Have books, but no time to read them!

I can not believe that four days have gone by with me not reading!!! I will never complete this task at this point!! Halloween preparations have kept me busy the last few days and I was sidetracked yesterday after a trip to the Sally Ann store netted me with a 500 piece polar express jigsaw puzzle and if I had to pick another favorite hobby of mine, it would have to be reading followed by doing puzzles. So I spent last night completing the puzzle with Nolan and Kolby. Perhaps tonight between trick or treaters, I will get a few chapters in. I can't even remember what book I was going to set out to read...Oh yeah, Anita Shreve's A Change in Altitude. I was so excited my friend, neighbor and fellow reading enthusiast Shelley just picked up a copy of P.C Cast and Kristin Cast's new book in the House of Night Series so once she finishes it, I will be adding that book to my list of fifty books, oh it's interesting how the list evolves and changes over the course of time :) I had just finished reading the first five books in the House of Night series before I started this journey of reading. It has been fun actually since starting this blog, I've been book marking my favorite Author's websites on my computer so I can keep up with their new releases and other interesting tidbits of information. I am finding Danielle Steel's blog very interesting right now if I could find the time to actually sit down and read some of it! I also discovered that Lori Lansens is having an interactive face book chat or something coming up here in November that I am going to try and remember to take part in.

For now, I must finish getting ready for the trick or treaters! Make sure my lights are lit up and that nothing is going to blow away on me tonight!! Happy Halloween Everyone!!!!!

Now what?

Book six is in the books. I finished Karen Kingsbury's Every Now and Then. This was the third book in her 9/11 series. I had read the other two years ago, in fact, One Tuesday Morning was the first Karen Kingsbury book I have ever read. Today I can say I've read them all. I keep tabs at her website as to when her new books are being released and the next one coming up next year is called Shades of Blue. Her books are probably the only ones I have come across that can make me cry. At the end of the book last night, the main character's dog died and that did it for me. And I'm not even a dog person :) Anyway, it's always nice to read something inspirational, I think we all need that Every Now and Then!

Shelley hasn't brought over the next Demon book yet so I think I will move along to an Anita Shreve book, A Change in Altitude. For weeks, while I was waiting for this book to arrive from the library, I thought the title was a Change in Attitude! Anyway, I have until November 4th to read it and return in so I'd better get at it. I believe this author has written about 15 books in total and I think I've read about 11 or 12 of them. I recall about a year ago, I'd picked one of her books up at the library and I couldn't get into to so I returned it unread!! I hate when that happens, but I tried!!

I discovered Anita Shreve while camping at Kenosee about three summers ago. We drove over to the red barn for the flea market and I picked up her book Fortune's Rocks. I finished it about 12 hours later :) Many of her books are set along the east coast where she is from, many of the books while not repeating the characters like some authors do, the setting repeats itself. Fortune's Rocks, The Pilot's Wife and Body Surfing all took place at the same location and the history of the house is talked about which made me think, how cool is that, I've read all those stories! Anita Shreve is right up there on my list of favorites. If I had to pick a favorite book of hers, it would be hard. I think Body Surfing was one of her best. She can write a great page turner whether it's set in the present day and time or 100 years ago. Perhaps when I've finished her two books I have on my list, I'll have to head to the library and try to find the book I never did finish. I think it was called Resistance and it was set during and after the 2nd world war I believe. Maybe that's why I found it so hard to get into. My husband is more the military history type of guy!

Five books Finished!

So here we are, almost two weeks into this little project. I have completed five out of the fifty books.

1. Songs of the Humpback Whale by Jodi Picoult
2. Take One by Karen Kingsbury
3. The Wife's Tale by Lori Lansens
4. Carpe Demon by Julie Kenner
5. California Demon by Julie Kenner

So after about 45 pages into the Deja Demon book, I decided that I had missed too much and I abandoned that book in favor of finding the second book in the series in my cluttered library room. I finished this book this afternoon after literally spending the entire Sunday in bed reading. I'm trying not to feel guilty about that, using the excuse that I'm still not feeling that great from this cold/flu but here I am sitting here Sunday evening knowing that no housework got done, no laundry to put away.

But that's all in the past. Tomorrow is another day and tonight I have started another Karen Kingsbury book, Every Now and Then. I've tired of the demon slaying suburbian housewife for now. Besides, Shelley has borrowed book three in the series, I'm sure I'll be able to start that book tomorrow!

Out of order!!

So I finished Carpe Demon by Julie Kenner last night. I guess you could call it a cute book in a 'chick-lit' sort of way. Just to be different, or maybe because I didn't want to get out of bed to grab California Demon, I grabbed Deja Demon which is apparently book four in this series of five or six. I've kind of lost track because these books have come into my possession fast and furious in the last couple of weeks. My friend and neighbor Shelley and I trade books back and forth across the street. I bought California Demon off of a discount table at Chapters and it sat on my shelf for about two years I'm guessing. Well she dropped by this summer to feed our cat while we were on holidays and she grabbed the book and really liked it. She then discovered that this book was number two in this demon hunting soccer mom series. I ordered book one from the library, that was the book I finished last night. I bought what I thought was book three in Saskatoon, the weekend I decided enough was enough, no more buying books for this lady! Shelley read Deja Demon and realized it wasn't book three but book four so I searched the library website again and ordered book three which I think may be waiting at the library for me now. While searching for that book, I came across another title which I think might be book five and Shelley just picked another one up at Chapters this week which she is currently reading right now, making my head spin thinking when am I going to have time to read all these books??

So to make a long story shorter, last night I rolled over, grabbed the book off my nightstand and decided to throw caution to the wind and read these books out of order, surely each book is good enough to stand alone on its own. But right from page one, I realized, maybe I shouldn't have been so lazy and grabbed the second installment off the shelf in our book room. I've obviously missed an important part of the story line by doing such a silly thing. But I think I'll get over it!

For now lets just say I'm now on the fifth book of my journey which means when it's finished, hopefully later tonight I will be ten percent of the way into this journey, but for now, I'm off to the library, they called while I was blogging. I think I have two more books waiting for me :)

From one extreme to another

It's funny, how different one book can be from another. I went from reading about a middle aged, frumpy wife whose husband took off from their life together to the book I am reading now where the wife is young, athletic, has children, a hard working devoted husband and a sense of purpose in her life as she is the first woman demon hunter I have had the pleasure of reading about. I'd like to say I'm hooked on Kate Conner's character since I have two more books about her to read. Again, it could be because I'm still feeling tired and run down but this book isn't at the top of my favorite list yet. However, it is an incredibly easy read and I am over halfway through the book, so I'm making great progress with my goal and that is something to be proud about. I may not be a demon hunting soccer mom but I am a super reading machine of a mom soon to be a paper rolling machine of a mom since I skipped our Thursday night ritual to stay in bed and plow through my book!!

Kind of a let down

So three down, 47 more to go. While I finished The Wife's Tale by Lori Lansens, it left me disappointed. In the end of the book, Mary Gooch does not even find her husband! It's like the author got tired of writing the book, figured she had enough pages to call it a book and called it quits! In a way, I find it quite Canadian of her in the sense that Lori Lansens, is somewhat like another favorite Canadian author of mine, Miriam Taevs. Both have a cast of quirky characters in every novel, setting their stories apart from many of the current popular novelists on the market today. Their plots, you wonder if they were on some sort of an acid trip while devising each story line and the settings, well many of their novels branch out in the fact that the characters are compelled to take a trip into the good old U. S. of A. Maybe this appeals to a broader range of readers?

Maybe I had hoped for some sort of reconciliation at the end of the book, maybe the practical side of me demanded that Mary head back home to the country she lives in and take care of the things she left behind in Leaford, Ontario. I mean, she and her husband were both gone for weeks, who was paying their utility bills and being accountable for their home, workplace, friends they left behind? What was the woman going to do when her bank account ran out? I don't know, maybe because I read this book while suffering from one of the worst head colds I've had in years, I happened to miss out on some of the key elements of the book. Maybe because I feel like I'm on a deadline of sorts I needed to rush through the book. Either way, I would have to say, if you are going to read one of Lansen's books, check out The Girls. It was a page turning, thought provoking book that didn't disappoint. The Wife's Tale....wait until your drugged up on Tylenol Cold and Flu to read this one!!

Now on to the next one. I think I will dive into a book that is sure to be a fun read. I have three books in Julie Kenner's 'Demon Hunting Soccer Mom' series. I have a feeling it's not going to be as deep as the Twilight series and I should be able to polish off the first book in a couple of days, just in time for me to return it to the library!! Carpe Demon here I come!

Too sick to read????

Doesn't that sound ridiculous? Well last night after a scalding hot bath, I hopped into bed and went straight to sleep drugged up on Niquil and Tylenol Cold and Flu. I remember my husband telling me he was sleeping on the couch and that was about it. So even though I'm dying to see how this book turns out, there was no reading done last night. Maybe tonight!