Nora (norabelle414)'s books for 2011

I'm going to be on vacation until Jan 4th/5th. But when I get back, this will be my thread. Here's something to keep you entertained until then:

Right now I am reading
Dune by Frank Herbert
The Next Queen of Heaven by Gregory Maguire
but I hope to finish those by midnight, Dec 31.

I'm also bringing with me
Fool by Christopher Moore
The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith
Dragonquest by Anne McCaffrey
Beowulf, but by Burton Raffel, not that other guy

I'll be in Dublin so I'm going to try to get a copy of Ulysses while I'm there, because that feels appropriate.

Have a great New Year's!

Welcome back! Hope you have a great trip!

Ireland? Wow! Have a great trip! Glad to see you back with us again for 2011.

Ireland! Are you just going to Dublin, or other places as well? I was there this summer, and fell in love with the country. My friend and I went to Dublin, Cork, the Dingle Peninsula, and Galway. I can't wait to go back!

I was in Dublin a few years ago they are some of the nicest people!

Happy New Year!

I have returned! I was planning on going to work late today, but of course I woke up at 4am and couldn't get back to sleep, so I went to work to give myself something to do.

The trip was good. It was mostly just Dublin, with a day trip to Bray, Glendaloch, Wicklow, and Avoca.

Travelling with my family was stressful, especially since they don't like drinking or books/reading, which is what Dublin is all about. But I got a great idea of the things I want to do/see when I go by myself :-). Also, a lot of shops/museums/restaurants/pubs were closed on Saturday, Sunday, and/or Monday because of the holiday, and many places were even closed from Christmas through Jan 4th. This was not a problem I had last year when I went to London on the same dates. I guess Dublin gets a lot less winter tourism than London.

I did not manage to get a copy of Ulysses, mostly because I waited until the last bookstore I went to (which was supposed to be Joyce-themed and really cool) and they did not have a copy.

I did, however, buy a book JUST because TIOLI-ers have read it, for the first time ever. But in my defense, it was Room, by Emma Donoghue, who is Irish. That's what I'll tell myself when my bank statement comes. And I bought The Tain by Ciaran Carson, a newish translation of an ancient Irish legend.

Glad you had a good trip, even if lots of places were closed. I hope you enjoy Room!

Glad to see you back! I hope you enjoy Room too. I loved it.

In 2010:

I READ 64 books
I ACQUIRED 64 books (Not including textbooks and travel guides - I didn't even plan that!)
I BOUGHT 51 books (not including textbooks and travel guides - though this includes books bought with gift cards)
I DISCARDED 10 books (all donated to Goodwill, I think)

Not where I hoped I'd be, but better than I thought I'd be.

I guess my goal for 2011 will be to continue on the same lines, but this time, read more books than I acquire.

Hi Nora, glad to hear you had a nice time in Dublin. I'm a Dubliner myself :)
I'd say everywhere was closed on account of the unprecedented bad weather this year - we've never had a white christmas in living memory practically so the whole country fell to pieces.
Glendalough is one of my favourite places on earth - it's so tranquil!

Book #1: The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith - I liked this a lot. It was a good airplane book. Light and entertaining, but not fluffy. I didn't feel like I was losing brain cells just by reading it. I'd be interested in reading the sequels, I think.

Book #2: Fool by Christopher Moore - This was good too, though not as good as Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal. Possibly because King Lear is my favorite play and I feel it's fairly perfect in itself. But Fool was extremely entertaining; it's fun to read a book that's kind of smutty but also really intelligent.

>11 Feefy: That's probably true, though by the time we got to Dublin there was no snow to be found.

Hey Nora!

>14 RosyLibrarian: Hello, Marie! Welcome!

You've reminded me of my other LT-related New Year's resolution (as if I have any other kind), to try to keep up with the personal threads of the people who keep up with mine.

15: I have that resolution too, so good luck to us both! :)

#12: "kind of smutty but also really intelligent" seems to sum up Christopher Moore perfectly to me - love his stuff!

>17 scaifea: What of his would you suggest I read next? I have read Lamb, Practical Demonkeeping, A Dirty Job, and Fool.

ETA: Argh touchstones, ARGH!

Lamb might be my favorite, but Practical Demonkeeping is really good too. Honestly, you can't really go wrong with Moore, so just dive right in!

Book #3: Room by Emma Donoghue - I mostly bought/read this because everyone was saying that it was less disturbing than it sounds, and I didn't think this could be true. It is. Kudos to the author for being able to pull it off. It's a really excellent book and is really well written. There's a nice flow to the storyline that makes it a quick read. I have to admit, I enjoyed it a lot more before I was told that it's inspired by a true story; it seemed much more creative.

#20: I enjoyed that one too. I am glad you finally took the plunge, read and enjoyed it!

The plunge wasn't so much the reading it as the buying it. But once I did that, I read almost the whole thing on the plane on the way home.

Every winter day upon which it is not snowing should be required to look like this one. It's soooo bright and sunny out! I keep forgetting it's not spring, until I open the door and get blasted with 20 degree (F) air.

I plan to spend all day curled up on the couch reading The Pillars of the Earth, with the curtains wide open. Or at least until my family comes home and yells at me for being lazy.

Whew. I'm glad you found that Room was less disturbing than you expected because I'm one of the folks who has been saying that. While it is 'inspired' by a true story, I think that all of the details are her own. The stories are quite dissimilar. I loved some of what she described when they came out - like Jack's bumping into things and both needing sunglasses - things that never occurred to me. I'm sure those specifics are based on research but I think the rest of the story is her imagination as a mother.

#23: at least until my family comes home and yells at me for being lazy.

Tell them you were not being lazy - you could have been sleeping after all right, Nora?

>23 norabelle414: I wish! As far as they're concerned, reading is sleeping. Unless it's after 9pm, then it's "up at all hours of the night"

*shaking head* too bad you live with such heathens :)

The Pillars of the Earth is going well. It's a bit intimidating, but I am on page 442 and I only started on the 7th. Even if I slow down (which I can already tell I am), I should still be able to finish it this month.

Book #4: The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett - Holy Moly, was this book good. I thought I was going to struggle to get it finished by the end of the month, but I just ate it up with a spoon. I could've finished it 3 or 4 days ago, except I stopped carrying it around with me because I was so close to the end. I don't know if I want to continue on with the series, but as a stand-alone novel the book is incredible.

Currently reading The Help by Kathryn Stockett and Packing for Mars by Mary Roach and greatly enjoying both. However, they've been put on hold so I can read On Stranger Tides by Tim Powers (which just arrived on Monday) for this group read: http://www.librarything.com/topic/107219

Book #5: On Stranger Tides by Tim Powers - Good, but not great. I love a good pirate story, they make me feel warm inside. This one had very good imagery and the plot was interesting. I actually learned a fair bit about the time period. However, I thought it was a little slow and the character development and relationships left something to be desired.

Currently reading: The Help, Packing for Mars.

To be started soon: The Postman, Native Tongue, and The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

Some good reading going on, Nora! I hope you enjoy them all.

Had to post. My daughters name is Nora.... I named her after my grandmother. Sounds like you are having a great time reading... :0)

#34: Hey, I am all for general happiness!

I'm glad I'm not the only one who's still planning to read The Postman in February before Native Tongue :D

It'll probably be more like simultaneously, but I'm hoping to get them both read by the end of the month. Thankfully the Native Tongue read looks like it's going to be a leisurely pace.

Book #6: Packing for Mars by Mary Roach - Received via SantaThing. It was excellent! Not at all what I was expecting. It deals much more with the humanity of going to space/Mars, not all the aeronautical boringness. There's a chapter about space vomit, a chapter about space food, a chapter about space sex, and a chapter about space poop! I really liked her writing style.

(I'm not sure why I even bothered to post this if touchstones aren't working :-( )

Space food and sex?! That one better go on the wish list...:)

I thought her Bonk was pretty good too.

Packing for Mars is on my TBR list, definitely. My sister listened to the audiobook I think, and she said she loved it except for the vomit chapter, which made her feel ill.

Touchstones are back!

Just finished: Packing for Mars by Mary Roach

Currently reading: The Help by Kathryn Stockett
Native Tongue by Suzette Haden Elgin

Reading this month (hopefully): Winter World by Bernd Heinrich
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
The Postman by David Brin
Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie

That book quiz that's been going around:

You're Invisible Man!

by Ralph Ellison

Most of your life, people have either ignored you or told you that you
were wrong. You've been duped, mistreated, misled, and neglected. Maybe it was because
of your race, or some other uniqueness that people were quick to condemn, but now you
just want to crawl into a hole and disappear. After all, nobody knows your name. But
you just might speak for everyone.


Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.

How depressing.

#38: I loved Packing for Mars too, Nora. I am glad to see you enjoyed it!

Book #7: The Help by Kathryn Stockett - Entertaining and interesting, but not anything groundbreaking.

Hi Norabelle, I felt the same about The Help - I thoroughly enjoyed reading it and couldn't put it down but I wouldn't herald it as 'the next Gone with the Wind' as some literary critic had dubbed it!

Book #8: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot - Read for work (that's my excuse). I work in research ethics, and everyone else in my office got to go to a protections in research conference last Sept, in San Diego, and Rebecca Skloot was there and they got to meet her. But I am a lowly 22-year-old peon, and had to stay here and answer the phones. Not that I'm bitter.
The book was good, much more personal about Deborah Lacks than I was expecting. I particularly enjoyed the afterward with all the information about the history of human rights in research. As both a human research protections specialist by trade and a geneticist by education, I am deeply involved in both sides of this story. I felt Skloot saw both sides as well, and was not ashamed to admit that there really is no solution to the problems that Henrietta's story presents.
I really liked the flow of the book as well. The jumps from history to science to Henrietta's family in recent times kept me engaged.

#47: That book was one of my memorable reads list for last year, Nora. I am glad to see you enjoyed it. Sorry you did not get to meet Skloot in person though.

47: Bummer you didn't get to go! I totally sympathize with your lowly 20-something year old status. I guess we just have to pay our dues...:) Glad the book was good at least!

Nora: Well, I guess I'm finally gonna have to break down and put Henrietta Lacks on the wishlist - so many good reviews of it floating around here!

Do it!

Book #9: Native Tongue by Suzette Haden Elgin - Okay, but not great. The beginning was boring and a little confusing. Later, in the last quarter of the book or so, it got really interesting and good. But it was too late to rescue it for me.

Book #10: The Tombs of Atuan by Ursula K. Leguin - rereading these, last read in 8th grade-ish.

Currently Reading:
The Postman by David Brin and enjoying it a lot!

Coming Up (hopefully):
Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
Always Coming Home by Ursula K. LeGuin
Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie
The Enchantress of Florence by Salman Rushdie
The Magician's Assistant by Ann Patchett
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
Interesting Times by Terry Pratchett

Probably a bit over-ambitious.

P.S. Look at all those lovely touchstones, doing their jobs!

53: Of those I've only read Water For Elephants and it's a nice little read. Hope you have a great March! (Is it really March already?)

>54 RosyLibrarian: I know! I swear it was October yesterday.

Book #11: I Love Knitting by Rachel Henderson - not usually the kind of thing I count for my reading list but hey, there's a TIOLI challenge for it so what the heck. I started knitting about 3 weeks ago. This book was completely UNHELPFUL when I was first starting out, but the patterns in it look okay, I guess.

Book #12: The Postman by David Brin - HOLY MOLY was this book awesome! So moving and poignant.

Book #13: Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen - okay, decently entertaining, but not fabulous. The main plot was really predictable.

56: Yep! I felt the same way about Sara Gruen's book. I need to try out The Postman and maybe learn how to knit...

To start knitting (unless you have a real live person to help you, of course), I recommend the videos on knittinghelp.com

They were really helpful for me.

My French mother taught me how to knit by holding the stationary needle under my arm. It's been heck trying to knit with circular and double ended needles!

58: Ooo, that is helpful! My college roommate taught me how to start a scarf, but I moved before I finished it and never learned how to finish it... And now I've totally forgotten, but I still have the half made scarf! :)

2 weeks ago I started to make a scarf but I got bored. So I bound it off and declared it a "dog scarf" for our corgi ;-)

I just got notified that I've won free tickets to see the new Jane Eyre movie next Thursday. Sooooo excitedddddd.

Woohoo! I want to see Jane Eyre too. Yay for free tix!

Lucky! I want to see Jane Eyre as well.

Today, I got a free doughnut. And figured out how to get a free doughnut almost every day. Life is good.

Free doughnut = WIN. :D

Nice!!!

Book #14: Beastly by Alex Flinn - Fluff. Normally this is the point at which I would beat a book like this to a bloody pulp, but in this case I read the book after seeing the movie (for free, thankfully). The movie makes the book look like Shakespeare.

Just bought some stuff from Barnes & Noble:

One of Our Thursdays is Missing by Jasper Fforde
Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson
Sorcery and Cecelia, or, The Enchanted Chocolate Pot by Patricia C. Wrede
The Tough Guide to Fantasyland by Diana Wynne Jones

I'm pretty excited.

It is always great when we can just read whatever we want, guilt free! :) If only all those neglected books on the shelf would stop staring at us..haha
Hope you have a great time reading in March/April!

I saw the new Jane Eyre movie last night and it was so good! My favorite version yet, I think.

So glad to hear a good opinion. I'm looking forward to seeing that one. :)

Book #15: The Magician's Assistant by Ann Patchett - Something about the way Patchett writes always manages to tug at my heartstrings, in a way that's almost painful. I have to force myself to take breaks from reading her books, so I can catch my breath. This one touched me even more than Run or Bel Canto, I think.

Currently Reading:
Always Coming Home by Ursula K. Le Guin (Bah. On hold.)
Magic by the Lake by Edward Eager (On hold-ish, but will probably try to finish soon)
Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer (loving it!)

I'm trying to decide if I want to re-read the Thursday Next books before I read One of Our Thursdays is Missing (which is probably waiting at my front door right now). I probably should, since I zoomed through them the first time. But I don't want to wait that long to read the new one!

(this is probably the longest review I've ever written, so bear with me. I will probably also tone it down a bit later.)

Book #16: Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer - started out good, but really disappointing. It's no different than any other book about meat-eating, and no different from any other expose about factory farming. I already knew that animals were treated badly before I read this book, but I am still not a vegetarian. Maybe there is some large group of people that is oblivious about the meat industry and thus ripe for conversion to vegetarianism based on the knowledge they would gain from reading this book. But would they really be the type to pick up this kind of book in the first place? I doubt it.

The one thing I did appreciate was the names of family-farms and organizations that support them. Now that I know more about them, I will try to be more aware of what meat I'm buying. The least I can do is not buy Perdue, Tyson, or Smithfield meat.

But then JSF tells me that even if I buy family-farmed meat whenever possible, I'm still a failure if I EVER eat factory-farmed meat, and really I'm a failure for just eating meat AT ALL. I feel like my favorite teacher just embarrassed me in front of the whole class. If you need me, I'll be crying in a stall in the girls' bathroom. (I'll get over it.)

I have a question for you, sir. If you're so against animal cruelty, why aren't you a vegan? I'm sure dairy cows and layer chickens get treated just as poorly as beef cows and broiler chickens. And if you think about it, they probably get mistreated for longer, because they are not killed when they are just a couple months old. But dairy and eggs are not even mentioned in the book. I would think that vegetarians are more open to conversion to veganism than omnivores are to vegetarianism, and thus this book would actually serve some kind of purpose.

I saw JSF once talk about this book and read from the first chapter (the first couple chapters being the only insightful part of the book), and he talked about meat-eating in moderation. I liked what I heard. How hard would it be for everyone to give up meat for ONE DAY a week? Or two days a week? And wouldn't 700 people giving up meat one day a week have a similar effect on the environment and the meat industry as 100 vegetarians and 600 people who eat meat every day? But there is NOT A WORD about this alternate solution in the book.

JSF openly admits that one vegetarian doesn’t really make a difference. (Should that have come with a spoiler alert? Oops.) The point of being a vegetarian, according to him, is to try to force the other people around you to become vegetarians as well. I may not have very strong opinions about meat-eating, but I do have strong beliefs about personal choice. I don’t think it’s right to have a GOAL of converting your friends to a cause, no matter how noble. I know that JSF will inform his son of the horrors of factory-farming. I hope that he will also inform his son that his parents will love him just the same if he one day makes the choice to eat meat in spite of those horrors, just as JSF’s grandmother, to whom meat was very important, still loved her vegetarian grandson.

74: Such a great review, I can feel the passion! :)

It's a "hot review"! I've never had a hot review before!! Hooray!

Hmm, I think I'll pass that one by, but great review!

74>

I saw JSF once talk about this book and read from the first chapter (the first couple chapters being the only insightful part of the book), and he talked about meat-eating in moderation. I liked what I heard. How hard would it be for everyone to give up meat for ONE DAY a week? Or two days a week? And wouldn't 700 people giving up meat one day a week have a similar effect on the environment and the meat industry as 100 vegetarians and 600 people who eat meat every day? But there is NOT A WORD about this alternate solution in the book.

I haven't read the book, but I agree with this entirely, and I often think that holier-than-thou vegetarians and vegans (which, of course, are not all of them) are their own worst enemies by being so absolutist -- that either you never let a morsel of meat pass your lips, or you might as well eat bacon cheeseburgers three times a day.

I limit my meat primarily for environmental reasons, rather than animal welfare concerns (though the two often end up having similar outcomes -- they'll both make you steer clear of CAFO meats, for instance), and what really infuriates me is vegans who will scorn locally-farmed eggs from pastured chickens at the farmers' market in favor of pre-prepared tofu-based dishes made from GMO soy and shipped thousands of miles. (If you have local farmers' markets, the meat there is more expensive, but you can buy it with a clearer conscience.) My vegetarian wife will actually eat meat that my dad hunts, figuring you can't get much lower-impact than that, and that the pheasants were very happy and leading very pheasanty lives right up until they got shot. :-)

Nora, it might be helpful to read First Among Sequels first, to remind yourself about the written Thursday, but you don't need to reread the entire series to appreciate One of Our Thursdays is Missing.

Great review and I totally agree with your argument!

76: Congrats on the hot review!

Re: my review - Thanks everyone!

>79 ronincats: Thanks for the tip! I'm currently almost finished with Lost in a Good Book so I will probably just go ahead and read all of them :-) Any excuse for more Thursday!

Book #17: Lost in a Good Book by Jasper Fforde - Plot-wise this is the weakest of all the Thursday Next books. HOWEVER, it is our first introduction to BookWorld, and all the adventure that comes with it. So I love it :-)

Significantly less depressing than the last quiz I took:

What Kind of Reader Are You? Your Result: Obsessive-Compulsive Bookworm  

You're probably in the final stages of a Ph.D. or otherwise finding a way to make your living out of reading. You are one of the literati. Other people's grammatical mistakes make you insane.

Dedicated Reader   Literate Good Citizen   Book Snob   Fad Reader   Non-Reader   What Kind of Reader Are You?
Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

Book #18: The Well of Lost Plots by Jasper Fforde - Just as delicious as the first time. Now that I don't have to worry about spoiling the plot for myself, I read all the special features on jasperfforde.com while I was reading. Too much fun.

I told myself I was going to take a break from Thursday Next after this book and read The Enchantress of Florence, but I've just started Something Rotten and it's amazing. Of course.

Also coming up:
Great Expectations - made into a movie
From Then to Now by Christopher Moore (not THAT Christopher Moore, a different one) - prepositional phrase, LTER
Quicksilver - tag mirror
Girl with a Pearl Earring - Alex Award
The Tough Guide to Fantasy Land - Dianna Wynne Jones challenge

I have decided that, should the government be shut down next week, I am going to take a spontaneous trip to Prague for my birthday. Not joking. I'm keeping an eye on plane ticket prices (next-day ticket prices are currently not ideal but do-able) and I've just ordered a guidebook.

Has anyone been to Prague recently? Any tips?

I went to Prague about five years ago and had a fantastic time! I hope you get to go! We stayed at Miss Sophie's, a really nice, affordable hostel where they treated us great. I highly recommend them if you haven't already picked a place to stay. As far as sightseeing goes, it is a very walkable city and they have a good public transportation system, so it is really easy to get around and there are tons of places to visit. Definitely check out Old Town Square, Charles Bridge, the castle, the Jewish quarter, and for us literary types there are places like Kafka's birth place. I could go on and on...

86: I can't believe about the government shut down. My fiance is military and we're anxiously waiting to see if he'll get paid in April. For our sake I hope he does, for your sake I hope you get to go to Prague. :) Maybe you should just go anyways! I've never been, but I have heard nothing but the best.

Nora, I have been out of the loop for a while, but am back now. Hopefully I can keep up with you the rest of the way out.

Thanks for stopping by, Stacia! Lucky for you it's not too hard to keep up with this thread :-)

Wow, hopping off to Prague sounds lovely.

I'm sorry for the situation though. And I'm interested in the idea of the government shutting down. How does that work? And why? I tried looking it up on CNN but couldn't really understand any of it. I guess your politics are very different to over here.

I'm sure it's not a great situation for those involved though, even if I don't understand it.

I am glad I filed my taxes in February. Not that I got a refund anyway :(

This is to remind myself that I finished Something Rotten yesterday.

Book #19: Something Rotten by Jasper Fforde - amazing as always. I love how all the little bits and pieces come together. I also love reading about the Thursday Next books on Jasper Fforde's website. It's like a whole additional book of enjoyment.

I'm still reading The Enchantress of Florence, but it's boring. Which is just as well since I have to read Thursday Next: First Among Sequels so I can read One of Our Thursdays is Missing before May 1st, which is when the answers to the contest are due. Though I already know some of them.

Boy, I need to re-visit the Thursday Next series. It has been far too long since I read it.

I just need to try the series. It's on the list but it keeps slipping my mind when it comes to book selection time.

Book #20: Thursday Next: First Among Sequels by Jasper Fforde - each book in this series is my favorite, until I read the one that follows it. Amazing. There's just nothing like these books in the entire world. The way the books are so immaculately planned out so that all the loose ends are tied up and the world-building are, dare I say it, better than Harry Potter. It's like Harry Potter for people who need something to read because they have memorized Harry Potter. I love it love it love it.

On to One of Our Thursdays is Missing!!

I got one of those "floating" bookshelves for my birthday last Thursday and I've got it all set up now. I'll try to remember to take and post some pictures when I get home tonight.

Hi to you. I apologize for the belated wishes. I hope your birthday on the 14th was a great day!

Thanks Linda!

Book #21: One of Our Thursdays is Missing by Jasper Fforde - Unfortunately, not as good as the previous books. But of course, the other books are so good that it was quite inevitable. This book does set up nicely for future Thursday Next books, by remodeling the BookWorld to a geographic format, rather than the outer space-type format it had before. Fforde has changed a whole lot of the rules on us (no more time travel :-( and no more care-free hopping back and forth between BookWorld and RealWorld) but I feel confident that the world will be just as complex and the future stories just as intriguing.

I'm volunteering at my local library's spring book sale, and I got to buy some books early. I got:
The Elegance of the Hedgehog - Muriel Barbery
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon
Blindness by Jose Saramago and
The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon.
I will probably pick up a few more at the actual sale next week. I haven't done much volunteering since I left high school, and it felt really good to be useful instead of just blah, like I usually feel.

I'm still reading The Enchantress of Florence, and it is still boring. I've started Sorcery & Cecelia or the Enchanted Chocolate Pot and it is AWESOME. Today my mom and I drove to my brother's college to have brunch with him and along the way I started Napoleon's Buttons: How 17 Molecules Changed History. It's interesting but not terribly well written.

Happy spring holiday celebrating rebirth, everyone! (It's just a few hours until my favorite holiday of the year: Half-price Easter Candy Day!)

Book #22: Sorcery and Cecelia by Patricia C. Wrede - excellent! I loved this. It's like Jane Austen + Magic, or like Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell but shorter and easier and about teenage girls instead of fussy old men.

I loved Sorcery and Cecelia! Do you think you'll try the sequels?

Perhaps if they cross my path, but I don't forsee them being as good as the original.

103>

It's just a few hours until my favorite holiday of the year: Half-price Easter Candy Day!

I prefer Half-price Candy In Heart-Shaped Boxes Day, myself. :-)

That sounds like a good haul at the book sale!

Today was the actual library book sale day! Hooray! Along with the books I got from volunteering last weekend, I got:

Unseen Academicals by Terry Pratchett
World Without End by Ken Follett
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender
Stiff by Mary Roach
Douglas Adams's Starship Titanic by Terry Jones
Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys (the Norton Critical Edition, unfortunately, but for $2 I'll take what I can get)
The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak and
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

So that's 14 books total, all for $29.

On a related note, I should probably get my book buying under control. Just because books are cheap and I want them doesn't mean I should fill my room with them. Right?

Gorgeous haul!

On a related note, I should probably get my book buying under control. Just because books are cheap and I want them doesn't mean I should fill my room with them. Right? That question does not compute. ;)

Hi Nora! Thanks for posting on my thread, I've seen your name around but didn't know we shared so many books in common. Happy extremely-belated birthday! I just had one a few days ago, actually. I hope you enjoyed it. A bookshelf sounds like a useful gift! :)

Thanks Stephen! Happy belated birthday to you too.

Ohhh, what a fabulous lot of books. I'd be so happy with all of those. Extremely jealous now....I'm not allowed to buy many books this year :/

I wish I had your self-control! This is my first year out of college, and I have a job where I make money, but I have nothing to spend it on but books. I'm on a slippery slope.

Wow, lots of great books. The Wrede book is going on my wishlist because I loved her Talking to Dragons series.

And such a good haul! The Book Thief is fantastic, Stiff was really interesting, The Hunger Games is addicting, I could go on and on. I'd love to hear what you think of the Aimee Bender book. It's been on my radar for some time.

Book #23: Magic by the Lake by Edward Eager - The kids from Half Magic are back (Mark, Jane, Katherine, and Martha) and of course they manage to get into more trouble. Last time they had too little magic and had to wish for everything doubled. This time they have too much magic; a whole lakeful! (Magic by the lake.... get it?!) These books are great for kids but I'm not really feeling them now, and I think I'm going to stop reading the series. But that doesn't mean they're not good! They'll probably go into a box in the attic with the rest of the books I loved as a kid. The only part I find interesting now is what it was like to be a kid in the 1920s.

On deck for this month:
Blindness by Jose Saramago (one word title)
Hoot by Carl Hiaasen (one word title)
From Then to Now: A Short History of the World by Christopher Moore (taller than 23cm, LTER)
The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers (repeated vowel)

Super-stressful week is officially over! And by super-stressful, I mean I actually had things to do besides go to work and read. And somehow I got roped into watching 10 children while their parents were god-knows where. But that's a different story.

Now all that's on my to-do list is the following:

Next weekend: Passive-Aggressive Behavior Day. I mean, Mother's Day.
Weekend after that: LT DC meet-up! Hooray!
May 17th: I leave for PRAGUE!! SO EXCITED!

10 children? TEN!?

I'm happy you made it out of that alive and (mostly) sane! :)

See, I had signed up to sell books at the book sale at this festival thing. That = inside my comfort zone. Very much so. But the moon bounce was run by the same people and they assigned me to run that for awhile. Which I thought would be fine because it mostly just involves making sure kids take their shoes off and don't jump on each other's faces and such. But once I got to the moon bounce I realized there were 10 children inside and NO PARENTS ANYWHERE. And that was nerve-wracking. I spent the whole time thinking about all the things that could go wrong, but it ended up being uneventful. Thank goodness.

UGH work is so terrible and frustrating today!!

asdfghjkl;'

There had better be some beer and Battlestar Gallactica waiting for me at home. I plan on not thinking or interacting with people from 5pm to 8am.

beer and Battlestar Gallactica

Ha! Now you see, if all those trendy cool parties in high school were more like that I might have actually gone to one of them. :P

Oh, and yay for using moon bounces as a babysitter. I'm sure you could fashion a locking mechanism for the door so you can use them as makeshift cages I mean time-out areas...yeah...

High school parties just wish they were as cool as me. I don't think I've ever actually had a BSG watching party, but I've definitely come up with some spectacular Eureka-themed drinking games. Now if only I could remember what they are....

I'm much more relaxed now, but I have to play BSG super loud to drown out the Crazy Train (yes, the Ozzy Ozbourne song) playing at the baseball stadium down the street :-(

>116 norabelle414: watching 10 children while their parents were god-knows where

Unbelievable how people can take advantage! I was helping at a car wash to raise money for 5th grade outdoor ed. Another mom dropped off the daughter who was working the car wash and was talking with us for a while. Later, I noticed she was gone and had left her younger daughter who was standing on the corner (very busy intersection) with the older daughter waving signs. When the mom returned, she asked how much it cost to get her car washed. I couldn't stop myself. I responded $5.00 for the car wash and $10.00 for the baby sitting. She flustered that the older sister was watching her. I didn't push it. I had made my point. She paid for the car wash and mailed me a check which I turned in to the car wash fund.

Good for you! Unfortunately I think the point of the moon bounce was babysitting, I just wasn't aware I had been signed up for it.

>108 norabelle414: That's a terrific haul of books! I regularly try to get my book buying under control, but there are times when you just have to take advantage of a good opportunity. Those were so cheap that you can always just give them away later.

>124 _Zoe_: you can always just give them away later

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.

It is one of those days!

I overslept and was late to work, and forgot my cell phone at home. Both of which are not actual problems, they're just SUPER ANNOYING.

>125 norabelle414: LOL!

Just when I thought I might have grown some self-esteem... my brother has returned from school. This could mean way more time spent reading, or way less. We shall see! But I did just finish a good book:

Book #24 - The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers - there's SO much going on in this book it's hard to really describe it: gypsies, black magic, a werewolf (kinda), time travel, London in 1810, Lord Byron, Coleridge, Egyptian gods, time travel-related paradoxes, creepy clowns, deformed things that live in the sewer, and on and on and on. It's really just an amazingly well thought out novel. I love it when things come together, especially in such an exciting way.

The TBR list has been shuffled to accommodate two books about Prague, for which I depart on the 17th.
The Trial by Franz Kafka
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon

Not sure what books I'm going to take with me yet. Thankfully most of my TBR list right now is paperbacks. Traveling with hardcover books is a pain in the butt.

Bah, self-esteem, who needs it! I lose most of the time if I compare myself with my sister, but that's okay. I read books and she doesn't, so I win the IMPORTANT one. Pffft! :P

It's 8:45 and I may or may not be getting ready for bed. I'm such an old lady. I blame it on the copious amounts of fried shrimp and scallops I had for dinner at the wharf.

I got my April LTER book in the mail today! It's called Snotty Saves the Day: The History of Arcadia by Tod Davies. It's got a really adorable cover, and it came with a postcard with a torn-up teddy bear on it that says "Stop the genocide of fairy tale creatures". I think it'll be a fun read.

I guess this means I should get around to reviewing my February 2011 LTER book. . . . .

I'm the same way!! I'm an early bird to the extreme, and tend to start getting tired around 9-ish. I'm usually awake before the sun rises as well...

I'm glad you got the ER book. I'm still waiting for one from March, grr! It's not really an early review if I get it after it's published, now is it?

Don't look a gift ER book in the mouth.

Right! Last year I waited several months for one to come, so I'm used to waiting I guess. :)

At least it's a free book you're waiting for. I once had to wait three weeks for an order from Powells.

I actually won a book in members giveaway that never arrived at all. :( Hopefully the sender wasn't expecting a review...

copious amounts of fried shrimp and scallops

Mmmmm. This thread is making me jealous. Shrimp and free books. Life is good sometimes. :)

137: Oh my gosh! A baby?! That's awful, poor thing. I hope it recovers. I can't imagine how the family feels right now.

I got the Snotty Saves the Day and postcard too! It was waiting for me yesterday when I got back home from my trip.

Only 40+ messages behind, Nora :) Hopefully I can keep up better!

I hope the baby turns out to be OK. Please let us know.

That's awful. I hope the baby makes it. What a nightmare for the parents :(

My son, a toddler at the time, was playing next to the edge of a pool. I was sitting two steps away and saw him fall in without a sound. I jumped right in after him. The lady I was talking with didn't see him fall in but immediately caught on to what happened and was at the edge so I could hand him up to her. Luckily he spent little time in the water and was fine. When I related the story to Monsieur he asked if the boy sank or floated (?!) to which I replied that I didn't really wait to see. Several months later I was scooping leaves out of the pool and my son was on the other side of the diving board from me. I only heard the smallest of 'ploops' and jumped over the board to his side. As it was winter, I really didn't want to jump in this time. Even though it was nanoseconds, he was floating on his back and reaching one hand up to me. I was able to report to Monsieur that this time he floated! It was around that time that I read that 2-year old boys were the most commong drowning victims. I thought to myself - no duh!

My mum tells the story of me, aged about 18 months (I don't know exactly when), falling into a rockpool. She said one minute she looked over to where I was playing and I was fine, the next she glanced and I was floating face down in the water. She started to run over but my four year old cousin had pulled me out by the time she got there.

She has a 'water' story from her childhood as well: her mother was a primary school teacher and they had an open day/fair/fete type thing, and my grandfather was in charge of all four of their daughters. He took his eyes off my mother (the youngest at about 3) for a minute and the next thing, she had fallen into the pond. She had to be walked, dripping, in front of all the visitors to my grandmother who was furious. She exclaimed that she brought my mum to school with her every day, while she taught, with no trouble, and the one day he was in charge she ends up in the pond!!

Thankfully I do not have any 'water' stories about my girls!

Ick! I do not envy you, Nora. Sharing a house with boys of that age(or our age, even...) is bad enough, but a bathroom!? Good luck... *Searches for a first-aid kit*

Ugh. I can't believe the friend's parents would do that to you. I somehow don't imagine he'll become any more responsible by bumming around at friends' houses all the time.

Thanks guys.

Things are so far, so mediocre. They managed to only wake me up a little bit when they came home in the wee hours from a night of drinking (yup, they're 19).

So I got back at them by slamming a door or two when I woke up this morning at 6am.

Only 4 more days until Prague!

149: You have my sympathies for having to live with two teenage boys but my jealousy for getting to go Prague. :)

Quick recap of this weekend:

Saturday I had a lovely time at the DC Spring meet-up, where I met Zoe, Squeakychu, AnneDC, qebo, drneutron and his wife, and a giant hamburger. Pictures are on this thread: http://www.librarything.com/topic/112641#2697219

Today I bought tiny bottles of toiletries, a new wallet, and new shoes, and got all my hair chopped off. I'm all ready for Prague!

These are the books I'm going to bring with me, I think:
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon
The Trial by Franz Kafka
Blindness by Jose Saramago
Hoot by Carl Hiaasen
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak and
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

That should be enough. Right? Maybe not. I'll think about it.

For now, I have to procrastinate doing laundry.

Edited way later because I noticed an erroneous touchstone. I hate that :-(

I always bring far too many books on vacations, because I'm worried that I'll run out or won't have precisely what I want to read. So even though you probably have enough, I'd personally bring a few more just to be on the safe side ;)

So true. I can't sleep on airplanes so it's basically going to be 9 solid hours of reading time each way.

Hi Nora - I was lurking around the DC meet-up thread (used to live there and miss Second Story Books SO much so I was living vicariously through you all) and decided to come find your thread. Great reading you are doing and have planned. I can't recommend Kavalier and Clay highly enough. It is one of my all-time favorites.

Enjoy Prague! I've always wanted to go there but I travel a lot for work so home is usually my favorite vacation destination.

Hello! Stopping by to say it was nice meeting you and sorry about your nightmare return trip.

I hope you enjoy Prague--and also enjoy reading The Adventures of Kavalier and Clay and The Book Thief, both of which I loved. And The Hunger Games is a great gripping read but you'll probably want the next one sooner rather than later.

I generally take too many books on vacations because I overestimate how much time I'll spend reading. There's actually other stuff to do. And other places in the world have books too. 9 sleepless hours each way is serious though, and airports can be slim pickings. I like magazines for long trips -- short articles and pictures when I can't get my brain to focus. Have a great trip!

Maybe I'll bring the BookCrossing book I got from Zoe. Then if I finish it I can release it in Prague :-)

Oh, that would be exciting! I hope you do it. That book already travelled with me to Tanzania this past summer.

Nothing zaps ALL MOTIVATION TO DO WORK like knowing you're leaving on a trip in 24 hours.

Hey lookit! I'm on the blog :)

http://www.librarything.com/blogs/librarything/2011/05/lters-meet-eat-buy-books/

160: How exciting! I wish I lived close enough to do a meet up. Maybe when I move to the east coast...

>161 RosyLibrarian: You should come up to DC for the National Book Festival in September!

Have a wonderful trip, Nora! Remember Prague probably has bookshops you can explore too :)

162: I would love to, but we are moving to Charleston that very weekend. :)

I'm at the airport! My flight to JFK leaves at 3:30. My travel buddy thought (until I called him an hour ago) that we were leaving tomorrow! Whoops! He is frantically packing right now. I hope he gets here in time!

Haha! Wow, it's a good thing you called him. I hope he made it!

He did, just in time! And then our flight was delayed, of course. But now we are safely at JFK waiting for our flight to Prague to start boarding.

Phew! I'm glad he made it.

I'm looking forward to seeing pictures of Prague!

I am looking forward to pictures too, Nora! I hope one of you remembered to pack a camera :)

Have a great trip, Nora. It was so much fun getting to meet you this past Saturday.

A big thanks goes to Jim for allowing me a way to find your thread! :)

I hope you have been enjoying your trip, Nora. :)

I'm so confused! Talk looks so different! Beer is so expensive! Everyone is speaking English! How long have I been gone?

Wow, a week goes by quickly! How was your trip?

What? You haven't left yet. You said you weren't leaving until tomorrow. ... *gasp* You time traveled! Make sure you don't let yourself see yourself, or...ummm...well...something bad will happen! Like maybe talk will look different or something.

A week goes by so slowly! For example, I've been sitting on the tarmac at JFK for a week. Or possibly an hour.

Haha, why does it always seem like you have bad experiences during your return trips after you travel? :P

it really wasn't so bad. It just felt bad because I had already been on an airplane for 9 hours today.

I'm terrified to look at my talk page and try to catch up with everything.

Also I released two bookcrossing books while I was gone and I want to update the release notes but the website isn't working for some reason :-( It's now been almost two days since I released one of them!

Ok I am mostly done catching up with Talk. Meaning I read a couple threads all the way through and skimmed most of the rest.

Details about Prague will come later this week when I am less jetlagged and when the pictures are posted on the internet somewhere.

Reading-wise, this is what happened:

Book #25: The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon - Excellent! I liked this book a lot. Besides being entertaining, it got me thinking a lot about Prague, WWII, the 1930s, New York, Judaism, Golems, comic books, etc etc etc.

Book #26: The Prague Golem: Jewish Stories of the Ghetto - Reading Kavalier and Clay got me interested in Golems, so I bought this book at a museum in Prague (the Mocha museum - Art Nouveau, nothing to do with golems). It really only had 3 v. short stories about the golem, but it did have lots and lots of stories about the ghetto and the people and places in it. I read it the day before we visited the Jewish Quarter so it ended up being extremely helpful.

Book #27: Hoot by Carl Hiaasen - So cute. A quick, fun YA book. I BookCrossed this and left it in a Metro station in Prague.

Book #28: Rewired: Understanding the iGeneration and the Way They Learn by Larry D. Rosen - This book was BAD. I'll probably write a review at some point because I do like ranting about books that are this bad. It's basically about how upper-middle class white American kids who get straight As in their honors and AP classes are bored with school (WHAT?!?! Students have NEVER been bored with school since the DAWN OF TIME!!) and how to fix that by letting them play with their cell phones and video games in class. According to this book, 95% of all classrooms have a computer. That's just one tidbit I learned from this book. But it has references. Which means it's all completely true and it could not possibly be that Larry D. Rosen, Ph.D. paraphrased things wrong. Nor could it be that Larry D. Rosen, Ph. D. did not accurately represent all students when he took a poll of 2,000 upper-middle class white Californian families. Never.
I wrote snarky comments in this book and then left it at National Airport.

Book #29: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins - Eh. Pretty good, but doesn't live up to the hype. I really hate most books that are written in 1st person. It makes them seem juvenile to me. And not in the good way, more like I'm being pandered to.

Book #30: The Enchantress of Florence by Salman Rushdie - This took me FOREVER to finish, because I found it dull and kind of confusing. I think it's one of those books where having a synopsis to read would help me enjoy it more (I'd be less confused). But I couldn't find one anywhere.

Started: The Trial by Franz Kafka
Blindness by Jose Saramago

Prague was very conducive to reading (as you can see). Everyone reads on the Metro and there are tons of parks everywhere that are full of people reading on benches and in the grass. I loved it! I also got lots of reading done on the plane, and my travel buddy doesn't like TV so I had lots of reading in the hotel time (unlike when I travel with my family).

In conclusion: I brought 8 books with me to Prague. (The Book Thief is the one I didn't get to.) I bought 1 book. I finished 6 books, started 2 books, and discarded 2 books. Sounds successful to me!

End world's longest post.

Sounds like you had a great trip! Pics when you get a chance... :)

Nice (and enviable) reading summary. I like the idea of a book traveling randomly with snarky comments included. Looking forward to photos!

I feel sort of guilty for causing you to read Rewired, but at the same time, I get too much enjoyment out of a good rant about bad book to really regret it. I hope you will write a longer review later.

I don't know why publishers keep emphasizing that authors have PhDs. I feel like that's just saying that the book is bad and needs to stand on the author's credentials rather than the content.

Also, I'm impressed that you managed to read so much among all your sightseeing.

I don't know why publishers keep emphasizing that authors have PhDs.

I have a sneaking suspicion that when they do, the PhD is in a field totally unrelated to the subject of the book. I mean, you don't see "Dr. BlahBlah, PhD!" all over popular-level astronomy books by, say, Neil Tyson or Stephen Hawking. Perhaps because it's obvious from their writing that they know what they're talking about.

>183 lorax: That'll be a fun hypothesis to explore. I hope I remember to check next time I encounter a book with "PhD!!!" plastered across the cover.

It looks like Rosen's PhD is in experimental psychology, which is interesting given that his book was based more on opinion polls than on experiments ("Teens say their cellphones are important to them! Therefore they'll learn better if schools use more technology.").

182,183: Yeah, I tend to be suspicious when the book cover displays the author's PhD. Quickly scanning my shelves, seems to be a feature of education and psychology.

Glad to hear you are back home safe and sound, Nora. I am looking forward to the pictures!

Library of Congress just announced the authors that are going to be at the National Book Festival this year!

http://www.loc.gov/today/pr/2011/11-108.html

I'm particularly excited about Gregory Maguire! And Garrison Keillor and Toni Morrison and Susan Cooper and Tomi dePaola and Joshua Foer!!

Not only is the festival this year going to be TWO DAYS, but they're adding two new tents: urban fiction and graphic novels.

I'm so excited!!

Oh my goodness, what a great lineup. Unfortunately a dear friend of mine is getting married in Arizona that weekend!

Pictures of Prague have been posted!
But I'm too tired to caption all of them. So you can just guess what they are.
You can see them here: https://picasaweb.google.com/111206218313689169598/May252011Praha?authkey=Gv1sRg...

#188: What a terrific looking line up! I wish I could go!

#190: Thanks for posting the pictures, Nora. I wanted to reach through my monitor and grab the Czech cheeses! :)

188: National Book Festival is looking awfully appealing...
190: The bones are quite something. Googled "Prague bones" and there they are.

The pictures are great. I definitely need to get to Prague at some point!

The bones are actually from a town outside of Prague called Kutna Hora. They're in the basement of a church.

Well, the power is out at my office. No lights, no internet, no A/C. The surrounding buildings don't have power either. Looks like my 3 day weekend might turn into a 3.75 day weekend. What should I do with my day? Since I'm already in the city I might stay here. I could read in a park if it doesn't get too hot.

Great pics! I turned my three day into four by just not showing up this morning... :)

But I'm using most of my extra day to mow the yard.

I've been feeling AWFUL all day long, and now it's 10pm and I'm finally starting to feel okay. I hate that!!

Sorry to hear that, Nora. I hope the feeling good continues into Sunday though.

I hope you feel better today!

I do feel better today, thank you!

I think it was the jetlag catching up with me. I went straight from 13 hours on a plane on Tuesday to work 8-4 Wed and Thurs and Fri. I needed some rest!

200: Yeah, that sounds awful, glad you're on the mend!

Re: our discussion on authors who put "PhD" after their names:

I've just won The Human Genome: Book of Essential Knowledge by John Quackenbush, PhD (the suffix is on the book cover, but not his LT page) from LTER this month. Considering I am, in fact, qualified to judge genetics books (my degree has to be good for something), I'll let you all know if he lives up to his name.

Somehow an author named 'Quackenbush' does not inspire me with his qualifications, no matter how good they are :)

Hmm. John Quackenbush is a professor of computational biology and would seem to be qualified to write such a book. But his PhD is in theoretical particle physics.

>202 norabelle414: Hey, I won The Human Genome too! I didn't even notice the "PhD" on the cover, heh.

I know nothing about genetics, so it will be fun to compare notes.

I was going to do a May summary, but I've spent the past several days helping my borderline-hoarder father move out of the house that I grew up in, which he has sold, so I am all kinds of exhausted. Especially emotionally.

I will mention that I've decided to add

Book #31: Prague & the Best of the Czech Republic to my books read this year. It was my guidebook in Prague and god knows I had read it cover to cover by the end of the trip.

I'm currently reading Quicksilver by Neal Stephenson, which is enjoyable but very long. I've not made much progress on The Trial or Blindness

That is all.

206: Aww, you sound super stressed, I'm sorry. That can't have been an easy move. Hope this coming week is better for you!

What Marie said, Nora!

I just finished watching the mini-series of The Pillars of the Earth on Netflix. Most of it was good, but the ending was bad. The book ending was so poetic! but the movie ending was just lame and anti-climactic.

> 206

I've spent the past several days helping my borderline-hoarder father move out of the house that I grew up in

That sounds rough. Where is your dad going to be living now? How has he taken the move?

The Google logo is definitely fun to play with today. :)

*runs off to look at google*

Ooh, that is fun.

212: *google...* Cute.

212: I know, my co-worker and I were trying to strum a song earlier. :)

http://techie-buzz.com/tech-news/google-les-paul-guitar-doodle.html

Here is how to play the Titanic theme song (My Heart Will Go On) on the doodle

Book #32: Blindness by Jose Saramago - I'm extremely conflicted about this book. The story is amazing. The narration follows the first dozen or so victims of a blindness epidemic, who are forcefully quarantined in an abandoned mental asylum to keep the rest of the population from going blind. It's so perfectly apocalyptic and ambiguous that I just wanted to eat it all up! There are no names of places or people given, and no descriptions outside of one or two identifying features from the brief contact the victims had before the blindness - the girl with the dark glasses, the old man with the eyepatch, the car thief, etc etc. The ending is great and there's a sequel called Seeing which I really want to read because I want to know what happens next.

HOWEVER, the way the book is written is TERRIBLE. There are no paragraph breaks anywhere, and no quotation marks to denote the start/end of dialogue or the changing of speakers. There are lots of swift back-and-forth conversations with groups of 3 or more people, and the only way to tell when a new person is speaking is with a comma and a capital letter. But there are also commas in the sentences, and sometimes phrases start with "I" which is always capitalized! Then where are you!? I almost gave up on this twice because I was just so frustrated with trying to read the dialogue. I'm sure it's supposed to be some allusion to the chaos and confusion and frustration of everyone being blind, but it completely ruined the story for me.

I'm wondering if the sequel is written in the same annoying way. And if Saramago does weird stuff like this in all of his books.

I guess I'm rating this a 3? Five for the story, one for the way it's written.

I was conflicted in my reading of Blindness too, Nora, so you are not the only one.

I really want to read Blindness but I'm afraid of that odd format so many people complain about. =/

The reviews say very nice things about the audiobook. I hate audiobooks, but this seems like an exceptional case for one.

From the reviews of Seeing it seems that it is written in the same format. Perhaps I'll see if my library has the audiobook.

Check out this sweet NPR Books article about some good science fiction books:

http://www.npr.org/2011/06/14/137003853/mind-bending-sci-fi-books-for-a-fantasti...

I'm still slogging through Quicksilver. I'm on page 320 out of ~900. Has anyone read it? Please tell me it gets more interesting. So far there is zero plot, just lots of talking about math and alchemy and dissecting things. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy that stuff. But this is fiction, it's supposed to have a plot of some kind.

I picked up The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake last night and read the first couple chapters. It's decent so far, but it's written in 1st person and I don't like that at all.

223: Oh, that's interesting about The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake because I've had my eye on it for awhile. I'd be interested to see what you think of it in the end.

I will be sure to let you know. It's not bad at all, it's just that first person perspective (especially in adult books) is one of my pet peeves.

225: Huh. I don't mind 1st person, but I dislike haphazardly shifting perspectives (OK when the story is clearly different perspectives for different intertwining strands, but disconcerting when a scene is mostly from the perspective of person X, and suddenly person Y's thoughts flit by). I also don't like present tense.

I'm curious about Quicksilver but daunted by its size.

I'm listening to The Crimson Petal and the White and it's in the oddest tense. It's present tense and the narrator talks to you, the reader, as if you were standing in the middle of the scene. "If you look closely, you'll see..." - very hard to get used to.

>227 Morphidae: So I guess that's in 2nd person? So weird.

I hope you manage to get used to the weird narration; The Crimson Petal and the White ended up being one of my favourites when I read it a few years ago. I think it may get less strange as it goes along, but maybe I just stopped noticing it.

Yeah. I almost quit after the first CD, but I'm on the third one now and I'm glad I continued.

And, oh boy, is it bawdy.

Added The Crimson Petal and the White to my wishlist. Thanks guys.

I forgot to mention that I got my LTER book The Human Genome: Book of Essential Knowledge by John Quackenbush, PhD in the mail on Monday. The cover picture on the book page is wider than normal so I had assumed it was a textbook-style book. However, it is actually the world's tiniest genetics book. It's only 7.5 inches tall. Interesting.

Fair warning - it's raunchy and filled with explicit sex among... other things. Gross things. Heh.

>230 Morphidae: Yep, definitely bawdy.

My boyfriend always laughs at me because I seem to read a disproportionate number of books about prostitutes. I maintain that it's just a natural result of reading historical fiction about poor women.

>231 norabelle414: I was surprised too by how tiny The Human Genome is. Maybe this will be one ER book that I get read promptly, for a change.

>232 Morphidae: EXCELLENT!

I don't know if I've ever read anything about a prostitute. *checks* Catcher in the Rye, Crime and Punishment, Memoirs of a Geisha. Not really. I'm clearly reading the wrong books.

LOL. You are! I've read all three (well, okay, only part of Crime and Punishment) but believe me, they have nothing on this. This coming from someone who likes what I call "urban fantasy porn" such as Hamilton's Anita Blake series. Not much shocks me, but there are times when I stare at the player open-mouthed.

Generally speaking, it's best to keep one's mouth firmly shut where porn is involved. I'm familiar with current technology and I know technically there is nothing to worry about...but...you can never be too sure!

Oh, oh! There were prostitutes in The Enchantress of Florence. One was named Skeleton and the other was named Mattress and they worked together.

I keep wondering how Stephen always manages to find the conversations where porn is involved. . .

He doesn't find the conversations, the conversations find him.

None of my threads have EVER talked about porn before Stephen started stopping by.

Great explanation, Nora! I guess he must have some kind of built-in porn-conversation detector.

But...but...I didn't do or say anything until after the topic came up! It's not my fault you ladies get sex on the brain whenever I'm around. *Smiles innocently*

Other people's birthdays are the best thing ever invented. I get cake, but I don't have to be the center of attention. Fabulous.

Haha, that is strangely brilliant... :)

I thought I had planned things so that I wouldn't have to see my house empty. But of course, nothing went as planned and I had to spend a couple hours yesterday helping my dad clean up. He said it was a ton of help, so it was worth it, but I'm still kind of reeling. I literally have never seen that house without stuff in it before.

Then I spent some time today looking for apartments on Craigslist and that was exhausting and depressing. And my friend can't afford to pay her phone bill so I can't call her. So it's back to candy and computer games for me.

I'm sorry things didn't work out do well for you today. Hopefully the candy and games helps and tomorrow is better! :)

What Jim said, Nora!

Book #33: The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender - This book was weird and I don't think I liked it. It was trying pretty hard to be The Time Traveler's Wife, but not succeeding. I'll think about it and write some more later.

So I signed up for a free trial from audible.com today. I hate audiobooks with a passion, but I'm having trouble concentrating at work lately because of all my crazy stuff going on and I think having an audiobook might help. And hey, they're still better than e-books.

Does anyone have any suggestions as to what I should get? Preferably something I haven't already spent good money on. (I already checked for the sequel to Blindness, and they don't have it. Of course.)

I just recently started listening to audio books, myself (mostly in the car). I find I prefer non-fiction to fiction in this format, because I am so worried about missing an important part of a novel. That said, I did really enjoy The Uncommon Reader on audio. As far as non-fiction goes, Stiff by Mary Roach was great fun on audio.

Ooh, non-fiction. Good idea. I was thinking about a) something long, so I get my "money"'s worth, and b) something kind of dry that I might not have the attention span for otherwise.

I'm leaning towards getting Les Misérables, but a lot of non-fiction falls into those two criteria too.

Boo audiobooks. Why ruin a perfectly good nonfiction with those? If I were going to use them, I'd use them strictly for things I don't care for reading in the first place. Like mysteries.

248: I love audio books and use them for my commute to work. I don't think it takes away from the story at all whether it is non-fiction, fiction, mysteries, etc. In fact spoken word was the only way stories were told long before the written word came into being. But that is just my two cents. :)

Does your library have the OverDrive service? That is how I got into trying audio books for free and could discover which kinds of books were best for me.

>251 Ape: I don't like mysteries either. And audiobooks really suck, but they're better than not reading at all.

Right?

But if I listen to something I don't really care about then my mind will wander and it won't help me concentrate at work. So I should listen to something that I want to read, but normally would not be able to get through. I think. Maybe I'll listen to some free first chapters and see what I think.

>252 RosyLibrarian: I don't really know anything about my library. I have a card (from when I was 12; technology has probably changed since then) but I haven't checked anything out from there in years. I just go for volunteering and the book sales.

ETA: I checked out my library's website and they do have Overdrive. However, I'll have to get a new library card as there is now some kind of fancy log-in thing on the site. When did they stop using the big red card where I had to hand-write my own name and ID# ?!?

Also it seems that most of the books they have on Overdrive are in WMA format, and I need mp3. Lame.

253: LOL, I thought the same thing the first time I got a library card and suddenly needed a PIN number. And I had the same problem with WMAs when I had a Mac, but they seem to be releasing more MP3s over time.

Nora: Do you have an ipod or some such mechanical contraption? If so, you could check out audiobooks on cd from the library and then 'burn' them onto the ipod, which is what I do. I too used to shudder at the idea of listening to a book rather than read it (and I still an very picky about how the reader sounds), but I've come to love them for when I'm knitting or otherwise crafting - gives my brain something to do while my hands are busy. Hopefully it'll work out the same for you at work!

I have an ipod but I think I'd prefer to listen to books on my phone, which is an Android and won't play WMA files. Especially since there is an audible.com app so I don't have to worry about plugging my phone into my computer to get audiobooks onto it.

I do pretty much all of my movie and tv watching while I knit.

Oooh, and app - excellent! I can knit a bit while watching movies, but I'm not good enough to go very fast that way. Sigh.

SO I just got back from a concert at the Kennedy Center at which I got to see OK Go, one of my very favorite bands, for free. It was basically the most amazing night of my life and I can now die a happy woman. Good night!

Cool! I love their videos on youtube.

They were incredible. I'm so fortunate to live in this amazing city where I can do things like go a free rock concert and still be in bed by 10:30.

NEW THREAD

http://www.librarything.com/topic/119514

This one is now dead. If you bring it back to life, I will hold you personally responsible for the ensuing zombie apocalypse. And you know what that means.

Beheading.