I’ve seen this quotation in several places lately. It’s from Sven Birkerts’ ‘The Gutenberg Elegies: The Fate of Reading in an Electronic Age’:
“To read, when one does so of one’s own free will, is to make a volitional statement, to cast a vote; it is to posit an elsewhere and set off toward it. And like any traveling, reading is at once a movement and a comment of sorts about the place one has left. To open a book voluntarily is at some level to remark the insufficiency either of one’s life or one’s orientation toward it.”
To what extent does this describe you?
  I read for a very simple reason…..enjoyment !!!!!  It isn’t that I am looking for fullfillment of an insufficiency of life or even orientation toward it.  Some people enjoy movies and/or tv.  Since I was in elementary school, I loved to have a book in hand and escape into a book.  My favorite genre is mystery/suspense but in real life I am a wimp when faced with scary situations.  I believe I have a very vivid imagination and would rather use my own visualization of the books I read instead of say. a movie director’s perception.  I recall images of books I read as a child to this day.  Very simple…enjoyment and the love of the written word.

  Today I will not go on my “Thursday Treasure” blog hunt, which can be computer time consuming.  I am behind in my reading and feel that today I am going to dedicate my time to reading.  I am behind due to activities of daily life issues that seem to get in the way of our reading schedules, but such are the priorities of life.  Here in New England this week, we have had days of rain, today too.  Since weather affects the pain level in my back, physical activity will be interrupted due to today’s forecast, I will be retreating to my reading chair, with my mug of coffee and hopefully get close to finishing, or if really lucky finishing, my current read.  So have a great Thursday and Happy Reading !!!!

  *What did you recently finish reading?
      Now & Then by Jacqueline Sheehan (awesome….gave it a 5 rating)
  *What do you think you’ll read next?
      Starting Over by Andy Serwer
I am a little behind schedule due to activities of daily life (lol thinking reading should be the priority over mundane chores) but am determined to catch up !!!

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          conundrum   ….solution to my literary conundrum……
      A Note from an Old Acquaintance   page 48
  1. riddle whose answer is or involves a pun
  2. question or problem having only a conjectural answerb. ban intricate and difficult problem

  *What did you recently finish reading?
      Now & Then by Jacqueline Sheehan (awesome….gave it a 5 rating)
  *What do you think you’ll read next?
      Starting Over by Andy Serwer
I am a little behind schedule due to activities of daily life (lol thinking reading should be the priority over mundane chores) but am determined to catch up !!!

Hosted by Bermudanonion’s Weblog http://bermudaonion.wordpress.com/
          conundrum   ….solution to my literary conundrum……
      A Note from an Old Acquaintance   page 48
  1. riddle whose answer is or involves a pun
  2. question or problem having only a conjectural answerb. ban intricate and difficult problem

Hosted by Should Be Reading http://shouldbereading.wordpress.com
Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:
*Grab your current read
*Open to a random page
*Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
*BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
*Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!
  My Teaser:
No, she hadn’t told him the whole story because she sensed, no she knew, it would have discouraged him, and she couldn’t bear the thought of that, either.
  From A Note from an Old Acquaintance by Bill Walker   page 114

Hosted By An Adventure In Reading http://raidergirl3-anadventureinreading/
  Its 1991 and I am in Boston with my friend Brian Weller, PR and want-to-be published author.  He has just met a wonderful woman, Joanna, but is there a future with her?

Hosted by Should Be Reading http://shouldbereading.wordpress.com
Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:
*Grab your current read
*Open to a random page
*Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
*BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
*Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!
  My Teaser:
No, she hadn’t told him the whole story because she sensed, no she knew, it would have discouraged him, and she couldn’t bear the thought of that, either.
  From A Note from an Old Acquaintance by Bill Walker   page 114

Hosted By An Adventure In Reading http://raidergirl3-anadventureinreading/
  Its 1991 and I am in Boston with my friend Brian Weller, PR and want-to-be published author.  He has just met a wonderful woman, Joanna, but is there a future with her?

Hosted by Just One More Page http://rebeccavoy.blogspot.com/
Today’s MUSING MONDAYS post is about keeping books.
Do you keep all the books you ever buy? Just the ones you love? Just collectibles? What do you do with the ones you don’t want to keep?
  There is no way I could have kept all the books I have ever read.  I have always dreamed about having a libray room with built-in floor to ceiling book cases and a few very comfortable reading chairs.  If that dream ever came true, my family would never see me, because thats where I would be.  However, even with that, I wouldn’t be able to store all of the books.  I try to pass on my books to family and friends that do enjoy reading.  If they feel that a book doesn’t interest them, I then donate to different organizations.  I could never put a book in the garbage.  That is just so wrong…to just toss it and not give someone else the opportunity to enjoy it.   I do keep those that have a personalization by the author.

 

Hosted by One Persons Journey Through A World Of Books http://bookjourney.wordpress.com
This is a meme to list the books completed last week, the books currently being read, and the books to be finished this week.
  Completed: Great Book…highly recommend 

 

Hosted by Just One More Page http://rebeccavoy.blogspot.com/
Today’s MUSING MONDAYS post is about keeping books.
Do you keep all the books you ever buy? Just the ones you love? Just collectibles? What do you do with the ones you don’t want to keep?
  There is no way I could have kept all the books I have ever read.  I have always dreamed about having a libray room with built-in floor to ceiling book cases and a few very comfortable reading chairs.  If that dream ever came true, my family would never see me, because thats where I would be.  However, even with that, I wouldn’t be able to store all of the books.  I try to pass on my books to family and friends that do enjoy reading.  If they feel that a book doesn’t interest them, I then donate to different organizations.  I could never put a book in the garbage.  That is just so wrong…to just toss it and not give someone else the opportunity to enjoy it.   I do keep those that have a personalization by the author.

 

Hosted by One Persons Journey Through A World Of Books http://bookjourney.wordpress.com
This is a meme to list the books completed last week, the books currently being read, and the books to be finished this week.
  Completed: Great Book…highly recommend 

 

Now & Then by Jacqueline Sheehan (Rating 5)
Harper-Collins Publishers
ISBN: 78-0-06-154778-2
At the request of the author’s friend, a PB copy was sent, at no cost to me, for my honest opinion.
  Synopsis (from book’s back cover): Anna O’Shea has failed at marriage, shed her job at a law firm and she’s trying to re-created herself when she and her recalcitrant nephew are summoned to the past in a manner that nearly destroys them. Her twenty-first-century skills pale as she struggles to find her nephew in nineteenth-century Ireland. For one of them, the past is brutally difficult, filled with hunger and struggle. For the other, the past is filled with privilege.
  My Thoughts: This was definitely not the type of book that I would have picked up for my reading pleasure. I also have to say up front that I misunderstood the synopsis of the plot in regard to time travel, given to me by Mr. Frank Daniels, the author’s friend, until I received the book. With all that said and the fact that there was a genuine warmth from Mr. Daniels’ initial email for his friend, I was going to try and give this book a fair and undivided attention that I would give books that are from my usual genre of books.
  The main character, Anna O’Shea was likeable and could be identified with, which pulled me into the book from the start. The author initially conveyed the fast paced corporate world of today where personal relationships are ships passing in the night until it’s too late to turn back or is it? What about other relationships where bitterness lies instead of forgiveness? Where childhood experiences mold us as adults or should we learn from them? Can love be found in the simple life, do we make our own happiness or do we depend on others? In a split second Anna and her troubled nephew, Joseph, are about to find out! The reader is taken back to Ireland in 1844 when the British ruled and owned Ireland. Do our ancestors mold our futures? Does the saying “history repeats itself” true?
  My Opinion and Rating:(Rating 5) This book was hard to put down. Amazing!! Interesting!! A little bit romance, mystery and history all in one book. The author’s writing style, nothing less than phenomenal, in the way she interweaves a gripping fictional plot with non fictional facts of history without boredom. The characters are bigger than life. I had a very hard time putting this book down. I thank Ms. Sheehan and Mr. Daniels for giving me the opportunity to read this exceptional story and I strongly recommend that everyone read this book.