Personal Stories Archives - Introverted Reader

Life & Lit: Of Heat, Book Club, and ’80’s Movies

It's hot here in the mountains of North Carolina, folks. Hot like we only see a handful of days in the year, thank goodness. We've been on the wrong side of 100 degrees for a couple of days now and I think we're all feeling it. I know that's normal for some of you, so feel free to call me a wimp if you want; I'm still going to complain. And I'm getting cranky. Not because of the heat (although I'm sure I would if I had to be out in it), but because of the AC. You read that right. I have a love/hate relationship with air conditioning. My parents didn't put it in until after I moved out. I know my elementary school didn't have it and I'm pretty sure my middle school didn't have it. So I never got acclimated to it in my formative years. Don't get me wrong; I'm thankful for the cool air when it's this hot, but I hate to have cold air blowing on me. HATE. I can't seem to get away from it this weekend. Wherever I go in this house, the air conditioner is blasting me. I would set the temperature higher, but I'm married to a Florida boy who finds such talk sacrilegious. Oh, the compromises we make in a marriage. Enough complaining. I've spent the weekend downloading pictures off my camera's memory card. My aunt almost lost six months of pictures recently and she was sick at the thought of it. I have two years' worth of pictures on mine. Holy cow. I've downloaded a few events here and there, but I decided to learn her lesson and get to work. I'm up to Christmas 2010 right now. O_o A local theater has been screening old movies on…

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July 1, 2012

Personal Stories

Getting to Know All About You: Armchair BEA

Book Expo America is taking place this week in New York, so you know what that means for us bloggers left at home--it's Armchair BEA time! We're kicking the week off with "interviews." Each blogger is choosing from a list of ten questions and posting the answers on his or her own blog. If you want to read more about your [...]

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June 4, 2012

Personal Stories

My Historical Fiction Reviewer Interview!

Jenny Q (the blogger behind Let Them Read Books) has started a new blog at It's All In the Details. On this blog, she shares advice with writers of historical fiction. She interviews bloggers who read historical fiction in her regular feature, Reviewer Spotlight. My interview was posted today! Jenny had some great questions, so head over to see what I had to say! Thanks for the opportunity, Jenny! You can also read more on my About Me page. I have an affiliate relationship with Malaprop's Bookstore/Cafe, my local independent bookstore located in downtown Asheville, NC. I will receive a small commission at no cost to you if you purchase merchandise through links on my site.

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February 9, 2012

Personal Stories

I’ve Been Interviewed!

Carina at Reading Through Life has a weekly feature called Reading Roots. Here's how she describes it: Posted weekly on Tuesdays, Reading Roots features a variety of book bloggers talking about their early reading influences and experiences, letting us catch a glimpse of the “roots” that each person has built upon in forming their identity as “a reader”. Carina was kind enough to interview me, and my answers have been posted today! If you're curious about what made The Introvert a Reader, head on over and see what I had to say! I have an affiliate relationship with Malaprop's, my local independent bookstore located in downtown Asheville, NC; and Better World Books. I will receive a small commission at no cost to you if you purchase books through links on my site.

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September 13, 2011

Personal Stories

Dragon*Con Parade 2011

I went to Atlanta over the weekend, primarily to attend the Decatur Book Festival (I intend to write about that later). My husband was an unbelievably good sport and went along with me for the second year in a row. When we went last year, we found out that Dragon*Con is the same weekend in downtown Atlanta. We thought about wandering down to check out what we could, but we didn't have a GPS then and we didn't want to get hopelessly lost. We were better prepared this year. GPS at hand, we ventured out to the Dragon*Con parade. It was the highlight of our weekend! Among all the fabulous costumes (and they were all fabulous), I almost missed seeing my favorite costume of all. Don't ask me how he fit in at Dragon*Con. All I know is that the sheer unexpectedness made me laugh out loud. Yes, ladies, that is the Old Spice Man. "I'm in a parade." We were lucky to get a spot next to a kid in an awesome Yoda costume. Most of the participants noticed him and came over to talk to him, so my husband was able to get some great pictures. My husband and I both loved these "Box Heroes." There was a group of people in the parade supporting a blood drive. I was amused to see that someone had modified their "blood drive" sign to read "vampire food drive." I think my husband's very favorite costumes were what he called "The Haunted House People." He took a lot of pictures of these guys. They had an awesome float as well, but it was so big we couldn't get any great pictures of it. The previous two guys scared the crap out of me. No, I can't watch scary movies. How did…

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September 7, 2011

Personal Stories

Birthday Loot!

So my birthday was last week. (Great big 33, if you must know. The 30's are starting to seem a little...real) Of course that means I have to dish about what I got! My big gift was a new bike. My old one was more of a mountain bike and it was heavy and clunky and just not very pretty. We have discovered that I like to ride on paved roads (less hard on the tush!), so I really needed something different. My husband surprised me with a beauty! My sister got me a very pretty fairy wind chime. My mom got me an Adele cd and she also supplied me with the books. I've already spread them out around the house, so I'm probably forgetting something. Down in the Garden by Anne Geddes The Frogs and Toads All Sang by Arnold Lobel Juniper Berry by M. P. Kozlowsky Brightly Woven by Alexandra Bracken I'll Be Watching You by Charles de Lint That ribbon in the center is a very pretty bookmark my grandmother got for me. My mom also had my uncle make me a couple of things. He's been doing a lot of wood working recently and we think he's getting good at it! She got me this cute little rocker (in my favorite shade of blue) that can be used as a bird feeder: And an adorable bird house, called The Love Shack. So many pretties! I'm shamelessly spoiled! I have an affiliate relationship with Malaprop's, my local independent bookstore, and Better World Books. I will receive a small commission at no cost to you if you purchase books through links on my site.

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July 27, 2011

Personal Stories

Sunday Salon: Happy Easter!

glitter-graphics.com Happy Easter to all who celebrate! In case you're wondering after last week's post, we finally made it home Monday afternoon. I still haven't caught up! Our hotel did have HBO, so I got to watch the premiere of Game of Thrones and I mostly loved it! As far as I remember, it stayed very true to the book. I could do without all the unnecessary nudity though. This week was pretty busy. We went to see Sara Bareilles in concert Tuesday night and had a great time! She seemed to be having a lot of fun, and I think that just makes everyone have a great time. Elizabeth and the Catapult was one of her opening acts, and we loved them! I'd never heard them before, but I had to buy a CD. I embedded one of their songs below. I also checked out a new local independent bookstore/cafe for the first time. It's called Books and Breadboard. I love books, I love bread, it sounded perfect. It was! We just had a light lunch of a cheese and fruit plate, but it was presented beautifully and the fruit was absolutely perfect. We were scoping out all the sandwiches being ordered around us and everyone's food was almost too pretty to eat! Of course I browsed the books afterward. It's not a huge bookstore, but I love the presentation, and it has a great selection for its size. It's located in an old house in Biltmore Village, a quaint, historic part of town. I just felt like I was wandering through someone's house who had a great library. Books were scattered on tables and shelves, some of the gardening books were arranged on an old porch swing in a window, the kid's section looked like a castle and…

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April 25, 2011

Read more about the article The Sunday Salon: <i>A Game of</i>… Airports?

Personal Stories

The Sunday Salon: A Game of… Airports?

So here I am in the Tampa airport. I've been here for 7 hours because our plane needs repairs. They've just announced that it could be another 3 hours and started offering up vouchers for overnight stays. We're giving up and taking them up on it. We flew down for my brother-in-law's beach wedding and it was beautiful. I hadn't met his new wife before but she seems like someone I'll like a lot. I mostly managed to avoid getting sunburned but my face is tomato red. Except for the white raccoon eyes. Yes, I'm looking fabulous! Anyway, I hope this hotel has HBO! We had carefully timed our flights so that we would be home for the premiere of A Game of Thrones on HBO. I gave my husband orders to get HBO about a year and a half ago so that I would be ready to watch this show. I don't think they had even finished casting it at that point! I hate movie covers but my husband has had to put up with me snatching up the book with the new cover and exclaiming, "I'm so excited! It's going to be so good!" No, my hopes aren't too high. Not at all. I am super-excited and the few actors that I know already are going to be absolutely perfect in their roles. Boromir as Eddard Stark? Couldn't pick a better actor! If you haven't read these books by George R. R. Martin, I highly recommend them. I've only read the first two but they both got an easy five stars, and if you've been around here much you know I don't really give those out very lightly. They have a perfect epic scope for a fantastic tv series. At least check out the first episode tonight if…

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April 17, 2011

Personal Stories

It Don’t Mean a Thing if it Ain’t Got Ol’ Bing: A Bit of Me(me)

Danielle from There's a Book hosts A Bit of Me(me) every Saturday. Each week she asks us to post the answer to a question designed to help us get to know each other better. This week's question: What’s your favorite holiday movie? The one you could watch every year and it would always remind you of that time of year. My favorite holiday movie is Holiday Inn. Bing Crosby plays a performer who is sick of the daily grind and so opens his own exclusive inn in Connecticut where he only performs on holidays. You just can't beat Bing Crosby at Christmas. He's a perfect straight man to Fred Astaire's goofy character. I don't even have to mention his voice, do I? Or Fred's moves? Marjorie Reynolds is the love interest and I like her as well. I love that the movie is about so many different holidays. There are songs for Valentine's Day and Easter and the 4th of July. And, of course, Bing's famous "White Christmas" was written by Irving Berlin for this movie. I'm a sucker for the old musicals anyway though. Park me in front of one and I will watch the whole thing with a giant goofy grin on my face. I will say that there's one scene that in the present comes across as very racist. They perform in blackface and the African-American characters are very stereotyped. It bothers me when I think about it, but the rest of the movie is just so good I try to overlook it as a sign of the times. Is that bad? I don't know. Anyway, what's your favorite holiday movie? Write a post and link up at There's a Book!

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December 18, 2010

Personal Stories

My Favorite Smell: A Bit of Me(me)

Danielle from There's a Book hosts A Bit of Me(me) every Saturday. Each week she asks us to post the answer to a question designed to help us get to know each other better. This week's question: What is your favorite smell and why? Does it bring back memories? I'll admit that I thought this question was a little weird at first. I don't have the greatest sniffer out there, so smells aren't something I pay a whole lot of attention to. Working in health care, this can honestly be a blessing. Is that TMI? Anyway, I thought about it and realized there are a lot of smells that I really like, but there's one that stands out. I ♥ the smell of freshly-cut grass. I smell it and I'm happy. Photo of a "new-mown hayfield by Bickley Hall Farm" taken by Espresso Addict and posted on Wikimedia Commons. I grew up pretty far out in the country. My grandparents have a small family farm and I grew up just a "little piece" down the mountain from them. My uncles have slowly been taking over more and more of the responsibility for things over the years. Anyway, my parents' house is at the edge of all this, in between a big hayfield and the tree line. So every summer, in about June, my uncle would mow the hay for the first time. Oh, it's a heavenly smell. We were fresh out of school for the summer, I had stacks and stacks of books from the library to read, life was simple and life was good. We didn't have air conditioning back then, so we would open the windows in the evening to let the cool air in and that smell would come wafting into the house on a summer breeze. The lightning bugs…

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July 17, 2010