Book Blogger Hop -The Longest Book I've Ever Read

Book Blogger Hop is a great way to discover other book blogs and learn more about the bloggers. This meme is hosted by Crazy for Books, so be sure to check her out.

This week's question is:

“What’s the LONGEST book you've ever read?” 

The longest book I've ever read also happens to be my favorite book. Cutting for Stone comes at a whopping 667 pages for the paperback. Granted, it's not War and Peace or anything, but it's still pretty long. Even after all that, though, I didn't want it to end. It is a wonderfully written story about twin brothers from Ethiopia and their journey through life. 

I'd love to hear which long books you've read and if you recommend them.

Love and (a book) light,

~Dorothy

Book Blogger Hop: Crazy Titles!

Book Blogger Hop is a weekly meme that is hosted by Crazy for Books, so go check her out. This meme is a great way to discover other book bloggers an learn more about them through each week's question.

This week's prompt is:

Let’s talk crazy book titles! Highlight one or two (or as many as you like!) titles in your personal collection that have the most interesting titles!

The first book that came to mind was Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl. Despite what the title may suggest, it is most definitely fiction. This book is truly unique in many ways, one of them being that the table of contents is arranged like a class syallabus.

Here are other noteworthy, eye-catching titles that I have read or are on my to-read list:

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! Adventures of a Curious Character by Richard Feynman
The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales by Oliver Sacks
The Secret Life of Pronouns: What our Words Say about Us by James Pennebaker
The Man Who Loved Only Numbers: The Story of Paul Erdos by Paul Hoffman
Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs
The Autobiography of My Mother by Jamaica Kincaid (you may have to think for a second before you realize why this is unusual)

Which of these titles sounded the most peculiar to you? Do share some unusual book titles that you know of.

Love and (a book) light,

~Dorothy

I'm Back! Book Blogger Hop

After a month-long hiatus, I'm back with another post. What better way to return than Book Blogger Hop? This weekly meme is hosted by Crazy for Books, so be sure to check her out.

This past month has been filled with moving to a new home, busy days at work, and grad school midterms. I can't wait to get you guys all caught up with what books I've been enjoying. Keep an eye out for those posts during the week. Now on to the hop:

How/Where do you get your books? Do you buy them or go to the library? Is there a certain website you use like paperbackswap?

When I was younger, I got books from libraries, whether it was the school's, the county's, or a friend's personal collection. Recently, I've been buying my books a lot. I know I should take advantage of the library more, but the experience of owning my books is quite new to me. I buy my books at Barnes & Noble, used bookstores, garage sales, libraries sale, etc. If I can wait to read a book, I like to order it from Barnes & Noble online. I get free shipping with my membership and I save a lot on the books themselves.

I also have a Kindle, so I buy eBooks a lot. It really depends on the cheapest form that I can get my hands on.

Where do you find your reads?

Love and (a book) light,

Dorothy

Book Blogger Hop & Follow Friday -My TR List and My Favorite Genre

Book Blogger Hop is a weekly meme hosted by Crazy for Books. It's a great way to meet other bloggers and learn more about the ones you already follow.



This week's question is:

“How many books are currently in your To-Be-Read (TBR) Pile?”

According to my Goodreads profile, I currently have 59 books on my To Read list. I try to keep it somewhat realistic and only include the books that I plan on reading in the near future.  There are many books that I know I will read eventually, such as some classics, but I don't include those on there.

How long is your TR pile?

Another weekly meme that I participate in regularly is Follow Friday hosted by Parajunkee.

 

This week's question is:

 

Genre Wars! What's your favorite genre and which book in that genre made it your favorite?

I read books of all genres, but my favorite has always been mystery. It all started with The Nancy Drew Series when I was younger, and I eventually started reading Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Agatha Christie, and some Raymond Chandler.

What's your favorite genre? Any other mystery authors I should know about?
Love and (a book) light,

~Dorothy

Book Blogger Hop -The Author I Want to Meet

It's time for Book Blogger Hop! This weekly meme is a great way to meet other bloggers and make new friends. It is usually hosted by Crazy for Books, but this week the host is Lori from Lori's Reading Corner.

This week's questions is:

Who is the ONE author that you are DYING to meet?

My tastes in books are definitely more diverse now than they were 3 years ago. Back then, all I read were books by John Grisham, the king of legal thrillers. I am such a huge fan and I would love to meet him! All his books are great, and he seems like a genuinely nice person. Though I love his legal thrillers, my favorite of his books is his non-fiction work, The Innocent Man. It tells the story of a wrongly convicted man who spent a lot of time in prison for a crime he didn't commit. He never gave up hope and was eventually released, but there are many more stories like his. Head over to The Innocence Project to learn more and see how you can help.

Any other die-hard Grisham fans out there?

Love and (a book) light,

~Dorothy

Book Blogger Hop & Follow Friday -My Bomb Shelter Must-Haves

It's Friday! I get to stay up late tonight and sleep in tomorrow, but most importantly, it's time for Friday memes.

First off, we have the Book Blogger Hop hosted by Crazy for Books.

This week's question is:
"Summer is coming quickly - what 2011 summer release are you are most looking forward to?"

I haven't been on the edge of my seat waiting for any particular book; I'm too busy trying to get through the ones I already have. I went over to the Barnes & Noble website and flipped through the "Coming Soon" selection and picked the one that sounded interesting to me.

I found this! And boy am I excited. 11/22/63 by Stephen King. Okay, so it's not be released until November, but it counts. There's not a lot of information about it on B&N, but it's about time travel. The title and the cover seem to imply that they're travelling to the past, but you never know -they could be travelling from 1963 to 2011. I took a Philosophy of Physics class in college that discussed theoretical time travel, so I'm interested to see how King goes about it.

Does this pique your interest at all? Which release are you excited for?

Next up is Follow Friday hosted by Parajunkee's View.

This week's question is:

Keeping with the dystopian and apocalypse theme that seems to be running rampant on parajunkee.com, I have one very hard question for you: If you were stocking your bomb shelter, what books would you HAVE to include if you only had space for ten?

Oh my word. This is going to be hard. At first I thought, "definitely the Hunger Games series!" But could you imagine how depressing that series would be when it's raining bombs outside and all that's surviving is the Twinkie factory? So I scratched that. Here's what I came up with.

1. Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! by Richard Feynman -This Nobel laureate is quite a character. Seriously, who takes up safecracking as a hobby? I haven't read this yet, but I really want to. He was one of the smartest people in the 20th century, but unlike many physicists and mathematicians (other than my husband, of course), he was very charming.

2. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez -I haven't read this one either, but it's on my TR list, so why not?

3. People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks -This was a beautiful novel, and I haven't read anything like it since. I'd love to re-read it.

4-6. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Half-Blood Price, and Deathly Hallows by J. K. Rowling -I exhibited SOME restraint. I only picked the last three since I've read and re-read the first four so many times. I read the last three only once each, so I don't memorize each line by heart like I do the others. Plus, they're a lot longer, so that should keep me occupied for a while.

7. The Black Swan by Nassin Nicholas Taleb -No, I'm not talking about the movie with Natalie Portman. This is a non-fiction book about the disproportionately large impact of a highly improbable event. I need some science books to keep me sane and make sure I don't go off to Hogwarts in my head -though that actually wouldn't be that bad...

8. The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde -I haven't read this, but I've read other works by Wilde and I need his wit and wisdom to get through this.

9. There's a Wocket in my Pocket by Dr. Seuss -this is the book I remember most from my childhood. I need a little something to remind me of those happy days.

10. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy -I'm stuck in a bomb shelter. I've finished all the other books I brought with me. I'm still somehow alive. And sane. Is there any better circumstance that would force me to read a book that I am extremely intimidated by? I think not.

So there you have it!

Love and (a book) light,

~Dorothy

Book Blogger Hop & Follow Friday -My Playlist

Follow Friday is a weekly meme hosted by Crazy for Books. This week's question is:



"If you find a book you love, do you hunt down other books by the same author?"


- My first instinct is to say yes, but there really is no definite answer to this one. Silly as this may sound, books have their own personality, and to say that the author is solely responsible for that personality is saying that all of your characteristics come from your parents. Sometimes what I loved about a book isn't necessarily present in other books by that same author, just like you don't share all of your characteristics with your siblings. Of course, that doesn't stop me from reading other works by that author; I just try not to come in expecting to read "Book-I-Loved.2"


How about you? 


Another weekly meme I participate in is Follow Friday hosted by Parajunkee. This week's questions is not book related, but still fun!





What is on your current playlist right now?


I'm not currently listening to anything, but here are a few artists that are on my iPod.


-Frank Sinatra
-The Beatles
-Ella Fitzgerald
-Crosby, Stills, & Nash
-Ray Charles
-Steely Dan
-Hall & Oates
-Adele
-Corinne Bailey Rae
-Earth, Wind & Fire
-A Fine Frenzy


Love and (a book) light,


~Dorothy

Follow Friday -Book Buddies! & Book Blogger Hop -Meet Enzo

It's finally Friday! That means it's time for Parajunkee's Follow Friday. This week's question is:

Q. Do you have anyone that you can discuss books with IRL? Tell us about him/her.

I am a member of a few book clubs in my area. (See here for my Book Clubbers Anonymous post!) So far, none of them have been the stereotypical book clubs you see on TV that people make fun of. The people are great and we have a lot of fun discussing the books, among other things. 

But there's nothing like discussing a book with a girlfriend whom you relate to in many other ways. Lucky for you, she has an adorable blog called That is all, so you can go check her out! Ashley was the one that got me reading The Hunger Games. Every time I'd reach a certain climactic part in the book(s), I Couldn't wait to tell her about it, as she was ahead of me in the series. We've recommended books to each other, and a lot of the books on my to-read list came from her. I've also convinced her to go to some book club meetings with me where we'll be discussing The Hunger Games and Finny, where the author, Justin Kramon, will be joining us.

I also got my husband, B, to read The Hunger Games. He's a mathematician, so fiction isn't really his cup of tea. Of course, he LOVED it! I had so much fun discussing the series with him. 

Up until very recently, I haven't had anyone to discuss books with because none of my friends read the same books I did. Boy was I missing out! 

Who do you discuss books with?

BOOK BLOGGER HOP

Another great thing about Friday is the Book Blogger Hop, hosted by Crazy for Books.

This week's topic is:

"Pick a character from a book you are currently reading or have just finished and tell us about him/her."

I'm currently reading The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein. It is told by Enzo, a sweet, loyal, and loving dog. Yes, dog. I'm loving this book so far. Enzo is one of the most relatable non-human narrators there is. Enzo is loyal to his master and friend, Denny, as well as to Denny's wife and daughter. He goes through their hardships and joys just like a member of the family. Enzo believes he is different from other dogs, having a man's soul and hoping that he will be a man in his next life. To be honest, Enzo is a better person than a lot of human beings out there. I definitely recommend this book to everyone, especially all you animal lovers out there.

Hope you add this to your to-read list! To those of you who have already read The Art of Racing in the Rain, what did you think? No spoilers please! :)

Love and (a book) light,

~Dorothy

Book Blogger Hop -Guilty Pleasures!

Be sure to check out the host of Book Blogger Hop, Crazy for Books.

This week's question is:

Outside of books, what is your guilty pleasure?
When I read guilty pleasure, I instantly though of Air Supply. That's right, the ballads that your parents used to listen to. "All Out of Love", "Two Less Lonely People in the World", "Here I am (the One that You Love)", and other song dreched in tears and served with a side of heartache. I LOVE listening to these songs.

Anyway, what's your guilty pleasure?

Love and (a book) light,

~Dorothy

Book Blogger Hop -Me in a Series?

I've joined in on the Book Blogger Hop by Crazy for Books. This is a great way to discover other book blogs. Each week there is a question to answer, and this week it is:

Q: If you could physically put yourself into a book or series...which one would it be and why?


A: I would love to be in Agatha's Christie's books with Hercule Poirot. He is such a character, who wouldn't want to play Watson to his Sherlock?