Bout of Books Day #2

Okay so my report from yesterday--an hour or so of my audio book, Jane and Austen.  I should have added my listening to the Book of Mormon to my goals specifically too, but I got my listening in on that.  It is so nice to be able to listen to that while I start my day and get ready for school.  Unfortunately did not get to Princess Bride, fell asleep pretty quick after I hit the pillow. I'm home earlier tonight so we will see.

Today I'd like to see if I can do the scavenger hunt on The Book Monsters' site.  Unfortunately I do not have an Instagram account, though I have thought about it--no time to set it all up tonight however.  So...we do it here :)

Looking for:

Book Scavenger Hunt:

1. A Book that begins with “B”  (for Bout of Books!)

2. A book you’re planning to read/currently reading for Bout of Books

3. Blue Book(s)

4. Books from your favorite genre!

5. A book on your TBR shelf, or your full TBR shelves

Though it starts with "the"...we are reading this very first for English this year.

The Book Thief Pic courtesy of Goodreads

I am currently reading....

The Princess Bride Pic courtesy of Goodreads

This is my favorite book and it has blue in the title...

The Blue Castle Pic courtesy of Goodreads

My favorite genre is hard...I like just about anything fiction wise though someone might say I read waay more YA than anything else.  My favorite from this summer was...

Wonder Pic courtesy of Goodreads

What would I like to read soon....

The Golden Specific (Sequel to Glass Sentence)
Pic courtesy of Goodreads

That was actually a lot of fun! Thanks gals :)  See you all tomorrow for another update.

December Classics Club Meme Question

So I have been a non-participatory Classics Club member the last little while. This question grabbed my attention this month as I started to want to move back into being more of an active member.

Let’s do this again: What is your favorite classic book? If you already answered this question in August 2012, great! Tell us what you picked then, and if your answer has changed in the last year and a half. If you are new since that meme, what is your favorite classic as of today? (Yes, you can of course list multiple books.)

Of course, I have multiple favorite classic books! I have talked about my all-time favorite book was The Blue Castle on here before.  And I have talked about A Tale of Two Cities on here too.  So I thought that for my answer today I would talk about Little Women by Louisa May Alcott.

I have always loved Little Women. I remember when I first read it from the library--I think I was in middle school. And I was becoming a bit of a romantic.  P.S. There will be spoilers if for some reason you haven't read the book. But when Laurie proposed to Jo and she said no....I was so shocked I threw the book against the wall.  I was sooo mad at her!! I was soo soo mad.  I felt so bad for Laurie and felt like he had the right to be best. I was eventually okay with how it ended with Amy and Dr. Bauer, but I still loved the Laurie and Jo relationship.

As I have gotten older, I have better perspective on Jo and I understand why she says no to Laurie and I am glad with her relationship with Dr. Bauer--but I still have sympathy for Laurie every time I get to that point in a re-read. And I have also come to love the Susan Sarandon and Winona Ryder movie---like it or not--it is cute :)

So what is your favorite Classics book?

Very cute :)

Day 6 Bout of Books Update!

So today I Read, Ergo I Write is doing an acrostic poem challenge.  The challenge is to pick a book and write a poem based on what the book is about.  The trick is to figure out a book to use!  Do I do a short one or a long one? Well....I decided on my favorite book: The Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery.

The early edition cover
courtesy of Wikipedia 

Time needs to stand still
Happy times
Eventually come to those who act

Behaving differently and
Loving your husband will make you seem
Unusual to
Everyone

Cissy needs a friend, and her father
Abe does too, despite what the
Stirlings say
Then go
Live with Barney
Everything will work out for the best

Day 6 Reading Update: Read a bit when I got breaks during the day...but I was a bit ambitious to think that I would get even halfway.  But it has been great to visit :)

Day 4: Favorite Quote

I have talked about one of my favorite quotes on my blog before (see here). It is from my favorite all-time book The Blue Castle so today I will talk about another favorite quote of mine. I actually found this on Pinterest. I love this post today because it is my first Pinterest post for Pin It and Do It challenge of Love, Laughter, and a Touch of Insanity blog and my day four of the Blog Every day Challenge. So, my favorite quote is:

Pin Link: http://pinterest.com/pin/128915608054264707/ 

The original pin link: http://keephappiness.tumblr.com/post/11944231680

I love this quote because it is SO true.  We often tell ourselves that we can't do something, it is too hard.  It is impossible to get all of this done in one day.  But we won't know if it is actually impossible until we try.  Just like the word says: I'm possible! If we put one foot in front of the other we will make it...some way.  To me it also goes with that quote, "If there's a will, there's a way."  So don't say it is impossible...because it just might be possible!

Favorite Book: The Blue Castle

I liked doing the favorites last weekend, so here comes another favorite.  It is hard to just pick a favorite book.  But this one is really one that I have had as a favorite for a long long time and it has become my standard answer when someone asks what my favorite book is.

So what makes it my favorite?  It is the perfect romance.  She is too old to be marriage worthy anymore, and fears she will die an old maid.  And she is in the worst family ever...they are too strict and boring for her and she won't stand up to it.  Then she has a medical diagnosis that leaves her with just months to live.  So she throws away everything she knows and with new confidence does anything she wants.  She is going to die soon so what's the point of living life boring.  As part of her new found confidence she marries the man her family would not pick for her.  I won't spoil the ending because it is the best part.  I will only say this--he married her because it would be short, and he starts to fall in love with her.  What will they do when she dies?

The other part that I love about this book is my favorite quote:
"If you can sit in silence with a person for half an hour and yet be entirely comfortable, you and that person can be friends.  If you cannot, friends you'll never be and you need not waste time in trying."

To a certain extent, this is a mantra for me and a motto of mine.  I used it a lot when dating--if I couldn't sit in silence with a guy on the first/second date, then we really can't be friends and then what's the point of trying? I only had two guys that fit that bill...one I married and one I'm still friends with to this day.  So maybe it just works.