cant be a sweet loving person but i tend to run on high octane and low water which causes me to over heat quite frequently.
So since Marcus was at work that day i decided to concentrate on the kindess act first before confronting the no negative nelly routine. Let me tell you trying to come up with an unexpected act of kindness was th easiest thing i have done by far.
See i dont do dishes...EVER! I do all the cooking so it has always been our agreement that he is to do the cleanup of the kitchen. It isnt that i am lazy (although i am) i just detest dishes. I hate the feel of the water on my hands. That gritty, suddy feel just makes me queesey. So my act of kindness was to suck it up, put on my big girl panties, and do the dishes.
We had just had a BBQ on Saturday so i had quite the load to do. I finished them about an hour before Marcus got home. When he came into the kitchen and looked around he gave me a quizical look. I told him the dare for the day and how i figured the kindest thing i could do was take care of the dishes so that he wouldnt have to bother with them after being at work all day. He was pleasantly surprised and i felt really good about it.
As far as the attitude and not being negative it went really good. I have realized that it is so much easier to speak to my husband in a kind, explaining way rather than a yelling, raging, bitchy way. He returns my attiude ten fold and we treat each other the way we want ot be treated.
Day 3 was not really accomplished in full. The Dare for the day was this "Along with restraining from negative comments, buy your spouse somethign that says i was thinking of you today". The lesson in this was about being selfless instead of selfish. Now i would never have called my self selfish but then again who would.
After some soul serching through the day i realized i am a selfish being just as we all are. We all look for what is best for us and not nesecceraily what is best for those around us. So i did not accomplish the dare for lack of funds but i did learn a lesson and i am looking forward to the day when i can complete it in full. As for the attitude on day 3.....
It came natural to just be kind, positive, and gently! It is a stride and i still had some moments but over all it was wonderful.
So i will be back in a few days with the next few days and how they went. Hope all is well in your lives.
I heard about this book from some fellow mommy bloggers. They talked about the movie Fireproof which features the book. I do have the movie but have yet to watch it. I must say that i didnt think there was any real problems in my marriage which probably says more than anything how ignorant and selfish i am. I just figured i would read and play along with this book for fun and see how it worked. If nothing else it wasnt like it would make my marriage worse right.
So on Saturday i started The Love Dare. Day 1 was no gentle ease into the water. It was a giant leap into a pit. Patients was the lesson of the first day and boy could i use that lesson. I didnt realize until after i read the chapter how negative i can be. I jump quickly to conclusions and if i dont get my own way i tend to beat (not physically) my opponante into submission. I can be a bit of a negative nelly or debbie downer. In other words i am a bit pesamistic. I always pick the bad in the situation to focus on and rarely the good.
This in turn leads to a lot of unneseccary fights between me and my husband. Now he is not a confrontational type of man. He would rather bend and let me have my way than fight with me. Sometimes this is great but most of the time it just enrages me even more (whats wrose than trying to fight with someone who wont fight you back). So the point of all this is to say that Day 1's lesson of paitents and dare of "Resolve to demonstrate patience and to say nothing negative to your spouse at all" was going to be a little difficult. So much for that cake walk i was looking for.
But Day 1 came and went and you know what i found? Go on take a guess!
It was simple and quite natural to be patient and postive to my husband. Yes a few times i had to bite my tounge and change my words to more kind options, and i even had to walk away once so i could calm down for a minute. But it came so easily i thought it had to be a fluke. So i went to bed happy that night and looking forward to the next dare. Thinking maybe this is a cake walk or maybe i just dont have anything in my marriage to fix.
Day 2's lesson was all about kindness and the dare was "In addition to saying nothing negative to your spouse again today, do at least one unexpected gesture as an act of kindness". Now this got me a little. Being positive for one day proved easy but nothing negative for a second day in a row might just prove to be my downfall. It isnt that i cant be a sweet loving person but i tend to run on high octane and low water which causes me to over heat quite frequently.
So since Marcus was at work that day i decided to concentrate on the kindess act first before confronting the no negative nelly routine. Let me tell you trying to come up with an unexpected act of kindness was th easiest thing i have done by far.
See i dont do dishes...EVER! I do all the cooking so it has always been our agreement that he is to do the cleanup of the kitchen. It isnt that i am lazy (although i am) i just detest dishes. I hate the feel of the water on my hands. That gritty, suddy feel just makes me queesey. So my act of kindness was to suck it up, put on my big girl panties, and do the dishes.
We had just had a BBQ on Saturday so i had quite the load to do. I finished them about an hour before Marcus got home. When he came into the kitchen and looked around he gave me a quizical look. I told him the dare for the day and how i figured the kindest thing i could do was take care of the dishes so that he wouldnt have to bother with them after being at work all day. He was pleasantly surprised and i felt really good about it.
As far as the attitude and not being negative it went really good. I have realized that it is so much easier to speak to my husband in a kind, explaining way rather than a yelling, raging, bitchy way. He returns my attiude ten fold and we treat each other the way we want ot be treated.
Day 3 was not really accomplished in full. The Dare for the day was this "Along with restraining from negative comments, buy your spouse somethign that says i was thinking of you today". The lesson in this was about being selfless instead of selfish. Now i would never have called my self selfish but then again who would.
After some soul serching through the day i realized i am a selfish being just as we all are. We all look for what is best for us and not nesecceraily what is best for those around us. So i did not accomplish the dare for lack of funds but i did learn a lesson and i am looking forward to the day when i can complete it in full. As for the attitude on day 3.....
It came natural to just be kind, positive, and gently! It is a stride and i still had some moments but over all it was wonderful.
So i will be back in a few days with the next few days and how they went. Hope all is well in your lives.
Saturday, January 2, 2010
What I Did in 2009
Well besides gestating a baby, giving natural birth, and cuddling 3 handsome, healthy boys!
I did a whole lot of reading. I mean when you are pregnant for a whole year (yes i realize you are not pregnant for a whole year but when you find out at the beginning of March and don't give birth til November it feels like a whole year) what else is there to do to pass the time besides read, write, and take care of your family.
So i added it up and i am pretty sure i read 12 books. That is probably (and i am sad to say) the most books i have read in the past 5 years combined (not counting children's books lol). I remembered how much i love to read and how entrapping a book can be. I threw myself into these stories and allowed myself to become part of the book and the characters.
So what are these wonderful books i read? Well don't be shocked when i tell you lol!
The first ones i read i was very hesitant to read. The Twilight Series was not even on my radar until i saw the preview for the movie when it was coming to theaters. I remember telling my friend that i refused to see the movie until i had read the book. It then took me another 6 months or more before i actually started reading the books.
Yes i said 6 months! See i have this problem, or so i thought i did, with series books. I usually shy away from any popularized, teen/tween, written for movies, type books. I would usually just opt to see the movie and say forget the hyped up books. I never read R.L. Stine Goosebumps books as a kid. I stayed far away from Stephen King books as an adult. I have never even picked up a Harry Potter book. I realize now that it was probably a big mistake. Alas i didn't know what i was missing.
The Twilight Series sucked me in. I am now in the not so exclusive Twihards club. Everything from the characters to the scenery i created in my imagination fully engulfed me. I finished the series in just 3 weeks. I was left sad when i finished and begging for something else to fill the void that i was left with.
I had purchased Angels and Demons by Dan Brown at the same time i started reading Twilight so i had that on the back burner waiting. Since i had already read The Da Vinci Code a few year back so i figured i would give it a try. Now i can hardly wait for my friend to pass me her copy of Lost Symbol! The Langdon Series is a interesting read. Dan Brown mixes fiction with history so well that you barley realize you are learning something as you become involved in the adventures of Robert Langdon.
Then a friend filled my vampire craving void with P.C. and Kristen Cast's series House of Night. There are six books so far and i have downed them all. With six more to come i can barley contain myself till the seventh is released. These have also been adapted to be made into movies and i just wonder when that adventure will begin.
P.C. Cast is a teacher and has entwined the worlds of vampire and high school so well that if you didn't know better you might think you were reading about a human high school. There are clicks and drama and the ever so "high school" boyfriend problems. It takes me back to a time when i was 16 and in high school.
I also started Alyson Noel's Immortals Series. I only have read the first, in the series of three, Evermore so far but i look forward to making time to start on the rest. It is a lot like Twilight but shorter and with less details. I can't say it was the best book i have ever read but none the less i was sucked in and will definitely be reading the rest of the series as it comes out.
Now i have started on another vampire series by Richelle Mead called Vampire Academy. It is good so far but i am taking longer to read than normal due to all the baby loving i have going on right now. There are four books out for far with the 5th and 6th due to be released this year! I have a lot of reading to do.
So i have two more Immortal books to read, three and a half Vampire Academy books to read, and then waiting on the next installment of the House of Night. I will eventually move away from the vampires and on to something else lol. I think i would love to read James Patterson books (specifically The Women's Murder Club Series). I love a good mystery/adventure.
Anyways the whole point is i never knew what i was missing! I love series books no matter how popular they are. I will always read the book before i view the movie from here on out because 9 times out of 10 the book is so much better. So throw me a line here! What series could you not put down? I need to make a wish list!
I did a whole lot of reading. I mean when you are pregnant for a whole year (yes i realize you are not pregnant for a whole year but when you find out at the beginning of March and don't give birth til November it feels like a whole year) what else is there to do to pass the time besides read, write, and take care of your family.
So i added it up and i am pretty sure i read 12 books. That is probably (and i am sad to say) the most books i have read in the past 5 years combined (not counting children's books lol). I remembered how much i love to read and how entrapping a book can be. I threw myself into these stories and allowed myself to become part of the book and the characters.
So what are these wonderful books i read? Well don't be shocked when i tell you lol!
The first ones i read i was very hesitant to read. The Twilight Series was not even on my radar until i saw the preview for the movie when it was coming to theaters. I remember telling my friend that i refused to see the movie until i had read the book. It then took me another 6 months or more before i actually started reading the books.
Yes i said 6 months! See i have this problem, or so i thought i did, with series books. I usually shy away from any popularized, teen/tween, written for movies, type books. I would usually just opt to see the movie and say forget the hyped up books. I never read R.L. Stine Goosebumps books as a kid. I stayed far away from Stephen King books as an adult. I have never even picked up a Harry Potter book. I realize now that it was probably a big mistake. Alas i didn't know what i was missing.
The Twilight Series sucked me in. I am now in the not so exclusive Twihards club. Everything from the characters to the scenery i created in my imagination fully engulfed me. I finished the series in just 3 weeks. I was left sad when i finished and begging for something else to fill the void that i was left with.
I had purchased Angels and Demons by Dan Brown at the same time i started reading Twilight so i had that on the back burner waiting. Since i had already read The Da Vinci Code a few year back so i figured i would give it a try. Now i can hardly wait for my friend to pass me her copy of Lost Symbol! The Langdon Series is a interesting read. Dan Brown mixes fiction with history so well that you barley realize you are learning something as you become involved in the adventures of Robert Langdon.
Then a friend filled my vampire craving void with P.C. and Kristen Cast's series House of Night. There are six books so far and i have downed them all. With six more to come i can barley contain myself till the seventh is released. These have also been adapted to be made into movies and i just wonder when that adventure will begin.
P.C. Cast is a teacher and has entwined the worlds of vampire and high school so well that if you didn't know better you might think you were reading about a human high school. There are clicks and drama and the ever so "high school" boyfriend problems. It takes me back to a time when i was 16 and in high school.
I also started Alyson Noel's Immortals Series. I only have read the first, in the series of three, Evermore so far but i look forward to making time to start on the rest. It is a lot like Twilight but shorter and with less details. I can't say it was the best book i have ever read but none the less i was sucked in and will definitely be reading the rest of the series as it comes out.
Now i have started on another vampire series by Richelle Mead called Vampire Academy. It is good so far but i am taking longer to read than normal due to all the baby loving i have going on right now. There are four books out for far with the 5th and 6th due to be released this year! I have a lot of reading to do.
So i have two more Immortal books to read, three and a half Vampire Academy books to read, and then waiting on the next installment of the House of Night. I will eventually move away from the vampires and on to something else lol. I think i would love to read James Patterson books (specifically The Women's Murder Club Series). I love a good mystery/adventure.
Anyways the whole point is i never knew what i was missing! I love series books no matter how popular they are. I will always read the book before i view the movie from here on out because 9 times out of 10 the book is so much better. So throw me a line here! What series could you not put down? I need to make a wish list!
Saturday, October 25, 2008
Get It Read
I got this from my friend over at Happy Family. It is the Top 100 Books from The Big Read Project. They are trying to reintroduce America to reading. It is a great project as i don't think many of us read as much as we should. So i am going to post the list and bold the ones i have read (about 11 out of 100). I want to challenge myself to read as many books on this list as i can. I will update as i read them so you will know if i do. Now i just need to renew my library card (that is sad right).
Top 100 Books
1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With the Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37.The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz
57 A Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On the Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones's Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte's Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo
The Big Read estimates that the average adult has only read about 6 out of 100 of these books. I guess i am a little above average but sad enough most of the ones i read were in my teen years and was made to read the by a teacher. I really do love to read. I think i just have not given myself the time. Like many adults i have indulged myself in the TV instead of a book. Why read the book when you can watch the movie, right? Wrong...but i didn't realize this until i read The Da Vinci Code and couldn't put it down. Then i saw the movie and was so disappointed that it was not as exciting as the book. Now i find myself saying i don't want to see that movie yet because i have not read the book. Sadly i think a lot of people have not read these books because i notice that most of these on the list have been made into movies. Now i am not saying that all books are better than the movie but why chance it. Read the book and them watch the movie. Note the differences and use your imagination to develop the characters. I know it was very fun for me while reading The Da Vinci Code. So i challenge you guys to do what i have done here. Tell me how many of these you have read and then try to read them all. Keep track of it in your blog or hey if you don't wanna share with all write it down in your own personal journal. Just get out and read.
Top 100 Books
1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With the Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37.The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz
57 A Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On the Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones's Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte's Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo
The Big Read estimates that the average adult has only read about 6 out of 100 of these books. I guess i am a little above average but sad enough most of the ones i read were in my teen years and was made to read the by a teacher. I really do love to read. I think i just have not given myself the time. Like many adults i have indulged myself in the TV instead of a book. Why read the book when you can watch the movie, right? Wrong...but i didn't realize this until i read The Da Vinci Code and couldn't put it down. Then i saw the movie and was so disappointed that it was not as exciting as the book. Now i find myself saying i don't want to see that movie yet because i have not read the book. Sadly i think a lot of people have not read these books because i notice that most of these on the list have been made into movies. Now i am not saying that all books are better than the movie but why chance it. Read the book and them watch the movie. Note the differences and use your imagination to develop the characters. I know it was very fun for me while reading The Da Vinci Code. So i challenge you guys to do what i have done here. Tell me how many of these you have read and then try to read them all. Keep track of it in your blog or hey if you don't wanna share with all write it down in your own personal journal. Just get out and read.
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Random Words
Ok so no real one thing to blog about. I just felt like writing so i thought i would go into one of my random writing sessions while the kids are watching a movie.
I had a weird day yesterday. Some good follow by some bad and back to some more good. My husband woke my up at 6am yesterday before he left for work to tell me that Phabian was asleep on the couch. Phabian had woken up at 4am complaining that his tummy was hurting. He seemed fine when he woke me up at 8am lol.
At about 9 am i made my very first eBay purchase. I bought a set of slightly used books for the boys. They are the hard back Disney books. There are six of them including: The Fox and the Hounds, Whinnie the Pooh, Beauty and the Beast, Peter Pan, and some other. They are 95 pgs. long and chronicle the whole movie. These books usually cost about 20 dollars a piece. With S&H i payed $8.50; $3.50 for the books and $5.00 for S&H. I think it was a great deal and i am sure the kids will just love them.
How ever this was followed by a few bad events. My washer almost caught fire. I am not sure how this happened. I cleaned my entire house yesterday and when i finished i went and started a load of towels. When they almost finished spinning i went in to check and when i opened the door the room was filled with a light smoke. No fire anywhere just smoke. So i immediately stopped the washer. I was too afraid at the time to start the dryer so i just hung them to dry around the house.
Then i had a friend and her daughter come over for a bit today. It was nice to have someone to chat with while the kids played. We have been having toilet problems (IE the potty doesn't want to flush and you have to watch after you flush to make sure it doesn't overflow) lately and i wasn't thinking to check the bathroom after Dayle came out. Then Phabian went to the bathroom and started screaming that the floor was wet. Sure enough the potty overflowed and my whole floor was soaked. So much for my clean towels right lol.
But i ended the evening on a good not. I won a Wow Wow Wubbzy give away over at http://www.5minutesforbooks.com/. It is a book and DVD set and i won...YAY!!!! The kids love Wow Wow and so i just know they will have a ball with the books and DVD. I am the girl who never wins anything so to win and auction on eBay and a giveaway in one day was amazing. I was just so dang excited about it.
Also as a reminder. October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Please remind anyone who has a history of the disease in their family or who is in the right age range to get their mammograms done. It seems like an annoying thing to do but it could very well save your life. My MIL is a breast cancer survivor and i must say i am proud to have a strong woman like her in my life. We owe these fighters and those who bravely stared this in the face and lost a cure for this disease. We need better technology and better testing. We need better meds. and better treatments. If you do nothing else this month, when you are doing your grocery shopping and see an item that you need, and the item beside it (which isn't your normal brand) has a Pink Ribbon on it...buy that one instead. This usually means they are donating some of their profits to The Susan G Komen foundation and it is one way we can all make a difference. Even if you don't know someone with Breast Cancer or some one who survived it you still need to help. Those who have daughter who might need the technology, meds., and support in the future and those who might need it in there immediate future will thank you. Cancer is not racist, sexist (yes breast cancer can affect men also), bias, or discriminatory in anyway. It could hit any of us at anytime. Take the time to do what you can. Go pink this month!!!
I had a weird day yesterday. Some good follow by some bad and back to some more good. My husband woke my up at 6am yesterday before he left for work to tell me that Phabian was asleep on the couch. Phabian had woken up at 4am complaining that his tummy was hurting. He seemed fine when he woke me up at 8am lol.
At about 9 am i made my very first eBay purchase. I bought a set of slightly used books for the boys. They are the hard back Disney books. There are six of them including: The Fox and the Hounds, Whinnie the Pooh, Beauty and the Beast, Peter Pan, and some other. They are 95 pgs. long and chronicle the whole movie. These books usually cost about 20 dollars a piece. With S&H i payed $8.50; $3.50 for the books and $5.00 for S&H. I think it was a great deal and i am sure the kids will just love them.
How ever this was followed by a few bad events. My washer almost caught fire. I am not sure how this happened. I cleaned my entire house yesterday and when i finished i went and started a load of towels. When they almost finished spinning i went in to check and when i opened the door the room was filled with a light smoke. No fire anywhere just smoke. So i immediately stopped the washer. I was too afraid at the time to start the dryer so i just hung them to dry around the house.
Then i had a friend and her daughter come over for a bit today. It was nice to have someone to chat with while the kids played. We have been having toilet problems (IE the potty doesn't want to flush and you have to watch after you flush to make sure it doesn't overflow) lately and i wasn't thinking to check the bathroom after Dayle came out. Then Phabian went to the bathroom and started screaming that the floor was wet. Sure enough the potty overflowed and my whole floor was soaked. So much for my clean towels right lol.
But i ended the evening on a good not. I won a Wow Wow Wubbzy give away over at http://www.5minutesforbooks.com/. It is a book and DVD set and i won...YAY!!!! The kids love Wow Wow and so i just know they will have a ball with the books and DVD. I am the girl who never wins anything so to win and auction on eBay and a giveaway in one day was amazing. I was just so dang excited about it.
Also as a reminder. October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Please remind anyone who has a history of the disease in their family or who is in the right age range to get their mammograms done. It seems like an annoying thing to do but it could very well save your life. My MIL is a breast cancer survivor and i must say i am proud to have a strong woman like her in my life. We owe these fighters and those who bravely stared this in the face and lost a cure for this disease. We need better technology and better testing. We need better meds. and better treatments. If you do nothing else this month, when you are doing your grocery shopping and see an item that you need, and the item beside it (which isn't your normal brand) has a Pink Ribbon on it...buy that one instead. This usually means they are donating some of their profits to The Susan G Komen foundation and it is one way we can all make a difference. Even if you don't know someone with Breast Cancer or some one who survived it you still need to help. Those who have daughter who might need the technology, meds., and support in the future and those who might need it in there immediate future will thank you. Cancer is not racist, sexist (yes breast cancer can affect men also), bias, or discriminatory in anyway. It could hit any of us at anytime. Take the time to do what you can. Go pink this month!!!
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Several Things
Well i guess i have a lot to blog about. Not really a lot just several different topics. I have been very scatter brained lately and cant seem to focus on any one thing. Maybe it is a cooping mechanism or something. My brain just doesn't seem to want to cooperate with what i need to get done.
Ok so yesterday i had a rant about the paternity test and wanting the results. I did manage to get hubby to call about them but they have not got them back yet. The lady told him that because of the delivery system sometimes they don't get them on Mondays and to call back on Wednesday and check. They will have them no later than Friday and when they get them they will print us a copy and we can pick them up so we wont have to wait on them to be mailed out. That made me feel a bit better. After he got off the phone i explained to him how i am feeling about waiting on the results. The best way i can explain it is that i feel like someone has a gun to my head and i don't know whether they are going to shoot me or walk away. It is nerve racking. I guess this hit a chord with him and he felt bad (which was not my intent) but he got up and started cleaning the kitchen (which i had been bitching about for days now). When he finished the kitchen he went and cleaned our bedroom. It is the place where everything without a place ends up stacked, piled, and put in a corner. So needless to say it was a cluttered mess. He fixed it and cleaned it from top to bottom. I was so happy.
We had also go a book shelf from my dad's house that my mom had made for me when i was like 10. It is hand made and very simple but means a lot to me. We placed items like pictures and stuff on the top two shelves and then on the bottom shelf is all of my books (that i could find) and photo albums. It feels so nice to have something decorative in my house. Since we rent and not own i don't ever put a lot of effort into decorating. I seem to always be ready to pack up and move. I took a few pictures of the book case. Phabian just had to have a picture with it. We left the middle shelf empty for the kids books that Santa is bringing them. My mom's picture watches over us. The poem reads:
If anyone wants the recipe ask and i will post it. But i think i am done now. Its long enough for one day lol.
Ok so yesterday i had a rant about the paternity test and wanting the results. I did manage to get hubby to call about them but they have not got them back yet. The lady told him that because of the delivery system sometimes they don't get them on Mondays and to call back on Wednesday and check. They will have them no later than Friday and when they get them they will print us a copy and we can pick them up so we wont have to wait on them to be mailed out. That made me feel a bit better. After he got off the phone i explained to him how i am feeling about waiting on the results. The best way i can explain it is that i feel like someone has a gun to my head and i don't know whether they are going to shoot me or walk away. It is nerve racking. I guess this hit a chord with him and he felt bad (which was not my intent) but he got up and started cleaning the kitchen (which i had been bitching about for days now). When he finished the kitchen he went and cleaned our bedroom. It is the place where everything without a place ends up stacked, piled, and put in a corner. So needless to say it was a cluttered mess. He fixed it and cleaned it from top to bottom. I was so happy.
We had also go a book shelf from my dad's house that my mom had made for me when i was like 10. It is hand made and very simple but means a lot to me. We placed items like pictures and stuff on the top two shelves and then on the bottom shelf is all of my books (that i could find) and photo albums. It feels so nice to have something decorative in my house. Since we rent and not own i don't ever put a lot of effort into decorating. I seem to always be ready to pack up and move. I took a few pictures of the book case. Phabian just had to have a picture with it. We left the middle shelf empty for the kids books that Santa is bringing them. My mom's picture watches over us. The poem reads:
Home In Heaven
I'm safely home in Heaven,
though I know you miss me so.
The love I've always felt for you,
within my heart still flows.
My spirit will remain with you
every single day, appearing as a
rainbow or as ocean waves at play.
I'm in the gentle rains that fall,
and in the morning dew.
All you see that's beautiful
reflects my love for you.
I didn't mean to cause you pain,
my time had simply come.
The work that I was meant to do
on earth had all been done.
I'm safely home in Heaven,
where eternal peace is mine.
And where, when God has called you
too, I'll be forever Thine.
Bobbie Wilkinson
On to a dinner note lol. Last night i used a recipe that a girl from my parenting group gave me for quiche. I changed the ingredients to make it a turkey, bacon, and cheese quiche. It was so yummy. I took pictures cause it turned out so much better than the first one i made.
If anyone wants the recipe ask and i will post it. But i think i am done now. Its long enough for one day lol.
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