Thick or Thin?

Thick or Thin?

I was watching an old TV show, “Leave It to Beaver”. The kid had to read a book and do a book report on it for school. He kept putting off reading the book until the last minute. Then he saw that a movie with the same name as his book was on TV, so he watched it and did his report on it. Of course it was nothing like the real book (The 3 Musketeers), and he got in trouble. So he had to do 2 more reports on books to make up for his wrong one.

He said he was going to the library to get a couple of books, but was going to ask for the thin ones, not thick books.

So, what do you think? Do you like thick or thin books? Do you choose books this way?

For me, I like the thick ones, and even medium thick ones best. Of course it depends on the subject of the book. If I think it’s a good read, a good story, or very informative in the case of non-fiction, I prefer it to be thick so it lasts longer.

On the other hand, I don’t much like thin books. If I’m buying books, thin ones don’t seem worth my money. You don’t get much out of them for the price. So, I will mostly pass these up. There are exceptions of course, and a thin book may be just wonderful. I do have a deal where I will check how many pages it has. 500 pages is pretty good amount. Those with less, are iffy, and those with more will get a more serious look from me.

How about you? What criterion do you apply to buying and reading books?

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These are just a few of my book shelves. They are all just a big mish-mash of all kinds of books. 🙂

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Thanks for visiting! Peace ☮️

© 2023 BS

Something to Read – A to Z – 2023 – Letter S

Something to Read – A to Z – 2023 – Letter S

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If you’re like me you’re always looking for something to read. I have so many books, an lots of them I’ve read more than once. These two start with letter S, and they are good.

I did a whole A to Z about books back in 2018, that did a short paragraph of books I’d read. I also had quotes about books.

Still round the corner there may wait, A new road or a secret gate.
– J. R. R. Tolkien

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“Shut Up and Eat Your Snowshoes!”, by Jack Douglas is a really fun book to read. I read it long ago, then several times after. The author, his wife and young son, and their menagerie of animals, decide to move from the city, to the wilderness backwoods of Canada. He duly wrote down, in hilarious fashion, all the adventures and misadventures they had. Being city slickers knowing nothing of how things worked out in the boonies, is his true fish out of water story.

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“Serpent in Paradise”, by Dea Birkett, is the author’s journey back in time. She travels to tiny Pitcairn Island, to find out what happened to the ancestors of the mutineers who sailed with Captain William Bligh, on the ship called Bounty.

She chronicles her own voyage to the island, cut off from civilization for all these years, and talks with the villagers, while she learns how the survivors managed to live in such isolation, after that ill-fated, and famed event with the mutiny on the Bounty.

This book is easy to read, even as it tells the history of the times, but in a personal story kind of way.

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Mystery Box Chickens

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Thanks for visiting! Peace ☮️

© 2023 BS

Bloganuary 2023 – Book

Bloganuary 2023 – Book

Has a book changed your life?

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I’d say a book has changed my life.

This book is, “Lost Souls”, by Poppy Z. Brite. I liked it so much, I didn’t want it to end, so I started writing fan fiction about it. I hadn’t really heard of blogs, but I wanted someone to read what I wrote, so a friend let me know about blogs and how to set up one to post my fan fiction story, “Two Souls: Into the Fire”. I spent a very long time writing it (over a year if not more), and I’m proud of the fact that I did it, and finished it.

That started me on to writing more things on my blog, such as essays, observations, poems, challenges, and my true ghost stories.  I started in 2013 I think, and have continued to this day, enjoying every bit of it, including making many wonderful blogging friends to share thoughts with.

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Thanks for visiting! Peace ☮️

© 2023 BS

 

Just Jot It January 2023 – Endurance

Just Jot It January 2023 – Endurance

https://lindaghill.com/2023/01/09/daily-prompt-jusjojan-the-9th-2023/

This prompt for today was suggested by:

Destiny

Your prompt for JusJoJan January 9th 2023, is “endurance.” Use the word “endurance” any way you’d like. Enjoy!

ENDURANCE: SHACKLETON’S INCREDIBLE VOYAGE

This is a book review of the book “Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage” by Alfred Lansing.

Do you enjoy reading true stories about people who have overcome tremendous obstacles just to survive? This story , as it’s title says, is incredible. It was published in 1959.

It is the true story of the Antarctic expedition taken on by Sir Ernest Shackleton and his crew, in 1914, on the ship Endurance. Shackleton was an explorer, and this time he set out to cross the Antarctic. They were almost to the end of their journey, when the pack ice in the sea closed in on the ship, rendering it immobile. They were stuck, with only ice surrounding them. They were stranded there for over a year.

The book describes, in white knuckle imagery, the struggles and hardships encountered by the men on board. There are pictures and maps, and most details were taken from the diarys the men kept, of this harrowing time in their lives. The author writes in a way that makes you feel you are right there with them.

Another, more recent book, written on this subject, is by Caroline Alexander, “Shackleton’s Legendary Antarctic Expedition” (1998). There are even more pictures in this book.

I read this book, the first time, when I was in the 5th grade. I remember being enthralled at how awful it must have been. I could hardly put the book down, even reading while eating meals, and neglecting my homework.

I believe this one book got me started on reading other true stories of people surviving incredible odds…from plane crashes, mountain climbing expeditions, desert and jungle adventures. It has stayed in my mind all these years.

Now that I think about it, it was a bit prophetic that these men had to endure so much on a ship named Endurance.

You can find these books on Amazon.

Thank you for reading!

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Thanks for visiting! Peace ☮️

© 2014 & 2023 BS

Books & Stuff – SOCS – Happy Place

Books & Stuff – SOCS – Happy Place 

https://lindaghill.com/2022/10/14/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-oct-15-2022/

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Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “happy place.” Write the first thing that comes to mind when you think of “happy place.” Have fun!

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Besides being at home, which is always my happy place, there are a few places I am happy being there.

These are any library, and the more the better. Everywhere we’ve ever lived, in the states or over seas, I’ve found all the libraries. Some places have just one small one, while other places have a large one, or even just a book-mobile. I have library cards from public and college libraries. I find all the libraries!

Next, and this is right up there, are book stores. I’m very happy browsing around in them all. They can be fancy big ones with coffee shops inside, or just a junky little used book store. I like them all.

Yard and garage sales. Many years of ‘sale-ing’ happiness. I find these wherever we go, too.

Antique and junk stores are great, as is thrift shops of all kinds.

I can go to any of these places and be happy. Even if I have aches, pains, headaches, whatever, if I go to any of these my troubles go away fast. 🙂

Here’s a couple of pictures of the library basement book sale one year.

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Thanks for visiting! Peace ☮️

© 2022 BS

Chapter?

Chapter?

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So, I was thinking about this word. The more I looked at it and said it to myself and out loud, the weirder it sounded.

Where did this word come from, and why do books always have them? I’ve read books forever and it’s true. Some books actually divide up parts into chapters and say so right there on the page. Other don’t say it’s a new chapter – just have the word one or two or whatever, and others just have some space before starting new thoughts.

When a kid is learning to like and read books, they start with a picture book. That’s pretty simple. Then they have a few short words to read, gradually adding more. Later they graduate to books with chapters. From what I’ve heard, this is a big deal for kids, to begin reading chapter books. We never called it that when I was a kid, though. Guess we didn’t call it anything.

Now, where did this word come from? I’ll google it.

From Wiki:

When was the word chapter invented?

The first known use of chapter was in the 13th century

English word chapter comes from Proto-Indo-European *kaput-, and later Proto-Italic *kaput (Head.)

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Well, that was a trip down the rabbit hole of information. Interesting, but too much to list here. Look it up if you want to.

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Still, when I think of the word chapter, I think of having chapped hands. It always happens in the fall and winter, no matter how much lotion I use.

Also, I think of cowboys wearing chaps while riding their horses.

These have nothing to do with books and chapters, though.

I like chapters in books. It gives us a place to take a break from reading if you need to. Or an excuse to keep reading as in ‘just one more chapter’ …

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Thanks for visiting! Peace ☮️

© 2022 BS

One Liner Wednesday

One Liner Wednesday

https://lindaghill.com/2022/06/22/one-liner-wednesday-ive-got-the-power/

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The difference between fiction and reality? Fiction has to make sense. ~ Tom Clancy

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Thanks for visiting! Peace ☮️

© 2022 BS

Throwback Thursday – Reading

Throwback Thursday – Reading

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This week Maggie asks us some questions about our reading experiences. Thanks, Maggie!

https://fromcavewalls.wordpress.com/2022/05/19/throwback-thursday-39-reading-culture-and-books/

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The questions:

1. Who were the readers in your family?
2. Were there some people who did not like to read or could not read?
3. Did your family subscribe to the newspaper?
4. If you did get the paper, was your Sunday newspaper considered special? What part did you enjoy?
5. Did your home have books strewn around? Hardbacks or paperbacks?
6. Did you frequent the library at school?
7. How about the local community library? Did you have a library card?
8. What was the first book you remember reading?
9. Did you have a collection of books (Nancy Drew, The Hardy Boys, Happy Hollisters, etc?)
10. Did you read comic books? If so, what titles?
11. Did you end up a bookworm, a casual reader, or someone who read only when required?
12. Is there a book from your childhood you would like to read again? If so, what book?
13. What book or books have been extremely meaningful or influential in your life?
14. BONUS QUESTION: What book(s) do you frequently gift to others? Why?

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My answers:

1. In our family everyone was always reading something.

2. I never heard of anyone in our family that couldn’t read.

3. Yes, we had the local newspaper delivered every day.

4. The Sunday paper was bigger, and had the comics. I always liked those, and I probably read the headlines of the front page, and looked at some of the lifestyle section.

5. We did have books in the house, both hardback and paperback ones. We had an encyclopedia set, and a children’s set, too.

6. I always went to the school’s library in all grades. In Jr. High, I did work in the library, classifying, shelving, checking out books to people, putting dust covers on books, etc. Then in high school I did the same thing, and even held an office in the library club.

7. I had a children’s library card and couldn’t wait until I got the adult library card. I’ve always had one in every city we moved to, even overseas.

8. The first book I remember reading is “The Three Billy Goats Gruff”. I actually still have it.

9. I had a lot of books, maybe not a collection, but a lot. I would get the Trixie Beldon books. Earlier on we got a whole box of little Golden Books as a gift from a neighbor.

10. I read quite a few comic books. Not superheroes. Mostly Archie, Caspar the Friendly Ghost, Donald Duck, and those kinds.

11. I was a bookworm from the get go, and I still am.

12. Oh, I don’t know, maybe the Black Stallion series (I was obsessed with horses at the time)

13. I just read for pleasure, no great insights. I read all kinds, from non-fiction, fiction, horror, and everything in between. Some make me laugh, some make me cry, and some are just interesting.

14. I don’t gift books to other people. I might say to them what book I liked, then they can get it or not. People’s taste in books are so different, I couldn’t begin to know what they’d like. I have given gift cards though, so they can pick out what book they’d want.

This is my Three Billy Goats Gruff book I’ve had forever, and the first one I could read by myself. Then I passed it on to my cousin when he was little, then it was back to me so my girls could read it, too.

 

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Thanks for visiting! Peace ☮️

© 2022 BS

Saturday Six Word Story Prompt – Survival

Saturday Six Word Story Prompt – Survival

https://thesoulsearchersite.wordpress.com/2021/08/28/6wsp-88/

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Prompt for Week #88 (Aug 28, 2021 – Sep 3, 2021)

Survival

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Fantastic book – Survival of Jan Little

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Thanks for visiting! Peace ☮️

© 2021 BS

 

 

January Squares Day # 9 – Up – Upside Down

January Squares – Day # 9 – Up – Upside Down

 

Supermarket Views

 

This is a month long challenge, hosted by Becky of “The Life of B”.

This month’s theme is Up – and here is where you find the main details https://beckybofwinchester.com/square-daily-photo-challenge/
The most important rule of this challenge is that your photo Must be Square!

To join in, find out the details, and see other entries, just click the above link. It’s fun! 🙂

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I’ll also be adding a song to go along with the photo in one way or another.

Enjoy!

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This book is upside down.

I always read while I’m eating a meal, and put my book in a wire book holder. I wasn’t paying attention until I started to read, and discovered I’d put it in upside down. haha! 🙂

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You have to see this wild video – so fun to watch! 🙂

It shows 4 guys and 2 girls in a plane in zero gravity doing all kinds of flips and tricks.

“Upside Down & Inside Out”, by OK Go

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Thanks for visiting! Peace ☮️

© 2021 BS