Addicted to Books
I’m addicted to books. I freely admit this. I have stacks and stacks of them in every room in the house. We have shelves filled with books. My bedside table has 6 books on it right now. There are more on the dresser, several in my car. Books are everywhere in my life.
It’s no wonder I’m a writer!
Several weeks ago, my husband and I went to a Valentine’s Day party where we played the “Not Quite Newlywed Game” (and came in 2nd place!). My husband had to fill in he blank for the following sentence:
My wife has more _______ than anyone I know.
I thought he’d say shoes.
Know what he put?
Books. He was SO right!
I’m also addicted to the computer. I have my own web site, co-founded another site called The Naked Hero, write bi-monthly with The Stiletto Gang, and just launched two more sites called Books on the House and Books on the House for Kids and Teens.
What do they all have in common?
Books? Ding ding ding...that’s right!
Of all my projects and blogging, I’m most excited about Books on the House and Books on the House for Kids and Teens. It launched on February 15th, and the response has been phenomenal! Turns out other people love books, too.
They love free books even more.
These two sites are all about building a community of readers. The goal is to bring great books to readers, and to help readers discover great books.
Every Sunday evening, a new book and author are featured. There are video interviews (our first week, we featured children’s author Jane Kurtz who talked about her upbringing in Ethiopia, her passion: Ethiopia Reads, and her new books, Lanie and Lanie’s Real Adventures, the 2010 American Girl Doll Lanie Holland books; 6 copies of her books were given away!, we’ve featured NY Times Best Seller Allison Brennan, YA author Suzanne Crowley, and now we have best selling children’s author Joan Holub!), Q & As with the authors, and more. Enter each week for a chance to win the featured book(s).
That’s all there is to it! What better way is there for a reader to discover a new-to-them -author, and what a great way for a writer to showcase their books to potential readers?
Susan McBride was the inaugural author on Books on the House. This week, my new release, Hasta la Vista, Lola! is being featured. I’m giving away 4 copies of the second Lola Cruz myster.
As I said, Jane Kurtz was the inaugural author on the Kids and Teens site, and now we’re featuring Joan Holub and her books Twinkle, Star of the Week and Groundhog Weather School. Her books are SO fun!!
I’m thrilled about Books on the House and Books on the House for Kids and Teens and the potential for the sites to really help build a community of readers. We have some fabulous authors and books lined up including:
NY Times Bestseller Jane Yolen with her new graphic novel
NY Times Bestseller Brenda Novak
Children’s author Joyce Stengel
Children’s author Debbie Dadey
and so many more!
I hope you’ll check out Books on the House and Books on the House for Kids and Teens and help build our community of readers. Tweet about it! Spread the word! Books are a good thing to be addicted to!
Tell me who your favorite authors are, both adult and children, so I can try to feature them on Books on the House!
Divine Connection: Reading
June 8, 2009 by Leslie
Filed under Inspiration, feature
Divine Connection is for bone-weary BurbMoms who need to recollect themselves and reconnect with the Divine.
This weeks encouragement is to practice the spiritual discipline of reading.
Hey, remember those old Life cereal commercials that would implore little Mikey to “try it, you’ll like it”? Well there are many methods of engaging the spiritual discipline of reading but there is an ancient method of reading scripture that would ask you to do the same: Try it. This method is called Franciscan reading. It is based on the spirituality of St. Francis of Assisi who valued the qualities of action, spontaneity, love, praise, beauty, and delight in creation. You probably have seen many little garden statues of St. Francis as bird feeders. He was known for being in tune with nature and God’s creation. His method of reading scripture is about bringing the word of scripture out into creation–into your life experience.
How it works: Read a passage of scripture, typically the gospel narratives or psalms, and then ask what is known as the “Fivefold Question.”
- What does this passage say about God’s nature?
- What does it say about human nature?
- What does it say about how God relates to people?
- What does it suggest about how I might pray?
- What does it suggest about how I might act?
Many love the Franciscan method of reading scripture because it is about finding truth and application…it is about action. People who employ a Franciscan spirituality don’t sit still in long times of prayer. They pray by doing. For example, you might read the story of the paralytic lowered through the roof before Jesus in Mark 2:4 or Luke 5:19. Then after asking the fivefold question you arrive at the fifth question to wonder which of your friends has such a pressing need, and then ask God what you can do to help meet that need…then you get up and go do it.
Or here is another Franciscan prayer exercise you can try apart from the fivefold question: Go outside and look for two trees; one which resembles the kind of person you would like to be or your goal in life, another which expresses in some way the kind of person you see yourself to be now. Decide what you need to do in order to change from the way you now are to the way you would like to be or the way God would like you to be.
Try it, you’ll like it…and you just might make a Divine Connection.
Additional Resources:
- Father’s Day is coming up. If you’d like to give the gift of a good book that is a basic introduction to the spiritual disciplines try A Man’s Guide to the Spiritual Disciplines: 12 Habits to Strengthen Your Walk with Christ by Patrick Morley.
- For an online daily reading that provides a generous helping of psalms, old testament and new testament readings try www.missionstclare.com.
God’s Peace,
Leslie Stewart
