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[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

Thank you for your help! Kate and I have started talking about summer. We hear you loud and clear about your concerns for library access. We have our own ideas, too, so hopefully there will be a surprise or two. Still, if you have more thoughts, we're all ears.

[Karen Michele]

I would love to have something like the Blackjack task for books 80-100 pages (or maybe even 70:)

[Anika]

I know this wouldn't be terribly fair to our non-U.S. members, but I have a lot of books on my shelf that I've read and don't really plan on keeping. I normally give them to my local Goodwill or leave them at the crew lounge for other flight attendants/pilots to take, but I'm off work for the next two months and would be more than happy to send them out to Reading with Style members who'd be interested in those books to help them fulfill tasks until libraries open again... Domestic media mail prices at the USPS are pretty inexpensive and I wouldn't mind paying for it--cheaper than my cup of Starbucks that I'm not getting anymore ;-) Unfortunately, those rates only apply to addresses in the U.S., so I wouldn't be able to help out anyone abroad :-/
Once I have a list of titles available, I'll post it and if you want a book to help you fulfill a task just message me with your address and I'll send it your way.
Unless that is somehow breaking a RwS protocol/etiquette, in which case never mind...

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

Such generosity! We have no policy prohibiting that, Anika.

[Ed]

Anika wrote: "I know this wouldn't be terribly fair to our non-U.S. members, but I have a lot of books on my shelf that I've read and don't really plan on keeping. I normally give them to my local Goodwill or le..."


yes.... very generous offer Anika. TY!

[Anika]

So, I have fewer than I thought (apparently my husband took a box to Goodwill without my realizing it when I was last at work :-/ )...but do have a giant TBR pile and am more motivated to complete them now and will add them here as soon as I can pass them along ;-)
These are books prepared to go to a new home:
The Powerbook by Jeanette Winterson
A Blind Man Can See How Much I Love You by Amy Bloom
The Art of Happiness by Dalai Lama XIV
A Field Guide to Getting Lost by Rebecca Solnit
The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver
The Little French Bistro by Nina George
Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney
Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys

[Valerie]

That's very nice, Anika! I have another GR friend who has mailed me (very) difficult to get 1001 books, twice now. Unfortunately, the last time was just as COVID was heating up, so they are stuck at our US post box (since I can't cross the border now)! At least they won't go bad..... :)

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

It's Halfway Eve! How is everyone doing?

I feel I'm ahead of schedule, whatever "schedule " is. I'll finish Blackjack by the end of the month. Chugging along on RwS tasks.

[Lynn]

I have not read very many books, but they have been good. I really like the Group Reads selection I am currently reading: The Travelling Cat Chronicles.

[Bea]

I know that it will not surprise anyone, but I am struggling a bit with my reading completion, partly because my concentration has flagged. Therefore, I have made little headway with the challenges.

I have managed to read 3 of my blackjack books...and own 2 others. I have also read 3 of the other challenges and own 3 more. That is about all I will get done as my plans, as always, are very library dependent.

My only hope of doing better is finding spots for the other books that I am reading.

[Bea]

I am really missing my libraries. I still have 3 books out on loan, so I am OK for now....but, I really miss going to the library.

[Valerie]

I am way 'ahead of schedule', because I stress read. (Which I guess is better than stress eating! ha, ha.....). So I am making hay while the sun shines, and trying to move some owned TBRs from the 'pile' to the donation box.

[Jayme(theghostreader)]

My library is closed until May 1, so far.

[Ed]

I'm ahead of schedule too.... but constantly juggling my original plan because the books aren't available. I'm so lucky that I was able to figure out how to download library books right before this all began. Having said that, NOT all library books are available in that format. I did buy three books through Ebay....which I hate to do....but it was only about $12 total.
I am lagging on listening to the audio books I had planned. I always have one book going in the car...but not driving very much these days. Also listen to books while out for my semi-daily walks.... but I haven't been doing those walks as regularly either.

[Lynn]

I am very far behind on my normal reading schedule. This year I had to make my health a priority which means a lot more cooking for myself and more sleeping. I was diagnosed as diabetic in 1993. My third child was just a few months old and I had lost too much weight after his birth....dangerously so. I have controlled it with diet until last Oct when I had to go on medicine. Mostly age is catching up with me. But I am quite sure I will read more in the summer, especially since many of the little jobs around the house are getting finished early thanks to the quarantine.

[Deedee]

My local bookstore, Books-A-Million, is open! I was so surprised. They have a limit of 10 people at a time in the store. (It was just me and the store clerk today.) And .... the cafe is closed. I guess new books are an "essential service" LOL

[Deedee]

Bea wrote: "I am really missing my libraries. I still have 3 books out on loan, so I am OK for now....but, I really miss going to the library."

I feel the same way. The library website says the books are due back in the library on May 5, so I'm hopeful the library will open then. However, the website also says that the library is closed "until further notice".

[Lynn]

Deedee wrote: "My local bookstore, Books-A-Million, is open! I was so surprised. They have a limit of 10 people at a time in the store. (It was just me and the store clerk today.) And .... the cafe is closed. I g..."

That is surprising. Honestly, I really don't know what is open because I have only left the house 3 times in 6 weeks and each was to go to the grocery story.. We did get the official notice today that school is finished for the rest of this year. We have yet to be told how we will close down and clean out the classrooms, collect the textbooks, or when the students can get their belongings from their lockers.

[Valerie]

I just saw this in another group, and thought I'd share it here:

Amazon is having their World Book Day promotion. There are nine books are now free for download.

https://www.amazon.com/article/read-t...

[Karen Michele]

Valerie wrote: "I just saw this in another group, and thought I'd share it here:

Amazon is having their World Book Day promotion. There are nine books are now free for download.

https://www.amazon.com/article/re..."

Thanks so much! I got most of them:)

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

Oh, thank you. I remember getting several last year and was wondering if/when they'd do it again.

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

And others - please see that one of the group reads is free. The Price of Paradise. I am thrilled about this.

[Lynn]

I looked at all the offerings and thought The Price of Paradise looked best, and bonus it is a group read. Thanks for telling us.

[Anika]

Thanks for the reminder on World Book Day! I love a good free kindle book :-)

Lynn! I'm so glad that you loved The Travelling Cat Chronicles, too! Your review made my day. It always makes me happy to share a good book with a friend.

[Valerie]

Oh good! You're welcome! I was hoping my RwS pals could take advantage. I picked up 5 of the 9. The Price of Paradise was on my TBR, so that was an extra bonus!

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

I picked up just two of them - but free! - I might go look at a couple more.

[Valerie]

Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "I picked up just two of them - but free! - I might go look at a couple more."

Ha, ha... free was the selling point for a couple of them. They are rated well enough, so we'll see if I like them.

[Lynn]

Anika wrote: "Thanks for the reminder on World Book Day! I love a good free kindle book :-)

Lynn! I'm so glad that you loved The Travelling Cat Chronicles, too! Your review made my day. It alway..."

: )

[Bea]

Valerie wrote: "I just saw this in another group, and thought I'd share it here:

Amazon is having their World Book Day promotion. There are nine books are now free for download.

https://www.amazon.com/article/re..."

I just saw this...and was able to pick up 6!

[Denise]

Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "It's Halfway Eve! How is everyone doing?"

I am half-way through Round 2 of Blackjack, and enjoying it so much that I think I will do Round 3. Then I will resume my Celia Fremlin/Patricia Highsmith binge. It was hard to choose between an RWS finish or repeating Blackjack. But I chose Blackjack because I am indulging myself through this wretched time we are in by reading books I am especially eager to read. It was a hard decision; the Mods wrote great tasks this season, as always.

[Bryony]

After having big plans for this season I seem to have fallen into the longest reading slump I can remember. I’ve only read two books this month. I’m not sure if it’s because I’m distracted because of worrying about the current situation, or if I’m just too tired to read after spending my days entertaining two small children who don’t appreciate being cooped up in our flat!

Any recommendations for a good page turner to help me defeat the reading slump would definitely be appreciated.

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

Bryony wrote: "Any recommendations for a good page turner to help me defeat the reading slump would definitely be appreciated."

I'm glad to see you found something to read and post. I'm always reluctant to make a recommendation.

[Bryony]

Thank you. I decided to go back to a series I’ve enjoyed before and it seems that was just what I needed to rediscover my reading enthusiasm.

[Bryony]

I’ve enjoyed looking more closely at the 1001 books list this season. I wondered which other lists people use for inspiration or even aim to read in their entirety.

I have three lists that I would like to read all (or almost all) the books from.

BBC Big Read - this was compiled by popular vote in 2003. I like that this is a list of books that ordinary readers love (rather than compiled by academics or critics) and that it includes several children’s classics and books that are well-loved but probably wouldn’t qualify for inclusion in a “best books ever written” list. I find it’s a little dated now as several of the entries seem to be bestsellers from the early 2000s that I’m not sure many people would still consider amongst their favourite books today.

The Guardian: 100 greatest novels of all time (2003) and the similar 2015 list: the 100 best novels written in English. I have a long term aim of reading all the books on both of these lists. They aren’t the type of lists to guide you to lesser known gems, but I find them a good motivation to read classics I might otherwise put off.

I was looking forward to the BBC’s 100 novels that shaped our world list that was compiled last year. I was a little uninspired when it was published though as I can’t quite reconcile the claim to be a list of influential novels with the inclusion of so many books published in the last 10-20 years and the exclusion of so many classic books I think of as being truly influential.

I’d be interested to hear about lists that other people enjoy.

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

We use lists like those for tasks from time to time.

[Rosemary]

I have a book called "The Ultimate Teen Book Guide" that I'm trying to read all of (as well as the 1001 Books list). There were 3 editions I think when I got it in 2010, with a total of 979 books (I have read about half) but then unfortunately they stopped updating it. So now it suffers from the same problem that Bryony mentioned, which I think applies to a lot of lists, especially the ones compiled from popular votes - overweighting towards very recent books at the time it was published.

Still I do like doing these lists and I'm very tempted to add all of the ones that Bryony has listed to my goals!

[Ed]

I always look to the 1001 Books list first to see if I can meet a challenge with one of those books...although a lot of them are chunksters....so, I take those on sparingly.
I also set a goal to read at least 20 books a year from the 1000 Children's Books You Should Read Before You Grow Up List. Many of these have low Lexiles....so, not good for GR..... but I didn't read most of these books when I was young...I seem to have graduated immediately to adult and young adult books and the librarians obliged me.
I also work on reading Dickens, Trollope; and Steinbeck in chronological order..... and now also doing Christie in numerical order of her Miss Marple and Poirot series. I had not been a series reader....but now I'm enjoying the Mrs. Pollifax series...and Serge Storms, James Bond, Agatha Raisin, Phryne Fisher, etc

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

Time to take inventory of what you have on hand that meets those goals!

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

On an entirely different subject ...

While I spend a lot of time reading, my husband spends an even greater amount of time making scratch built models. Usually it's local fishing boats, but somehow being housebound he's turned his attention to airplanes.

Today we have a fleet, and as I've shared with others, if he doesn't go back to having "coffee with the boys" in the morning, we're going to have to buy a hangar, start an airline, hire pilots, rent dock space ...



The two larger planes are Otters, and smaller ones Cessna 185s. Wingspans are 29" and 18" respectively, all in the same scale of 1/2" = 1'

[Ed]

Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "On an entirely different subject ...

While I spend a lot of time reading, my husband spends an even greater amount of time making scratch built models. Usually it's local fishing boats, but someho..."

I'm impressed. I don't think my jigsaw puzzles meet that standard of excellence! LOL

[Tien]

LOL they look great! Is he also going to paint those?

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

Tien wrote: "LOL they look great! Is he also going to paint those?"

Yes, he has to wait for it to warm up before paint will stick - maybe as early as this weekend. One of the Otters has been promised to the museum, not sure where the others will go.

[Tien]

Maybe the painting (in detail) will take quite a bit of time & before you know it, coffee is back on ;)

& you'll have to show us the finished products!

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

Tien wrote: "Maybe the painting (in detail) will take quite a bit of time & before you know it, coffee is back on ;)

& you'll have to show us the finished products!"

Paint can make such a difference!

[Valerie]

Wow!

[Kathleen (itpdx)]

They look great! Yes, would also love to see what they look like finished!

[Ed]

How do you post a photo like that on GR?

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

Ed wrote: "How do you post a photo like that on GR?"

It needs to have already been posted on the web. You copy the photo's URL and then post that URL between the " " as in below (but remove the spaces)

< img src=" " />

I use Chrome in windows. So to easily get the photo's URL, I right-click on the photo and it asks me what I want to do, and choose "copy image address". But I can just as easily copy it from the address bar on the image page.

[Ed]

Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Ed wrote: "How do you post a photo like that on GR?"

It needs to have already been posted on the web. You copy the photo's URL and then post that URL between the " " as in below (but remove the sp..."

ok...thanks!

[Lynn]

Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "On an entirely different subject ...

While I spend a lot of time reading, my husband spends an even greater amount of time making scratch built models. Usually it's local fishing boats, but someho..."

The models are wonderful. Airplanes are a big piece of our life. When my husband was younger he achieved his dream of obtaining a private pilot's license. He no longer keeps up his license but we live near a small airport and he sits on the patio listening to the pilots on his radio.