In Case You Haven't Noticed

I added a new "work in progress" over on the left. This is a story that I've been playing around with for over a year now, and I think it has some wonderful potential. I've done the research (blah!) that's necessary, and I believe I have a decent grasp on life in 1906. I even managed to find a map for San Fran from that time. Yay internet!

As far as my book reading goes...it's so slow. I want to get into An Old Fashioned Girl, but every time I sit down, I get maybe five minutes of reading done before real life interrupts. What I'm hoping is that after this weekend, once all the big family celebrations are out of the way, life will settle in a little more comfortably and I'll have an hour (ah, blessed me time) to actually read and absorb what's been written. The little that I've read reads smoothly, just like her other works. The characters are more three dimensional, though it seems like you have to read a bit more into the book to find that extra layer than you did with Little Women. However, I want to give the book a real, honest chance. Therefore, after this weekend, mommy is locking herself in her room for an hour a day to read. Period. No interruptions unless it's a natural and/or national emergency/disaster. Like a zombie attack.

And So It Goes

People have asked me, "Mya, why is it you're reading 'An Old Fashioned Girl' as an e-book?". First of all, let me say, I like both types of books.

E-books can be wonderfully convenient, especially when you want to carry more than one book with you. Plus, e-book publishers tend to be more open minded when it comes to new talent. It's far easier to find a new writer via e-books than on a bookshelf in a retailer. There's also the fact that, when a book is a certain age, it is harder to find. Sometimes even the library has trouble finding them. However, it's usually housed somewhere on the internet, ready to read through your computer, palm pilot, blackberry, etc.

Paper books are pure pleasure. Sometimes there's nothing better than cracking the spine of a new book, breathing in that fresh "paper" scent, and settling back in your bed to read. Or your bath. Or the couch. There's just something about a book in your hand and the feel of the weight in your hands. Paper print books are usually easier to handle than e-books; you can bend and fold, cascade the pages, etc. And, for the most part, they are easier on the eyes. Though e-book readers are getting better about softer lighting, it can still irritate the sight.

There is definitely a place in the world for both types of books. I don't think one will totally obliterate the other, which is a great thing. They are like siblings, with each balancing the other out.

Now, as far as the paper book version of the Louisa May Alcott book I'm reading...I have a confession. It's shocking. I hope you're sitting down.

I didn't have a library card. Yes, you read correctly. Neither my kids or I had library cards until this afternoon. To be honest, we never had the need. We've faithfully supported our local mom and pop bookstores (the best gifts my hubby gives me are the gift certificates to the used book store). The kids have used the school library for some things, and for others we purchase or borrow from family. All of that changed with the 100 book challenge. As much as I love my corner bookstore (they are on my speed dial, literally), I know they aren't going to have Aynd Rand, or Sylvia Platt, or even the Bronte sisters. These are things I'm going to have to get at the library.

So this morning, in cold rain and a wild wind storm (ah, spring!), I trudged along with my daughter to the library to get cards. She spent a glorious hour reveling in all the books (she can't get away from her genes) and picked out three books. I had been told when I called that they would have to order "An Old Fashioned Girl" for me from another branch. They could only do that, of course, once I had my card. So with kid books in hand, we happily marched up to the counter. And guess what? Their computer system was down. Yep, two lightning strikes, one right after the other, had just downed their system. We couldn't check out. We couldn't get cards. We were devistated. But we were promised they stayed open until 8:00pm, and we could come back. You know we did, with my son in tow. He found a book, too, and even put one on order as well.

My sojourn into the public library system wasn't an easy one, but in the end, I'm happy we did it. Now I'll have Louisa May Alcott in my hands in a matter of days. But until then, I'll continue to enjoy the on-line version. I'll post a critique when I'm able, but so far, I'm enjoying it more than I thought I would.

Wish me luck, and I'll wish you luck, too, on your own personal list of books.

So Far, So...Far

With kids on Easter Holiday break, it's harder to read than I'd anticipated. Lots of stuff planned, lots of family activities, lots of fun, but little time to crack a book. However, I am trying, and what I've read so far in "An Old Fashioned Girl" is very Louisa May Alcott. I don't know any other way to describe it.

She has a way with words that just seems to flow. The scenes are set up very quickly so far in this one. So quickly in fact, that there are times I go back and read a bit slower, just to make sure that I have the setting correct. But even with that, it feels very easy to fall into this story.

The characters are drawn very well; I've yet to meet a thin layered character, even if they seem like it at first glance. But from what I've read of Alcott, this is very par for the course. Everyone ends up with more depth than originally anticipated, and the story shows more about human development than you might have thought possible. I can already see that happening just a few chapters into "An Old Fashioned Girl".

I'm looking forward to seeing how the plot turns in the next few days and weeks.

100 Books

Hello all! I've decided to create a Blogger site for one main reason: keep myself motivated to stick with the Fill in the Gaps Project. Not sure what that is? Check out the link to their blog; you'll find it on the left hand side.

I've created a list of 100 books that I want to read. These are stories that I've always said I wanted to get to, but never have. Life has a bad habit of jumping in the way. But now, I have posted my list on the FitGP Blog, and I'm posting them here. I hope to keep everyone up to date on my progress with this list, as well as let you know what I think of the book. And if you know me, you know that I'll be brutally honest. Nice, but honest.

Having said that, let me add this: I am giving myself 5 to 8 years (yes, years) to finish this list. Some books I'm sure I could read in a week. Others will take at least a month. I'm also trying to figure in real life situations, including holidays, traveling, and illness, to give myself plenty of time to enjoy the books I'm reading. And if it takes more than 8 years, I'm okay with that.

Now, without further ado, here is my list of 100 books I'd like to read (in no particular order):

1. Atlas Shrugged - Ayn Rand
2. The Fountainhead - Ayn Rand
3. The Good Earth - Pearl S. Buck
4. Lady Susan - Jane Austen
5. Mansfield Park - Jane Austen
6. Persuasion - Jane Austen
7. Northanger Abby - Jane Austen
8. The Magnificent Ambersons - Booth Tarkington
9. The Big Sleep - Raymond Chandler
10. Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
11. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie - Muriel Spark
12. A Death in the Family - James Agee
13. Revolutionary Road - Richard Yates
14. The Spy Who Came in From the Cold - John le Carre
15. The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald
16. To the Lighthouse - Virginia Woolf
17. Mrs. Dalloway - Virginia Woolf
18. Never Let Me Go - Kazuo Ishiguro
19. These Thirteen - William Faulkner
20. As I Lay Dying - William Faulkner
21. Ender’s Game - Orson Scott Card
22. The Man Who Loved Children - Christina Stead
23. Loving - Henry Green
24. Monsieur Monde Vanishes - Georges Simenon
25. The Assistant - Bernard Malamud
26. The Blind Assassin - Margaret Atwood
27. The Woman In Black: A Ghost Story - Susan Hill
28. Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
29. Bleak House - Charles Dickens
30. Little Dorrit - Charles Dickens
31. Villette - Charlotte Bronte
32. The Professor - Charlotte Bronte
33. Agnes Grey - Anne Bronte
34. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall - Anne Bronte
35. An Old Fashioned Girl - Louisa May Alcott
36. The Inheritance - Louisa May Alcott
37. Louisa May Alcott Collected Thrillers - Louisa May Alcott
38. Cashel Byron’s Profession - George Bernard Shaw
39. Frankenstein - Mary Shelley
40. Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant - Anne Tyler
41. The House of Seven Gables - Nathaniel Hawthorne
42. All Quiet on the Western Front - Erich Maria Remarque
43. The Mousetrap - Agatha Christie
44. Letters From the Earth - Mark Twain
45. The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today - Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner
46. The Seance - John Harwood
47. The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde
48. The Portrait of Mr. W.H. - Oscar Wilde
49. The Canterville Ghost - Oscar Wilde
50. The Time Machine - H.G. Welles
51. Mr. Britling Sees It Through - H.G. Welles
52. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
53. North and South - Elizabeth Gaskell
54. Special Topics in Calamity Psychics - Marisha Pessel
55. Sons and Lovers - D.H. Lawrence
56. Lady Chatterly’s Lover - D.H. Lawrence
57. Under the Net - Irish Murdoch
58. The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
59. The Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
60. Middlemarch - George Eliot
61. The Pillars of the Earth - Ken Follett
62. The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
63. Katherine - Anya Seton
64. Kane and Able - Jeffrey Archer
65. The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
66. Dubliners - James Joyce
67. The Secret History - Donna Tart
68. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
69. Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
70. Scoop - Evelyn Waugh
71. London Fields - Martin Amis
72. The Time Traveler’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
73. Anne of Green Gables - L.M. Montgomery
74. The Virgin in the Garden - A.S. Byatt
75. Still Life - A.S. Byatt
76. Babel Tower - A.S. Byatt
77. The Whistling Woman - A.S. Byatt
78. Lorna Doone - Richard Doddridge Blackmore
79. A Town Like Alice (“The Legacy” U.S. Title) - Nevil Shute
80. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
81. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
82. Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
83. Charlotte Gray - Sebastian Faulks
84. The Sun Also Rises - Ernest Hemingway
85. The Home and the World - Rabindranath Tagore
86. Oscar and Lucinda - Peter Carey
87. Of Human Bondage - William Somerset Maugham
88. The Touchstone - Edith Wharton
89. Summer - Edith Wharton
90. Lucky Jim - Kingsley Amis
91. Cranford - Elizabeth Gaskell
92. The Portrait of a Lady - Henry James
93. The American - Henry James
94. Nine Coaches Waiting - Mary Stewart
95. A Room with a View - E. M. Forster
96. Where Angels Fear to Tread - E. M. Forster
97. The Reader - Bernhard Schlink
98. A Girl of Limberlost - Gene Stratton-Porter
99. Far from the Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
100. Ivanhoe - Walter Scott