Instead of tucked in bed under numerous quilts, I'm out under the old elm tree, reading as the light fades in the evening. I've been known to take my small battery operated book light out there with me.
In celebration of the summertime reading experience I'm hosting a book giveaway today.
This giveaway is due to the generosity of my blog friend and loyal reader, Kate. She live in east central Saskachewan and publishes a great blog, Life at Golden Grain Farm.
Since we recently spoke about To Kill a Mockingbird, Kate thought you might be interested in reading the biography of author Harper Lee. It sounds fascinating to me!
I love biographies, and since Lee was born and raised in the south and a childhood (and lifelong) friend of Truman Capote, this promises to be a fascinating read. If you're currently reading or re-reading To Kill a Mockingbird, this could be a great follow-up read.
It's called Mockingbird, a Portrait of Harper Lee, written by Charles J. Shields, copyright 2006.
Here's how to enter. Leave me a comment, telling me your reading habits. Do they change from season-to-season or are you a steady reader year round? Do you have a favorite spot to read?
Thanks to Kate for this generous offer!
Leave a comment before 6 p.m. CST on Wednesday, July 22nd. I'll announce the winner on Thursday morning. Thanks!
37 comments:
Good Morning! ME ME ME ME ME!!!! I love to read - but only get in paragraphs per day!
I've always been a book lover. I read just about any kind of book. Usually my reading comes while I am on vacation. Before I got my Kindle, my husband was always griping because he had to lug around a bag with 7-8 books in it. I have several favorite authors and always save their latest work for vacation so I can savor it with fewer interruptions!
I read just about everyday--mostly at night 1-2 hours before bed. I've wanted to read To Kill a Mockingbird since you last blogged about it. I just finished a book last night so maybe it will be next. Then I can read Harper Lee's biography that I'm going to win!! Yay!
Right now I have three books going. I can't get enough to read. I love to sit on my back patio and on the swing and read and watch the birds. I also have to read a chapeter or two before I go to sleep at night. I always wanted to read about her life, just never got around to getting the book. So pic me, I'd love to read it and pass it on to another one who loves to read. I do go on........
I just re-read To Kill a Mockingbird, and have determined it's still one of my favorites. I wasn't sure I could say that since it had been so long since I last read it, but it passed the test.
This year I decided to try reading a book a week, 52 books for the year. I'm behind by about 8 or 9 books right now, and, yes, I find my reading slows in the summertime. My kids bought me a hammock for my birthday this month, and I've passed several pleasant evenings reading out there. It has to be the right time for reading in the hammock, though. After about 10 a.m. until around 4 or 5 p.m. it's too hot, and too close to dark and the cicadas get too loud. We're moving things around inside the house, and I'm setting up a little reading nook in the hallway of the loft and a guest room/studio/quiet space for me in the room behind that loft hall. It's a nice spot to go in the summer because dh keeps the AC too cool for me to be comfy sitting still, but the hot air rises to the loft making it nice and cozy. (Dh had his office up there and was too hot even with the separate air conditioner, hence the move.) I know it will be warm in winter, too, so it's the perfect spot for me since I am always cold.
I definitely get more reading time in the winter. However - in the summer months I go up to bed before everyone else - usually around 10:00 pm, and I read in bed for an hour, or sometimes more, till midnight ! If I have a really great book, I've been known to hide in the bathroom during the day - but this gets hard when the kids are home from school !!!
I love to read - but not in bed - I fall asleep the second I start reading. I mostly read in my comfy, soft chair in the living room - with a glass of iced tea in the summer or a cup of hot tea in the winter. I read about the same amount, summer or winter - at least I think I do.
Oh! How great! I just read To Kill a Mockingbird again this past February. It is an all time favorite. I've not read Lee's bio, with Capote as a friend, her life had to be interesting!
Reading habits....hmmmm...Well, if I'm reading a good book I will try to read no matter what is going on around me. I love sitting in the rocking chair on the patio on summer evenings. Or better yet, my parents have a hammock and their yard is surrounded by trees, so all you hear are the wind in the trees and the birdsong.
Suzanne,
My reading habits change in the summer but I don't think it's because of the weather. I help plan our city's three day festival which is in June. It keeps me pretty busy. I do try to read something each day. I absolutely LOVE "To Kill a Mockingbird." I've read it several times. I have also read almost everything from Truman Capote including a collection of his personal letters.
Thanks for this awesome blog. I look forward to reading it each day.
I'm more of a short story reader as of late. That an article's on any interesting subject. I do my heavy reading in Jan-March for some reason.
I read a very odd little story last night (helps me to sleep) by Guy De Maupassant. "The Prisoners" ... It made me want to learn more about the Prussians... are Prussians Russians or Germans? The story left me confused...
signing of from a rainy SWMO... :)
I follow Kate's blog as well and think she is generous to offer the book. Our house is over-full with books and I am considering getting a Kindle but will miss the physical aspects of a real book. The book will be most welcome at our house!
Oh I have that book and found it very interesting! (No need for two.) Your reading nook looks so nice and cozy...what's in the glass?
I love to read but read more in the winter as well. Howeer, no matter what time of year, I have to have a book going by my bed. It's how I unwind at the end of the day and relax. There are many nights I fall asleep only to wake up with the book in my face.
I read books more in the fall and winter. Magazines in the spring and summer. Although this summer I've read two books and plan to start another one this week. It sort of depends upon what books I find at the store or friends pass on to me.
I am definitely a seasonal reader... living in Oregon you gotta make hay while the sun shines! Okay - so I don't make hay so much, but lots of other stuff - and when the weather is nice, I only have snippets of time to devote to reading.
The rest of the year - it's a little embarrassing. I usually buzz through about a book a day. I love our church library! I love our community library! I'd be so broke if I didn't have them!
Where? Anywhere I can get good light, heat, and comfy. My bed, on the chaise lounge next to the picture window, on the couch... I'm not picky.
Really the only place I don't read is in bed- fall right to sleep. My favorite place is the rose garden across from the Santa Barbara Mission, I lived for years in apts and houses w/ itty-bitty yards, so the dogs and me spent hours at the rose garden, so it's a habit I can't stop. I average 6 novels a month, along w/ other books here and there. Love the library, so I have read this bio and bow out of this drawing.
Good luck to all
I don't have as much time to read as I'd like, so I try to get to bed by nine o'clock each night and read for at least two hours. I am so excited about getting into bed that before my pyjamas are on I pull back the covers ... I don't know why, but that small act slows me down a tad. I've been a night owl since I was a child, and having this special reading time before sleep makes me want to get into bed instead of staying up half the night. I love reading! So many books, so little time!
I love to read but I go in spurts. Sometimes I'll read 3 books in a couple days and then not pickup a book for weeks. I am always reading my cookbooks though!
I read a lot. But I do go through spurts where I read more and quicker. Some days it's a couple pages, other days it can be a whole book. Right now my favorite place to read is lay across the bed, before it's too dark and I have to turn on the light.
I read every day. It is my passion. I will read just about anything and I've ever only not finished one book (and actually was so disgusted by it I threw it in the bin - Running With Scissors). Most of the better stories I've read come from the era of To Kill A Mockingbird, so it would be great to read a biography on Harper Lee. I actually will gasp out loud if I see someone fold a page over to mark their spot - use a bookmark for heaven'sakes! I enjoy reading with a cuppa coffee on a front/back porch on mild weather days, but you will usually find me in the evenings curled up under a lamp reading.
I take spells with reading. Sometimes I devour book after book and then I will go months in between. I do read magazines ALL the time.
My favorite place to read is on the front porch swing when the weather is nice. I read in the evenings while my hubby watches TV. At the end of April I decided to start posting what books I read the previous month. Since then, I have read 26 books. This does not include July, I haven't listed those yet. I know I have read several books by Terri Blackstock and Bodie & Brock Theone.
Although I have about ten books in a holding pattern that I need to read, I need this one. I promise I will move it up to #1.
I love to read, as the stacks of books in the bedroom (and bathroom hideout) can attest. I read whenever I have a few spare minutes, anytime, anywhere. Favorite place to read? In the back seat of the car with somebody else driving. BLISS.
Usually a few books going at a time, but the best time for me is curled up in bed at night...or better yet, on the couch on a rainy day.
I read everywhere all the time ... my favorite spot is curled up on the sofa with something chocolate, but I'm just as likely to read while I'm eating breakfast/lunch/dinner, on the bus to/from work, in the bathroom, during boring meetings/sermons (sorry!), and while on the phone. Only seasonal difference is I'm more likely to read in bed in the evenings in summer as it gets dark so late!
I have been an avid reader all of my life. I just thought today that I haven't been spending as much time reading novels, because I have been reading blogs.
How do you handle that?
Laura
Sign me up for the giveaway.
Good afternoon,Suzanne,
I would call myself The Constant Reader. Here we are in Monterey, California, and hubby and I took time out from attending the conference to go to a bookstore. We didn't have to ask each other; we just both knew that was the next task: get books! How we managed to leave Oregon without books is the mystery. We read in the morning, at lunch and at night. We also manage to have hours of conversation, some of it about books, and to read our favorite blogs--insert shameless plug for At home with the Farmer's Wife here--but not to watch television.
I am also, thanks to the fading brain of middle age, a Constant Re-Reader, and find I can enjoy Jane Austen, George Eliot, and Charlotte Bronte every year.
Thank God for books!
Hi Suzanne, I live in MO and I'm new to your blog and I have been enjoying it very much. My reading habits do not change from season to season and I'm the kind of person that needs a quiet place when I'm reading, I think I have a bit of ADD! I also think To Kill A Mockingbird is a great book and I imagine Harper Lee's biography would be a good read also.
Carol
lakrats3@yahoo.com
I love to read, but I tend to do more pleasure reading in the summer than I do in the winter. I homeschool my kids, so I spend much of the school year reading material for their school, but summertime is my time when it comes to reading.
Blessings,
Marcia
My reading habits? I read EVERYTHING, all the time. I have a book at bedside, one for reading while drying my hair, and one in the car in case I get stuck and have a few minutes. I read magazines which range from Martha Stewart to Scientific American...I love the exchange of information/ideas, and I think blogging fits in that just fine!
I love to read but it is the entire visceral experience of reading that I love. It engages all my senses. It is the feel of the page in my fingers, the smell of the paper, the sound of the page turning and the words painting the design I see behind my eyelids. It is the creation of an alternative reality that exists only for me. And I read and read and read.
Good Morning - A couple of times a year, my husband and I pack up our books, a picnic lunch(and wine),comfy chairs and head to the Grand Canyon. We park at one of the lookouts, and walk along the rim until we are away from all the tourists. We sit on the edge of the Grand Canyon, view all her majestic beauty... and read. There is nothing like it.
Like stickhorsecowgirls, I read everything all the time. I always have a book going, and depending on how good the story is I may drop everything else. I am more or less single and have only my cats to worry about...so I feel especially lucky after reading about you other gals trying to find time to read. Your little place under the elm is lovely, Suzanne. I am also wondering what is in the glass;)
Wow... lots of readers with many different reading habits.
What's in the glass?? Nothing so exotic as a Cuba Libre, it's only Diet Coke.
I just reread To Kill a Mockingbird after 25 years or so. LOVED it even more than the first time. I also love biographies...will be looking into reading this one. Thanks!
I've enjoyed reading everyone's stories about how they read. Of course you know, I was just adding my two cents and not entering the draw. Hee!
Post a Comment