Share Stuff...Monday?!

(Title links to A Journey Journal of Sorts' most recent post on romantic beach reads -- I found the entry quite charming, so I'm sharing it with you today!)

Speaking of love affairs, I spent the majority of my weekend reading, and it was FABULOUS.  It was so stickily hot and stormy outside...the perfect weather for curling up in a camping chair on the porch with a great book, letting the warm, dry breezes sweep over you.  Too hot to do anything but relax and delve into a good story. A date with words.


And really, just like a whiff of someone's cologne can cause a fond tug on your heartstrings, there are certain times of day, or there is certain weather, or certain lighting, that bring to the surface a real craving for time with a good book.  Then, just like you'd be completely wrapped up in a relationship, those times of day, or that weather, or that lighting can prompt you to get just as lost between the pages of your latest summer fling -- I mean, read.

For me, my nostalgic rendezvous with reading is usually inspired by two scenarios, the first being very specific: Mid- to late-afternoon on a day that's been hot and sunny, but that's also had the building anticipation of a huge downpour.  The sky is a clear, deep blue, but the white puffy clouds that have been gathering all day have increasingly violet underbellies.  You can just feel the moisture in the air, and there's nothing better than looking up from your book to watch the storm roll in, release the rain, and roll back out.

The second is on first waking up to the light outside your window -- a bright, sunny morning.  It can be early morning or late morning.  And you know that all you want to do right then, before you shower or anything, is to pick up your book right where you left off the night before.  To open the blinds a little, maybe even the window if it's a sweet, breezy day, let the sunlight be your lamp and just get lost for an hour or two.  It's like being able to choose a great dream.  Snuggling under the covers and smelling the air blowing through your window screen.  Now that is pure romance.

What turns you on?

Share Stuff Saturday: Texas Textbooks

(Title links to a NYT article about the new standards of education in Texas.  I am opening this one up for discussion.  I am appalled, but what say you?)

Share Stuff Saturday: They Banned the Dictionary

(And I thought California was the "liberal" state.  This Share Stuff Saturday is in part thanks to Five Star Friday!  Title links to a meaningful blog post by Great Big Nerd, which was featured in this week's edition.)

Share Stuff Saturday: National Book Critics Circle Finalists Announced

(Title links to the New York Times article listing the 2009 nominees for the book awards)

Share Stuff Saturday: Math is Important

I was just reading through yesterday's edition of Five Star Friday, and happened across this blog post from Centre of the Universe - The Dreaming.  It breaks down the cost of publishing a book (in Canada).  Just in case any of you (and by "any of you" I mean "me") forgot what it takes to make it in this industry, here's some interesting reading that should jog your memory.  I am definitely never going to complain about retail prices ever again...at least, not in Canada.  I also learned that publishers are pushing more and more for their printers to use "greener" paper stock -- but of course, this insistence to do the world good is still coming at its explosively high price, since a lot of printers don't keep this stock on the floor.  How Catch-22 of everything.  Anyway.  Enjoy.

http://www.cenobyte.ca/words/2009/12/math-lesson-about-books.html