Desert Horses

Welcome to my horse blog, Desert Horses. We live in the desert southwest, near Palm Springs, CA, but board our horses up in our local mountains where it is cooler in the summer. I have 3 horses, all rescues. Here is the ranch up the mountains where the horses stay.

Thursday, May 14, 2026

5 star book reads

 

5 Stars Reads

May 14, 2026

I’ve always been an avid reader.  After I retired, I had all this time on my hands, so I read quite a few books.   I think I read over 20 one year.   I opened a Goodreads account and I bought books on Amazon and Thrift books.   Of course, I didn’t give them away, I kept them.

So, then I purchased a 2 shelf wooden little free library in which to stash most of the books I’d read plus others.  Twice now I’ve cleaned out over 90 books from the house (hubby gets tired of tripping over my stacks) and I’ve lost track of how many books I’ve purchased at library books sales, thrift stores, or online for the library.

Anyway, I’m now in a reading slump. I’ve been in this slump for over a year now.  I don’t know what is causing it.   I have the TIME to read.   I just don’t have the desire.   I think part of it is my eyesight.   It’s getting harder and harder to read a physical book, and I have a Kindle, but I also don’t read books there either.

That is, until I read “A Thousand Splendid Suns” and “Where the Crawdads Sing”.   Both books were 5 stars for me, especially the Afghanistan one.  Honestly, it took me a good YEAR to recover from reading that book and I had to read a couple of fluff Dean Koontz books to cleanse my reading palate.

I keep a reading journal now and I wrote that “A Thousand Splendid Suns” was the best book I read in 2024, which was the year I also read “Where the Crawdads Sing” and “The Women”. Yes, I’m down to reading about 4 books a year now! Between my sewing, picking up the grandkids three days a week, doing ALL the chores around here, and wasting time on my laptop, I just don’t have time anymore to read!

I picked up “Hail Mary” this morning and found that even though it is written in first person, which I usually abhor, I really was enjoying it, so I think that will be my next read.

I’ve been looking at snail mail clubs and trying to decide if I want to start my own club, which would be book oriented. I subscribed to four of them on Etsy, but I haven’t received my monthly letter and goodies yet.  I’ll let you know what I think of them after I get all four letters.

I guess the point I’m trying to make is that these days I don’t have TIME TO WASTE on poorly written books or mass produced ones by authors.   Don’t EVER think I’ll read James Patterson!   I did fall for one book co-authored by him and Michael Crichton (apparently Crichton wrote the outline) and it was… GOD AWFUL!  “Eruption” or something like that.   I didn’t even finish it. And, I’m NOT wasting my time on romance or stupid romance/fantasy or fantasy. And, as stated above, I have trouble reading first person unless the book is well written.

Honestly, unless the book IS well written, I’m not wasting my time or eyesight on it.  I don’t care WHO the author is.

Who is YOUR favorite author and why?

 

561 words

May 14, 2026

/cd

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