The lovely Wendi at Wendi’s Book Corner recently tagged me with the 6 Things You Love meme. Never one to lose an opportunity to talk about myself, here it is. And because it is on my book blog, I’m going to focus on 6 things I love about books and reading!

1. I love when I discover an author I like … and they have tons of other books! When I first read Plum Island by Nelson DeMille, I fell in love with the character of John Corey — so I was thrilled to find out that he had written tons of other books — including a bunch featuring John Corey. Same thing with Jodi Picoult. Though can I just complain that DeMille did NOT write a John Corey book for his most recent book but wrote a sequel to The Gold Coast (in my mind, one of his lesser books).

    

2. I love when you find a book that transports you to another place and time. Back in college, a friend kept pushing Ken Follett’s Pillars of the Earth on me and I kept resisting her. It sounded kind of boring — the building of a cathedral in medieval times? Didn’t sound like my cup of tea. But she wouldn’t relent, and I am so glad because that book was fantastic and immersed me in a world I didn’t think I would like or enjoy but I LOVED it! Other books that come to mind along these lines are Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry and The Book of Dangerous Things by John Connolly. I was also totally into Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series and got to Book 7 and had to wait for the next one. It took so long that I kind of stopped reading them, and then I just couldn’t face the mountain of pages I needed to read to refresh my memory and finish the series. I read that he had died not too long ago. Does anyone know if he finished that series before he passed?

    

3. I love when books make me laugh out loud. I remember laughing until I cried while reading David Sedaris’s Me Talk Pretty One Day. And I remember cracking up while reading Nicholson Baker’s The Mezzanine (an odd little book; anyone else read it?). I also get a kick out of Jean Shepard’s books — especially Wanda Hickey’s Night Of Golden Memories and Other Disasters.

    

4. I love when reading a book can scare the heck out of you or fill you with dread and fear. It amazes me that just reading words on a page can be scary! Stephen King has scared the bejeezus out of me multiple times (It, Salem’s Lot and some of his short stories) stand out in particular. I remember a feeling of dread building in me while reading the excellent book Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn. And Cormac McCarthy’s The Roadwas no walk in the park either.

    

5. I love when my son falls in love with a book. As a reader and a parent, I am thrilled when my 4-year-old gets excited about a book — and not just a book with some of his favorite characters in them. On our recent cruise, he sat transfixed and had me read the entire book Don’t Bump the Gump by Shel Silverstein. He loved Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs (me too!), and he enjoys Dr. Suess books as much as I do. I can’t wait for him to be able to read on his own! Oh, the places he will go!

    

6. I love when an author can teach you new things but entertain you at the same time. Bill Bryson is a master of this. And I’ve found A.J. Jacob’s books — The Year of Living Biblically and the Know-It-All – to be in the same vein.

Wow! That was kind of fun! Thanks for tagging me, Wendi! The rules for the meme are:

• Link to the person who has tagged you. — done!
• Write down six things that make you happy. — done!
• Post the rules, tag six others and let them know you did it. Then tell the person when your entry is complete. — Not done! I hate doing the tagging part so I’m tagging everyone who reads this! If you choose to do this, let me know so I can read it! I love this kind of stuff. And you don’t have to keep the reading/book focus if you don’t want to. But if you have a book blog, I bet you do!!

And I will be working on more book reviews over the weekend … I’m quite a bit behind!