You may as well go stand upon the beach

Aloha from Hawai'i!  As I write this, I'm looking out over Waikiki, with the waves of the Pacific rolling onto the beach.  It's obviously a very nice setting, with perfect weather for doing anything outside.  While many may first think of sports, or maybe sun bathing, my favorite thing to do outside, in Hawai'i, is read.  With such a perfect temperature that isn't too warm or too cold, it's so nice to sit on the lanai or the beach, and read.

While I haven't been doing a very good job of keeping up with my reading for the past couple of weeks, Hawai'i has gotten me back on track.  I have ten pages of Go Tell It on the Mountain remaining, and will head to the lanai to finish it as soon as I am done writing this post.  From there, I've brought two other books from the list with me, Animal Farm by George Orwell and The Painted Bird by Jerzy Kosinski.  I'll probably go with Animal Farm first, as I want to read it before I get to my 50th read because Orwell has two books on the list, and I haven't read either of them yet.  It's also a short read, possibly the shortest on the list, so I should be able to get through it quite quickly.  I suppose at the end of the day, I want to finish both books while I am in Hawai'i, and feel I shouldn't have any trouble.

I've already been in Hawai'i for a couple of days, and I have been able to do quite a bit of reading.  Besides reading 75% of Go Tell It on the Mountain, I have also read some non-fiction with Moneyball, by Michael Lewis.  But I also spent some time reading a yet-to-be-released book by local Calgary author Whitney Boyd, entitled Tanned, Toned, and Totally Faking It, which I had been asked to review.

No, it isn't anything close to my normal read, as I don't often get into 'chick-lit.'  I did read Bridget Jones' Diary, but that's probably about it.  This book followed a similar plot to many books from the genre, and was sort of a Notting Hill style story with a celebrity and a 'commoner.'  I'm always excited to see local authors succeed, so I wish Whitney all the best.  I enjoyed that the protagonist was originally from Calgary, went to the U of C, and drank at the Den.  It reminded me of...myself!  Instead of having the character be from a generic American town, as so many Canadian authors seem to do, she has stayed true to her roots so to speak.  And there was even a reference to the list, as the main love interest's name was Jordan Baker, also the name of Nick Carraway's love interest in The Great Gatsby.

Now it's outside to the lanai, to finish off my 46th read.