WWW...Wednesdays

WWW Wednesdays is a new meme hosted by mizb17 over at Should Be Reading. It asks three (3) questions:

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

My answers for this week are:


Currently reading:

"The Gathering" by Anne Enright









Just finished:

"Birdsong" by Sebastian Faulks

Reading next:

"The Handmaid's Tale" by Margaret Atwood

Teaser Tuesdays

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

Grab your current read

Open to a random page

Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)

Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

This week's teaser comes from page 178 of Sophie's Choice by William Styron.

"I was literally on the verge of crying out, but she beat me to it, making a gulping noise as she clapped her hands over her mouth and fled to the bathroom. I stood there in pounding embarrassment for long moments listening to the muffled sounds behind the bathroom door, aware now for the first time of the Scarlatti piano sonata that had been playing softly on the phonograph."

Booking Through Thursday - Mark the Spot

This weeks Booking Through Thursday was suggested by Tammy and asks:

What items have you ever used as a bookmark? What is the most unusual item you’ve ever used or seen used?

I have two lovely bookmarks that my son and daughter made me when they were young which I use most of the time, however, over the years I have used many different items as bookmarks, such as shopping receipts, price tags off clothing, envelopes and drinking straws.

I buy a lot of secondhand books and it is not unusual to find items which have been left inside books such as tickets and photos. When I find photograph it makes me wonder who these people are and what their lives have been like. It makes me a little sad that I can't return the photographs to their owners. My best find ever was $10, which I can only assume was being used as a bookmark and that find definitely covered the price of the book!

The Friday 56 - Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks

A weekly meme hosted by Storytime with Tonya and Friends

Rules:
* Grab the book nearest you. Right now.
* Turn to page 56.
* Find the fifth sentence.
* Post that sentence (plus one or two others if you like) along with these instructions on your blog or (if you do not have your own blog) in the comments section of this blog.
*Post a link along with your post back to this blog.
* Don't dig for your favorite book, the coolest, the most intellectual. Use the CLOSEST.

This week's Friday 56 comes from Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks:

'I,' said Berard weightily, 'don't consider them to be friends. I have not invited them to our house and I shall not be calling on them.'

WWW...Wednesdays

WWW Wednesdays is a new meme hosted by mizb17 over at Should Be Reading. It asks three (3) questions:

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

My answers for this week are:


Currently Reading:

"The Book Thief" by Markus Zusak

Just Finished:

"Utopia" by Sir Thomas More which I read for the Really Old Classics Challenge.








Reading Next:

"The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society" by Mary Ann Shaffer.

Teaser Tuesdays

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

Grab your current read

Open to a random page

Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)

Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

This weeks teaser comes from page 93 of The Book Thief by Markus Zusak.

"She gulped the air until she was ready, and they began reading from the eleventh chapter of The Gravedigger's Handbook. Just past three o'clock, they finished it, and only the final chapter, 'Respecting the Graveyard', remained."

The Friday 56 - If On a Winter's Night a Traveller

A weekly meme hosted by Storytime with Tonya and Friends

Rules:
* Grab the book nearest you. Right now.
* Turn to page 56.
* Find the fifth sentence.
* Post that sentence (plus one or two others if you like) along with these instructions on your blog or (if you do not have your own blog) in the comments section of this blog.
*Post a link along with your post back to this blog.
* Don't dig for your favorite book, the coolest, the most intellectual. Use the CLOSEST.


This week's Friday 56 comes from a book by Italo Calvino called If On A Winter's Night A Traveller.

'I felt a kind of vertigo, as if I were merely plunging from one world to another, and in each I arrived shortly after the end of the world had taken place'.

The Friday 56 - The Trout Opera

A weekly meme hosted by Storytime with Tonya and Friends

Rules:
* Grab the book nearest you. Right now.
* Turn to page 56.
* Find the fifth sentence.
* Post that sentence (plus one or two others if you like) along with these instructions on your blog or (if you do not have your own blog) in the comments section of this blog.
*Post a link along with your post back to this blog.
* Don't dig for your favorite book, the coolest, the most intellectual. Use the CLOSEST.


This week's Friday 56 comes from an Australian book I picked up called The Trout Opera by Matthew Condon.

'In the advance of the day's traffic, the long serpents of vehicles meandered towards their destinations, saying , I'm here, and my day has started'.

Sunday Stealing - ABC Meme

Sunday Stealing: The ABC's of Meme, You can take part at Sunday Stealing!

A- Advocate for: Ending world poverty

B- Best Feature: You would have to ask someone who knows me.

C- Could do without: Judgmental people

D- Dreams and desires: For my children to have happy, healthy lives.

E- Essential items: Internet, book, chocolate.

F- Favorite past time: Internet, reading, spending time with family.

G- Good at: Cooking, caring for sick and injured animals.

H- Have never tried: Hot air ballooning.

I- If I had a million dollars: I would help those who have nothing and abused animals.

J- Junkie for: Chocolate

K- Kindred spirit: My dogs

L- Little known fact: A duck's quack doesn't echo, and no one knows why!

M- Memorable moment: The birth of my children.

N- Never again will I: Be 40

O- Occasional indulgence: Soap operas

P- Profession: Bookseller

Q- Quote: "If your dog doesn't like someone you probably shouldn't either" Unknown.

R- Reason to smile: I am alive!

S- Sorry about: Not reporting my neighbor to the police when his dog jumped the fence and nearly killed 2 of my dogs. Now he denies it happened!

T- Things you are worrying about right now: What sort of world we are leaving for our children.

U- Uninterested in: Gossips

V- Very scared of: Becoming homeless

W- Worst habits: Procrastination

Y- Yummiest dessert: Chocolate cake.

X- X marks my ideal vacation spot: A deserted Island (with an internet connection, of course!)

Z- Zodiac sign: Sagittarius

The Friday 56 -The God of Small Things

A weekly meme hosted by Storytime with Tonya and Friends

Rules:
* Grab the book nearest you. Right now.
* Turn to page 56.
* Find the fifth sentence.
* Post that sentence (plus one or two others if you like) along with these instructions on your blog or (if you do not have your own blog) in the comments section of this blog.
*Post a link along with your post back to this blog.
* Don't dig for your favorite book, the coolest, the most intellectual. Use the CLOSEST.



This week, mine is taken from The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy:

'If a person couldn't even run a pickle factory profitably, how was that person going to run a whole country?'

Teaser Tuesdays

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

Grab your current read

Open to a random page

Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)

Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

My Teaser this week comes from page 180 of The House of Spirits by Isabel Allende.

During the months that they were separated, Blanca and Pedro Tercero exchanged burning letters, which he signed in a woman's name and which she hid as soon as they arrived. Nana managed to intercept one or two, but she did not know how to read, and even if she had she would not have been able to break their secret code - fortunately for her, because her heart would not have withstood the shock.

Friday Fill-Ins #145

You can take part at Friday Fill-Ins


1. Sweet dreams to all.

2. A relaxing bubble bath & good book waiting especially for me.

3. Silliness is a required ingredient for sanity.

4. Have fun this Halloween.

5. Outstanding or not life goes on.

6. Choclolate cake is what I want right now!

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to an early night, tomorrow my plans include work and Sunday, I want to relax and do nothing much at all!

"Waiting On" Wednesday

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Breaking The Spine.

I have recently read Bram Stoker's Dracula, So my Can't wait to read book is:

Dracula: The Un-Dead
By Dacre Stoker & Ian Holt

Publication Date: October 13, 2009



From Publisher's Weekly:

In this sequel to Bram Stoker's Dracula, his great-grandnephew offers one of the rowdiest revisionist treatments of the most influential vampire novel ever written. In 1912, as Stoker labors to adapt Dracula for the stage, its “characters” are dying gruesomely all over London. It turns out they are as real as Stoker himself, who learned their secret story on the sly and took creative liberties when turning it into his popular penny dreadful. Dracula's true story involves the passing of his blood line through Mina Harker to her son; a malignant Dr. Van Helsing, who Scotland Yard suspects had a hand in the murders attributed to Jack the Ripper; and the exploits of a 16th-century vampire countess, Dracula's former lover, who cuts a bloody swath through London seeking the survivors of Dracula's last stand in Transylvania. Energetically paced and packed with outrageously entertaining action, this supernatural thriller is a well-needed shot of fresh blood for the Dracula mythos.

Teaser Tuesday

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

Grab your current read

Open to a random page

Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)

Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

My teaser comes from page 156 of Water for Chocolate by Laura Exquivel:


'She couldn't begin a discussion between them right now that would spoil the good impulse she felt to forgive Rosaura for how she had harmed her. Instead of voicing her thoughts, Tita promised her sister that she would prepare a special diet to help her lose weight.'

The Starrlight Meme

Sunday Stealing - The Starrlight Meme






1. What was the last thing you put in your mouth? Toast


2. Where was your profile picture taken? I don't have a profile picture of myself


3. Can you play Guitar Hero? No, but my son desperately want me to learn.


4. Name someone who made you laugh today. What was it about? My dog. She is quite mad, so everything she does makes me laugh.


5. How late did you stay up last night and why? This is embarrassing, but I was actually in bed at 6.30 pm. However, in my defence, I need to mention that I get up at 3 am most mornings.


6. If you could move somewhere else where would you and why? I wouldn't move! I love Australia.


7. Ever been kissed under fireworks? No, never.


8. Which of your friends lives closest to you? I'm lucky my 3 best friends live with me! My 3 dogs.


9. Do you believe ex's can be friends? With benefits? No way!


10. Do you like Dr. Pepper? Never tried it! Don't know if we get it here in Australia.


11. When was the last time you cried really hard? Really hard as opposed to just sniveling? Last week.


12. Who took your profile picture? Don't have one.


13. Who was the last person you took a picture of? My grandson.


14. Was yesterday better than today? Why? Don't know, today has only just begun for me.


15. Can you live a day without TV? Yes.


16. Are you upset about anything now? The state of the world.


17. Do you think relationships are ever really worth it? Sometimes.


18. Are you a bad influence? I used to be before I grew up.


19. Night out or night in? Night in everytime.


20. What items could you not go without during the day? My computer.


21. Who was the last person you visited in the hospital? My mother before she passed away.


22. What does the last text message in your inbox say? It was telling me I had just made another sale.


23. How do you feel about your life right now? Ok, few things I would like to change.


24. Do you hate anyone? I try hard not to hate.


25. If we were to look in your Facebook inbox, what would we find? Nothing, I don't have Facebook.


26. Say you were given a drug test right now, would you pass? Yes, Yes, Yes.


27. Has anyone ever called you perfect before? Oh, no way.


28. What song is stuck in your head? Eleanor Rigby by the Beatles.


29. Someone knocks on your window at 2 a.m., whom do you want it to be? The pizza delivery man.


30. Do you (or did you) want to have grandkids before you’re 50? No, but I have 3.


31. Tell us your Saturday night. Went to bed at 6.30, watched a soap opera, read a book and
went to sleep.


32. Do you think too much or too little? Way too much.

Friday Fill-Ins #144

And here is my first ever Friday Fill-In! You can take part to at Friday Fill-Ins


1. I have a history of not finishing what I start.

2. The answer to world poverty is something I wish I knew.

3. I'm eating (or recently ate) pasta salad.

4.Don't play on the road.

5. So that's it, that's life.

6. Something is better than nothing!

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to going to bed early, tomorrow my plans include getting up at 4 am and going to work for a few hours and Sunday, I want to relax a little and take my grandchildren shopping!

Booking Through Thursday - Would You Lie?

The Booking Through Thursday question this week asks "Would You Lie?"

Two-thirds of Brits have lied about reading books they haven’t. Have you? Why? What book?

I was intrigued by this question and my first impulse was to say 'no'. However, once I thought about it for a while I realised that, at some stage, I probably have lied about reading a book that I haven't actually read. An example which comes to mind is the boring reading lists which were forced on us at school. While I can't recall specific instances, I know during my school years Shakespeare did my head in and I read as little as possible of him. So, it is quite possible that I didn't get as well acquainted with William as my teacher thought I had.

However, as an adult, I can say that I haven't lied about reading a particular book and can't think what people would get out of lying about such a thing. I read for pleasure - not to impress anyone with a long reading list of what might be considered trendy titles or the 'in thing' to read.

So, to answer the question, Yes I suppose I have lied about reading a particular book, but only when I was young and full of self-importance. However, now I am a reformed person and would never again mislead anyone about anything I have or haven't read.