This could not have been a more perfect weekend. I took Friday off to attend Half-Price books 20% off sale, do some much needed birthday shopping for a friend (Happy Birthday Scott!!!), and have lunch with my dear friend Pat.
Saturday I awoke to perfect R.I.P. reading weather…the sky was cloudy and gray and the slight breeze and fall temperatures lured me outside to read scary stories under the trees in the back yard.
Saturday evening we began the fall movie season with a film that felt as if it were hand picked for those of us doing this reading challenge: The Illusionist (non-spoiler review here). The film was like icing on the cake of a perfectly marvelous Saturday.
Sunday entailed a visit to the first festival of the season, Santi Caligon Days. Turkey legs and craft shopping were the orders of the day and I was in culinary heaven for both lunch and dinner. There are several more art shows and fairs this month which means more turkey legs in my future. Life is good.
Monday was perfect. The weather was cool, the skies were sunny, and we moved our outdoor table and chairs under the backyard trees, grilled out, and spent the entire day reading. The whole family read. Even my daughter Tori, who is not a regular reader, managed to finish Lewis’ The Magician’s Nephew and get half way through A Horse and His Boy. I love this time of year particulary because we can sit outside to read. It is by far my favorite entertainment scenario. All told I spent around 8 or 9 hours outdoors reading and visiting with family. To top the night off Mary and I popped in the latest disk from Netflix on our tour through all the seasons of Northern Exposure and it just happened to be a Halloween episode. After a weekend reading scary stories it was a serendipitous close to the holiday.
I finished three…that’s right…three of my books for the R.I.P. Challenge this weekend. The are as follows (click on each one to take you to the brief, non-spoiler review of that book):
1. Coraline by Neil Gaiman
2.The Murders in the Rue Morgue by Edgar Allan Poe
3. The House on the Borderland by William Hope Hodgson.
I am hoping to be able to do some bonus reads within these two months so this is a fantastic start.
The R.I.P. Challenge response is wonderful. Thank you all! Please continue to join in and encourage others to do the same.
“The sky was cloudy and gray and the slight breeze and fall temperatures lured me outside” sounds lovely but as the temperature here was still stagnating at around 100 degrees I wasn’t really feeling the autumn vibe. I might be a little jealous.
Yikes, that sucks Suzanne. I know its gonna warm up some this week but only into the 80’s, I hope. The worst thing for me this time of year is when I have a few days of cool temps and then it starts to warm up again. Its like I’m being teased by Mother Nature! I so love the fall and fall temps.
I am sooooo looking forward to autumn weather…cool breezes, maybe a little rain (no rain here since spring) some fall color in the trees, blooming mums.
ahhh, sounds like a wonderful weekend!
*misses HPB, wishes they had them in Canada*
It’s getting to be good reading weather here…turning a bit cool and dark already.
You’re up to three already! And I haven’t even FOUND most of mine! I feel so…behind. (I love Coraline though. :))
I am so jealous of your weather. Here it is very hot and humid. I live in England! It’s supposed to be cold and wet! Also, it sounds like you had a much better weekend than I did – mine was mostly spent working.
I know that this was only a brief mention in you post, but I love the whole Narnia series. I hate the way most people just read Wardrobe and not the others. Horse and his Boy, silver Chair and Last Battle were always my favourites. Hell, I loved all of them. Still do. I make a point of reading them once year or so. They are like the perfect chidren’s books.
They (the Narnia books) are all very good. I am excited that my daugther has started to show flashes of interest in reading. We all had a great time hanging out together even though we were all in our own little worlds we were still connected and it was a very special day.
To be fair the three books I read were pretty short. Added together I think there was a total of about 372 pages…barely the size of a normal novel nowadays.
I have seen several others mention “bonus books” and I like the concept and will no doubt be reading other eerie tales besides the 5 that I committed to so I was excited to enjoy these 3 while getting through them to open up the window to more books.
Glad you had a great weekend. I love doing “family reading nights” with our children too…our youngest is just 5 and just learning to read three-letter words, so for her, it’s looking at books.
As for the RIP challenge–I read one of my books this weekend, and sort of cheated on the other ’cause I’d finished it a bit ago, but had to pull it out again to re-read parts of it for my latest book. So it counts, right??
I’m putting The Illusionist on my list of flicks to see; thanks for the rec.
What a great weekend…
It does indeed count Colleen!!!
Sounds like a lovely time Carl. Glad you had a good weekend.
Our weather here is in the 80’s, and we are all appreciating the brief respite. Fall is my favorite time of year, even the short excuse for one we have.
Love the idea of reading outside with the family. I read outside everyday and keep a book on the table for the 10-15 minute sessions, but how wonderful if it were really cool and crisp!
I need to start reading in the mornings outside as well now…but that’s when I do alot of blog reading…guess I need to buy a laptop with a wireless connection!!! 🙂
Carl, thanks for letting me cheat 😉 on the RIP. Do we post our status here, or on our blogs? (I’m clueless.) (Too much stuff going on in my brain–that’s my excuse.)
Either place would be great by me!!! I had told others that they could use stories that fit the definition that they had just finished reading, so no big deal. I just want to read about people’s progress and anyone’s reviews of the books they read simply because I am curious.
I was at Half Price Books over the weekend too! I raided the clearance books. So much fun. I got no reading done over the weekend since my sister was visiting from out of town. Good thing she left yesterday, I was starting to go through withdrawal!
I’m in heaven with this weather; and read all weekend since my tv is on the fritz. I was even pleased so I wouldn’t be tempted to do anything except read this weekend.
It is heavenly tonight, that’s for sure! I’m not thrilled about the 80’s for the next 3 days but it looks like the weekend is going to be fantastic again!!!
Lovin’ the awesome weather. We’ve spent a lot of time outside, too. I am so glad I can resume my walks with the girls. I LOVE swinging on the swings at the park! It’s one of my favorite things. In some ways I don’t think I’ve grown up!
I was so excited to see my beloved Happy Apples at Wal-Mart today!!!!!! ‘Tis the season!!!
I wish I could still swing on the swings. After a few minutes of that I get nauseous. I read about the phenomenon in anatomy/physiology class years ago but can’t remember exactly what it is but it is a common thing that happens in adults.
I am excited about you guys getting to go to the Royals game tonight Jules. Should be a perfect night for it!
At least someone had a great weekend! Good going on the reading 🙂
I love Northern Exposure – I only have the first season on DVD sadly, must remedy that!
Sorry you’ve been sick Quixotic, hope you’re feeling better now!
I am enjoying watching it with my wife. I had only watched it sporadically and she had never seen it so we are having a good time with it. We are just into the third season now. For me it was one of the first great character shows I can remember watching. I loved all the relationships the characters had with each other and with the town. Great show.
Thanks – I’m feeling better – had to spend over a day in bed though, and have a lot to catch up with now – including a load of blog entries I need to make…those may have to wait till Sunday now though, sadly as I’m moving to my parents’ place on Saturday…and well…I have work and lots of books to pack. Gah!
Northern Exposure was a great character show, I agree. I used to stay up late to watch it when I was younger – it was on fairly late here. I just loved the whole vibe of the show. That and Twin Peaks were among my favourite shows as a teenager.
Twin Peaks is another I never saw. It was on when I was in college and I didn’t get alot of television watching in then….didn’t get alot of studying done either. 😉