Sunday Salon - Take A Chance

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Good Evening! I just finished reading Virginia Woolf's "To The Lighthouse" for my modern fiction class. I have never read anything by Woolf so really didn't know what to expect. She writes in a stream on conciousness style and it was slow going. I tried starting it yesterday and wasn't in the frame of mind to understand it and had to start all over again this morning. I managed to finish and it's interesting to say the least.

I finished one challenge and am starting another. I completed the Series to Finish Challenge. The hostess seems to have quit blogging so no wrap up post to link too. The books I completed are: "Killing Fear" (1) and "Playing Dead" (3) of the Prison Break series by Allison Brennan; "Blood Bound" (2) and "
Iron Kissed" (3) of the Mercy Thompson series by Patricia Briggs; "Take No Prisoners" (2) and "Whisper No Lies" of the Black Op series by Cindy Gerard; "For Her Eyes Only" (3) in the Psychic triplets series by Cait London; "Edge of Midnight" (4) in the McCloud Brothers series by Shannon Mckenna; and "Thread of Fear" (3) in the Glass Sisters series by Laura Griffin.



I also started the Take A Chance challenge being hosted by Jenners. There are several interesting tasks. #1 is Random Book Selection in which you go to library or bookstore, go to a section such as mysteries, follow random directions you decided ahead of time such as what I decided of 4 rows over, 4 shelves down, 10th book from the left. Well I went to Borders on Saturday and tried this little experiment in the mystery section.


I planted myself in an aisle of the mystery section which is slightly in disarray because t
hey decided to change the shelves from running horizontal to vertical and they were still in the midst of this change. Well, the first book I came to following my directions landed me on Tony Hillerman's The Blessing Way. I already have it. I tried again on the other side of the aisle. Again landed on a book already had read. What are the odds of that? Changed the system and went back to the other aisle, landed on Kay Hooper's books. The one I landed on was the 2nd in a new series, so cheated a bit and picked up the 1st in a psychic crime fighting trilogy, "Blood Dreams."

Borders was also having a buy 2 paperbacks and get the 3rd paperback free sale and I was in hog heaven. Fortunately I had a list with me of books I was interested in. I picked up not only Blood Dreams, but also several other books: "Kill Zone" by Vicki Hinze, "Fire and Ice" by Anne Stuart, "Baby I'm Yours" by Susan Anderson, "Charmed and Dangerous" by Toni McGee Causey, "4.50 from Paddington" by Agatha Christie, "Night Watch" by Sergie Lukyanenko and "Red Siren" by Marylu Tyndall. Plus a book for Father for Father's day. Surprisingly enough, they didn't take off the cheapest books as the free book.

# 2 is Random Word in which you go to the
random word generator, generate a random word, find a book with the word in the title and read it, then write about it. I went to the random word generator and my random word is Liberty. In looking up books with Liberty in the title came across "Lady Liberty" by Vicki Hinze which looked really, really interesting. Which of course, Borders didn't have, so on the list to buy from Amazon. And part of the reason picked up "Kill Zone."



#3 Birth year book. Find a book written or published in your birth year. Went to The Adult New York Times Best Seller Listings for 1959 and looked at the listing for November 22nd, the closest to my birthday The one I discovered and the only one I could find available to order on Amazon was Taylor Caldwell's "Dear and Glorious Physician: A Novel about Saint Luke." That's the one I will be going with, so it is on the wishlist. Besides, I have been wanting to read it.



#4 Judge a book by its cover in which you p
ick out a book based SOLELY on the cover. First, write about what you expect the book to be about based on the cover art. Then read the book and write about how the book was different from and/or similar to what the cover art led you to expect. I actually came across a recommended book on Amazon that the cover intrigued me which I decided to pick up because of the cover:


Again, Borders didn't have it. After looking at several books on display, decided to stick with this one. On the wish list, waiting for purchase.

#7 of the challenge is read a random bestseller from a random year. The year generated 1976 and they had a list with my birthday November 21. Many interesting books and the one I choose is "Touch Not The Cat" by Mary Stewart.


I'm still working on the public spying one and picking a name out of the phone book. Still have plenty of time for that. Having fun so far, picking out books for each task and all have gone on the wish list to purchase later. Will be typing up the list and adding it to 2009 book challenges up in the link bar.

I finished reading "The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane" and "French Bred", so reviews for those books will be forthcoming, along with "Virgin River" by Robyn Carr (which I just hadn't gotten around too). Speaking of Robyn Carr, loved, loved, loved the first book in the series and surprising I couldn't find her books at the used book store or Borders. Imagine a pouty face. Yes, you guessed it. Book 2 "Shelter Mountain" and Book 3 "Whispering Rock" will be arriving tomorrow from Amazon.

I'm almost done with the Spring Reading Challenge. Have 3 1/2 books left to read - In the middle of "Mysterious Benedict Society" and have 2 books left to read for Once Upon a Time Challenge. Once I'm done with those challenges, going to try not to join any more challenges for the year and finish the remaining challenges. If I do any more challenges at all, it will be the personal challenge of getting through the TBR pile without the stress of a time limit.


Phew! That's it - lots of books. As you can imagine, my budget for books has been blown and I can't buy any more books this month. Which is just as well, because as Trish mentioned on her blog the other day, her books are getting together and having baby books. I say they've been taking lessons from the tribbles.









4 comments:

  1. I'm taking part in the take a chance challenge, too. :) It sounds fun, doesn't it? I have started it yet but I will soon.

    I've read Fire & Ice and Baby I'm Yours. They were okay. Touch Not the Cat I've read, too; that one's kind of interesting. I haven't read it for a realllly long time, though.

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  2. I laughed when you said you blew your book budget. I do it all the time - it's too easy to do when these sales come along and I have no will power.

    I like the sound of this new challenge. It sounds fun. I'm going to check it out next.

    I have to say thanks for showing Dear and Glorious Physician. I've been compiling a list of books that have influenced me in my lifetime and this is one o f them. I remembered that it was about Luke but couldn't recall the title or the author. It's such a wonderful book that I really need to re-read it.

    And, The Physick Book has become one of this year's favorites. I posted my review today. I hope it was a good read for you. I look forward to your review.

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  3. The challenge sounds like fun, I'm going to check it out! My daughter just bought me Killing Fear. I have read Allison's other series and enjoyed them.

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  4. Wow! That was some post! I'm tired already! lol The Take A Chance Challenge sounds really cool. I've never participated in a challenge before, but I may have to look into that one! Good Luck!

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