Friday, May 25, 2018

Casual Fridays

First things first: I got a little "Currently Reading" widget on the blog! (It's the little things, y'all. And go me for even knowing what a widget is, right?!) Look over to the right of the screen and check it out. (If you read my blog on your phone, it's very likely that you'll need to scroll to the bottom of the page and click on "Web View" in order to see all the extras I have on the side of the blog. I wouldn't personally know because I'm back to that flip phone life, but that's usually how it works.) I created a GoodReads account solely for the purpose of getting that little widget for my blog. So if you ever just want to stop by and check on what I'm actually reading, you can! I'll do my best to keep it up to date. 

And now I will proceed to talk about my anniversary which may get me all sappy and romantic and braggy about my amazing husband so if that totally makes you gag, feel free to skip this part because I so get that. (But don't miss out on the crazy book haul which I will definitely be talking about later in this post.)

Our anniversary fell on a Saturday this year, and my sweetheart's schedule had him working the three days leading up to it (he's an emergency room nurse so his schedule is whack). So Friday night after another long 12-hour shift, he stopped by the store to pick up some goodies for our 4-day weekend. Usually, this means that he will walk in the door with flowers for me and I would be lying right now if I say that a teeny tiny corner of my heart wasn't a bit disappointed that that wasn't the case Friday night. 

However, I wake up at 4 in the morning alone in bed and go out in search of my husband. He intercepts me in the hallway and says he needed to get a drink of water or some such nonsense like that and sends me back to bed. Well, after several minutes of him still not coming back to the bedroom, I walk out to the front part of the house to find him arranging the most gorgeous dozen red roses you ever saw and setting up the table with this banner from our wedding day that I thought had never survived the drive away from the church. Enter scene of Cody being so exasperated that I ruined his sweet surprise and me having an emotional meltdown because I actually married the best guy on the planet and I can't even handle it. We ended up staying awake and exchanging cards (which were not identical but they both said "Happy You & Me Day" on the front—stop it), reading our love letters out loud to one another (more waterworks: we wrote these as a part of our pre-marital counseling and they are framed and hang in a prominent place in our home—even if you're already married and didn't do this, I highly recommend it; it's the sweetest), and dancing to our song (I warned you how sappy this could get, don't hate me). The whole morning is my new favorite memory and I never want to forget a single detail. 

I love you, Cody Aaron Hancock, and I don't deserve you. 

Anyway (for those of you trying to get past all the mush, here's where you should tune back in), later that morning, we drove out to Lake Wales to check out a new little used bookstore I've been hearing whispers about, and we hit the mother lode, y'all. We walked out of there with no less than 14 books, and that was only after me getting through one shelf. You guys, I cannot recommend this place highly enough. It's called The Book Shelter and they're only open on Fridays and Saturdays from 10AM-6PM, but you need to check it out. They have a fantastic selection (obviously), great incentives (we got a free book just for finding the silverfish—ask me what this means), and the prices are insane (to put this in perspective, the stack of books from The Book Shelter on the left side of the roses cost less than the four new books from Barnes & Noble on the right side of the roses). I can't even, and yes I'm going to list all the books we got because I know you want to know. If you decide to check it out, tell them I sent you. 

And now for the books. The stack on the left side from top to bottom are as follows:

A Walk to Remember : Nicholas Sparks
Hatchet : Gary Paulsen
Dogsong : Gary Paulsen
Mrs. Dalloway : Virginia Woolf
The Joy Luck Club : Amy Tan
The Devil in the White City : Erik Larson
Housekeeping : Marilynne Robinson
Lila : Marilynne Robinson
Gilead : Marilynne Robinson
The Idiot : Fyodor Dostoevsky
The Scarlet Pimpernel : Baroness Orczy
Love in the Time of Cholera : Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Beloved : Toni Morrison
East of Eden : John Steinbeck


And the new ones from Barnes & Noble because we don't just throw tradition to the wind even when we've already bought 14 books somewhere else:

Present Concerns : C.S. Lewis
The Woman in White : Wilkie Collins
I Am The Messenger : Markus Zusak
The Hunt for Red October : Tom Clancy

Cody only chose three out of all of these. I have a problem. We also walked down the street from The Book Shelter and finally spent a gift card I've literally had since our wedding. Six years seemed like long enough to hang onto it. And, of course, we had our date night to The Melting Pot and Barnes & Noble. Six years and it just keeps getting sweeter. 
The Melting Pot : 5/19/2018
Have you read any of the books from my list up there? Can you guess which three Cody picked out? Can you guess which two I've already read since Saturday? 

11 comments:

  1. you guys are gross. love you.

    cody picked scarlet pimpernel, the steinbeck, and the clancy.

    you've read sparks, lewis, and one of the robinsons.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We are gross. But I love it. And I love you.

      Yes to the Clancy, no to the others. Nice try. Although he did find the shelf with the Steinbeck on it (which also had the silverfish!), so maybe I can blame him for that one, too.

      And yes, A Walk to Remember was the first one I read. But you are wrong as for the second one.

      Delete
  2. Wow! A couple who actually remembers to read their love letters on their anniversary! My heart is warmed. I want you to take me to this book store.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Dad, I'll be totally honest, we have not read them out loud every single year, but we did this year. And I bawled my eyes out the whole time.

      You will love this bookstore. It is great.

      Delete
  3. So sweet! All the heart eyes.

    I've read Hatchet, Housekeeping, and the Scarlet Pimpernel. I read a different Toni Morrison (God Help the Child), which I didn't care for. I've heard some of her other books are better, though.

    A friend told me about The Devil in the White City years ago, and I haven't gotten around to it, but it's on the list.

    I don't know Cody very well, but I'll guess he picked Clancy, Lewis, and Larson.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hatchet was the only one I had read prior to buying all these. But I have already read two more since last Saturday. :)

      Beloved is the only Toni Morrison on my Life List so we'll see how I like it. It seems like her most famous, but that may be an ignorant statement.

      I'm excited for The Devil in the White City. I've heard lots of good things about it.

      And those are really good guesses for Cody! He did pick the Clancy and we both love Lewis but the Larson was all me.

      Delete
  4. Good guesses. I picked the Tom Clancy, and both Gary Paulsen's books. I've heard only great things about The Hunt for Red October and I read Hatchet waaaaayy back in the day and I remember my younger self loving it, so I decided it was time for a reread and Dogsong was right next to it on the shelf so I grabbed that one too.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Happy anniversary! It sounds perfect! You got some great books in there. I recently finished Devil in the White City and learned some crazy stuff in there. I had no idea so many things that impact my life today originated, or 'took off' from these events. I'm curious to see what you think about it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks!! It WAS pretty perfect. :) I'm really looking forward to Devil in the White City, but it may be a while before I get to it. The two I ended up reading right away were A Walk to Remember (one of my favorite movies, but I had never read the book before) and I Am the Messenger. I plan to recap both of them. :)

      Delete
  6. We guessed Cody's right, but missed the I Am the Messenger one. Bummer.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You guys guessed that Cody picked the Paulsen books? You know us so well.

      So what other book did you think I had read??

      Delete