Virtual Advent Reading Escape (#wwread)

I'm so excited that it's my turn on the Virtual Advent Tour that I'm taking this chance to write one post for both the Advent tour and Where in the World are you Reading?!

For this month's theme on Where in the World are you Reading? we are asking you about your Holiday Reading Escapes.  If my life this month is any indication, everyone is running around like crazy in December. I personally have a thousand balls in the air, as you may have noticed by the dearth of blog posts lately.   This doesn't mean that I don't have a million books sitting here to be read tho. So in between the Christmas sewing:

and replacing the ornaments on the tree, and the mall shop hours, and the kid shuttling and the biopsy waiting and the secret stuff I can't tell you, I've been eyeing a few Christmas books.  Last year the lovely and beautiful Christine sent me these Christmas e-book novellas, which I am totally going to finish this year. (I read a couple last winter, but didn't get to them all.)

Holiday Kisses: A Rare Gift\Mistletoe and Margaritas\It's Not Christmas Without You\This Time Next Year

I picked up this one at the library, and what a cute cover and plot it has!

Together for Christmas

Then on the day we left town for the Bug's biopsy (no word yet!) the UPS man stopped me as we were literally climbing in the car to deliver a package from Grand Central Publishing containing two more Christmas romances and two more e-book novels, one of which is this one that I am super excited about (you know I'm a total Shalvis fan girl):

Under the Mistletoe



The two print books are:
Last Chance Christmas
Hunk for the Holidays

With all these great choices, one day soon I'm determined to crash out on the couch with a couple of these and ignore all the rest of my obligations. I'd love to spend a couple hours thinking of nothing else. If you have any interest in the Grand Central Publishing titles, be sure to check back on Saturday, when I'll be hosting a giveaway! (I'll put a link here too.)

Meanwhile, what does your Christmas Reading Escape look like? Do you enjoy Christmas themed books? Are you already sick of the Christmas spirit? (If you are, you probably haven't read this far down this post!)  Do you enjoy a nice glass of spiked egg nog with your books? Post about it, and then link up here!

My reading companions

This month's prompt for the Where in the World Are you Reading? meme is: Reading companions. Most of my reading is done in my car or at night after everyone is asleep. This means that, like many of you, I could take quite a few pictures of myself with a cat on my lap. Or my head.

The Pirate is finally old enough to take the the library, and as much as he hates to read, he loves to pick out books. I managed to get this picture of him happily browsing shelves with me. It was almost like my dream date!



And I managed to snap this one of the Bug('s behind) hanging out while I read. You can't tell from the picture, but he's playing Star Wars Angry Birds on the iPod.






Have you blogged about your reading companions yet? This one is open til the end of November and you can link up over at The Written World.

Cabin Creek Coffee in the Pierre Mall (#wwread)

I was really looking forward to this month's entry in Where in the World Are You Reading?, the monthly meme hosted by Trish, Kailana, and myself. This month's theme is "coffee shop or cafe" and I just really couldn't wait to take myself to a coffee shop alone and spend an hour in quiet reading bliss. Pierre only has two coffee shops. We don't have a Starbucks or a Caribou Coffee or even a Dunkin' Donuts.  There's Pier 347 downtown, and it's sister store Cabin Creek Coffee in the Pierre Mall.

The mall location is fairly new, it didn't open until last winter, after the big Christmas rush. It's not a very busy store, in fact I've only ever seen one other customer there. They have a display case of cheesecake and muffins and all the typical coffee selections.  There are only a handful of tables and the boys chose this one by the fireplace. I've only ever met one employee here, a nice friendly older woman (by which I mean, not a hip young 20 something like the other coffee shop). As a bonus, after 5 of the same type of drink, you get one free!

Sadly, for my reading plans, I ended up putting it off until the last minute and then taking the boys with me to the coffee shop. Not a scenario for quiet reading bliss. We headed up after school on Thursday without the Princess and I treated us all to coffee and we split a muffin. (The boys had flavored steamed milk.) Since it seemed unlikely that I was going to get any reading done, I let the Pirate demonstrate the readability of the coffee shop for me.




He was thrilled to read on the Nook and managed to get in all his reading time while the Bug ran in circles around us.

Have you posted about your local cafe or coffee shop? There are already quite a few places I'd love to go visit. Be sure to link yours up over at Love, Laughter, and Insanity.

Where in the World are you WAITING? Wrap-up!

Can you guys believe this is the end of another month? September just FLEW by!  This month was my turn to host the Where in the World are you Reading? meme (lucky Trish and Kailana just had to sit back and participate!)

I kicked the month off showing you how I wait for school to get out (and how poor my planning skills are, hello, dead Nook battery!)

Melissa was the first to join in, waiting for her husband to finish fishing. Hello Montana? I think I need to visit you:

Darren @ Bart's Bookshelf showed us the inviting bar where he occasionally waits for the bus. I think he should wait there daily, but then I haven't been in a bar in waaayyyyy too long.

Jill @Fizzy Thoughts had to wait for jury duty. I kinda agree that she should have gone in like this:

Christina @ Reading Through the Night (what a great blog name!) distracted me from her waiting room with the news that her library delivers! DELIVERS!!

Amy @ Sunlit Pages is a gal after my own heart. I'm sure I could show you the actual picture of waiting, but the outtakes are much more fun. (And much more like my own life!)

SuziQoregon waits for the train each day, and really went above and beyond and took pictures of other people reading on the train! (Click through for all the pics.)

TRISH was reading while waiting to lose weight... whaaaat? that WORKS?? And I think she's been hanging out with Jill too much.

Kailana came along and showed us this adorable picture of someone else in her house waiting. I'm not sure how she taught her cat to read....

Suey @ It's All About Books waits on a LOT of things, like waiting for some energy in the afternoons!


 Larissa @ Like People and Butterflies reads while waiting on the tram. The tram! Forgive me if I'm a bit in love with the "otherness" of a tram. And just look at the scenery in her picture? How long do you think it'd take for that to become old hat to me so that I'd remember to read?

Lisa@ Lit and Life made an excellent point about the tradeoff between the weight of a book and the chance of getting to read. She was waiting on her car at the time.

Alex (Sleepless Reader) has the best reason to wait EVER.

And last, Christine @ The Happily Ever After never ever reads while she's wait. Nuh uh. This picture is imaginary.

And that's it for September!  Make sure you check back on October 4th over at Love. Laughter. Insanity for the opening post in next month's theme- Cafe. Coffeeshops. Bars. Oh my!

Where in the World are you Reading?- This month: Waiting.

This month's theme is a fun one, almost a free form one.  This month we want to see where you read while you are waiting. Waiting rooms, oil changes, waiting for the water to boil? Everyone waits for something and I know you all keep books around for any chance to pick it up. So, take a quick picture of where you're waiting and link up!

The most common place you'll find me waiting is in the school pickup line. I admit, I get there ten minutes early just so I have to sit and read. I never leave the house without a book or my Nook. Of course yesterday, the day I took my Nook so I could take a picture for you, the Nook battery was dead. I took a picture anyway.



Another place you might find yourself waiting is at the doctor's office. I am lucky in that I rarely have this happen, but the Princess just had a well child check up, so I had the chance to take one for you.



It occurs to me NOW that we also read a picture book in the exam room while waiting for the actual doctor, but I didn't take that picture, dang it!

Your turn now, you have plenty of room to make this one work for you without needing to go to the library or make a special trip, so I expect lots and lots of links! I'm looking at YOU.

Picturing Pierre: Rawlins Public Library (#wwread)

The prompt this month for Where in the World Are You Reading, the new monthly meme created by Trish, Kelly and I is Library. This month's link ups over at The Written World.

When we first moved to Pierre I was very worried about my tiny little library. I'd gotten used to the large one in Rapid City, and was sure that this tiny place couldn't possibly keep up. Little did I know just how happy I'd be with the new library as well. The library is small, and quite outdated compared to Rapid City, but their book selection is terrific and they are completely willing to get Inter Library Loans for me. The staff is mostly friendly and helpful with only a few grumpy exceptions, and the staff on my preferred days (Wednesday and Sunday) are all terrific.

As you enter the building the first thing you see is the service desk. I managed to be there are the perfect time, so not only do you get to see the desk, you get to see my two favorite librarians- Jo Ann and Ken!  They greet me by name. There's a stack of tote bags there, in case you forget your own, as opposed to the plastic bags with logos at the old library. You return books to a little wooden bin, no self check in (or check out!) as at the Rapid City Library. Each book is checked out by a librarian and there's nothing automated about it.

If you turn to the left as you enter, you'll be in the children's section. I'll tell you here, I don't spend a ton of time in the children's section. I typically go to the library alone, as a treat to myself, but when I do take the kids, they absolutely love it.

There are a couple of computers loaded with kid games.

There are puzzles for them to play with.

The Caldecott and Newbery books are in their own section, along with books about Lewis and Clark.

The library doesn't have a huge section of new releases, and I often find that they are RE-releases, but they do seem to keep on top of the new titles. This is the fiction and mystery new release section.

Non-fiction new releases are on display in these end caps. The full shelves are the regular stacks.

I managed to not get any pictures of the middle of the room, but there are public computers and tables for studying and movies and magazines to check out in the middle. There are also kid's backpacks with a theme, as the Princess is demonstrating here.

This is the young adult books section at the library, which is pretty small but seems comprehensive to me.

Have you shared your library? We'll be doing a wrap up post on the last Thursday, so be sure to head over and link up your post before then!