It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

A weekly meme hosted by One Person's Journey Through a World of Books

Happy Labour Day!

Total books read this week: 1 (up to p. 210)
Titles: My Life- Bill Clinton

I am enjoying this book (I really am), despite being only 1/5 of the way through it, but I think reading this much about just one person & generally one topic (politics) is bogging me down.  I think the page count of nearly 1000 is limiting my scope.  I'm considering a new approach...see what you think of this.

It's not unusual for book bloggers to be reading several books at once.  I'd like some input on how this works for those of you who do this.  Feel free to weigh in on any/all of these questions:

Is it more satisfying to read more than 1 title around the same time?
Do you tend to be more motivated? 
Do you forget where you left off if you leave a book too long? 
Do you need to reread a bit to refresh your memory of the book? 

I haven't tried this tactic since I had to (multiple novels to read for English university courses) but now I am tempted to give it a try.  My ability to recall where I left off in a book is well intact, so if I should take a short break from Clinton & try a shorter, breezy read like, say, Alan Alda's Never Have Your Dog Stuffed (next on my nightstand), I'm not going to accidentally mix it up when I return to Clinton's memoir and think the Prez starred in M*A*S*H...I mean, really :oD

What am I afraid of, really?  It's silly, but I tend to think of reading a single book at once to be a deeper experience instead of a race to finish as much as I can.  That really isn't true...Everyone experiences books at different paces & comes off with an equally valid (though not always the same) outcome.  *Oof, brain cramp*.  I think I'm deliberately trying to weigh this dilemma (boy, if this were the dilemma on earth right now, we must all be doing well for ourselves :oD)

So...moving on...(I love ellipses & brackets & ampersands & smilies by the way :oD).  I want to share a fun find with you...ack, here I go again with these...

Cleaning up my bookshelf recently, I dug out a box from my closet & wouldn't you know there are a few unread books in there!?!  What a find!

I, Robot- Isaac Asimov

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy- Douglas Adams

Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe- J.R.R. Tolkien

Oliver Twist- Charles Dickens

The first 3 are from a sci-fi/YA kick I was on in teachers' college when I raided my univ bookstore with a $50 gift card from my long-since-underused book club account.  The Dickens is a beat-up copy, likely my mom or dad's from their childhood.

I also searched through my 5 or so boxes of children's books to find:

Love, Stargirl- Jerry Spinelli

I absolutely adored the first book in this small series, Stargirl. It is a lovely, magical tale about acceptance in adolescence and how being different is perceived, judged, changed, and ultimately (hopefully) accepted by those who truly care about a person. It is categorized as YA, but everyone should read this...it is so heartwarming!

Speaking of that...I also have a beautifully old edition of Alice in Wonderland that my grandma received in 1930 & gave to my mom, which she coloured in (naughty girl). 

 
It is barely hanging on with the spine's fabric label torn off (but saved).  I found a great site that has an overview of the book's edition.  It sounds somewhat rare, but I think it's value of immeasurable, considering that it was in my family...and also that it's illustrated by my mom, too :oD

Illustrated by Mom!

I'm going to sneak in some reading today if I can.  There's a football game this afternoon that I'm not going to miss!  Have a great day everyone :o)