Reading

I am a terrible reader, don't get me wrong, I can read! Have been able to since I was about 7yrs old.
I am a terrible reader in that it is all or nothing.

Once I pick up a book then life stops.

I am not the person who reads a little prior to falling a sleep. I am the person who reads a little prior to going to sleep then gets so engrossed in the book that suddenly it is 1am and I am determined to finish the last 2 chapters before I turn the light out.

I am a person who will do everything else around reading.
I will watch the tv but as soon as the adverts come on during the programme I have my book open and I carry on reading.
Same with cooking. I love that the kitchen is not connected to the living room. I can stand and read whilst waiting for something to cook, stopping every now and then to stir the pot.

If I get into a good book and then find that it has another connected to it then I am screwed, as I will want to finish book 2 just as quick as book 1.

I have been known to read myself stupid, so much so that I have then not picked up another book for weeks  due to being read out! At that time the thought of reading a book is the worst thing imaginable.

And just to prove the point, I have just spent the last week reading 5 out of 7 books in a series. Thus the reason why there have been no posts for a week!!

Reading

I go in fazes where I get stuck in a book and woe behold anything get in my way.
Sometimes I can be strong and know that if I start a book I won't put it down so I don't start it until I know there is nothing going to get missed by me reading it.
Other times I can go weeks without reading a book!
However what I can't do is go to sleep at night without reading something.
Magazines work best, because books, as mentioned get addictive and suddenly I find myself still reading at midnight!

So I am always finding magazines to read. People bring them to Judo to share, there is the biggest pile of them in the reception at work, so I borrow the magazine and then return it 2 days later.
The ones I like the best and this may shock some of you is People's Friend.

The normal magazine comes weekly

Or you get a Fireside that is filled with extra stories every couple of months

Or you get a seasonal special

I know, I know, an old magazine, usually aimed at old people, but the little short stories in them are great. they are always feel good stories but they are just enough to read 1 or 2 of before falling asleep.
My mum seems to get them from friends and when she has finished with them she passes them on to me. I then in turn usually pass them on to a waiting room either at the hospital or the doctors surgery.
I happily enjoy reading the gossip magazines but sometimes there is nothing interesting in them to read and I really don't need to know what the Kardashien's are up to this week!

So I may be old before my time, but I will happily continue to read all and any People's Friends that come my way.

The Classics

I enjoy a good book as much as the next gal or guy, although, I never go for anything too heavy.
Anything with a good romantic story line is fine, even a little family drama. No one better than Danielle Steele, Lavyrle Spencer, Barbara Delinsky to name a few. I find I can read books set in America better than I can books set in England, never understood that, maybe something about how they write the story!
But would you believe I have never read the 'Classics'. The likes of Jane Austin.....

• Pride and Prejudice
• Emma
• Sense and Sensibility

Even E M Fosters's 'Room with a View"

Don't get me wrong, I studied the basic literature in High School, the likes of 'Macbeth' by Shakespear and 'Silas Marner' by George Elliott.
But I have never had the urge to read anything deeper and at the moment with the boys being so young I find that my only reading time is at bedtime and by then I am too tired to concentrate on a heavy novel, I just need something light and simple.
Now I love a good movie, so like many others I have seen all adaptations of most of the books I have mentioned. I have even seen at least 3 versions of Pride and Prejudice (1 I will write about another time) but never once in all the years I havebeen watching these adaptation have I ever had the fancy to want to read the good old classics.

Well that time has come. I have decided 2009 is to be the year and if I struggle take my time with them, then my goal is to extend it into next year, but not past Nov 2010, when I will turn 40! My mission will be to have read them before I am 40.

So I will start with Pride and Prejudice, Emma and Room with A View, although not sure which one I will actually read first although Pride and Prejudice may be the one as I remember the movie so well!

So if you can think of any other Classics that would be great to aim for then let me know what they are and I will add them to my list of books to read in the next 21 months!

P.S I started reading Pride and Prejudice about 2 weeks ago and haven't even got past page 3 yet!

A New Blog to Follow

Like everyone else I have a happy time surfing around on the blogs, reading different things, commenting on things, lurking sometimes and not saying a word!
I have loaded up my following list so I can keep right up to date with what certain blogs are doing and how they are keeping.

One such blog, that I am really not sure how I came to found it, is called Scribbit Motherhood in Alaska.
I have just recently started following her and I came across this post she wrote a couple of days ago.
It hit right in the middle of my chest. The comments attached with it are heart stopping too.
She writes about a regret she had whilst out shopping one day and believe me, everyone has probably been in that exact situation at sometime.

Go on over and check out what she wrote about and don't forget to read the comments with it.

Book Review

Mum left some books at my house that she had finished with and thought I might like to read them.

One she left was 'Wife in The North' by Judith O'Reilly

This is written in a diary form, just like 'Bridget Jone's Diary' was, and it is about herself and her three children and their life in Northumberland, the place her husband wanted the family to live. Only thing being is that her husband still goes to London regularly for business so she is in fact more or less living up north on her own!

Some of the entries are funny and all mother's can recognise and understand what she is writing about, although for me, that is where it ends.

I am finding it very difficult to read and in fact am finding it boring! I am slowly perservering because I wanted to see how it ends, does her husband finally give up his London job to concentrate on living up north properly? Does she leave her husband? Those sort of questions....

Unfortunately, in one of the entries, she tells you about her blog she keeps, now I wasn't sure if this was a fictional blog or what because this was a fictional book for all I knew, so I had a quick turn to the back cover and realise that in fact the blog is real and to make matters worse this whole book is just her blog made in to a book!

I went and checked out her blog and realised that the book will never end, there will be no answers to my questions because if I feel like it I can continue reading the blog and it will be like the book never ends.

So know I have decided that I do not need to read anymore of the book. I didn't enjoy what I had read so far, so the book can be passed on to the next person...who ever that may be?

Book Review

For Mother's day I received a new book that I wanted.

"Sunday at Tiffany's" by James Patterson.

Yes, that same James Patterson who writes all those thrillers.

He has dabbled in a few romance novels and though they are very light hearted, they are well written and sometime light is all you need.

About the book:

Jane Margaux is a lonely little girl. Her father is basically absent, her mother a high powered Broadway producer. The only time Vivienne (her mother) has for Jane is on Sundays, when they stroll the streets of New York and go admire the lovely things at Tiffany’s. Her best (and only) friend is Michael, who is invisible to everyone but her. Some would call Michael “imaginary”, but he wasn’t to Jane. They shared ice cream on Sundays and he walked her to school each day. Until, that is, her 9th birthday, when the rules stated that Michael had to go away. Children usually forget their imaginary friends as time faded, but Jane swore she never would….

Twenty-three years later, Jane is a successful playwright. She still, however, is more trapped by her overbearing mother. Her fiance, while proclaiming to love her, is pushing her to allow him to star in the movie version of her play. One day, she meets a man who is funny and warm…and his name is Michael. Of all the children Michael has been an imaginary friend to, he never forgot Jane Margeaux and he wonders why their paths crossed again. And how was it that, unlike all the other children, Jane never forgot him? Can the best friend of her past turn out to be the true love of her life?

It didn't take me many nights to finish this book. Infact I only got in on Sunday and I finished it last night. If I had the ability to, then I would have finished it in one sitting.

It was different, I enjoyed it and am glad I read it.

I have also read one of his other romance novels, "Suzannes Diary for Nicholas".

So if you want something light hearted to read then give the couple of romance novels by James Patterson a try.

Brotherly Love

Last night after putting the boys in bed to read before lights out, I heard a funny sound coming from their room.

So I went to investigate and this is what I found.........

Ben reading to his brother.

Now Ben can't read, but that doesn't matter with this book as it is an I spy with pictures, and all the pictures are of Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends.

Alex

Yesterday Alex managed to be very cute, not so cute and back to really cute, but hey that is the life of a typical 2 year old

He started off by being so cute sitting and reading to himself from his favourite book of the moment "Little Bear Lost"
You could hear him telling himself the story of how Little Bear was found in the picnic basket. So cute.
Unfortunately this didn't last too long....whilst cleaning for the open home, Alex decided to draw in pencil all over the wall (must be something in the water, as Ben did exactly the same thing at Daycare on Friday. That is another story and I will fill you in when I get the pictures!)

So we made him help us clean it off the wall.

Then later in the day, when he had woken from his afternoon nap, he snuggled up with daddy and ate a big plate of fruit. He just loves Kiwi fruit and grapes.