My, Oh My, It's Monday!

I think I have mentioned that I have been gone the last three weeks on the Great Alaskan/Yukon Adventure...GAYA!
Well, I am back. And although I have not finished unpacking my suitcases yet (and still have hope of finding a few items that went missing in the course of visiting about a dozen towns) if I don't get back on the blog train soon, I may never muse again. What a loss that would be for the world, so let's check out this weeks Musing Monday question, from the desk of Just One More Page!

Today’s MUSING MONDAYS post is about award winning books…
Do you feel compelled to read prize-winning (Giller/Booker/Pulitzer etc) books? Why, or why not? Is there, perhaps, one particular award that you favour?

No, I do not feel compelled to read prize winning or best selling books...or any specific books at all really. In fact, let me tell ya all a secret. At times, I do not feel compelled to read anything at all. Yes, it is true. I hang my head in book blogger shame.... :-(

Now, don't get me wrong. I love to read. Books have always been a huge presence in my life..and I do not just mean the very big physical presence that they have now assumed in my house. No, I have received great pleasure in my life from reading and no doubt will continue to until the day that I give up these earthy restraints.

But...while on vacation, I did very little reading, which is usually the case for me while on vacation. I brought no books with me. I started a book that was loaned to me on the cruise ship, but once setting foot on land, read not another word of it.
What has this to do with the question you might ask? Well, actually nothing. I just thought it was a bit bizarre....lol
In my defense I did visit any number of bookstores and at various spots bought about 8 books, two of which I read while flying, here and there, my purchases limited only their weigh in my suitcases. You will find a picture of a bookstore in Whitehorse, the capital of the Yukon Territory, on the left and a bookstore in Anchorage on the right, which I think claims to be the largest in Alaska.

As to not feeling compelled to read award winners and such, well, I will fall back on my previous statement that I firmly believe that life is too short to read books that you do not love. And sadly, it is my experience that a book winning an award or being a bestseller is no guarantee that I will like a book. Why, I am not sure, but it has been my personal experience that many of these books are not my cup of tea. Words like pretentious, boring, bizarre come to mind regarding several I have read in the last year or so. You will not find the reviews on my blog because, holding to that life is too short thing, I never finished them and if I don't finish, I don't review.

Now, granted, that is not always the case. There are a number of award winning/best selling books I have read and loved, but bottom line, it is just one more piece in the puzzle of what books I might pick to read. I don't look forward to the various awards, I don't follow who won, I am not greatly moved by seeing mention of the award on the book jacket, no more than any other number of factors.

Now, if you have been good enough to read this, your reward will be what I think is a nice photo of the Queen of the Mountains...Mt.Denali or Mt. McKinley, depending on your point of view on such matters. Let me say, the picture does not do her justice, but I tried my best!

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