G: Grateful

Grateful.  I am grateful for so many things.  Nothing like poor health to help a person focus on what they are grateful for.  So here are some pics of what I feel grateful for:

My Sunshine. She makes everyday brighter with her smile.

My love. My best friend. My partner. He makes everything all better. He loves me even though I’m sick.

This girl. She has been listening to all of my bitching and moaning through this most recent incarnation of bullshit in my life. She gets interesting texts at all hours and is always willing to listen.

Mi familia. Even my parents. I seriously would not have been able to survive an abusive marriage and chronic illness without them.

Punk. She listens. Cuddles. Keeps me warm. Love her.

Sunshine. Again.

My books. Keep me sane. Keep me from dwelling on my issues.

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Day 20

Something you are trying to figure out..

How to write a book.  I would love to write a book about my experiences as a teenager, relationships, my love story with my husband.  I want to write a book about my husband and his friends and their crazy exploits.  I have journals full of ideas.  I have even started a timeline and outlines.

I just get discouraged.  Look at Amazon.  There are millions of books on there for every genre, situation, idea.  I get 5-10 review requests per day with someone asking me to review their self published book.

I am not a trained writer, the last English class I took was in 2000.  Although I know how to express myself coherently, I have no idea how to structure it into a decent story.

The goal is to get SOMETHING written before I’m 40.  Even if it is just for me.

 

Day 18

 

Your favorite:  Childhood books

I blogged about this on the Eclectic Bookworm awhile back.

The first thing I remember reading on my own was Dr. Seuss.  It was “Fox in Sox”.  I loved it.  I was one of the first kids in my grade that could read.

As I got older, I became absolutely obsessed with “The Babysitter’s Club”.  I had an entire collection up through the low 100s.  I still have many of them.

I was a voracious reader.  Still am.  I would read anything I could get my hands on.  And since this was 20 years before the Kindle, I usually couldn’t get my hands on much.  Which is how I started reading Stephen King at age 10 or 11.

“It” is NOT a kid friendly book.  But reading “The Stand” (the complete, unabridged version over 5 times) has made an impact.  Reading that book is probably why I love reading post-apocalypse novels and zombie books.

I also read sci-fi, mainly my dad’s books.  I remember reading “Jurassic Park” by Michael Crichton.  Then I saw the movie.  Again, not particularly kid friendly.

Some of the books I’ve read in high school have continued to influence me.  In my 10th grade Honors English we did an entire semester on Holocaust literature.  I read “Night” by Eli Weisel and “Survival in Auschwitz” by Primo Levi.  Reading those books further influenced my later reading choices.

With Sunshine, I definitely encourage reading.  Like me, she learned to read at a young(er) age.  She is always at the top of the class when it comes to reading levels.  She likes funny books, books about Barbie (ugh) and books about animals.

We both now have library cards, and go about once or twice a month.

My hope is that she continues to love reading as much as I do.

Day 8

Tell me:  Currently reading anything?

I just finished Dan Brown’s Inferno.  Wow.  That was an amazing ride.

I am also in the process of reading a Kindle serial, No Lasting Burial by Stant Litore.  A new episode automatically gets downloaded to my Kindle every Tuesday.

I always have a lengthy list of books I’m “currently” reading.  Sometimes I need to be in the mood to read a particular book.  But one thing is certain.  I am ALWAYS reading something.

Interested in my book blog?  Here is the link.

My bad habit..

I guess it’s not a bad habit really.  But it can cost money.  And the way I go through these things..it can cost a lot of money.  I have always been a bookworm.  I started to read at age four and really haven’t let up since.  As a child I would read anything I could get my hands on.  I read way above my reading level, and I don’t think my parents noticed when I started reading Stephen King at the age of nine.  To this day I hate clowns.  And I have yet to see the movie, nor do I want to.

I go on reading tangents, where I’ll voraciously tear through an author or a subject, and then be done with it for awhile.  I usually don’t follow the best sellers lists, although I gave in and did the “Hunger Games” things this year and the “Fifty Shades of Grey” thing.  Don’t roll your eyes.  I didn’t know those books existed until I saw a ton of my friends on FB talking about it.

My thoughts on the “Hunger Games”:  I loved it.  Very well written.  I saw the movie too.  And I can’t wait for the rest of the movies.

My thoughts on “Fifty”:  Lacking in the writing category, but it accomplished it’s mission.  It’s a sweet story.  If the reader can handle the sexual topics presented.  There were times I had to flip past a few of the sections, but only because of my past.  And that’s another post for another day.  I don’t need to go down that rabbit hole.

Currently I have been reading on average a book a day.  I have a Kindle, which I think is God’s (or whoever’s) sign to us that s/he loves us, and I raid the free books on Amazon at least once a week.  As I haven’t been working, there is no money for me to actually pay for my books.  Even if they are 99 cents.  So I scour Amazon for free books.  And I really haven’t been disappointed.

I also do http://www.bookbloggers.net, in which authors put up their books for review.  Majorly good stuff.  I haven’t read a bad book yet.  In fact I have come across some amazing good authors through that site.

Some of my recent favorites:  “The Zombie Bible” series by Stant Litore, “There Goes the Galaxy” by Jenn Thoreson, and The Mercury series by Rob Kroese.

What I look for in a book is something that can completely take me away from my current setting and situation.  Paint the picture for me.  Put me with the character.  Teach me something.  With the Zombie Bible series, Litore literally paints the picture of the time and place.  His writing is incredible.  With “Galaxy”, you are actually in space, new languages, aliens, customs, I truly loved it.  And Mercury…just the humor aimed at religion.

Ahhh…reading….