child at heart

Part of why I never planned on buying myself an ereader is because I knew I would go into book hyperdrive. Truth. I love to read. Truth. I’ve read 14 books since Christmas. Truth. I’m currently reading 7 books at the same time. I am making myself finish one book before I start another because if not, pretty soon my being read folder is going to be full of all 184 books I have stored on my kindle.

It really just comes down to the fact that I absolutely love to read. I cannot get enough of it. On a rainy gloomy day, much like what today has turned into, I would rather get into my jammies with some hot tea and curl up with a good book over watching movies any day. I’m thankful that I grew up with parents (mostly my mom) who had an insatiable desire to read. I’m pretty sure that was borne into my DNA the moment I was conceived. And I’m completely ok with that.

Here is a list of books I have read, and a small critique of them:
1.The Evil Within (Horror Anthology)- a collection of short stories by 8 different people. It was really enjoyable and really creepy. They did not skimp on gross and crazy details. I screamed a couple of times and almost barfed (excuse me being so candid) when I read one story. I would recommend it if you do not have a weak stomach.
2.Cat Calls by Cynthia Leitich Smith – a story set in a traveling circus. A grandmother gets her granddaughter to spend the summer with her. While there, the young girl starts crystal ball gazing to see if she has the gift. After meeting a strange young boy she feels new sensations in herself that she has never felt before. After following him into a field at night she discovers that like her father whom she never knew, she can transform into a cat at will. Not a good story really. And badly written.
3.Laundry Day by Stacy Juba – a horrible short story. A husband and wife find their neighbor has been brutally murdered, whom was the wides best friend. The neighbors husband ended up killing his wife when he found out she was having a lesbian affair. And the other woman ended up being her best friend. The husband tries to kill her also but is stopped by her own husband who has to come to terms that his wife was not only having an affair but it was with another woman.
4.The Emo Bunny that Should by John H. Carroll – part of a series of short stories for “demented children”. All 3 of his stories have been funny. I enjoyed them when I was only wanting a little light reading.
5.Unholy Cow by John H. Carroll
6.Attack of the Sugar Plum Fairiesnby John H. Carroll
7.The New World by Patrick Ness – my first alien story. Also a short story. A planet full of beings that have been living in their ships for generations after their own planet has become inhabitable send a family to a new planet to initiate colonization. Their first people sent have never reported so this new family is essentially going into the mission blind. After a horrible crash landing one lone survivor must learn how to survive with no way of reporting back for help. This is an introduction to a series and I’ve really considered getting the other books because of how good this one was.
8.Teddy Bear by Linda Lavid – HORRIBLE short story. Full of smut and raunch and really not much of an actual story line. I kept reading in the hopes that it would get better and it continuously got worse. Super disappointed.
9.Croaker: Kill Me Again by Paul Bishop – great book. He has about 5 other books on my kindle. Paul is an ex cop so he brings legitimate knowledge of how the system works to his writing. This is about a murder of a lady who died 10 years earlier and the chase that occurs to find out who she really is and what has happened over the last 10 years. Amazingly written. I could not put the story down. Literally read it in about a day I believe. It was my first read after getting the gift.
10.THEY by Vincent Hobbes – my next scifi read. Not sure really if it was about aliens to be honest. Most of the story was written to let your imagination control. It reminded me very much of something you would read from Stephen King in his early days. I would very much recommend this short story if you want something to freak you out.
11.Bear Season by Casey A. Childers – good story. Couldn’t tell you for the life of me the exact plot of this story. It was good and fun. Written a good bit like the viewpoint of a child over summer break, but I’m not sure if the adventure the three children and the bear they met was really happening or just how they rationalized their summer to themselves. It was good just very confusing on the whole.
12.Christmas Stories by Charles Dickens – just a collection of his Christmas time stories. Read this the last week of December and was surprised at how many classic holiday stories I had never read. I very much enjoyed it.
13.The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka – FAVORITE short story of all time. Very easy for me to say. This is about a man who wakes up one day and has turned into a large beetle without any idea of how or why or any knowledge of whether or not he will stay that way or ever return to normal. It was written amazing. Sad ending that I did not expect but it was an amazing look into a writing genius mind (in my opinion). I cannot wait to read more of his works.
14.Grimm’s Fairy Stories by Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm – great stories. I never realized how many of our children’s stories were based on, or similar to the Grimm stories. They are a good bit more dark and disturbing though. More like an older persons fairy tales. I would most definitely recommend this to anyone of they are looking for a good read.

I follow a blog on the kindle and it send out a post with two or three free books in the kindle store have in there. I’m not allowed, by myself, to add any more until these are all read. Or there is only one or two left.
1. The First 200 days by David Barron
2. The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne
3. The Man Who Was Thursday, a nightmare by G.K. Chesterton
4. Croaker: Grave Sins by Paul Bishop
5. The Complete Works of H.P. Lovecraft
6. Short Stories by Franz Kafka
7. Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift

Sorry this post is so crazy long. Like I said, I enjoy most anything that has to do with reading. I hope you will check into some of these books. You can always get something out of a story whether it is good or bad. It opens you to a world that most forget how to get into once they get out of innocent childhood. And who couldn’t use an escape now and again?