Reading with Style discussion
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I'm getting close to an RwS finish. I am working on my last task (Best of the Decade). I'm reading A Little Life which is 700+ pages, so I'm not zipping through it. I also started The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared on audio for the same task, so we'll see which one I finish first. I hope to finish the sub challenge as well. I'm really enjoying my books this season!
Valerie wrote: "Ed wrote: "I'm on track to get the Mega and maybe a 2nd round of CYOA. I haven't been posting as much as I usually would because I have several books going at once..... one at bedside, one downstai..."Well...if I were to get a job during my retirement..... the library would definitely be at the top of the list. But, I am not one of those people bored in retirement. Frankly, I can't understand how I did all the things I did do while I was working. Of course, when I was working...I was lucky if I finished more than two non-work related books in a year.
Ed wrote: "I am not one of those people bored in retirement."I'm not one of those either, and, in fact, don't understand people who don't seem to be interested in things other than work. (Are there enough negatives in that sentence?)
Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Ed wrote: "I am not one of those people bored in retirement."I'm not one of those either, and, in fact, don't understand people who don't seem to be interested in things other than work. (Are the..."
LOL
Ed wrote: "Valerie wrote: "Ed wrote: "I'm on track to get the Mega and maybe a 2nd round of CYOA. I haven't been posting as much as I usually would because I have several books going at once..... one at bedsi..."We have a running joke with our dear friend who retired 15 years ago or so...... she is the busiest person we know. It's hard to know when to phone her 'cause she is never home! She lives in Toronto which has amazing resources (mostly free) for people to take advantage of - like lectures or concerts. She also has memberships at various museums, art galleries, film series..... So, yes, there is no time for work!
Valerie wrote: "Ed wrote: "Valerie wrote: "Ed wrote: "I'm on track to get the Mega and maybe a 2nd round of CYOA. I haven't been posting as much as I usually would because I have several books going at once..... o..."Yes...of course a large chunk of my time is devoted to reading. But we subscribe to 3 different playhouses; go to the movies fairly often; until recently had passes to Sea World and the Zoo; have a regular schedule to meet friends for lunch each week; bowling league on Thursday nights; go to the pool and jacuzzi or beach; some baseball games (Padres) during the season...and of course...a I also do a lot of traveling. Retirement has been the best part of my life...no question!
oh...and with my DVR 67% full...I have been setting aside more time to watch my recorded shows as well as some great shows on Netflix...truly the golden era of television, methinks. My watch list overfloweth.
Retirement for me means not having to be constantly entertained, to rush everywhere, and be busy all the time. While I do now look forward to my bi-monthly face to face book club, I rarely (except doctor/dentist) set myself up to be somewhere at a particular time.
Ed wrote: "Valerie wrote: "Ed wrote: "Valerie wrote: "Ed wrote: "I'm on track to get the Mega and maybe a 2nd round of CYOA. I haven't been posting as much as I usually would because I have several books goin..."I went from over 200 shows to 134 shows in my DVR and down to 48 % full.
Jayme(the ghost reader) wrote: "Ed wrote: "Valerie wrote: "Ed wrote: "Valerie wrote: "Ed wrote: "I'm on track to get the Mega and maybe a 2nd round of CYOA. I haven't been posting as much as I usually would because I have several..."That's impressive....I started my effort while at 65% full...got it down to 60% and then with the new season of shows...I'm already back up to 67%...that represents 459 recordings!
If you reach 100%, the dvr can't record any new shows until you watch some and make some space.
I am 2/3 of the way through the challenge but annoyed at some of my in progress books because I can't seem to read more than a few pages at a time, but I like them enough I don't want to try to replace them. I did dump a few books along the way this season, too. So we will see how it goes.
Ed wrote: "I'm on track to finish the Mega and maybe a 2nd round of CYOA. I haven't been posting as much as I usually would because I have several books going at once..... one on my kindle, one at bedside, on..."We are so alike! It seems to baffle my family why I’m reading several books at once. A bedside hard copy, a bathroom book (usually short stories haha), a kindle book for waiting in doctors’ offices or if I can’t have the light on and an audiobook for housework, exercise and driving!
By the way I see you gave a written review for Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother's Will to Survive but you didn’t give it any stars. You seemed to appreciate it. I’ve just read it and was looking for group 5 stars and you’re the only one besides me in the group that has read it.
I have contacted the Lexile people after getting two false negatives on the new Lexile site today. I did think the old site was going to be inaccessible by now, and I'm glad Karen let me know it is still working. I'll wait to see what the people have to say and will try to use the old site instead.
I’m glad the old site still works—- it’s just the one I’ve always used, so I forgot there even was a new one!
I can't access the old site without it telling me there is the new one!
That’s weird. I just keep the tab up on my computer and search the book I want. Could you get to the link I sent? I think I went to the search as a librarian. I remember it being tricky to find the page I wanted, so that’s why I leave it up.
Yeah, no problem, but I don't leave the link open because if I did that with everything I use, I'd have 50 tabs open. So I have it bookmarked and only use it when I'm doing scorekeeping. This is the link I use (for the old site, I finally bookmarked the new site instead of going through hoops):https://fab.lexile.com/
Rebekah wrote: "Ed wrote: "I'm on track to finish the Mega and maybe a 2nd round of CYOA. I haven't been posting as much as I usually would because I have several books going at once..... one on my kindle, one at ..."Yes... Rebekah...different books and media for different purposes and venues.
But as to the book you mentioned....I have not read that one. I don't know where the misunderstanding came from.
Ed wrote: "Rebekah wrote: "Ed wrote: "I'm on track to finish the Mega and maybe a 2nd round of CYOA. I haven't been posting as much as I usually would because I have several books going at once..... one on my..."Figured it out. Different Ed. Actually an author I was following. I had typed the book in our bookshelf search, but when it came up, I see I had to click on group reviews to get only the reviews by group members.
But he must have sensed my question because he gave it five stars!
Rebekah wrote: "But he must have sensed my question because he gave it five stars!"Not sure where you're looking, Rebekah, because yours is the only member 5-star rating for Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother's Will to Survive.
Rebekah wrote: "Ed wrote: "Rebekah wrote: "Ed wrote: "I'm on track to finish the Mega and maybe a 2nd round of CYOA. I haven't been posting as much as I usually would because I have several books going at once......."LOL
Post 509 Anika wrote: "10.2 AnniversaryStill I Miss You by Inês Pedrosa
+10 Task
+10 Female
+10 L-i-T (translated from Portuguese)
Set in Portugal, which should make that GREEN on our group project spreadsheet :-)"
YAY! And I love love love how you all are keeping an eye out for our project. We'll have another task for our project, but maybe not until summer.
Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Post 509 Anika wrote: "10.2 AnniversaryStill I Miss You by Inês Pedrosa
+10 Task
+10 Female
+10 L-i-T (translated from Portuguese)
YAY! And I love love love how you all are keeping an eye out for our project. We'll have another task for our project, but maybe not until summer. "
I get so excited when I can find a book that gets us a step closer to that goal...I so much want to see us complete it! And I'm super-excited at the prospect of a new group task!! Thank you again for all of your time and talent spent with this group...you and Kate are simply amazing!
Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Rebekah wrote: "But he must have sensed my question because he gave it five stars!"Not sure where you're looking, Rebekah, because yours is the only member 5-star rating for [book:Maid: Hard Work..."
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I think the hardest task for me this time was finding a book actually described with the words “sense of place”. When I tried to find lists with it, I couldn’t find it so I started one of my own. Please feel free to add to it because others of us can use your rating as description for that bookhttps://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...
Of course when I tried to find my list again, I found this one
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...
I’m not sure how Goodreads decides how to organize the lists because the first 2 pages that came up with the key words “sense of place didn’t have any of those words in their list titles.
Anyway I also have a bookshelf named “sense of place” with a lot more books on it.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/list...
Got an answer from Lexile this morning:After launching the Hub we quickly became aware of some bugs in our Quick Search feature. Our engineering team is hard at work putting solutions in place. Thank you for your patience while we get the Find a Book tool working as intended. The old site will be available for approximately 90 days.
I've completely failed in any attempt to read more books than I'm buying. There are just too many good books being offered at bargain basement prices. This morning I found the 2nd in the Donna Leon's Brunetti series, Death in a Strange Country. I've been building up books in this series as I have so enjoyed my time spent with Inspector Brunetti. Then a surprise for me. Niall Williams' This Is Happiness was offered this morning and I decided I had to have it. It was not on my radar, but he is the author of my group reads offering History of the Rain, to which I gave 5-stars.
Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "I've completely failed in any attempt to read more books than I'm buying. There are just too many good books being offered at bargain basement prices. This morning I found the 2nd in the Donna Leon..."This makes me happy..... not that you are failing(!) -but that I can feel like I'm not alone in my book problem! ha, ha..... I feel like working at the library has made it 10x worse, because people donate books to sell, either at the big book sale or in our little book sale room + so, I am lost!
I know I've said this before, but I really want to make a super human effort to only use owned books for next season.
I think I go in streaks. I'm really good for a short time, and then I just come unloosed and can't control myself. I would very much like for you to believe those are the only two I've bought in the last week, but that would be a con job, for sure.
Enquiring minds want to know..... Are you going to take an aggregate of Polls 1 + 2 to come up with the winners?
Valerie wrote: "Enquiring minds want to know..... Are you going to take an aggregate of Polls 1 + 2 to come up with the winners?"Kate and I haven't talked about that specifically.
Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Valerie wrote: "Enquiring minds want to know..... Are you going to take an aggregate of Polls 1 + 2 to come up with the winners?"Kate and I haven't talked about that specifically."
I didn't mean to put you on the spot. I was just having some fun imagining if the polls both show NF as the winner that you guys will have us reading real serious NF.... like science textbooks to get style points! ha, ha.......
I see female has pulled ahead since I posted this morning. So, I will continue to watch with baited breath! Better, and cheaper, than a horse race.
Valerie wrote: "I was just having some fun imagining if the polls both show NF as the winner that you guys will have us reading real serious NF.... like science textbooks to get style points! "Haha indeed! But you just wait - that might be an option for you anyway!
Valerie wrote: "I was just having some fun imagining if the polls both show NF as the winner that you guys will have us reading real serious NF.... like science textbooks to get style points! "I was wondering about this category because it says it will include everything that is not a novel, but that would mean short stories, which are surely fiction...?
Rosemary wrote: " but that would mean short stories, which are surely fiction..."We could just as easily have used Not a Novel for the poll. But our sub-challenge per book bonuses in the database have a different name because they work on a different group of tasks. and that is what came to mind when we were setting up the poll. Thus, the not a novel clarification.
The polls close tomorrow, Friday, at midnight Pacific. Have you voted? If you have, do you want to reconsider your vote? Unlike elections, vote changing is allowed.
Jayme(the ghost reader) wrote: "I got a new journal for Christmas so I have a whole new book to fill up. :)"Are you a regular journalist 😀? I’m so bad! I got one too and my last date was January 10! 😞 I try almost every year and can’t seem to stay with it. I’m really mad at myself for not being a diary keeper especially when we lived overseas.
Jayme(the ghost reader) wrote: "On a different note, I was wondering if there is anyone in the medical field on here. Today I was with my family for a Christmas pageant. Afterwards, we went to a restaurant. The mom gave my niece ..."Oh Jayme! So sorry! I’m just now seeing this post! So what happened? Did it happen again? I was a pedi nurse, haven’t practiced in years but sometimes kids do that. Well sometimes adults do it too! It could be just whatever was in the environment at the time, maybe that particular brand of yogurt, or maybe it wasn’t refrigerated properly and something grew, or maybe the napkins at the restaurant, or if it had a playground, maybe whatever they used to wipe it down or even the tables. It might not ever come back. My son used to break out randomly for no reason, but one thing I started doing which might have helped was to use a little more than half, maybe 2/3 the detergent that is recommended. The clothes come out just as clean and I haven’t noticed any breakouts in several years. But if it keeps reoccurring, it might be the brand of soap. My oldest breaks out with Tide.
I’m assuming she hadn’t been on any new medication or anything? I always kept a bottle of Benadryl liquid handy especially living in the woods. Anyone stung by a bee or bitten by fire ants gets an immediate dose. My kids are so lucky! I’d get stung and my whole foot would swell up, then itch so bad! It really does keep the reaction down.......plus gives the a nice nap 😉
Joanna wrote: "Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "And off the top of my head, I could recommend Irène Némirovsky."Oh, that's a good suggestion. I've read two of hers and liked them. I should investigate whether my libr..."
I recommend this book, that I sort of found accidentally and turned out it had won some awards. It takes place in Barcelona just after their civil war. Nada by Carmen Laforet
The are also quite a few Scandinavian Noir authors who are female, if you like mysteries. Maj Sjöwall, Helene Tursten, Yrsa Sigurðardóttir and Camilla Läckberg that I can think of right now. Did you look at our bookshelf? Of course you did! I just though that because The Ice Princess was on there
Ed wrote: "Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Let's avoid politics, please."Yes...I was trying to be humorous not political...but yes."
whisper, whisper........I was kinda wondering the same thing myself....ok just act natural So, Ed read any good books lately? How’s the weather where you are?
Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "I'm heading to Phoenix tomorrow (Sunday) for my older granddaughter's wedding on Thursday. I'll return late Friday. I will have access, but may be busier with family and not checking in too often. ..."How was your trip? Was the difference between the two locations a big shock to the system? We went to Galveston with my Dad. My niece lives there and my Dad the twins and hubby had yet to meet her new baby even though she was about 21 months by then, I got to see her last year and was looking forward to seeing how she had grown. My brother lives in San Antonio so he came and spent a few days as well as some family from Houston. I had gone to nursing school in Galveston so was able to see old friends too!
The best part was this. My parents had gotten slides as a wedding gift of the whole thing from bridal shower to leaving for honeymoon. Then my dad continued to take slides until about the time I graduated from high school. Anytime any family came we’d get out the slides and they might remember the wedding or the Thanksgiving at my grandparents and it was fun. There are hundreds of them but over time we all got busy. When my Mom passed, I inherited tubfulls but apparently she had gotten rid of the projector and it required a particular type. Do you know how difficult it is buy a Sears slide projector from 1960’s? First I had to find out what model it was. Dad couldn’t remember and I was never allowed to touch it but eventually be figured it out. Then finding one and one that worked! I felt like I was trying to buy a special harness for my carriage!! I did get the right one from eBay but nobody could make it work. But I took it and some slides of us as babies on the trip to show our kids and grandkids because I had faith in my brother. And he did get it fixed!
The main thing was after Mom died the Funeral home was going to make a slide show of her life. I was able to put the slides on my iPad light and see itsy bitsy people to photograph, but they were not the best and I also noticed the slides were deteriorating! 😱 I’m going to take them to that place that will put them on a thumb drive but wanted my dad to look at them and identify somethings. There were pictures of trees and damage from some windstorm way back when no one knows where and just random groups of people. Like I said, there are hundreds of slides and it can get expensive so he needed to tell me if that was a picture of his grandmother and her sisters or just some people standing around in the park.
It was fun and great memories. Fun to show the kids.
Well, I guess I just wrote a journal entry! 😃
Silly me! I just saw I was answering posts from way back! I was wondering why there were no posts after New Year. Now I see I had even posted on the current page before. 😜
Rebekah wrote: "Do you know how difficult it is buy a Sears slide projector from 1960’s? "We bought a machine that copies slides to a chip and then can copy the images to a DVD for playing. We also have a machine that will copy old 8mm film to a chip and makes them MP4s. I found a free program that will convert MP4s to DVD. Lots of people in town have old film, and my husband has been helping them see their old films. The machine doesn't clean up the film, but at least they can see them, and if they want/need them better, they can spring for the professional.
Rebekah wrote: "How was your trip? Was the difference between the two locations a big shock to the system?"
Thank you for asking. Phoenix was mid-60s and a very pleasant change from what had been a snowy week. Coming home was the big shock - that next week some days didn't climb into the teens.
My granddaughter was a beautiful bride and the wedding was wonderful - outdoors at sunset. It was good seeing everyone, my San Diego daughter was there, and extended family from my former son-in-law who I haven't seen for years. And so much fun seeing my great granddaughter, who is busy busy busy and trying to talk some.
Rebekah wrote: "Jayme(the ghost reader) wrote: "On a different note, I was wondering if there is anyone in the medical field on here. Today I was with my family for a Christmas pageant. Afterwards, we went to a re..."It only happened that one time. She was tested for food allergies and nothing came up. I was just curious. Thank you for your help.
Anticipating the sub-challenge poll result, Kate and I have been working on what I hope you will think is a fun sub-challenge. You have inspired us!
Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Anticipating the sub-challenge poll result, Kate and I have been working on what I hope you will think is a fun sub-challenge. You have inspired us!"That sounds exciting!
Looking forward to seeing what you and Kate plan for the sub-challenge, Elizabeth.
Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Anticipating the sub-challenge poll result, Kate and I have been working on what I hope you will think is a fun sub-challenge. You have inspired us!"Sounds like fun, can't wait!
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I noticed you had more to post this season! Nice!