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.

A Letter

 (Hiking in Logan Canyon)

Dear Bloggies,

As is obvious, Summer and blogging didn't mix for me. With all 5 critters home all day there were no peaceful nap times with the computer on my lap. At first, I was horrified and stressed. I begged and bribed and wheedled. I ranted and fussed and complained. I tried writing late at night. I tried writing midst the chaos. I threw a fit. I pouted and sulked and whined.

And then I accepted it and gave up.

Things were better after that. Though I much missed your blogs and comments.

But I was able to read. Some I read out loud to everyone. Some I read in my swing while the critters played outside. Some I read with one hand while holding the baby so he would sleep with the house spinning around him. I have much to review and discuss.

School started today, and while things aren't "back to normal" yet since my husband is upstairs nursing a back injury....at this moment Baby boy is asleep and the computer is unmolested on my lap. :) So much to do!

And anyone attending the Utah Book Blogger's Social this Saturday, I hope to see you there. It will be my first social. I am excited and nervous. Big smiles!

Bookingly Yours,
A Small Accomplishment

Book Bloggers Social

I was very excited for Saturday night. The Book Bloggers Social was taking place in Midvale, and my real life friend Suey, who introduced me to book blogging and inspired me to try my own, invited me since I have a Sorta Book Blog. (Isn't she sweet!) Back in the beginning of 2009 I had jumped onto the book blogging boat and was just starting to get over the seasickness when Sebastian was born and I fell off.

I wanted to be included!! I aspire to be a real book blogger! So I worked all fuzzy week! I cleaned up my sidebars, cleaned out some old posts, blogged the stuff floating in my brain, caught up on reviews, participated in a weekly thingy, starting planning my new and improved header... And I did it all while sick.

A new kind a sick than the sick I had been for 2 previous weeks. A personal horrible sick. But it can't last through Saturday, I thought. I would surely be dead if it did, I thought.

And Saturday morning seemed to go great. I was fine. I washed my nice jeans. I found my favorite shirt. I had the babysitter (that I scheduled myself!) coming.

And the sick came back.

Scrambling to figure out how I could still go, we called the pharmacy to see if I could take anything while nursing. Go to the doctor if it's been more than 48 hours, they said. It was 48 hours...72 hours ago!

So instead of the Book Blogging Social, I had to go to the clinic. I sat down and cried.

While everyone was gathering in the restaurant, introducing themselves, and getting food, I was wrestling with the devil's own blood pressure cuff. Sob.

We had to drive to Provo for the late night pharmacy and the prescription that would save my miserable life (I'm prone to exaggeration. It makes me feel better.) so we passed the DI. My adorable husband had heard me complain that I never remember to look in the adult-type books when I'm thrift shopping, so he decided we would stop for a little pick-me-up. I hobbled and hunched a little - but WHO CARES!!

I am ecstatic to report that I found a better copy of the The Two Towers and a copy of The Return of the King that my little brother had lost long long long ago!!! (These are the 1965 printing that I inherited from my older brother that I love and thought were very very old and cool as a young girl.)

While scanning titles I overheard two ladies discussing their find of Wuthering Heights. They seemed confused by the author (Jane Eyre recognition perhaps?) and also talked about how they wanted to read Austen but never have. (!!) I didn't butt in with any Bronte information. I thought about it, but I'm really not that kind of nosy know-it-all girl. (That is just how I would feel, not what I would think of such a person. Really, I'm just a coward.) Later I found a copy of Pride and Prejudice and thought of getting it...but then remembered the ladies. After a few moments of courage gathering, I walked over to them and offered it. Told them it was the best Austen to start with. They seemed happy and I was proud of myself.

Not many moments later I found this:
I love the books that look old. I want to collect some, if only for pictures. But I don't want just any old book! I want old books I LOVE. And here is my very own OLD Pride and Prejudice. A 1937 edition. All loved and pictureless. This one is a Book Crush for more than just the contents. Karma I tell you. Happy Sigh of a Ninja.

I am still totally bummed to miss the social. But at least my night was not a loss. New books. Medicine that did end up working. We went home and watched the new Emma. More on that later. And I guess this will give me more time to read others' blogs, get my own running better, and feel not so overwhelmed, not so much the interloper, at the next social. Hah!

Do you ever, when thrifting books, feel sorely tempted to buy another copy of your favorite books when you find them?

I feel slightly crazy when I do, but that temptation actually won once this week. Sometimes it takes all my book-loving strength to walk away!