Booking Through Thursday

Have your book tastes changed over the years? More fiction? Less? Books that are darker and more serious? Lighter and more frivolous? Challenging? Easys? How to books over novels? Mysteries over romance?

I honestly have to say that my taste in books has stayed pretty much the same, just more grown up versions. As a child I read a great deal and the children's books I read the most were those that took me out of my time period or my locale and now, I real lots of books that are historical fiction or at least are set in a different place. I also read a lot of family based, generational books. A good example of that is "A Woman of Substance" or some of the Beverly Lewis serialized books.

I still read a lot of fiction but I do read non fiction too. My favorite non fiction reading is genealogically based and I love reading about British royalty. I am very much an Anglophile so that is always something that attracts me. As a child, I was completely taken with the new World Book Encyclopedia set that I received and would sit for hours reading the encyclopedia and was quite content to do so. For Christmas I received a copy of the Archaeological Bible which I am finding very interesting except the type is very hard to read.

I am generally not great with dark, serious reading but I did like "The Memory Keepers Daughter" which was a bit dark and, in my opinion, pretty serious. Last night at the bookstore I was eyeing a new V. C. Andrews series but, after reading the first chapter, I decided to put it off for a while. The early Andrews books ("Flowers in the Attic") were pretty good but the later series, after her death, I find to be disturbing, so I passed on it.

I have never really considered whether I read challenging books over easy books, I guess I read both. However, with the Young Readers Challenge I am reading many childrens books -- I can't seem to stop, actually -- and some of them are easy but they are still really interesting. Right now I am reading "The Spiderwick Chronicles" and it is very easy to read -- I can get through one of the books in about an hour -- but it is really good. Great writing, good illustrations -- it is all there but I guess it would be considered easy. Some of the children's books that I have read are simple but not simplistic. They handle very serious subject matter and are well written. They are easy to read but the subject matter is such that they are serious to controversial depending on the age group you are looking at.

Yes, I read how-to books. I read lots and lots of needlework books. I have read Joyce Meyer's book "100 Ways to Simplify Your Life" -- good advice even for the non--religious.

Romance? Mysteries? When I was younger I read a lot of what would be considered romance although I wasn't a big Harlequin fan. I haven't read it much in the recent past but, because of a new challenge, I will be starting again. I am not sure how it will go. I like certain types of mysteries. "The Haunting of Hill House" and "We Have Always Lived in the Castle" are mysteries to me. I haven't read many real mysteries like Miss Marple, etc. but I would like to.

Generally, it is a rare occasion that I can be found without a book in hand, or at least nearby. When I was growing up in the 50's and 60's, we had three television channels. Sounds bad? Well, not really because tv watching didn't take up all our time. We had the time to read and did a lot of it -- a favorite pasttime in the long, very hot summers of South Texas. I found that books were always available, thanks to the library, that you didn't have to wait for them to be "scheduled", you didn't have to dvr them, you could "rewind" them and read parts over and over again, you could take them with you and often did, you could imagine the scenery, people, places, etc. without having somebody think it up for you -- the perfect diversion.

Friday Fill-Ins

Ok, I know it isn't Friday but I am off a day -- or two. I will do Thursday's thing in a little while.

1. Idle hands are the devils playground, or something like that.

2. I love Aveeno Colloidal Shower Gel in the shower.

3. My favorite time of day is when A nudges me from my chair slumber and says it is time to go to bed -- usually right after the Leno monologue or maybe the Leno headline funnies.

4. The last tea I drank was Stash Peppermint Herbal decaf, last night before my chair slumber.

5. I like to stay inside during the summer.

6. My mother always said "don't do anything to embarrass me". I didn't -- she wasn't.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I am looking forward to absolutely nothing, tomorrow my plans include going to the gun show, and Sunday I want to go to church and celebrate A's birthday with my family.