Wednesday, September 21, 2022

a fun post...a bookish alphabet

My friend, Kari who blogs at A Grace Full Life recently wrote a fun post about reading habits and book fondness. It's an enjoyable post to do yourself if you're a blogger, or to write in a journal.



Author You’ve Read the Most Books From: Toss-up between Pat Conroy, Elizabeth Berg, Anne Lamott, and Barbara Kingsolver.

Best Sequel: The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy (Rachel Joyce)...the sequel to The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry. 

Currently ReadingThe Girl Who Smiled Beads by Clemantine Wamariya and The Gifts of Imperfection by Brene Brown. Both get a big thumbs up.

Drink Choice While Reading: Depends on the time of day and where I'm at. Could be coffee, tea, water, or wine.

E-reader or physical book: Always, always a physical book. I have no desire for an e-reader.

Fictional character you probably would have dated in high school: David Axelrod in Endless Love by Scott Spencer. I read this book when I was 18 or 19 and was obsessed with the couple in this book. At the time, I was dating a guy on and off and then he went out-of-state to attend college. I was missing him and this book pushed me over that daydreamy-young love-fantasy-edge. I still remember the closing line in this book: "I don't mind, or even ask if it's madness: I see your face, I see you, you; I see you in every seat."

Glad You Gave this Book a Chance: Bewilderment by Richard Powers.


Hidden Gem: Three Floors Up - Eshkol Nevo.

Important Moment in Your Reading Life: I grew up reading and obviously loved books, but it wasn't until I was a pre-teen and realized I could actually relate to the characters in a book and that I could be transformed by something I read.
 
Just Finished: Eat Right for Your Inflammation Type by Maggie Berghoff.

Kind of Books I Won’t Read: Horror, romance, science fiction.

Longest Book You’ve Read: Off the top of my head, I think it was The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt - 864 pages.

Major Book Hangover Because Of: She's Come Undone by Wally Lamb or anything by Pat Conroy.

Number of Bookcases You Own: Three floor-to-ceiling and four medium- sized ones. That doesn't include books stacked on nightstands and tables, and tucked into cabinets. 


One Book You’ve Read Multiple Times: I rarely read a novel twice, but I did read A Tree Grows in Brooklyn as a child and then as an adult. I've also read The Snow Child twice. I've referred back to certain non-fiction books multiple times.

Preferred Place to Read: lying in the twin bed in the spare bedroom.

Quote That Inspires You, or Gives You All the Feels, From a Book You’ve Read: "You will express yourself in your house, whether you want to or not. (Elsie de Wolfe, The House in Good Taste.)

Regret: Not purposely taking enough time to read...stupidly going on my phone in free moments instead of picking up a book.

Series You Started and Need to Finish: None that I can think of.

Three of Your All Time Favorite Books: Just three? *groan* Times two plus two, right?

1. Beach Music - Pat Conroy
2. The Poisonwood Bible - Barbara Kingsolver
3. A Parchment of Leaves - Silas House
4. The Beekeeper of Aleppo - Christy Lefteri
5. Transcendent Kingdom - Yaa Gyasi
6. On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous - Ocean Vuong
7. When the Heart Waits - Sue Monk Kidd
8. The Kitchen Congregation: A Daughter's Story of Wives & Women Friends - Nora Seton

Unapologetic Fanperson For: Library book sales


Very Excited For This Release (More than all the others): Just came out last week: The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness, and Healing in a Toxic Culture by Gabor Mate.

Worst Bookish Habit: Getting more books from the library or buying more when I already have hundreds of books at home I haven't read!

X Marks the Spot—start at the top left of your shelf and pick the 27th book: Which shelf?! OK, closest one to me would be the one in the spare room: A Course in Miracles Made Easy by Alan Cohen.

Your Latest Book Purchase: Two from a local independent bookstore: Windy City Blues by Renee Rosen, and The Woman They Could Not Silence by Kate Moore.

Zzz-Snatcher Book (the last book that kept you up late): When We Fell Apart - Soon Wiley.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on reading and books!



8 comments:

  1. Oh, I LOVE this! I'm definitely going to do it. It's fun reading through your lists and discovering books we've both read, and then seeing titles I've not heard of. I'm so taken by the title On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous.

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  2. Hi. This was a fun post and I plan to play along as soon as I can. I have not heard of some of the books you mentioned but I am always looking for reading ideas! I love your bookshelves!

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  3. This is a fun post Melanie. This gives everyone a chance to see what each other is reading and liked. Happy Fall. xoxo Kris

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  4. What a fun post! I love that quote: You will express yourself in your house, whether you want to or not. I totally agree!!

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  5. Just my kind of thing! I started by counting to the 27th book on the three shelves behind my desk. I keep all my theology and spirituality books in the part of the house I call the garret and these three shelves are part of that collection. The three 27th books are Signs of Life, The Five Universal Shapes and How to Use Them by Angeles Arrien, Awakening at Midlife by Kathleen Brehony and Forgiveness and Other Acts of Love by Stephanie Dowrick. I think I am going to do this with all the shelves in the house. Fun!

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  6. What a great post! How fun to see your answers.

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  7. Melanie, such a fabulous post! And must have taken a great deal of your time because you did it so thoughtfully and thoroughly. It is lovely knowing more about you through your books. I too would put Pat Conroy and Barbara Kingsolver top of my lists--except I didn't read one of his, I think called Lords of Discipline or something like that. Beach Music and Lord of the Flies many times, gut wrenching as they were. And of course the Kitchen Congregation, still reread it every couple of years because her mother reminds me so much of mine own and from the same period as my mother. Always a book in the hand for me too, never an e reader but I am thinking I will start Audible in the future and listen to books being read as my reading glasses get stronger and stronger. I'm with you on no horror books and no romance unless you count Rosamunde Pilcher books, which I don't. My only science fiction loves have been Ray Bradbury and C.S. Lewis' Narnia books but they're both so literary as well as Madeline L'Engle's fantasy books. My 27th book landed in my poetry section with an odd poetry book Poems by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, odd because it is a reprint of her "newspaper poems", you know those little jingle like poems that were used as fillers in the newspapers of old. And my multiple times read book is Pilcher's Winter Solstice that I often read during December as well as other books from my Christmas collection. One author I want to start reading is Anne Cleves' Vera books after watching seven seasons of Vera on Acorn recently but I may get them from the library as my bookshelves have filled up and I've started giving bags of books away now. I think you are much more into current literature than I am. Every time I break down and buy a "new" book it doesn't make me want to reread it or buy more from the author and I end up once again reading my old favorite authors from the past, a sign of my advancing age, I'm sure, and nothing to do with the talent of the contemporary author. Two floor to ceiling bookcases here and 5 smaller ones!

    Fascinating read, Melanie. Well done!

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  8. I just did this and it was fun and I'm enjoying backtracking and reading others book thoughts.

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Thank you for taking the time to leave a kind comment - I read and appreciate each one!