Reading Groups

I keep forgetting to mention this, and it's taken several to-do list items and a few post-it notes to remind me, so here goes: I'm putting together a reading group guide for my books. I know some of you have done book group discussions about my books, so if you've got some good questions or topics for conversation that you'd like to share, please do! In a way, I think it's harder for an author to do this for her own books because there's not a lot of room for discussion. I know what I was trying to convey and what everything means. I do have a few themes I think are fodder for discussion, but if most book groups are like the ones I've been a part of, you generally spend about five minutes talking about the book, and then you get sidetracked talking about other books, movies, TV shows, or whatever that the book may have reminded you of, and then you get sidetracked from there talking about other stuff. So maybe my reading group guide should include questions like "Did you see this week's episode of House?"

Speaking of which, I finally did last night. On Tuesday night, we had some storms come through the area, which requires the local weather people to show off their nifty radar gizmos that allow them to track the progress of the storm street-by-street. And so they did. Instead of showing House, we got to learn that the storm was now on this street and heading for that street, and here's one of our reporters on cell phone to tell us that it's raining where he is. They cut back to programming just as the episode ended, and then somehow managed to show their local news, including the latest Anna Nicole and American Idol updates, uninterrupted. At the end of the news they gleefully told us we could see that episode of House next Friday on USA. I guess they got some hate mail for that, because they ended up showing it late at night last night, and thus making me a very happy girl, especially after seeing last night's episode of The Office.

Now, after seeing those episodes, I may have the beginnings of a tiny little crush on Dwight (protector of the office!). I also have this urge to bake cookies for Dr. Chase. And maybe nominate him for What Not to Wear.

Today is Cheesy 70s Music Day at my house. I got this 15% extra off coupon from B&N, so I stopped by on my way home from class to reward myself for a successful performance of the Angry Italian Opera Aria. Since I'm going to be doing a lot of driving in the next few months, I thought I'd buy a good Broadway cast album to use as an "in-flight movie." Then I saw the CD for Mamma Mia, and thought that would be fun, but I'd rather have the ABBA originals of those songs, but most of my ABBA is on LP, and I don't have a turntable anymore. I ended up buying the "Definitive" ABBA collection. I had so much fun listening to that and bouncing around singing with it that next I had to get out the Captain and Tennille CD. Barry Manilow will probably be next. Apologies in advance to my neighbors (I can sometimes use the "opera" voice to sing with ABBA, which is tons of fun).

We got one of our semi-regular Easter cold snaps, so it's going to be downright cold this weekend. I'm planning a read-a-thon to take advantage of the likely last chance of the season to snuggle under a blanket with a good book, but I'm not sure what from my to-be-read pile will get the honors. Some parts of the area may even get snow Saturday night! This is why my tropical plants never go outdoors until after Easter and why I long ago gave up on buying pretty spring Easter clothes. It may have been 90 degrees the week before, but it almost always gets cold for Easter itself. Now I have to get to the post office to mail some books to the prizewinners!