REVIEW - Dune by Frank Herbert

Title:  Dune

Author:  Frank Herbert

No. of Pages:  535

First Released:  1965

Synopsis (Courtesy of Goodreads):  "This Hugo and Nebula Award winner tells the sweeping tale of a desert planet called Arrakis, the focus of an intricate power struggle in a byzantine interstellar empire. Arrakis is the sole source of Melange, the "spice of spices." Melange is necessary for interstellar travel and grants psychic powers and longevity, so whoever controls it wields great influence.

The troubles begin when stewardship of Arrakis is transferred by the Emperor from the Harkonnen Noble House to House Atreides. The Harkonnens don't want to give up their privilege, though, and through sabotage and treachery they cast young Duke Paul Atreides out into the planet's harsh environment to die. There he falls in with the Fremen, a tribe of desert dwellers who become the basis of the army with which he will reclaim what's rightfully his. Paul Atreides, though, is far more than just a usurped duke. He might be the end product of a very long-term genetic experiment designed to breed a super human; he might be a messiah. His struggle is at the center of a nexus of powerful people and events, and the repercussions will be felt throughout the Imperium."

Comments and Critique:  Read as part of the Social Justice Challenge and its focus on Water during the month of February, I was not quite certain what to expect upon picking up this very famous and exalted book.  I remember how much my mother loves the movie version of the book and faintly remember being thoroughly confused by the plot every time I tried to watch it as a girl.  I remember the focus on Spice and the blue eyes, and the sand worms.  Who could forget them?  But the plot itself remained a mystery. 

This is one of the most technical science fiction books I have ever had the pleasure of reading.  It was so complicated that I was not certain I wanted to finish this book.  I am personally not a tremendous fan of science fiction, and the world in Dune is so foreign that it truly was a turn-off in the first fifty pages.  However, once I read past those initial pages, I found myself drawn into a very rich world that reminds me very much of Middle Earth from The Lord of the Rings trilogy in its detail and specificity.  I particularly loved the details that were reminders of our own world, especially since the book itself is supposed to take place 8,000 years into the future.  It increased the plausibility of the book to be able to recognize such words like baklava, Sunni, Ramadan, and the like.

This book is very much about character development.  Paul Atriedes starts out as a youth still being trained for his future as Duke of a planet and faces total destruction of his family and his House.  He is thrust into a foreign environment so harsh, so desolate that to live there is considered a death sentence.  Watching him grow and accept his role as leader of the House Atriedes as well as the Fremen of Arrakis is the entire book, but it is a fascinating journey. 

Dune is extremely well-written with exacting details that are incredibly realistic.  It is by no means an easy book to read.  As much as I anxiously turned each page and so desperately wanted to find out how it ended, I had to read each page slowly and carefully because it is so technical.  Mr. Herbert bounces around between ecology, military science, politics, religion, technology, geology, sociology and psychology using his own language and phrasing that does make the book read at times like a training manual in a foreign language.  However, it is well worth the effort and time to decipher each page because of the beauty of the world of Arrakis and the universe created by Mr. Herbert.  It may be harsh, cruel, corrupt, and unforgiving but the age-old battle of humanity and equity versus power is familiar enough to provide its own lessons about humanity, dedication and power.

On the planet Arrakis, water is power.  To cry for someone or something is the ultimate sacrifice because it is wasting valuable water (tears) for no purpose.  Water is the ultimate source of currency because on a planet that does not get any rain, water is life.  To tie that to our society today, this is a familiar idea.  Water is power and always has been.  In ancient times, civilizations were built and destroyed based on their ability to grow around and control major waterways.  In the most desolate parts of the world, being able to bring in a source of clean water remains a sign of wealth.  What occurs in Dune - other than the mind-altering psychic powers achieved from the spice, the interstellar travel, the different planetary Houses, and the like - does pertain to today's society.

The need for water is so basic that those of us who are lucky enough to be surrounded by a seemingly endless supply of it take it for granted.  Dune is a brutal reminder of the necessity of water and what it can mean for an entire society without access to it.  In addition, the book remains a fascinating study of character growth, accepting new cultures and customs and adapting to a very sensitive political environment.  The lessons taught about standing up for your belief system, honoring humanity, and paying attention to your surroundings are excellent and remain important today.  If you are a science fiction fan, then you most likely have already read this book.  If you have not, I highly recommend it.

Reading this book counts towards my 100+ Reading Challenge, Buy 1 Book and Read It Challenge, Chunkster Reading Challenge, Read 'n Review Challenge, Social Justice Challenge, and the Thriller and Suspense Reading Challenge.  To the FTC, Barnes and Noble was gracious enough to provide me with a copy of the book...after I handed them the appropriate amount of my hard-earned money.

The Sunday Salon - February 28, 2010

Jim is working (again), Cullen is snoring at my feet, my daughter is singing to herself, and my son is reading a book in his room.  All is peaceful and quiet.  In fact, it is a little to quiet given the fact that reading Little Dorrit this morning, I fell asleep.  Oops!  So much for getting a lot of pages read in that and finally getting caught up!

This week was crazy.  Doctors appointments, practices galore, and even a concert and fundraiser/dinner.  By the time I finally got home and settled down for the night, I was usually completely unmotivated to get out the laptop and log in to check out what everyone was doing.  This also meant I was completely unmotivated to write anything.  I had a long chat on Twitter yesterday with Vasilly about this lack of interest, and honestly, I refuse to feel guilty about being MIA for a few days.  I cannot and will not force writing of any kind.  I cannot and will not force reading when I am not all that interested or cannot focus.  It is not fair to my readers, nor is it fair to my blogger friends who spend time and energy writing their own pieces.  I want to make sure that I give each article my full attention, no matter if I am reading it or writing it.  This is and always has been a hobby.  It is something I love to do, but other priorities come first and will always do so.  This is how I roll and how I maintain balance in this crazy blogging world.

In spite of being busy this week, I was able to finish my reading selection for next month's Classics Circuit tour (coming to you on Wednesday) and my selection for this month's Social Justice challenge.  Being the last day of February, this does mean lots of reviews to write today, but I am finally in the mood to write them.  My goal this week is to finally finish Little Dorrit.  At 800+ pages and the fact that I have been crawling my way through the book for two months now, I am ready to move on to something else.  However, since I have no idea what to choose, I'll be letting Random.org choose for me and count it as another choice for the Random Reading Challenge!  (I am all about multi-tasking!)

That's it for me for today.  Actually, it is time to go cheer on the U.S. against Canada in the gold medal match in hockey! 

I hope everyone has a wonderful day, staying warm and surrounded by loved ones.  Have a great week and happy reading!

Booking Through Thursday - Why You Read

This is late.  It has been quite the day - running around from the moment we got up until we got home twelve hours later.  After a day like today, I am very glad that tomorrow is Friday.  Here's this week's Booking Through Thursday.

Suggested by Janet:

I’ve seen this quotation in several places lately. It’s from Sven Birkerts’ ‘The Gutenberg Elegies: The Fate of Reading in an Electronic Age’:

“To read, when one does so of one’s own free will, is to make a volitional statement, to cast a vote; it is to posit an elsewhere and set off toward it. And like any traveling, reading is at once a movement and a comment of sorts about the place one has left. To open a book voluntarily is at some level to remark the insufficiency either of one’s life or one’s orientation toward it.”

To what extent does this describe you?

My first thought was "huh?"  So it isn't the most elegant of thoughts, but I honestly had no idea what Sven is trying to say.  Truthfully, I still don't.  It sounds to me like someone was trying to make himself sound pretentious intelligent by throwing together big words combined with a significant overuse of punctuation.

If I interpret this correctly, Sven is stating that someone who reads voluntarily only reads to escape.  Really?  Isn't that discarding so many other reasons to read?  What about learning about history or other cultures or other people?  Let's take this even further - what does Sven think of textbooks.  Students do not have to read them, so when they do, is that considered voluntary reading?  Are they reading to escape their lives too?

I apologize in advance to anyone who loves this quote, but I personally do not buy it.  There are so many reasons to read.  Sven is trying to make it seem like bibliophiles are anti-social losers who live vicariously through their books.  As a bibliophile, I take offense at this idea.  This quote decidedly does not describe me.

Am I interpreting this incorrectly?  Am I being too harsh?  Let me know what you think!

Life is not fair.

First, a dear friend of ours (age 30) was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma...while she was pregnant.  After much debate and research, she opted to postpone treatment to give her second child a chance to stay in utero as long as possible.  She made it to thirty-six weeks and gave birth to a healthy baby boy in January.  Roughly a week later, she started treatment...and promptly shaved her head to celebrate. 

Through it all, she has exhibited graciousness, a sense of humor and a fighting spirit.  She has been very open about what she faces, sharing with her friends and family just what it was like facing such difficult decisions regarding the pregnancy, her treatment, and so forth.  She decided early on to document her story via blog, sharing her experiences and providing advice to others who might be in a similar situation.  Reading her stories, I know she is going to win this battle! 

Still, she moved to Pittsburgh last summer, and it has been difficult reading through her situation wanting to help.   Her initial announcement left us absolutely reeling, as she is younger than both of us.  All we can do is root her on during this battle of hers, send prayers, donations, and well-wishes.  The feeling of impotence is dreadful.

Then, I find out that high school friends of mine, who got together after high school and ended up getting married, have a twenty-month old son with AML, or acute myeloblastic leukemia, a very aggressive form of the disease.  Again, it felt like a blow to my solar plexus when I heard the news.  They too have a blog, and the very first post I read brought me to tears.  No child should ever have to go through all that.  As a parent, I cannot imagine the fears and the worry they are experiencing, although I have been told they have been amazingly strong and extremely positive.  Living in a different state than them, there is not much I can do to help them out other than to register to be a bone marrow donor or donate to a trust fund they have in their son's name.

Again, this feeling of helplessness at not being able to do much is horrible.  So is the fact that I was complaining about my own (healthy) children before I got the news.  I cannot help but be thankful that I do have two amazingly healthy children as well as my own health.  I also cannot help but feel guilty that I have so much and others are tested to their limits.  Sometimes, life just is not fair.

REVIEW - In the Woods by Tana French

Title:  In the Woods

Author:  Tana French

No. of Pages:  429

First Released:  2007

Synopsis (Courtesy of B&N): "As dusk approaches a small Dublin suburb in the summer of 1984, mothers begin to call their children home. But on this warm evening, three children do not return from the dark and silent woods. When the police arrive, they find only one of the children gripping a tree trunk in terror, wearing blood-filled sneakers, and unable to recall a single detail of the previous hours.

Twenty years later, the found boy, Rob Ryan, is a detective on the Dublin Murder Squad and keeps his past a secret. But when a twelve-year-old girl is found murdered in the same woods, he and Detective Cassie Maddox—his partner and closest friend—find themselves investigating a case chillingly similar to the previous unsolved mystery. Now, with only snippets of long-buried memories to guide him, Ryan has the chance to uncover both the mystery of the case before him and that of his own shadowy past."

Comments and Critique:  I am finding this an incredibly difficult book to review without giving away major plot points.  In fact, I am going to have to forego that particular policy for this review because my feelings about the book are directly tied to what occurs within its pages.  Therefore, consider yourself forewarned.  There may be spoilers ahead.

The book is a murder mystery and a psychological thriller, and the two are not necessarily the same plot line.  Ryan's past, and the effects of that ongoing mystery, impact every action Ryan makes both in the past and in what the reader sees.  The suspense lies in the idea of Ryan being able to recognize the damage done in 1984 before it ruins the current murder investigation.  Because of this dichotomy, I found myself alternating between cheering for Ryan.  I hoped he would be the hero who conquers his demons and solves both mysteries by the last page.  I also wanted to shake and slap him upside the head when he started to fall apart.

The shocking conclusion to the story does provoke its own questions.  Does the hero deserve a happy ending?  Was it justified?  While it shakes every idea I ever held regarding endings and what is supposed to happen in them, I do feel that In the Woods does have an appropriate resolution.   The point of the story is not whether Ryan ever remembers what occurred in the woods in 1984.  Rather, it is about realizing the psychological impact that day had on him and the rest of his life.  The event in 1984 and the current-day murder are just two events that help him confront his demons.

Throughout the novel, he faces tests of basic assumptions he has held over the years - never giving thought to what he lost that day, never considering what his life would have been like had nothing ever occurred.  This psychological torment is both fascinating and painful to watch, and yet a reader cannot turn away. I contribute this to Ms. French's ability to write.  Each sentence was so vivid in its clarity and impact that I felt I was an active participant physically present in each scene of the investigation.  She has chosen each word for maximum impact on the reader, and she is very successful at it.  Each sentence literally compels the reader to continue to read, resulting in many a late night.

In the end, I found this an absolutely fascinating novel.  I was sufficiently impressed with Ms. French's writing to add her next book to my wish list.  I loved the emotional roller coaster I was on while reading; it kept me actively engaged and eager to continue to read.  The differences between the primary and secondary plot are subtle and masterfully maneuvered.  I will be highly recommending this to anyone who enjoys psychological mysteries.

I am curious what others think of In the Woods.  Did the ending bother you to the point where you no longer want to read another novel by Tana French?  Was it justified? 

This book fulfills an entry for the 2010 100+ Reading Challenge, the Read 'n Review challenge, the Thriller and Suspense Challenge, and the Reading Rainbow Challenge.  For the FTC, I purchased this book with my own money.

REVIEW - When Washington Was in Vogue by Edward Christopher Williams

We continue the Classics Circuit Harlem Renaissance Tour with a stop in Washington D.C. during the mid 1920s.  Originally published anonymously in "The Messenger" as The Letters of Davy Carr, When Washington Was in Vogue depicts the race struggle in the 1920s as it occurred outside of Harlem. 

Title:  When Washington Was in Vogue

Author:  Edward Christopher Williams

No. of Pages:  277

First Published:  January 1925 - June 1926

Synopsis (Courtesy of B&N): "Nearly lost after its anonymous publication in 1926 and only recently rediscovered, When Washington Was in Vogue is an acclaimed love story written and set during the Harlem Renaissance. When bobbed-hair flappers were in vogue and Harlem was hopping, Washington, D.C., did its share of roaring, too.

Davy Carr, a veteran of the Great War and a new arrival in the nation's capital, is welcomed into the drawing rooms of the city's Black elite. Through letters, Davy regales an old friend in Harlem with his impressions of race, politics, and the state of Black America as well as his own experiences as an old-fashioned bachelor adrift in a world of alluring modern women — including sassy, dark-skinned Caroline.

With an introduction by Adam McKible and commentary by Emily Bernard, this novel, a timeless love story wonderfully enriched with the drama and style of one of the most hopeful moments in African American history, is as 'delightful as it is significant'."

Comments and Critique:  Having no idea what to expect, I found When Washington was in Vogue to be a fascinating, first-hand picture into an era that was pivotal for both ethnic and gender diversity.  At first, the subject matter is decidedly uncomfortable.  I am not the target audience.  In fact, having grown up in the 80s and 90s, I was taught to ignore the issue of race because race does not impact how I interact with others.  However, with this novel, I not only could not ignore this issue, I was forced to deal with very frank discussions about this very topic.

"What would you say should be the attitude of those fair enough to 'pass'?  Should they never go anywhere where their whiteness will procure them better treatment than would be accorded to them if they were known to be colored?" (pg. 49)

Once I moved past my own feelings of discomfort, I found an amazing book that poses profound questions about race and beauty while portraying a picture of Black Washingtonian society in the 1920s.  There is a love story thrown into the plot, but for me, it took a back seat to the historical and philosophical questions presented.  The epistolary form of the novel was both engaging and enjoyable.  I even came to realize what a lost art writing for the sake of writing truly has become.

"What is beauty, and wherein does it reside?  That is a hard question to answer, when we think that the mere shadow of a line makes a difference between beauty and the lack of it.  But that greater question: What is personality?  How many good men have addled their brains puzzling over it!" (pg. 93)

Quite frankly, I have never read a novel that explores such thought-provoking questions with such candor.  To me, as a history buff, this is the true attraction to the novel.  Questions regarding who exactly defines ideal beauty and how other cultures can impact that definition, segregation, passing as white, living beyond your means, the necessity of learning about other cultures, thoughts on suffragettes and flappers, opinions regarding the Harlem Renaissance, and even political opinions regarding anti-lynching bills that may or may not pass in Congress were all mentioned more than once throughout the novel. 

"Wallace brought up the subject of the recent revival of interest in the Negro as a subject for writers of fiction. I say 'revival,' for he was a legitimate subject for such treatment in the generation preceding the Civil War" (pg. 176)

I took more notes and earmarked more pages throughout this novel than I have ever done before or since.  There was so much fodder for reflection, it really did change the way I looked at history and at the race issue.  

"I, for one, feel very sure that Stribling, Shands, and Clement Wood are merely the vanguard of a small army of writers who will soon lay hands on the unusually dramatic material which has been lying so long unused within the borders of our Southern civilization.  Somehow, I feel, too, that Southern white men may handle it better than the writers of our own group.  We are too near to it, and feel it too keenly, to achieve the detachment necessary for work of the highest artistry." (pg. 177)

There was a quaintness about each sentence and the picture it painted that I found charming and refreshing.  Mr. Williams has a way of making me wish we did not have TVs or computers so that we too would be forced to write letters to each other, write in journals and diaries, and just appreciate the written page much more than it is now.  For having been lost, I am very glad that When Washington Was in Vogue was found and republished.  It is definitely a treasure worth visiting, both for its picture of the 1920s and the forthrightness it uses to address some very serious topics.  

This book fits the bill for the 2010 100+ Reading Challenge, the Read 'n Review Challenge, the Buy 1 Book and Read It Challenge and the What's In a Name Challenge.  For the FTC, I purchased this with my own money.

Musing Mondays - February 22, 2010

Monday, Monday.  I know technically the beginning of the week is Sunday but I prefer to think of Monday as the beginning of the week.  It makes Sundays less depressing and helps overcome the Monday blahs with the idea of a blank slate.

Monday also gives us Rebecca's Musing Mondays, which is a great way to start the week by getting us to share a bit of bookish insight about ourselves.

Do you keep all the books you ever buy? Just the ones you love? Just collectibles? What do you do with the ones you don’t want to keep?

I do not keep ALL the books I buy.  As lovely as that idea is, I just do not have the room to keep everything I have ever purchased.  However, even if I had unlimited library space, I do not think I would keep every book purchased.  What is the point of keeping a book if I know without a doubt that I am never going to read it again?  Why take up space with a book that I did not enjoy when I could fill that slot with a book that I will read again? 

With limited space comes tough decisions regarding books to keep and books to purge.  All of the books I have kept for my personal library are those that I enjoyed so much that I want the opportunity to re-read them some day.  I read a lot of classics, and those automatically get a pass too.  Frankly, I have enjoyed every classic I have read for one reason or another, so that rule is not a hardship.  Everything else though gets removed from my personal library.  I will give them to friends, if I think that friend will enjoy it.  I will offer them to others on Bookswap, or I will give them to Goodwill.  That way, I know that my books are going to people who want them or would not be able to afford them otherwise.  It makes me feel better about purchasing books, knowing that they will not languish unread, taking up space in my bookshelves.

What about you?  What is your criteria for keeping books or for purging them from your shelves?

New Comment System

Ah, the power of Twitter.  I have been following conversations all weekend long between Beth Fish Reads, Amy, and S. Krishna regarding their new comment system they uploaded to their individual blogs, Intense Debate.  Commenting is the one thing I feel that Blogger could improve, now that they have created their Pages feature, so I had to check out this new system.  Because I added it on new posts only, I have no way of knowing if I installed everything correctly, so please let me know if you notice any glitches.  Thanks!

The Sunday Salon - February 21, 2010

 

I am struggling to believe that it is Sunday already.  This week absolutely flew past.  Granted, it helped that I was on the road for more than half of it, but it still appeared that time sped up this week. 

It was one of those weeks where I felt like I was on the go constantly.  As much as I was really looking forward to evenings in my hotel room, they did not happen.  Because I was not by myself, I ended up staying out relatively late wining, dining, and talking with my co-workers.  I never got that solitude I craved this week.  Then, by the time I came home, there was enough to do at home that prevented me from relaxing too.  This upcoming week is not going to be much better between soccer practice and a game, ballet lessons, piano lessons, a band concert, an art fair, and finally a birthday party.  Sometimes, the adage "you can sleep when you're dead" really does feel true.

The one bright spot this week was that I managed to finish four books.  I was beginning to wonder if I would ever finish a book again, so the fact that I was able to finish four of them went a long way to fulfilling that compulsion to accomplish something.  One of the books is for the Classics Circuit Harlem Renaissance tour, for which I am Thursday's stop, so as soon as I write the review, I can breathe a sigh of relief.  I continue to be woefully behind in my book club selection, so much so that I believe that next weekend will see me having a mini read-a-thon in order to finish it.  Granted, there was no way I wanted to bring an 900+ hardbacked book onto the plane with me, so my lack of reading in that book is understandable.  However, the only way I am going to be able to finish it soon is to just sit and read - not that it is a hardship for me to do so or anything.  ;-)

Cullen is recovering with an amazing alacrity these days.  He has discovered a method to gnaw on a bone in spite of the e-collar.  In addition, he tries so hard to play with his sister.  He has even found a way to chew at the duct tape that edges the collar.  His need for chewing is what got him into this mess in the first place so you would think he would have learned his lesson, but there is a reason we tell him he is goofy.  The vet removed his staples yesterday afternoon, and we should slip him the last of his antibiotics some time this week.  According to the vet, there is no need to bring him back for a re-check related to the surgery, so it looks like he is finally in the clear.  Thank you again for all of your well-wishes and lovely supportive comments.  They truly meant the world.

That is about it from here.  I'll be spending the day reading, writing reviews and watching the Olympics and just enjoying the calm before the storm.  What is on your agenda today?

REVIEW - Nice Girls Don't Have Fangs by Molly Harper

Title:  Nice Girls Don't Have Fangs

Author:  Molly Harper

First Published:  April 2009

No. of Pages:  355

Synopsis (Courtesy of B&N):  "Maybe it was the Shenanigans gift certificate that put her over the edge. When children's librarian and self-professed nice girl Jane Jameson is fired by her beastly boss and handed twenty-five dollars in potato skins instead of a severance check, she goes on a bender that's sure to become Half Moon Hollow legend. On her way home, she's mistaken for a deer, shot, and left for dead. And thanks to the mysterious stranger she met while chugging neon-colored cocktails, she wakes up with a decidedly unladylike thirst for blood.

Jane is now the latest recipient of a gift basket from the Newly Undead Welcoming Committee, and her life-after-lifestyle is taking some getting used to. Her recently deceased favorite aunt is now her ghostly roommate. She has to fake breathing and endure daytime hours to avoid coming out of the coffin to her family. She's forced to forgo her favorite down-home Southern cooking for bags of O negative. Her relationship with her sexy, mercurial vampire sire keeps running hot and cold. And if all that wasn't enough, it looks like someone in Half Moon Hollow is trying to frame her for a series of vampire murders. What's a nice undead girl to do?"

Comments and Critique:  Look!  It's a book review!  It has been far too long since I finished a book, and Nice Girls Don't Have Fangs is exactly what was needed to break that streak.

Jane is extremely charming.  Her bookishness and gaucheness definitely reminds me of me.  I adored the literary references, and I could really see myself being friends with her.  A book is definitely more enjoyable when you can relate to the main character and enjoy every time she appears on the page (which is all the time).

The entire book stays relatively close to the traditional vampire mythology with only the slightest of tweaks to it.  Ms. Harper's vampires have fangs, they cannot expose themselves to the sun, they are sensitive to garlic.  However, Ms. Harper's vampires have the benefit of fake blood, a la True Blood, have super powers and have an amazing infrastructure and set of rules to help them co-exist in society.  Still, its charm lies in the fact that it makes fun of itself.

As with other lighter, more popular contemporary fiction these days, Nice Girls Don't Have Fangs is not going to win any awards for outstanding literature.  The writing is trite with very little in the way of detailed descriptions of the backdrop.  This novel is character-driven with a subsequent focus on dialogue.

However, these negatives are more than offset by its sly mocking of the fantasy and romance genres.  This is not a torrid romance, as one might expect.  Even better, becoming a vampire does not solve all of Jane's problems.  This is a very refreshing viewpoint, even if Ms. Harper still glorifies the perks of vampirism. 

Overall, I found this a great read.  The murder mystery is engaging and definitely kept me reading to determine if I had figured out the responsible party.  The fact that Ms. Harper continually mocks at the idea of a murder mystery for those who are already dead and winks at the irony of the entire situation.  The reader cannot help but laugh along with Jane and the situations she faces.  If you are looking for a fun, quick, charming, and relatively easy paranormal novel, I would highly recommend checking out Nice Girls Don't Have Fangs.

Has anyone else read this?  What did you think? 

This book fits my 100+ Reading Challenge, Read 'n Review Challenge, and the Thriller and Suspense Challenge.  For those at the FTC who might be reading this, I did purchase this book on my own. 

Booking Through Thursday - Olympic Reading

As I get ready to pack for my trip home, I celebrate the fact that a) I am ready to go home, sleep in my own bed, and cuddle my dogs and b) it is Thursday, which means I only have one more day at work before I get to celebrate the weekend again.  Oh, and it is time for this week's Booking Through Thursday!

You may have noticed–the Winter Olympics are going on. Is that affecting your reading time? Have you read any Olympics-themed books? What do you think about the Olympics in general? Here’s your chance to discuss!

I do not think the Winter Olympics has impacted my reading time so much as other things occurring in my life this week - certification exam, this business trip.  I honestly wish I could watch more of it - and really, by watching more I mean that I have it on in the background while reading to look up when it is an event that I like to watch. 

I have not read any Olympics-themed books, and I am not certain that is something in which I would ever be interested.  I like the anonymity of each athlete, cheering them all on during the fruition of years and years of hard work and sacrifice that most of us will only ever imagine.  To me, it is not about one athlete or one team but about all of them, coming together to show off that hard work and dedication and the artistry of their sport.  I love the Olympics, what they are supposed to symbolize and how they show the best of humanity - typically. 

What do you think?  Are there any Olympic-themed books I should consider reading?

When does a need for solitude go too far?

I mentioned earlier in the week that when I am away from my family, on any sort of trip, I crave solitude.  I do not mind going out to dinner with a group of co-workers or friends, but after a certain point in the evening, I just want to go back to my hotel room and revel in the silence, do whatever I want and relax.  This need to be alone gets particularly worse the longer I am away from home, to the point where I have to fight against the urge to stay in my room rather than eat with co-workers.  Room service becomes my best friend...or would if I let it. 

As I was contemplating this conundrum (while alone in my room), I thought about bloggers and bibliophiles.  As people who love to read, we are no strangers of the need for solitude - the absence of human activity or the state of being alone.  We just want to read our books in peace.  As people who thrive in an online environment, I would even go so far to say as we are more comfortable being alone than we are in a group of people.  We like the Internet for what it can offer us and for the fact that often, online relationships are just a bit easier for us to manage and foster than those in real life.  We feel we can be ourselves and open up in an online environment more than we can or are willing to do to those who retain a physical presence in our life.  We do this through blogging.  It fulfills a social need for us, while allowing us to remain in seclusion if we so desire.

However, when does this need for solitude cross the line into anti-social behavior?  Is my desire to ditch my co-workers and order room service too extreme or understandable?  When the phone has been ringing all day, and I have had a myriad of e-mails to answer in the course of a morning, is it wrong for me to want to sit at my desk to eat my lunch rather than eat with my friends?  Do read-a-thons go too far in fostering that need for solitude?  Do blogs?  Is solitude a bad thing?  And if it is not, when does it become dangerous?

Personally, I feel like there is a very fine line between the two, and sometimes I think it could be very easy for me to cross the line.  Thankfully, I have very good friends and a husband that will prevent me from doing so.  I have also worked hard to come out of my shell to be better able to fight my tendency to want to be alone.  However, in situations like business trips, where I am sitting in meetings all day and am constantly surrounded by people, I find myself slipping back into the idea of just wanting to be left in peace.   Given the reaction of my co-workers, I am uncomfortable with this feeling because I feel I am the only one.  Am I truly?  Or is everyone else better at fighting this tendency than I am?

So what do you think, my friends?  When is too much solitude a bad thing?  And really, am I the only one who struggles with this?