4 posts tagged “books”
what I am to do.. can't help it
I'm old fashioned about some things, but the pressure to conform was beyond my control.
Thanks to my husband..here is my new romance.
Some may say that it will never work, but I'm willing to try...
Donation Opportunity!
The memorial day weekend got me thinking about soldiers who are spending time away from their family. And when you are away from home, sometimes it is nice to get a gift of thanks, a reminder that someone cares about you. I found this organization that connects civilians to soldiers, focused on care packages of books sent directly to servicemen & servicewomen.
Books For Soldiers: BIO from their website booksforsoldiers.com
During the first Gulf War, several of my friends from school were in the reserves and were activated to fight the Iraqis. CNN reported that once the soldiers were deployed, they were faced with massive downtime and were restricted to their base due to the travel limitations set by the Saudi government.
I am a voracious reader and at the beginning of the Gulf War, I had a closet full of paperback books. Books that were not being used. So instead of selling them at the used book store, I packed them up in small care packages and sent them out to all the soldiers, sailors, marines and airmen I had addresses for.
Within a few weeks, I ran out of books before I ran out of addresses. Friends and family members began donating their paperback books and in the end, over 1000 books were sent to the Gulf.
After the war, we received many thank-you notes from soldiers who got one of our books. Unless it was time for them to fly back home, mail-call days were one of the most anticipated events of deployment. Regardless of why the military is deployed, the men and women of our armed services are there for us. They deserve our support and if we can make their deployment easier, then all the better.
Post from Chief Warrant Office, USMC:
Let me first start by saying thank you for your support to the men and women in the U.S. Military. Whether you know it or not, it means a GREAT deal to us.
The reasons that we initially join are as numerous as the stars, but somewhere in those reasons is a desire to serve. To know that we are appreciated by the very people that we have chosen to serve, regardless of the current political climate or "cause" of the day provides motivation and pride beyond measure. So again, your Marines say thanks to you, your organization and all of those across the country like you.
I received the Art of War on CD and a paperback copy. I am looking forward to reading it and will share it with my Marines. I have read it before, but it is worth reading again and it is also on the Commandants Reading List (required reading for Sergeants and above) as part of our Professional Military Education program.
Many of my Marines have done previous combat tours in Iraq so this is a welcomed break for them, while others are itching to go up north so they are a bit disappointed, but their morale is high and they understand the value of what they provide to the mission as a whole.
God's Blessings,
There is a 3 step process to participating:
1. Join the Forum & meet the troops
2. Become an Official volunteer & fill out an application
3. Once your application is approved, you will be able to send troops books, DVDs, games and relief supplies.
If you are interested in learning more, check their website at booksforsoldiers.com
What we have here is the top 106 books most often marked as "unread" by LibraryThing’s users. As in, they sit on the shelf to make you look smart or well-rounded. Bold the ones you've read, underline the ones you read for school, italicize the ones you started but didn't finish.
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell
Anna Karenina
Crime and Punishment
Catch-22
One Hundred Years of Solitude
Wuthering Heights
The Silmarillion
Life of Pi : a novel
The Name of the Rose
Don Quixote
Moby Dick
Ulysses
Madame Bovary
The Odyssey
Pride and Prejudice
Jane Eyre
The Tale of Two Cities
The Brothers Karamazov
Guns, Germs, and Steel: the fates of human societies
War and Peace
Vanity Fair
The Time Traveler’s Wife
The Iliad
Emma
The Blind Assassin
The Kite Runner
Mrs. Dalloway
Great Expectations
American Gods
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
Atlas Shrugged
Reading Lolita in Tehran : a memoir in books
Memoirs of a Geisha
Middlesex
Quicksilver
Wicked : the life and times of the wicked witch of the West
The Canterbury Tales
The Historian : a novel
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Love in the Time of Cholera
Brave New World
The Fountainhead
Foucault’s Pendulum
Middlemarch
Frankenstein
The Count of Monte Cristo
Dracula
A Clockwork Orange
Anansi Boys
The Once and Future King
The Grapes of Wrath
The Poisonwood Bible : a novel
1984
Angels & Demons
The Inferno (and Purgatory and Paradise)
The Satanic Verses
Sense and Sensibility
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Mansfield Park
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
To the Lighthouse
Tess of the D’Urbervilles
Oliver Twist
Gulliver’s Travels
Les Misérables
The Corrections
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Dune
The Prince
The Sound and the Fury
Angela’s Ashes : a memoir
The God of Small Things
A People’s History of the United States : 1492-present
Cryptonomicon
Neverwhere
A Confederacy of Dunces
A Short History of Nearly Everything
Dubliners
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Beloved
Slaughterhouse-five
The Scarlet Letter
Eats, Shoots & Leaves
The Mists of Avalon
Oryx and Crake : a novel
Collapse : how societies choose to fail or succeed
Cloud Atlas
The Confusion
Lolita
Persuasion
Northanger Abbey
The Catcher in the Rye
On the Road
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Freakonomics : a rogue economist explores the hidden side of everything
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: an inquiry into values
The Aeneid
Watership Down
Gravity’s Rainbow
The Hobbit
In Cold Blood : a true account of a multiple murder and its consequences
White Teeth
Treasure Island
David Copperfield
The Three Musketeers
(Please note, I was an English major..so I had to read a lot of classics, some which did not make this list (i.e. Clarrisa,
Call It Sleep, Tortilla Flats, Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Adventures of
Huckleberry Finn, Inherit The Wind, Farewell To Arms, To Kill A
Mockingbird, The Great Gatsby, Moll Flanders & the ever popular Shakespear's Complete Works)
What's new in my library?
I picked up some books during my latest trip to the local club store. Here's what I found in my shopping cart:
A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle
Couldn't resist picking up this book, after hearing so much buzz about it. Looks like it will be an educational read, and will take some time to process.
You Can Heal Your Life by Louise Hay
I hate to admit this, but the cover attracted me to this read. And I have great respect for the author for bringing many motivational topics/other authors into the mainstream.
Losing It by Valerie Bertinelli
I saw her interview on Oprah and was really captivated by the stories she mentioned. This looks to be a tell-all book, and I can't wait to read it!
Tom Cruise Unauthorized Autobiography by Andrew Morton
Had to get this book. Can't wait to read this one first. I promise to share the scoop with you soon.
Looks like the Springtime reading has already started for me..what in your library?
