I’m sure it will come as no surprise to anyone who read the sad story of my Amazon.com calendar purchase, that I also buy a lot of books. My friend Dawn, mentioned frequently around these parts, pointed out an internet forward that kinda-sorta reminded her of me. It went something like this:
I have nothing to add to this.
This brings me to confessional time. I’m pretty sure every post I make here is something of an accidental confessional, but this is on purpose…not just me blathering on about personal stuff and TMI.
I have a lot of books I haven’t read yet. I used to read SSSSOOOOOO much. All the time. I called in sick to work every now and again if I had a book I couldn’t wait to read. I missed most of elementary, middle, and, come to think of it, high school. One of my childhood besties and I used to walk to Park Drugs, and sometimes I bought a book instead of candy or beverages. Candy and beverages was the entire point of the exercise, btw.
Side note: I can’t believe I’m admitting this, but in 5th or 6th grade one of the books I bought from Park Drugs, with my own money even, was a time travel romance that still makes me question my own taste in reading material. Constance O’Day-Flannery entertained me well enough with her Timeless Passion, and I learned a little bit about 1856 antebellum plantation living to boot! I also learned that if I wind up traveling back in time, it would be indiscrete to listen to my jammin’ walkman tunes while singing Huey Lewis out loud. My “husband” might think I’m cray-cray, or I might be drowned in the swamp in order to free the demon spirits.
It’s always a concern. One can never be too careful while time traveling.
So, I was somewhat preoccupied with reading not so many years ago is what I’m saying. Then BAM! Procreation. Along with the precious babies came regressing literacy.
Fast forward to last month and I went to the SENG Conference in Milwaukee. I had a great time and on the last day I couldn’t help myself any longer…I bought some books from the vendor hall. Great Potential Press had a few books that had been on my wish list for years. Literally. Years. What the crap; they were giving my books away at the conference! All I had to do was pay 70 percent of the cover price and I could take them home with me for FREE. That’s all there was to it.
How could I say no? I couldn’t. I didn’t.
Trouble here is that I already have a robust library of gifted-specific books, but I haven’t even read close to half of them. Homeschooling? Have a bunch of those too. Aspergers? Check.
Now these shelves of books aren’t going to remind me that my devilishly handsome plantation-farming faux husband from 1856 might not understand about OTC pharmaceuticals, but they might, just might, help me parent my extremely high needs children. Constance O’Day-Flannery didn’t write about twice-exceptional kids, but if she did I might have to put her book to the top of the TBR pile. As it is, I spend all day with my quirky, intense, always “on” spawn, so I don’t want to relax with some helpful reading material about them when I could be watching Toddlers & Tiaras, or getting my ass beat at SongPop.
True story.
Several things have been happening serendipitously in recent weeks:
1. I recently reviewed Jeff Salyards debut Fantasy novel, Scourge of the Betrayer, right here on this blog…and really enjoyed the reading *and* reviewing.
2. I went to the gifted conference and bought some more books.
3. Decided at the conference, while standing in the vendor hall, to start *reading* and then *reviewing* the books on my blog.
4. Went home and lost track of time. Got my ass beat at SongPop.
5. My conference roomie’s book was released, and she’s unknowingly written about my life. All of it!! She, too, noted that the last thing a person wants to do is read a book about gifted kids when they’re knee deep in the soup.
5b. I bought LOTS of copies of Jen’s book and planned it to be my kick-off gifted book review / combo kick-off contest.
6. Dawn posted about tsundoku (see above) which reminded me that I planned to read and review all of my gifted/homeschooling/2e books, but haven’t started yet.
6b. Nor have I announced the contest.
7. I’ve been drinking tea ALLLL NIGHT and now I can’t sleep.
8. So it’s time to launch this contest. WOOHOO!
9. But I think I should create a new entry because this one is really long already.
10. Plus, I don’t know what the contest is yet…just that at the end of it I’m giving away 30 copies of Jen Merrill’s ” If This is a Gift, Can I Send It Back?: Surviving in the Land of the Gifted and Twice-Exceptional“.
11. A lot of people say they read my blog and like it, but I don’t get very many comments…and not many new “likes” on FB lately. Sad face.
12. Maybe I’ll give the book away to people who comment on my blog!
13. And like me on Facebook.
13b. I like making lists.
13c. In fact, I’m making one right now.
Delicious Minutiae 