When I was a little girl, my Daddy used to take me to the Library during the beginning of the summer. He'd have my sister and I join the summer reading program. I loved it more than my sister. I always had my nose in a book. I would read them in a day or two. And the reading program was fun because for every 30 minutes of reading you got to color in one square in the cool chart they gave you. And each time you reached a different checkpoint... you could take it in and you got a little prize. Until you reached the end and got a bigger prize. It kept me motivated and since I already LOVED to read. I would whiz through it way before the summer was over.I don't read a lot.
No scracth that... I haven picked up a book in over a year. In the past 4 years I have probably only read like 4 books. And that's not an exaggeration.
I can actually name them in order...
Little Earthquakes - About 4 years ago my sister (who reads a lot more than I do)raved about this book. She loved and wanted me to read it. She bugged me for a long time until she finally dragged me down to the public library, checked it out with her library card... since I didn't own one, forced me to get a library card, and made me read that dang book. Needless to say, I didn't like the book. I should have known because, well, my sister and I hardly ever have the same tastes in anything. I am a little bit country, and she's a little rock n roll... so to say.
A Bend in the Road - Last year I fianally had the erge to pick up another book. But I wasn't sure what. I am not easily entertained by books and usually read a chapter and never pick them up again. So one night my husband and I decided to walk to our local Walgreens which is about 10 minutes walking distance from our house. We walked the aisles picking up sodas, ice cream, chips, and more stuff. At the end of the candy aisle they have a little section of magazines and novels. Jr remembered me saying I wanted to read and knowing that I am not easily amused when it came to book... he started reading the backs of all the books, searching and trying to find something I could possibly be interested in. After giving me a million possible books and me being uninterested in any of them... he finally gave up and started to put the last book back. As he was putting it back I noticed the book behind it... and I said, "Oh a Nicholas Sparks novel... I bet that's good..." As I started to walk away he noted the name of the book,
A Bend in the Road, and we went home. About a week later I got the book in the mail... along with
The Guardian. He had ordered them for me through Amazon and I instantly sat down to read the first one. I had never read any of his books but "The Notebook" and "A Walk to Remember" are two of my ultimate favorite movies. So I had a feeling it was somehting I could get into. And I was right. It took me to days to read it. And I only put it down when I had to. Good book!
Twilight - After reading the previous book I was on a little kick and asked my cousin Alexis, who is the the most avid reader I know, to recommend a book. She let me borrow a book called Twilight. This one took me about a week to read and again another book I just couldn't put down. A different book then the previous one but it was Awesome! It's only the 1st of a 3 or 4 part series. I started to read the second but I was pregnant wil Arielle when I started it and never got through the first couple of chapters. I do want to finish reading it though.
And Monday I started reading
The Guardian. I finished earlier today. Such a good book. Again by Nicholas Sparks but completely different from the other one I read by him. Seriously it was a story of love, of tragedy, hope, friendship, and sadness.
Julie Barenson’s young husband left her two unexpected gifts before he died – a puppy named Singer and the promise that he would always be watching over her. Now, four years later, twenty-nine year-old Julie is far too young to have given up on love. She may be ready to risk caring for someone again. But who?
Should it be Richard Franklin, the sophisticated, handsome engineer who treats her like a queen? Or Mike Harris, the down-to-earth nice guy who was her husband’s best friend? Choosing one of them should bring her more happiness than she’s had in years. Instead, Julie is soon fighting for her life in a nightmare spawned by a chilling deception and jealousy so poisonous that it has become a murderous desire. . .
So have you read any good book lately? Any particular favorites you have. I feel like reading another and will take any suggestions! Throw one at me...
This is the trail we decided to take. It's the first one we found. I am not sure if it's the hardest or longest or anything like that.
Our shadows as we begin or walk
This is where the rocky trail actually began. Sure it looks level and easy from here... but as we started walking and winding uphill... we thought to ourselves... Should we turn around? We decided to just keep going...
We saw a lot of cactus along the way... and only stopped briefly to take a pictures for fear that if we stopped too long our bodies would start to give out.
Nearing the end of our hike I took this picture... you can't tell but we were pretty high up!
Here's one of the trees... there were sooooo many of them. I would love to go back and do a photoshoot there it was so pretty.
Tiffany all tuckered out...
And this is me sad that we had such an idea because I was so hot!
