Category: Musing Mondays

Thought I would jump in on this question 🙂

What is the most recent book you purchased, or brought home from the local library? What made you pick it? Have you started reading it, right away, or will you wait for a bit?

Oh my answer to this is so, so sad. I was in CVS on Friday evening. And I made the mistake of going down the aisle with the books – hey, it couldn’t be helped, I had to buy a birthday card and it’s in the same aisle!

I had to buy Stieg Larsson’s The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest. *Sigh* Please, someone – anyone – hit me upside the head. You may not recall – but I actually DNF the first book, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I put it back on my shelf because I intended one day to go back to it. If I’m not mistaken, I believe this happened in 2010. (Yeah, I jus checked – it was 2010). Not to state the obvious – but if I haven’t picked the first book back up again, why on earth would I need the third book in the series? Because I am insane, that’s why. I just keep telling myself “maybe one day….” Yeah, and maybe one day I will win the lottery, never have to work another day in my life and live out my remaining days in my dream house with an awesome ocean view. Hey, a girl can dream, right?

I would like to say that I will get to this book soon. But obviously I have to read the first two in the series. And every review book that I’ve accepted. And anything else I can squeeze in before I get to this one….. see the pattern? Oh well, at least it’s there when I’m ready for it 🙂

This week’s musing is… a book meme!

What was the last book you…
• borrowed from the library?  Portrait of a Monster: Joran van der Sloot, a Murder in Peru, and the Natalee Holloway Mystery by Lisa Pulitzer & Cole Thompson
• bought? See here for the list of books I bought at my library’s book sale in July.
• cried over? …. um, I honestly can’t remember. I remember crying over a Danielle Steel book back in 2008, but I don’t remember anything recent.
• disliked and couldn’t finish? What Alice Knew by Paula Marantz Cohen … and this was disappointing for me because I waited for it on my PBS wishlist!
• read & loved? The Help …. seriously, I can’t say enough good things about this book! Read it if you haven’t yet. And I’m *dying* to see the movie. Maybe this week …
• got for review? (or: got in the mail?) A couple of weeks ago I got We’re Not Leaving for review. As far as just books in the mail in general, you can find my most recent Mailbox Monday post here.
• gave to someone else? I’m constantly trading books, whether on PBS or Bookmooch or my Yahoo group, MysteryBookSwap. But the last book I gave to someone I know in real life was Hell’s Corner by David Baldacci, which I gave to my grandmother.
• stayed up too late reading? Still Missing by Chevy Stevens

How many books did you read in 2010? If you had a reading goal, did you meet it? What books are you most looking forward to reading for 2011 (either new, OR ones that have sat on your shelves for a while)?

Okay, so I read 67 books in 2010. I didn’t really have a set goal for 2010. I had signed up for the 100+ Reading Challenge, but it was more of a guideline than a challenge for me. I think the number I had in the back of my head for most of the year was 75. So I’m not at all upset with how many books I was able to finish out the year with. For 2011, I really want to get caught up on some more of my series (as well as hopefully start some new ones!). There are also a few books from favorite authors that are being released in 2011 that I am looking forward to (including Alex Kava, Tess Gerritsen, Chelsea Cain). I’m looking forward to seeing what James Patterson puts out this year (I know the 10th in the WMC is due for this spring, I believe). But I’m also looking forward to cleaning out my shelves this year some more. In 2010 I was able to read 45 books off of my shelves, and of those only 14 were acquired in 2010, leaving 31 books coming off my shelves that had been there for over a year – I would love to accomplish more of that this year. So I guess there are a few particular books being released in 2011 that I’m looking forward to, but I’m really looking forward to reading off of my TBR mountain.

Today’s MUSING MONDAYS post is about movies …

How do you react to movies made of your favourite books (or even not-so-favourite books)? Do you look forward to seeing them, or avoid them? Do you like to have read the book before seeing the movie?

Okay, this is really an easy one for me. As a general rule, I don’t really much care for movies based on books that I’ve read. The exception: Harry Potter. But this is really because the movie is never as good as the book, not even close in a lot of situations. I can even tell you that I was disappointed in the 6th HP movie recently because the books is just that good … the movie was bound to pale in comparison in my opinion. I prefer to read the book before I see the movie, but I don’t force myself to wait to see the movie if I want to see it bad enough.

Today’s MUSING MONDAYS post is about publishing houses …

Do you have a favourite publishing house — one that puts out books that you constantly find yourself wanting to read? If so, who? And, what books have they published that you’ve loved? (question courtesy of MizB)

Okay, so this is an interesting question. I will have to say that I’ve never really paid all that much attention to publishing houses. Sure, it’s something that I tend to look at when I’m looking at a book, but it’s not something that makes me pick the book up. I really prefer to read books based on my previous experience with certain authors that I’ve enjoyed, or even recommendations from people in real life and the blogger world. To be honest with you, I dont think I could even tell you the publishing houses that are responsible for some of my favorite books, it’s just not something that I’m concerned with in general. However, now that this questin has been asked, I will probably be a little more aware of the publishing houses when looking at books.

Today’s MUSING MONDAYS post is a library habits meme…

This week we have a library meme courtesy of MizB:

Library Habits meme:
1) If you don’t frequent your local library, why not? N/A
2) If you do visit the library, how often do you go? Well, I don’t really have a set schedule of when I go to the library. If it’s not when I get a notice that a book on hold has become available for me or if I have something to return, it’s usually pretty random when I decide to head to the library.
3) Do you have a favorite section that you always head to first, or do you just randomly peruse the shelves? Um, most of the time I am there with a list of books to get. However, I always browse the stuff up front that they randomly place there to attract readers first. Then I will browse through the fiction area, then hit the mystery area, then sometimes I’ll take a stroll through the biographies then the true crime and finally the cookbooks before heading out. Now this is when I really want to browse the stacks … normally I have a list and I just go straight to what I’m looking for.
4) How many books are you allowed to check out at one time? Do you take advantage of this? At our library we can have 20 items checked out at one time; I have never had this many checked out (although when I was in college my senior year writing a huge paper I kid you not, I had 50 books checked out from the universities library … there was no limit there!) but when I go to the library, I usually pick up 2-3 books. I don’t like to pick up a whole lot of different stuff because I have a bad habit of returning books un-read!
5) How long are you allowed to have the books checked out? Three weeks unless there’s a hold on that particular book, and then it’s two weeks.
6) How many times are you allowed to renew your check-outs, if at all? If there’s no hold on the book, I think we have two renewals.
7) What do you love best about your particular library? Well, I don’t really know. Recently I’ve really been taking advantage of hold option online for books that have a waiting list.
8) What is one thing you wish your library did differently? Um, to be honest … I’d really like to know why certain books that I would consider mystery are in the fiction section and not the mystery section and then others are in the mystery when I would put them in the fiction …. I’m not sure I understand their system.
9) Do you request your books via an online catalogue, or through the librarian at your branch? Well, if something has a wait list, I always use the online catalog.
10) Have you ever chosen a book on impulse (from the online catalogue OR the shelves) and had it turn out to be totally amazing? If so, what book was it, and why did you love it? Hm … to be honest, Sweetheart by Chelsea Cain was like that for me. I happened to notice it on the shelf one day and I picked it up on impulse. I hadn’t cared much for Heart Sick and wasn’t sure I wanted to give this one a try, but I ended up absolutely loving it and was very pleased that I picked it up at the library, because I definitely would not have used a PBS credit on it based on my opinion of Heart Sick.