Posts Tagged ‘reading’
Meeting the Goodreads Challenge 2014
It’s the second year that I take part in the wonderful Goodreads Challenge. And the second year (pat myself on the back) that I met my reading challenge for the year. As a busy working mom, who loves to also carve out time for sports, cultural events, and my own writing, I often find that…
Read MoreBooks are good for your soul…
I first saw this great image on Twitter, where @mdonnellywriter tweeted it alongside the wise observation: Books help us in so many ways. Watch the readers after lunch, and then the no-lunchers, and the phoners. Who’s calm? It’s so refreshing to see people with a book on their lunch breaks, or on a subway car…
Read MoreReading as a means to slip into another’s skin…
Reading is the sole means by which we slip, involuntarily, often helplessly, into another’s skin, another’s voice, another’s soul. -Joyce Carol Oates I love this quote by the talented and prolific writer Joyce Carol Oates. I was lucky enough to hear Oates speak about writing on a visit she had to Rome, see my earlier…
Read MoreFavorite summer reads?
I don’t know what it is about summer, but the books I read over the summer holidays are always indelibly stamped on my brain. I can remember long summer holidays as a kid, and the books I read. I remember being nine, sitting by a lake and reading the terrifying story of ‘Bella’, a possessed…
Read MoreVery Inspiring Book Blogs Award
The Very Inspiring Blogger Award is flying like an angel around the blogosphere, touching down on many of the dedicated and inspiring people out there dedicated to books and writing and sharing the word on literature. I’m very proud to be nominated for this award. A big thanks to Claire, over at the wonderful Word by Word,…
Read More#ReadWomen2014 progress: Favorite books so far
I’m so happy to have learned earlier this year from Claire, over at the wonderful Word by Word site about the #ReadWomen2014 challenge, and I’ve written about in an earlier post. I strongly support the objective of this campaign. Talented women writers too often fall into an unfair, second-tier category when it comes to traditional book…
Read MoreIt’s beach reading season!
Where I live in central Italy, the 1 May holiday tends to kick off the season for beach-going. Yes, it’s great to go to feel the soft sand beneath your feet, to breathe the clean, sea air and to feel the repetitive ebb and flow of the waves, but really, the beach is primarily a…
Read MoreDo you take the Goodreads Reading Challenge?
I’m probably just a sucker for competition, but last year I signed up for the 2013 Goodreads Reading Challenge, and this year I’m back for more. I’ve always been a bookworm anyway, but it’s kind of neat to catalogue your books for the year, to look back at the covers of the books you read,…
Read MoreOh, groan. Sound effects for books?
Call me a Luddite, but I side with the technology-shy on this one, which is probably rather obvious by the fact that I don’t even own an e-reader. The fantastic Nathan Bransford recently had a blog post on this topic, saying it’s only a matter of time until e-books come with sound effects, and asking…
Read MorePhantoms, fainting heroines, and evil Italian villains: The Gothic novel!
What do Frankenstein, Dracula, Jane Eyre and Rebecca have in common? They’re all descendants of the 18th and 19th century Gothic novels. The Gothic novel was immensely popular in the late 1700s and early 1800s. It blended romance and horror and were widely read in their day – particularly among women, who (like today) are the…
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