Satisfaction!

It is said the first step to recovery is admitting you have a problem.  Problem admitted, solution rejected.

At the risk of seeming like I’m in total denial, I admit I know my addiction is not healthy.  Some people liken drinking soda to ingesting car battery acid.  My justification is that I brush my teeth at least twice daily.

My dependence was at its worst when I was pregnant.  After three months of withdrawal headaches, my OB suggested I go back to one a day or he’d send me to a neurologist.

To date, my “little problem” has landed me a load of swag through My Coke Rewards.  So far:

• 2 or 3 magazine subscriptions
• picnic plate set/cooler
• miniature hand vacuum
• recycled Coke bottle necklace/earrings
• Mp3 player given to my sister
• Diet Coke yoga mat (admittedly a bit counter-intuitive)
• aviator sunglasses on their way in the mail

I am a walking Diet Coke advertisement.  My burgeoning 40-something swimsuit waistline proves it.  Hey … we all have our vices, and I’m keeping mine.

Have a (diet) Coke and a smile.

WWW Wednesdays (May 23)

WWW Wednesdays is a weekly bookish meme held over on Should Be Reading. To play along just answer the following questions:

What are you currently reading?

I’m mid-way through Wool 3: Casting Off by Hugh Howey (see previous entry – he’s the man)!  This act officially dispels my 7 Dirty Secrets claim of avoiding anything numbered in a series, and I’m glad I changed my mind.  It’s a semi-thriller about life underground after world destruction.  Sounds depressing, but it’s great.

What did you recently finish reading?

My latest read was a post-apocalyptic comment on what would happen if warped religion ruled after the end of civilization as we know it.  The Zona was recently published by Curiosity Quills, written by Nathan Yocum, an independent author.  Let’s just say, new guy done good!

What do you think you’ll read next?

I can’t believe I’m going to say I don’t know, but the audio version of Magical Thinking by Augusten Burroughs is waiting for me at the library.

Thanks to She Loves to Read and MizB for the MEMEspiration!

Can you imagine?

Second only to growing a tiny human being inside my body, I bet getting published and selling a story for filming has to feel incredible.  Elation.

I participate in a group called Apocalypse Whenever on goodreads.  What a relief to discover other twisted people out there like me who enjoy end-of-world stories a little too much.  No longer will I think I’m the only freak who likes a good tale of humanity’s destruction.  I’ll cease to hide my desensitization via over-consumption of ’70s and ’80s media.  There are other people to celebrate it with me!

One of the author/participants in the group, Hugh Howey, has recently signed on with Random House UK and 20th Century Fox.  The cover of his book, Wool, caught my eye when recommended by other readers in the group.  He has an eloquence with language and a knack for description.  His website graphic is also eerily magnetic.  Quite a creative guy.

The other PA group members offered differing perspectives on some aspects I missed in the first and second books.  It’s good to have a peek from another reader’s point of view instead of only my own mind’s eye.

So part of my summer reading is mapped out.  I plan to finish the Wool series, look forward to the sixth installment, and then the big-screen version.  Hard to imagine.  Now there’s a fisheye lens!

My workaday greeting of, “Good morning/afternoon, XYZ Company, how may I help you” seems even more pathetic now.  But I’m not bitter.  Reading about Howey’s success motivates me to worry less about inconsequential matters and get to work on a new story of my own.

Hugh seems like a common enough fella, in a para-social relationship sort of way, who pops into the Apocalypse Whenever discussion now and then.  He started out self-publishing through Kindle and has moved on to bigger and better things.  I’m glad to see an indie author get the recognition he has surely worked long and hard to accomplish.

Maybe publishing and filming deals aren’t the end all, be all, but  … no, they probably are.  Good on ya, Hugh!

WWW Wednesday, May 16

To play along, just answer the following three (3) questions…

• What are you currently reading?

Right now I’m listening to The Bayou Trilogy by Daniel Woodrell, my current favorite author, who is from Missouri, too!  It was on President Obama’s summer reading list, and I like it so far.

An author in an online community I love (Apocalypse Whenever on goodreads) has recently had his work, The Zona, picked up by a publisher.  Yeah, Nathan!  I’m reading it now and can’t wait to finally join that group’s discussion after the fact.

• What did you recently finish reading?

Speaking of Daniel Woodrell … I just finished The Outlaw Album and liked it very much, some stories more than others.  His work can be very grim but in a good way that makes you think about life on the fringe of society.
• What do you think you’ll read next?

Another great goodreads author is Hugh Howey, and I will read the third installment in his post-apoc Wool series next.  Wonderful news for him besides all the acclaim for his series is that it has been picked up for production by 20th Century Fox.  How freakin’ cool is that?

Meme hosted by Should be Reading and linked through from She loves reading.

That’s what you think! Reading Challenge

A few years ago, the BBC published a 100-book list of which they believed the majority of people have only read six.

ALEX @ THE BLETHERING BOOKWORM is hosting a challenge.  I linked through to it from Megan’s blog.

1 Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen

2 The Lord of the Rings – JRR Tolkien

3 Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte

4 Harry Potter series – J. K. Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four – George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials – Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations – Charles Dickens
11 Little Women – Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles – Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 – Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca – Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit – JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong – Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye – JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveller’s Wife – Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch – George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind – Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby – F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House – Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited – Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment – Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows – Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield – Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia – CS Lewis
34 Emma – Jane Austen
35 Persuasion – Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe – CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin – Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha – Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh – AA Milne
41 Animal Farm – George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code – Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney – John Irving
45 The Woman in White – Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables – LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd – Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies – William Golding
50 Atonement – Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi – Yann Martel
52 Dune – Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm – Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy – Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities – Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World – Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time – Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck
62 Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History – Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones – Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo – Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road – Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure – Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary – Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children – Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick – Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist – Charles Dickens
72 Dracula – Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden – Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island – Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses – James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar – Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons – Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal – Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair – William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession – AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas – David Mitchel
83 The Color Purple – Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day – Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary – Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance – Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web – EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven – Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection – Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince – Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory – Iain Banks
94 Watership Down – Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces – John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice – Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers – Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet – William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables – Victor Hugo

The ones I have previously read are marked through but none of them were in the past six months.  I accept the challenge to read six more on the list some time during the remainder of the year.  The titles in blue were on my list already, so it’s great to have this encouragement!

Top Ten Tuesday – Books I Can’t Believe I’ve Never Read

This week’s topic was originally Authors I’d Like To See on a Reality Show, but it was turned into a freebie topic because of the difficulty level. I followed Megan’s lead to do an older topic from a previous Top 10.

1. The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan

It’s supposed to be the first word and manifesta of the feminist fight, and I can’t believe I haven’t gone there yet!

2. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain

We live in Missouri, and I have a young son.  This is probably an inevitability.

3. The Red Tent by Anita Diamant

So many women claim to love this re-telling of Biblical women and their stories or at least claim they want to read it if they haven’t.  I’m still undecided.

4. Beloved by Toni Morrison

The main character, Sethe, sounds a bit like Precious in Push.  Many people say it’s a pretty weird one, but maybe I’d like it.

5. Couldn’t Keep it to Myself: Wally Lamb & the Women of York Correctional Institution by Wally Lamb

Two subjects that fascinate me … writing and imprisonment.  I can’t imagine these women’s deep feelings of loss brought on by incarceration, so I’m very intrigued by the subject.

6. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Isn’t this one considered a “classic?”  So many people gasp when I say I haven’t read and tell me how I should, so maybe I’ll try it one day.  I should do so considering it was in a box an old apartment neighbor gave me when his roommate skipped out and left a bunch of stuff.

7. East of Eden by John Steinbeck

Once again, several people have asked me why I’ve never read this one.  Heck, I’ve never even seen the movie.  Steinbeck is great, I suppose, but Cannery Row was so depressing.  Maybe there’s no comparison.

8. As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner

As much as I am loving “country noir” lately, I’ve got to give this great 20th century classic a try.  Okay, okay … I just added it to my “tbr” list.

9. Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank

As much as I like post-apocalyptic darkness (lol), I can’t believe I’ve yet to read the epitome of the genre.  Especially with such a chilling premise.

10. Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand

There must be something to all the fuss.  I like a good dystopian tale.  Even though it’s as thick as a brick, I may give it a look someday.

And the list continues to grow!

Meme hosted by The Broke & the Bookish and linked through from Megan’s blog at Love, Literature, Art & Reason.

WWW Wednesdays (9th May)

To play along, just answer the following three (3) questions…  

• What are you currently reading?
• What did you recently finish reading?
• What do you think you’ll read next?

I am about to finish listening to Octavia E. Butler’s science fiction work, Parable of the Talents , the follow-up to her Parable of the Sower.  The protagonist, Lauren Olamina, is a character of great strength and commitment to her beliefs.  All skeptical feminists like me should read both these books as a forewarning of future catastrophic possibilities (only half kidding).  

My most recently finished book is Different Seasons by Stephen King.  I’ll call it done, even though I’m on the final story in the foursome, My Breathing Method.  The others, The Body, Apt Pupil and Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption were all fascinating in their own right.  King at his best!

A title long on my “tbr” list is what I’m reading now, The Outlaw Album: Stories, by Daniel Woodrell.  I’m more of a full-length novel type of reader, but I’ve been liking story compilations lately.  Woodrell has a gift for that format and is now one of my favorite authors, regardless of his fictionalization of the Ozarks as a dismal abyss (only half kidding there, too).  His dark, twisted humor makes it extremely worthwhile.

Now … if only I could quit taking on three books at a time, maybe I would get through them quicker!

This lovable meme is courtesy of the incomparable MizB at Should be Reading and linked to through She Loves Reading.

Musing Mondays (May 7)

This week’s musing asks…

If you were going to write a book, what would you write about? Would it be fiction, or nonfiction?

This particular topic actually inspired the creation of my wordpress blog!  I’ve self-published a novella through Kindle Direct Publishing and plan to use that route again in the future.  My long, drawn-out 2011 NaNoWriMo project is still dragging its feet in the editing process.

My desire to become a writer is suffused only by my love of reading.  Reading is what feeds my love of words and spurs me to keep trying to write more and more.

I digress … I would like to write more mystery/thriller stories.  The sky is the limit, in my opinion, as far as fiction goes.  Critics can’t discredit what someone else creates in their own imagination.  They can argue whether they find the characters or action believable, but every reader has her/his own perspective.

Writers who master these seemingly realistic or surreal premises and riveting plot lines are the stimulus of my creative spirit.  Whereas I may not ever be an inventor comparable to the likes of Neil Gaiman or Roddy Doyle,  my personal commitment is to keep trying.

Serendipitous to this post, a quote from one of my favorite people popped up after writing it.  The quote read, “I do not like to write – I like to have written.” Gloria Steinem

Another great MizB inspired meme!

Siblings — May 3, 2012

A weekly meme about (mostly) books and reading.

This week’s question:

Heidi asks: Do you have siblings? Do they like to read?

All my siblings like to read.  My oldest sister, who taught me to read four decades ago, reads a lot of tear jerkers about animals.  She is, after all, a feral cat rescuer and cat care “expert.”  My middle sister is an elementary teacher and avid reader of anything, mainly biography/historical biography (& Reader’s Digest).  Then my younger brother is all about military history and practice, being in the military himself, and also the stars — as in Star Trek and Star Wars.

We span the genre spectrum but all love to read!  Prompting began early on in our lives.  My mother is a voracious consumer of formulaic romance schmaltz (unfortunately, but at least she’s reading), and my father used to read everything he could get in his grasp.  He went through books quicker than anyone I’ve ever known, reading our library books overnight if they were left in his sight.  The last gift I gave him before he died was a paperback copy of Hoffa, and the toothpick he used as a bookmark still indicates his last page.

Meme hosted at booking through thursday & linked through Megan at love, literature, art & reason

Musing Mondays (Apr.30)

This week’s musing asks…

Do you listen to audiobooks? If not, why not? And, if so, what has been one of your favorites, so far?

Audiobooks are great for the commute to work, so YES I listen to books on CD.  My job doesn’t require a lot of travel, but the drive is certainly better when listening to a book.  There’s no way to name just one, so I’ll mention a few here.

I especially like it when the author is also the narrator – thank you, Augusten Burroughs.  His books Dry, A Wolf at the Table and Possible Side Effects are especially good on CD.  The author’s personality came through so well in his narration that I could hear a million of his memoirs, and that’s about how many there are.

The same goes for Neil Gaiman, but even more so because his accent is awesome.  I’ve listened to Coraline, The Graveyard Book and Neverwhere.  He is absolutely awesome!

My favorite, though, has to be David Sedaris.  Anything David Sedaris!  He is hilarious and his books are hilarious, but hearing him read them is even better with his distinctive voice.  It’s right up there with hearing him speak in person or on This American Life on NPR.  If you’ve never heard it, google The Santaland Diaries.  You will not be disappointed!

Thanks again, MizB at shouldbereading.