Booking Inside and Out

Does anyone still use the verb "to book" anymore?

"Gotta Book, Man."

In the 80s (probably earlier) that phrase meant going someplace fast. Well this weekend, and today by extention, I went a lot of places, really fast. Here are just a few examples:

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A Book to Inner-Book about for a BookWorm:
I have been asked to come up with "personal development goals" for 2007. What, like besides being a professional student? I mean, I LOVE LEARNING....so much that I tend to get obsessive and addictive about immersing myself...just as I do about just about everything, eh?

So over the course of the day, in between other work I came up with no fewer than 8 or 10 directions I could go in for developing. ZOOM! And agonizing choices await me: Which one, which one!?! (Or ones, if I have the stamina) Conferences, Skills, Ideas, Knowledge...or maybe just reading a book, like Influencing With Integrity (IWI). Weird Title. Slightly Offputting for an unidentifiable reason. Perhaps "Influencing" is a turnoff (though that shouldn't be an issue for a student of The Social Animal by Elliot Aronson). Perhaps "Integrity" (Do I want to know what that means? What if I don't have it?).

Resisting usually indicates to me something that I "should" do...something I will enjoy if only I can start! So, as a part of my goal to do some research on "personal development goals" I cracked open IWI and started reading. Three forewards. Interesting. Chapter 1 made me cry. WOW. So I'm at page 17 and I'm a convert. The author herself told me not to read it cover to cover, so I'm honoring that as simply recognizing the distance between a FREE book on my shelf for months with a stigma of "Don't touch it - it's EeeeVil!" attached and a book I intend to bookmark as I get to each stopping point, take home, and (if necessary, but it won't be) FORCE my husband to read in tandem with me, for ongoing disussion.

Booking, indeed.

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I Booked through a painful weekend with this Book:
I HIGHLY recommend The Grand Ellipse by Paula Volsky to readers who need a book for vacation. Be ready to handle a gripping story about wonderful characters competing to travel a fictional world that looks like the Industrial Revolution with Magic.

It took me a weekend, on and off. It has chapters which are just the right length for stopping, going on a hike, and picking up where you left off. Caution: to really appreciate the horror and happiness of the sappy ending, read in private, not on the airplane on the way home, with a 10 year old next to you.

Beautiful descriptions, harrowing adventures, underhanded misdeeds by complete Black Hats and a highly probable love-triangle. When you really need your Good Guys to be GOOD, your Bad Guys to be BAD, the hero to win the heroine in the end, and a happy ending unmarred by unbelievable perfection...Read this book!