The Sunday Salon: Thankfully Reading 2012 Wrap-Up

I hope everyone that celebrated had a lovely Thanksgiving - I love this opportunity to pause as the year comes to an end before the craziness of the holidays. Especially in the aftermath of Sandy, there is much to be thankful of this year and many reminders of how fortunate my family has been this year.  I spent the weekend at my parents house and enjoyed a lot of quality time with them catching up and planning for Christmas.

 Jenn of Jenn's Bookshelves and Jennifer from Literate Housewife hosted Thankfully Reading 2012 - an event where participants enjoy an unstructured read a thon and read as they can throughout the long weekend. Despite having very few plans, I got far less reading done than I would have liked. As a child, I read constantly but this weekend I wondered how I ever got any reading done in my house with the constant distractions. My parents feel the need to be in perpetual motion (the cleanliness and efficiency of their house is evidence of that) so there a few opportunities to just sit and read. I have concluded that I read a lot while waiting or in transit- as a passenger in the car while my parents drove, waiting for them during doctor's appointments or other errands or on the city bus to and from school. This weekend was no exception - I did the bulk of my reading/listening on the bus to and from the city, on my daily neighborhood walks and just before sleeping each night.


Despite the limited reading time, I finished The Bungalow by Sarah Jio and made a lot of progress on The Uncommon Appeal of Clouds by Alexander McCall Smith. The Bungalow is a delightful story and I was glad to escape into it for the weekend. So many bloggers have raved about this and other of the author's novels - I can see why. With The Uncommon Appeal of Clouds, I have discovered a new favorite audio narrator - Davina Porter. The book is set in Edinburgh and Porter does a beautiful job with the Scottish accents - I feel like I am listening to my grandmother speak. Another delight.

I also had the chance to sneak in some Small Business Saturday shopping at Booktowne in downtown Manasquan, NJ.  Manasquan had a lot of storm damage so I was encouraged to see so many people out shopping on Main Street on Sunday and the bookstore was packed. I got some great books for a little one in my life and it felt good to patronize a small business - especially one that lost weeks of sales thanks to the storm.  Please consider shopping locally this holiday when you can.



Ahh - the weekend is coming to an end but I know these good memories and reading delights will carry me through the week!

Sunday Salon: November 18, 2012: Shredding, Sign-Ups and Reading

Hope you all have had a nice weekend! Mine has been a mix of getting together with family and friends and chores. Actually chore (singular) - I have been a shredding ninja all day today. My shredder gave out a few years ago and I got into the bad habit of stockpiling items to be shredded in bags that I would strategically stash throughout my apartment with grand plans of bringing them somewhere to be securely shredded. Now that I purchased a new shredder, I paid penance today for that habit. The shredder has overheated a number of times and the pic below just shows a small product of my work (there were tons more bags!)

It really makes me think about the waste created with junk mail - I have done a lot to take myself off lists and to go paperless with a lot of billing - I cannot imagine if I did not do that. Corporate America - quit it with the paper! Anyhow - I have opened up lots of storage in my apartment and am free of the paper! I vow to stay on top of it from now on . . . .
  
Sign-Ups
 There are some great events around the book blogging world this time of year. One of my favorites is Virtual Advent. As a kid, I loved those advent calendars and this event is a slightly grown-up version of that. Each day between Dec 1st and Dec 24th, a blogger posts about some part of their holiday tradition - recipes, crafts, stories, etc. Last year I posted about my ornament collection and still need to figure out what I will post about this year.

Trish from Love, Laughter and Insanity has been hosting a Pin It and Do It challenge for a few months now to prompt people to actually do some of the things they obsessively pin on Pinterest (says obsessive pinner). I am about as far from crafty as one can get and have a slew of half-finished or poorly executed craft projects in my past but I am hosting the family for Christmas this year and would love to include a few of the great ideas I see on Pinterest. So I am joining the Holiday Pin It and Do It at the "Timid Pinner" level which means I will pin and do 1-3 items (I am ambitious but not masochistic).

 I am excited to see that Jenn from Jenn's Bookshelves and Jennifer from Literate Housewife are hosting Thankfully Reading this year! It's a relaxed celebration of reading on Thanksgiving weekend where participants check-in throughout the weekend and read as they can amidst the cooking, celebrating and eating! I am coming close to the finish line on my 2012 challenges and will, as per usual, use this weekend to try to make a dent in what is left!  


Reading

This week I finished the audiobook of The Shoemaker's Wife by Adriana Trigiani. I am late to this one - it's been popular with the bloggers all year - but I loved, loved loved it! I was sorry to say goodbye to the characters when the book ended. I also hosted a book club meeting for Little Bee. On the whole, everyone praised the writing and liked the story although some had problems with violence that makes up the backdrop of the novel. The group is reading The Walnut Tree for their next meeting. Have any of you read it or others by the author?
 

Hope you all have a great (and thankfully short!) week!

Thankfully Reading Weekend 2011

Happy (belated) Thanksgiving! I spent a lovely day with my parents enjoying Thanksgiving yesterday and even experimented with some gluten-free holiday fare for my first holiday season on a GF diet. There were some things I missed but all in all, I was happy with what I was able to cobble together. I hope you all enjoyed your Thanksgiving treats and spending the day with loved ones!

It is great to have a 5 day weekend - no work and lots of time to read! Jenn at Jenn's Bookshelves is hosting the Thankfully Reading weekend which offers a little community for those of reading with the extra spare time this weekend. I love this idea! Like last year, I am using the time to read some books that will help me finish my challenges for the year (help being the operative word because once again there will be some challenges I don't finish - when will I learn?) I made a nice dent today in O Come Ye Back to Ireland by Niall Williams and Christine Breen - I am really enjoying reading about this couple's first year living in rural Ireland after leaving NYC behind for the quiet, country life of the West of Ireland. The book is one of my selections for the Ireland Reading Challenge.

I have a few other books on the docket and hope to get to at least one more - I am also listening to an audiobook which I really enjoyed at the gym today (I usually am a music-only exerciser). A good friend is getting married in Annapolis tomorrow so I am heading down on the train in the morning. It will be good to see my college friends and help the bride and groom celebrate! The train will also afford me some uninterrupted reading time - "uninterrupted" is not guaranteed at home!

Do you have reading planned for the weeekend? What was your favorite part of Thanksgiving Day?

Thankfully Reading - Kick Off Post

Ahh - a four day weekend - pure bliss!  Although I do have some work to finish this weekend (end of year reviews at work - grrrr), I will largely be unscheduled this weekend - yay!  I am looking forward to settling in with some good books and taking part in the Thankfully Reading Challenge festivities. 

As I mentioned in my Sunday Salon post last week, I am desperately behind on challenges and have a lot of reading to do to finish up my 2010 challenges so I will be dedicating myself to books for challenges for the weekend.  Here is what's on deck:





Now, I just need my parents to leave me alone a bit so that I can READ!  Are you facing any disruptions during your Thankfully Reading Weekend?