Friday, May 23, 2008

Books I like...and a short rant

Recently I found 3 books that I really liked. All are non-fiction and bespeak my homemaker life style. The first one is 5 a Day the better health cookbook by Dr. Elizabeth Barbara Berry. Great ideas for adding more fruits and vegetables to your family's diet. The recipes look really good.
Newspaper Pennies Cardboard and Eggs fro Growing a Better Garden by Roger Yepsen and the Editors of Organic Gardening. Some wonderful hints and tips for growing your best garden yet. Did you know that by soaking willow branches in water you can make a "tea" of sorts that will work as a rooting agent for other plants? That's one I'm going to check out personally!

The book Sewing In no Time 50 Step By Step Weekend Projects Made Easy by Emma Hardy contains easy to follow instructions for some cute home enhancing projects. I NEED simple and easy to follow instructions, so this is the book for me. Lots photos and drawings for those of us who need that sort of thing to follow along! LOL
Now, I did read a fiction book this week. It was The Jane Austin Book Club by Karen Joy Fowler. It's not that the basic story line wasn't alright it was. What bothers me about so much modern fiction is the little "colorful" bits thrown in for no reason other then to titillate the reader's baser instincts.
I always agreed with the adage "Garbage In: Garbage Out". I would rather reread an old favorite then a new book from the best seller lists because so many books...even books I really liked...are littered with garbage and porn and just disturbing images. Why? Are writers today so desperate for publication that they'll write anything nasty they can think of just to jolt perspective book buyers into purchasing their work? Or is it the editors at the publishing companies who think the public really wants to have their stomachs turned as form of entertainment?
My husband says I'm such a prude, but I don't need a blow by blow description of a sex act to get the general idea of what's going on in the story. (This goes double for the film and television stories I've seen lately!) I don't need characters so filthy and disturbed to find a book interesting enough to read.

Wholesome is not a 4 letter word people! You don't need graphic sex and violence to make a story worth reading. And if we (the book buying public) continue to buy this kind of stuff, the publishing world will think that's the only thing that sells so that will be the only thing that will get published!!!!
All I'm saying is, think about it. The next time you read a book or watch a movie, play or television show ask your self if the images you're visualizing/seeing are images that you really want to feed you brain. Is this something you want to incorporate into your thinking; your mind; your subconscious.
Here endeth the sermon.
P.S. check out the books I recommended though. I think you'll like them.

3 comments:

smilnsigh said...

I always like a good rant! -giggles-

Along the lines of your rant, maybe you'd be happily surprised by the books of Stephenie Meyer. She manages to give plenty of romantic feel, without graphics. Quite amazing, that.

"Twilight" series

"The Host"

Annnd, they are very, very popular also. With all ages. How about that? :-)

Mari-Nanci
Smilnsigh
When Twilight Embraces

smilnsigh said...

You told me {commented in my blog}; "I've ordered Twilight from the library!" Hooray! And I hope you will like it.

Our reading likes are individual, so I never completely expect others to like what I like. But if you do, that's the icing on the cake. :-)

Mari-Nanci

Anonymous said...

All three look like great books. I've got to check into them.