Behold a New Meme

You may have noticed a new meme button on my sidebar. Like many of my fellow bibliophiles I have a passion for opening lines (I know a few too many by heart) and I though I might turn this interest into a discussion. So If you're interested pop in on Fridays and join in.

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading
Anyone can join in so here's what you do...
Grab your current read.
Let the book fall open to a random page.
Share with us two “teaser” sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12
Share the title of the book… that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given but remember...
please avoid spoilers.
leave a link to your Teaser in my comments or pop on over to Should Be Reading leave your Teaser and get tanalising glimpses of other reads.
*Disclaimer: this event may cause TBR explosion.

'Mr Ewell, ' Atticus began, 'Folks were doing a lot of runnning last night, Let's see, you say you ran into the house, you ran to the window, you ran inside, you ran to Mayella, you can for Mr Tate. Did you, during all this running, run for a doctor?'

From To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Isn’t it interesting to see how conversations develop. Last week’s MM sparked this week’s question when Joseph asked:
how you keep track of your tbr list. Do you have a paper list or on your computer? Do you take it with you when you go shopping? How do you decide what gets added to it?
following up on: keeping track of what you read from last week .

The answer to both is this blog! I started this blog a) because Becca made me - that’s my excuse when my family start to bemoan burnt offerings (dinner), half answered homework help or drowned rat syndrome (caused by waiting at the train station in the rain for a lift that is long overdue).

And
b) to keep track of both what I’ve read: I plan to add a list ‘read in 2009’ AND want to read. It seems so appropriate to have a bookshelf on my blog when I can’t fit anymore bookshelves into my home. I love shelfari although I’m finding it a bit quirky and not as intuitive as someone like me (a little techno-useless) needs so I’m experimenting with goodreads now too.

And
c) to broaden my reading horizons.

In a past life, while working as 2IC in a children’s library, I was responsible for book-buying. Selecting books from publisher’s catalogues and warehouses was my idea of heaven and they paid me too! There was no way I could keep track of everything I wanted to read as it passed through my hands on its way from purchase to the shelves so I started a reading list on index cards that included TBR and WIR (what I’d read) complete with subject see references to allow me to help patrons who wanted to read a good book about magicians, ponies, pirates etc. Unfortunately is was tossed away in a moment of madness as my study made way for a nursery.

The next time I remember pausing for a breath, 19 or so years later, I realised that for the longest time I’d been wishing I still had those cards. I was finding myself bereft of TBR’s. My somewhat overkill response was to go back to school in my 40’s to do English at uni – well it certainly cured my TBR problem. As well as all the books that were added to the TBR list through uni, I add constantly from my blog surfing which can sometimes lead to TRB anxiety.

We do read to know we’re not alone, but C.S. Lewis’s words have taken on new meaning in this a global reading group in which I can now take part.

So to sumarise

My last post was a long winded way to award certain bloggers and acknowledge their contribution to my own fledgling attempts to fly in this virtual world. If you visit Becca at Just one more page you’ll see what I mean, she has such good taste (well at least the same as mine so I think it’s great) so every element I add ends up being just like hers and she has never once said ‘stop copying me!’ either, isn’t she nice!

So if you’ve received this award you’ll see elements of your page here on mine, you will have amazed me & you will have inspired me to find out ‘how can I do that too’. But perhaps more than that you’ll have made me smile and feel good about myself as I recognise I’m not alone if I’m reading.

1) display the grasshopper award (in my last post) on your blog knowing you have touched someone you may never meet IRL.
2) pass this on to any fellow bloggers who have taught, inspired or entertained you.

Recently I was in a bit of a snit. I'd had a string of all-for-someone-else days to complete 6 weeks of way-too-busy and I didn't quite know how to handle it and then I had an epiphany...wasn’t this why I started blogging? For moments such as these? A way of using the written word to work through angst, emotions, life etc. that avoids resentment and shrillness without overburdening others (pity my one reader who’s now on the receiving end of all my dross!). So off I went and vented my spleen on my (other) blog and voilà I felt better.

Usually I get cranky if my creative urges are stifled for too long. I know the symptoms and find that if I can just fit in a bit of sewing, beading, paper crafting my world will shift back to its rightful axis. As I continued blogging I realised that blogging satisfies these same creative urges. MGM told me when we got our first computer, seems like 100’s of years ago now, that I’d love the creative side of it and of course he has once again been proved correct and it has once again taken me decades to understand something that he just got in the first 5 minutes!

As my enjoyment of blogging increases, I lean heavily on my fellow bloggers for inspiration. You’re all so generous with your encouragement (& instructions) and understanding with my baby steps; and I’m so thingy about intellectual property that I wanted to acknowledge everyone I’ve copied (errrr who has inspired me).

This award goes out from grasshopper (or padawan if you weren't born in the 60’s) to all the blogging Kwai Chang Caines out there, who, I know, will be understanding if I do this award thing the wrong way. I’ve seen them on blogs on the side-bar but I don’t really know how to get it there. So Becca,
Marcia,
Robin, Nise...you’re my test-awardees...if I do it wrong let me know before I send it on somewhere else...k?

how excitment

I have a follower! My first! Welcome Alaine...I'm sorry I haven't mentioned you earlier, it appears you've been a follower since February but because I'm so new to blogging I didn't think to scroll down on my own blog. I'm adding a blogaversary counter button tonight so I had to find out when I started blogging and as I scrolled down there you were...how very excitement.

Also because I'm new (I wonder how long I can use this excuse) I can't work out how to catch you at you blog so maybe you or someone else can help me do that (Becca this means you!) so that I can come on over and say high. I see you're into scrapbooking so that is a whole other conversation we can have!


Edit: This is probably not the cool thing to do sorry if I've embarrassed you Alaine but I'm still easily excited by the whole blogging-thing

Much to my chagrin I'm coming late to the MM discussion on keeping track of what and/or how many books you read? How long have you been doing this? What's your favourite tracking method, and why? If you don't keep track, why not?

I'm not even posting it as a MM but my answer would be...that's why I started this blog - becasue I had no way of keeping track of what I've read/want to read.

I do have a couple of comments for Becca (who I know reads this blog even if I don't post to MM). Firstly for a blessed Becca - congrats on the blog awards - and secondly to slightly definition-challenged and a little bit bewildered Becca ..."latent OCD"?

Really?

Pause for a moment and read the definition of latent. Sorry to burst your bubble my friend but what you have is not hidden, buried, concealed, embryonic, underlying, suppressed, undeveloped OCD; but rather where books are concerned what you have is full-blown, unconcealed, explicit, evident, open, plain, blatant, manifest, apparent I-need-to-be-in-control OCD.

Clearly blog-shushing doesn't work on me.