Was it Worth It??

Yesterday I worked at Scholastic's Semi-Annual Warehouse Clearance Sale. I had been looking forward to it ALL week, until Saturday morning. I was scheduled to work from 12pm until 6pm that day. I'd had a crazy busy week and just was not looking forward to being at this sale for 6 hours. But, I went because I said I'd be there and I wasn't going to cancel the day of.

Things were a little awkward when I was there because it was obvious that other 6 workers knew each other and worked year after year together. At first time went by REALLY slow! But a few people I knew came to shop and I had people to talk to!

I knew that I would get $10/hour in books for working, but I kept asking myself, "Is this worth it?" Well, here are the titles I walked away with:

1. The Bobbsey Twins Ready to Read

2. A Very Special Snowflake

3. Little Miss Star

4. What Do You Call A Rhyming Riddle?

5. Firebears The Rescue Team

6. Bodies: Peel Back the Layers from the Outside In!

7. Highschool Musical 3 Picture Book

8. United States of America Jigsaw Book

9. Baby Mouse Queen of the World

10. Roscoe Riley Rules #1

11. The Magic Tree House: Dragon of the Red Dawn

12. Amazon Fever

13. Star Wars Last of the Jedi

14. Magic Tree House Reswarch Guide: Penguins and Antarctica

15. Ashes of Roses by Mary Jane Auch

16. The Foreshadowing by Marcus Sedgwick

17. Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse

18. Crispin: The Cross of Lead by Avi

19. Gregor the Overlander

20. Inkheart by Cornelia Funke

21. Inkspell by Cornelia Funke

That's $120 worth of books that I got for FREE...well, actually for $60 of Scholastic credit (everything was at LEAST 50% off) for working from 12pm-6pm. So back to my original question...Was it worth it?...yes, yes indeed it was!

New Beginning Hesitations

I might be weird and this might sound completely absurd, but I'm going to share anyway...

If I'm going to spend time reading a book I want to make sure it's worth my while. I'm a busy mom with 3 kids, a part-time job and I hold a position on the Exec board at my boy's school...so when I read I don't want it to be a waste of time. I'm always fairly certain the book I'm about to read will be good. But there's always that "period" at the beginning of each book I read that I question my decision to read that particular book. VERY few books have hooked me within the first few pages. Twilight and An Offer You Can't Refuse were two books that had be from the beginning. Sadly, The Sorcerer's Stone took me 2 tries and encouragement from a dear friend (Thanks Lisa) before I made it through.

So what's it like for you...aside from Book Club picks, when you read a book are you hooked immediately, because after all, it was your choice to read the book? Or are you a bit skeptical when beginning something new. It's fine if I'm the only weird one...I'm content with my quirkiness. :-)