Listful Mondays: Books from Vacation

The Books We Brought Home from Vacation

(or The Books We Bought at my Favorite Used Book Store in my Home Town)

1. Feed by M. T. Anderson (For my dystopian collection.)
2. Misty of Chincoteague by Marguerite Henry (Remembered from childhood - just don't remember anything but the cover.)
3. The Book of Three by Lloyd Alexander (Replacement for our tattered copy.)
4. Dragons of Deltora: Shadowgate by Emily Rodda (Book 2)
5. Dragons of Deltora: Isle of the Dead, Sister of the South (Books 3 & 4)
6. Deltora Quest: books 5 - 8 (We got confused and thought we found a whole series by one of Jadyn's favorite authors. Not so. There are 3 different related series. Stink.)
7. Starbridge by A.C. Crispin
8. Ancestor's World by A. C. Crispin (These are Scott's.)
9. Magic Study by Maria V. Snyder (This was the one I was missing! Serendipitous!)
10. Ramona Quimby, Age 8 by Beverly Cleary (Never read anything by her, but loved the movie.)
11. Little Town on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder (The specific printing to match my set from childhood, replacing my spine-broken copy.)
12. The Seventh Tower: Into Battle (Book 5)
13. The Seventh Tower: The Violet Keystone (Book 6. We have 1 - 3. Now we just need book 4.)
14. Whirligig by Paul Fleischman (Replacement for a Loaning Casualty.)
15. Redwall by Brian Jacques
16. Mossflower by Brian Jacques
17. Mattimeo by Brian Jacques
18. Mariel of Redwall by Brian Jacques
19. Salamandastrom by Brian Jacques
20. Martin the Warrior by Brian Jacques (We had no Redwall books, but Scott played the audiobook for the older kids and they loved it. I'm sure the store had all the rest of them too, but I had to draw the line somewhere.)

I am home, possibly recovered, and thinking about books and blogging.

Listful Mondays: My Favorite Thieves

I'm not sure why, but some of my all-time favorite characters have been thieves. Loving those rascals has become so ingrained that I automatically like a new thieving character, before he or she has had a chance to prove themself, simply because they are a thief. How is this possible? I don't condone dishonesty in real life! Perhaps it has to do with their incorrigible mischievousness. Or maybe their amazing skills at sneaking and slight of hand. Or their personal set of morals that, while twisted slightly, always have a certain value and loyalty. Maybe they are just impressive and fun. They are such expedient people. They get things done. Ingenious. Creative. Daring. I would want those thieves on my side. If I were to be thrown into a fantasy story all my own I would either want to be the thief, or I would love the thief.

So my list today is about those adorable thieves. Surprisingly, when I actually set down to write the list, there were fewer names on it than I had thought there would be. Either my brain is failing me, or these few thieves have all the credit my undying devotion.

My Favorite Thieves:

1. Gen from The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner (The Queen's Thief series)
2. Tasslehoff Burrfoot from The Dragonlance series by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman
3. Silk and Velvet from The Belgaraid and the Mallorean by David Eddings
4. Jimmy the Hand from the Rift War saga by Raymond E. Fiest
5. George (the King of Thieves) from the Lioness Rampart series by Tamora Pierce

I would like to know who I have missed. Who are you favorite thieves? Do you know any of my favorites? Or do you find me morally corrupt to fancy thieves in the first place?

Listful Monday: Why I Really Want to Blog Again

 

Why I Really Want to Blog Again or Reasons I Miss Book Blogging

(In no particular order)

1. I miss sharing the books I've read.
2. I miss reading reviews and getting excited about the new books coming out.
3. Writing keeps me sane. I am so currently not sane.
4. I miss comments and community. My world is rather myopic sometimes.
5. I hate giving up, especially if it's something I don't actually want to give up.
6. I've been reading awesome stuff.
7. I actually have things to say and ideas to post about.
8. I want to take more pictures of my chair and fix up my background.
9. I love the sound of the keys as my fingers fly across them.
10. I write reviews in my head while I'm in the shower or driving the car or waiting for kids or cooking dinner. AND REVIEWS ARE MUCH BETTER OUT OF MY HEAD. I need to set them free....

I miss you blogging. Things are a bit smoother here at home and I'm redoubling my efforts. The ice is cracked. I hope I'm back.

Listful Mondays: Reasons to Step Out of Your Bookish Comfort Zone

Listful Mondays!! Hopefully everything will be back to the regularly scheduled program.

Saturday was the Utah Book Bloggers Summer Social. It is the fourth one, but the first that I have been to. My husband stayed home with the kids and I caught a ride with Suey (It's All About Books). Nervous to meet a park full of strangers? Yes.

Reasons to Step Out of Your Bookish Comfort Zone...

1.  Book Bloggers are really nice and rather sedate.
2. Cool new and not-so-new local authors to see.
3. Getting to put my name in the new author's ARC so I can be on the blog tour.
4. Bringing home 2 new books from the book swap, one from a different new local author.
5. Getting out of the house without children. (A phenomenon so exciting is eclipsed the nerves. Mostly.)
6. Putting faces with names and sites.
7. Actually talking to some of the bloggers, and not just the ones I already knew.
8. Having one blogger pause while passing me and my name tag (which we write out blog names on) and exclaim, "Ooh, I love your blog!"
9. Not having anyone spoil Mockingjay.
10. Listening to the conversations. Yes, listening. For a while I had an author conversation going on one side, and a book conversation going on the other. My attention swiveled from one side to the other.
11. Comfy camp chairs and fresh air. (Ha! There was so much wind we almost blew away. I had to shower all the grit off when we got home. But it was fresh!)
12. Knowing that the next time I will feel more comfortable and might even speak up a bit. (At least among book people, they don't look at you too strangely for your shyness/anti-social tendencies. They either empathize or are used to it.)

I have sat on this posts for weeks because I couldn't find the time or organization skills to put up all the links to all the bloggers who attended. I can't sit anymore, so I'm cheating. Please click over to It's All About Books (Linked you twice - ha Ha!) and see more (better) pictures and links to the awesome attendees. Phew. Now I can move on.

Listful Mondays: Book Moments I'll Never Forget

So it ended up being a three week break instead of one. My apologies. I had two rounds of family visitors, one right after the other, and then apparently a week to recover. It was all wonderful and busy and now summer will really start for my family. I'm excited to be blogging again, though I feel like it's has been years instead of three weeks, and my google reader agrees. Now we shall just have to see how (let's hope it is a 'how' and not a 'if') blogging will fit into this whole no school thing.

I am trying to list memories of books that are associated with specific times or moments in my life, not just awesome things I remember out of books. No attempt to write them in chronological order will be made - that would be entirely too much work.


Book Moments I Will Never Forget:

1. Finishing the Anne of Green Gables series (with that glorious "yeth") and experiencing my first full blown case of P.A.B.D. (Post Amazing Book Depression). I just didn't know how to go on with my boring boring life.
2. Going book shopping with my aunt, who doesn't like small children and who had only recently graduated me to the realm of worthwhile humans due to my double digit age and the fact that we both liked fantasy books. I confessed to liking Anne McCaffrey but that I hadn't read too many because of the lacking local and school libraries. She shocked me by buying Dragonsinger, the next book in the series, for me. At home I immediately curled up in the armchair and read the whole thing.
3. Finishing Return of the King while nursing my second child. It was so heavy and dark that I had to repeatedly put it down for breathers, but since I had nowhere to go...I'd pick it back up.
4. My senior English class when my teacher suggested I might like Pride and Prejudice. I held the plain little book I knew nothing about, shrugged, and opened to that famous line. Thank you Mrs. Cornelius.
5. Attending the release party at Borders for the third Harry Potter with my baby girl (number one) dressed like Crookshanks. Then ever after having to buy the book on CD because neither my husband or I would relent and let the other read the new book first. We would drive aimlessly around town so we could listen to the book and the children would sleep.
6. Whilst trapped at my grandma's house with nothing but reruns on cable, I scoured her meager bookshelf for something to pass the time. All her books were pastel and vapidly titled. No fantasy. I finally settled on a pink monstrosity mostly because it mentioned the ocean, and I embarked on my first romance novel. I was shocked by the amount sex (or near sex, frankly) and was deliciously scandalized by what my grandmother read.
7. After trying unsuccessfully to read The Two Towers for what felt like months (and I suppose it could have been since I was probably 11ish) I gave up. How strange it felt. How like a failure. But at that moment I was honest and admitted it just wasn't making sense.
8. Meeting Tasslehoff Burrfoot and the gang in Dragons of Autumn Twilight. I remember the scene so clearly I could have read it yesterday instead of in grade school. I was euphoric because it was adult fantasy and I could read it. It meant no more boring kid books.
9. Trying to read The Book of Three on my brother's bed. (I've mentioned this one countless times.) I just wasn't ready for that one. I needed one more year.
10. Stuck in a KOA while my parents did laundry, I grabbed a sci-fi book off the "here you can read this" shelf because it was by Anne McCaffrey and I was desperate. Enter The Rowan. I took that copy home with me. It became one of my friends.
11. That moment in The Secret Garden when Collin walked and I knew I loved this book. It was also the moment when I acknowledged that my mother could pick out good books for me even though they weren't fantasy. I stopped fighting her suggestions. Mostly.
12. The day, the whole entire day, I spent curled on the couch in my garage bedroom reading Illusion by Paula Volsky. I was so drawn in and desperate to finish it that I never strayed from my room for fear of being "assigned" something to do.
13. Several things involving The Clan of the Cave Bear - remembering the title from what my 4th grade teacher was reading during our read-a-thon; being furious with my father for telling me I couldn't read it until I was 18, but telling my brother he could read it at 16, double standards suck; a friend in grade school scanning through the pages in the library because she hear there was "bad stuff" in it, and finally reading it, and loving it, on my own as an adult.
14. Loving The Westing Game because the girl was named Turtle.
15. Reading Out of the Dust by Karren Hesse is one breathless sitting, then reading it all over again out loud to my husband when he got home. Haunting. Glorious.
16. Holes inspired a twice-read-in-a-day episode too. Amazing plotting and pacing. I had to share it immediately.
17. Trying to read These is My Words on the treadmill and failing. I sat down, sweaty and exhausted, on the floor next to the treadmill and continued reading it...hoping to forget that breakfast and school and work would find me there.
18. Needing a "break from it all" and hiding in my library with no idea what to read. I grabbed My Fair Godmother by Janette Rallison for a re-read because I knew it would deliver what I wanted at that moment. And it did.
19. Picking up my older sister's abandoned, water damaged copy of Dragonsong by Anne McCaffrey and daring to open it. You see, my older brother had said her books weren't good, so I was rebelling. Within a few chapters I had decided to *gasp* disagree. A defining moment of independent decision making.
20. The Apprentice by Deborah Talmadge-Bickmore. This will be discussed in another post soon to come.

This has been much fun. I'm sure that I am forgetting many, but I have to let go at some point... I would be in raptures to read about any of your unforgettable moments!

{Next week: Books I ReRead}

Listful Mondays: Pumpkin Books

A Collection. Perhaps the titles in your crockpot cooking corner, or all the Newberry's you own, or the rhyming picture books. I'll be going with my pride and joy - my Pumpkin Book Collection. Especially since you all have heard enough about my fairy tales.

Alright Bloggies. A weekend has finally come when I was not on the computer at all. Not even to do my List. I'm embarrassed. But it was a holiday weekend, and though my husband wasn't off work, I had helpers willing to work with me on cleaning the house, putting together the new swing set and the trampoline surround net, cleaning the pool, doing the dishes, and even painting. I'm afraid I'll take some embarrassment for that. 

So though it's Tuesday, I'm going to pretend for a minute that it is still Monday and put up my list. My Pumpkin Book List. I've mentioned that I decorated my family room in pumpkins year round...well this collection sits on one of the shelves in that room. Many our taken out for Pumpkin Day in the Fall.

1. Too Many Pumpkins by Linda White, Illustrated by Megan Lloyd. (Picture Book.  A old woman who can't stand pumpkins because she had to eat too many as a kid finds herself with a whole crop of pumpkins in her yard. What will she do?)
2. Pumpkins by Ken Robbins. (Picture Book. A journey with photographs through the life cycle of the pumpkin.)
3. Pumpkin Town by Katie McKy, Illustrated by Pablo Bernasconi. (Picture Book. When the wind grabbed the unneeded pumpkin seeds and rained them down on the nearby village, that seemed to be the end of it...)
4. Pumpkin Soup by Helen Cooper. (Picture Book. Three friends knew just how to do their own job and make the perfect pumpkin soup...until one of them decided they wanted someone else's job.)
5. The Pumpkin Blanket by Deborah Turney Zagwyn. (Picture Book. A little girl learns to give up her favorite blanket for something else she loves.)
6. Seed, Sprout, Pumpkin Pie by Jill Esbaum. (Picture Book. Another life cycle story told in photographs.)
7. Halloween Pie by Michael O. Tunnell, Illustrated by Kevin O'Malley. (Picture Book. Witch makes a delicious pumpkin pie and curses it in case someone else tries to eat it.)
8. Mrs. McMurphy's Pumpkin by Rick Walton, Illustrated by Delana Bettoli. (Picture Book. What if what of the pumpkins was...evil?)
9. Pumpkin Time by Kathleen Wiedner Zoehfeld, Illustrated by Christopher Santoro. (Board Book. A Little's trip to the pumpkin patch.)
10. Plumply, Dumply Pumpkin by Marcy Serfozo, Illustrated by Valeria Petrone. (Board Book. Another Little picks the perfect pumpkin. What for?)
11. Pumpkin: A Super Food for All 12 Months of the Year by DeeDee Stovel. (Cookbook.)
12. Pumpkins & Squashes. (Cookbook. With pretty pictures.)

You might think this overkill, but as with many addictions, this is NOT enough. I have my eye on several more pumpkin books and will probably grab another handful just before Pumpkin Day this year. Crazy? Perhaps. Awesome? Totally.

Do you have any collections??

{Next week - which will be the week after next week - explanation soon: Book Moments I'll Never Forget. (I'm real excited about this one.}

Listful Mondays: Reading Hazards

 Reading Hazards


We all know how dangerous our favorite hobby/time waster can be. (I am talking about reading, of course, Bloggies.) Let's put together a list of those hazards that have befallen us because of it.

1. Cold Hands. For some reason my hands turn to ice as I read and I soon require blankets.
2. Hand Cramps. Especially if I'm reading a hardback or tightly bound book that requires effort to hold it up or hold it open.
3. Time Warp. It's 2:00 am? How did that happen? I've only been reading for a few minutes...
4. Hearing Incapacitation. "Mom! I've asked you 5 times if we can have lunch yet!" "...Huh? I'm sorry. I didn't hear you!"
5. Kitchen Disasters. Including, but not limited to, water overflowing the sink (my mom was furious) and burnt food.
6. Big Purse Syndrome. (Though for the record, I hate the word purse and refer to mine as My Life. And it's a little backpack.) It has to be big enough to carry at least one novel.
7. Literary Crying/Laughing. Yes, we will suddenly burst into tears or fits of laughter while reading. No, we are too involved to be embarrassed.
8. P.A.B.D. Post Amazing Book Depression. Check out this by 25 Hour Books for more information. This requires a whole post unto itself, since I missed weekly geeks last week.
9. T.B.R. Pile Stress. My brother was recently baffled by this phenomenon. He strove to clarify that none of the reading stress was from school or anything else that could conceivably require me to read anything. I don't think I defended myself well.
10. Loss of Sleep. Refer back to Time Warp. Also when you can't fall asleep after such an exciting part of the story, or when you dream all blinkin' night about the book.
11. Sequel Anticipation. Ya know, when you're just gonna die waiting.
12. Loss of Money. It's a problem. That innocent stack of books at Borders totals really fast. And Amazon....ah Amazon...you suck me in with your free shipping and I forget I just spent $86 on books.
13. Fictional Character Confusion. That's the confusion that exists when a pretend person becomes so important to you that you forget they are pretend.
14. Eye Strain. Particularly evident when trying to read when it is really too dark.
15. Dialect Transference. When you put down that period book or that regional story and find yourself talking that way for at least an hour afterward.
16. Mispronunciations. Those big words you only encountered while reading and said wrong in your head for years, then got laughed at when you used it out loud. (reverberated, chasm, rapport...) Or the confusion engendered when you discuss the book with someone and you can't figure out which character they are talking about because you've been saying it wrong the whole time.
17. Dirty House. Who has time to clean?

What hazards have you encountered??

{Next week: A Collection. Perhaps the titles in your crockpot cooking corner, or all the Newberry's you own, or the rhyming picture books. I'll be going with my pride and joy - my Pumpkin Book Collection. Especially since you all have heard enough about my fairy tales.}

Listful Mondays: Books I Have Lost

Books I Have Lost

I doubt I remember every book I no longer have in my possession, but I remember some that I have loaned, lost, or destroyed. I think about them with longing...

1. Return of the King by J.R.R. Tolkien (This was the 1965 edition that went with the set that my older brother gave. One of my little brothers borrowed it and LOST it. I have recently acquired a replacement copy.)
2. Dragons of Autumn Twilight by Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman (This was a copy I bought for myself, and you all know my history with that book... The same little brother borrowed it and ruined it. He was officially on my list now. I was able to replace this one soon after.)
3. The Apprentice by Deborah Talmadge-Bickmore (This I loaned to a friend. I could not find another copy until I met my future husband. But that is another story.)
4. House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros (I loaned this one too, and have yet to replace it!)
5. Whirligig by Paul Fleischman (I might have loaned this one to the same person I loaned the last one to, but I'm not sure so I haven't found my pitchfork. I haven't replaced this one yet either. But, incidentally, it is fabulous. I'll have to review it.)
6. My Pilates flip-chart stand-up exercise book (Where is that?? I didn't loan it out. It's just gone.)
7. The Shadow Rising by Robert Jordan (For the record, this was in BAD shape. It was nearly broken in half. So when Baby went to knock water onto it and I grabbed and pulled in desperation...well it split fully into pieces. I was in the middle of reading it.)
8. Dragonsong by Anne McCaffrey (This one is just worn out. I was my older sister's and water damaged when I acquired it. I have since read it so many times that it is a sad, crumpled thing. We bought a new for the bookshelf, but I can't seem to throw that old copy away. So I guess it isn't technically lost...)

Are there any lost books that rankle your soul??

{Next week: Reading Hazards}

Listful Mondays: Sections in my Library

Sections in My Library

This might seem like a strange or boring subject, but I thought it would be interesting, so there! 

Actually, I did think it would be interesting because I know my library is organized in a way that make sense to me and is according to the books I actually own. I figured everyone would approach things differently, and have different sections depending on what books they collected. That's why. So here goes - in the order of scanning around the room clockwise:

1. Adult Fantasy and Science Fiction (Fantasy outnumbers by far, and these are all paperback in very short shelves. It is the biggest section in the library mostly due to all the books my husband came with.) 
2. Fantasy Hardback (This section is due to the fact that the hardbacks don't fit in the short shelves. It has both adult and YA fantasy.) 
3. Contemporary YA (This is a default section. Everything here doesn't fit anywhere else genre-wise.)
4. Middle Grade (This has a large number of books in a small section since the books are so small - many Magic Treehouse, Fairy books, A to Z mysteries, and the like. There is a large stack sitting on floor in front of shelf because we are out of room.)
5. YA Historical Fiction
6. YA Fantasy
7. Fairy Tale Retellings
8. YA Survival
9. YA War
10. Children's Books Out-of-Reach (This is for all those pictures books {old, special, or holiday} that I don't want accessible to small hands.)
11. Science (Large section with animal/dinosaur/chemistry/anatomy/nature/space books. There are some history thrown in.)
12. Audio Books
13. Computer Books (These are slated for boxes and the basement. I need more room for prettier and readable books. :)
14. Health/Development/Pregnancy Stuff
15. Religious (Big section. Very varied. From study guides to biographies to school notes to family histories.
16. Text Books (The stuff from college that I couldn't part with. Mostly English books.)
17. Poetry
18. Humor
19. Non-Fantasy Adult Books and Classics (This section is growing now that I occasionaly read and acquire things that fit here. In the past this section has been so small that I've attempted to do away with it entirely by giving away the three books there. My husband wouldn't let me - he has emotional value attached to that copy of Ben Hur in spanish. But it's a good thing now. I've expanded it to include classics recently.)
20. How-To and Reference (Hiking books, How to Raise Your Spirited Child, and all that jazz, along with my huge thesaurus and rhyming dictionaries.)
21. Early Readers (This shelf is actually my salvation. If I had to rely on someone else for enough books to fill my learning readers' required time I'd just die.) 
22. The Stuff That's Left (I've got yearbooks here, health books that didn't fit in the other spot, and I know not what.)
23. Picture and Board Books (This is actually a whole huge shelf that didn't fit in the library, but you can see it from the doorway. The board books are tossed into plastic bins that fit into the lower cubbies of the shelf. I love Ikea.)
24. In Transit Shelf (This shelf is in my bedroom and contains many TBR books and books recently finished and on their way down stairs.
25. Library Box (A pretty Ikea organizing thing in the front room to keep the library books corralled.)
26. Piano Music (Another Ikea thing in the front room holding volumes of piano music.)

There ya go! How is your library organized?? I'd love to read about it.

{Next week: Books I Have Lost}

PS Sorry for the tardiness of this post today. We were out of town for the weekend, and then I woke up to pukey kids. We'll see how blogging goes this week! 

Listful Mondays: Book Pet Peeves

Book Pet Peeves

1. Dog-eared pages.
2. People who break the spine when they read.
3. Computer-read audio books.
4. Covers that have nothing to do with the book. (example: The Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery)
5. Price tags that won't come off or leave sticky stuff behind forcing me to break out the goo-gone.
6. Another story about "becoming a man." (I referring to "literary" stories {ya know, the only ones with merit*} from my college classes. As we all know, there is nothing more important than how to become a man.**)
7. Writing in books. (By all means, write in yours. Don't write in mine.)
8. Books with no summary on the flap or back. I don't care what so-and-so said. Tell me what it's about!
9. Library stickers right over the blurb.
10. Twenty pages of reader quotes in the the beginning of the book. Does anyone read those?
11. Typos. I know these books get copy edited up the wazoo. I can imagine the frustration of an author who finds some typos have slipped through.
12. Binding errors - like when the words get sucked into the glue for the spine.

 p.s. I'm not really all that uptight. These things bug me but I'm not likely to lose my cool. Unless you break the spine! :)

I'd love to see your peeves, please join me!

* I'm referring to opinions other than my own.
** Can't we all just agree on a sarcasm icon?

{Next Week: Sections in My Library.}

Listful Mondays: Book Places Not of this World I Want to Visit/See/Live In Forever and Ever

Book Places Not of This World that I Want to Visit/See/Live in Forever and Ever

Some worlds have names and some worlds, not so much. I've used the world name if I could, and the first book of the series when I couldn't. If the make-believe world was in our world, I had to use the book title as well. (I couldn't just keep saying Earth!)


All clear? Ready? (* = 'and sequels')

1. Pern (Anne McCaffrey) - I can't even tell you how badly I want to be a dragon rider and have a fire lizard. Life. Long. Ambition.
2. Krynn (Dragonlance - Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman) - To meet a kender... To Hang in Solace... To see the elven city with all the aspens... Ahhh...
3. Hogwarts (Harry Potter - J.K. Rowling) - I'll go anywhere if I can wave a wand and have my dishes washed and dinner cooked.
4. Fablehaven * (Brandon Mull) - Fairies. Brownies. Hugo.
5. Midkemia (Raymond E. Fiest) - Castles + magic = Awesome.
6. Garion's World (Belgariad - David Eddings) - Can I have Garion too?
7. Prydain (Prydain Chronicles - Lloyd Alexander) - An oracle pig? I'm so there.
8. The Lightning Thief * (Rick Riordan) -  Ambrosia, anyone?
9. The Rowan * (Anne McCaffrey) - If I got to pick a super-power it would SO be telepath and port.
10. Magyk * (Angie Sage) - I'd love to fly.
11. Alagaesia (Christopher Paolini) - Sometimes you just want to join the battle for good and hack some people up. Though I'd prefer to have a dragon of my own!
12. Sister's Grimm * (Michael Buckley) - Just keep me clear of Grandma's cooking!
13. Narnia (C.S. Lewis) - Meeting Aslan would rock!
14. Middle Earth (J.R.R. Tolkien) - Oh to see the elven forest and the hobbit village!
15. The Sword of Shannara *(Terry Brooks) - I think the wishsong would be grand. And I could give Allanon a piece of my mind.
16. Bayern (Shannon Hale) - I want to talk to the wind too.
17. The Eye of the World * (Robert Jordan) - I'd like to see the white tower and other ogier architecture.
18. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy * (Douglas Adams) - I find absurdity hilarious. I'm so over Earth.
19. Alcatraz  Versus the Evil Librarains * (Brandon Sanderson) - I want my own talent. Maybe not washing dishes.
20. Elantris (Brandon Sanderson) - Drawing + magic = Pretty Power.
21. Mistborn * (Brandon Sanderson) - Metal...yum.
22. Princess Academy (Shannon Hale) - I would enjoy communicating through stone.

Observations:

1. There are many many worlds I DON'T want to visit. They include, but are not limited to, dystopian worlds. 
2. I don't know how I'd ever pick just one. But there's a possibility the dragons would win out. Unless I could have Garion. :)

Where would you like to go?

{Next week: Book Pet Peeves.}

Listful Mondays: Book Places I Want to Visit/See

Book places I want to see/visit.

I have decided that for this list, I will only include places that actually exist. Like on our planet. And not in alternate dimensions or versions of our planet. I'll save those places for another list - next week in fact. Though now I'm worried that my list will be short as I'm a better fantasy reader than a world reader. We shall see. It isn't Long Listful Mondays - any list will do. And I doubt this will be an exhaustive list, as frankly, I'm exhausted. (I've taken to writing my Listful posts on Sunday night since I can't get it up before noon on Monday otherwise.)


Book Places (on this earth) I Want to See/Visit and the Book Behind the Why:

1. Canadian wilderness - Hatchet by Gary Paulsen
2. England - SO many...Jane Austen, Jane Eyre, Crispin: the Cross of Lead by Avi, Possession by A. S. Byatt, North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell, etc...
3. Ireland - Lara and the Gray Mare by Kathleen Duey
4. Germany - the Book Thief
5. Guernsey - The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
6.  the Ozarks - Christy by Catherine Marshall
7. Prince Edward Island - Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery
8. those Cro-Magnon sites in France (and other ancient peoples and cave paintings) - The Clan of the Cave Bear and sequels by Jean M. Auel
9. Antarctica - Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World: The Extraordinary True Story of Shackleton and the Endurance by Jennifer Armstrong
10. the great plains - Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder
11. the Atlantic Ocean - Firefly Beach by Luanne Rice
12. the Arctic - The Iceberg Hermit by Arthur J. Roth
13. New England - The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare
14. New Zealand - Once an Angel by Teresa Medeiros

A Few Observations (in List Form!):

1. These are not necessary places I'd like to vacation or hang out, but places I'd at least like to see.
2. These are FARFARFAR from all the places I'd like to visit/see/vacation at, just places I've actually read about.
3. Some of the books listed are not among my favorites, some I'm even embarrassed to list, but they stuck with me because of place. (Though some are absolutely among my favorites!)
4. I have not traveled our real world very extensively! 
5. I have read books of other locations, but they are usually historical and oft times not appealing to visit or likely untraceable. (Say stone age forests or the middle of the sea...)

 As always, I'd love to see your lists! (And maybe some suggestions as to books that have really great real world locations...)

{Next week: Book Places Not of This World that I Want to Visit/See}

Listful Mondays: Book Movies

Book Movies I Own or Want to Own

Welcome to Listful Mondays again! Today's list was not difficult, but did require much roaming the house to find all the movie stashes. (And I'm in now way certain I found them all.) What I found interesting is there are many movies I have which I don't automatically think of as "book movies," but which very much are. Another interesting thing - I would guess book movies make up roughly a third of all the movies we own! (I did not include Disney's fairy tale adaptations.)

Book Movies I Own:

1. Much Ado About Nothing
2. Pride and Prejudice (1995 - the 6 hour one and my favorite)
3. Pride and Prejudice (2005)
4. Pride and Prejucide (2003 - the Mormon version)
5. Jacob Have I Loved
6. The Hunt for the Red October
7. The Spiderwick Chronicles
8. Sense and Sensibility (1995)
9. Sense and Sensibility (2008)
10. Persuasion (2007)
11. Northanger Abbey (2007)
12. Jane Eyre (2006 - my favorite)
13. Jane Eyre (1997 - my second favorite)
14. Jane Eyre (1983)
15. Jane Eyre (1996)
16. Rebecca (1997 - haven't actually finished watching this...)
17. Eragon
18. Harry Potter 1 - 7
19. Jurassic Park
20. Because of Winn-Dixie
21. Love Comes Softly
22. Love's Long Journey
23. Love's Enduring Promise
24. Stardust
25. Clueless (Emma adaptation)
26. Emma (1996)
27. Emma (2009)
28. Nancy Drew
29. The Princess Bride
30. Shrek
31. How the Grinch Stole Christmas
32.  Holes
33. Matilda
34. The Polar Express (Ghastly)
35. The Princess Diaries 1 & 2
36. The Many Adventures of Winne the Pooh
37. Narnia
38. Prince Caspian
39. The Bourne Identity
40. The Bourne Supremecy
41. The Bourne Ultimatum
42. Anne of Green Gables
43. Anne of Avonlea
44. The Importance of Being Earnest (2002)
45. The Secret of Nimh
46. Watership Down
47. Peter Pan (2003)
48. Jumanji
49. The Jungle Book (1997)
50. Horton Hears a Who
51. The Three Musketeers (1993)
52. The Incredible Journey
53. A Series of Unfortunate Events
54. Ella Enchanted

 Book Movies I'm Aching to Acquire:

1. North and South (2004)
2. The City of Ember
3. The Lightning Thief
4. Speak

Book Movies I Haven't Seen Yet Because I Have a Demanding Baby:

1. The Time Traveler's Wife
2. My Sister's Keeper
3. Where the Wild Things Are
4. Wuthering Heights
5. the new Alice in Wonderland (Don't know it's official name)

What are your book movie collections, or wish list? What great book movies am I missing? I would love to see your lists!


{Next week: Book places I want to see/visit.}

Listful Mondays: Book Food

Book Food (food mentioned or described in books) that you want to eat or have eaten.

I think I should have included the word "memorable" in my topic because as I've thought about this topic, I have realized that many of my food memories in books are not food I would want to eat. So I am making two lists - memorable book food I want to eat, and memorable book food I'd rather not.

My apologies for putting this up so late in the day. I am sick. And had to known what sort of sick I'd be last week, this topic would not have been chosen.

Book Food That I WANT to eat:

1. Bubbly pies and meat rolls from Anne McCaffrey's dragon books. (I've spent a lot of time in this world and somethings go crazy cuz I can't get my hands on their food!)
2. Pumpkin juice and chocolate frogs from the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling. (There is actually much more food from Harry Potter that sounds wondrous. Nearly every meal at those magical tables sounds amazing - though amidst the roasted meats, buttered toast, and cakes, there is usually at least one thing I DON'T want to eat - like steak and kidney pie or treacle tart. I don't actually know what treacle is (it might even be a dessert) but I don't eat anything that sounds like 'treacle.')
3. Bread and cheese from the Spellsong Cycle series by L. E. Modesitt Jr. (Bread and cheese doesn't sound that great, and is in fact standard fare among traveling people, but in these books, which I read straight through, the only thing those people ate was breach and cheese. I didn't think the books were great and was frustrated with their diet, but I found myself craving, and eating, bread and cheese. I might have been pregnant...)
4. Lembas, or waybread, from The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien. (Usually anything made by elves sounds glorious.)
5. The amazing plethora of food made and consumed in Farm Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder. 
6.  Polgara, from several series' and stand alones by David Eddings, can make gourmet food over a campfire, including toast, bacon, roast chicken, omelets, and stew.
7. The Earth's Children series by Jean M. Auel has some yummy ptarmigans stuffed with stuff and baked in underground stone ovens.
8. Ambrosia in The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan. (I've told my husband many times that I think bruschetta is what the gods eat. My ambrosia would taste like that.)
9. Have you ever tasted water so good as the water Katniss (Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins) found right before see expired from dehydration?
10. Unless maybe it was the water Wanda (The Host by Stephenie Meyer) chugged after her death-defying trek through the desert.

Memorable Food I Do Not Want to Eat. Ever:

1. The cabbage concoctions by Aunt Zelda in the Septimus Heap series by Angie Sage.
2. The shriveled olives in The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner.
3. That same Polgara tends to make porridge a lot. Pass.
4. Hatchet by Gary Paulsen has a detailed description of slurping down a raw turtle egg. Yum.
5. Sole Survivor by Ruthanne Lum McCunn. This is the story of a man who survived on a wooden raft in the ocean for 133 days. Here is a quote: He experimented more daringly with food. Looking for marrow, he discovered many of the birds' bones were hollow, and when he carefully picked apart a skeleton, he saw the hollow bones in the wings were connected to their lungs, allowing them to fill with air. These he used as straws to suck out the clear fluid surrounding a fish's tiny brain, pretending he was drinking the white of egg. He crunched the eyes of fish as though they were lumps of barley sugar. And he ate the granular masses of yellowish tissue he sometimes found behind a fish's swimming bladder, finding they tasted like roe. ... Flaccid livers, chewy kidneys, crunchy marrow, fatty skin, creamy brains, birds' blood, and fish's spinal fluids offered a variety of tastes and textures.  (I have the stomach flu and that was hard to type out!)
6. The MC in Restoree by Anne McCaffrey was trapped in an asylum and needed to fee her charge the "blue food" while she ate the "red food." Something like paste if I remember right.
7. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows. Need I say more?
8. The endless brown bread and potatoes from The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder
9. Just about anything made by Sabrina and Daphne's grandmother in The Sisters Grimm series by Michael Buckley.

Food makes quite an impression, doesn't it?? I'd love to see a list from you!

Here's a real easy, but potentially long, one for next week. See ya all then. Happy listing!

{Next week: Book Movies I Own or Want to Own}

Listful Mondays: More Ways in which My Mother Tried to Drown the Fantasy Out of Me

{Books suggested/given to you. Books from your formative years.}

She was unsuccessful. But upon reflection, I have realized that my mom gave me excellent things to read.

I love every one of them.

1. Christy by Catherine Marshall
2. Julie by Catherine Marshall
3. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
4. Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder
5. Follow the River by James Alexander Thom
6. The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom
7. The Journey Home by Johanna Reiss
8. The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi
9. White Fang by Jack London (love is too strong a word for this, but it is a solid like)
10. The Call of the Wild by Jack London (like for this one too - can't ALL be winners)
11. Incident at Hawk's Hill by Allan W. Eckert
12. Blitzcat by Robert Westall

The One Book My Mom Gave Me that I Refused to Read in a Fit of Teenage Pique:

1. Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

And I still need to read that...silly teenage me...

Listful Mondays Makes an Appearance!

I have wanted to add a wee more structure to my blogging. It would be especially helpful in weeks like the last one when I get little reading done. But it couldn't be anything too difficult or research intense. I happened to think about my penchant for making lists on one listless Monday - that being the exact phrase in my head at the time for some reason. For obvious reasons, the ideas merged. I mentioned my delicate seedling idea to my photoshop savvy husband, who hauled off and made me a button on the spot. (That is still shocking to me. Where was the necessary procrastination and requisite stressing about the potential failure of it all??)

So now I have a button, a happy husband, and no choice but to proceed. [Step #9 was supposed to be a joke, but he stuck it on there anyway. It refers to Sleep Talkin' Man, which is a pee-you-pants hilarious place. But don't go there if you can't handle "colorful" language.]

So. My plan is to put up a bookish list every Monday. It will have a "theme" or "question." I would love for anyone to join me. If you do decide to participate, please leave me a link or your list in the comments. And for the record, I don't care if you use my theme or if you just write me your shopping list. Oh, and please grab the button if you want to play!

Onward!