Thankfully Reading Weekend: Wrap Up

Between traveling for Thanksgiving and putting up Christmas decorations when we got home, I don't have great stacks of books to report, or hours and hours spent reading - but I did get some reading done and enjoyed keeping up on Twitter. I plan to start checking out the blogs of fellow readers tomorrow (free time at work - yeah!).  Here's what I got read:

Silent Night - a novella by Deanna Raybourne - read on my Nook while at Son's house.
Poseidon's Arrow by Clive Cussler - Dave and I read approximately half while in the car.
Notorious Nineteen by Janet Evanovich - It was in the mailbox when we got home and I know this series is a guaranteed easy read - so I read it this afternoon between spurts of decorating.

Thank you to Jennifer @ Jenn's Bookshelves and Jennifer @ Literate Housewife for hosting the event and the challenges.  

Thankfully Reading Weekend: Day 2 Challenge

For today’s challenge, I invite you to write about the book you are most thankful for this year. Is it a book written by one of your favorite authors or one you just happened to come upon? Tell us about it! 

This is Jenn's Challenge for Day 2 of Thankfully Reading weekend.  This is an easy one, since I've been preparing my Top Ten list for 2012.  The book for which I'm most thankful this year is The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey.

This book has all the ingredients necessary for The Perfect Read (see previous post), including that illusive X-Factor - that magical ingredient that you can't describe, yet means the difference between a good book and a great book.

You can read my review here.

Thankfully Reading Weekend: Thankfully Reading Recipe Challenge

Jennifer at Literate Housewife sponsored this mini-challenge to create your own Perfect Reading Recipe.

What ingredients when combined together make for a perfect read for you? This could be any combination of time, place, book, or refreshments. Does this book and that meal make for sweet reader’s bliss? Or is it this room, that recliner with this type of book that make you scheme for reading time to yourself?

 The main ingredient for a Perfect Read is, of course, the book.  So what constitutes the perfect book?  I have written before that I judge a book on three criteria - pacing, characters and plot.  Sounds pretty obvious, right?  But there are so many variations on these themes that finding the prefect blend is tricky.  A thriller needs a full measure of pacing, but only a dash of character development.  The romance may need only a splash of plot, but a healthy handful of character insight.  The book for a Perfect Read can be any genre, but it must have a good balance of these key ingredients plus that X-Factor Simon Cowell is always talking about - that something-extra that is indescribable, but you know it when you find it.

Once you have secured the main ingredient, blend it with a comfy chair - my current favorite is this chair that belonged to my grandma, next to a table that belonged to Dave's  grandmother.  (The story of how these things got to our house recently is in this post.)  

The Perfect Read usually calls for the perfect side dish.  Before my recent change to more healthy eating and watching my weight, this would have been a bag of cheese puffs (slightly stale), Dove chocolate, and a Diet Coke (for balance).  These days it's more likely to be air-pop popcorn, apple slices, and a Diet Coke.

The icing on the cake - or the whipped cream on the pumpkin pie - is a dollop of quiet.  I am capable of reading while Dave watches TV (or even during the commercials of a show I was watching in the pre-DVR days), or with some Christmas music playing in the background, but when I sit down to devour the Perfect Read, the only seasoning it really needs is peace.

Thankfully Reading Weekend

Those who know me in "real life" will not be surprised that I am three days late getting going on my Thankfully Reading Weekend. Dave and I did read over 200 pages of Poseidon's Arrow by Clive Cussler while traveling, but once we were there, all time was devoted to visiting, cooking and yes, I'm ashamed to say, some Black Friday shopping (but that's another post).   We got home yesterday afternoon, but the  evening was spent putting up Christmas trees, so today is Thankfully Reading Day!  

For those of you unfamiliar with Thankfully Reading, it is sponsored by Jenn @ Jenn's Bookshelves.  You can find all the details on her blog or in my earlier post.  Part of the fun   - beyond an excuse to devote time to reading - is interacting on Twitter and joining mini-challenges.  I was able to keep up with Twitter from my phone, but the challenges had to wait until I had a real computer - so I'm doing all three challenges and the wrap-up today.  Here we go . . .

Oh There's No Place Like Home For the Holidays . . .

...but none of us will be home.  Our Thanksgiving celebration begins tonight with a family gathering at the nursing home where Dave's mom lives.  Then tomorrow we head to Hays, KS for Thanksgiving dinner with Mitch.  Once again, he's on call with his job, so we are taking the food to him - and to any of his fraternity brothers who also had to stay in town for jobs.  Amanda is headed to Kansas City to have turkey with her boyfriend's family - and then attend the Chiefs/Broncos game on Sunday.  Go Broncos!!

We will return home on Saturday and I intend to devote Sunday to Thankfully Reading Weekend sponsored by Jenn @ Jenn's Bookshelves.  

There are no rules to the weekend, we’re simply hoping to devote a good amount of time to reading, and perhaps meeting some of our reading challenges and goals for 2012. We thought it’d be fun if we cheered each other on a bit.  We’ll also be checking in on Twitter using hashtag #thankfulreading. Join in for the weekend or for only a single day. No rules, no pressure!  Once again this year, we will be doing some fun Thankfully Reading mini-challenges over the weekend.  Be sure to check back Thanksgiving weekend for more details! - Go to Jenn's blog to sign up.

Then I'll hit the ground running on Monday for a jam-packed December:

A multitude of gifts to make and wrap

14 days at work

12 dozen cookies 

11 Christmas movies

10 books to meet my yearly goal

9 people at our house on Christmas Day

8 pins for the Pin It/Do It Challenge

7 pounds to lose

4 weeks of Advent

3 trees to decorate

2 Christmas Concerts

1 Cross-stitch picture to complete 

1 office party

1 KSU football game
1 (wishful thinking) shopping trip
1 trip to my mom's
... And a Partridge in a pear tree.

But all are things I enjoy and I'll be loving every minute and humming Christmas carols as I go.