I have so many books in my wishlist at Amazon - I am always sticking books in there. I will read a blog in which the blogger recommends a book - zap! Into my wishlist it goes! A friend will recommend a funny book they just read - zap! Into my wishlist it goes! And before I know it, that thing is pages and pages and pages long! I have to go through there every now and again, and delete some things out of there.

I just found a book in there, that I picked up while grocery shopping, because, it was on sale. So that one gets marked off my list. There are still so many in there, though. I could really use a cash advance for all of the books that I want to buy.

What if someone gave you $1,000 just for books? That is all you could spend it on and you did not have to pay it back! Would that just be the coolest thing, or what?!

Oh, I can dream….

I am completely surrounded by unread books. It is, on the one hand, so utterly delightful, and on the other hand, so very sad. I seldom have time to read them. I generally read at night when I get into bed. Lately, though, I’ve been working such long hours, that when I get into bed, crack the current book, and read one sentence - WHAMMO! I’m down for the count. That’s it. Just like that. I read one sentence, and I am way off in the land of the Almighty ZZZ’s!!
Just here in my bedroom, near my bed, I have eight books, either begun, or not yet even opened. I also have three unfinished magazines. Oh my! I wish I had an Orlando vacation home that I could sneak off to, with my magazines and books in tow. I would buy enough food for a week, so I wouldn’t have to leave at all, and just get cozy and read. It sounds completely blissful. A reading vacation - that’s a new twist, isn’t it? I would be in Heaven, though!

Oh yeah! Oh yeah! I got a book in the mail yesterday! I’m so excited - I’ve wanted this book for a really long time! I finally got:

I can’t wait to just really dig into this book - I wish I could just stop everything, get cozy on the balcony, and just read. But then there’s that thing called life that I have to attend to. Darn.

The funny thing about it, though - is that I ordered this book from one of my book clubs. Well - that part isn’t funny, the part that is funny is that I ordered it from The Quality Paperback Book Club and ….you guessed it! It’s a hard back. That’s a little strange, but, I guess it will do!

I have another book coming from the other book club, too. I just love getting surprises in the mail - especially when they’re books! I know, I know, it’s not really a surprise if I ordered it! But after a long day of blogging …and the hassles of life …and screaming kids - it sure feels like a surprise when the mailman knocks on the door!

Yesterday afternoon, I was on Skype with one of my favorite bloggy-friends, Loretta. She wanted to share some ‘bookworm-y’ news with me - all about her sweet bookworm, Ethan, and his new favorite book! I love ‘bookworm-y’ news - Loretta sure does know what makes me smile!
Then we got to talking about the book fairs that the schools have and I was telling her how I didn’t really like them, because there are too many ‘trinkets’ on sale. Not to mention, the $30 books that Shawn always picks out! I know, though, with a $30 book he is getting his money’s worth.

Those darn ‘trinket’ combo things drive me crazy! They sell a really cheap toy, and a really cheap book - package them together and then mark the price up, because, you are getting a book and a toy! HA!

And Shawn used to be such a sucker for these! It used to drive me crazy! One time, he bought a combo set that was about airplanes and jets. If it was just a book, that would be awesome for a young boy to get excited about reading! But - he wound up with a really flimsy, cheap-o book, and these little bitty cardboard airplanes! It was awful.

And the thing is, that more and more of these things are making their way into the book fairs. And then the Scholastic team can pat themselves on the back, thinking they are getting kids excited about reading. I have to say, though, I don’t think Shawn - who is a voracious reader - even read that silly airplane book!

Then Loretta and I switched gears a little bit and began discussing the book orders. I told her that I do like those. There seem to be some really good deals in there, quite a bit more than at the book fairs. And I know how much the kids love ordering the books - it is so exciting for them when their books come in!

I remember very well ordering books when I was in elementary school and how totally awesome that was! (I don’t remember if we used Scholastic back then, though - I’ll have to ask my mother if she remembers.) And in the fourth grade, we had a behavior system that was based on points, but, instead of points, you got what we called ‘mula money’. The mula money was little pieces of construction paper with different amounts on them, that we had all helped to make at the beginning of the year, if I remember correctly. And on the week that our book order came in, on that Friday, in the afternoon - if you had enough mula money, you got a special treat. You were allowed to find a comfortable spot anywhere in the classroom that you wanted and read your new books. And - you could bring a snack - any kind of snack. It didn’t have to be healthy. If you wanted to bring a Snickers and a Coke, that was fine! Oh, how I loved those Fridays!! And what a wonderful memory to have!

Back to my Skype chat, though, Loretta and I were still chattering on and on about the book orders and the book fair, when Sammie’s bus pulled up outside the house. She came running in the front door shaking some papers at me, “Momma! I got a book order!” She was so excited, and probably wondered why I was ignoring her. It was because I was so busy laughing and typing to Loretta what Sammie had come in saying! It was so funny!

I found this meme about books and reading - very cool! Every week, the site owner poses a few questions, and we all answer them! Totally groovy!

You can click on the graphic to go to the site and read everyone’s responses in the comments section.

Ok, now for the questions…

1. Do you lend your books to other people? If so, any restrictions?

I do, sometimes, lend my books to other people, but, I definitely feel the tug of letting them go.

2. Do you borrow books from other people? (Friends or family—I’m not talking about the public library)

I do, but, I am very nervous about it, and try so hard to be careful with them. And although I might be thoroughly enjoying the book, I am eager to finish it so that I can return it and stop worrying.

3. And, most importantly—do the books you lend/borrow get returned to their rightful owners??

Eeks! This is a tough one, as I must admit I still have some books that I never returned. Oh my - I have two of the Jean Ayers Caveman books that I never returned - those are fabulous books! I feel even more guilty when they are really good books, you know?

On getting my own back, that sometimes happens and sometimes does not. I forgot I loaned one of the kids’ teachers the first Harry Potter book, and we’ve since lost contact with her and I think the kids will never let me forget that. Last summer, however, when I loaned out a Marilu Henner book, I repeatedly asked for it back, because I didn’t want to lose it. I didn’t want to lose the H.P. book, I just completely forgot about I had lent it to her.

Part of me believes that books are wonderful, joyous things and books are our friends - and they should be shared, with love in our hearts.

And the other half of me believes that my books are so precious to my heart, that I really don’t want to trust your grubby hands on them!
GO READ A BOOK!

I want to tell you about a blog by a gorgeous and smart work at home mom. Her name is Tracy and her blog is Mom’s Niche Blog.

Her blog covers many areas faced by us moms, like saving money, organizing our lives, and doing the best job that we can to parent our children.

She also has a bi-weekly newsletter full of all kinds of helpful articles for moms, that you can sign up for right on her blog.

And my favorite category on her blog, is - of course - books!

She, and a fellow mom, have done some book reviews - and I love the way the format in which they review the books - you can check out this category on her site here: Mom’s Niche book reviews.

I may be a little biased, but, I hope they tell us about some more great books!

GO READ A BOOK!

I wonder how everyone handles that? I would love to get a conversation going on this, because, often - I am at a loss as to whether or not I should let my child read a certain book.

Are they ready for it? Is there even anything in it that I should worry about?

When they were younger, screening books was easy - the books were either very quick reads, or my actually reading the book was not necessary, as it was clearly not a book I would worry about. An example being, Little House on the Prairie. Although, I did read about a rather disturbing episode of the show the other day…hmm…wonder if that one is in the book?

There is no possible way for me to pre-read their books nowadays. I read books so slowly, anymore - I am usually in the middle of several books and several magazines and very busy with computer work all at the same time. And by the time I get to bed and get to read, I doze off after a page or two, if I’ve been lucky enough to read that much!

My poor boys would be waiting forever to read books! LOL!

And they devour books like nothing I’ve ever seen! That is one thing this mama bookworm cannot relate to - the super fast reading of a book. Even in my pre-mama days, I wasn’t that fast reading my books. I’d read some every night before bed, and books would take me some time to go through. Occasionally, I would get my hands on one that I just could NOT put down, but, usually, it was a long, slow relationship I had with each book.

Not my boys. Nope. They eat books up like there is no tomorrow! I would never be able to keep up with them!

In fact, the other day I found a really neat website by an astronomer (maybe I’ll blog about it tomorrow…) and Patrick and I were trying to read it together. “Roll up, Mom! Roll up!” Continuously!!

I think part of it is my ADD - I often re-read sentences and eat them up one word at a time, as opposed to one fluid ingestion, you know?

Anyway, so I’ve veered completely off-subject - how ADD of me!
The subject is - pre-teens and teens - how do you make sure they are reading acceptable books?

GO READ A BOOK!

That is the name of a really great new blog by a stay at home mom of three precious girls. She is always on the lookout for great activities for her girls - fun and educational - and wants to share her finds with all of us. And so, she started Little Fun; Little Learning.

One of my favorite posts she’s made so far is all about some of the great books that she recommends reading to your kids. She actually lists some of my all-time favorites as she discusses Reading with your child.

It really is a great new blog, already filled up with many wonderful resources - you really should check it out!

GO READ A BOOK!

I send personalized letters to children once a month, and in each letter I write, I tell the kids about a wonderful book. I write two letters - one for older bookworms and one for younger bookworms.

Well, I finished writing my January letters yesterday, and I had so much fun searching for animal books to talk about!

I picked two really great ones, and I wanted to share them with you!

For my younger bookworms, I chose Eric Carle’s Animals Animals. This book looks so great and every single time I pick out a book to talk about I want to go out and get it for my kids! I better be careful and not listen to myself too much, or we’ll be living in a box made of books! Heehee! If I had the means available to me, I would have sooooooooooooo many books! It would be fabulous! Like those libraries in mansions with the sliding ladders…. aahhh…

Well! A girl can dream, can’t she?

Ok, ok, back to the book - it is filled with loads and loads of poetry from many different cultures! From Shakespeare to Lewis Carroll, from Emily Dickinson to Rudyard Kipling, from passages in the Bible to Japanese haikus!

And then, of course, there are the amazing and wonderfully colorful illustrations by Eric Carle - most of the animals gracing two pages each! The whale stretches out on four pages!

This book sounds really fabulous! Here it is:

The book I chose to talk about to my older bookworms is The Kingfisher First Encyclopedia of Animals. This book looks so awesome! I know, I know - I already said that about the other one, but, I just get so excited about the books that I find! (Hence, wanting to buy them all!) I mean, really, though - just look at the cover:

Doesn’t that look fabulous? I know, I know - you can’t judge a book by its cover, but, you know what? A cover can definitely draw you in! And draw me in, it did!
The best thing about this book is that it is not set up alphabetically, but, rather, in animal groups - mammals, reptiles, birds, etc. There are two great things about this - for children who are just learning to look stuff up for themselves, this can be a lot easier. Also, this will help children to better understand and learn the classifications of animals. Very cool!

The book also has over 1500 beautiful color illustrations and photographs. And it has one of my favorite features of kids books - those little cross reference boxes to help the children find related topics within the book.

Yep - those are two very good books! They get my bookworm seal of approval!

GO READ A BOOK!

My mom and my sister-in-law sent the kids my very favorite gifts ever - yep! Books!

What better gift can there possibly be?
One of the books that Shawn got was called, The Black Tattoo.

I haven’t read the book, yet - but, it looks really neat!

And he really enjoyed it. And the part that has me so jazzed?

The cover! Yes, the cover! You open it up and it is a huge poster - merging the arts, you gotta love that!