I've been tagged!

It has been eons since I've been tagged in a meme, so I was very excited when Care tagged me. You can read the questions she was asked by Trisha in her post.

Rules

1 You must post the rules.

2 Answer the questions the tagger set for you in their post and then create eleven new questions to ask the people you’ve tagged.

3 Tag eleven people and link to them on your post.

4 Let them know you’ve tagged them!

I stole this from Care:

Questions Care wrote for me to answer:

1. Tell me about any letters you’ve written lately to a friend just for the heck of it? Zippo! Okay, I have written a couple notes that I tucked in with little gifts I sent to people, but I don't know if those really count. Do they?

2. Do you have a favorite beer? Rootbeer. Apart from hard cider, I really don't touch alcohol. I know, weird.

3. If you ever write a book (or if you have), which genre would it be/is it? I've finished 3. They were general fiction and they sucked. I'd like to write historical fiction but I am Seriously History Stupid. However, I'm strongly considering studying up on my favorite time period and giving it a whirl.

4. What is your favorite dish to cook? I tend to like things that come out of a box, but only because I hate my kitchen so . . . I'll say pumpkin bread, since I had fun cooking that in Care's house.

5. Didn’t Trisha ask some awesome questions? Why yes, she surely did. In fact, I wanted to answer a couple of them like, "What's your favorite piece of art?" but I'd have two answers (my favorite in my home and my favorite by a famous person).

6. How would you have answered Trisha's Question No.9, "What book would you absolutely hate to see get parodied?" I can't think of anything I'd hate to see parodied. If someone wants to play with a classic, they can have at it. That doesn't mean I'll read it, though.

7. Do you have a favorite number? 7, the Biblical number of completion. But, on the other hand, 7 bothers me because my dad died on the 7th day of the 7th month. To continue with a bit of circular thinking, I suppose I could say, "Obviously, God decided his life was complete." But, I would be ready to argue with myself as soon as that came out of my mouth.

8. Tell me a nonfiction book idea subject that you think I should write a book on because there isn’t one already? Uh . . . um . . . Tell you what. I'll get back to you on that.

9. Did you like my answers to No. 5 for book that should be H.S. curricula? I agree that The Book Thief would be an excellent choice, but The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle is a book I haven't managed to wade through, yet, so I can't say. I do think Murakami is awesome and at least some of the short stories in After the Quake would be worth teaching. A few of the stories would call out the book burners from their caves, if you know what I mean.

10. Red or white? Red dress, white walls.

11. Would you be embarrassed to receive a postcard with artwork by Dali? ya know – the erotic variety? I have some if you want one. I’m kinda embarrassed to send. Not if I didn't happen to know my postman so well, but I do . . . also, I'm in Mississippi. They might kick me out of the state for receiving erotic postal material.

And, now my 11 questions:

1. What's the best book you've read, so far, in 2012?

2. Name a memorable event that made you gasp or which was so shocking that you remember exactly where you were and what you were doing.

3. Who is your favorite poet?

4. Have you read anything by Simon Van Booy? What did you think?

5. If someone offered you the money to go somewhere, but it had to be either Ireland, Italy or Australia, which would you choose?

6. Fairy Tales or Folk Tales?

7. Do you have pets? If so, what kind of animals and what are their names?

8. How many bloggers does it take to change a light bulb?

9. Are my reviews too long?

10. Mountain retreat or sun-drenched island?

11. What is the most interesting object in this photograph?

I think everyone I know has been tagged, already, but I want some people to answer my questions!!!! So, I'm just going to ask anyone who drops by to please answer the questions in the comment section -- or, feel free to tag yourself and continue on at your own blog! Isabel climbing down from a high window, above, will serve as my belated Fiona Friday pic. Yesterday was a long day and I was too tired to post. Happy weekend to all!

©2012 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery and Babble or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

7 Random Facts: The Book Edition

Leah at The Octogon tagged me for another meme! What a meme-happy week I'm having. Okay, so 7 weird facts about me and -- I think -- they're supposed to be somehow book related. If you've been to Bybee's blog, lately, you may have seen a few of these in her comments. Pretend you didn't and we'll all be just fine.

1. This is probably not all that weird, but I've gone through some dramatic reading phases. For many years, I was a big mystery enthusiast, partly because I thought I wanted to write mysteries (as it turns out, my brain just doesn't work that way). But, when I stopped reading mysteries, it was practically cold turkey. I burned out on mysteries so thoroughly that I've still got some unread books by favorite mystery writers -- a couple of which are autographed. Now and then, I do throw a mystery into the mix these days because I've mostly recovered. After my mystery phase was my Chick Lit phase. Eventually, I settled on British Chick Lit as the best of the lot -- American and Irish Chick Lit bug me. Now, I can barely stand Chick Lit, although . . . again, I read it on occasion as one of my Brain Break genres of choice.

2. I collect books by certain authors: Paul Watkins, for example. I've collected almost everything he's ever written (just found out I missed a book), simply because his memoir is one of my all-time favorites. And, it turned out I don't really like his fiction all that much, but I still have to keep up the collection. If you haven't read his memoir, Stand Before Your God, you really ought to. It's amazing.

3. Now and then, I grab an older book from the library sale, just for the cute covers. I like old dust jackets.

4. I have quite a collection of Bibles because King James sometimes baffles me. Originally, I just wanted a parallel Bible to compare versions, but I eventually became completely carried away. I just donated a few; I had too many. Incidentally, even if I wasn't a Christian I'd love the Bible. It has everything -- murder, adventure, infidelity, war, deception, people getting turned into pillars of salt, flood and famine . . . seriously, it's just the coolest.

5. I used to collect nonfiction on *anything* because I thought I was going to be an author when I grew up and you just never know when you're going to need a book about guns, pottery, rock climbing, cacti and succulents, scuba diving, whatever . . . for research, of course.

6. There are so many books in our house that we joke about the Book Uprising that is bound to happen, one day. The humans will be killed and eaten. It's only because I frequently spread the books out on our bed that they stay happy.

7. There are books in every room of our house except the bathrooms (okay, yeah, a couple in the vanity area). Even the utility room has a shelf of books. Cookbooks, of course. We're working on that, though.

Again, I don't tag people so if you want to do this meme, go for it!

Picture Tag

Booklogged swatted me and said, "Tag, you're it!" Perfect timing, since the camera hasn't been out much, but we had just arrived home from Biloxi when she tagged me. The idea is to post the 4th picture in the 4th file of your 'My Pictures' folder. I'm kind of cheating -- the first two files are perpetual; they just hang there at the top of the folder. But, if I ignore those two files, the 4th file is so boring. Seriously. So, here's the dude in the 4th photograph of the 4th file (taken in Biloxi, on the foundation of a former casino, which is mostly surrounded by water and now used by fishermen):

I'm really glad the graffiti behind him is blurred out. I don't tag people, but if you want to join it, go for it! This meme is easy and fun.

I'm so freaking slow . . . taggings and thank yous

I don't know if I'd have ever recovered from the heat and frustration, this week, if not for the spouse who very kindly took over my chauffeuring duties for two days in a row. So, I want to publicly say:

Thank you, oh delightful and handsome husband.

You can't see me, but I'm the one handing him a rabbit. What did the husband have to say about my afternoon routine, in the midst of all that driving, on the first day? "This is crazy. This is miserable. I don't know how you do it. All that back-and-forth, back-and-forth driving. There's no time to do anything, even if you come home." Bless you for saying that, Hubby.

And, onward to the awards for which I have been tagged and which I've delayed posting about.

This is always happening to me because I'm really poky . . . three people tagged me for a "Thoughtful Blogger Award": Bonnie, Chris, and Wendy . Each one said really, really nice things about me. I wouldn't be surprised if they'd all forgotten they tagged me or decided I'm not so thoughtful after all, I'm so slow. I meant well, really. Many thanks to all three of you.


And, Robin tagged me for a "Nice Matters Award". Thank you, Robin. I'm a little quicker on the uptake, on this one, but not by much.


Both these awards seem to have been around the block and back, since I dragged my feet. I hope I don't offend anyone by saying I think that every blog I read is written with thought and care and all my blogger friends are nice, nice people!!! So, I'm mass-tagging. If you haven't received either of these awards, consider yourself tagged. I love you all.

And, I will try very hard to keep on top of other taggings, in the future. Is there such a word? Taggings?

Next up are the latest challenges. It will take me a day or two to pile up the RIP II books and make a list of the Cozy Mystery Challenge books (already on my shelves - I may just set a goal and skip the titles), but I had to post quickly about this one . . . I am just ridiculously excited about Dana's Justforthehelluvit Challenge:

It's sort of an anti-challenge, really, to read some books you really want to read, in between all those challenge books. What a nice way to convince yourself, "It's okay to read something other than a challenge book, just because I feel like it." And, here I was, trying to un-challenge myself completely. Now, I'm signing up for three more challenges. Sick, sick book-addicted, challenge-weak woman.

I do, however, plan to continue to just list books to choose from and read only what grabs me from those stacks, during challenges. If I decide I'm not in a cozy or spooky reading mood, so be it. I'll photograph the spooky books for the post, since I know you all love looking at photos of stacks as much as I do.

Just finished: Blizzard by George Stone. Since it's unlikely anyone else will even find a copy of this 1977 disaster novel, much less read it, I'll probably post spoilers when I get around to reviewing. But, I'll be sure to add red spoiler warnings, just in case.

Now reading: Fever, 1793 by Laurie Halse Anderson (YA fiction about a real-life yellow fever epidemic).

I'm also reading the second chapter of my son's history book, which is tiresome, yet fascinating. He's supposed to be outlining this chapter and I think he's more than a little terrified.

Here's my favorite nifty book gadget, the "Book Chair" that allows me to continue reading while I stuff my fat face (photographed on the new breakfast nook table - please try really hard to ignore the windowsill, which lost a coat of paint when we removed the cat perch):

Also, I'm very pleased to note that my orchid is still alive, 4 1/2 months after I brought it home, and it even has a brand new leaf!! How cool is that? Just FYI, the key is apparently to spray the leaves with water daily and only occasionally give the plant a good drink, in imitation of morning dew and the occasional heavy rain that makes it through the rain-forest canopy.

Hope everyone has had a fabulous weekend.