Cancer Survivor, writing about Health and Fitness as you age

Will the bears find the answer in that book? Dunno, but we should all be reading. Question of the day   I am a big fan of my local public library.  They rotate the books from other branches, they get new books all the time, they do events for the community like storytime, steeped in books, book clubs, French storytime, amongst other things. They do the best they can with what they have but since I am very greedy I want more! More magazines! More recent books! More space! But, I can't complain because we just opened our magnificent Central Library downtown Austin. Back to my question. I recently went to my public library website to place a hold on a new dystopion science fiction book by a popular author, not known for this genre. I noticed something quite eye-catching. 2 holds on 26 copies (Physical book) 74 holds on 25 copies (ebook) A whole lot more readers were interested in getting the book for their eReaders than a physical copy. I like my eReader becau...

Considering how much I read, I am shocked that I have not talked more about where I post about books I've read, and list the books I want to read. I am always happy to learn more about what others are reading and of course share my thoughts on what I have read. I find bookshelves to be very interesting (and revealing!) Goodreads is a site for readers to review books, get recommendations, talk about books with others who are interested. You can see what your friends are reading and what they want to read. The fact that I have two boys who are 6 years apart who are evolving different reading tastes from me and each other means that I am always looking out for good material!  Goodreads also has an author program so authors can promote their books and reach their target audience as well as a writing section to get feedback on your writing, from those people, you know, who actually read and buy books. For comparison of the scale of the Goodreads membership and engagement, t...

My husband's book shelf - all non-fiction, and I didn't even include the economic treatises he favours.  And then there's my bookshelf

Have you ever compared a book that your child has read with a book from your own childhood that you read when you were your child's age? Well I have and I can tell you I can better understand the attraction my son's books have for him and the reason for his disdain when I mention the books I read as a child. As you can see from my bookshelf, I have been reading quite a bit of books my older son is reading. He is 10 and we are reading books for the 9-12 age range.This means I've been through Harry Potter and working my way through Rick Riordon's Lightning Thief series, but I am still behind. Lucas enjoys fantasy and the books are usually fast-paced, with traces of humour, and although they deal with good vs evil issues, generally the plots are simple and don't make me stay awake at night. I don't need adult thriller fiction to keep me interested, in fact, better not since some adult books are quite gory. When I was growing up I read a ton of Enid Blyton, a...

Considering how much how I love reading I am a little stunned (little?), that I haven't really made more of one of my favourite topics - books. The pictures below just show a few of what my 9-year old is reading now and has been reading over the last two years. I don't know if you can tell, but we love the series!  Bailey School Kids, Magic Tree House, Boxcar Children, Magic School Bus, How to Train your Dragon, Lightning Thief, Mysterious Benedict Society, Inkheart, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, anything Star Wars - plus assorted stories I've been trying to get him to read.  We've mutually agreed that since some of the later Harry Potter books are a bit dark, he doesn't need to get into those just yet. We are so blessed that Lucas loves to read, we hope we can continue to feed his love of reading, for ideas and for entertainment. At the same time, who knows what he is learning or remembering what he reads! And while the books we get for Lucas are...

That would be Lucas. He recently told me that they discussed bullying in school, so if I was in any doubt that he was moving into a new phase of life, this confirmed it. He is moving into the 8-12 yr phase where bullying and such things occur (and this precedes the teen-adolescent phase). Lucas doesn't want to go to the ladies' bathroom with me anymore, so as he becomes more independent we've had to have the "good touch/bad touch" discussion. This is still ongoing (' The Right Touch ', ' It's My Body '). I had only recently restarted reading parenting books after a fairly long hiatus (I just finished ' Raising Cain ' and ' The Trouble With Boys ' before that). They discuss many factors affecting boys, and while the father is by no means the only important element in raising boys, it is a significant one. In their book 'Raising Cain', the authors say, " It is clear to us that the most emotionally resourceful a...