So you read a really good book. The next thing to do is go force into the hands of everyone you know and say, "You will read this book and love it. Because I said so." Yes? No. Not really.

I think we all have memories of books that we read when we were in our tweens. They were passed around from girl to girl, each one devouring it before passing it on to the next one in line. When I was about 11 or 12 years old the literary crack of choice was Christopher Pike. I'm not sure why but it feels like my generation of readers have all gone nostalgic at the same time. Maybe it's the Twilight mania that is making us remember our own crackliture. It seems everywhere I turn these days I'm seeing remembrances and rereadings of Christopher Pike.

Earlier this week Prince Charles and his wife Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, landed in Newfoundland and began their first visit to the country since they were married in 2005. During the trip Camilla will get in touch with her Canadian roots by visiting her ancestor's Canadian castle.

I like to think I'm an adventurous reader. Or at least a semi-adventurous one. But one thing that can stop me in my tracks is a big book. I mean a long book, the ones known in the book blogging world as "chunksters." For the last few years there's been a "Chunkster Challenge" where bloggers committ to reading some of these big books. I find it comforting, even though I don't join (I suck at challenges), because it means that I'm not the only one that buys or borrows these books with the intent of reading them and then let them gather dust.

You know how in the early days of the internet you used to just bump along looking for fun things? And every day was a discovery? That's how I feel on the days when I play on the BlogHer Blog Directory. I especially like to do it with the Canadian blogs. Here's a sample of what I found playing in the blogroll tonight.