Here's a blogging meme I stole from Dewey. I should have another review posted tomorrow on The Grass is Singing, another Doris Lessing novel.

1. Do you remember learning to read? How old were you?
According to my grandmother, I learned to read at two. I can’t help but think she’s exaggerating, though. Perhaps she just means that I would read back the stories that she read to me. If she is correct, I’m a genius and I should be elected next ruler of the world. That is all.

2. What do you find most challenging to read?
I don't so much find anything in particular challenging to read; I do, however, find it challenging to read after a long day or when I'm tired. It's right to sleep if I do.

3. What are your library habits?

I was tagged by Melody for this fun meme.

The rules of this particular meme are:

1). Pick up the nearest book (of at least 123 pages)
2). Open the book to page 123
3). Find the fifth sentence
4). Post the next three sentences
5). Tag five people

Although I am currently reading American Gods by Neil Gaiman, The Bonesetter's Daughter by Amy Tan was the nearest book. Here I go:

Yay! I love being tagged with memes, and this time Michelle over at Bookworm got me with two. First, I have to tell you six things about me.

Hm. This is turning out to be more difficult than I thought. I can think of only that which is already known, or that which I don't want to be known.

MUST THINK.

1. I haven't ever watched Dirty Dancing all the way through.

2. I love scary movies but "torture porn" (that is, movies like Hostel and Saw) makes me cry. I like my fright to be based entirely on that which is improbable, such as zombies and people that can't die, like Michael Meyers.

3. I hate leaving the house since I am often afraid I left something on or plugged in, etc. and will therefore burn my house down and kill my numerous pets.

4. Speaking of my pets, I have three dogs and a cat. I almost adopted another kitten this weekend (it was rescued from being put down) but I just can't afford another one. I'm sure someone adopted him after I left though; he was just too precious.

Here's a meme I saw Danielle and Kate do this week, and it is intriguing to look back at this time of year, so I'll give it a go also. The purpose of this one is to post the first lines from each month's first post, and see what results.

January: Audrey Thomas' Graven Images is one of those books that just appeared in my collection somehow; I was intrigued enough to read it, even though I'd never heard of it.

I'm feeling like a lazy blogger today. I have things I can blog about but can't get into it. So, I'll use this meme from Dewey to inspire me (hopefully).

I just had to do this meme created by the ever-prolific Eva. I've seen brilliant answers from so many people, so had to think about it myself.

Which book do you irrationally cringe away from reading, despite seeing only positive reviews?

I think I'd say The Time Traveller's Wife; I want to read it! But I can't seem to bring myself to even open it -- it's as if I fear it won't be as good as every single review I'd read. I own it. I feel pleased looking at it, but it's as if there's a force field around it repulsing my hand.

If you could bring three characters to life for a social event (afternoon tea, a night of clubbing, perhaps a world cruise), who would they be and what would the event be?

Trish, who's hosting the Classics Challenge, concocted this Classics Meme:

1. My favorite classic is Jane Eyre. I've re-read it many times. Jane is such a strong woman especially for the times she was living.

2. The classic I had the toughest time finishing is The Wings of the Dove by Henry James. It's one of the only books I can say I hated. The story was fine but James's style was hard to take. His run on sentences went on for pages.

3. I would recommend...........to someone who doesn't read a lot of classics or who doesn't generally like classics because tough one... if they don't mind size The Count of Monte Cristo, an adventure story with a purpose. If the size is too intimidating, I'd recommend To Kill a Mockingbird because I don't know anyone who didn't like it.

This was begun by Simon at Stuck-in-a-book, but I saw it first at A Work in Progress. Upon a bit of research, I see that many others have given this a go; Juxtabook, LizzySiddal, Kirsty, Iliana, and Litlove, among others.

The goal of this is to list favourite authors according to last name (with a representative fave book as well). Here's mine, though with the caveat that it was really difficult to fit everyone in. I kept thinking of more authors with names beginning with the letters I'd already filled, and how can a decision be made between two or four or eight favourites? But I finally chose a few, and have included some of the children's books I've loved for a long time. This meme provided much entertaining rumination over the past couple of days, so thanks Simon!

Austen, Jane / Pride and Prejudice

This Challenge has been on the horizon for a while and I looked at it repeatedly but was quite convinced that I'd taken on enough Challenges for the next year. However, as I see more participants' lists, and realize that double-Challenge books are permitted, I'm irretrievably tempted. There are quite a few books I could use for more than one Challenge, plus this just sounds so random and so entertaining. Besides, it runs the entire year -- there's no reason I couldn't do it, right? So with great humility I will eat my words and I will take on JUST ONE MORE CHALLENGE!

I have taken this negative meme from Dewey's blog. I thought I would give it a shot. My answers are not as good as hers! Feel free to do this meme and credit it to Dewey!

1. When you dislike a book, do you say so in your blog? Why or why not?

I do say so. As I spend a lot of time reading and analysing it, I do think I should mention the negative aspects too. However, I mention it why I did not like that particular book. There might be cultural reasons too. Some books simply do not work for me.

2. Do you temper your feelings about books you didn’t like, so as not to completely slam them? Why or why not?

• Pick up the nearest book. (I’m sure you must have one nearby.)
• Turn to page 123.
• What is the first sentence on the page?
• The last sentence on the page?
• Now . . . connect them together….
  (And no, you may not transcribe the entire page of the book–that’s cheating!)

I am currently reading My Name is Red by Orhan Pamuk

I was tagged by Trish at Hey Lady! Whatcha Readin?' for this meme which originated here:

As I read yet another book review of a memoir this weekend, my husband told me that I should write one. I said that my story would be much too short and rather boring so when I ran across the following book I decided it was just my speed. A six word memoir! Written by Larry Smith and Rachel Fershleiser, Not Quite What I was Expecting: Six Word Memoirs by Famous and Obscure is a compilation based on the story that Hemingway once bet ten dollars that he could sum up his life in six words. His words were- For Sale: baby shoes, never worn. There’s a video on Amazon with examples from the book, it sounds like a fun read! I’d like to start a six word memoir meme and here are the rules:

1. Write your own six word memoir

A Meme:

Both Gautami & Marg tagged me for the 123 Meme.

1). Pick up the nearest book (of at least 123 pages)
2). Open the book to page 123
3). Find the fifth sentence
4). Post the next three sentences
5). Tag five people

From Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie:

"No,"said Poirot. "Two people who saw nothing and heard nothing."
"Shall we see the Italian?"

Intriguing.

I just bought this from the used bookstore and found a small card with 'To Nanny I Love You Holly' inside. Aww. Hope Nanny liked it.

Now who do I tag:

John
Raidergirl
Teddy
Charity

My friend Breeni of Breeni Books tagged me for the What are you reading? meme.

I'm supposed to -
Turn to page 123 of the nearest book, go to the fifth sentence and post the next three! Then tag five more people.

I'll cheat and do this for the two books that I'm most actively reading at the moment and not tag five people.

First - Tobacco particulate thickens the air.
A shelf of books: Auden, Veblen, Spengler, Steinbeck, Dos Passos. Tropic of Cancer, out in plain view, it must have been smuggled.That's from Margaret Atwood's The Blind Assassin, which I am reading in preparation for our book club discussion on Wednesday.

Tittle: The Blind Assassin
Author: Margaret Atwood
ISBN: 1860498809
Publisher: Virago Press/2001
Pages: 637

After reading The Handmaid's Tale by Atwood, I decided to read all her books. I mooched it from bookmooch long time ago. I started the book in January but somehow or the other, I could not finish it sooner. The beginning is very slow and tends to ge boring too. I have had moments of giving it up altogether. I am glad I did not. Yesterday, I started from page 81 and after reaching halfway through, I just couldn't leave it. I am damn glad I persisted.

Stars: ****1/2I read this book for the Celebrate the Author challenge and the Reading My Name challenge.

Celebrate the Author Note:
Dr. Seuss is one of my favourite children’s authors so I didn’t want to cheat and just re-read some of his books that I’ve read a million times. So I decided I’d read a few of this books I haven’t read yet as well as a book about his life.

This book is a Children’s Non-Fiction book about he early life of Dr. Seuss, before he was known as that. It explains who he was as a boy and how he came to be an author and artist. The story itself is written like a picture book and ends when he is 22 and his writing life is taking off. After that is an explanation of how he came up with the idea for some of his books as well as information on his life after 22 such as when he was married and how The Cat in the Hat and Green Eggs and Ham were the result of bets by his publisher.

Booking Through Thursday

• Writing guides, grammar books, punctuation how-tos . . . do you read them? Not read them? How many writing books, grammar books, dictionaries–if any–do you have in your library?

Don’t forget to leave a link to your actual response (so people don’t have to go searching for it) in the comments—or if you prefer, leave your answers in the comments themselves

I do have a few books on writing and grammar:

The Grammar Bible: I haven't read it through but it's definitely more entertaining than the average grammar book. The writer worked for a grammar hotline, if you can imagine such a thing, and the book is peppered with anecdotes from that time.

Janefan tagged me for this one a couple of weeks ago, and I've finally remembered to post it! The process:

Type your first name into Amazon and show the first or most interesting book cover that results. Since I'm Canadian, I tried Amazon.ca first and found one of my favourite children's books! Both this one and the first in the series, Scaredy Squirrel, are fantastic to read one on one, and feature Scaredy, a neurotic squirrel. They are absolutely hilarious; I love them.

Weeks and weeks since I've written in here. I haven't known what to write. I kept waiting for something more interesting to happen, but since I've written the book nothing has really, not really, nothing particularly bloggable anyway. I've spent the time since slowly putting my life back into order, sorting things out, settling back into things, relishing the ordinariness of it all again. I feel stronger now than I have ever done, can't imagine what could phase me after how I lived this time last year, but the feelings I have about the book are still very complicated, conflicted feelings and I suppose that was another reason to avoid writing in here too soon — to avoid even thinking about any of it for a while once it was written. It is done now, will have to speak for itself.

That righteous Rottweiler Carl can be counted upon for a Christmas Eve fantasy just right for the board book set.

The Solitude of Thomas Cave / Georgina Harding(read as an ARC)
now available from Bloomsbury

Stars: *****

This book was read for the Book to Movie Challenge.

I always loved the movie and I'm glad I read the book. There were some differences like the shoes were silver and not red (ruby) and there were lots of new things like more creatures than the munchkins. It was very creative and interesting. There are more than 20 books in the series, 14 of which were written by Frank Baum and I'd love to read them all. Unfortunately my library has 1, 2, 4, 6 and 11. *rolling eyes*

Highly Recommended.

Stars: *****
This review is part of a Blog Tour by Multnomah Books. I also read it for the Pub in 08 Challenge.

Summary: When a man turns up dead in a teddy bear costume, Ginger and the other ladies of the Bargain Hunters Network learn a lesson about trusting in God rather than in wealth as they try to solve the crime and clear one of their own

First of all, I gotta say, that when I got the offer to review this book, I had a good laugh. After all, how often is it do hear a book title like this one? There was no way I could say no to this one, I just HAD to know what it was all about. I’m sure glad I did say yes because I relished every moment I was reading this book.

It’s not too often you have such humour mixed in with a murder mystery. I could definitely see the two being mixed in such a way that detracts from the book but Sharon Dunn put them together spectacuarly.

You’ve just reached the end of a book . . . what do you do now? Savor and muse over the book? Dive right into the next one? Go take the dog for a walk, the kids to the park, before even thinking about the next book you’re going to read? What?

As with most reading bloggers, I think, we all feel so elated after finishing it. Then a bit sad, if it was a really good book. I close the book and savour the book in my mind. Nowadays, I get into writing a review right away as instant recall works best for me. Next is, looking for another book to read. I read two-three books per week. So I do not keep much gaps between the books I read. I try to keep the genres different between reading. However, as most readers do, I too am reading at least three different books at any given point of time. So the end of a book does not affect me that much. And we must not forget all those reading challenges! So where is the time to give a gap?

And being single with no kids and neither pets helps me read as much as I want at any time!!

My rash, excessive and exuberant joining of challenges in the last few weeks has had an unexpected effect: it has spawned a new and fascinating challenge which I now must be a part of. It's the Science Book Challenge, hosted by Bearcastle, who is a newbie to the book challenge world. As part of his company Ars Hermeneutica, besides the previously mentioned Sun Truck project, there is a great area of his website called Book Notes; this challenge wants people to contribute to that area. If you like reading science-related books, of any kind, join up and check out some of the book notes which already exist on his site.

I snatched this meme from Literary Feline:

The rules are simple. Post 6 things that recently made you happy. Tag 6 people if you want to, but I'm going to take the easy way out and tag anyone who wants to play along. Everyone needs a little happiness once in awhile.

1. My husband holding my hand
2. Feeling my unborn child move inside me :)
3. A hug from my mom
4. My sister's birthday is today!
5. A nice warm shower
6. The purr of my kitty

This week’s question is suggested by Puss Reboots:

How much do reviews (good and bad) affect your choice of reading? If you see a bad review of a book you wanted to read, do you still read it? If you see a good review of a book you’re sure you won’t like, do you change your mind and give the book a try?

Don’t forget to leave a link to your actual response (so people don’t have to go searching for it) in the comments—or if you prefer, leave your answers in the comments themselves!