The Sunday Salon (Dec.27)

Well, Christmas has come & gone, already, if you can believe it. Before you know it, the whole year will have passed by! Just 4 more days to go!

I am extremely pleased with how my reading went this year, though. I’ve never in my life read 80 books in a year, before, so I am tickled pink! And, they weren’t small, fluffy books, either! They were between 200-600 pages each!

My favorite books of the year were the following:

• Thirsty by Tracey Bateman
• The Kommandant’s Girl by Pam Jenoff
• Thirst (vol.1) by Christopher Pike
• The Year of Living Biblically by A.J. Jacobs
• Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris
• Perfect You by Elizabeth Scott
• The End of the Beginning by Avi
• The Last Lecture by Dr. Randy Pausch
• The End of Overeating by David A. Kessler
• Never Give Up by Joyce Meyer
• Nothing But Trouble by Susan May Warren
• Vince & Joy by Lisa Jewel
• It’s All Too Much by Peter Walsh
• 10 Things I Hate About Christianity by Jason T. Berggren
• Just Like That by Marsha Qualey
• Do You Think I’m Beautiful? by Angela Thomas
• Losing Control & Liking It by Tim Sanford
• Time of My Life by Alison Winn Scotch

And, my least favorite books this year were:

• Dream Homes by Joyce Zonana
• Recover Your Good Heart by Jim Robbins
• Naturally Thin by Bethenny Frankel
• Sunnyside Blues by Mary Carter
• Regret-Free Living by Stephen Arterburn
• Downpour (Bible study) by James McDonald

So, overall, it was a good year for reading.

In the new year, I definitely plan on doing things a bit different, though. Much as it was awesome to read 80 books in a year, I am planning to read much less in 2010. I need to work/focus on my health more, so I’m going to seriously cut back on my reading. Just yesterday, I was finally able to purchase an electric treadmill (I’ve been saving for 6 months, plus I got an AWESOME deal!), so I hope to walk/jog on that every day. I will probably listen to audiobooks while I’m on there, but not always. I think I’ll be doing more tv-watching than anything, while on there, but we’ll see. ((That’s my new treadmill, on the right! –>))

Anyhoo. For 2010, my main reading goals are as follows:

• read about 35 books
• review only 3 books per month
• try to read more from my own collection than anything else
• review (on my blog) every book I read
• complete the reading challenges I’ve signed up for

Here’s wishing everyone a very safe, but fun New Years’ Eve, this Thursday!

 

Merry Christmas to me!!!

Look what I just bought myself for Christmas!!!

I’ve been saving up since June for an electric treadmill, and now — thanks to my savings, and money that I got for Christmas, and an absolutely FANTASTIC Boxing Week sale — I finally have it!!! It’s a Horizon Fitness CT5.1… it was on sale for $1050 less than its regular price (normally, it’s a $1600 unit!)

I can’t wait until my husband puts it together for me, so that I can try it out! Whoohoo!!!! Merry Christmas to me!!!!

 

Lovin’ This!

Found this online, today, and am lovin’ it (suffer through the first bit — the second half of the video is the best).

Christmas Light Show – Amazing Grace Techno

((if the video doesn’t show up, just click the link to go watch it… it really is cool!))

 

Merry Christmas! (Friday Finds on a break)

MERRY CHRISTMAS, everyone!

((Friday Finds is taking a break, today, as I’m celebrating
Christmas with my family! It will return next Friday!))

 

BTT: Speed & History

Last week, the BTT question wasn’t up every time I checked (must have been put up later), so I missed it. Therefore, this week I’m catching up, and doing two (2) posts in one!

Last week’s question asked:

What do you think of speed-reading? Is it a good way to get through a lot of books, or does the speed-reader miss depth and nuance? Do you speed-read? Is some material better suited to speed-reading than others?

I think speed-reading would be great, so long as I could retain what I read. If I didn’t remember a thing from the book when I was finished, I would consider it a waste. You have to be able to understand what you’re reading, too, if you ask me. If you do, then speed-reading would be a great way to plow through my TBR list a lot quicker! Maybe then, my husband wouldn’t complain about me having so many unread books in the house! LOL.

This week’s question asks:

Given the choice, which do you prefer? Real history? Or historical fiction? (Assume, for the purposes of this discussion that they are equally well-written and engaging.)

Well, I’ve never really liked history, either way. I don’t much care for history, in general. But, I’ve read historical fiction, and have enjoyed some of it, so I would have to pick the fictional side. I really like books written by both Tamera Alexander and Lynn Austin — both write Christian historical fiction.

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For more answers to the Booking Through Thursday questions,
please visit the main blog!

 

WWW Wednesday (Dec.23)

To play along, just answer the following three (3) questions…

• What are you currently reading?
• What did you recently finish reading?
• What do you think you’ll read next?

 

My answers:

What are you currently reading?

I’m still working my way through “The Unlikely Disciple” by Kevin Roose. I’m still really liking it, and hope to finish it sometime next week, hopefully before the end of the year.

What did you recently finish reading?

I put aside “The Unlikely Disciple” for a couple of days to read “The SuperFoods Rx Diet” by Wendy Bazilian & Steven Pratt.

What do you think you’ll read next?

Well, I have a couple of books from the library: “Dead to the World” by Charlaine Harris, and ”Wicked Lovely” by Melissa Marr. But, I also have a couple of review books that I should get to, first: “The Silent Governess” by Julie Klassen, and “Hero’s Tribute” by Graham Garrison. The latter of those review books isn’t due ’til February, though, so I doubt I will read it before the end of January.

     

PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT with either the link to your own WWW Wednesdays post, or share your answers in a comment here (if you don’t have a blog). Thanks!

 

Teaser Tuesdays (Dec.22)

 Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

My Teasers:

“So if I visit anything raunchy, he hears about it. And that ain’t good.”

~ p.217, “The Unlikely Disciple: A Sinner’s Semester At America’s Holiest University” by Kevin Roose 

 

 

PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT with either the link to your own Teaser Tuesdays post, or share your 2 ‘teasers’ in a comment here (if you don’t have a blog). Thanks!

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((remember, the link for the comments is at the TOP of this post!))

 

Musing Mondays (Dec.21)

Well, just in case Rebecca is still on hiatus (which I think she is, as I seem to remember her saying she’d be gone ’til after the holidays were over), I’ve decided to come up with my own question… So, this week’s Musing Mondays asks…

When you buy books, do they immediately go onto your bookshelf to wait until you’re ready to read them (even if that means months/years from then!), or do you read them right away? What makes you do this? If you’re a ’shelver’, why do you think you don’t read the books right away? Do you ever feel guilty for letting the books sit there, unread? If you’re a ‘read-em-now’ person, why do you feel they have to be read right away? Do you give away the books when you’re done, too?

My answer:

{{Hangs head in shame}}. I’m a ’shelver’. I almost never read the books as soon as I bring them into the house. I think the reason behind this is that I subconsciously think, “Now that I own the book, there’s no more rush to read it… I can get to it when I’m ready, without having to worry that it won’t be available to me at that time“. Weird, but that’s why I think I do that.

Yes, I feel horribly guilty about doing this! Especially since I can’t seem to stop buying books, either! So the piles of waiting-to-be-read books just grow & grow & grow! And, then I feel really overwhelmed. I have books sitting on my shelves that have been waiting over 7 years to be read! (hence my Original TBR Challenge, and my RYOB Challenge! LOL). But, I do still plan to read them!

So, what are you?

PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT with either the link to your own Musing Mondays post, or share your answer in a comment here (if you don’t have a blog). Thanks!

 

The Sunday Salon (Dec.20)

Not much to write today… I finished a couple of books recently — “Living Dead in Dallas” by Charlaine Harris, and “The SuperFoods Rx Diet” by Wendy Bazilian & Steven Pratt. Both got B+ ratings (enjoyable).

Today is my birthday! And, I’ve got my first of the Christmas family gatherings today, too, so it’ll be almost like going to a birthday party. LOL

And, while I’m at it… since Christmas comes before the next Sunday Salon…

MERRY CHRISTMAS to all of my readers!

 

REVIEW: “The SuperFoods Rx Diet” by Wendy Bazilian & Steven Pratt

 I found this book online, the other day, while searching for books about healthy eating & the Mediterranean-style of eating. It just so happened that my local library had a copy (at my branch, nonetheless), so I went and picked it up, and started reading it right away. I didn’t intend to read the whole thing, but it was quick and really interesting!

This book has an absolutely fascinating concept as far as a weight loss plan goes… it has the SlimDown, which is two weeks of more strict adherence to get you off to a good start, and then the FlexPlan to loosen things up a bit while still maintaining control. But, the most interesting part was the “Prep & Practice” week you do before the SlimDown. It’s where you start planning what you’ll do in your SlimDown, and you practice some of the meals & exercises. Very cool!

Now, when I talk about “strict adherence” for the SlimDown part, please don’t misunderstand me… this seems different than other diet books I’ve read where you have to give up all sorts of different foods and/or categories of foods. For this, it’s more about adding in the “superfoods”, and making sure you follow the plan. It’s not difficult, nor does it seem like too much.

Some of the “superfoods” listed are: Oats, Blueberries, Soy, Turkey, Oranges, Tomatoes, Broccoli, and Spinach… and a whole slew of “sidekicks” (other foods that are good for you, that you should add into your new plan).

I also liked that you basically make up your own meal plans, based off the SuperFoods categories (there are 3 main ones), and you can pick and choose what works best for you for exercise.

This plan is very flexible, and has some great ideas! The book even promotes listening to your hunger cues, so that was a big plus for me! (I’m a big fan of that!).

While there are still some points of this book that I don’t really agree with, overall I really like the concept, and think it’s a good thing to try out, especially coming into a new year! (the “Prep & Practice” week could be the last week of the year, and then you start the SlimDown come January 1st!)

Recommended. Rated B+