Time seems so speeded up — another Christmas already! Sometimes I can't believe how quick things are going. Don't feel I've done enough these past twelve months to mark off another year just yet. I'm here though, surviving, hopefully putting the peices of my life back together again. What I'm not doing so well with at the moment, is with emails — in replying to them.

Earlier I saw my book listed on Amazon! It isn't even nearly written yet, and yet there it was! A very, very strange experience seeing it there. I felt sad, rather than surprised or exhillerated though, seeing it there (was almost going to type just then it felt like coming across your own obituary in a newspaper — that same, I imagine, kind of shocking strangeness — but maybe that is the wrong analogy. Extremely weird though that first glance...left me winded. Seeing the title there for the first time: 'Abandoned', alongside Anya Peters, was a bit unsettling too. It even said how many pages it is: 320! and the date it will be published. Three hundred and twenty pages and none of them written yet! Except mostly in my head — where they have been written over and over most of my life in a way. But that is nowhere near the same as having them written down properly on paper, and then typed up — not in the form they will be in in a book that is sold on Amazon anyway.

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.

Books and films both tell stories, but what we want from a book can be different from what we want from a movie. Is this true for you? If so, what’s the difference between a book and a movie?

How can one even think of comparing books and movies? Both are entirely different mediums. I am not much of a movie person. I seldom even watch a movie. I prefer reading anyday. When a book is made into movie, no doubt it gets better publicity, lot more people watch it then reading the book. However, I find most of the movies that have been adapted from a book, leave me wanting more. In a book, everything is happening inside your mind. You form certain opinions about certain characters. I would rather escape the world reading a book than watching a movie. Most of the times, I get distracted from a movie but not while reading a book.

I've finally crashed through a barrier. I finished reading the endings of several books I've had on the go for what seems like months, and it's a fantastic feeling to have finally done it. It was almost a psychological block. For some reason, I just wasn't able to finish them. But in the last few days without even thinking about it I found myself opening them at the bookmark, curling up somewhere and, one after the other, reading on until the last page. Pure joy.

Sounds of weather like this will probably always remind me of certain nights in the car — driving rain and stormy, wintry winds battering around outside that sound like wet laundry flapping about on washing lines across the sky. One time in the car in particular has come to mind in the last few days. I’m not sure why but it’s always the same one: one evening walking back to the car in the dark to drive to the laneway for the night, cold and wet and absolutely dreading another night of being out in it.

Someone e-mailed yesterday saying they'd just randomly come across my blog, and asked me whether it was true, whether I did actually live in my car for all that time. I can't believe someone is still asking that — I don't know whether to scream or cry.

Review first published at Front Street Reviews.

Stars: ****

Katie McCabe is a 14 year old girl who wants to be known for who she is and not by the McCabe family name. Katie lives with her dad, the sheriff of their town. Katie is a bit of a rebel. She is always getting into trouble with her friend Timmy but after they accidently set fire to a shed, Katie’s life just keeps going downhill.

At the beginning of the book is a Cast of Characters. This is unsual in a novel but if done right, can be helpful when a book has more than a few main characters. My only qualm with Gardner-Griffie’s Cast of Characters is that a little too much information is revealed. It doesn’t ruin the ending of the book, just tells a little about what’s going to happen.

December probably isn't the time for it, but I'm looking around for another job at the moment. This job was only ever meant to be a stepping stone - a way back into things — temporary cover that I knew would come to an end, but I feel quite anxious now that it is - anxious about what the next step will be. Not sure which way to turn again. Not sure I'm tough-headed or tough-hearted enough to go back to a career in law full-time, even if that was possible, but not sure what else I can do. It's hard knowing what you're cut out for.

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?

In general I'd say that reviews have some affect on my choice of reading, but not terribly much because what you like and what you don't like is really a matter of taste. A reviewer could say absolutely wonderful things about a book, but I might not enjoy reading it. Similarly, I might love a book that a reviewer thought was horrible.

1. What fiction book (or books) would you nominate to be the best new book published in 2007?
2. What non-fiction book (or books) would you nominate to be the best new book published in 2007?
3. And, do "best of" lists influence your reading?

This post is a day late because when I started to answer this week's questions yesterday I realized that I haven't really read enough 2007 titles to answer the first two questions properly. I've decided to stick with number three.

"Best of" lists don't influence my reading too much. I do like to look at them to see what books made the cut and sometimes I do get ideas from them, but lists ("best of" or not) definitely don't dictate my reading schedule. That seems like such a short answer, but there it is.

This is one of those challenges that I wanted to join but I wasn't sure if I would be in the mood for Christmas reading. While out shopping with my family this weekend I ran across a couple of titles that got me interested so I am going indulge my inner whim-reader and join this one after all.

Here are my titles:

Holidays are Hell - Kim Harrison, Lynsay Sands, Marjorie Lui, and Vicki Pettersson. I picked up this one for a little Urban Fantasy escapism.

So, yesterday after work I got wrangled into going to the Scholastic warehouse sale. I didn't want to go. Last time I went I spent lots of money and our place is overflowing with books as it is. But, I did end up going and I was actually very good. I only bought five books (strangely enough they had computer games, though, and I ended up buying three of those for Russell).

The Artemis Fowl Files by Eoin Colfer.
I've actually read this book (a library copy), but I picked it up in order to complete our collection of Artemis Fowl books.

Princess Academy by Shannon Hale.

Book 51 was a re-read. I loved this book as a young girl and thoroughly enjoyed re-reading it now as an adult. Judy Blume is always a good idea.

I am sitting here trying to catch up with emails. Lots of them in the last few days are from readers in Asia.. I had no idea my story would end up in an article over there and be read by a 16-year old student in Singapore or a man in Pakistan...how bizarre is that! But over the last few days emails have been coming in, not just from people here but from people who have read the article or read my book all those thousands of miles away telling me how, although they might have very different lives, they have been able to relate to my story in some way.

I have spent the last hour dipping in and out of some of their blogs, reading about their lives and cultures, being reminded that people are essentially the same wherever they come from, the same fears the same dreams.

With my completion of "Till Morning is Nigh" I have completed the Christmas Themed Book Challenge. Here's what I read:

• Holidays are Hell - Harrison, Sands, Liu, Pettersson
• Till Morning is Nigh - Leisha Kelly

I still have one more book that I plan on reading with a Christmas theme but it was not a title that I had originally named for the challenge. This was a fun one. Thanks to Susan at My Reading Adventures for hosting.

Morning all! Still no baby. My friend had to have a c-section today, and I am anxiously awaiting news to hear about her little bundle of joy. Though at nearly nine pounds I guess she isn't really "little". My little bundle is happily bouncing around with no indication of wanting to come out. At least I got out of the house yesterday to go to the church council meeting.

The storm that came through yesterday finally cooled things off, but wasn't as powerful as they thought it would be. Hopefully if baby decides to continue to wait things out we will have time to get a car.

I have been told that in Singapore you might find my book in MPH, Borders
or Kinokuniya stores?

If not, and from anywhere else, you can order it from Amazon by clicking on the link over at the side of the blog (the one under the pink book cover.)
Hope that helps...Let me know if it turns up anywhere strange though!

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!!

* Have you ever met one of your favorite authors? Gotten their autograph?
* How about an author you felt only so-so about, but got their autograph anyway? Like, say, at a book-signing a friend dragged you to?
* How about stumbling across a book signing or reading and being so captivated, you bought the book?

The quick answers: Sort of. Yes. No.

What do you do when you can't do any reading? You want to read and somehow you are too lethargic to do it. My mind says no to it. More than two weeks without a book. Meanwhile I did a lot of book memes and started one too. I do feel guilty about not being able to read. I have too much in my mind. I cannot concentrate on anything.

None of my favourite authors are holding my interest. What do I do? How do I get back to it? May be joining all those reading challenges burnt me out.

You know how I am always telling you stuff about myself that pretty much proves that I am basically weird?
Well, I am about to add yet another page to the story!
I LIKE AIRPORTS!

I know that does not make sense.
A normal person is supposed to abhor the hustle and confusion and racket and inconvenience of airports, but I actually LIKE all of that stuff.

Stars: ****1/2
I received a copy of this book for review. I also read it for the Pub in '08 challenge.

Summary: In “My Soul to Keep,” Dylan Foster is once again caught in a bizarre and twisted chain of events. A parent’s worst nightmare comes true and a birthday party that should be filled with joy is turned awry when a little boy close to Dylan’s heart is snatched from a local park. With little evidence to point the way, local law enforcement is led through a chain of mystifying events that seem to go no where. With the help of an intuitive six-year-old girl who is eerily connected to the missing boy, Dylan follows a path of tantalizing clues to the truth. With the sinister presence of Peter Terry never far behind, Dylan is led to a place she never expected – or wanted – to go.

Stars: *****

This is the first audio book I’ve ever heard/read. I listened to it on my ipod mini as I walked to and from playgroups and the library with my kids. I’ve always been wary of audio books for two reasons. 1. I didn’t think they were really reading, that they didn’t count. 2. I didn’t think I could follow it.

Your English teacher was right! Reading is good for you!

An NEA paper, "To Read or Not to Read," surveying 40 studies of child and adult reading, reports that reading for pleasure and personal interest has declined drastically over the past few years. Unlike the 2004 report, this study included literature, informational reading, periodicals, and internet reading and still found that the average adult spends only seven minutes reading anything by choice per day.

I was thinking of my old bookcase today — a wood-worm-riddled, junk-shop find that I got from outside a shop up near Leeds just after my last year at college. Somehow I'd managed to hang on to it through countless moves over the years. Until the year before last, when all my belongings in storage were sold-off without notifying me, when I could no longer pay the bill and didn't have an address for them to get in touch to let me know: everything from diaries to cutlery to washing machine to a triangular piece of the Berlin Wall I'd hammered off myself, to every photograph I'd ever had, to that lovely, dark-wood bookcase, went.

I really and truly and trying to get back into blogging regularly. As I mentioned in my last post, I'll be posting my lists of books read in 2007 at the beginning of the new year, in the meantime I thought I'd share a bit of what I have been reading lately.

A Good Yarn by Debbie Macomber

What’s the worst typographical error you’ve ever found in (or on) a book?

You know what? I really don't know. Many books put out these days are very poorly edited. I usually try to put those typographical errors out of my mind. Recently, though, I picked up a book where the protagonist's name was mentioned a number of times in the back-cover synopsis and misspelled one of those times.