RSS feedRSS comments

Monday Musing

musing_mondays_big_thumb31

Today’s MUSING MONDAYS post is about gift certificates…

Do you give gift certificates to book stores as presents? If so, do you give for actual stores or online stores? Do you like to receive them yourself?

I can see the real logic in getting somebody a gift certificate for a book store, but I think books are the best gift you can give someone, and I usually seem to find a book for even my most un-bookish friends (for example, a book full of cute kittens, called Kitten Wars). I always feel that gift certificates are a tad impersonal, and I like hunting around for the perfect book. Plus it’s fun writing inscriptions inside the front cover.

If any of my friends are reading this, they will know about my little “obsession” with buying everyone books as presents.

Receiving gift certificates is a double-edged sword: I love the choice, but the freedom of it all drives me insane in the end. I can never choose what to buy. It usually drives me to the brink of insanity…and then over it.

Do you agree with book gift certificates? Would you have a panic attack, like me, if someone got you one?

Tags: ,

May 25th, 2009General Monday MusingRead More >5 Comments


Monday Musing: Childhood reading

Monday MusingThis week’s MM

Do you remember how you developed a love for reading? Was it from a particular person, or person(s)? Do you remember any books that you read, or were read to you, as a young child? (question courtesy of Diane)
thewitches

My first memories of life involved my nose being in a book. As I mentioned in a previous post, my only friends were my books. My big brother was apparently the one that infected me with the reading bug as a small child, and maybe this had something to do with me learning to read at an early age…… we’re the only ones in our family that were big readers.

As for what I read, this ranged from Nancy Drew to the obligatory Australian childhood: Paul Jennings and Morris Gleitzman, to the Sweet Valley series, and I devoured Roald Dahl: The Witches is my favourite. Enid Blyton was also one of my childhood “friends”.

I loved my scary books, Margaret something..Collins i think? She judged a story competition i entered and i got a letter when I got runner up critiquiing my work. So she was at the top for a while.

But the first book I ever read all by myself was Bambi. How depressing. What about all you lovely folks out there?

What got you hooked on books?

Tags: , ,

May 18th, 2009General Monday MusingRead More >8 Comments


Monday Musing

Monday MusingHave you ever finished a book, then turned around and immediately re-read it? Why? What book(s)?

I can’t say I’ve ever done this. It’s too fresh. The soonest I will come back is at least a month, and with many books in between. It’s the same with a lot of movies, but opposite with albums. I usually listen to an album about 50 times in a row before I find something else.

I re-read many books, but could never do it immediately after finishing. I love the newness, the zing, of devouring a new book, and even if I come back months later, I’m guilty of skipping the parts I don’t like and going straight to my favourite passages. Which isn’t the ideal reading experience.

Also, my next post coming up shortly features my first guest review! It’s exciting, so stay tuned.

Tags: ,

May 11th, 2009Monday MusingRead More >3 Comments


Musing Monday

Monday MusingHow many books (roughly) are in your tbr pile? Is this in increasing number or does it stay stable? Do you ever experience tbr anxiety in the face of this pile? (question courtesy of Wendy)

My literal tbr pile (the pile sitting on my desk) is not that big anymore - unemployment has helped me plough through them at an insane speed. So now I have a handful left. They are:

Elmore Leonard’s Rum Punch
Fay Weldon’s The Cloning of Joanna May (Currently reading)
Mikhail Bulgakov’s A Dead Man’s Memoir (A Theatrical Novel)
Veny Armanno’s Strange Rain

It will increase the next time I make a trip to my local second-hand bookshop and pick up another 10 books.

However, my mental tbr pile grows longer and longer every day. Especially reading other people’s blogs, where I get more ideas of what to read. And seeing movies that are based on books, so I can see where they screwed up the movie (yeah books ftw!!) Currently watching Into The Wild, so that’s going straight on the list.

Into The Wild by John Krakauer

My brain is a mess and there’s no way I can keep track of this pile. I rely on luck of finding exactly what I’m looking for at the bookshop, which so far has worked well for me.

I get anxious about a lot of things. My TBR pile is not one of these.

Tags: ,

May 4th, 2009Literary musingsRead More >9 Comments


My First Monday Musing

Oh I’m nervous! This is my first Monday Musing! Let’s see how we go:

Do you read non-fiction regularly? Do you read it in a different way or place than you read fiction?

This week’s question is courtesy of Dianne.

blink
After three years of nightmare-inducing academic essays and such dribble (thank you University of Queensland!) I am not too fond of non-fiction. However there are some exceptions (such as Malcolm Gladwell’s Blink and The Tipping Point or Leadbelly by Silvester & Rule but apart from that most non-fiction bores me to tears. If I need to know something really badly, I use the internet (yes, I’m of that generation).

My non-fiction book collection includes piles of textbooks which I haven’t been bothered to sell yet, but will soon, seeings as I’m slowly running out of money. If anybody wants a copy of Political Ideologies or The Daily Miracle (journalism junk), let me know!!!

Cheap sales pitches aside…I don’t read to learn. I read to escape, enjoy, relax, and live through fictional characters. Blah. Fiction rules, non-fiction drools.

Tags: ,

April 28th, 2009General Literary musingsRead More >1 Comment