Becky Wade's Blog, page 168

Inspired by Scripture

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8 Surprising Reading Habits

Bookworms are united by our shared love of reading! But we also access and interact with books in ways that are intriguingly diverse. On my Facebook author page I recently invited readers to share their unusual reading habits with me. I found their responses fascinating!

#1 To Re-read or Not to Re-read, That is the Question

“I can read books I love over and over and over. It’s like visiting old friends. I have even been known to finish a book, flip it over and start again immediately.” – Sara Brooks

“I’ve never re-read a fiction book. Too many other adventures are calling.” Caryl Kane

#2 Love/Hate Relationship with ‘Spoilers’

“I don’t read blurbs. If a cover (or author) doesn’t sell it for me, I’ll read first page or more to decide.” -Toni Shiloh

“I can’t stand reading book previews. Reading only part of a good book is even worse than only being able read part of a good series!” -Rachel Tanner

“I will not read a book if I know the ending. It ruins it for me. I want to enjoy the story as it unfolds and make predictions as I read (especially if it’s a mystery or crime drama).” -Lori Forrest

“I skip to the end and read the ending. Mostly when it’s stressful but also just to make sure it’s worth finishing.” -Lori Sweet

#3 Series Binge

“I don’t read books unless I have the whole series. I like to read them back to back without waiting for months for the next book to come out.” -Dawn Scott

“Before I retired, I had an older woman who always wanted the entire series. She was afraid she’d forget in between, or heaven forbid, die.” -Jude Zweibohmer

#4 Let Me Count the Ways We Lend/Buy/Keep books

“I’m strictly a library user. Every time I move the
library is one of the first places I find.” -Jude Zweibohmer

“I LOVE walking around in libraries but I don’t like to
borrow books from them. I like to own my books. love owning my books so I can
recommend them and let people borrow them. And, who doesn’t love bookshelves!?”
-Shelbie Groot

“I donate every book after reading. If it is on my
Kindle I delete it, even from the cloud.” -Melissa Parcel

“I have a small group of friends who share books. We take turns buying them and pass them around.” -Sandra DeWitt

#5 More is Better (When it Comes to TBR Piles)

“I have 422 unread books on my Kindle app. I can’t seem to stop getting books — a free one from a new author, a sale on my TBR list, the next one in a series I have read…..the list is never ending. I keep telling myself not to buy any more books until I’ve read most of what I already have, and then, wait! Let me check my email, I think there is a book listed I just have to have!” -Cindy Yake

#6 Thirty-One Flavors of Book Formatting

“I don’t have an e-reader. All paperbacks or hardback.” -Becky Grayson

“I used to have piles of books everywhere until my daughters gave me a Kindle for my birthday. Once I got used to that, it changed my life as I can get a book anytime of the day or night and when I travel I can take lot of books with me.” -Anne Wolters

“I just might have a physical, kindle and audiobook copy of a lot of favorites!” -June Hickenlooper

#7 Balance the Books

“I read multiple books at the same time. Like, instead of just reading one straight through and finishing it, I read a couple chapters of one and then a couple chapters of the other.” -Adrienne Everitt

“I love both contemporary and historical genres. But I can’t just switch from one to the next lickety split. It takes me weeks. I drag my feet.” -Hannah Mae

“I go through phases. I can devour book after book and then hit a time where I barely read at all.” -Ashlee Lowder

#8. Creatures of Habit

“I have a rule of once I read a book by a much-loved author, I don’t read that author again until I read 10 other books. This rule I rarely break and it helps me from binging.” -Nicole Femmerlid

“I can’t leave my characters in peril… as a result, I’m often up late reading until they’re “safe”. I also can’t stop reading unless I’m at the end of a chapter.” -Joy Tiffany

“I didn’t start reading until I was 32 years old. I even used to use the word “hate” reading. Now I am a binge reader and almost always finish a book in two days, three tops.” -Leslie Brown

I love that our approach to reading is as individual as we are! Do you share a reading habit mentioned here? Or do you have a surprising habit that wasn’t mentioned?

Christmas Thoughts Leading to 2020

Is anyone else having a hard time believing the New Year is only a few days away? 2019 has been a year of adventure and pain. Questions and joy. There’s somthing about ending on Christmas that helps settle my heart and prepare for what’s to come in the next year…and decade since we will soon turn the calendar to 2020. As we do, this is my desire and prayer:

Does anyone else need the reminder that who we are and what we can have in a relationship with God is because of Christmas? That Jesus would step out of heaven willingly, take on the cloak and restrictions of humanity, and submit Himself to being fully man and fully God? It’s a challenge to wrap my mind fully around that reality. The truth remains that without Christmas, there would be no Easter. Sobering thought, eh?

So, I hope your Christmas Eve was filled with carols and a reminder of what Jesus stepped into.

That you had moments with family and friends. We had friends over after the Christmas Eve service for very traditional Christmas enchiladas and games. Then watched White Christmas — the dialouge is soooo good in that one. Followed by learning two new games today as we had a quiet Christmas at home –very different from our usual tradition of spending it with generations in my family.

Maybe you wrapped presents into the wee hours like I did.

But my prayer for each of you is that as 2019 closes out that you will receive the best gift of all. That Jesus would fill the crevices of your heart and assure you He is with you. And that you would enter 2020 with a strong sense of Him in new and fresh ways. May 2020 be a year of new beginnings, strengthening of your faith and pressing it. And may you find a few good books to read while you’re at it. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

From All Of Us

Thanks so much for spending your year with us. From all of us to all of you, we wish you a Merry Christmas and a blessed New Year.

Robin, Lynn, Becky, Cara, Anne, Dani, Jody, Deb, Julie, and Tammy, and Karen.

For to us a child is born, to us a Son is given

One of the most sobering moments during my trip to Israel earlier this year was standing atop the Herodium—one of King Herod’s fortresses and luxurious palaces—and looking out toward Bethlehem, the birth place of Jesus.

Only three miles separate the two.

I took this picture standing atop the Herodium in Israel in April 2019.

Look straight out toward the two buildings that stand very close together in the far distance, just on the horizon. That’s Bethlehem. King Herod could literally look out his window and see Jesus’ birth place.

As I stood there in the ruins of the Herodium and stared out across that short expanse, I couldn’t help but think about how God intentionally chose not only that particular time in history to send His Son, but also that location—three miles from one of the most paranoid, hedonistic, insane megalomaniacs who ever lived—as the birth place for His one and only Son.

The Herodium, one of King Herod’s fortresses and luxurious homes located three miles from Bethlehem and eight miles from Jerusalem.



The Herodium in Israel



A depiction of what the Herodium looked like.



A description from the Herodium (taken from the sign above)

I’m just being honest here . . . If I had been in charge of where the Savior of all mankind would be born, I would have chosen some place far outside the reach of Herod. As in, the other side of the world!

But God did not choose according to what I would have chosen. Because He is God and, well, I am not.

God was not threatened by Herod, powerful and insane though the man was. God knew that Herod could do nothing to His Son without His approval. Without God’s allowing it. Nothing. Herod could not touch a single hair on Jesus’ tiny little head without God’s willing it to be so.

And it’s the same with you and me.

Nothing touches my life that doesn’t first filter through the loving hands of my heavenly Father. Nothing. Because God is sovereign. And if God is sovereign that means He’s in control. Always. Not just some of the time or when life is going well. But all of the time.

I’m not sure what kind of year you’ve had, but I need that reminder on occasion. I need to remember that Almighty God “has this” (whatever “this” is). That nothing can thwart His plan for your life or mine. And that (as Chuck Swindoll says) God never leans over the balcony of heaven and gasps. He’s never surprised.

God knew exactly what kind of world and what particular circumstances He was sending His Son into when Mary gave birth to Jesus in Bethlehem—three miles from King Herod who would seek to kill Him.

During Advent at our church this year, Jon Tyson (the preacher at one of our sister churches in NYC) delivered a sermon centered around the world that Jesus was born into—the culture, the political and economic climate—and he viewed the birth of Christ through King Herod’s influence during that time.

In short, the sermon was fascinating!

CLICK TO LISTEN TO JON TYSON’S SERMON

Learning more about the world Jesus was born into made me even more grateful for God’s sovereignty and mercy. I hope you’ll take a moment to listen. You can download either the video or audio and listen at your convenience. And I hope you will.

You’ll never look at the birth of Christ in the same way, I promise.

Now I’m off to start cooking for tonight and tomorrow, all while looking forward to the Christmas Eve service at church this afternoon. Because I’m eager to celebrate not only the birth of Christ, but God’s sovereignty and merciful love in providing a way for us to have relationship with Him. And that’s only accomplished through Christ.

Much love to you, sweet friends, on this Christmas Eve, and every blessing in 2020!

Tammy

My family and I managed to get away to Hilton Head last week. It was a fun trip! And while we do love each other dearly, the reason we’re huddled so closely together on the beach is because it was SO COLD!

Merry, blessed Christmas

By now, no doubt, it’s looking Christmas-y at your house or in your town. With just a few hours left for last-minute shopping and baking and decorating, if you’re not ready now, well, somehow it always seems to work out. And if there are only 11 dozen cookies on the dessert table instead of your usual 15 dozen, nobody will likely complain.

Inspired by Scripture

This Sunday feature is brought to you by ClashEntertainment.com. You may sign up to receive a beautiful photo with scripture in your inbox each morning or view the verse each day online.

What Causes a Reading Slump?

Every year I keep a running total of the number of books I read over on Goodreads. Unfortunately, the number of books I read this year is slightly lower than the past few years. I’ve still read 42 and have time to squeeze in a couple more. But that number is eighteen less than the 60 of the previous year.

Why didn’t I read as many books in 2019? As I thought about that question, it occurred to me that I’m probably not the only one in the world to ever have a drop in the number of books I’m reading.

As much as we love reading (and love promoting reading!), at times stuff happens that may prohibit us from reading as much as we’d like too. What are some of the reasons why an avid reader may experience a slump?

Here are just a few that I considered (make sure you chime
in the comments with your thoughts!):

Less time for reading: Although I firmly believe we all can make time for the things that are most important to us, I also realize that some seasons of life will be busier or more emotionally taxing than others. Life sometimes throws things at us that we weren’t expecting and leaves us with little energy or resources for doing even the things we love.

Too many choices: While more books are available than ever before, the abundance of choices can sometimes be paralyzing. Even when reading reviews, we’re left confused about whether to plunk down hard-earned money on a book we’re not sure we’ll like. Overwhelmed, we become more selective.

Fewer books catch our interest: After reading for so long, we know what we like and don’t like. We have our favorite authors and tend to gravitate toward those books while overlooking debut or newer authors that don’t really stand out.

Plots begin to feel repetitive or unoriginal: Again, after reading widely, we may feel a sense of déjà view, where the plots and stories begin to blur together. We peruse the book blurb and because it sounds similar to a story we recently read, we push the book aside (even if the reviews are stellar). 

Our tastes change: For a while, we may read everything ever written by a favorite author. But then for some reason, the author no longer holds our interest. Perhaps our tastes change or perhaps that author’s style changes. Whatever the case, we find that what once interested us no longer does.

More diversity means fewer standout books: With the enormous diversity of books and genres now being published, it has become harder for books to truly standout (like we saw happen with blockbuster hits like the Hunger Games). Readers are buzzing quietly about a hundred books instead of clamoring loudly about one or two. The low buzz (rather than a lot of noise) can make it difficult to know where to focus.

So what were the reasons I read fewer books this past year? For me, it was a combination of fewer books catching my interest as well as plots beginning to feel repetitive. I’m always on the lookout for another author I can add to my favorites list. So I’ll always keep trying new authors, but I have to admit, I’m growing more selective!

How about YOU? Have you ever been in a reading slump? What contributed to it?

Getting Crafty at Christmas

One of my favorite things to do at Christmas is to decorate the family tree. It’s no magazine showpiece. It’s a walk down memory lane. Photo ornaments from when my kids were babies. Ornaments they made in school. Ornaments we made together at home. The handmade ornaments are always my favorite.

As an avid
cross-stitcher, I love to make ornaments as gifts for others. My publishing
team has been on the receiving end of several such gifts. Here are the jar
ornaments I stitched for them last year.

One of my other favorite ornament-making activities is the handmade ornament exchange that we do in my Facebook group, The Posse, every year. This is our third year to do the exchange, and we generally have around 100 people participate, including members from other countries. This is the ornament I stitched this year:

We always share pictures with each other, and it is the highlight of my year to see all the wonderful creativity of our members. Since this is a book-loving group, many of the ornaments tie into books in some way. I’ve included a sampling of a few of my favorites from this year. You’ll see ornaments made from paper, some used actual book pages for their design. Others have fun with cover art. Some match the western theme of my books, and some capture the coziness of reading by the fire. Aren’t they great?

If you are interested in getting in on the ornament action next year, I’d love to have you join The Posse. Click here to join.

In my new Christmas collection, An Old-Fashioned Texas Christmas, the first story is a family reunion with the Archer brothers, with a focus on Jim and Cassandra Archer. In An Archer Family Christmas, Auntie Cass has a Christmas craft planned for her nieces. They are creating cornhusk angels to decorate the tree that the Archer males are busy cutting down. Here is the website where I found the instructions for a simple version of these homemade decorations that Cassie and the girls made with cornhusks, yarn, and scraps of fabric and lace.

How do you like to get crafty at Christmas?

Christmas Reads 2019

I love a good Christmas novel or novella as much as I love a good Hallmark Christmas movie. Of course there are the perennial favorites like The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, A Christmas Carol, Mr. Willowby’s Christmas Tree, and The Night Before Christmas. But every year there are other great stories set around Christmastime. Here is a list of what I’ve read and enjoyed this year:

Royally Yours—This delightful novella collection involves a Christmas-themed town in Vermont where Paparazzi is not allowed. In each story, a royal goes there to escape and meets their soul mate. Each story was fun and unique. Thanks, Melissa Tagg, Betsy St. Amant, Liz Johnson and Ashley Clark!

Christmas at Whitefriars—If you are a fan of Elizabeth Camden (as I am!) and have read her Empire State series, you will recognize the minor characters in this novella as the protagonists from A Dangerous Legacy and A Daring Venture. Of course, being set in England in the early 20th century this book was an immediate win for me. A very sweet story with an unlikely hero and heroine who find home in one another.

Like a Winter Snow—Lindsey Harrel’s contemporary tale, again with an English (actually Welsh) setting, was a sweet love story between two never-before-married 40 year olds. I haven’t yet had a chance yet to read the novel that the main character comes from, but I’m looking forward to it!

Holiday by Gaslight—Let me just gush a minute about how much I love Mimi Matthews’s books! I just discovered her a few months ago, and I can’t get enough! This was a very fun Victorian Christmas story about a woman from a titled but impoverished family and a self-made, wealthy man.

Last Christmas in Paris—I’ve halfway through this and loving it! I bought it simply for the title and the author, with no idea it was mostly an epistolary novel! I love a well-written novel through letters! (And it is difficult to write one well, in my opinion.)

Next up on my Christmas reading list: our own Karen Witemeyer’s An Old-Fashioned Texas Christmas (yay for the return of the Archer brothers!) and an old Grace Livingston Hill’s A Christmas Bride which I rediscovered while cleaning out my stored books. And if there is still some down time before the end of the year, possibly a re-reading of Rene Gutteridge’s Boo Humbug!

That’s my list for this year! How about you? Do you read Christmas novels/novellas? What has been your favorite this year?