I’m tellin’ a family “secret”…..My mother gets a million and twelve catalogs during the holidays. We don’t know why (and I’m not sure she knows anymore), but she does. Its not really a family secret…the mailman and the recycling people know too! Of these one million and twelve, there is just one that I get […]

I told you guys a couple of weeks ago about my reading “technique.” I am considering changing “how” I read. A couple of days ago, a friend of mine mentioned that he thought I’d probably love the Sony PRS500 Portable Reader System. At first, I shunned the thought of not having the […]

I didn’t want to read “The Girl of the Limberlost” without first having read “Freckles.” Several people made some pretty decent arguments for this, and I figured since I respected their opinions, I’d follow their advice.
My reading for this past week didn’t work out that way though. I was pretty sick at the beginning of […]

Today I was reminded of a book I read way back in early high school. I remember buying the book, and I remember sitting down and reading the first four hours I was home. I remember thinking Hugh Prather had written this book just for me!
Interestingly, this particular book has been on my […]

I finished Maya Angelou’s “I know why the Caged Bird Sings” yesterday. It was interesting, but no more so than any autobiography I’ve read before. I guess part of the reason is because I really can’t relate to the way she grew up.
Don’t get me wrong, I really like Angelou’s poetry, and this […]

“Norman Mailer, the outspoken author whose prize-winning works made him a towering figure on the American literary stage for more than 50 years, is dead. He was 84.” photo used from CNN.com

Okay, here’s an odd topic…
The Bookseller, a British book-trade magazine has been running twenty years of competition to find the oddest book title of the year.
Some of this year’s winners include:
Winner: “Weeds in a Changing World”
Runners-up: “Procrastination and Task Avoidance: Theory, Research and Treatment” and “Guide To Eskimo Rolling”
Previously, titles have included:
-Collect Fungi on […]

I believe a book is not real until I’ve been able to write in it and make notes. Its not loved until its dissected character by character, plot by subplot. I keep going back to “The Velveteen Rabbit” - something is not real until you’ve worn away its nose, had its eyes […]