Monday, May 5, 2014

flowers and books. again!

It was a great weekend, but somehow I managed to take exactly ZERO pictures of it. Oops. I guess nothing was particularly photo-worthy. Or I'm really lazy. Or something.

I spent most of the weekend daylight hours working in the yard. SHOCKING, yes? As a reward for my efforts, I have really bizarre tank top tan lines, insanely itchy eyes (and arms...my arms don't appreciate me touching azaleas or being in close proximity to poison ivy), and my yard looks super fabulous. Which will last approximately 14 seconds before the dandelions are 11 feet tall again and you can't tell I did a thing. Oh well. Garden-wise, things are moving along nicely. Our strawberries are ripe for the picking. The asparagus is doing well. The kale continues to be out of control (in a good way, if you like eating kale, which I do). The tomatoes (that didn't die in the late frost) are growing big and bushy and starting to flower and show the first little tomatoes! Herbs are growing. In all, things are moving right along and I look forward to harvesting lots of tomatoes and peppers in the next month or so!

Flower-wise, things are also looking good!! Nothing makes me happier than seeing the first blooms appear and seeing the dormant perennials spring back to life. I showed this little collage on Instagram last week, but it bears repeating. Right now most of the blooming flowers are purple and they make me really happy!!


Saturday night was Book Club! We have yet to come up with a better, cuter, and catchier name for ourselves, but that's okay. We still have awesome food and conversation, so I think that's more important. This is our third meeting (second book discussion) and it's quickly becoming one of my favorite things to look forward to each month!! We read and discussed This is Where I Leave You this month.

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We all found the book to be extremely hilarious and also extremely offensive. Luckily, we still had plenty to discuss. Much laughter was had by all. Despite its R-rated-ness, the book had some interesting themes, characters, and situations, so I can see why so many book clubs enjoy discussing it. But if your book club (or you) is opposed to being scandalized and reading things you can never un-see, so to speak...you should probably skip this one. At any rate, we had a great time hanging out, AND we picked a sure-fire home run for our next book!

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I read The Rosie Project a few weeks ago and loooooove love love loved it. I loved it. Do you get that? Love. It was one of the most fun and engaging books I've read in a long time, but not just complete fluff. There were also things deep enough to warrant discussing and dissecting. I've been dying to have friends read it so that we can chat and laugh about it together, so I was glad it didn't take much arm-twisting to get the girls to agree to read it for next month!! It's taking a lot of self-control for me to not just immediately re-read it now. I'm trying to wait a few weeks so it'll be fresher for our meeting. At any rate, it's only $1.99 on Kindle, so if you're looking for a delightful read, this is my recommendation for you. It's definitely 'light' enough to be a great beach read, there is pretty much nothing offensive about it, and you will seriously laugh out loud about fifty times and see the world a different way when you're done. 

I was lurking (the online equivalent of eavesdropping, I think?) in a conversation about quitting books the other day. Do you ever just stop reading a book? Or are you the type that totally commits and finishes even if you're hating it? I think I used to be more of the second type...but now I'm more firmly in the first category. There are too many books to be read to waste time on one I hate (or am bored with). I try to give them a solid chance...50 or 100 pages, maybe? But if you can't capture my attention in that amount of time, I just don't feel the need to stay committed. Sometimes, if I hear from enough people (or someone that knows me well and I trust their book judgment) I'll give it longer...last month Colleen specifically said that Red Rising really started getting good around page 125 so I should stick with at least til then. I appreciated that and she was right-- I probably would have quit if I didn't know I needed to hang in there til 125, but after that point I started loving it. (PS. When I just looked up Red Rising to get that link, I noticed that IT is only $1.99 on Kindle today also!! That is definitely a deal- it's usually in the $10 range. So just FYI, if you're in the mood for dystopia...hit that up!)

The book that first comes to mind when I think about quitting books is Anna Karenina. I have probably read 100 pages of that book three different times. I really want to read it. I want to care enough to keep going. And I just....don't. It's torture. And I'm not anti-Russian-books. I've made it through plenty of other hefty Russian novels that would make a high schooler weep. But I just can't get into AK. Matt read it earlier this year (it took him like 3 months) and I'm pretty sure he did it just to make me mad. Or something. But he finished. But I just can't bring myself to start it again. So long. So boring. So can't keep up with their names. 

Anyway, that said...just curious about how long other people give a book before quitting it (if you quit books at all). Also, do you judge books by their covers? I'll be the first to admit that I definitely do and it rarely leads me astray. So take that, stupid metaphor. You can learn a LOT about a book by its cover.

For instance, I bet that if I'd chosen this alternate cover image to show when I talked about The Rosie Project, you'd be much less interested in actually reading it:

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Or maybe not. Maybe you're more openminded than me. But I probably never would have read it if I'd only seen this cover. And I would have missed out. So...good call on the cover redesign, whoever made that call!
Hope your week is off to a great start!! And if it isn't...just read a book or something.

20 comments:

  1. That price is right for me! I just might have to purchase both books. I never finished The Secret Life of Bees. It's on my bookshelf with the bookmark still about halfway through the book. It's just not calling me back.

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  2. Ok, so I just bought The Rosie Project.
    I used to also be a die-hard must finish the book person. About a year ago, it nearly killed me to stop reading Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. But I was not getting anywhere with it, and so I was getting nowhere with no books. So I did it. I up and quit it. And now, I do that a bit more freely. But if I buy the book, its still a struggle for me.
    Anyway, beautiful flowers. I am very much not a gradening person, although I have tried. It is fun to see them pop up on IG.

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  3. I totally judge a book by its cover... and I think it's fair. If you're an author/publisher, and you don't care enough about your piece to hire a good graphic designer/art director, I'm not sure why I should care enough to buy your book. Particularly hardbacks. I'm still a snob and intend to have a "library" some day, so I occasionally purchase hardbacks. For $20-30 I want it to be BEAUTIFUL!

    I use to be firmly in the "in it till the bitter end club", but I think the ebook changed all of that. There's just too much free/cheap lit out there to waste time on crap. If the author can't afford an editor (and doesn't know enough to use proper punctuation) I'm done way less than 50 pages in. If it's a legit book, book, I tend to stick with it more, but I also tend to know the author/story before I purchase.

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  4. Thank goodness for being able to read samples on Kindle before purchasing a book. That pretty much tells me if I want to read it or not.

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  5. As Mark Twain said, a classic book is something everyone wants to have read, but no one wants to read! (My thoughts on AK too, anyway!) As a reading teacher I am also firmly in the "it's okay to quit a book category." And now I need to read The Rosie Project! I am about due for a new book, so that will be perfect.

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  6. Looks like I'm buying new books today! Woohoo! I only recently started quitting books. It was instilled in me not to quit just because I don't like something at first, but I'm not into self torture either. Like I said, it's a new thing for me and I'm not firmly seated in one camp or the other. Only problem is it leaves my type A self feeling like I have an unfinished project lying around.

    Oh, and had you posted only the orange cover I would have been far less likely to look up the Rosie Project. So good work.

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  7. Also couldn't get through Anna Karenina!!! I rarely don't finish books. Just so long and boring.

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  8. I love your flowers!!!! Come do my garden, please!!!

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  9. Thanks for the book recommendation! I just finished one and was looking for something new :) I'm definitely a book quitter when it doesn't hold my attention for at least 100 pages haha.

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  10. I am the same way with books. I used to ALWAYS finish it, no matter how sucky it was. But now, if it is terrible and I can't get into, I will go read the ending, decided if it's worth following through or moving on. Where'd You Go, Bernadette is one I recently did that with, and I'm glad I did. I ended up really liking that book.

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  11. I quite reading "Eat, Pray, Love" about halfway through it. I think I got to the 2nd section (when she was in India, maybe?) and I found the whole thing to be so self-indulgent and not-even-remotely-relatable for me that I just quit reading it, and actually gave it away.

    Oh, and also- finally a post about flowers and books to which I can actually contribute! I feel so proud!

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  12. I am def in the first category. I will quit a book if I am hating it or bored to death. I will stick it out until I am about half way through (well, that depends on how long it actually is!) and after that it's peace out boring as heck book!

    Love your flowers!

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  13. I read This is where I leave you after you posted about it a while back and I must agree with you. Thank you for the $1.99 book recs! I think I'm going to try both as well. I also used to never quit books but now don't want to waste my time. I believe Eat Pray Love was the first one I quit as well. I must say that I really enjoyed Secret Life of Bees and as weird as it was, and even though I had a hard time getting into it, I'm glad I finished Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.

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    1. I liked Secret Life of Bees, too!! I've never tried Eat Pray Love but I think I'd feel the same way that you and Amanda do!

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  14. I've been stuck in the middle of book 4 of Harry Potter for over a YEAR!! I just cannot get through it. I'm also still stuck on Allegient! I am determined to finish them both within the next 2 months. I bought the 1.99 books! Can't wait to start reading those (I should promise myself not to read them til I finish the others lol)

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    1. There is practically no payoff for finishing Allegient so...you're not missing much!! ;)

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  15. Sometimes I read your posts and I'm like, "How does Erika keep getting in my head like that?" Seriously, this whole book abandonment thing has been on my mind a lot lately. It's not something I ever used to do, but then I realized no one was handing out medals for slogging through terrible books, so I started to get more comfortable with it. Just off the top of my head, I have shamelessly abandoned The Worst Hard Time (a true title, as it turns out), The Dinner (despised the characters), Dr. Zhivago (this was our worst book club pick ever. No one finished it).... and others I can't recall. More common though is my abandonment of a series without finishing - notably 50 Shades of Gray (totally not my choice, this was another book club debacle) and Divergent (I just could not bring myself to care about the third book, sorry).

    And yes, I always judge a book by the cover. :)

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  16. I didn't used to quit books but I just don't have enough time anymore to read bad books. I always feel slightly guilty though. Dave took over five years to read War and Peace and he is sooooo glad he finished it :) Also, I am envious that you are about two months ahead of us in gardening. I'm so looking forward to this weekend because I think I'll actually get to buy and plant my annuals!!! Whoo hoo!!!

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  17. I read "The Rosie Project" over the weekend. I fell in love with Don after the Aspie's lecture.
    I noticed at the end that it's being optioned as a movie. I'm wondering who might play Don and Rosie. Any thoughts?

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    1. LOVED that Aspie lecture!! And Don in general. And the whole book. I hadn't heard that it would be made a movie, but I'd LOOOOVE that!!! I could totally see Toby Maguire as an adorable Don! I'll have to think about Rosie, though.

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