I’d like to direct you all to an old post of mine about a book series that greatly influenced me.  It may not be life altering or incredibly academic, but this series certainly helped shape me into the avid reader that I am today!

This post is for the Day of Blogs 2008! I am blogging for Children’s Literacy Initiative. For more information about what I am doing, please click here, or you can sponsor me!

Well, ya know I had to participate in this one! If you want to do this one, please let me know in the comments so that I can read what you have to say! Officially, I dub that Brittany and Amy have to do this one, but anyone can join in!

Hardback or trade paperback or mass market paperback? Trade paperback. Hardbacks are too big and mass markets are too small - I like to be able to read with the book in one hand, between my thumb and pinkie.

Amazon or brick and mortar? AMAZON!!! The prices are soooo much cheaper, plus I can do all the wishlist/recommendation stuff. Also, I have been known to walk out of a bookstore with 2 overflowing bags of books . . . when I hadn’t intended to buy any . . .

Barnes & Noble or Borders? Barnes and Noble - love the atmosphere, and the selection is better.

Bookmark or dogear? Bookmark bookmark bookmark!!! My mom makes beautiful bookmarks out of beads and ribbon, and now I can’t live without mine!

Alphabetize by author or alphabetize by title or random? At the moment they are all just sort of grouped by genre, but that is because I have a severe lack of a good bookcase. When I get a good bookcase for my next apartment, I’m probably gonna go all out and file them by their Dewey numbers, so that’s genre, then author alpha.

Keep, throw away, or sell? Keep books that I really really loved, and then the ones that I don’t I TRADE!!! All of my books that are not sentimental for me are listed at Bookcrossing.com (which I highly recommend all readers use), and then I trade either with other BCers or on PaperBackSwap.com. This means that I have spent significantly less money on books in the past 6 months or so, and my wallet thanks me for that.

Keep dustjacket or toss it? I keep it - even though they’re annoying, they look nice, and they’re part of the book!

Read with dustjacket or remove it? Like I said, they’re annoying! I always manage to rip them if I read with them on, so off they go!

Short story or novel? Novel! Though give me some Edgar Allan Poe and I’ll be happy all afternoon.

Collection (short stories by same author) or anthology (short stories by different authors)? Collection. I often find that anthologies are too disjointed for me.

Harry Potter or Lemony Snicket? Oooooooo, LOVE Harry Potter! Though, to be fair, I haven’t read Lemony Snicket, only saw the movie, so that’s on the TBR list.

Stop reading when tired or at chapter breaks? I am soooo horrible about this. I stop reading when I get tired, though often I get invigorated by reading, so I don’t get tired . . . which means I read until the book is done, even if that’s at 4:30AM.

“It was a dark and stormy night” or “Once upon a time”? Neither. How about “there was a shoe sale at Barney’s” . . .

Buy or Borrow? Buy. Another thing I’m really bad at. I really really want that book to be MINE. Getting to the point where I’m OK with trading for “new” books took a while (yeah, OCD much?), but I feel like they are mine, so it’s OK. Sometimes I borrow from my mom, but let’s be honest, I feel like I partially own all of her stuff, and visa versa, ya know?

New or used? New or traded. I rarely buy used (unless it’s a textbook - then we’ve reached a different area altogether).

Buying choice: book reviews, recommendation or browse? I like to browse, but if I’m buying chick lit off of Amazon (which I rarely do anymore), the reader reviews are helpful. Since those are all pretty mindless anyways, the opinions tend to lead you in the right direction.

Tidy ending or cliffhanger? I usually want a tidy ending. I know it may be more intellectual to let you figure it out yourself at the end, but I’m reading for pleasure - indulge me.

Morning reading, afternoon reading or nighttime reading? Nighttime. If I read in the day I feel like I should be doing something else, and then I can’t enjoy it as much. Though I do tend to read in certain places - airports/airplanes, coffeeshops, when I get my hair highlighted (I’m sure they love how untalkative I am) . . .

Stand-alone or series? It depends on the series. I usually go for stand-alones because there aren’t many good series in the genres that I like to read.

Favorite series? While now it’s probably Harry Potter, I probably would need to say Baby-Sitters Club is my all time favorite . . . that series changed my life.

Favorite children’s book? What a difficult question! I don’t think I can answer this one . . . it requires some serious soul-searching . . .

Favorite book of which nobody else has heard? Don’t really have much to contribute to this one. I really like Thomas Hardy books, and if you’re not an English major, you may not have heard of him . . .

Favorite books read last year? Last year wasn’t too hot for reading - I was reading for class, and then I was on reading burnout.

Favorite books of all time? Ahhhhh! Another one that I don’t know how to answer! Mmmm, let’s go with Baby-Sitters Club, a collection of Edgar Allan Poe, Topdog/Underdog by Suzan-Lori Parks, and Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte.

Least favorite book you finished last year? Had to be one of those awful things I read last year for my pre-1700 World civ class . . .

What are you reading right now? Just finished Loose Lips: A Novel by Claire Berlinski last night!

What are you reading next? The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver

Hat Tip: Shannon @ Rocks In My Dryer

I just spent the past hour and a half chasing down every last reference I could find to something that I saw mentioned in passing on a website . . . The Baby-Sitters Club.

I LOVED these books. I was a member of the fan club, so I got three new books every month, and a newsletter, and all sorts of cool BSC fan-stuff . . . stickers, keychains, the works. I eventually owned all the books, and I had the movie (which I remember being disappointed in - my first book-to-movie disappointment!). I got Red Cross certified to be a baby-sitter, and I even tried to start up my own baby-sitters club (which failed miserably due to a lack of fellow baby-sitters).

Man, I was obsessed for YEARS. Those books came with us on vacation, out to dinner, to school - I remember my teachers telling my parents that I was reading them in class when I was supposed to be working (even though I’d finished my work). My parents had to put me on a “book diet,” monitoring how much I read. Now, keep in mind, I read LOTS of books, so this wasn’t BSC specific, but having over a hundred of these babies sure didn’t help.

I still remember when we donated my entire set of books once I was in high school. It still makes me sad to think that they’re gone, and even though I know that now others can enjoy them, a little piece of me still wants them for my own.

Did you read Baby-Sitters Club books? Or any others? The Boxcar Children and Little House on the Prairie books were also favorites ;-)!

A couple of brave souls asked me questions this week, so here ya go ;):

Goofy Girl asks, “What’s the most valuble experience you’ve had so far?”

I actually feel like I’ve been blessed with many valuable experiences. I come from a very loving and supportive family, I was educated at one of the best private high schools in the nation, and I’m currently attending one of the top 30 universities in the nation. There have been so many doors opened for me, that it’s hard to pick just one valuable experience. But hey, this is my blog, I can write about whatever I want! So I’m gonna give you the top few most valuable experiences.

A kind of broad one - every June when I was growing up my dad would have to go to a convention for work for about a week (usually the week of my birthday, June 7). This particular convention is always held in a different city, so every year Daddy would bring Mama, my brother Bo and I along with him! Though this took place over many years, I’m going to lump it together as one valuable experience. Some of the places we went include New Orleans, Washington State, Yosemite National Park, Las Vegas, San Antonio, the Grand Canyon . . . all sorts of places that I was studying in school. I really felt like school came alive for me because I’d study about a place, and then a couple months later, I’d go there! I can’t emphasize enough the value of travelling with children. There are probably a lot of things that I missed because I was younger, but the experience of feeling like what I was learning in school was important was priceless. I think that my sense of patriotism and my respect for our nation is a direct result of travelling with my family when I was young. Plus it doesn’t hurt that we almost always got along, so the trips were always a lot of fun!

While I have had very valuable and wonderful schooling in the past eight years or so, I was raised in very rural (very hick) south Georgia. I attended a very poorly financed public school until I was ten years old. There were some good things about that (like the fact that I was the most motivated, and therefore viewed as the smartest, student . . . literally, in fifth grade they gave me a plaque that said I was the smartest student in the school, how ridiculous it that . . . if you know me now, then you’ll know just how uneducated everyone else is, cause I’m not that intelligent), but I think that one of the reasons that I value the education I have had is because I know what it could have been like had I not had the opportunities that I have had. Many students who are educated in the private school system take for granted the top notch education that they receive, and they feel entitled to the opportunites and opened doors. I don’t feel like that at all. God has blessed my family in being able to provide this education for me, and I see that because I know what the other way feels like too. Are there things I am still blind to? Of course . . . I HAVE had unique opportunities, so there is an element where I don’t know what it feels like to truly struggle. But I feel like I know that there is struggle, I’ve seen it firsthand, and there’s an understanding there that a lot of people miss out on.

A very difficult experience that I’ve has changed the course of my life is the fact that both of my parents have had cancer. When I was a sophomore in high school, my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent a double mastectomy (radical on one side, simple on the other). This was devastating for our family, but not one of us regrets that it happened. We had always been close, but we are so much closer now because of all that we went through. She passed the five year mark this past fall, and is still in remission. Then, freshman year of college, my dad was diagnosed with prostate cancer. This was almost more terrifying than when my mom got sick, because I was at college, and I couldn’t see Daddy and hug him. It was a very difficult semester for me. He had his prostate removed that spring, and we will soon be upon his three year mark of him being in remission. A lot of people said that they felt so bad for us since both my parents have had cancer, but all four of us have said that if it had to happen to any family, we’re glad it happened to ours. God knows that we are strong in Him, and that we love each other very much, and where this might tear a family apart, He knew that we could handle it. Both my parents are in great health, and if you met them in real life, you would NEVER know that they had been sick. It’s truly a miracle.

And I can’t not mention the valuable experience that I am currently having. MagicMouth Productions is a theatre company that two of my best friends have started this year, and I feel so blessed that they have pulled me in with them. They’re still the two co-founders, but the three of us are working as a team to get this production company up and running, and to get this amazing show on the stage. We’re creating a new, innovative form of theatre . . . we’re combining theatre and “magic show” in a way that has never been done before. I’ve never felt so impassioned about a task that’s been given to me, and I know that this is going to be something truly great. I’m currently in the middle of one of the most valuable experiences of my life, and that is awesome.

If you’re still reading, I’m impressed, LOL! I’ve got one more question to answer, and this one is a little bit more light-hearted. Running2Ks asks, “What made you start blogging, and what keeps you going with it–what do you like best? Is it what you expected?”

I’ve have ALWAYS been a writer. I was entering state-wide writing competitions back in the first grade (and won)! I’ve kept a journal since I was seven, and I wrote a book in middle school (think Baby-Sitters Club - it was 160 pages). But once I got into high school and college, I began doing so much writing for school that I didn’t have a chance to do much for pleasure. In high school I began to get addicted to the computer. It started with The Sims, AOL Instant Messenger, and doing the layout for my high school newspaper (I was Editor-in-Chief). In college I found my way to an MSN Group (Sunshine Sigs), which got me turned on to graphic design. This led to me starting a website, then starting an online business, and then it’s kind of taken on a life of its own. About a year ago I somehow stumbled upon WordPress and thought that it would be neat to have a little blog to post updates to my website with. Well, once I figured out how the thing worked and got started, the writer in me got going, and it turned into the blog that it is now. I didn’t really come into blogging with any expectations - I just figured it would be fun for me to do, and if a couple of my friends read it, great! But now it’s turned into something that I truly enjoy doing, and I love the connections that I make through blogs, meeting new people, and just the community that blogging has. I feel honored that people actually read my blog, have an interest in what I have to say. I am so thrilled to have taken on the Thursday Thirteen because it’s such a cool little community. And to be honest, all this blogging has got me wanting to write again - really write. Once I graduate, I am looking forward to getting back into creative writing, possibly even writing another book, or revamping the one that I did before. So yeah, all that from blogging, haha!

Alright, I’m sure everyone’s had enough of me, so I’m gonna go now. Just some food for thought! I’d love to answer more questions or discuss more topics, so please, keep them coming!!!