Thursday, August 28, 2008

Booking Through Thursday -- The Story's The Thing

If you’re anything like me, one of your favorite reasons to read is for the story. Not for the character development and interaction. Not because of the descriptive, emotive powers of the writer. Not because of deep, literary meaning hidden beneath layers of metaphor. (Even though those are all good things.) No … it’s because you want to know what happens next?

Or, um, is it just me?

Another great question!

Sometimes the story will carry me through. I just finished reading the young adult Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer. I had stayed away from this series even though it concerned one of my favorite escapist fiction topics. Vampires. I usually like my horror fiction to be, well.... horrifying or at least mildly terrifying. These books are not.

But, they are very sweet. The protagonist talks often of fairy tales. That aspect of the story did appeal to me. Vampires are part of my own personal mythology. In the Twilight series Stephenie Meyer has made one of them into Prince Charming. It works within the context of the series.

If you are willing to put your own ideas aside and join the protagonist in a gentler, more childlike tale of happily ever after, this is a nice story. The books in order are:

Twilight
New Moon
Eclipse
Breaking Dawn



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Now playing: Anoushka Shankar/Sting - The Book of My Life
via FoxyTunes

Thursday, August 21, 2008

Booking Through Thursday -- Early Library Experiences

Whether you usually read off of your own book pile or from the library shelves NOW, chances are you started off with trips to the library. (There’s no way my parents could otherwise have kept up with my book habit when I was 10.) So … What is your earliest memory of a library? Who took you? Do you have you any funny/odd memories of the library?

I love today's question! My memories of the public library as a little girl are all great. The town I grew up in was small and didn't have its own library when I was very little. Once a week the bookmobile would come and park outside the local grocery store.

This was a magic thing. A whole library on wheels. There was a little check-out desk and a small children's section. I loved it.

Years later, I got a job at a regional library in Georgia. Part of my job was to go out once a week on the bookmobile. For one whole year I got to be in the magic library and watch kids climb on board. It's one of the most fun jobs I've ever had.