Thankfully Reading 2012: Day 3 Challenge

Today's challenge question has to do with bookish family memories.  Jenn has asked us...What family bookish memories do you have? 

Well, this one is a bit harder for me to answer because, unfortunately, not many members of my family are readers. I remember discovering my love of books and reading in Mrs. McPherson's fourth grade class. Not long after, my aunt and uncle gave me a very special Christmas present. I don't even know if they realized how special it was to me. They gave me the entire set of Laura Engalls Wilder Little House on the Prairie books! I coveted those books and guarded them with my life! They were beautiful! That is my favorite family bookish memory!

I hope you enjoyed my answer to this challenge question....Now its back to reading!!

Thankfully Reading: Day 2 Challenge

For the second day of Thankfully Reading Weekend Jenn has asked this question: What Book Are You Most Thankful For This Year? 

My answer to this question came to my mind so quickly and easily. It is THE HOMECOMING OF SAMUEL LAKE by Jenny Wingfield. It is a debut novel that I absolutely LOVED.  Southern Lit at its absolute finest. And I am not alone in my feelings about this book. I read this as part of a TLC Book Tour and the other participants loved it as well. You can read my review here. It is the book I've recommended the most.

Its A Thankfully Reading Weekend!

You won't find me at any retail store on this Black Friday! Or any Black Friday for that matter. I'm not one to fight crowds  and get up at 3:00 am to get a bargain. Honestly, I've never really understood the whole thing, probably because I'm not a big shopper. What I choose to do instead is to stay home and participate in the annual Thankfully Reading Weekend Read-A-Thon, hosted by Jenn of Jenn's Bookshelves. This year, she has invited Jennifer from Literate Housewife to be her co-host!  For more info head over to Jenn's blog and to sign up. Its not too late and there are no rules to follow - its just a weekend full of books and reading! Seeing as how I wound up in the ER yesterday getting 10 stitches in my finger and the fact that my left hand feels like a club, reading at home is a good place for me to be this weekend!

I've got several books I'm going to be reading from that I'm excited about. And I'll be posting my progress on Twitter here:  @SouththrnGrlReads And you can follow all the participants using the hashtag #ThankfullyReading.

Some of the books I'll be reading from include LIFE OF PI by Yann Martel, THE SECRET SENSE OF WILDFLOWER by Susan Gabriel, ALL THE LONELY PEOPLE by Jess Riley and I'm going to start a re-read of Faulkner's classic THE SOUND AND THE FURY. I'm also going to continue listening to BROKEN HARBOR by Tana French. That should keep me busy all through the weekend, don't ya think?

So, I'm off to start reading....

The Sunday Salon: Thankful For Reading (My Thankfully Reading Update)

As you may know, this is the second year of the Thankfully Reading Weekend Read-A-Thon. I participated last year and I loved it. It was my first read-a-thon. Its usually a great reading weekend for me because my BF always goes to Alabama hunting that week, so I have all the time in the world to read. So I signed up again, however, I didn't get the chance to read as much this time. I did manage to get some reading done yesterday, but only 147 pages. Today I'm hoping to read about as many. Even though I didn't get to read at all Friday, it was worth the time I got to spend with my sister. This year, Thankfully Reading has a different meaning for me . . .

My sister Linda is two years older than me and she suffers from the same hereditary retinal disease that I have but she is further along with it. In the last eight months or so, she has lost 99% of her vision. She has such a strong will and positive attitude that you never see her cry or feel sorry for herself. She is a real inspiration to me. I look at her and I know that I will be where she is in a matter of years. My disease is moving more slowly because I am a non-smoker and have been my whole life, whereas Linda, although not a heavy smoker, has smoked since her early 20's. Since neither of us drive, it is sometimes hard for us to get together since she doesn't live really close to me. However, after dinner on Thursday, she came home with me and spent the night and we stayed up late talking (and eating) and we had such a great time. Now, I am even more proud of her than before. It must be a scary thing to only have 1% of sight but she trudges right along. She lives alone and does very well as long as she's in familiar surroundings. She spent a big part of Friday with me as well and it made for a great holiday.

So even though I didn't get to read Friday, I am even more thankful that I CAN still read my books. I don't read as fast as others and sometimes my eyes get really tired and I have to stop, but I can still see the written pages in front of me. Maybe not as clearly but I can still see it through my cloudy tunnel vision. So this Thanksgiving that is what I'm thankful for. Hopefully next year I will still see well enough to participate in Thankfully Reading again.

The Sunday Salon: Being thankful

It's so hard to believe that Thanksgiving is this week! Since I was a kid, this has always been one of my favorite holidays, obviously partly because I look forward to our family getting together, which we don't do a lot throughout the year, and partly because of the food! Who doesn't love the food? I love to help prepare the meal and share it with my family. It is so nice to sit around the same table and be thankful we have one another. My family is quite small anymore so it just makes it all the more important to me to spend time with my extended family on Thanksgiving.

Another reason I'm looking forward to this particular holiday weekend is that I'm taking part in my very first Read-A-Thon! As you can see by the badge on the sidebar to the right, I've entered Thankfully Reading Weekend. This is an informal read-a-thon with no rules. It begins Friday, November 27 and runs thru Sunday, the 29th. If you're like me and you don't go anywhere near the stores this weekend, think about joining me and the other participants in this fun event. All the details can be found at Book Blog Social Club. I hope to see you there!

This is going to be a busy week for everyone, so I want to take the opportunity now to wish all of my book friends in the U.S. a very Happy Thanksgiving!