Randomness

On Thursday, as a family we drove about 4 hours across the state to Eastern Oregon to my grandpa’s farm in Madras.  

Dad had a couple of things he wanted to take care of.  One of which he used my help. He wanted to put air in some truck tires. He brought grandpa’s air hose along.  He built up air pressure, with my foot on the throttle, from the truck to fill up the air tank.

He then plugged the air hose connector into the tank and put air into the tires.  Dad had me get up in the driver seat of the truck and put my foot on the throttle and keep it between 1000 and 1500 RPM. 

He wanted the pressure about 90. The longer I had my foot on the throttle the easier it became.  It was fun. As I was doing that part my mom and sister took the hose and aired them up.  

Yesterday, the summer reading program started for kids and adults.  The first 100 adults who sign up will receive a black book bag.  

On Wednesday, a patron came in wanting to sign up.  I said it doesn't start until Friday. She said she could make it in on Saturday though. 

She was frantic because she would be working all day on Friday and wouldn't make it in and be one of the first 100 to get a book bag.   I said “Don’t worry, 100 people will not be signing up in one day.”

She came in today and I thought I would joke with her a bit.  I am never quick on my feet about joking with people but it just came to me when she came in the library.  I decided to tell her she was late and that 100 people signed up and she wouldn't get a bag.  

She said “WHAT!” Then I told her that she wasn't late and she would get a bag.  She couldn't believe she fell for my little trick.  I was also surprised she fell for it. 

The cedar wax wing birds have arrived and have been eating on the hot pokers.  They are definitely camera shy.  This is one of the few of the pictures I have captured of them. 

 I have always wanted to take reflection pictures and I finally found a partial reflection in the yard last week.  I hope everyone has a good week. 

Book Covers

One of my favorite parts of new books is seeing and absorbing the cover. Lately, authors have some of the most beautiful book covers.  I thought I would write some likes and dislikes about what I like on a book.    

I don’t like seeing the face of the main character on the front of the book.  Although, there are certain situations that seeing the main character is a plus. 

 If the book is part of a series I like to come to my own conclusion of what they look like.  If the book is a standalone novel, I don’t mind seeing the face as it is a quicker read and right away I will see what they look like. What I love about Deeanne Gist's novels is that you see part of their face.  

I like the historical novel covers the best.  They are always in some pretty dress.  One of my absolute favorite book covers is Karen Witemeyer’s “A Tailor-Made Bride.” I bought this one in the store just because of the cover.  I’m so glad I ended up loving the story.  This book actually goes against my first dislike as it is a standalone novel but it is such a pretty cover she can get away with it.

I dislike series covers if they don’t flow. A good example of this is Karen Kingsbury’s Bailey Flanigan series.  

The first two books are similar but the last two don’t seem to fit.  But the books didn’t flow so it I guess it works for the series.

There are some older novels that don’t have the fancy covers and there are some dramatic differences between the old covers and new covers.

 

A good example of this is Lori Wick’s “The Californians. 

The ones I have were being sold at our library’s book sale, so there is a lot of wear and tear in them.  When I went online there is a dramatic improvement on the covers.  The Californians

Do you judge a book by its cover?

Miscellaneous updates

“Loving” is not ready for checkout at the library yet.  I have gone through many different feelings about this book this week.  I’m sure my family can attest to the fact that I have some pretty strong emotions toward this story's conclusion.  So while I am waiting on the library to have “Loving” ready for pickup I am going to be in the middle of three different books. 

The first one is “Every Breath You Take” by Travis Thrasher.  I won this book in 2009 from Travis Thrasher on his website and in the front he wrote "To Katey, With many thanks! Enjoy! I have read it before and really enjoyed it, so I am reading it again. When I started reading it on Thursday I kept thinking it reminds me of the song "Butterfly Kisses by Bob Carlise. If this song does not make you cry, I don't know what to say. You might want to read the rest before listening to the song.  

 I requested “Never the Bride by Rene Gutteridge, and McKay Cheryl.  This one is ready for pickup at the library so when I go to work today I can pick it up.  I have read this one several times and enjoyed it a lot.  When I get it I will post one of my favorite scenes.

 Then I really want to reread Blink of an Eye by Ted Dekker. That was the very first book by Ted Dekker I read and I want to read it again.  I guess I am not reading anything new but I will post some reviews up about these though when I am done. 

On Ted Dekker’s Facebook page he has had some really fun, inspiring, and though provoking statuses.  Here is one that he posted in December of 2011. “Four rules for life: 1. Live to discover. 2. There is no greater discovery than love. 3. All love comes from the Maker. 4. Live as you will as long as it leads to love.” Ted Dekker

On the kindle fire for free there was a book “What’s your story? Icebreaker questions for Small Groups" by Cheryl Shireman.  It has some pretty fun questions to think about and it made me think of a question that I would ask all of you.  My mom, sister and I went shopping yesterday and I saw the word rendezvous and I pronounced it wrong but when mom corrected me, I thought to myself “I really like that word.”

So, what is your favorite word? Let me know in the comments.  If you don't have a gmail account, you can comment through the name/url feature.  

Inspiration

I have been terrible at being consistent with writing new blog posts. I think I need some inspiration.  So sorry about disappearing off the blogging world for a bit.  Here's a short little library story that happened yesterday.  

A gentleman came into the library and checked out some books and his account said "Please ask for ID." I have seen this message before on some other patrons accounts but yesterday it really felt like I was working in a liquor store asking for a person's ID to check their age.  :)  

I'll write another library story tomorrow.  

Today at the library...

There is an older gentleman who comes into the library almost every day. He speaks very little English but I am always smiling and waving hello when he comes in.  He usually says something in Spanish and I never quite remember how I need to respond but today was the day I would say something back in Spanish! 

He came and walked by and said Buenos Dias. I said Buenos Dias back and he got the hugest grin on his face and put a big thumbs up and you could tell he was proud. I pretty much had a grin on my face all day.    I think he has been trying to teach me and he succeeded today with getting me to say two words. 

I was telling this to a co-worker who also speaks Spanish and he was saying the older gentleman seems like a wise man.  This older gentleman reminds me of my grandfather who always had a sparkle in his eye.  It was a good day in the library!

Teaser Tuesday

I am working on a family post, but it should be ready for tomorrow.  Until then I will post the Teaser Tuesday. http://shouldbereading.wordpress.com/

The rules for Teaser Tuesday, hosted by Miz B of Should Be Reading, are simple:

1. Grab your current read
2. Open to a random page
3. Share two "teaser" sentences from that page (without spoiling the book)
4. Include the title and author so others can find the book if they enjoyed your teaser

This week's teaser:


"An unmistakable look of pride as he watched his daughter brought an answering tightening somewhere in the region of Joan's heart. She swallowed, her throat dry. Fathers and daughters always got to her."

Virginia Smith. Stuck in the Middle (Sister-to-Sister, Book 1) (Kindle Locations 80-81). Kindle Edition.

Now on a separate note, I need to think of one  or more books that I believe have been influential to the world.  The library would like a display of staff picks. I look forward to seeing what books have been influential to the staff at the library.


What book do you believe has been influential to the world? 

Library books

I love working in the library because I get to be around books, I meet all kinds of people, and the best part is seeing what people are reading! I loved talking with people about the books that they are checking out. It is always nice when they recommend a book to read or a movie to watch. 

Yesterday, 16 books were returned that all looked like fabulous. They were all new books from different libraries.  I already have two books checked out that I haven’t started reading yet so I was trying to decide if I wanted to read the new books.  I decided I would check them all in and see if they had holds for someone else. If there were holds I wouldn’t check them out.  If they didn’t have holds I would check a few of them out.  None of the books had holds so I took that as a sign from God that I need to read those books. So I came home with 10 items on my account. 

 I will need to start reading! The book I am most looking forward to is “The Cubicle Next Door” by Siri Mitchell. 

Do you go to the Library? If so, do you leave with a huge book bag full of books? What are you reading now?