Bookish (And not so Bookish) Thoughts - January 22nd, 2015

Well, things have led to me not getting my book finished in time to post a review today like I'd hoped, so I searched Thursday book memes online and found this one that Bookishly Boisterous hosts.  It sounded like an easy one for me to do today so that I can keep up with my goal of a post every day this year.  Basically it is just to allow you the blogger to post whatever random thoughts you might have for the day, related to books or not.  So, that's a good one for me today.

1.  Last night I went to an early showing of the movie The DUFF.  It's a book I've wanted to read for awhile, but just haven't gotten around to it yet.  The movie was really good.  It started out and I was a bit worried it might be kind of lame, but then it got pretty funny, and there was even a part where I just understood completely what the main character was going through and had tears streaming down my face.  I highly recommend seeing this one for a fun teen movie.  It touches on things like cyberbullying, and just being yourself.  There's a locker room scene that was hilarious, as well as a scene where the "Duff" is teaching the "Jock" how to kiss.  I still smile when I think of those parts.

2.  I really need to start exercising.  Several years ago I lost a ton of weight by walking, and also doing Weight Watchers.  Since then I've tried going back to WW, but they changed the program and now it really doesn't work for me.  There is a park I like to go walk at, and the weather has actually been pretty decent for January here, like in the 50s and 60s.  But on the days that I have had time to go walk, I've instead cleaned house, something I don't like to do anyway.  Or been lazy and said I didn't want to get dressed for the day.  All my clothes are too tight, and I refuse to buy any bigger sizes than the sizes I have.  So yeah.

3.  I joined eHarmony this week.  I should say rejoined, because years and years ago when it first came out I belonged for awhile.  It's so expensive though!  I'm going to try it without paying so that I can try not to be shallow about looks like I think is the problem when I try sites like Match.com.  So, wish me luck on that.

4.  I had to go back to working part time at my bookstore job.  Which don't get me wrong, if I have to work part time, it is the perfect place to work.  But last year this time I went seasonal.  And it was so nice to not have to go work anywhere else.  To be able to just go home and watch tv, read, etc.  I have to work tonight is why this is on my mind, because it means that I won't have time to read my book like I want to.

5.  I'm starting the editing process of the novel I wrote during NaNoWriMo last November.  I've gotten some good feedback from two people, one of them was my writing partner.

6.  I love YA Book Exhange, but.  The issue is that I can't trade with a lot of the people because I don't have anything new enough to trade with them for the newer ARCs.  And that makes me sad.  Especially when they got an ARC that they didn't want, or they get two of them.  Or it makes me jealous? Both?

7.  I'm so excited that this week it was announced that NKOTB would be touring again, and they're coming to my city in May!  American Express pre-sale tickets are tomorrow.  Hoping to get some good seats.  I always go with one of my cousins and now a friend of mine that I didn't know was a fan until last year.  And, the announcement that Jonathan Knight and his partner/boyfriend are going to be on the Amazing Race next season was exciting as well!

8.  I'm missing going to the movies as much as I used to.  I had a really good friend, whose mother worked for AMC corporate, and so she had free passes.  And we went almost every Friday, often seeing 2 movies at a time!  I've had to learn to think which movies do I really want to pay to go see in a theater, and which ones can I wait till I can get them at Redbox.

Hmm, I think that might be all of the thoughts I have to share today.  Any random thoughts you'd like to share with me? 

Welcome 2011!

I see everyone else seems to be doing a New Year's resolution/goals blog, so I'll do one as well. I usually only do either book reviews or waiting on Wednesday blogs, but this will be out of the ordinary. First, I want to set some goals for the blog itself. I hope to make it more known by not only posting my updates on Facebook for my friends, but also posting them to Twitter. I also signed up to a challenge for next year: The 2011 Debut Author Challenge.

Next, I couldn't decide if I should list how many books I read only by what I actually blogged about, which is: 104. According to my notebook where I write every book that I read, even re-reads, the number is only 2 or 3 more, and actually 2 of those are ones I started, am still picking up and reading at times, but haven't finished. Weird. I must have counted wrong somewhere. So I think I will set my goal for how many books to read this year to 110. That's only 5 or 6 more than this year, so a reasonable goal. However, since I have a feeling I won't be signing up to read for any of the book awards through the state this year, it might be hard to get that many books in. Or not. We'll see.

I plan to blog in just one entry about series if I am able to read them right in a row, like I did with the Mortal Instruments series, or I am getting ready to do with the Carrie Ryan zombie series right now.

I also intend to take a creative writing class this summer, and get back to work on my chick lit novel I started a few years ago during NaNoWriMo. I'd love to get it finished this year. Since there's a good chance there won't be any need for summer school librarians this year with the state budget, I may have to set up a schedule for myself for writing.

One last reading goal, this year, if a book is just too hard for me to get into, and I don't have to read it for any reason, I will not make myself finish it. I will put it away in a pile and get rid of it. I will not waste any more time on books that I do not enjoy.

Other personal, non-reading goals include getting that final 5 pounds off so I can reach goal and hopefully become a WW lifetime member by the end of 2011. I need to make sure I get out and walk at the gym during the cold months at least twice a week, and then once the weather gets nice, I need to get back to 20 miles a week as soon as I can. With my new online teaching job, I hope to soon be able to start getting some credit cards paid off and get my life in a more financially stable place.

So, those are my main goals/resolutions. I'd add that I want to get a library job this year, but I think that's a pie in the sky dream for me at this point. Not to say I won't still apply and interview whenever possible, but I won't make something a goal that is so far out of my control anymore. I've always liked double numbers, like 11, probably because my birthday is October 22. So I'm hoping my love of double numbers will mean that 2011 is going to be a good year for me.

Velvet Rope Diaries by Daniella Brodsky

The latest in my chick lit books kept in my bedroom bathroom so I could read during bubble baths. This was a fun read. Anna is the main character, she is working as a secretary/assistant for a horrible boss that she calls Miss Nasty Jackson. She gets fired when she creates a power point talking about all the plastic surgery her boss has had and the gossip column reporter at the paper gets ahold of it, and publishes a lot of the info from it. You think, who cares about a reporter for a gossip column, but it turns out she's dating a big star. But, when she gets fired, she also gets rehired writing a column about New York City nightlife.

AT first she can't seem to get a lead on where to start to find the "new" unfound hip spots. She gets a tip from a woman at a spa, who becomes a friend. But when she goes to this spot, she isn't let in because she has on last year's Marc Jacobs sandals. She gets upset because she gets humiliated by the bouncer about this, and ends up sneaking around and finding a back door to go in. The dark room she ends up in has another occupant, a sexy stranger, who soon becomes her boyfriend, and turns out to be the brother of her new friend who gave her this tip.

Now of course, she has back issues. When she was a young girl, her father died in a house fire, and she feels like she is guilty, that she could have saved him. So we see her going through therapy for this. She also lives with a guy who is her best friend, Ray. It soon becomes evident, that he might think of her more than a friend, and so now she has this great guy she's just met, and must choose between him, and possibly ruining a friendship to try dating her best friend.

There were some pages I marked in the book that I want to share, and here they are:

When she talks about how it's been a long time since she's kissed a guy, she talks about wondering if she'll remember how to do it. I feel this way, only it's been MUCH longer for me.

There's a part where they're talking about Weight Watchers magazine, and it is really irritating to me, because her boss, Miss Nasty talks about how it is overweight women who love to sit at home and read, because they're too humiliated to go out looking like that. HOW RUDE!@!

And finally, this book makes me really want a perm. I hate my straight/frizzy hair, and really wish I could get a perm, a loose one that is available these days. Not one of those godawful ones I had back in grade school and high school.

Under the Dome by Stephen King

Finally finished all 1074 pages of this huge novel. Really, it's actually about the size of another Stephen King novel, It, my favorite King novel of all time. It's longer than Breaking Dawn, or any of the Harry Potter novels as well. It was good once I got into it, and it isn't that it was hard to read that took me so long, just that it was so hard to hold! As I got halfway through I got to the point where I wanted to be reading it during commercials and not just at the table when I was eating. I even brought it to school one day this past week to read during my lunch break. The story was really good, and I didn't think that the early on hints that it was aliens would actually be what it turned out to be. I kinda thought maybe the "Chef" guy who ran the huge secretly town funded meth lab would be some kind of inventor who created that. And the thing about a Stephen King book is that every time you think, finally a break for the good guys, nope, there's a bad guy/thing there ready to spoil it and close that door. You just keep going and going and the last 400 pages are like htat over and over it seems.

So, I definitely recommend this. It reminds me a bit of one of his other alien books, what is the name of it, um, The Tommyknockers. Just because of the whole alien bit. I liked all the attention to what would happen inside the dome from no fresh air, or water, and the pollution and all that. Anyway, if you like Stephen King, go ahead and jump into this huge tome. It'll be worth it.

Now, a note, at my Weight Watchers meeting yesterday morning, our leader talked about seeing Julie and Julia and how she decided to do something similar and cook all the way through a WW cookbook. I'm thinking of doing something similar. But I will only cook the things I want to eat. If I do it, I'll just go straight through the book and cook what I'd actually eat. So I'll let you know when I get started with that, and maybe blog about that too. Right now I'm at a point where even though I have tons of books that I haven't read, sitting waiting to be picked up, when I go to decided what to read next, I have trouble finding anything I think I want to read for sure. What I've picked to read have all turned out good, it was sometimes just getting started.

Still on track with book number 3

This is going to be a quick blog, because tonight I need to finish book number 3 to stay on track. But I have less than 100 pages left, so shouldn't be a problem. This is also turning out to be a really good book. Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson.

Got to have dinner with a sorority sister who moved back to Missouri this summer. It was nice. I haven't gotten together with this group in a long time, so I hope now that she's back I'll get to see her more. And I definitely hope to go visit her for a girls' weekend in Columbia.

Tomorrow I get to go see Final Destination 3D, I'm so excited! Tried WW tonight, couldn't find my little book. So that means that Saturday morning I intend to do some cleaning and find it! I won't be able to walk at Macken, because there is some charity walk. I walked 2 miles tonight. I'm going to try hard to get 5 miles in tomorrow before movies, and then 5 on Sunday. I'm still only at having lost 24, my goal was 25 by when school started, but I've been stuck on this last pound for several weeks. Not being able to walk every day is I'm sure a big part of the problem. Don't know how I'll take this.