Well this is the last blog to get the notice of mine, well okay the last regularly posted on blog (must get better with Loki’s army. I will catch up on that at some point…anyways..) Other then possibly posting a review or two from what I have finished before going. This blog will be on vacation until I return from my trip đ I will be back the second week in April. I hope everyone has fun đ don’t miss me to much.
Random
Readers Rights
I found this over at Say it with Books, who found it at the website of Daniel Pennac a.k.a Daniel Pennacchioni. I found it a very interesting read to say the least and I have to say I fully agree with all of it.
50 shades of….SERIOUSLY?
So this is the current article going about..
You should probably think twice before borrowing erotica from your local public library. I mean, for the obvious reasons, but also because Belgian scientists recently found a library copy of Fifty Shades of Grey bearing trace amounts of herpes. And do you really think that’s an isolated incident?
The experiment was just a fun diversion: a bacteriologist and a toxicologist teamed up recently to analyze the ten most-borrowed books from the Antwerp library, including everyone’s favorite sexy Twilight ripoff. (Again: who was borrowing this book?) The first surprise: they found small amounts of cocaine. No, not in Fifty Shades. In all of them. All ten of the books featured coke as a supporting playerâand though the researchers assure their audience that it wasn’t enough to give subsequent readers a contact high, it would most certainly cause them to fail a drug test.
The herpes found in E.L. James’s masterpiece and one other book was also not enough to get future readers sick. But it was definitely enough to gross them out a little. So stay safe, kids: the next time you pick up a masturbatory tome, invest a little in your own copy. That way your herpes can stay your herpes.
My first thought was EWWW. My Second thought was why on earth is someone getting pad to test this kind of stuff? We know that traces of everything is on everything by now don’t we? I mean do we really need to test it and remind everyone of it? I mean really I get my wonderful library books often enough. Yeesh the things they research these days.
Date a Girl who reads..
“You should date a girl who reads.
Date a girl who reads. Date a girl who spends her money on books instead of clothes, who has problems with closet space because she has too many books. Date a girl who has a list of books she wants to read, who has had a library card since she was twelve.
Find a girl who reads. Youâll know that she does because she will always have an unread book in her bag. Sheâs the one lovingly looking over the shelves in the bookstore, the one who quietly cries out when she has found the book she wants. You see that weird chick sniffing the pages of an old book in a secondhand book shop? Thatâs the reader. They can never resist smelling the pages, especially when they are yellow and worn.
Sheâs the girl reading while waiting in that coffee shop down the street. If you take a peek at her mug, the non-dairy creamer is floating on top because sheâs kind of engrossed already. Lost in a world of the authorâs making. Sit down. She might give you a glare, as most girls who read do not like to be interrupted. Ask her if she likes the book.
Buy her another cup of coffee.
Let her know what you really think of Murakami. See if she got through the first chapter of Fellowship. Understand that if she says she understood James Joyceâs Ulysses sheâs just saying that to sound intelligent. Ask her if she loves Alice or she would like to be Alice.
Itâs easy to date a girl who reads. Give her books for her birthday, for Christmas, for anniversaries. Give her the gift of words, in poetry and in song. Give her Neruda, Pound, Sexton, Cummings. Let her know that you understand that words are love. Understand that she knows the difference between books and reality but by god, sheâs going to try to make her life a little like her favorite book. It will never be your fault if she does.
She has to give it a shot somehow.
Lie to her. If she understands syntax, she will understand your need to lie. Behind words are other things: motivation, value, nuance, dialogue. It will not be the end of the world.
Fail her. Because a girl who reads knows that failure always leads up to the climax. Because girls who read understand that all things must come to end, but that you can always write a sequel. That you can begin again and again and still be the hero. That life is meant to have a villain or two.
Why be frightened of everything that you are not? Girls who read understand that people, like characters, develop. Except in the Twilight series.
If you find a girl who reads, keep her close. When you find her up at 2 AM clutching a book to her chest and weeping, make her a cup of tea and hold her. You may lose her for a couple of hours but she will always come back to you. Sheâll talk as if the characters in the book are real, because for a while, they always are.
You will propose on a hot air balloon. Or during a rock concert. Or very casually next time sheâs sick. Over Skype.
You will smile so hard you will wonder why your heart hasnât burst and bled out all over your chest yet. You will write the story of your lives, have kids with strange names and even stranger tastes. She will introduce your children to the Cat in the Hat and Aslan, maybe in the same day. You will walk the winters of your old age together and she will recite Keats under her breath while you shake the snow off your boots.
Date a girl who reads because you deserve it. You deserve a girl who can give you the most colorful life imaginable. If you can only give her monotony, and stale hours and half-baked proposals, then youâre better off alone. If you want the world and the worlds beyond it, date a girl who reads.
Or better yet, date a girl who writes.”
â Rosemarie Urquico
Ambrosia’s Best of 2012
So here we are on the cusp of another New Year and I am feeling reflective. Looking at others who have posted there Best of posts and decided well I want to do that too. So looking back over 2012 here are a few of my favorites.
Life of Pi
I admit I only decided to read this book after seeing the commercials for the movie. However I still have not seen the movie and I really LOVED the book. I have never been so thankful to a commercial.
The Russian Concubine
I got this one on a whim when I saw it posted on Paperback Swap. What a fantastic choice that turned out to be. I loved it.
Jack & Rochelle
A touching real life story that still haunts me..
A Countess Below the Stairs
I do not remember why I got this one but I know I got it on PBS and I am very happy I did. It was such a great read and I loved how it took us on one woman’s journey from upper class to lower and back again.
Which Austen Character am I?
Welcome to the New set up!
Welcome to the new lay out for Fire & Ice. It has been live now for a bit while I have been catching up on my book reviews. I hope everyone likes it. Feel free to give me some feedback on what you think in this post or you can contact me. I am going to be more active in 2013 than I was in 2012 I miss my blogging more than I thought. So I may even get back into some of my lovely MEME theme things I did back when I first started the blog. So pull up some tea or whatever you would like to drink and look around. Enjoy the new site!
My Library.
I posted this over on my other blog Birth of a Notion and than I sat and wondered how on earth I could have forgotten to post it here on my book blog it is my Library after all, my new one in my brand new house. Really how could I have forgotten such a thing? Well no matter here it is now, the shelves are not finnished but here is the progress so far.
Smell the Freshness in the Air
I know we are well into the New Year now, but this is going to be my new resolution. Anyone who knows me I do not really make New Yearâs resolutions, so I wonât call this one of those. It is simple a resolution to get back into things that bring me joy. To long I have been feeling so sick, and falling down into a pit of depression. I can admit that, and honestly I am still depressed but I am making an effort to claw my way back out. So a few things about the blog.
1) No book challenges this year I got so wrapped up in completely challenges the last two years that I think I got over whelmed. I took too much on and it became about how fast and how many books I could read instead of just enjoying the books. I may take on a challenge again in 2012 but 2011 my only challenge is MY challenge to myself to get back into things.
2) Re-organizing this blog and my other blogs you may see some things showing up and some disappearing here, call it bloggy spring cleaning.
3) I am likely going to be posting some more personal stuff instead of just book reviews. Of course it will be bookie stuff, but I need a sounding board for myself too and I feel this is the better place for it. This is my first blog, and I want to focus on using it more. Making another one may be just too much, so I hope no one minds more yapping from me.
And those are my choices I am laying down for myself. I look forward to interacting more with my friends again and posting some more books. In an effort to move passed my reading block I had Steve select the next book I am reading off my shelf. He of course just grabbed one, but hey itâs a Historical Fiction and you all KNOW how much I love Historical Fictions! So look for the next book review to be⌠Royal Harlot by Susan Holloway Scott.