Friday, November 10, 2006
Let the Bible Belt come and save my soul...NOT
Ok For all of those of you strolling through from the randomizer, I'm doing a question of the day to answer via leaving a comment. If enough people actually do it, it could be fun!
Question du Jour: Do you like to read? Who are some of your favorite authors?
Im a mystery/suspense fan, and also just your basic fiction. I dont do historic fiction though, Im a 20th/21st century kind of girl. My top two mystery/suspense type authors are Jeffrey Deaver and Kathy Reichs. My favorite fun fiction is Marian Keyes, and my favorite combo of the two is Jennifer Crusie. I would pay hardcover prices for any of these 4. (But only if I have my extra 15% off coupon and preferably they are also the extra 30% thing too!)
I LOVE to read! I guess my mom did something smart when she signed us up for the Weekly Reader Bookclub back as children. We had a kick-ass book collection then, and I have a pretty decent one now too. Or at least decent to me, full of all of my favorite authors.
Yesterday I had my dentist cleaning after work, but I had an hour to kill before I had to be there so I went to B&N to use my 15% coupon and get my free latte. I picked up Anybody Out There by Marian Keyes and am very excited. For those of you who arent familiar with her, you should be. She is hysterical, but also has great stories that will make you feel. Many of her books center around a family of 5 sisters, but each book focuses on a particlar sister, and is from her point of view. This one is about Ana and I REALLY just want to go home and read it and not be sitting here in hell.....err work.
Something that struck me as funny was when the chick at the dentist told me that she wanted a hobby that wasnt expensive so she tried to take up reading. Unfortunately, she said, she would get through a few pages and just fall asleep. I suggested maybe she should try reading more interesting books...
Another book I read recently was one of Kathy Reichs' latest, Cross Bones. In this book the main character is a forensic anthropologist who has found some bones that could possibly be those of Jesus Christ. Of couse as anyone who knows the basic gist of Christianity would know, this would trash the whole concept of the resurrection and could be a huge issue. So I was chatting about this book with one of my yankee co-workers who warned me to be careful who I talked about this with because since we live in the Bible Belt there are people who could get a bit tense about it.
This really made me start paying attention. I realize in concept that I live in the Bible Belt now, but I guess it didnt hit me till recently. I grew up in Jersey, home of Irish and Italian Catholics. In my town if you didnt go to St. Joseph's it was because you went to St. Lukes across town. I think there were about a dozen non-Catholic families in my town. But honestly, those who wnt to other churches seemed cool to us, because their youth group did neat things different than what we did. It was never about the actual religion part. We werent all like Catholics of our parents generation. It was what we were, not who we were, if that makes any sense.
Down here religion defines a person to a huge extent. People are also less careful about being "politically correct" with the religious references. McDonalds signs wish you Merry Christmas. I saw a commmercial for a construction company that boasted it's values came from the bible. Nobody worries about alienating people of other faiths because they assume everyone either is or should be the same as them. I cant tell you how many people told me that the best way for me to find a man is to go to THEIR church. I told one woman who was fairly insistant that I was Catholic, so it seemed wrong to go to another denomonation just to pick up a guy, and she said that she thought He would just be happy to have me there. I kindly disagreed- I think He would prefer me not to have underhanded sneaky intentions or to pretend to be someone that I am not. I think He is happy for me to be who I am and have my relationship with Him to be whatever it is that We are comfortable with.
Now I may get a bit slammed for writing this all outloud. I dont know if I even have a point to it, but it's been on my mind. I suppose I was just feeling censured lately and I hate anything being shoved down my throat. I know with Christmas coming it's going to get worse so I thought Id do a pre-vent. I hope Ive offended nobody, but I guess we'll see if I get any comments...
Ok I also have half a Friday shuffle- I got 5 songs in this morning
1.) When I See you Smile - John Waite
(In college we used to joke that it was John Wayne and sing When I see you smile, pilgram)
2.) Love is the Seventh Wave - Sting
(remember how cute this video was with the crayola Sting?)
3.) Rush- Big Audio Dynamite
(These lyrics are WAY too appropriate for today- "Situation no win/Rush for a change of atmosphere/I can't go on so I give in/Gotta get myself right outta here")
4.) At Last - Eva Cassidy
(I dont have anything much to say about this song. Eva is awesome though- go get some of her stuff)
5.) Hold Me Down - Gin Blossoms
(I got to meet them back in the mid 90's when my roommate won a radio contest. Nice guys! Love their stuff. When we went to their concert (The Spin, Gin, and Crack tour) (spin doctors and cracker in case you didnt figure that out) we noticed the drummer was hanging out in the lawn seats during the Spin Doctor's set. I thought that was cool.)
Read or Post a Comment
You didn't offend me either. I didn't find you with the randomizer, but I'll answer your question anyway. I love to read, more when I'm not in school and reading is a required activity. Lately I've fallen for a series of nerd romance novels, which I contemplated writing until I realized that the fact that I'd read them meant that they'd already been written. They're light and charming.
So NOT offensive at all.
On the book front - 4 books everyone must read:
1- I Know This Much is True by Wally Lamb
2- The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
3- The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
4- Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris
Aloha, from the randomizer!
I adore reading, and will devour just about anything I can get my hands on..
Give me a book, and I'll read it.
Hmmm, where to begin?
Ken Follett
JK Rowling
Marian Keyes
Margaret George
Chris Bohjalian
Jennifer Crusie
Jennifer Weiner
Ann-Marie MacDonald
Tom Clancy
Jeffrey Archer
Maeve Binchy
John Irving
Alice Sebold
Frank McCourt
Stephen King
Diana Gabaldon
Kathy Reichs
Amy Tan
Philippa Gregory
That's not even all of them. Thank goodness for the library & their free books.