here goes

My sudden interest (and hidden talent) in writing about the people and places in my neighborhood (check out www.mydailyfind.com) has encouraged me to keep writing. Also since my daughter now has a blog with one entry (firstimpressionsoffilm.blogspot.com) posted, I figured I can do this too.

I love to read good books. I've read quite a few of them lately and am always searching for my next favorite book. Four of my recent faves ("The Help," "The Art of Racing in the Rain," "Sarah's Keys," and "Water for Elephants") are now optioned to be made into movies. I usually love the book more, but I have highish hopes that these movies will be good, however after seeing the terrible movie version of Jodi Picoult's "My Sister's Keeper," I should probably lower my expectations.

My daughter calls me a lazy reader--she says I give up books too quickly and don't give them enough time. That is true. If I'm not hooked pretty soon into it, forget about it. There are a million more where that one came from.

Recently I started some books, gave them up, tried again and turned out to love them. First one is "The Kite Runner." Too wordy for me, too foreign, too something. Tried it again months later and loved it.

Second one is "The Book Thief". Too hard to grasp that the narrator is death, too sad, too something. Tried it again and loved it--cried and cried.

The third book I'm reading now, "The Gurnsey Literary and Potato Peel Society." I started that book a while ago, got maybe 10 pages into it and gave it up. I just couldn't get into it--too Irish (I thought), too old fashioned, too something. After seeing it week after week on the L.A. Times bestseller list, I thought I'd try it again. For some reason this time it stuck. It's a sweet book, easy read and has an interesting concept (it's written in the form of letters). So far so good.

I usually go for popular fiction books; yes some are corny and not the top of the literature heap, but entertaining anyway. Because I'm a "lazy reader" (and very tired) my books have to be somewhat straightforward. A few of my favorite authors are Jodi Picoult, Alice Hoffman, Sophie Kinsella, Harlan Coban and even Mitch Albom. I might not love all of their books, but I always pick them up. I'm up to 238 books read in about 6 years so I read a lot of different authors.

I also like Young Adult books--not little kid books, but teen books. They are really pretty good. I'm not talking Twilight or some teen Nanny/Slut books, but "The Book Thief," "Boy in the Striped Pajamas" and "Elsewhere" were all really good teen books.

I can post my entire book list, but I don't think I will (for now).