Whatcha readin'?

An oak tree in the Sierra Nevada foothills that could be a nice place to sit under and read a good book.

I donno what's come over me, but I've somehow managed to finish 3, count them 3 books in one month! That is, seriously, a world record for me. Ok, it took me 4 months from start to finish "Eat, Pray, Love". But as soon as I finished it, I started and finished "Book of Dead Birds" within a week and a half. Then I finished "The Glass Castle" in 4 days. FOUR DAYS! Inconceivable! I just started reading "Forever in Blue" today. I'm hoping it'll be a fast read, too. We're going down to S. California tomorrow so hopefully I'll get some reading time while we're in the car. Next on my list is "The Art of Racing in the Rain" then "Dreams of my Father". I'm loving this reading thing now that I've got it figured out. It's all happening because of the Amazon Kindle. It's amazing how much faster I can read a book on it. It took me 4 months to get half way through the paperback version of "Eat Pray Love" but as soon as I decided to get it on the Kindle, I finished the other half in a weekend. And Phin lent me the hardcover version of "Book of Dead Birds" (which btw, my favorite read so far this year), but I still got it for the Kindle because I knew that I'd be able to read faster on it. Love being able to hold up to 200 books on the thing, but my favorite part...being able to look up the definition of words directly on it. Not to mention being able to highlight selected sentences/paragraphs/pages. I highlighted a dozen quotes from "Eat, Pray, Love" that I'm planning on doing a minibook with similar to the one I did for How to Build a Global Community.

I know this must seem like an ad for Amazon, but truly, that's not my intent. I'm just so thrilled with being able to read more than 2 books a year. I used to love reading as a teenager, but after college, I pretty much stopped reading because for some reason, it started taking me months to finish one book. Even now, when I'm reading something at the same time as someone else, say for instance an article posted on a bulletin board, she will be done minutes before I finish reading that same article. I usually have to re-read sentences over and over again to 'get' it. So for me to say that I started and finished 2 books in about 2 weeks, well, I'm just ecstatic.

Anyhoo, I highly recommend "The Book of Dead Birds". A fantastic novel. And if you recall my post about the Salton Sea, this novel describes it in harrowing detail.

What books have you read that should go on my list of Must Reads?
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Bali

I've just gotten to the section in Eat, Pray, Love where Liz is in Indonesia. I went there almost 10 years ago and reading about her adventures, so different than mine, makes me recall my trip. It's hard to believe that it's been so long ago already...

It was less than a year after my mom had died, and the first time in my adult life that I had traveled to an impoverished Asian country. And while Elizabeth Gilbert's book touches on the poverty and corruption of the island's colorful past, experiencing it with my own eyes was a disconcerting experience. I couldn't help but compare the people and locale to my mom and where she grew up in the Philippines, also an impoverished Asian country. I'm pretty good at trying to keep my emotional experiences separate from my tangible ones, but the death of your mother sticks with you more than anything. As some of you know. I remember thinking while I was there, that I have no desire to ever go back. Before that trip, Bali had always sounded so glamorous and exotic. And the reality was disheartening. Perhaps it is an Island of the Gods, but it's far from paradise. However reading Liz's book makes me remember the beauty of the people and the island.

A woman carrying her goods on her head, a common way to carry things in Asia. This was taken near Ubud, where Liz lived for those 4 months.

Near Ubud.

Getting ready for a spiritual ceremony at a temple near Ubud.

Lake at Mount Batur.

At the Elephant Cave, or Goa Gajah. There is a mix of Buddhist and Hindu spiritual symbols here and is estimated to have been built around 1022AD.

At Goa Gajah, there are amazing bathing pools:
The bathing pools are divided into 2, one for women the other for men, each with three water spouting statues.

This the Mother Temple, Pura Besakih. It is Bali's most holy and Indonesia's biggest Hindu temple.

A little peak at a private ceremony at the Mother Temple.

These were our tour guides. Niti, on the left showed us around the whole day. The other man was our guide thorough the temple.

Interesting architecture at the temple.

Still at the Mother Temple. She's carrying heavy stone bricks on her head!

The flowers and plant life take over everything.

Rice terraces of Bali.

I can't remember the name of this instrument, but it's traditional Balinese and Niti played it for us during one of our stops.

A view from above. Bali is very lush. Notice the feral dog and cat. The island had plenty of feral animals.

We saw a couple of traditional Balinese dances.
This was the Barong Dance. A dance that depicts the fight between good and evil.

A beautiful Barong Dancer.

Talented wood carver in Mas.

The Temple of the Holy Water, or Pura Tirta Empul.
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Intoxicated by Alcohol Inks? -or- Does it look like I was drunk when I made this?

Whoo hoo! It rained! I've actually worn close-toed shoes for the past 4 days. Still keeping my flip-flops nearby, afterall this is California, but pretty soon I'll be wearing my boots or Uggs on a daily basis.

The one thing I don't like about the rain, especially the first rain of the season, is driving in it. But Saturday, I drove about an hour in the rain to take a class with Tim Holtz. He's been on the Carol Duvall Show several times on HGTV and DIY. Well, it was totally worth driving in the rain to take classes from him. Doris and I signed up for one class and enjoyed it so much we stayed for another class.
The first class was a collaged minibook with it's own mosaic lunch box. In the three hour class Tim showed us distressing techniques along with the fun collage techniques that he is known for. The book fits perfectly in the mini lunch box that we decorated with cool acrylic square pieces called Fragments after gluing various collage pieces to the backs.
That project was so cool and Tim was so funny and charismatic that we knew the next class would be fun, too.

And it was fun but way more challenging.
But the cool thing about challenging is doing stuff out of your comfort zone. And I was. We took a basic wooden framed mirror, added some words, covered it with flash tape then used alcohol inks to color the metal. I was not playing well with those alcohol inks. After a while, Tim came over looked at my project and asked "so what's going on here?" I said "I need help." He said "Yes, you do." How hilarious is that?! So true and so pathetic. Well, he grabbed a few colors and applied them here and there, told me to stick with those colors, continue blotting and twisting...and voila - above is the finished project. I would have liked it to be more in the green family tones, but I had messed up so badly before he got there that to cover up the yellow and pink tones I had created (don't ask), he had to add more brown and blue tones. I'm pretty happy with it, but you should have seen how a-m-a-z-i-n-g the other peoples mirrors turned out. Will i do it again? Probably not on my own. Would I take the class again? Absolutely! I need to learn more about those inks. Plus it was totally cool doing something outside of the traditional paper based classes. Even though I'm not completely satisfied with it, it'll go on my wall in the office and not shoved in the back of a closet. Hopefully Tim will come back to the Bay Area because I would definitely take another class or two with him again.
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So I don't mislead anyone...

This is "MY" bookshelf. Yup, all in a disarray. Equals my life. ;)
Most of my reading type books are at the hideaway.

The technical ones in the previous photo are the husband's.

What, me read?

I claim to not be a reader. I'm very slow. I really only finish reading about 3-4 books a year. But I've amassed quite a collection of books and surprisingly, I've at least read a page or 2 in nearly all of them. But if a book has my attention, I'll dutifully read it even though it'll take me months (years) to finish.

I was tagged by Cate to respond to these few questions regarding books. It was tough but fun once I started recalling some of the books I've read. Most of them are at our hideaway so I couldn't refer to them and my pea-brain doesn't store "titles" or "authors" so although I can totally remember storylines, I can't even google them because how do you search "that San Francisco series that took place in the 70s.". Or "that one autobiography about the girl who ran away and lived in the woods."

1. A Book That Changed My Life:
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. The parable keeps repeating itself in my and Jimmy’s life journey.

2. A Book You’ve Read More than Once:
I’m not one to read things over and over again since it takes me so long to read in the first place. But I will refer to "how-to" books over and over again.

3. A Book You’d Take onto a Deserted Island:
Maybe Pride and Prejudice. I’ve always wanted to read it but I know I’d have trouble focusing on it with all the many distractions that surround me. But if I had nothing else to occupy myself, then I’d probably get through it.

4. A Book That Made Me Laugh:
The Sweet Potato Queens’ Big-Ass Cookbook (and Financial Planner), by Jill Conner Browne.

5. A Book That Made Me Cry:
The autobiography about the girl who ran away and lived in the woods.

6. A Book I Wish Had Been Written:
An autobiography by my dad. He'd have an amazing story to tell, immigrating from the Philippines in 1924. Trying to make a living in San Francisco, Seattle, Alaska and the Mojave Desert. Living through the Great Depression and being an immigrant. Becoming a US Citizen and signing up to for the army when he was in 40s during WWII. And so on.

7. A Book I Wish Had Never Been Written:
Can't think of a single book that I wish wasn't written. Books are good. Even bad ones. I just won't read them or agree with them. Maybe something that glorifies or praises extremely horrific unmentionable wicked behavior, like there are a few movies that I think should never have been made because the topic was so malevolent. I donno though, I'm pretty big on freedom, too. Just don't hurt anyone, k?

8. A Book I'm Currently Reading:
Warriors Don't Cry by Melba Pattillo Beals.

9. A Book I've been Meaning to Read:
Oh my, there are so many! I need to take a speed reading course or something. How ‘bout the Dan Eldon book(s) on my coffee table.

10: Now tag five people you want to hear from:
Ginnie, Jodi, Susan D, Paris Parfait and anyone else who likes to read!