Uncategorized | Book Chatter

It’s Sunday and I find myself a tad tired. I haven’t been sleeping all that well. No reason for it really but it’s left me sort of listless and droopy. I get this way sometimes right before the time changes. All I want to do is curl up in bed with a book by my side but once again The Hub is working so I have kid duty.

My daughter’s birthday is later this week so I have been planning a smallish party for her too. It’s what we call Fall Break here so I fear that only a few kids will be able to come. Most are on vacation with their folks. The invite said to RSVP by Monday and so far, she has two girls coming. That’s it!

In honor of her birthday we took her to the Mannequin Girl Store. Oh…you’ve never heard of it? Well you might know it as the American Girl Store but my daughter swears it is the ‘mannequin’ girl store and if you visit, you will probably say that she is not that far off. The lure of the store is that you can find a doll that looks just like you. You can also dress like her and there is a doll hospital, and tea room and beauty shop.

As you can imagine, all of this is very expensive but there are books too! She received two with what she purchased but just look at her. So, so happy with her doppelgänger by her side.

So what’s going on today? I am writing up my review of Goldengrove for a TLC Book Tour that is scheduled for October 8th. I am also finishing The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. I am down to the last 50 pages and find myself spreading them out in an attempt to make them last.

For dinner I am grilling up steak tacos. Easy and good and the kids enjoy them too.

On another note, I am giving away a copy of The Last Dickens. The giveaway is open through 10/9. If you haven’t entered yet, click here for details. This post also happens to include an awesome guest post written by Matthew Pearl. Stop by if you can.

Also, thanks to everyone that commented on my first Confessions of a Reader post. I think we had a nice discussion of sorts and it’s given me some food for thought.

Today marks my very first Confessions of a Reader post. You can read more about the idea here, but here it is in a nutshell:

Whenever you have something you want to share, just spill it (you know you want to). Just create a post of your own, grab the button thingy above and then add your post link to Mister Linky below.

I will be here every Saturday, but you need not commit to a weekly post. Post when you have something to share.

Posts can be rants about something you are reading, or a deep, dark secret. All I ask is that the post relates to reading or blog reading in some way. If you want to piggy-back off of what I post, then that’s okay too.

Posts can be as short or as long as you like and can include more than one topic.

The goal is to get to know one another better.

Here’s mine:

I recently went through my reader and dropped some blogs from my follow list. These were blogs that I enjoyed, but after following them for several months and posting regular comments, these folks never once visited my blog…ever. At least not that I know of.

Now I realize that some bloggers are not in this for the comments. They blog about what they love and that’s fine. The difference with them is that they never comment on any blogs. I get that. What I don’t get are the ones that do comment elsewhere, but not on mine, yet I read and comment faithfully on theirs.

Is there such a thing as comment etiquette? Am I wrong to feel a bit jilted?

If someone posts a comment on my blog, and they sign-in with their contact info, then I almost always pay them a visit back. Why? Because I like to check out new blogs. I’ve met a lot of nice folks this way. I realize that everyone cannot do this, but stopping by to say ‘hi’ once every couple of months? Sounds doable to me. Would you agree?

So, there you go. I dropped them because interaction is important to me and I’ve never been a fan of one-sided relationships. Also, if you leave regular comments and wonder why I never visit your blog, then it’s probably because you post anonymously. I cannot pay you a visit when it posts as a “no-reply comment.” Some of you anonymous folks have wonderful things to say and I always want to respond to you but I am never sure if you will come back to see my comment. I need to figure out the threaded comments thing to make this process a bit easier.

On another note, I went to the bookstore last night and saw the Her Fearful Symmetry display and thought that the cover was u-g-l-y. Sorry, but it doesn’t look anything like the ones that have been floating across the blogosphere. I realize that I tossed this in here and that it has nothing to do with my topic but it was on my mind.

If you’d like to include your own confession, enter the name of your blog below and then add the permalink to your post. Or, if you aren’t quite ready to post your own confession then comments are fine too 😉

Chatting with friends about books and life…