Category: Lockup Library

So I want to be a paperback writer

Posted on by Shawshank

I stare at my books a lot. I look for more books that I want to read. Hopefully I can find some in the two or three second hand stores that I regularly go into. TinyTown and the surrounding areas, I figure, aren’t really into reading. The closest book store is 2.5 hours away. My mom is a reader – Nora Roberts, and her pen names.

From what I can find, there is a book club through the library. But I can’t find out how to join it, or have i been able to find a list of books the club has read.

Online book clubs would be where I’d go next. But then it comes down to finding the books. That could be the hard part.

If I were to post a list, updated every time I got a book, would any of my readers like to do a Void if Removed Book Club? Pick a book in my collection, and then discuss it?

It could be fun. At least I think it could be.

What do y’all think? Comment below, yay, or nay.

I see into your window, although you’re far away

Posted on by Shawshank

Yes, I finally finished my first (I started over again around chapter 2 – I just got discouraged) read through of Ship of Theseus*! Whew! What a really good book.

The main story is amazing. It’s a story about S. S wakes up on the banks of a strange city, with no memory of who he is, or where he came from. He walks into a bar, orders a drink and sees a beautiful woman reading a book. He walks over and sits down with her. From there, he’s shanghaied and thrown on to a boat.

The boat itself is a mystery too. It’s very old, and has been repaired many times, and is crewed by 19 sailors – who’s mouths are sewn shut. I really can’t say more than that, as it all unfolds slowly at times, and sometimes so quickly, you have to go back and reread a few pages to see if you missed something.

That’s the beginning of Ship of Theseus by VM Straka**, and it only gets better. This is his 19th book published in 1949.

Then, there’s the second story in the book. The story in the margins between Jen and Eric. This is where reading can get very confusing and difficult. This is where I started to get discouraged. There’s just so much information to absorb on each page

Just another page

See that picture above? That’s a pretty average page. There’s a few with even more writing, and then some with only sentence or two.

Jen found the book in the stacks in her university library where she works. Eric has written in it since high school. She gets sucked in to Straka’s world and his 18 other books he published. Ship of Theseus is his last book, published after his mysterious death. Jen and Eric get to know each other through the book, and through researching who Straka was and who his translator was.

Everything included

* I have a feeling to get through all the stories and mysteries, and all the added items in the book. I know I’ve only scratched the surface of this amazing book.

** I know Straka doesn’t exist. S. Was the brain child of JJ Abrams, and written by Doug Dorst. I prefer to think Straka was real, and I’d love to read his other books.

This book comes in a black slipcover, and that’s really the only part that says that it was written by Dorst, and Abrams. When you slide it out of the slipcover, it’s fashioned to look like an old library book complete with check out stamps.

This is a book lovers book for sure. I sure love it.

This post contains affiliate links. If you use these links to buy something, I may earn a commission. Thanks.

Butterfly in the sky, I can go twice as high

Posted on by Shawshank

So the next couple of days is gonna be a blur here in TinyTown, I figured I’d do a couple more book questions while watching Pacific Rim.

A book with a male protagonist, and one with a female protagonist.

I had to scan my book shelves, to see if I had a book with a female protagonist, and I found one. Like everyone says about books being made into movies or TV shows, the book is so much better then the show. NOS4A2 is a brilliant book. Vic McQueen discovers with the help of her bike and a torn down covered bridge, that she can find lost things just by thinking about it, and driving through the bridge. A vampire discovers this an terrorizes her from the time she’s a teenager to the time she’s in her thirties. I don’t want to give too much away, but I really enjoyed reading it. Sometimes it helps me to watch the show or movie first to help me picture the characters, it helped me in this case. I knew what was going to happen because of the show, but lemme tell you, things unfold so much differently and better in the book.

Male lead books are so much more plentiful. It seems that almost every book on my shelves are male lead, so I had to think about which one I wanted to talk about. I chose The Raw Shark Texts. It’s about an Englishman named Eric Sanderson. He wakes up in his bedroom with absolutely no memories of himself or anything else. He’s told by his psychologist that dissociative condition, but following a trail of clues written by himself he finds that he’s being chased by a conceptual shark named a Ludovician that feeds off human memories. It’s a mystery, part horror, with just a touch of romance thrown in. It’s a great and original book for sure.

A (way too) romantic book, and an action book.

I have a couple of action books on my shelves, most of my books I haven’t read yet, and I’m trying to keep with only the books that I’ve read. So here’s my action book, even though most of the action is in the last third of the book, I’d still consider it action. The book I chose is The Escape Artist. It’s the story of Jim Zigarowski who is a mortician, discovers that the US Army’s Artist-in-residence that was supposed to have died in a plane crash is still alive and faked her death. From there, it’s an unlikely team up to find out who wanted her dead.

And now, I’m sure you know where this is going with the too romantic book. Yep, that’s right, Twilight. It’s the classic girl moves to new town, meets a boy. Boy turns out to be a vampire, girl falls in love with vampire. You know the age old story. Ain’t love grand?

This post contains affiliate links. If you use these links to buy something, I may earn a commission. Thanks.

Take a look, it’s in a book

Posted on by Shawshank

So there’s this “discover” option in the WordPress app, and the tags I’m interested in are books etc. And I found a couple of book blogs that I looked at and found one with a pretty interesting post, Opposite Books Tag. I guess there’s a series of questions of opposites of the world of books. So I figured that I’d just on the band wagon. Then I saw how old the post was, and the band wagon is long gone, but I’ll try it anyways. Feel free to skip this post if you want. I’m trying something new. I think im gonna split this up over multiple posts, because there’s 10 questions, and if I answered them all in one post it would be wicked long, and I don have the attention span to do that. So maybe I’ll do 2 questions at a time. Yes that sounds good. Enjoy!

First book in your collection/last book you bought.

When I was away, I just had a library cart to entertain me, and I hoarded books from there because you didn’t know when/if the cart was going to be replaced with a new one. Until one day I was surprised; Crystal bought me a book. I recognized the title, but didn’t know anything about the House of Leaves, other than that she really loved it. I was so excited, 1 because she thought enough to send me something that she loves, and 2 that it was a book that I’d never read before.

It’s confusing to people (well I figure it would be, if I spoke to anyone about this book), to say that I read it 5 times before I finished it for the first time. It’s an amazing book. The last time i read it was at the Montreal airport on a 13 hour layover. I’ve written in it, highlighted in it, probably folded about 70 pages over. There’s things stuffed in between pages. I love the hell out of this book. And in time, I’ll sit down and read it all over again. There’s just so much information to digest in House of Leaves. She really hit it out of the park with this as the first book. I think subconsciously, I match up every book to this one. I know I totally did that with Ship of Theseus. And they’re two totally different animals.

The last book I bought is Midnight Sun. It’s pretty good so far. Y’all probably know about it. It’s told from Edward’s point of view. I’m only about a 120 pages in, but I’m really enjoying it. It’s the same story as twilight, but a fresh take on it. It’s very interesting to get into his mind, and his motivations. I can’t talk to much about it, because I’m not finished it yet, but the amount of angst and “in your own head” is high, the same with over thinking. There are some funny parts so far, and once or twice, I’ve laughed out loud so that’s always a good thing. Also, I really am enjoying that she’s expanding some of the other Cullens in this book, because I think a couple of them could do with their own books.

Expensive book/cheap book

I’d have to say that so far, the most expensive book in my humble collection is S. – or Ship of Theseus. To some, $40 may not be expensive, but to someone in my current situation, it really is. At first glance, I was overwhelmed with reading this, and I almost put it away. But I started it over again, and I’m really enjoying it. I’m almost finished it, yet I think I’m only scratching the surface of this book. It’s a mystery, love story, and I think just a little action adventure. Another 2 or 3 evenings, and I should be finished my first reading of this amazing book. The problem with reading almost exclusively at night is, I just really get into it, and it’s almost 11/12, and way past my bedtime! And this book, once you can get into a rhythm of reading it, will grab you and it won’t let go, until you pull yourself away from it.

I’ve been told before that I’m cheap. I am, I guess. But I’ll never turn away a book for a quarter! That how much I paid for Pet Semetery. Again, it’s another book that I’m working my way through. I’ve never been a fan of Stephen Kings books. There’s only a handful that I’ve been able to get through. But for a quarter, I’ve made it through 5 chapters, it’s paid for itself already!

Tune in next time (if I remember), for the next installment! Have a great Saturday!

This post contains affiliate links. If you use these links to buy something, I may earn a commission. Thanks.

And your hearts against my chest, your lips pressed to my neck

Posted on by Shawshank

So I was thinking last night. About books, as i picked up Twilight for the thousandth time (hey, i just wanted something light to read last night), of what books I would bring if I was trapped on a deserted island.

I know, so deep right?

Then I thought, you can’t bring them all, you can only bring 3 books with you. And none of this “How to get if a deserted island in 1373 easy steps”.

So here you go, in no particular order:

1. Twilight – not the whole series, but I’m working on getting them all. I’d choose this book, because while I really enjoy reading it, it’s a palette cleanser. I’m not reading it for deeper meaning. It’s purely a good lose yourself in the story type of book. Here’s a secret when I read the complete series for the first time, i wept at the end. I thought it was a really fitting ending to the series.

2. House of Leaves – this book, right from page 1 of Johnny’s introduction grabbed me. The rest of the book blew my mind. Imagine finding out your house is just slightly bigger on the inside than the outside. Then for a second, imagine getting trapped and lost in it. I always find something new about it, every time I read it. Aside from the Twilight series, it’s the one book that I’ve re-read the most. Including a 13 hour layover in Montreal on the way to TinyTown.

3. Ship of Theseus – I haven’t finished my first read through yet, but this book is awesome. Overwhelming. Strange. Confusing. Scary. I really like it. So I’d definitely have to bring it with me.

So here’s where (hopefully) some reader participation comes into play; what are the top 3 books that you’d bring with you, if you found yourself trapped on a deserted island? Would you bring mystery, or a colouring book, or even some self-help books?

So people, answer here in the comments, or write your own post, and link it here. Up to you! I’ll come by and comment on your choices and we’ll get to know each other!