Looks like I'm finally over 1,000 Litfluence points! 😄 #milestone

I rise from obscurity to wish a HAPPY 130th BIRTHDAY to Professor JRR Tolkien, without whom none of these things would exist, and I would be a much more miserable person, indeed. 🎉 📖 (New plushie Gandalf ready for adventure, courtesy of @CrowCAH ) #tolkien #thehobbit Is anyone else celebrating today?

Just finished this one I picked up at a little country bookstore while on vacation. I enjoy "The Cat Who" series of books, they're fun little mysteries and good summer reading. This was certainly a "nutty" tale. ?️

On a recent vacation, I found this little library in a campground next to the lake. Of course I wouldn't recommend taking a book ON the lake, but seeing this up there was nice! Maybe a camper will find a book they like so much, they're gonna want s'more!

I read the audiobook in March when the hard copy was waitlisted at the library, and I just got it. I LOVE this story. The flawed heroine, the plot, the action, the depth of the characters. Pulled me in and held me hostage until I discovered what happened next. Great adventure! Where was this book when I was younger?! First in a series, and I've started book Two.

It took me a while to soak up this book, but I'm glad I took my time! Great action, fantastic characters, and what a world they're in! I found the heroine pretty darn relatable. What an incredible adventure. Would definitely re-read. It looks like it's the first in a series, I'll have to find the second book someday!

Happy Halloween, all! What spooky things are you reading? 🎃

#SoaringScores Day 25: #TheHunting

Hunting for vampires! (Closest one I got!)

@crowcah @Cinfhen

#SoaringScores Day 24: #TopGunAnthem

A Top Gun if there ever was one.

@CrowCAH @Cinfhen

#SoaringScores #NowWeAreFree Day 23 (or Day 1 for me): I'm jumping on this bandwagon late, but jumping on it nonetheless!

Woolf's heroine searches within and learns to free herself of the past, and of her grief. She realizes that life takes what she loves, but the memories are forever. In doing so, she finally becomes able to look to the future with certainty and move forward. I think this needs a re-read.

@CrowCAH @Cinfhen

#7Days7Covers Day 4.

You can really get lost in this one! Who else wants to join?

#7Days7Covers Day 3.

7 days, 7 covers you love.

Who's next?

#7Days7Covers Day 2. And here we have the one and only book I have ever physically THROWN across the room, it made me so ANGRY. Luckily, the sturdy hardcover survived the fall. I can't say the same for poor Holmes and Moriarty, in the blood red Reichenbach illustration underneath the dust jacket. Or can I?? #happyMonday

@LibrarianRyan would you like to play?

#7days7covers Day 1. I was nominated by @CrowCAH for this challenge. This is my oldest copy of The Fellowship, and I find something else in this cover every time I look!

Happy National Read a Book Day!! I'm back with a vengeance this week! I finished two books from my Purgatory Shelf and I'm finally on to the next. Perhaps this is a sign of good things to come? Will this be a heavenly read? Or a hellish one?

It is finished!!! This weekend, I had the pleasure of seeing a stage performance of The Phantom of the Opera at an actual opera house. The best word I have to describe the experience is UNFORGETTABLE. The Angel of Music is singing songs in my head! These past weeks I have been driven to finish the original story, and I am so sad this is only my first read because it deserves another!! Poor, unhappy Erik. #OG

Greetings! I rise again from absence to share this collection in honor of #WilliamGoldman, without whom none of these delightful things would exist. Pictured are my copy of The Princess Bride book, the audio book As You Wish (previously gifted to @CrowCAH but she let me borrow it to listen!), and the miniature electronic Princess Bride movie "quote book" and paper copy. ?Forever grateful for this story!

#bookhaul! Took a weekend family trip to the top of the Michigan mitten to view the fall colors. We stopped in Petoskey and I couldn't pass the McLean & Eakin Booksellers shop without browsing around! I found another Hobbit (the "quilted Hobbit", I believe this is called!), The Heroes of Tolkien, and a copy of Thoreau's Walden. I read an excerpt of Walden in high school and it's been on my TBR list ever since. Huzzah for good finds!

Double Update!! This edition has TWO introductions. I actually started reading this last week, and now I'm finally getting to the "good parts"! Let's begin!! Chapter One: The Bride.

This cover is so pretty! While I am, of course, familiar with the story, and the movie is officially a new old favorite, I've never read it before. I'm excited about this one! 👑📖

??? And here is my current October TBR pile! In no particular reading order, here they are: The Princess Bride (Goldman), Between the Lines (Picoult/Van Leer), Death Warmed Over (Anderson), and my ultimate spooky reading challengers Dracula (Stoker) and The Phantom of the Opera (Leroux). I say "ultimate spooky challengers" because I started them long ago, and the unfinished stories have been haunting me ever since.?What books have haunted you?

😭😭😭😭 Oh my stars. I loved every bit of this ride. And what a ride! These characters are brilliant, and it all came together wonderfully. I am so satisfied with this series. I'm going to be hanging on to this story for a while. Excuse me while I nurse my book hangover. 📑👸⭐🐺🚀👠💖💜 #LunarChronicles

Y'all see that bookmark? That bookmark right there? I am THAT FAR INTO THIS BOOK. I made significant strides in my reading today - 108 PAGES!! My new goal is to finish this before week's end. I've been moseying my way through this volume for weeks, but the story now demands that I PICK UP THE PACE. I LOVE IT, I've just been taking my sweet old time with it. I MUST KNOW HOW THIS ENDS. GAH. What's the longest it has ever taken you to finish a book??

Also spotted! A book scarecrow! I can't upload the full picture but this guy is too cool!

Spotted a #LittleFreeLibrary in one of the many parks in town. Mostly empty! There must be a lot of readers around!

#BookHaul! I'm out in Eaton Rapids, MI for the UrbanAirstream festival weekend. There was a book sale in the library, so of course I had to check it out 📖 I found a novel adaptation of A New Hope, First Grave on the Right by Darynda Jones, and a 1940 copy of The Bobsey Twins at Indian Hollow! Huzzah!

Happy #NationalReadaBookDay!! 😃📖 I thought I'd unwind with the next part of this futuristic fairy tale retelling. How did you celebrate today?

Today's reading!! The final chapters of the #LunarChronicles. I finally got a good afternoon to start this book! But is it really the beginning of the end? I love this series, and I'll be sad to finish it. But I need to see what happens! I'll definitely be checking out Stars Above at some point. Should I prepare to be further emotionally scarred??

A very unexpected party, indeed!! Today, I accompanied @CrowCAH to her Tolkienite book swap (with @GondorGirl 😄) and she presented these generous gifts to me! I was too late to sign up for the official swap, but she decided I should partake in the Tolkien awesomeness anyway!! HUZZAH! And now I have more Hobbits!! Thank you so much!! I'll figure out a good way to pay you back in kind!

WORD of the DAY: TRUANT.

DEFINITION: ABSENTEE.

Hello! I've been a bit of a truant lately in regards to Litsy. And basically life in general. I won't rant here, but I'm just trying to deal with stuff. Getting back into my books helps tremendously. When I find my way back to books after any kind of personal hiatus, I always feel like I find a bit of myself again. 😊📖 How are you all doing this week?

A good chunk of my Tolkien collection! Featuring The Book of Lost Tales Part TWO, a treasure I found at a book sale this summer. (Also, Tootie and Hootie, my little shelf owls) 📚 #NationalBookLoversDay #reading #itsahoot

Hello, my people! 😄
1. Response writer at a law firm for an automotive company. (Basically, I write argumentative essays.)
2. Librarian Assistant at my university. They had me running around the stacks all day. I LOVED IT.
3. Worst job? Answering the phone at a mortgage insurance claim company call center. No thank you.
4. Dream job? Getting paid to read and write all day. But my current job is close enough.
@wanderinglynn Thanks! This was fun!

1. Overwhelmed with deadlines at work.
2. I'm not dreading Monday!
3. CRAY-IN.
4. Fairest by Marissa Meyer. A couple weeks ago. A have a couple others started, then yesterday I picked up The Hobbit to move it to a different shelf and couldn't put it down. #onemorepage
💜 #friyayintro

@jesshowbooks

Oh, glorious new bookcase!! I'm still figuring out how to organize this. Oh, the possibilities. My TBRs are coming up off the floor!! And I'll actually be able to see what I have to read! 😆 What do you do with your new books?

And the Random Word of the Day is: DOLOROUS.

Definition: PAINFUL or SORROWFUL.

Happy Hump Day!! What a dolorous day this is. The weekend is so close, and yet, so far. How was your midweek day?

1. Loosely in groups. I have a classic lit group, a Tolkien group, a random YA fiction group, a dictionary/reference group...etc.
2. The Hobbit and/or A Study in Scarlet.
3. YES.
4. YES. I have several editions of the Sherlock Holmes' stories and The Hobbit, and 2.3 editions of the LOTR trilogy. 😆 They're all different and beautiful in their own ways and I love their individual uniqueness. #OnlyReadersUnderstand

@nu-bibliophile 📚

This weekend's #bookhaul from the Local Author's Book Sale and Signing!! Featuring my copy of Sterling Script, an anthology of works from local writers, including the fabulous @CrowCAH . Huzzah!

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/which-great-american-read-are-you/.

Okay, I guess. I honestly have not read this series, but I can't argue with the result!

And the Random Word of the Day is: LUDICROUS.

Definition: FOOLISH. RIDICULOUS.

Also: NOT THE RAPPER.

This is one of my mom's favorite words. Sleeping in on a weekend when I have things to do? LUDICROUS. Politics? LUDICROUS. Paying full price for a pair of pants? LUDICROUS. Acquiring more books when I have no more space to put them? LUDICROUS. (She grumbles, but she loves me and she lets me be.) 😆 Anyone else experience this word this week?

I finally reorganized my bookshelves this week, and look what I finally found!! This little old copy of Phantom that I started ages ago but never finished (not for want of a good story, but stuff happened, and we moved, etc.). I LOVE the music to the stage production and I ADORE the movie adaptation with Gerard Butler, but I still haven't finished the original book! Now it is found again, and I have passed the point of no return! AHA!!

And the Random Word of the Day is: TUMULTUOUS.

Definition: UPROARIOUS, CONFUSED, OR DISORDERLY.

The tumultuous list of notifications on my phone drastically increased today, and I LOVE IT. Thank you, @LitsyWelcomeWagon for the shoutout. You are all beautiful book people and I'm excited to see what y'all are reading!! 😄📚

This book. I just. I can't describe. The horror. The pain. Oh, the pain. I need to step back and recover from this one for a while. Oh, stars.

And the Random Word of the Day is: CONUNDRUM.

Definition: A PUZZLEMENT.

Have you ever accidentally told different people you would do things in different places at coincidentally the same time, but you forgot they were at the same time, and you know if you don't go to one or the other thing people will be disappointed, and you don't want to disappoint people, and you want do do both things, so it might just be better to stay home and read? 😌

Just started this today and already halfway through! This one is hard to put down! I love tragic origin stories. But is there really any other kind?

In which Wolf is a sad puppy. UGH. THIS HURTS ME. 😭

Today, I was awakened by a cramp in my calf, scraped my foot while jumping off a rock, and accidentally reopened a scab on my arm. Ow. At least I had the day off work, so I could relax with a book! Spent some time catching up on Cress. And at least I have a purple Star Wars Band-Aid.

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/which-great-american-author-are-you/

I love Dickinson, and I can relate! I'm definitely a more private person, and I breathe a little easier in the solace of nature. My ramblings and attempts at profundity also sound rather odd to some people who try to understand me. So I've been told. But fun quiz!

And the Random Word of the Day is: COMA.

Definition: A state of profound unconsciousness.

I put myself in a coma on the weekends after many consecutive weeknights of little sleep. 😪 A sleep mask and earplugs are incredibly useful in this endeavor. What books have kept you up at night?

"I am an explorer," she whispered, "setting courageously off into the wild unknown."

I'm reading my way through The Lunar Chronicles for the first time, and I LOVE these characters. What a world!

And the RANDOM WORD OF THE DAY is: CODSWALLOP.

Definition: NONSENSE.
This word is just fun to say. 😄 Do you have a quote from a book with this word? Use it in a sentence!