Last year I did something I haven’t done in about 20 years. I set aside a book unfinished. This week I have been attempting to read another book by a different author, and am not very far into it, and am finding myself looking for chores that need doing rather than be lazing the day away reading. While I feel guilty if I don’t finish this book I also feel horrid about all the books waiting so patiently for me to finally read my way to them. This leads to the subject of whether or not to finish the book that is going slowly, or to continue to persevere. What would you do? Would you continue on with the book that isn’t working for you or move on? If you stopped the book would you set it back on the shelf or would you give it to someone else to hopefully enjoy? As for me I’m going to move on to a new book, and will keep this book in my stack because it’s on my Kindle, so it’s not taking up any space. Hopefully it’s my mood and some day this book will be right for me. Until next…

I am fortunate enough to be a reviewer, and have the opportunity to read some of my favorite author’s work early. This weekend I’m indulging myself with Summer On Blossom Street by Debbie Macomber. As I read I find myself wishing that I knew a place like A Good Yarn, and a person like Lydia Goetz. To me that is the sign of a good writer…one who puts their reader right into the story. This got me to thinking, is there a book or character who has struck a personal chord with you, and you find yourself wondering what you would do if you were a part of the book or a particular character? So while I’d love to be a part of the community who shares their lives at A Good Yarn, I’m not sure I’d be successful at the knitting aspect of it. Which book do you see yourself as part of? Is there a certain character you’d like to be? Until next week happy page turning to all. Visit FreshFiction.com to learn more about books and authors.

This week I somewhat succumbed to peer pressure. I have decided to request two books from the library that are outside my typical reading choices. Since I’m not sure I will enjoy the books I’ve selected I’ve also decided to do them on audio, as I tend to use my audio selections for those books I deem outside my comfort zone. Now, I’m sure you’re interested in knowing what books I’ve requested. I’m going to listen to Water For Elephants by Sara Greun and The Lace Reader by Brunonia Barry. Have you read either of these? Is there a book that you’ve heard a lot about and thought I would never read it, but finally the hype has you so intrigued that you decide to find a copy either in print, electronic, or audio, and read it for yourself? What is it about the hype you’ve heard that makes you reach for the book? After you’ve read that book outside your comfort zone do you find yourself more willing to read more by the author, or is one enough? Happy reading and listening to all, I look forward to your comments. Visit FreshFiction.com to learn more about books and authors.

This week I conquered one of the technological challenges that has had me frustrated for months. I couldn’t be more proud of myself, and thought what better way to celebrate than to share that achievement with those of you who read my blog. In case you don’t know I’m a bookaholic! It’s an addiction that I really don’t want to find a recovery program for. I always have a book going that is either print or on my Kindle, plus an audio book either on my IPOD or my MP3 player. Why you might ask do you need both an IPOD and an MP3 player? The answer is somewhat simple. When I got introduced to audio books I thought I could put everything on my IPOD, then I discovered downloading books from my local library, and discovered they weren’t compatible with the IPOD. Therefore I had to find an inexpensive MP3 player. I did that quite well, and was happy until I ran out of memory. Was discussing that with my husband, and he showed me that my MP3 player had a memory card slot. So I gladly inserted said memory card into said slot, but have been unable to…

If you follow my contributions to this blog you know that I often get my inspiration from one of my many yahoo groups. Thanks to one of those groups I have my idea for this week…. what is your opinion of books made into movies? The book being discussed is The Secret Life of Bees, which I personally have not read. I have not seen the movie either, but am being led to believe it shall soon be available on DVD. So the dilemma is…do I read the book first or watch the movie first? What would you do? What about when you have already read a book, such as when I had already read The Pelican Brief by John Grisham, and then it was turned into a movie. Naturally I had to see the movie, and I felt very satisfied that the movie followed the book. However, when I read The Client (my personal favorite Grisham book) I was disappointed when I saw the movie because I didn’t think it followed the book well at all. This leads to the idea of Harry Potter…the books versus the movies. Naturally they can’t put everything from such a large book into…

It’s extremely hard to believe that we are at the beginning of the second month of 2009. That leads to the question of how did your resolutions pan out so far? Most of my self improvement resolutions have gone by the wayside, but my reading resolution to watch the personal outlay of cash for new books has held firm, though my TBR has grown a lot thanks to a great DFW Tea trade, and a very generous gift card from Amazon. I also belong to another trade site that has added a couple of books. Of all the new books in my pile only one was personally paid for with cash out of my pocket. Not bad! Then I had resolved to participate in two more reading resolutions. One was to read the EYE SPY Challenge Word that one of my yahoo groups is doing. The word for January was Snow, and I read Not So Snow White by Donna Kauffman. While the story was enjoyable I personally liked Dear Prince Charming better. Then I needed to read a title by the author of the month for the DFW Tea Dinner Group. January’s author was Laura Griffin, and I read…

I feel fairly confident in saying that everyone’s attention is on the economy these days. I know that it is the focal point at our house. This must surely mean that more readers are entering contests in the hopes of winning their favorite author’s newest title, or perhaps a backlist title in a new to them author. I have been lucky this week, and won a one-day blog contest, one a guess the number contest in a chat, and today attempted to win an email contest, and while I supposedly did not win, the author was nice enough to send me an e-copy of a book from her backlist anyway, because in my email I mentioned that I had not yet read her, so anything would be new to me. So, as you see I have entered a variety of contests this week, and been very lucky! The contests I have entered have all been easy to enter, and the prizes have all been books. Is there a certain type of contest that calls to you? Is there a certain prize you prefer to win? To me, the simpler the contest the more likely I am to enter, and we…

Friday night I went to dinner and a book signing with several members of the DFWTea Readers group. While at the bookstore what kind of reader would I be if I didn’t take a moment to do a quick perusal of the shelves? That quick look had me spotting two books on Barak Obama. Then I came home to do an online chat with some friends, and again the talk turned to the incoming president. The combination of these two things has me thinking about biographies. Do you read biographies? How do you decide whom you are going to read about? I personally am not a big biography reader, and if truth be told can’t remember the last time I read one. However, I did recently buy several about Lucille Ball. I also have a biography about the late Princess Diana in my TBR pile. Will I read them anytime soon? Unlikely. However, should I decide to get educated about either of these two women I’m ready! Sandi ShllhanekDFW Tea Readers GroupReaders ‘n ‘ritas … celebratepassionate literary obsessions Visit FreshFiction.com to learn more about books and authors.

In several of my yahoo groups the conversation tends to run to discovering a new to you author. As you can imagine being dedicated readers someone in the group has usually read whichever author is being discussed, and being the eclectic readers that we are can we all agree on one good book? Of course not! That then leads to the person whose just discovered an author having to get not only one backlist book, but all of them! Do you have an author that you can remember having to glom? I know that I was late to the party on several very popular authors. One that comes to mind is unfortunately no longer writing, but when she wrote I had to head off to the closest store and get everything she had written. Now I envy the person who is just discovering Lavyrle Spencer because she has a finite backlist! I remember when I discovered Sandra Brown. I was on vacation, and figured that vacation money wasn’t like real money, and I could take a chance on an author I hadn’t read. I bought Mirror Image and was hooked on this author. Even all those years ago she had…

I want to start by wishing everyone happy healthy new year! I hope that 2009 is a great year for all. Every year there’s discussion in my yahoo groups about resolutions. Some people make more personal resolutions about things such being more fiscally responsible, getting healthier by exercising or watching their diets. Some are making resolutions about their TBRs and/or potential reading choices. Last year I attempted to do an alphabet challenge. This was to have had me reading at least one book by an author whose last name started with every letter of the alphabet. I was doing fairly well at this, and even had been told who to read for X and Z, but then I lost my list of what I had read and gave up. This year I’m going to attempt it again, and can use those authors from last year’s X and Z challenge, because I haven’t read those books yet. I knew procrastination was good for a reason! This year I’m also going to attempt to join in the challenge the same group is doing and read the selected word of the month. This means picking a title that has a certain word in…