Category: Books/Reading Materials

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New Bookstore in Town

Usually I buy my books from the local bookstore instead of going to the public library. I think books are meant to be owned, not borrowed.

Well, to be honest, the bookstore is not all that local – it’s a huge nationwide chain. I mean local in that I just drive down to that shopping center near my house and spend an hour walking around looking at the books. I’ll buy a book based on the author’s or sometimes the title intrigues me. For example, any book by John Grisham is an instant sale. And once I bought a book “For Dummies” just to see what all the fuss was about.

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Finishing touches

Well the bathroom is coming along great but it needs some finishing touches.  The new tile floor came out really good even if I do say so myself and the new cabinet is a lot better than that old one that was in there.  I even added a border to the walls.  I could not believe it when I found a border with outhouses on it.

Rachel was looking through some of the catalogs that fill our mail box from time to time and found all kinds of outhouse accessories to complete the project.  Outhouse shower curtain, checkered swag curtain, outhouse toilet paper holder, a bathroom mat and the job is a success.

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The Horse Whisperer

Rachel and I have watched The Horse Whisperer a few times and it’s not only a movie for you ladies.  Us guys enjoy it too.  After all, it’s almost a cowboy movie.  Well Rachel came home with the book yesterday.  She can’t seem to put it down.  I must admit, I kinda like her reading it too because she seems a lot more interested in cuddling with me since she started reading it.

As with most movies, she says the book is so much better.  Might be but doesn’t sound like my kinda book.  Who knows, I might have to borrow it after she’s finished reading it.  Nothing like a good book on a nice summers day laying in the hammock.

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The Internet is Truly International

I never thought that I would need an online translation service for anything in my life, but the more I am on the internet, the more I realize just how international we really are. Even with something like Facebook, I have added new friends from a variety of countries. I have a musician friend who lives in the Czech Republic and also know a photographer there who has a wonderful photoblog.

He suggested another photoblog that is run by a French photographer, and I needed service de traduction to navigate her site. Everything on her blog is in French and if I want to make a comment on her work, I need to be able to write in French without sounding like an idiot.

These photoblogs are really interesting. Most of the photographers take a picture of something in their every day life and post it on their site. They take photos all year around, with people walking in the rain, shoveling snow, picking flowers or riding the commuter train. The German photoblog shows street scenes in Berlin and I needed Übersetzungsdienst to read his comments and respond back.

These people do amazing work and put it on the internet to share with the world for free. I admire them and look forward to learning more about life in other parts of the world through their photographs.

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A Quick Read

Most days I keep one or two paperbacks in the truck so I have something to read if we have a long wait on the job site. Today was one of those days where we had to wait for the concrete truck and there was nothing to do until he got here. So I picked up the “Boneman’s Daughters” and sat under a tree for about 40 minutes.

It’s by Ted Dekker and he writes in a very readable style. It’s a thriller about a serial killer and the FBI mistakenly thinking the father of a victim is a suspect. I’m not through with it yet, but it’s a good book so far. I got about half way through when the truck finally showed up.

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Crazy Heart

While visiting on Easter, I found a copy of the book, Crazy Heart, on the bookshelf in my brother’s room. I asked if I could borrow it and he said to take it and pass it on.

I watched the movie with the same title when it came out last year. I thought the movie was outstanding and Jeff Bridges made the main character totally believable.I know a little about the music business, as my dad was a musician and we always had a house full of band members, singers and other entertainers.

It will be hard to read the book without picturing Jeff Bridges as the main character. But maybe that’s a good thing. I think it helps to vividly picture the characters while you read.

So far the book seems to be following the movie pretty closely. I just got into it last night for a couple of chapters. I plan to read the book and then re-watch the movie to compare the two.

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The hobbits

The Lord of the Rings trilogy has been a huge success. The three part series has had movie goers flocking to the theater for the last several years. The only question was what was next for the director Peter Jackson and the continuation of the last part of the story that includes the story of “The Hobbit’.

The good news is that several of the actors from the original series have agreed to work on the latest film. This will mean that the story will go on with the same actors as before. I am sure the newest addition to the series will be a success and the legacy of J.R.R Tolkien will live on.

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Conan

Frazetta Conan

Anyone who knows anything about fantasy art knows that Frank Frazetta was a leader in the field. The illustrator did hundreds of illustrations that were printed on album covers, comic books, and posters. Sadly, the artist died two months ago in Pennsylvania. This picture of “Conan the Destroyer” recently sold for $1.5 million dollars.

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Three sheets to the wind

It is always interesting to me find out more about our language. Every once in awhile you may hear a word or a phrase and wonder how it came to be. I have heard the expression three sheets to the wind and I finally heard an explanation of its origins. It seems to have been invented on the high seas.

This particular expression of being drunk comes from the fact that the word “sheet” is the term for a rope that controls a square sail on a ship. The sails are uncontrollable if the sheets are loose and the ship will drift until the situation is corrected. Thus came the phrase three sheets to the wind!

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Resolution

Picked up a paperback book at Target and started reading it last night. The book is called, “Resolution,” about a western town with that name. It has a couple of main characters who used to be sheriffs in another town and quit to get some peace in their lives, but then they caught up in the politics of the new place they end up. It’s pretty interesting to read the human dynamics of surviving in the old west. Imagine living in a town with no law, just bullies and gunslingers.