Wednesday, October 19, 2011

What's Next?

Hi everyone!!  First, let me thank my lovely sister for such a kind and over-exaggerated introduction.  Smart, artistic, and cool?  She is just sucking up because I am a billion miles away from her and every word counts;)  But honestly, we are both not very cool and as far as smart, funny and artistic goes....she has me beat.  She's the one writing an awesome novel and makes me giggle because of her ridiculousness during ever conversation we have.  See, I don't even know if ridiculousness is a word but since my spell-check hasn't tagged it, then I think I'm good.  Unless it's not on....hmmm.
Well, right now I am sitting in Germany, in a library, surround by books and people frantically typing away at their computers.  It's kind of overwhelming.  Don't get me wrong, I really enjoy reading and the peacefulness (usually) of a library, and though it is not very large, the library has shelves upon shelves of books staring down at me saying, "read me" (in a really low and aggressive voice:)  That brings me to the question, what's next?  What book do I open, spend hours upon hours reading, and hopefully enjoy during the whole process? 
Unlike my sister, I didn't grow up reading novel after novel.  I dreaded opening any book because it usually meant that there was a test to follow.  It wasn't until after high school and into college that I realized that I enjoyed reading and that it was fun.  I didn't know where to look in a library so I went straight to the professional- my sister.  She knew exactly what she liked and what she didn't.  I followed in her footsteps and  found out that we have very similar tastes.  Otherwise, if you leave me in a library too long, I start looking at covers.  The title as some effect on me but it is always the artwork that does me in.  It's how I always bought my cookies;)  Show me bold colors and enormous chocolate chips and they are good to go!  In my belly that is....
Really, though, if it wasn't for her, then I would have wasted long hours on boring books.  Where do you find your books?  Recommendations? Websites & reviews? Book trailers?  Just by the cover?  Now, I have found myself on goodreads.com scanning over their recommendations since I have entered and reviewed what I have read, and reading over what others have to say about it.  That and talking to my sister has helped in determining if the book is worth reading.
Just a reminder on good places to find books & reviews~
http://www.shelfari.com/
http://www.goodreads.com/
http://www.scholastic.com/home (For your 3-12 age group)
and definitely peruse the works of young artist's and writer's at http://www.artandwriting.org/
http://www.yabookscentral.com/
http://www.themillions.com/books-reviews/
http://www.npr.org/books/


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