Wasn't a Reader...

When I was a kid my mom read stories to me sometimes.  Not all the time.  I do remember her reading those really thin books that you give to toddlers who can't read and most of the page is all picture with a sentence at the top or bottom.  Those are about all she ever read to me.  I was never read from a thicker book with no pictures like Pinocchio or Moby Dick or whatever.  I'm not trying to put blame on my mother but I never was very much of a reader growing up.

Now my sister on the other hand was.  I can remember her being in her teens reading horror novels like Christine or Cujo.  I'm just picking names out of the hat.  I do remember my mom and my Aunt Betty reading V.C. Andrews books and my sister would read them after my mom and aunt.  But I never was really interested in reading.  My sister was an A student though and I had "learning disabilities" which later I found out was ADD when I was 26.  I mean really, if anyone or anything is to blame it's that.

When I was 15 I would see my sister reading her V.C. Andrews novels and I wanted to feel a little like part of the crowd so I asked my mom if she would buy me the V novel and since I had already seen the mini series I already knew what would happen in the book so it made it easier to read.  I did only get halfway through the book though because I lost interest.  Not in the book but reading in general.

When I was 19 I bought the Back to the Future 2 and 3 paperback novels which were basically the movie verbatim.  I hadn't yet seen the 2nd movie and the 3rd was in theaters so I wanted to read the 2nd book then rent the movie then read the 3rd book then go see it in theaters.  Unfortunately, by the time I was finished with the 3rd book the movie wasn't in theaters anymore lol.  But eventually I did get to rent it when it went to VHS.

It did make me feel smart to read a book but that was the last book I read until I was 25.  I had bought a Buffy the Vampire Slayer novel called Prophecies : Lost Slayer Serial novel Part 1 when Buffy was still on TV.  I mainly bought it because I was at Barnes and Noble with my aunt and uncle who are avid readers and I felt stupid so I bought a book.  I didn't want to buy something expensive because I really didn't have the money to blow on a book that I knew I would probably never read.  It sat in a box in my closet for years.

In December 2005 after Christmas I was going through my boxes looking for something and I came across this thin novel and I thought you know what, I'm going to tackle this.  I started reading it and I was hooked on it.  It certainly kept my interest and I read it all the way through and it only took me maybe an hour.  There were no hard words in there that I would either need a dictionary or a PHD to figure out what they meant.  So I told a friend of mine that I read it and then she bought a book that was all 4 parts in 1 book and I read it all the way through in a very small period of time.  I was hooked on reading finally.

Then I bought the Harry Potter books 1-5 box from Amazon and read them.  It probably took me 4 or 5 days each book which was fine by me, the longer the better.  But, the first 3 books were thinner than the rest and I read the 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th one all in the same amount of time as the first 3 which meant that I was getting faster.

Unfortunately though Harry Potter ruined it for me because J.K. Rowling's books were so easy to read that no other book could keep my interest.  I'd fall asleep while reading other books so I mainly gave up.

Now I've started on the Piers Anthony Xanth novels and those are pretty good and keep my interest.  I've bought so many books that I thought I'd read and never did so I'm going to try and tackle them all soon.

Online Bookshelf

I just found this website called aNobii where you type in the 10 digit ISBN number on the back of your books and it automatically finds the book through it's database and adds it to your bookshelf.

Facebook had something similar to this but for some reason when Facebook went to new facebook, it made it impossible to use the Bookshelf application.  So I did a search and found this.  I added it as a widgit to the sidebar which shows 1 of my books at random at a time.  It has a link that brings you right to my bookshelf on the aNobii website.

I think it's neat hehe.

A Spell for Chameleon - part 2

Well I finally finished reading this book about an hour ago. I thought it was a very good book. Although I didn't get the puns at first because I didn't think of them as puns but more I was thinking of them as what they were. In the fantasy world that I live in, if they say it's a Jelly tree then it has jelly inside of it. I don't take it any other way. So it was a shock to me when I was told that "Jelly Tree" was a pun.

I lived in the world of EverQuest for 6 long years plus I've lived in the fantasy realm for a lot longer than that lol. Some people may laugh at that but it's true. I've always been a fan of science fiction and fantasy. So it is no surprise to me when Piers Anthony writes about a blanket plant and I have to assume the leaves are blankets.

Besides all that, I am always making up puns whenever someone says something I come up with this off the wall joke usually including a pun. Nobody laughs, they usually moan.

I had this friend named Bob and he was like me too so he and I were constantly making each other laugh. I would say something and Chip would say Mike that doesn't make sense but you could hear Bob laughing in the background because Bob got it. And he was usually the only one. For the rest of the people I had to sit there explaining my joke before they called the men in white coats to take me away.

Getting back to the book though.  I thought it was a very good book.  Every chapter had it's own little mini quest or adventure and I was glued to it whenever I read it.  My jaw had dropped to the ground in the last chapter when you know who became King.  Hey, I'm not going to spoil it for anyone lol.  Because I wasn't expecting that to happen.  But I guess it all ended good and everyone lived happily ever after.  Right?  Well, that is until I start reading the next one.

To be continued in The Source of Magic...

Vice President Biden Blunder

I was just sent this video:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJnJKE8kkmM

Apparently our new Vice President hasn't had very much experience with the computer because he doesn't know that it's not a number but more an address.  You would think that with Obama constantly on his Blackberry that computer lingo would rub off of him and onto Biden.  Or Biden's children or grandchildren would be talking computer talk around him.  I've never heard of a website be referred to as a number.  Welcome to 2009 Mr. Vice President.

Bukowski Bears Bookmarks

When I was visiting my Aunt Louise at Christmas time in 2006, one of my presents was a bookmark.  My aunt had friends from Germany staying with them and they had a present for me without ever even meeting me.  I thought that was sweet of them.  It was a bookmark that they found in Sweden of a little bear on top with feet at the bottom and it's the perfect size bookmark for like a little novel.  I wouldn't use it for anything bigger because the feet might not stick out the bottom.

I was using it for a book I was reading which was a Buffy the Vampire Slayer novel and then my Uncle suggested a David Eddings book, The Belgariad book 1 and so I was reading that too which meant I would need another bookmark or a post it note sticking out the top.  I wasn't expecting her to give me a 2nd bookmark but she did so now I have 2.  A brown one and a blue one.  I use them all the time, well 1 at a time normally.  I found them online in a UK web shop at www.devongiftshop.com for about £3.50 each.

The company they are made from is called Bukowski and I went to their website but they don't make it easy to shop there.  So I had to do a search to find them elsewhere which is how I found Devon Gift Shop.  I think the price is reasonable.  The bookmarks are furry just like a teddy bear so it's nice to hold hehe.

I almost forgot to post 2 pictures that I took of my bookmarks.

Snood

I know everyone has heard about Snood by now but if you haven't and you've been living under a rock, Snood is this awesome and addictive game where you shoot these little snoods with one of it's own kind and if you hit 2 with 1 of the same then they fall off and you clear a path so you can shoot down some more.  It's really fun.

That was the original Snood and they've added new games.  Like Snood Poppers, Snood Slide, Snoodoku, Snood Solitaire and Snood Towers.  They also made Chowder, Cactus Bruce and the Corporate Monkeys, Meeklits and Ballmaster2.

I have played Snood Poppers demo and it was pretty neat.  It's similar to Snood where you shoot snoods to make them disappear but this time they are going through this pipe that is twisty and you have to eliminate the snoods before they get to the other side.

I haven't played any of the others though, I don't really care for Solitaire too much, I mean, I already have Windows Solitaire.  Why should I buy another one when I got one for free?  Plus, I really never play that, when I do play Solitaire I always play Spider Solitaire.

I do have a Snood T-shirt and a Snood key chain which I love.  I'm always playing with the key chain, it's so shiny and it's dangly.  I'm a simple man, you give me something shiny to play with and you got my attention for awhile lol.  And whenever I wear the shirt people who know what Snood is always say hi and some people who don't are like cool shirt, what's it mean?  Then I tell them.  I'm like a walking billboard when I wear advertisements.  But what I can I say?  I love Snood.