Book Tag

I've been under the weather the past few days with bronchitis, but since I saw my doctor and have been taking antibiotics I am feeling so much better and thankfully energized! Thanks so much for all your well wishes!

Diane @ A Picture Tells 1,000 Stories tagged me with the "Seven Weird Or Random Book Facts Tag," and now that my mind is not drowsy from the codeine cough medicine the doctor prescribed, I'm finally ready to jump in and do this !

Please make sure to go by Diane's blog and see photos of her adorable grandson's, and read all the nice activities Diane does with them, but also her wonderful decorating tips and see all the wonderful items she finds at yard sales. Diane also hosts a fun "Trash To Treasure" blog carnival on her blog every Tuesday!

Before I begin, I have to say that I have always loved to read, and and that is why I think I love the Internet and blogs so much! Owning a computer is like having a reference library on every subject imaginable at your finger tips. Being on a computer has cut down on the amount of books I read, however, as I can't say I ever read an entire book online, and I'm curious - have you?

Perhaps in the future people will be taking their Kindle Reader device out of their pockets on the subway, or the bus, or as they sit down in their favorite cozy chair at home, and read the latest novel or daily newspaper that they downloaded, but I think I'll be left behind in that trend, as I love my hard copy books too much to give them up to electronic versions! But I also once loved my big old vinyl albums, with their covers that were works of art, and liner notes that you could read, and we all know what happened to them! It may be that newspapers are the first to suffer a hard copy demise as sadly subscriptions and readerships have been declining in recent years.

Author Stephen King has experimented to see if he could publish books online, chapter by chapter in PDF form, to see if anyone would pay to read them by installments, and it worked well enough that he is continuing to release some new works that way.

The most I've participated in online reading was through "Dear Reader," which I spoke about once before on my blog. It is my one of my favorite FREE e-mail book clubs. You sign up online for one, or more, of whatever genre of books you enjoy, such as fiction, non-fiction, good news, etc. Then Suzanne, the founder, will e-mail a five minute portion of the beginning of the book she chose, Monday through Friday, each day for one week only -- just enough for you to get the idea if you are enjoying the book, or not, and whether you would like to continue reading it. If you do wish to continue reading you can choose to buy it, by using your own favorite store, or through Suzanne's links, or reserve it in your local library to continue reading it for free! The following Monday through Friday Suzanne begins another book, and so on. I've been introduced to quite a few books I enjoyed through "Dear Reader" and the added bonus is that Suzanne always writes an e-mail message each day before the book chapter, and after awhile I felt like she was a good friend!

Suzanne has fun "give away" contests too --this week she is giving away vintage aprons and another give away of her famous home baked chocolate chip cookies! I've won two books in give aways, and I keep hoping I'll win her cookies one day!

OK -- Sorry for the digression -- on to the book tag!

1.) I love to read children's books and collect them. I blogged once about my affinity for Golden Books, and I'm always interested in the Caldecott and Newbery award winners, amongst other distinguished books in children's literature. I also enjoy collecting pop-up books, my favorite pop up artist being Robert Sabuda!


2.) Some of my favorite books have been a non fictional compilation of letters, diary entries, or memoirs, such as The Diary of A Young Girl by Anne Frank, or Van Gogh's letters to his brother in Dear Theo.

3.) I read more non fiction than fiction as I like to learn new things, and of course my favorite cookbooks, as I've mentioned many times before.

4.) I still have my very first Brooklyn Public Library card that I signed when I was five years old, saved amongst my memento's. I still remember the very first book I read on my own beyond the "Dick and Jane" instructional readers we had in first grade. It was: "Little Brown Bear" by Elizabeth Upham. Do you remember your first book5.) I often fall asleep at night reading a book.
6.) I love to collect old hard cover books -- I blogged about that once too!

7.) When I find a non fiction novelist that I truly enjoy I try to read everything they have written. A few favorite authors are Elizabeth Berg, Sue Monk Kidd, Herman Hesse, James Joyce, Khalil Gibran, etc.
Hmmm, I guess I've read a lot more non fiction than I thought!

The rules of this tag are:

1. Link to the person who tagged you and post the rules on your blog.
2. Share seven random and/or weird book facts about yourself.
3. Tag seven random people at the end of your post, and include links to their blogs.
4. Let each person know that they've been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.



I'll tag Cori, Tara, LisaB, Donna, Vee, Steviewren, and Betsy.

As always, no pressure -- only if you want to participate!
Thanks!