Pam Webb

a writer's journey as a reader

Archive for the tag “reading”

Nifty Fifty


Ta-dah! This marks my fiftieth post and to commemorate the event here are some random fifty trivia bits.

1.  This weekend my community celebrates Lost in the Fifties.  It’s a weekend where people dress up in poodle skirts and 501’s and saddle shoes and watch a parade of old-time cars go by.  There’s a street dance and a big dance at the fairgrounds with bands that are mock-fifty era sounding.  Doesn’t sound like much, but it’s a biggie for tourist bucks.  We even showed American Graffiti at the local stage theatre.

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2.  Of the fifty United States I’ve only been to about seven.  Does airport transfers count?  Then make it about a dozen.

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3.  I don’t like weather colder than the fifties.  Forty-five is pushing my comfort zone.

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4.  If I could name my top favorite fifty books I would have to say To Kill a Mockingbird remains close to the top as my favorite reread.  Which is saying something since I teach just about every year to ninth graders.

5.  Should I set out to gather fifty quotes about reading, writing, and books I would include these gems:

  • The best time for planning a book is while you’re doing the dishes. Agatha Christie
  • The desire to write grows with writing. Desiderius Erasmus
  •  My ideas usually come not at my desk writing but in the midst of living. Anais Nin
  •  If the writing is honest it cannot be separated from the man who wrote it.Tennessee Williams
  •  The first step in blogging is not writing them but reading them. Jeff Jarvis
  •  I’m writing a book. I’ve got the page numbers done. Steven Wright
  •  Dreams are illustrations from the book your soul is writing about you.Marsha Norman
  •  Be obscure clearly.E.B. White
  • The art of writing is the art of discovering what you believe.Gustave Flaubert
  •  Writing, to me, is simply thinking through my fingers. Isaac Asimov

6.  Fifty Ways to Leave Your Lover is one of Paul Simon’s songs that tends to loop in my brain now and then.Image Detail
7.  I figure I read over fifty books a year, between reviewing them, teaching them, and pleasure-reading them.  I dunno–is that average for a Book Booster?
Oh, hey–this also counts for my seven facts about me as part of the Versatile Blogger Award requirements.  Thanks Literary Tiger!
And a thanks also to merlinspielen.com for the One Lovely Blog Award.  Who knew turning Fifty could be so fulfilling?

Hammocking, the Backyard Sport of Choice


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Although the calendar says summer starts next month, I say 85 degrees is summer.  All year-long I  look forward to the time when I will spend my days shlumping around in my hammocks.  Yes, I have two.  One is a deluxe double-wide parked out edition which is housed in its own little gazebo. It’s designed  for those hot days when a breeze-in-the-shade reading session hits the spot.  The other is a K-Mart sale special stiff-canvas singler that is a roasting-is-the-mostest wonder.  I’ve already replaced the material on that one.

Summertime, hammocks, and books, with a side of lemonade in a frosted glass–who could want anything more?

What I was reading in the hammock over the weekend:

I become a Jasper Fforde fan after reading his Thursday Next series, and have started his new series.  I wonder if he is enjoying the notoriety if being the original Shades of Grey title on the market. More of a review later.

Blue Skies,

Cricket Muse

#3: Picture Books Are for Any Age!


“What do you write?” is a question often traded at a writer’s conference.  My answer is usually an embarrassed “everything.” It’s true.  I write middle grade, YA, adult, poems, non-fiction, plays, book reviews–I like to write!  My favorite genre, the one I no doubt have spent the most time on, is picture books.

There is something incandescently, transcendentally, most amazingly wonderful  when it comes to experiencing a picture book.  They are even better when shared with a child.  I don’t mind reading them on my own.  Oh, picture books are only for kids?  Is that a bona fide rule?

Moving on with my Cricket List: Musings of a Voracious Reader, I decided to tackle my #3: Picture Books.This is a tough one because it could go on from here until next Tuesday because I have so many favorites.  I could probably start entire blog about picture books.  So instead of a list I am posting thumbnail covers of picture books read, admired, reread, find timeless, find amazing, and want to share with the world. Barnes and Noble supplied the images.

Enjoy!

Click, Clack, Moo Tacky The Penguin If You Give A Mouse A Cookie The Day Jimmy's Boa Ate The Wash The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales Sheep In A Jeep Book Cover Image. Title: On the Night You Were Born, Author: by Nancy  Tillman Book Cover Image. Title: The Story of Ferdinand, Author: by Munro  Leaf Book Cover Image. Title: Make Way for Ducklings, Author: by Robert  McCloskey Book Cover Image. Title: The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Author: by Eric  Carle Book Cover Image. Title: Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, Author: by Judith  Viorst Book Cover Image. Title: The Quiet Book, Author: by Deborah  Underwood

 Goodnight Moon (Board Book) Mr. Brown Can Moo! Can You? Happy Birthday to You! Caps for Sale: A Tale of a Peddler, Some Monkeys and Their Monkey Business Chicka Chicka Boom BoomOpposites Frog and Toad All Year (I Can Read Book Series: Level 2) One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish Harold and the Purple Crayon (50th Anniversary Edition) The Runaway Bunny   Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel  Corduroy  Guess How Much I Love You Moo, Baa, La La La! The Little Engine That Could Mouse Paint I Am a Bunny It Looked Like Spilt Milk Little Bear's Friend (I Can Read Book Series: A Level 1 Book) Leo the Late Bloomer Jesse Bear, What Will You Wear? Blueberries for Sal (Picture Puffin Books Series) Stone Soup Little Gorilla Lap Board Book Harry the Dirty Dog Good Dog, Carl (Classic Board Books Series) Prayer for a Child Whistle for Willie

Tree Is Nice Andy and the Lion Windows with Birds The Snowy Day

This is only a thimble’s worth in the sea of picture book reads.  I stopped at page 15 of Barnes and Noble’s picture book list.  Feel free to browse on your own.  And  make sure to pop a couple of picture books in your basket when shopping at your local library or bookstore.  Picture books are forever.

Hungry for Another Series?


After reading the Hunger Games series I cast about for something else as a continuous read.  Fortunately I found Divergent by Veronica Roth.  Although the next book is not due out until May I am set to move on to the further adventures of Tris.

What is it about getting involved in a series?  Is the lost-in-a-plot feeling?  Is it the invested interest in characters?  Perhaps it is the convenience of not having to find and audition yet another book (hmm, shades of dating and staying in a monogamous relationship).  Anyway, here are some suggested series, tried, true, and some still new to me:

1. Divergent by Veroncia Roth(next up will be Insurgent in May)

2. Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis

3.  Enders Game by Scott Orson Card

4.  Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

5.  The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde

6.  Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery

7.  The Giver by Lois Lowry

8. The City of Ember by Jeanne Du Prau

9.  The Dune Chronicles by Frank Herbert

10. Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder

11. Sisterchicks by Robin Jones Gunn

12. Arthurian Saga by Mary Stewart

13. Redwall by Brian Jacques

14. This Present Darkness by Frank Peretti

15. Dragon Riders of Pern series by Anne McCaffery

16. Janie Johnson series by Caroline Cooney

17. The Boxcar Children by Gertrude Chandler Warner

18. The Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander

19. The Zion Chronicles by Bodie Thoene

20.  Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli

21. The Outsiders, That Was Then This is Now, Rumblefish by S.E. Hinton (shared characters)

22. Ramona by Beverly Cleary

23.  The Mrs. Pollifax series by Dorothy Gilman

23.  Constable  Evans series by Rhys Bowen

24. The Mars Diaries by Sigmound Brouwer

25. Chronicles of Fairacre byMiss Read

26. Amber Chronicles by Roger Zelazny

27.  Horatio Hornblower by E.M. Forester

28. Hatchet by Gary Paulsen

29. All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot

30.  Encyclopedia Brown series by Donald Sobol

31. Little Britches by Ralph Moody

32. Diary of a Teenage Girl by Melody Carlson

33. Stonewycke Triolgy by Michael Phillips

34. Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachan

35. Paddington Bear by Michael Bond

If these don’t work for you, or if you’ve already devoured them, try the GoodReads link.  There are over 1200  entries and over 100 pages to browse through.  Book Boosters need their choices, ya know.

http://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/series?page=1128

I’m interested in your thoughts.  Try out my first Polldaddy attempt:

Readers are Leaders–of course you knew that


Another post in the celebration of books.  You are a Book Booster, right?  Add your “like” and join the list.  My goal is to have 500 Book Boosters by June.

Happy Pages,

CricketMuse

Are you a Book Booster?


Do you love books too?

Do you have favorites you read, recommend, and even re-read?

Are you a frequent flyer at the local library?

Are you an on-line regular of book sites, be they promoting to buy, review, or boast books?

Perchance you operate on a need to read basis–you have to have a book in hand, by the bed, stashed in the car, or have one nestled in the backpack.

You then, my friend, are a Book Booster.  And you are in good company.  Add your name to the list and welcome to the shelf of those who appreciate and advance the cause of books.

Click “like” and happy page turning!

The Joy of Books


I know e-readers are a great new way to read books, but I admit to being old-fashioned and love the feel, smell, sound of books in hand when I read.  For those of you who share the same feelings, you will no doubt enjoy this video.

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