Category Archives: Book Talk

Online Nursing Degrees? Why Not?

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In reading three Michael Perry books in succession, I was struck more than once by the fact that he attended – and completed – nursing school. While I’m fairly certain he went to a physical school in Eau Claire, WI, I like the notion of such a person attending an online university.

One such school is Western Governors University, which has a program allowing you to study nursing (rn to bsn online) via distance learning. What’s more they’ve designed their program so that motivated learners can work at an accelerated pace, writing papers and meeting challenges to prove their knowledge, and not suffering through a traditional educational environment.

In a way, it reminds me of the “College of Professional Studies” my mother went through when earning her Organizational Behavior degree via the University of San Francisco. She wrote papers to earn either upper or lower division credits, and only had to meet with a live person once a week, though she made it very clear that earning her degree was her primary job during that time. Western Governors University says it expects distance learners to put in a solid 20 hours a week of work, and I know my mother did at least that much – and that was in 1987, before internet learning was even possible.

Distance learning isn’t for everyone, but if I were going back to school, I’d look for something similar to Western Governors University’s program. It separates coursework into six-month chunks, during which each person works at her own pace, completing “…as much of your degree as possible…” with the assistance of a mentor, who guides you through the process and the required information.

I have to confess, when I was asked to give an opinion of this program, I thought, “you can’t learn nursing online,” but I was wrong. After reading the information, and scanning the website, I’m confident that WGU has created a comprehensive nursing program for nontraditional learners.

Don’t you just love it when technology is used to make the world a better place?

Bookish Fantasy

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Sometimes, I find myself buying a book at the used bookstore, thinking I’ve never read it, only to get it home, get a few pages in, and discover I have, in fact, encountered it before. Sometimes I don’t mind, but equally as often, I’m disappointed. I mean, I’m all for rereading things, but I want to do it consciously.

So, I have a bookish fantasy. I wish that whenever I finished a book, a ticker tape would emerge from my brain, like paper from an epson receipt printer, and be stored in some multi-dimensional pocket of the universe that I could easily access and cross-reference whenever I was book shopping. In this way, I could see for certain what I’d read, and when, and how much I’d paid for the copy.

As long as I’m fantasizing, I want something that will trigger my memory when I’m staring at shelves, trying to figure out what I want to buy, because often I read other people’s reviews, and think, “I should write down that title,” but I don’t, and then I have no idea what it was I’m looking for.

But then, other people likely don’t have this issue, just as I’m quite certain I’m the only person who can stand in the middle of a bookstore and complain, “There’s nothing to read.”

New Author Crush: Michael Perry

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I tend to read the same way most people approach a dip bar – several repetitions of one author (or, um, exercise) and then a rest. In plainer language, I mean that when I find an author whose work I like, I read everything they’ve written, as quickly as possible, in succession, and then move on, at least for a while.

My current “author crush,” as I tend to describe these reading moods, is one Michael Perry. I’ve written, already, about recently reading his book, Population: 485, and I’m currently in the middle of his second memoir, Truck: a Love Story. Both are warm, funny, vivid and candid in all the right balances. Both have thoughtful sections as well, and I’m really enjoying revisiting the upper midwest, in a way I haven’t done, through literature, since I first discovered Kathleen Norris, early in my marriage.

Norris and Perry are nothing alike, and yet, both have this intense love of the land that comes through their words, and makes you want to sink your fingers into fresh earth, or pick a sun-ripened tomato and eat it, straight from the vine.

I just wanted to take a moment, and share that.

Oh, and to say,the signed copy of Perry’s most recent book, in hardcover, arrived on Thursday.

Purging Books

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The sad fact is this: I have too many books and too few bookshelves. The other sad fact – really a true confession – is that I love reading Star Trek books. Yes, they’re tie-ins, but they’re comfort reading, in much the same way that pepperoni pizza is comfort food.

In any case, I’ve treated my library to a quick weight loss treatment. How? By boxing up all the Star Trek paperbacks and bringing them with me to this funeral in Iowa…where I handed them off to Fuzzy’s brother.

You see, like me, he has a thing for for Star Trek books.

Unlike me, he has a burning need to own every single one of them.

In Memoriam: Robert B. Parker

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robert b parker

Photo Credit: John Earle

I confess that my first introduction to the wonderful fictional detective Spenser was not via Robert B. Parker’s books, but through the television show, Spenser: For Hire. which I watched when I was – well, I’m not sure how young I was – definitely before I ever even considered purchasing anti wrinkle eye cream.

By the time I was a sophomore in high school, however, Spenser and I had been more properly introduced, and I was hooked on Parker’s words and images, plots and characters. I’ve always loved mysteries and thrillers, and the Spenser novels were a nice bridge between the cozies I began with and the analyticals I also enjoy. They’re a wonderful mix of poetic rhythms and gritty reality – and their popularity is a testament to the man who wrote them.

A series of novels, isn’t a bad legacy, as things go.

I don’t have the kind of reader’s connection with Mr. Parker that I had with Madeleine L’Engle or Douglas Adams, but I mourn the loss of Robert B. Parker, nevertheless.

Escape into a Good Book

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It’s been so cold lately – and by cold I mean “there’s a sheet of ICE across my swimming pool” – that those advertisements for weekend getaways to cancun mexico are looking awfully tempting. Of course, I still feel kind of, well, craptastic, and I can’t afford a trip right now, anyway, so instead I’ve been reading a lot.

Currently, I’m reading:
Decaffeinated Corpse, by Cleo Coyle
and
Whom God Would Destroy, by Commander Pants

I tend to have more than one book going at once, and I promised the Commander I’d read this book in October or November, then lost it in the house, then had food poisoning, and now I think I’m getting the flu, so I’m not reading as quickly as I usually do, and I don’t have a lot of stamina, either. When I AM reading, lately, things that are familiar and formulaic are the easiest. Hence my current addiction to cozy mysteries.

I always have one book in progress that I keep near the tub, strictly for bathtub reading. My bubble book, at the moment, is The Summer Kitchen, by Karen Weinreb, which I bought MONTHS ago – MANY months ago, and just wasn’t in the mood for once I got it home. (Does that happen to anyone else?)

On Deck, I have:
The Ghost and Femme Fatale
and
The Ghost and the Haunted Mansion

which are the last two novels (so far) in Alice Kimberly’s Haunted Bookshop series.

And on that note, I’m going to curl up with a good book, and read until I’m ready to sleep.

Happy Reading!

2009 in Review

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It’s a new year here at Bibliotica, which means it’s time to take a look at my stats for the old one. If I have any kind of bookish resolution it’s to be better about logging and reviewing everything I read, for my own sake, if nothing else. I like to see how my tastes have changed and evolved over time.

How did I do?

In the year 2009, not including books I forgot to catalogue, I read 85 books, for an average of 1.635 books per week. My best months were January and May, with 12 books each, and my worst was November, when I logged only three.

(As an aside, I must say that if there were any kind of mechanical breakdown insurance for the brain, books would be it. When I was trying to cope with a miscarriage in May, books were my escape, and the savers of my sanity.)

I don’t generally pick favorites – my favorites change too often to keep up! – but Laurie R. King and Cleo Coyle (in her various guises) made up a significant portion of my reading list, and Diane Johnson’s Lulu in Marrakech is the one that most disappointed me.

I’m sort of in book limbo right now. I have stacks of stuff to read, but none of it is really demanding my attention. I have, however logged my first book of the new year already: Alice Kimberly’s The Ghost and the Dead Man’s Library.

Nothing to Read?

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For me, bookstores are as much fun as orlando vacations, but I haven’t had a chance to visit one in weeks, and my TBR (to-be-read) stack is dwindling. Sort of.

I mean, I have all but the first two Aurora Teagarden books left to read, but the problem here is that I’m leaving on Thursday, for vacation, and I can’t take someone else’s books with me. It’s just wrong.

I did find a Christopher Moore book I hadn’t read yet – it had somehow ended up beneath bed. So what book is it? The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove.

Now, normally I love Moore’s work. I mean, I want to BE Moore – well, with breasts – and finding one of his novels I hadn’t read lurking in my own house would be a boon.

Except…

Except I’m ready for crisp weather, and creepy stories. I want something like The Historian, but I’ll settle for something like Dracula or The Southern Vampire Mysteries. I want something long, mysterious, and satisfying. I want a novel I can sink into, that sets a tone so perfect that even if it happens to be sunny, I’ll feel like it’s not, and I’ll keep glancing behind me to see who’s there.

I want something as amazing as The Eight, or as chilling as Stephen King’s early work – although I prefer clown-free stories.

I want…shadows, and suspicion and surprises.

What do YOU want to read?

Coming Attractions: Drinking with George by George Wendt

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Drinking with George: A Barstool Professional’s Guide to Beer
George Wendt
Get it at Amazon >>

One of my favorite parts about my work with online magazine All Things Girl is that I often get to review books before they come out, so that I can interview the authors.

Recently, George Wendt, whom most people probably recognize as “Norm” from “Cheers,” wrote a book that was half memoir, half ode to beer. I was given a galley so I could prep for an interview, and spent all night last Tuesday reading it. The interview was Wednesday evening, and both the book and the man were delightful: funny, smart, and totally engaging.

Let’s face it: beer is as important to American culture as novocain is to a Plano dentist, but it’s not something we generally read about. In the case of Drinking with George, however, skipping the book would be a literary sin, not because it’s high art, but because it’s the real story of a real guy’s love of the brew.

The fact that the book is filled with interesting beer factoids doesn’t hurt, either.

Look for Mr. Wendt as the All Things Girl Man of the Moment in October, and look for my review of his book in the ATG blog sometime after the first of the month.

Book Blogger Appreciation Week Meme

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I have to confess: Until today, I had never heard of Book Blogger Appreciation Week. I knew more about natural acne treatment than I did about this annual event, and I certainly wasn’t aware there was a whole site dedicated to it. I’m glad I discovered it though, thanks to a comment from Alita of Alita Reads, which led me to her blog, and both the link to BBAW and this meme.

As to the meme itself, well, I like doing questionnaires every so often. They’re sort of restful, but sometimes spark interesting tangential thoughts. I’m fairly certain I’ve done this meme before, or at least parts of it, but my answers tend not to be static.

Do you snack while you read? If so, favorite reading snack?
I used to read while eating lunch all the time, now, if I snack, it’s usually fruit and/or cheese – non-greasy finger foods. I always have coffee, tea, or water.

Do you tend to mark your books as you read, or does the idea of writing in books horrify you?
I’ve never been one to make notes in margins. I think because I generally read so quickly, I’m done before I have time.

How do you keep your place while reading a book? Bookmark? Dog-ears? Laying the book flat open?
I’ll dog-ear the pages of books that belong to me, if they’re paperbacks, but with borrowed books, I use bookmarks – I have many – or use a dollar as a bookmark if not. On hardcovers, I do sometimes use the flap of the dust-cover to mark my place, and yes, with my own books, I’m sometimes guilty of laying the book flat, if I’m only getting up for a moment.

Fiction, Non-fiction, or both?
Both, but more fiction than not. I read across all genres, though I’m not a fan of Westerns or Self-Help, and I love thick novels, mysteries, good science fiction and fantasy, and biographies and memoirs.

Hard copy or audiobooks?
I prefer my reading matter printed, thank you, and I prefer actual books to ebooks, as well. I like audio dramas, but have never really gotten into audio books.

Are you a person who tends to read to the end of chapters, or are you able to put a book down at any point?
Chapter? Whenever possible – especially if I really LIKE what I’m reading, I finish the entire book!

If you come across an unfamiliar word, do you stop to look it up right away?
It’s really rare that I can’t figure it out from context – unless it’s in a foreign language I don’t speak. If I’m really stumped, I’ll look it up later.

What are you currently reading?
The Lost Symbol, by Dan Brown, and Marley and Me, by John Grogan.

What is the last book you bought?
Dreaming Anastasia, by Joy Preble. It’s a YA title that seemed interesting when I was at Borders earlier tonight, so I bought it.

Are you the type of person that only reads one book at a time or can you read more than one at a time?
I usually have one main read, and then another book or two I pick up in between. Generally they are all in different rooms. I’m not sure if this is a sign of good planning, or laziness.

Do you have a favorite time of day and/or place to read?
The bathtub, but only paperbacks, and only those I own. The couch in my studio, the couch in the living room (generally while Fuzzy is watching something I’m not all that interested in), the toilet (too often for good health), and bed.

Do you prefer series books or stand alone books?
Both, but lately I’ve been more into series, I think because I like LONG stories, and thick books aren’t trendy right now.

Is there a specific book or author that you find yourself recommending over and over?
I recommend Outside Lies Magic, by John Stilgoe, and The Eight, by Katherine Neville, to almost everyone, and lately have been foisting Christopher Moore novels upon all my friends.

How do you organize your books? (By genre, title, author’s last name, etc.?)
My to-be-read stack is under the nightstand on my side of the bed, and on Fuzzy’s dresser, at the moment. And there’s always a stack in the bathroom, too. Completed books these days either go into a bag to be traded to friends, a box to send to my mother in Mexico, a bag to be donated to church, or upstairs. Those that make it into the Word Lounge, are alphabetized by author on my shelves.