Happy Weekend Everyone!

I hope everyone had a good week! Another busy weekend coming up -- on Saturday I'm going to my friend's house for her annual Corn Beef and Cabbage dinner!! Sunday will be spent running around doing errands, reading and catching up the shows I recorded.

I only read one book this past week --- The Conquest of Lady Cassandra by Madeline Hunter -- it started out slow but picked up for me. I'm currently reading All or Nothing by new to me author Dixie Lee Brown. This is the first book in her Trust No One series. Up next the new Delilah Marvelle book -- Lady of Pleasure.

Any plans this weekend? What are you reading?

Happy Friday all! Didn't get in much reading this week, but I did finish Christie Ridgway's Beach House #9 and enjoyed that a lot, so am moving on to the next book in that series. Lord only knows, I'm not at a loss for good books to read - I just need time to read them!

My goal for the weekend, which means I need some cooperation from Mother Nature, is to get the rest of my antiques moved here from my Dad's house. Right now we are having freezing drizzle, so I am hoping as the day goes on it will warm up so I can use the truck my neighbor loaned me to accomplish that. If not today, will hope for tomorrow. Then we need to get ready for the auction. I am so looking forward to this being over. It's been hard, saying goodbye to the family home that he built 60 years ago.

I am watching GMA and cracking up over their Carnival Cruise jokes. Let me just say I am glad there is not a cruise in my future and leave it at that! Those guys are having a ball with it this morning though!

Everyone have a great weekend!

I'm going for groceries today and then no plans for the rest of the weekend. Hoping to read and write, but who knows. I've not been feeling particularly well all week, in fact Monday into Tuesday I had a terrible headache that nothing would touch. I tried to go in to work and ended up sitting the corner shaking until my co-worker said enough and brought me home.

Good Morning everyone!

I am reading A STUDY IN SEDUCTION by Nina Rowan. The cover reads "a great new author" The heroine is a math wizard. I am not really a math person, so I skim over all the equations. It is a good story so far.

Tomorrow hubby and I go to Fort Benning, Ga. for an Army meeting. That is always fun. We have a new puppy that is chewing everything in the house. He is going through a chewy toy a day. And they are expensive.

Have a great weekend!

Happy weekend all!

It's been a slow reading week for me too. I am trying to finish up the most current New Species book (Shadow). I'm hoping to finish it tonight and be able to start something new this weekend.

Since I was out from work for several days at my nephew's wedding last weekend, I will probably spend my weekend working to catch up.

Weather here has been beautiful and warm but I haven't been able to get out into it and my weight loss has stalled. I am going to try to get back into the groove this weekend with working out and tracking again.

Have a great weekend all!

I can't believe that we are half way through March already! Spring is coming closer and I can't wait for the weather to warm up.

I had a really slow week. I only read two books. I read The Chieftain by Margaret Mallory. It was a really satisfying conclusion of the Return of the Highlanders series. I was sorry to see it end. I'm looking forward to whatever's next by Ms. Mallory. I also did a reread of A Week to be Wicked by Tessa Dare. It's one of my favorites by her. I'm about to start Lord Ruin by Carolyn Jewel.

Oh, my friend and I joined a gym. The girls I babysit are part of the YMCA swim team. So three days a week, I'm just sitting there waiting. I thought it would be a good idea to join, so I could use the gym while they swim. My friend would meet me there. Well it costs $59 a month. That's way to much. Another friend recommended a recreational center. Well, we checked it out and it was a good deal. For $150 a year, you get access to the Olympic sized pool, weight room, cardio room, exercise room, track, vollyball, ping pong and a whole bunch of other stuff. If you aren't a member, they have free step-aerobics, Zumba, Yoga, and dancercize. So it's an all around good deal. Can't wait to get started.

Sorry for the long ramble Have a good weekend!

I didn't get much read this week. Tried out two new authors - Cheryl Brooks and Gena Showalter. I really enjoyed both books, so I know they are keepers.

This weekend I plan to read two more new authors - thinking Laura Griffin and Tessa Dare. But that all depends on how much time I have. I'm going to see my best friend for a few hours and see her new baby. I've also got to design a booklet, two ad campaigns and a set of tshirts, so that will take some time. Then Sunday is my cousin's benefit to raise money for her cancer treatment. So we'll see how much time I end up with.

On another note, I'm making it my goal this year to read at least 1-2 books per new to me author in my TBR and either keeping or culling their books.

Last year I sold over 90 boxes (probably 100, but I can't remember some of them) of books at Half Price Books and went from a TBR room down to 7 bookcases and 5 boxes in the closet. My goal for this year is to get all the boxes out of my closet and lighten up the bookcases. So, I made a list of authors I want to decide on this year and have a system: read 1 book, if I love it I keep the series and move on; if I like it, read a second book and then decide; if I hate it I either read a second book if I've heard a lot of nice things or if there is just something about the writing I can't get over I get rid of all the books.

This is part of my 3 step organization plan for the year.

First was getting debt free and restructuring my finances. I'm close to the debt free goal and will have it accomplished this year. I'd like to retire by 55 (in 21 years) so now is the time to plan.

Second is the book culling. Also with this is the budget I imposed on myself. I can only buy 12 brand new books this year, everything else must come from the UBS or be bought with a gift card. In addition, my UBS trips must be for their sale dates only (first weekend every other month) where the books are half-off-half.

Third is decluttering. I've been cleaning and boxing up things for a garage sale. I've just got so much STUFF. I don't really know when or how I acquired all this stuff, but it has to go. I'm going through my stuff and my brother's stuff from his old room now, then I'll help my parents to declutter. I'm hoping that we'll make a good chunk of change when we finally do have a sale.

Anyway, sorry for the long post, I'm just so excited about all this!! I cannot tell you how much better I feel now that I've been getting rid of stuff I don't need.

Happy Friday everyone!

I don't have much planned for this weekend. My ex is in and visiting for the weekend and I usually let the kids enjoy the visit and don't go down to my daughters while he is there... I usually just say hi and let it go at that. The kids don't get much time with him.
Since I have a foot doctor's appointment in the morning, I plan on laying around and keeping my feet up for awhile... nice reading time. I hate my feet... so ugly... but he helps make them look more presentable... not that anyone is looking.. I just know it and then feel better.
I finished up a Nancy Martin book and am re-reading Black Friday by Alex Kava for our bookclub. It has been awhile since I read it and it is pretty easy going. One of the guys in bookclub said he didn't like it..doesn't like government conspiracy... felt bad because I choose the book. I thought everyone would enjoy it..... oh well. He can pick the next one... he hasn't yet... I told him, wait til you pick a book and no one likes it... you feel so bad... but it makes for a super discussion!
Have a nice weekend everyone... happy reading.

90 boxes of books...holy cannoli!!!! But I've been slowing purging my books also, I have a friend who reads the same books that I do and is always looking for new authors. She's been coming over once a week and buying $20 worth of books. I'm charging her $1.00 per mmb and $3.00 for tradesize. At the end what's left over I'm going to donate them.

I have a Half Price Books by my house and I know for older books they give you next to nothing!

Never be sorry for a writing a long post!

I will admit that I only average about $10 per box at my HPB (however they do pay a lot for the Ellora's Cave books, those can get boxes up to $20-30), but it's better than nothing. Plus, the boxes aren't huge, they are bankers boxes. I can usually take 10 boxes and it pays for the trip (3 hours total), lunch for me and my mom or friend and a bag of books, so I'm happy. I can basically get a fun day out for "free" and have money left over, so I'm happy.

At my local UBS you can't use credit for the half-off-half sale, so it doesn't help me there, and to be honest the last time I took books in the girl - without telling me - snipped the corners of most of my old ones and only gave me 5 cents credit a piece. I was not happy at all about that, so I tend to avoid taking them books.

I'd love to have someone to swap books with, but no one I know reads the books I do, if they read at all. I keep hoping my local library will be a bit more progressive, but so far they don't carry much romance either. I'd love to start using the library - especially if they get ebooks - but it will probably be another decade.

Stacy, It's so hard for me to get rid of books. I don't know how you do it. I'd hate to part with some of my books. As far as decluttering, I'm working on that right now. My mom is having a yard sale this summer and I'm getting ready to put a lot of stuff in it.

I haven't had a lot of reading time lately. Right now I'm working on Finding Perfect by Susan Mallery.

Stacy, great job planning for your retirement NOW. I wish everyone would have the wherewithal to think about it. DH retired this past Jan 1 and other than our mortgage, we are pretty much debt free. We've done well the last 10 years but before that it was rough so you're smart to think about it. Our mortgage will be paid off at the end of this year and I can't wait! My rec to you would be to start getting your books from the library if possible. Even with a Kindle/ereader. I have very little clutter from my books -- the only kind I have are really old keepers and cookbooks!

I just finished reading Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn (my review is on the Reader's Roundtable). I enjoyed it but it's one really strange book LOL. After reading that I think I may just putter around the house and wait until Tuesday to start Harlan Coben's new one -- I'm actually going to buy that one! Have a great weekend everyone.

I'm re-reading Where Demons Fear to Tread by Stephaine Chong, it was on the floor of my spare room after I built my bookshelves, nearly fininshed, then onto JAK and Dream Eyes..

I'm reading Kit Rocha's Beyond Control. It'a dystopian society and is the follow up to Beyond Shame which you have to read first.

Hi Everyone. TGIF!!

No big plans this weekend. Just hanging around the house and working on getting rid of a bunch of stuff. I'm in the same mode as anastacyann - decluttering!!

Have very limited space where I live now and I have been very reluctant to give up any of my books, but I have finally decided that they just need to go. So I have 5 boxes packed up and they are going to either Goodwill or the library. Then I will be boxing almost all the other books on my book shelves and getting rid of those. I have maybe 5 or 6 authors that are keepers - Janet Chapman, Linda Howard, Lara Adrian, JD Robb (and these are all audio books and take up a lot less room!!), etc. and those books I will keep, but the rest are out of here!!

I buy mostly Audio and Nook books these days, with the exception of the keeper authors I mentioned above. I'm also getting rid of some book cases - I just want to make my life a lot simpler - and the only way to do that is to get rid of the STUFF!!

I'm getting a puppy in a few weeks and I need to get rid of anything that he might decide to eat!!

I'm currently listening to Oracle Moon by Thea Harrison - love her Elder Races series and I'm reading Edge of Dawn by Lara Adrian.

It's going to be warm this weekend - I'm afraid that winter is pretty much over here and summer has arrived.

Have a great weekend everyone.

I just realized I forgot to mention what I was reading, LOL. I'm reading Discount Armaggedon by Seanan McGuire. It's pretty interesting...not my normal fare.

Hi everybody I'm reading Lisa Jackson book Unspoken like it so far. Has anyone read this book and what did you think about this book?

continuing to re-read Garwood, Howard and Howell books but I just bought the Dream book by Krentz as an ebook so might re-read that next.