Sunday Salon, APOOO October 12, 2008
By APOOO • Oct 12th, 2008 • Category: Sunday Salon •
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Last week was a good reading week for me. In fact, the best I’ve had all year! Yay me…hehe.
Read the following books and will be posting mini-reviews for all of them in the next day or so:
30–Can I Get a Witness by Reshonda Tate Billingsley
31–Too Little Too Late by Victoria Christopher Murray
32–Passing for Black by Linda Villarosa
33–Up Pops the Devil by Angela Benson
34–Going Down South by Bonnie Glover–Lots of fodder for a book club discussion.
35–Blood Colony by Tananarive Due–CURRENTLY READING
Since I seem to be on a roll, I would like to read five books again this week. I think I can given that tomorrow is a holiday and I don’t have to work. So, in addition to Blood Colony, here’s what’s on my list for this week:
Song Yet Sung by James McBride
Sinful Too by Victor McGlothin
Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
The Heretic’s Daughter by Kathleen Kent
Some observations about me and book reading:
I don’t like long chapters; maybe this is why I like James Patterson’s Alex Cross mysteries so much. The chapters are short…very short…3-5 pages. On average…I don’t like my chapters to be longer than 10 pages. Yes, before reading chapters, I actually count the number of pages. I get annoyed when chapters go on and on and on…maybe I have adult ADD or I’m just too anal but I need breaks in my reading…and a 72 page chapter is WAY TO RIDICULOUS.
Like romance, christian fiction reads are very formulaic. In the future, I should not read more than one CF book per month because other wise all the storylines start to run together and I find myself caring less and less about the characters. Oh and can we keep CF storylines realistic…not all folks get saved at the same time or go from being evil to good in the matter of 200-300 pages…some folks never get saved…and that’s fine because it’s believable and realistic.
Too many storyline characters distract me. More than four and I feel like I need to set up a family tree…just ain’t going to happen when I’m reading for pleasure…so unfortunately a great book can receive a lower rating from me because there are just too dayum many characters to keep up with. Sigh.
Out of the books I read last week, my most favorite one was the one that many APOOO members only gave an average rating. The books that folks said were MUST READS…hmmm didn’t really work for me. They were good reads…but not compelling enough for me to tell others…unless they’re avid fans…that they need to rush out and get them.
When I have too many books in my to read pile, as I do now (about 70 books), I find myself speed-reading a lot just to get to the next book and tick it off of my to read list. Sad…but true.
BABs (big arze books) will set on my shelf for awhile…because I can read two 200-300 page books in the amount of time it will take me to read a 400-500 page book. I don’t like reading BABs when my booklist overflows.
I wasn’t planning to buy anymore books this year…planned to visit the library more often and check out books…and will do but I can’t pass up a book sale. Border’s has a 50% off deal on new releases…on the display shelves in the front of the stores…after I drop daughter off for cheerleading practice, I’m going to cruise my Border’s to see if there’s anything that I just HAVE TO HAVE. Since there’s a two book limit, I don’t think I’ll do much damage…and 2 books for $25.00 plus tax is still a VERY GOOD DEAL. See…I’m cutting back and I’m shopping with coupons or looking for bargains.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
What about you? What are some of your book reading idiosyncrasies?
What books are on your reading list for this week?
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I tend to prefer shorter chapters, too. I don’t like to break off my reading in the middle of something important, so I find that shorter chapters makes it easier for me to pause if I need to.
Memory´s last blog post..The Sunday Salon
Fun post! BABs also tend to sit on my shelves for awhile…especially lately since I am overflowing with review books. I tend to get a little impatient if a book is taking too long to read (even if I am loving the book!). If I read a depressing book, I have to then read a lightweight or entertaining book to balance it out. I am much quicker to set a book aside and not finish it now than two years ago – perhaps it is that as I near age 50 I start thinking I shouldn’t waste time reading books I don’t like. And finally, I am compulsive about writing a review immediately after finishing a book.
Wendy´s last blog post..Sunday Salon – October 12, 2008
I agree on the short chapters as “less is more”.
Five books in one week!!! You are on a roll for sure.
Like you I really like short chapters and also count how many pages in a chapter.
If I do not feel a book within 50 pages I will put it down. Some I will pick back up again later as the book may not be fitting the mood I am in. But if the book is just not me I will not pck it back up. But I do tend to read BOM for book clubs.
I do not mind BAB fiction as my fav genre is historical fiction and they tend to be the BAB.
With BAB non-fiction it takes me a little longer to fiction so I usually do not read them straight through – I usually read along with fiction books.
I use to be able to read about 5 different books as the same time (doing a couple of chapters of each book per day/night). As I get older – I cannot multi-task that many books at once. Now it is about 2 – 3 with one of the books being non-fiction.
I also love reading debut novels- so I can discover “new authors”.
I know what you mean about long books, but I always feel like they “count” more than the small ones. So I try to tackle them. This current one I’m reading, “Radio Free Dixie,” – the story of Robert Williams – has a double problem. I get so upset and mad when I read it, I can only do about five pages at a time! Then I have to go harangue my husband (just because he’s there) about all the things Williams had to endure. Then I “take a break” and switch to science fiction, or mystery, or whatever junky book I have in my pile. At this rate, I’ll be dead before I finish it!!!
Great post. You got lots of reading done. I agree on the short chapters. I always dread when I open up a book and the chapters are really long. I look forward to your post on Going Down South-I have that one coming to me to read soon. Have a great Sunday.
Darlene´s last blog post..Q&A with Eva Etzioni-Halevy and Giveaway!
I too am waiting on your review of Going Down South, as well as selections 30,32, and 33.
I don’t like books with corny titles, some of them are just too cliche and catchphrase-y. I also don’t like books that touch on sex but won’t go all the way. If you can’t get grimey then don’t bother. I also hate repetitive symbolism. And I already spoke on having several grammatical errors and poor editing in general. I also kinda don’t like when authors try to speak in slang and they don’t use the common spelling for slang or they use dialect that does not read like I think it would be spelled or how I have seen it spelled. That kind of thing makes my head hurt; I’m easily distracted.
What’s on my list this week? I’m still starting on Scottsboro. I am more interested in reading the blogs on my Google reader than any books. i am just not into books right now I guess. It’ll pass though.
Hey Deidra…30 the characters seemed familiar to me…it was like a deja vu read for the first 200 pages…the last few pages saved this book for me. But I think I was just burnt out on adultery, cheating, lying spouses and just couldn’t appreciate ReShonda as much as I generally enjoy her books.
32–Different…well written…but the characters didn’t endear me…sigh.
33–Good read…but some parts were a little far-fetched for me…I found it hard to believe that a drug dealer could/would turn their life around ova night moreorless do so without going to jail…lol.
Note none of them were bad reads…they just didn’t grab me the way these author’s books normally do…this was my first time reading a book by Linda Villarosa but I would give her a second chance.
I have Scottsboro and I’m looking for a book buddy…let me know if you’re interested.
Deidra…I hear you about reading blogs rather than books…I love my google reader…I thought I was subscribed to a lot of blogs until I read where one of my buddies was subscribed to 700…whew that’s more than 3 times as many as I’m subscribed to and I can’t imagine reading or skimming that many blogs everyday…I wouldn’t get anything else done…hehe.
I made the decision a couple weeks ago not to buy any more books but yesterday went out and bought 2. Oh well like you I did have a coupon to use at B&N and bought one of them from the bargin table!
Kathy´s last blog post..The Sunday Salon
Oh forgot. You said you only have 70 books on your TBR pile? Your doing better than me. Current pile has almost 190! UGH!
Kathy´s last blog post..The Sunday Salon
I absolutely loved The Secret Lives of Bees! I read it before I started my blog. I’ll be looking forward to your review. I’m jealous that you’ve been doing so much reading and reviewing recently. I hope just visiting your blog will rub off on me.
Literate Housewife´s last blog post..The Sunday Salon ~ I Am Out of My Mind
I don’t mind longer chapters if they consist of several shorter scenes with clear scene breaks. No one wants to read a 20+ page scene!
Christian fiction used to be very formulaic but I don’t think that’s so true today. The three books you have on your list may give you a different sense of that. But if you really read broadly within Christian fiction, which now encompases every sub-genre from romance to fantasy to suspense to mysteries to general lit, you’ll find a very diverse group of books and voices.
PatriciaW´s last blog post..What Kind of Writer Are You?
Hey Pat….I think the bottom line is I’m just not a big CF fan…I’ve read it broadly…even the urban christian fiction reads…and even tho’ some of my favorite authors/friends write in that genre…if I have a choice between CF and another genre…the other genre will win out. I finally came to the conclusion that I don’t have to like the genre just because it has ‘christian’ in the title and I’m fine with that.
I agree with Yasmin. I would too choose another genre over CF. Its interesting that your are having this conversation, because after looking at what other book club were reading. My group notices that most where reading CF. We wondered if we should include it in our list of genre for next year. It was a heated discussion, but we decided to include religious fiction so that we are not stuck with one area to choose from.
Hey Kenae…as a book club APOOO doesn’t read christian fiction novels…but there are a lot of genres that we don’t read as a group because they don’t stretch us enough for a good book club discussion…honestly how many times can you read about adultery and cheating spouses who always seem to be forgiven in the end…generally we don’t have a problem with coming up with good books to read…although at the end of the year it does get a little harder for us to find out of the box reads but still we rise.
What are some of your book reading idiosyncrasies? I like fast-paced books. I don’t like it when a story drags. I prefer shorter chapters as well. I love drama in books and regardless if it’s suspense or contempary, I like a dash of romance thrown in somewhere.
What books are on your reading list for this week?
I recently read Sinful Too by Victor McGlothin and E Lynn Harris’ latest book.
I just picked up Pecking Order by Omar Tyree and then Blair Underwood’s book is next. It seems I have a male author pattern going on now—smile
Shelia´s last blog post..Interview with Dwan Abrams
Shelia how was Sinful Too?