More Book Replies

More Book Replies

fuzzyspork answered your question “Books Meme”

My mom was the reading influence in my life. We moved a LOT when I was a kid, but her huge library of books always went with us. She would read out loud to us on long car trips. Took a couple of years to get through the Narnia books that way. :3

My mom read to us too, but it was my dad who really took on that role.  Some of my best memories are of listening to him read.  He read LOTR with me.  He read several of the Tarzan books to my younger brother.  He read To Kill a Mockingbird with my sister (years before any of us would read it in school).  The best part of it was that we could all join in on someone else’s reading if we wanted to, or it could be a private thing with just Dad.  We used audio books on long car trips, but reading aloud was always the best part of the day.  

didilysims answered your question “Books Meme”

Oh the Seer and the Sword! I was tempted to put that on my list too. Exact same situation as you too...checking it out from the library again and again. Then I wanted to reread a few years ago, and library didn't have it, so I went out and bought it!

I haven’t heard anybody else talk about that book.  I’m glad to know that somebody else loves it.  :) 

I knew it was taking a chance, but I actually called up the garden club this morning and asked about a membership.  Addie Potter is the new club leader.  She agreed to have some members come by and look the place over, and for the most part I think they liked what they saw.  The buggy fruit trees were a point against me, but they let me into the club.  I just need to get the trees healthy again and maybe do a bit more landscaping.  I’ll do better next time they inspect the garden.  

Is there a garden club up there?  Are you guys going to join?  Let me know.

I miss you both loads, but I’m also really glad to be out on my own.  I’ll write again soon.

Your loving daughter,

Florence

holleyberry replied to your photoset:

Dear Mom and Dad, I got a surprising phone call...

One post a day is killing me! Haha!

Bwahahaha!  My evil plan is working!  

In truth, though, I’ll turn up the number of queued posts per day soon enough.  I’m glad you’re excited to see what happens next.  That tells me that I’m doing my job right.  :)

I’ve got the garden started again too.  I’m starting out with just a few tomato plants, but I’m hoping to buy some more seeds with my profits from the store.  The old fruit trees are all overgrown and infested with bugs.  Yuck! I’d prefer to get more ladybug houses, but I don’t have the money for them at the moment, so I had to use pesticides instead. (Yeah, I know how dangerous they can be.  I promise, I was careful.) It’s far from its former glory, but you’ll see--I’ll turn this garden into something you’d both be proud of!

Books Meme

I was tagged by @heimlichbourger​ and @potatogirlsims​.  I’d been hoping someone would tag me in this meme.  I love books! I’m going to put a cut under this introduction because I’ve got a story about each book (or book series) on the list. 

Rules: in a text post, list 10 books that have stayed with you in some way. Don’t take but a few minutes, and don’t think too hard- they don’t have to be the “right” or “great” works, just the ones that have touched you. 

The Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling

My dad gave me the first book when I was in fifth grade.  He had decided to read it first because he’d heard conflicting things about it.  He fell in love and handed it to me.  I read all the way to the final confrontation in one night.  I would have finished it, but my dad came in and took the book away.  Something about needing to sleep.  *rolls eyes*  I was furious with him and demanded the book back in the morning.  I finished it and immediately asked if we could get the next one.  Over the years, most of my family has fallen in love with the Potter world.  (My mom tried, but she just couldn’t get into it.  She tries to keep up with us, though, when we talk about it.)  My first foray into fan fiction--into real writing--was Harry Potter fan fiction. Harry Potter was the make-believe game my sister and I played for years, into high school. I still love the Harry Potter role play group I’ve joined.  These books were my childhood and I still absolutely adore them!  

The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien (grouping these as one because the whole story told in these four books impacted me)

My father read me The Hobbit in fourth grade.  That’s right, I was introduced to Tolkien before Harry Potter.  I loved it.  I was immediately caught up in the story and the characters.  We moved on to LOTR and read that through most of my middle school years.  I remember being very concerned about Boromir and convinced that he wasn’t really dead.  (I don’t know why I liked him...)  The movies were coming out around that time and I was very anxious for them to be good.  (And of course, they were fantastic.)   I didn’t go see The Hobbit movies because they split that book into three parts when they didn’t need to.  I haven’t reread these books for years, but these characters were with me in a time when I was being bullied at school and Middle Earth was one of my escapes. 

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

I didn’t read this until high school.  Again, it was because of my dad.  (He figures into a lot of this.  He is the person who really turned me into a reader.)  He told me to read the book and I did and, of course, I fell in love.  Then he showed me the 1995 mini series and I fell in love again. I read the book at least three times in college classes and half a zillion times on my own.   The signature on my college emails was the first line of this book for years.  I recently met an old professor (moving to the town where you went to college means that you meet old profs at the grocery store) and that was what he remembered about me.  It’s one of my all time favorite books.

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

I first read this book in an abridged form when I was in elementary school.  Nowadays I wouldn’t touch an abridged version of any book (except maybe Moby Dick), but at that time it was just the right version for me.  I fell in love with the characters, especially Beth.  I read that little illustrated abridged version until the book fell apart.  

A Hat Made of Sky by Terry Pratchett

This was the book that got me into Terry Pratchett’s work.  It’s actually the second book in the Tiffany Aching series within the Discworld series, but I read it before the first book.  Actually, I listened to it.  I had tried listening to the first Tiffany book (The Wee Free Men, another great one) during a long family car trip, but I fell asleep. I made it through this one, though.  Then I went back and read the first one, and then the third Tiffany book.  Then I branched out into other Discworld books.  Once again I found a world that I loved visiting. 

Witch-Hunt:  Mysteries of the Salem Witch Trials by Marc Aronson

I read this one in high school, during a project on the Salem witch trials. I found it fascinating, especially when I compared the historical events with the events in The Crucible, which we were reading in my English class.  Marc Aronson is a fantastic historian and a great writer, and this is the book I recommend to anyone who wants to know more about what happened in Salem.

The Red Pyramid and sequels by Rick Riordan

I read these books after I read the Percy Jackson series.  I love Percy Jackson, but honestly, I like these books more.  The best thing about these is actually the audio books.  They are some of the best done audio books I’ve listened to, and they make the two narrators in the books come alive.  I don’t often like books with multiple narrators, but listening to the books, it works for this series.  I was also interested because I didn’t know a lot about Egyptian mythology and I find all mythology fascinating.

Beauty by Robin McKinley

This book showed me that retelling fairy tales and putting your own twist on them is possible.  This book inspired all my attempts at retelling fairy tales over the years.  It helped that it was retelling my favorite fairy tale of all time, “Beauty and the Beast” (also my favorite Disney movie). 

The Seer and the Sword by Victoria Hanley

I picked up this book at the library in high school based solely on the title and the cover art.  That’s not always a good way to choose a book, but I got lucky in this case.  The story is a wonderful fantasy.  I checked it out of the library multiple times all through high school.  I finally bought a copy of it for myself this past year. 

The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis

I love all of Lewis’s works that I’ve read (which is not all of them).  I could have put other books of his on this list.  The Narnia books were some of my first fantasy novels and they figured into another make-believe game my sister and I played.  The Space Trilogy books are a set that I haven’t read all the way through, but that I want to finish.  He wrote a lot more than I realized when I was younger.

I didn’t read The Great Divorce until about two years ago.  I actually read it after my family went to see a play based on the book.  The play was fantastic.  I bought the book that night when we got home and read through the whole thing in a night and a morning. I find Lewis’s ideas fascinating.  I always find something new when I read the book again.  

I could go on and on. I could come up with more books.  I could tell you all kinds of stories about books that I love and books that I hate.  I grew up as a reader and I have continued as a reader ever since.  I love sharing my love of books with other people, and I love seeing why other people love books.  

I’m not tagging anybody in this, but if you want to answer the question, go for it.   You don’t have to choose 10.  Choose just one.  I’d love to hear from you! What books have changed your life, even in small ways?  What books did you grow up with?  What characters have been your friends?  What worlds do you wish you could live in?

Dear Mom and Dad,

Hi!  How’s Riverblossom Hills?  Are you guys all settled in your new house?  Send pictures, please.  I want to see it, and I want to hear all about your new neighbors too.

I’m sending a few pictures of my own to show you what I’ve done with the old house here in Bluewater.  I think I’ve finally got the shop all set up!  I’m calling it Delarosa Flowers.  Not a very original name, I know, but it has a nice sound to it, don’t you think?