A quick thought..

Why do all of Marianne's stories end so tragicly? Sometimes she brings me down. I hope the ending of this book isnt tragic as well.

Has anyone finished yet?

Have No Fear...the "PIC" is on the scene

Hello friends! Or soon to be friends! Please allow me to introduce myself. Commonly referred to as the PIC on Rachel's blog, I have to admit I haven't really committed any crimes....other then the occasional speeding and the one incident of stealing gas...a girls got to do what a girls got to do to survive right ;) I sincerely apologize for not introducing myself earlier. I am a student, and was in school. Unless you were a text book, my best friend, or my boyfriend I probably didn't know you existed for the last couple of months. But now I am free for a bit and ready to read like crazy! I have to admit that I was not able to obtain a copy of this months book, but I have already secured next months book and am so excited to read it! Ever since the Black Stallion captured my heart in second grade I have had a love of reading. Although I must admit I am a little picky when it comes to the books I read. If they can't capture me then I often have a difficult time getting through them. Anyways, back to me :) I am a pieces, I love life, love to read, love motorcycling, love being outdoors, and I love my family and friends! I may be stoned for admitting this on this blog, but if it came down to it I would rather be outside hiking in the mountains then reading a book; however, I am so glad for Rachel's brilliant idea to create this book club! I am excited to stretch my typical genres to new and distant areas. And I also look forward to getting to know all of you better :)

Allow myself to introduce...myself...

Hi, everyone!

I'm Karen and I found my way here thanks to Shawn's invitation.

I have absolutely loved books since I was tiny. My mom insists that I started reading books when I was three. By the time I got to kindergarten (where I spent 6 weeks before being whisked away to 1st grade) I was into chapter books.

I am so excited to be here and to be part of this group! I started a reading group with some friends while I was living up in Utah. Three years later they are still going strong, even though I've moved back to California and have yet to find friends or neighbors that are as fascinated by stories as I am.

Thanks for letting me join you! I look forward to getting to know you all. And if you want to get to know me, you're welcome to stop by my blog and visit any time.

And July's selection is...Running With Scissors!

-- by Augusten Burroughs.

I'm kind of new at this book club thing, but this is a book I've been wanting to read for a while now. If anyone is opposed to reading it, let me know and I will take any recommendations.



There is a passage early in Augusten Burroughs's harrowing and highly entertaining memoir, Running with Scissors, that speaks volumes about the author. While going to the garbage dump with his father, young Augusten spots a chipped, glass-top coffee table that he longs to bring home. "I knew I could hide the chip by fanning a display of magazines on the surface, like in a doctor's office," he writes, "And it certainly wouldn't be dirty after I polished it with Windex for three hours." There were certainly numerous chips in the childhood Burroughs describes: an alcoholic father, an unstable mother who gives him up for adoption to her therapist, and an adolescence spent as part of the therapist's eccentric extended family, gobbling prescription meds and fooling around with both an old electroshock machine and a pedophile who lives in a shed out back. But just as he dreamed of doing with that old table, Burroughs employs a vigorous program of decoration and fervent polishing to a life that many would have simply thrown in a landfill. Despite her abandonment, he never gives up on his increasingly unbalanced mother. And rather than despair about his lot, he glamorizes it: planning a "beauty empire" and performing an a capella version of "You Light Up My Life" at a local mental ward. Burroughs's perspective achieves a crucial balance for a memoir: emotional but not self-involved, observant but not clinical, funny but not deliberately comic. And it's ultimately a feel-good story: as he steers through a challenging childhood, there's always a sense that Burroughs's survivor mentality will guide him through and that the coffee table will be salvaged after all. --John Moe

Review courtesy of Amazon.com

Drum Roll Please

I am so excited to see everyone getting into the Gargoyle. It wasn't what I expected, but I am loving this book so far. I'm about half way through [I'm a slacker... I know] so I have a lot of reading to do in the next week.

One week people - and then it's July! So I thought we could get a line up for the next nine months on when it is your turn to pick a book. I put everyones name in a bucket and had my co-workers pick out names. Here is what we got....

[In case you can't read this and my crappy hand writing here it is written down]

July - Fe

August - Shawn

September - KaraLee

October - Jill

November - Brandon

December - Brittni

January - Karen

Febuary - Alaina

March - Alyssa

There you have it people. Start thinking about which book you would like everyone to read. Let me just say it is a lot harder then I thought it would have been. I look forward to reading new books though.

Have a great weekend y'all!

June reading so far....

So, yesterday I picked up my copy of The Gargoyle at the Orem Library. I had put it on hold about a week or so ago because the library's only copy was checked out (did any of you have it?)

First impressions: The book has a really interesting cover. I really like it. Even though we were taught not to judge a book by it's cover, I do, so sue me.

The hardback cover is a plus. Not always required, but I do love hardback books.

I'm only about one chapter in but so far I really enjoy Mr. Davidson's writing style. His descriptions are so good and everything just seems to flow. I can't wait to continue reading it.

The Reading Fool

Hey there.

I'm Shawn.

I used to get my books taken away for punishment, as a child. When I didn't get the things done that I was supposed to do.....because I was reading.

I lived most of my junior high and high school days walking around in a fog, as I was always "in" my books. Yeah, I'm a book nerd like that.

Reading is......well.....you could say.......my addiction......my obsession......my drug of choice......my escape from the world.....my first love.

And you know that list of the books that we are supposed to read-----well, I've read like 64 of them, so that tells a lot about my obsession with all kinds of books.

I never stop reading----and if I am sitting in a waiting room at the doctors and there is a sign on the wall-----I will read it over and over......because I HAVE to.

That's how I roll.

The Burn Ward

Hey all,

It's about halfway through June, so I thought I would ask how everyone's reading is going. How are you enjoying it? Any thoughts so far?

15 Minute Reading Sessions: Down and Out At the Columbus Library

"At the top of the mountain we are all Snow Leopards." - - - Hunter S. Thomson

I do not have the internet anywhere in my house. I find I have no time to make the kind of money that it would cost me, especially since it is only a five minute walk from my place of residence to the public library. So when I need to connect with the outside world I just take a walk over here and sign up for some free internet time, courtesy of Salt Lake County. Of course there is usually a waiting list of 15 minutes or so before I can squeeze myself in between the children playing games like "Duck Hunt", or even "Bush Shoot Out". I'm not making that one up, my friends. Some child right next to me is on a computer right now, stalking through the White House in first person perspective, as Condoleeza Rice, shooting at God knows what. These are dark times. But never mind, I'm not here to talk about the state of children's computer games.

While I am waiting for a computer to become available I have developed this habit of reading a book, something that is rarely done in libraries these days. So, for the past six months, or so, I have been reading Kingdom of Fear: Loathsome Secrets of a Star-Crossed Child In the Final Days of the American Century, by my good, old friend Hunter S. Thomson. I read it in 15 minute segments. After six months of this I am on page 134. It will be a while before I finish that book. But I have found that this is the perfect way to read one of those books that you just never seem to get around to. You read a few pages here and there, then simply put a bookmark on your page and come back in a few days. That book will still be there, just waiting for someone to pick it up and read more of those terrible words.

Hunter's books work particularly well in these conditions. It allows his craziness to burn slowly into your soul, and then, before you know what has happened to you, you find yourself yelling things like, "God's mercy on you swine!" at innocent police officers on the side of the road. Or you go to work and end up saying terrible things to your boss like, "You people voted for Hubert Humphrey, and you killed Jesus!" You will start calling people "Dirty animals", and threatening to put them out of their terrible misery for crimes against decency, and freedom. I don't really have time to explain all this madness, or how it has helped me to see things the way they really are.

It is a terrible condition, and I recommend you stay far away from the sort of swill that I'm talking about. It will do you absolutely no good to see things in this way. Nevertheless, I do it all the time. Do as I say, not as I do, and all that stuff. Because after all, I am crazy.

- Mahalo

Sissa

Hi everyone! I'm Sissa and I'm super excited to be in the club! I am a self proclaimed book addict. But lately I feel like I am stuck in the teen section. My biggest source of recommendations comes from the best sellers display between the youth and teen section at Barnes and Noble. My latest adventure.....The Percy Jackson series. Now don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed the books, but I feel like I need something the stimulates me intelectually, something that I actually have to sit and ponder after I'm done.

A few weeks ago there was a list sent around on Facebook of books the BBC said pretty much if you hadn't read, you really aren't a reader. Out of the 101 books on there I had only read about 10. And out of those ten, at least half were books I was forced to read in school. So, now I have a goal to read at least one book from that list every month. However. I will not read the Quoran, is that okay?

And I don't think I'll give up the occasionally book from the teen section just yet.

A little me

Hi all. I'm Brittni. I am excited about this save a brain game.

Uh... what can i tell you about me. I am living it up in Cedar City, trust me its pretty exciting. I graduated about a year ago from SUU in Creative Writing with a minor in Sociology. Some of my favorite things are: Deathcab for Cutie, The Decemberists, Breakfast at Tiffany's, HIgh Fidelity, my rainbow shoes, gummy stars... and my awesome friends, because really I have awesome friends. I hate it when people don't rinse out their toothpaste in the sink.

I think we will call that good for now, as to avoid this looking similar to a personal add.

Well hello there...

Hi. I'm Jill and I'm an alcoholic. But besides that I love reading. So here I am!!!

I'm not really sure what else I should be including, so if you really wanna know more about me you can look at my blog.

(insert cool intro title)

Hey guys! Nice to "meet" you. I figured that, now that someone besides Rachel has taken the initiative to introduce themselves, I'd go ahead and say hello. My name is Alaina and I love to read...and to write. Therefore, this is a genius idea; a perfect combination!

I don't really know what else to say. I am so not good at introducing myself. I hate interviews for that very reason. "What would you say is your biggest weakness?" What, do you really think I'm going to go into my personal life with you just because I'm desperate for a job? Screw you! "I'd say it's that I'm too much of a perfectionist." Haha, bull shit! I mean, I am, but that's not my biggest weakness. Maybe one of these days I'll shock them and say something like, "Getting high. That's my biggest weakness....you don't do drug tests, do you?" I'd love to see someone's face after something like that!

Okay, so that was a bit random. My apologies. Anyway, you'll get to know me better as this thing progresses, so I'll just leave it at this, shall I? Hope to hear from the rest of you soon!

Greetings From the Token Male

My name is Brandon Wilde. For some reasons book clubs seem to be monopolized by women, but I intend to straighten out this imbalance as best I can. So here I am. I figure I should introduce myself a little bit. I'm not very interesting. I work. I sleep. I try to figure out how to make money from photography. That's all I got going on in my life as an individual person. I'm also Rachel's boyfriend. So there you go. It all makes sense if you look at it from the right angle.

I like to read, but I don't do it as much as I would like to. It's hard to find the time sometimes. I used to be a total bookworm, but now I usually just pick a book and spend months finishing it. Nevertheless, I will try to keep up with this club. It should keep me going anyway. Since I am just rambling, I will tell you my favorite all time books, and we shall leave it at that.

1. The Road by Cormac McCarthy
2. The Adventures of Huck Finn by Mark Twain
3. 1984 by George Orwell
4. Hell's Angel's by Hunter S. Thomson
5. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
6. Taltos by Anne Rice
7. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
8. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
9. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
10. Dracula by Bram Stoker
11. Contact by Carl Sagan (I just barely read this, and it blew my mind)