Sunday Bookends: Thoughts on reading, didn’t see that deer coming, and Gladwynn’s second book coming out Tuesday

It’s time for our Sunday morning chat. On Sundays, I ramble about what’s been going on, what the rest of the family and I have been reading and watching, and what I’ve been writing. Some weeks I share what I am listening to.

This week I’m joining up with  Kimba at Caffeinated Reviewer , Deb at Readerbuzz, and Kathyrn at  The Book Date.

What I/we’ve been Reading

I don’t read as many books in a year as other people and this year I decided that was okay and I don’t care.

I sometimes do not finish books either and I decided this year I was also okay with that.

Every week or so my husband announces how many books he’s read so far in the year and I like hearing it. I like that he keeps track of it and that he reads over 80 books each year.

He was also a more avid reader than I was. I only started reading more books again in the last few years. I used to read all the time as a teenager, took a break in college and while working for newspapers and even while raising my son. Now I’m loving how reading has become an escape from the real world for me again.

For a while, I wanted to be like my husband and count all my books read and be able to announce the totals to him and the world.

There were several problems with this, though. One, I’m a slower reader. It isn’t that I read slow. It’s that I get interrupted a lot while reading a book so it takes me a while to finish one. People or pets aren’t always what interrupt me. Sometimes it is housework or homeschooling or my own writing or simply because I can’t seem to stay as focused as I used to.

I like that The Husband tells me his book count. It used to irritate me because I felt less than but now (okay in the last week) I let it go.

I don’t have to read a bunch of books in a year to be a reader. I don’t have to finish a book I started to be a reader because life it is too short to worry about competition in something like reading which is supposed to be relaxing and it is too short to keep reading a book you’re not enjoying.

There are also too many good books in the world to waste our time on a book that might be good but isn’t working for us personally.

I often think things like, “But this is a popular book. It’s on the NYT bestseller list. It must be good, right?”

Well, it may be that it is good for some and not for me and that’s okay.

I read a lot more than books during the year, as well – textbooks with the kids and blogs, articles, etc. So I do read a lot just not always full books. Again. That’s okay. If it is okay for me, it is okay for you.

If you’ve been holding on to all these imaginary ideas of what it means to be a reader and a book blogger or whatever – let them go.

We all have our own journey and path and just because we don’t inhale books like Galactus eats planets, we are still readers.

Anyhow…on to what I’ve been reading this week.

This week I have mainly been reading The Spectacular. Every other day I was reading a chapter from either Little Women or The Cat Who Talked Turkey (a cozy mystery). I dropped The Cat Who book last night because there was no mystery. It was driving me crazy. I was on chapter 4 and still nothing had happened other than Qwill looking for someone to narrate some presentation he was giving.

This book was one of the ones written later when people suspected Lilian Jackson Braun had gotten a bit too old to write and had a ghostwriter. It showed. I have a soft spot for the Cat Who books but I had to set aside for now because I have so many other books I want to tackle. Not every book in a series can be a winner.

I love reading Little Women a chapter at a time. I don’t mind dragging out the enjoyment of reading it because it gives me something to look forward to every night.

The Spectacular is fairly slow moving so far and I’m on Chapter 12. My husband insists that something is going to happen soon and I hope so because I’m a bit bored. I read a lot of boring books this year so in 2024 I am going back to Longmire and Anthony Horowitz to give myself some excitement. Those and some more Christian fiction because I know there are some good ones out there I haven’t read yet by authors like Nicole Deese.

I still haven’t finalized what I will read this winter but The Boy and I are reading The Tale of Two Cities for his English so I do know I’ll be reading that.

I also just ordered a Christmas regency-era book recommended to me by Erin at Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs.

Little Miss and I just finished The Black Stallion. Talk about boring and wordy.

She just wanted to watch the movie but I insisted we finish the book. Then I ended up skimming two chapters and getting us to the end because good grief there was way too much explanation and rambling in that book. I mean how many times could the dude describe what it was like for Alec to ride the horse? And for three to four pages every time. Plus the dialogue which was repetitive.

We are listening to The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson at night now. I read this book to her last year and I wouldn’t mind reading it again but one night I was too tired to read so we put the audiobook on and now she enjoys the narrator more than me (I think. She didn’t actually say it), so we are listening instead of me reading it.

The Husband is reading In The Blood by Jack Carr.

What’s Been Occurring

Last night The Husband, Little Miss, and I went to a Christmas parade about half an hour from us. We saw some of our friends and visited for a bit, The Husband took some photos for the newspaper and we headed home. On the way to the event and back we saw a ton of deer and had to put our brakes on more than once. About ten minutes after an eight-point buck that was blending in with the center line, turned and crossed in front of us, another deer came out of nowhere from the right and there was no missing it when it turned to go back in front of us. We slammed into it but I have no idea what happened to it, though I vaguely remember it darting off to the left.

It did some extensive damage to the front of our car, smashing in our left headlight and the body of the car in that same area, but allowing us to get home without any damage to us.

We were really very lucky considering I’ve heard stories of deer being hit that way and rolling up onto the hood and through the windshield.

We aren’t sure if our insurance will cover the accident since we adjusted our deductible to make our premiums less. We will find out more later this week but for now the car is parked in the garage. The deer left part of its fur under the edge of the hood.

All three of us were fairly shaken up and a bit in shock from it all so at first we didn’t think about how much the damage would cost us. I think we were all simply happy it wasn’t worse. There have been a lot of accidents in our area caused by deer lately and I’ve never seen as many as I have this year.

It is hunting season in our area right now so I don’t know if the deer are running wild because of that or not but driving is certainly nerve-wracking for now whatever the reason.

The Boy was at a friend’s house spending the night so I called to let him know about the incident. I also sent him some photos to which he replied, “She’ll be fine with some Flex Tape.”

Having the car out of commission is a bit sad for me as I finally had a car to drive that had heated seats and a stereo system I could patch my music into.

My husband gave me the car after he bought his truck, which we call Bambi Killer. Sadly, it has horrible gas mileage so we took the car to save on gas. Had we had the truck, there would have been very little damage to the vehicle but a lot to the deer.

What We watched/are Watching

This past week I watched Beyond Tomorrow, a fairly obscure Christmas movie from 1940. I wrote about it on the blog Thursday.

I also watched – or well, watched most of The Bells of St. Mary’s, which I hope to finish later today.

Little Miss and I watched A Christmas Carol Goes Wrong, which has become an annual tradition for us now.

We also watched Elfat Little Miss’s request.

I’m sure there will be other Christmas movies and specials on our list this upcoming week.

I also plan to continue watching Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman this week. I am rewatching it after last seeing it some 20 years ago when I was in high school.

I started Men In Kilts: A Roadtrip with Sam and Graham this past week as well. I enjoyed the first episode.

What I’m Writing

Gladwynn Grant Takes Center Stage comes out Tuesday in ebook on Amazon. Amazon messed something out with the paperback so it is out now.

I am working on Cassie and made a bit of progress on it this week.

On the blog this week I shared:

Saturday Afternoon Chat December 2: A hodgepodge of thoughts about my week and the week to come Six Historical Fiction Chapter Books for Children 8 to 12. Books you can read for fun or education Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot Comfy Cozy Christmas Movie Review: Beyond Tomorrow What I love about December and Saying goodbye to November Comfy, Cozy Christmas Posts and invite for you to join in

Erin and I are also hosting a Comfy, Cozy Christmas feature where other bloggers can link up their Christmas/holiday-themed blog posts. You can find the link up here:

https://lisahoweler.com/comfy-cozy-christmas/

What I’m Listening to

I listened to a lot of Needtobreathe’s The Cave this week.

Photos from Last Week

I didn’t take a ton of photos last week. I hope to remedy that this week and get my camera out more.

Here are a couple from the parade we went to a display in the town.

Now it’s your turn. What have you been doing, watching, reading, listening to or writing? Let me know in the comments or leave a blog post link if you also write a weekly update like this.