Anybody out there?

I had to dig thru some paperwork for find my password for this blog. I can't believe it has been four years since I last wrote something here. Four years. Four years. My God, so much has happened in the last four years! I honestly don't even want to get into it all right now. I mean, I totally have to change my bio since I am no longer a "40-something." Ugh. 

I feel like blogging again would help me express myself. But does it count if no one else reads it? 

I am currently in a FB book club that introduced me to NetGalley. It's a site that gives you advanced copies of books online to read and review. They tend to give more books to people who have a blog. These are people who blog a lot about books. I love books. I love to read. I love free books. So, I totally feel like they should be giving me ALL the books. So far, I have received two. I take it personally when I get declined. So, I am thinking about blogging about books here. Maybe it'll be good practice for creative writing. Maybe I will just cut and paste the little reviews I do on GoodReads.com. I don't know yet. I need to figure it out.

In the meantime, is anybody out there?

By the Book

I'm a book nerd. I love to read. I always have. I've pinned a couple of things about books and reading on Pinterest. I have piles of books beside my bed just waiting to be cracked open. I keep a wish list of books on my Barnes&Noble.com account. I usually don't walk out of Costco with at least one book. I. Love. Books.

So, yesterday, this quote popped into my head. I think I came up with it. I don't think I'm stealing it. It is:

Any room with books in it is a room with a view.

I thought it was similar to a quote that is attributed to Cicero. So I looked up quotes by Cicero. The one I was thinking of is: "A room without books is like a body without a soul." Mine is close, his is a little more profound.

That got me thinking about a picture I took years and years ago of an engraving on the side of the Denver Public Library. So I looked that up. That quote, made by Jorge Luis Borges is: "I had always imagined paradise as a kind of library."

Cicero and Borges: men after my own heart. Book lovers. Readers. I'm really liking that I came up with the quote above.

Reading takes you places. Just ask Dr. Suess. He said, "The more you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the places you'll go."

Gonna go grab my book and read for a couple of hours . . .

Blog Hopping

I'm still so new to blogging so I get excited when I find interesting blogs. I recently discovered Never Growing Old (http://nevergrowingold.blogspot.com/) and am intrigued by Blog Hopping. From what I understand, someone posts on their blog, you copy it (questions, fill-ins) and link back to it. So now I know how Fill-in-the-Blank Fridays started at The Little Things We Do (http://thelittlethingswedo.blogspot.com/). I hope I can remember to join in on Meet Me on Mondays and a few others.

Today, it's about books. I love books. I am a little obsessed with books, I think. A friend told me about Goodreads.com about a year ago and I think it's such a great tool for keeping track of everything I read and plan to read. If you haven't been to Goodreads.com yet, and you love to read, I highly recommend you check it out. If you join, let me know and we can friend up. It's sort of like Facebook for the avid reader!

So, like I said, today's blog hop (courtesy of http://shouldbereading.wordpress.com/) is about books. Here goes:

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

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

What are you currently reading? I'm about 100 pages away from finishing "This Must Be the Place" by Kate Racculia. I like it, but I don't love it. There are several main characters: Amy and Arthur and Mona and Oneida. Amy and Arthur are married, but Amy dies in the first few pages of the book. Arthur finds a shoebox of memorabilia in Amy's closet after she dies and realizes he really doesn't know anything about her past. Amy and Mona were best friends in high school. Oneida is Mona's teenage daughter. Arthur travels from LA to NY to meet Mona to find out about Amy and to find out WHY he doesn't know about her past. I guess what I don't love about the book is actually Amy and Arthur. I'm not fond of them. I'm interested enough to finish it and find out the whole story though.

What did you recently finish reading? About a week ago, I finished "The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie" by Alan Bradley. Cute story. A little too over-descriptive at times. Found myself skimming those paragraphs that just seemed to over-do the flourish about a location. If it's not necessary to the plot, I skim!

What do you think you'll read next? I have SO many books piled up beside my bed, I'm not really sure where to start. Maybe "The First Day of the Rest of My Life" by Cathy Lamb. Her books are always fun. I also have several Douglas Kennedy books in the pile. No shortage of books in this house!

Happy reading!