"I Joined a Book Club"

I went to our monthly book club meeting and had a conversation which made me both laugh and get really annoyed at the same time.
Our hostess mentioned a brief encounter with the man behind the liquor counter.

Cashier (Male): So, are you having a party?
Hostess: Actually its for a book club meeting.
Cashier(Male): Yeah right...book club.

Now...at this moment I thought, sure I see the humour. BUT...we are an actual book club. We talk about books... A LOT. At our last meeting, we gave each member an "Expertise Area" to include but not limited to the following: Harry Potter, Twilight, Romance, Young Adult.
We even devised a book exchange system where we could read numerous books in addition to the monthly book club selection.

Are we book nerds? Yes.
Do we like to have wine with our words? Yes.
Do we get extremely offended when new members aren't really readers? YES!
Have we considered an application process for new inductees? YES!
Do we cringe when you say you haven't read the Harry Potter Series? YES

We are HARDCORE...and not in that way! But the Book way. Secretly we have named our book club...The Mean Girls BC. Join if you dare but beware, we find ways to accidentally lose members email addresses if you don't meet our criteria.

So if you read this and think...oh "Book Clubs" that's just an excuse for women to get together talk about men, and drink. You betcha mister! We are intelligent women who can talk about ment, books, and drink at the same time!

Update: LIFO/FIFO Methods

I have recently purchased quite a few books. Surprised? Me either. I have decided that I cannot continue my methodic, and somewhat deranged system of reading.

New System:

1. Stack five books with spines facing toward your body.
2. Hold out books to husband, spouse, or friend (so that they cannot see the titles)
3. Have them point to one.
4. Voila~! Next book chosen.

So far I feel a lot less pressure when choosing the next book to read...because I didn't choose...someone else did. :o)

Need a Fix?

Have you seen any episodes of Intervention or Addicted lately? Well, for awhile I was mesmorized by those shows. To me it is insane how people can be so fixated on one aspect of their lives, that they let it control them. Crazy, right?
It's a good thought, until you begin to see similarities in your own life.

Drug users have to have a fix, in order to survive a week, a day, an hour.
People who are addicted to shopping are thrilled by sales, and can't pass up a good bargain.

Meet the newest reality TV Star:
The Book Nerd:Addicted to Words
That's right. I think this could be classified as a disease. Not one that I want a cure from, but an addiction nonetheless.

A co-worker of mine let me in on some classified info: the Eureka Springs Library has a book sale. Each bag of books = $1.
I couldn't pass it up. And in that place on a hill top in the middle of the beautiful Arkansas trees I found refuge. People like me. Looking for books. Not any that they really needed...but who can pass up a bag of books for $1?!?!?!

So would that be the premier episode of The Book Nerd: Addicted to Words?
I came home with 32 books. Some of which I will read. Some I already have copies of....

Next TV Stop...Hoarders!

A True Disappointment

Spring Break for teachers is like a little bit of heaven. It's the time to catch up on sleep, mark things off the To Do list, and for me...catch up on some light reading. We can do these things without having to worry about school, students, papers, etc.

This is how my Spring Break was SUPPOSED to go:

Monday-Wednesday: Shopping with mom, and Kilzing the kitchen
Thursday: Painting/Reading
Friday: Reading
Saturday: Reading
Sunday: Reading/Checking Papers

This is how my Spring Break ACTUALLY went:

Sunday-present: sick/blowing nose/throwing away Kleenex/Blowing nose
Monday-Wednesday: Mom was here. I shopped, but without enthusiasm/blow nose
Thursday: Slept/nose/trash/nose
Friday: Did finish 30 pages of a book
Saturday: see Thursday
Sunday: see Thursday

It really wasn't the fact that I was sick. It was that I got NOTHING done. The biggest disappointment was the fact that I brought home two books, bought six more, and didn't even crack a spine. Screw painting and shopping....I want to READ BOOKS!!! My average for the month is totally blown.

What Question would you ask God?

Okay, so my students can obviously tell that I read....a lot. Every day, in every class, we read for 15 minutes. I love this! This new schedule, where as with the old we only read one class period a week for 45 minutes, lets me read so much more. Last week, I read three books! That doesn't even count my at home books. Those were just my school books. It is crazy!
Anyway, the kids ask questions like: Have I always been a reader? Did I like to read when I was little? How many books have a read in my lifetime? Stuff like that.

A few days ago I had a conversation that went like this:

Student: How many books have you read?

Me: I don't know...a thousand.

Student: How many words do you think you have read?

Me: A billion?

Student: When I get to heaven, I am going to ask God how many words/books you have read in your lifetime?

Me: Soooo, when you walk up to the pearly gates, the first thing you say is going to be: Hey God! I had this crazy 8th grade English teacher who read all the time....how many words/books do you think she read?

Student: YES!


With just my ability to read, and read, I have moved my way up on someone's list...Waaaay up! I am the subject of the first question that they would ask God. :o)

LIFO/FIFO: Book Cirulation on my Night Stand

Many, many years ago...I went to college with the the goal of becoming an Accountant. A few months into that I found my brain, and changed my mind. Sooo to make up for my life without numbers, I married a CPA. I CAN have my cake and eat it too!
Anyway....My husband comes home most nights and talks about his day and spouts off acronyms like IFRS, SOX, 10Q's. Although these mean nothing to me, I do believe that I can apply the accounting world to my reading pastime/hobby/second job.

LIFO: Last in First Out
FIFO: First in First Out

My nightstand is currently holding at a minimum....twenty books. So the struggle to decide what to read next is quite daunting. Do I read the classic Wuthering Heights that I have been deciphering one page at a time? Do I read the next book club book? What about a book for school? Or one of the three others that I have started, and put down. AND then what happens when I buy a new book, because I can't walk into B&N without buying something...for the good of the economy, of course.

Here is where an accounting degree would have been handy.
Inventory Evaluation Methods.
In my current plan, I am using LIFO. Last in First Out. So, books I buy at BN...I read first, because it was the last one on the table... Books that are loaned to me...I read next. Book Club books follow (depending on the next club meeting) and then Wuthering Heights and the others fall to a dead last. In the forseeable future I have no plan to change my inventory method...unless the classics really begin calling my name or my accountant believes that it would be in my best interest to change.

Is this insanity to want to apply accounting methods to my life of books? Or even crazier to know and understand how they are applicable and get a big kick out of writing this blog? Almost to the point of serious out loud laughing!

Books that become Movies: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

It seems that in the past year, popular books are the first screenplay that directors/producers try to adapt. I use TRY in bold, capital, underline, etc...because it takes effort to make something not follow the story line. I am of course, a huge Twilight fan....the books are better. I love the Percy Jackson series...we'll see how that one turns out. Jodi Picoult and My Sister's Keeper...Let's just say that the ending had people living, when they should have been dead. I know..morbid...but for the love of Pete...they become popular books because of the story lines, not because when we read it, we envision an entirely different plot. More movies that aren't as good as the books: Dear John, The Lovely Bones, The Time-Travelers Wife, Shopaholic (was that a movie??!?!?)

I could go on and on about movies that don't follow the plot, and I know (according to recent comments about the Harry Potter series) that often there are too many subplots to tell the whole story...but really..can we at least stick with the inherent plot diagram...Exposition, RA, Climax, FA, and Resolution...AND keep them the same.

PS- I love Harry Potter, and own all the books and the movies.