It's a meme for Monday...books and n'at...

From Katya who got it from LC, who got it from...

1. How old were you when you learned to read and who taught you? I was in second grade. I learned from a basel reader called A Duck is a Duck. My teacher's name was Mrs. Butterbaugh.

2. Did you own any books as a child? Oh yes!! The Wind in the Willows (which my mother started to read to me when I was five but I didn't read completely until I was 27), Little Women (which I think I got for Christmas when I was in 2nd grade?) and lots more. (Too many to list.)

3. What’s the first book that you bought with your own money? No clue. But I had two main sources: the Scholastic catalog and a bookstore at the nearby mall. I remember buying What Katy Did.

4. Were you a re-reader as a child? If so, which book did you re-read most often? Re-reader? I was the only name on the library's card for Mandy by Julie Edwards. I read it over eleven times in fourth and fifth grades.

5. What’s the first adult book that captured your interest and how old were you when you read it? Madam, will you talk? by Mary Stewart. I must have been in either fifth or sixth grade. I still haven't read her Merlin books, but her mysteries are my favorites. I liked the fact that MWYT had a quote from literature at the top of every chapter.

6. Are there children’s books that you passed by as a child that you have learned to love as an adult? Which ones? The Wind in the Willows. I was really mad for a long time that my mother never finished it, but when I finally read it, I loved it. To pieces.

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I think today's project may be to re-mantle (is that the opposite of dis-mantle?) my blogroll. I like LC's style, which starts with "Book blogs" and then finishes with "Favourite people to read, whatever they're writing about." Hmm. I've pretty much just been reading folks that comment these days, plus of course Babelbabe and Gina (more BB than G, but you know what I mean, unless you don't).

Blogging can be a pressure cooker, if one lets it be so. I know I have been a blog victim more than once upon a time, and I'm trying to stop being a victim/diva/martyr/what-have-you.

In other news, Bec is taking some time off. We'll miss her, though I have to say I don't visit the Down-Under blogs as much as I used to.

I'm still feeling off balance (a double ear infection will do that...) and exhausted. So today will be more lounging on the couch. What happened to Ellen's LIVE Oscar show? It's the "Best of Ellen" today, so I shut it off. So I still have no clue who won anything, really.

Remember I'm going home this week? For my mama's 64th (I mean 29th) birthday? But remember this cold has really messed up my brain? So my mama said, I'd really like us to all get together for a birthday dinner and I said, "Whose birthday?" Your aunt's and mine. "Right!!" I can be such an airhead.

And in the blood is thicker than water category, I want to be in Virginia NOW, with my mama!! It seems cruel that my fabulous job is here in da Burgh. Because the truth about the Burgh is this: blood is thicker than water and everyone (just about) has relatives, whether they be mothers, sons, daughters, or husbands. Which is why I was attracted to da Burgh, back when my family seemed a dream away. But I only have water connections here, and I gotta tell you, it's getting kinda lonely. I love my church. I love my job. But at the end of the day, I love my mama more. Crap, where's that Kleenex box? So, the angst over that isn't over. Besides, everyone's having babies, and some folks I never got to see their first one!! Okay, pity party over. I think I'll make myself some tea.

Although my neighbors are all barbarians,
and you, you are a thousand miles away,
there are always two cups on my table. (Tang Dynasty)