Ellie twinkles her way into fifth

Five homes in four months, I'm doin' well! It's a sunny day, it's the Easter holidays, and I have a large mocha and a freshly-baked scone stuck next to my desk - what a happy way to start a thread!

My previous threads:
1) http://www.librarything.com/topic/104722
2) http://www.librarything.com/topic/107030
3) http://www.librarything.com/topic/108542
4) http://www.librarything.com/topic/111309

As always, you can also catch up on a load of general chatter and bookshop news over at my blog, Musings of a Bookshop Girl... I'm doing a couple of challenges over there this year too (my 'Books Read 2011' page has the links), as well as trying for a better result on the LT Books off the Shelf Challenge for 2011. Wish me luck!

And finally, here's this year's ticker:

I won't use touchstones in the Master List (!) - too much hassle to keep loading and correcting them - but I'll add the message number of each review/comment for quick reference.

BOOKS READ 2011

Thread 1:
1) Blacklands - Belinda Bauer
2) The Darkest Night (Lords of the Underworld 1) - Gena Showalter
3) The Chrysalids - John Wyndham

Thread 2:
4) The Betrayal of Natalie Hargrove - Lauren Kate
5) Holes - Louis Sachar
6) Bachelor Brothers' Bed & Breakfast - Bill Richardson
7) Seasons of Life: The Biological Rhythms Living Things Need to Thrive and Survive - Russell Foster and Leon Kreitzman
8) Awkward Situations for Men - Danny Wallace
9) Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking - Malcolm Gladwell
10) Garden Spells - Sarah Addison Allen
11) The Thirty-Nine Steps - John Buchan

Thread 3:
12) To Touch a Wild Dolphin - Rachel Smolker
Bonus Read: 50 Physics Ideas You Really Need to Know - Joanne Baker
13) Killing Britney - Sean Olin
14) The Shallows: How the Internet is Changing the Way We Think, Read and Remember - Nicholas Carr
15) Boys Don't Cry - Malorie Blackman
Bonus Read: A Kitten Called Moonlight - Martin Waddell
16) The Reformed Vampire Support Group - Catherine Jinks
17) Icefire - Chris d'Lacey
18) Stone Cold - Robert Swindells
19) Nocturnes: Five Stories of Music and Nightfall - Kazuo Ishiguro
20) The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins

Thread 4:
21) A World Without Bees - Alison Benjamin and Brian McCallum
22) Bloodstream - Tess Gerritsen
23) Tipping the Velvet - Sarah Waters
24) Don't Mention the War!: A Shameful European Rail Adventure - Stewart Ferris and Paul Bassett
25) Beach Babylon - Imogen Edwards-Jones and Anonymous
26) Perfume: The Story of a Murderer - Patrick Süskind
27) Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict - Laurie Viera Rigler

This thread:
28) The Darkest Kiss (Lords of the Underworld 2) - Gena Showalter (message 79)
29) Owl Cry - Deborah van der Beek (message 103)
30) How Reading Changed My Life - Anna Quindlen (message 105)
Bonus Read: Kate and Wills Up the Aisle: A Right Royal Fairy Tale - Alison Jackson (message 182)
31) Long Lankin - Lindsey Barraclough (message 184)
32) The Espressologist - Kristina Springer (message 191)
33) Wishful Drinking - Carrie Fisher (message 218)

Right, a catch-up to start us off... I've not been reading a whole lot of late, it being so busy around here and all, but I'm in the middle of Gena Showalter's second book in the testosterone-fuelled Lords of the Underworld series, The Darkest Kiss. It's about Lucien, who is bonded to the demon of Death, and his kiss-or-kill relationship with Anya, goddess of Anarchy. I'm liking it better than The Darkest Night so far... I'm also mid-Blackberry Wine by Joanne Harris, and have The Wonder of Girls by Michael Gurian temporarily pushed onto the Easter-madness back-burner.

This morning I bought myself three more books - a humorous memoir of a primary school teacher (I think - I didn't look that closely, it just sounded good!), Cassandra Clare's City of Bones and a little book called The Case Against Perfection: Ethics in the Age of Genetic Engineering by Michael J. Sandel, which sounded interesting. The Cassandra Clare was a bit of a treat because I actually bought it new and full price from the indie bookshop in town, since I was in there buying for my sister anyway... :-)

Oh, and in case anyone's interested, I nearly finished the epic shopping required for my sister's '21 for 21' birthday present! It was getting a bit dicey towards the end, but I managed:

1-3) The Hunger Games trilogy, by Suzanne Collins
4) Friday Night Lights season 1 - I promised I'd get her hooked one way or another!
5) Champney's body wash
6) Gorjuss tissues with a cute design on the pack
7) 3 little packs kitsch stickers
8) Beautiful little Paperblanks journal in their newest design
9) 21st birthday socks!
10) Haematite and mother-of-pearl bracelet
11) Strawberry mug
12) Notepaper cube in a leaf-covered wooden box
13) A bottle of Bulmer's pear cider
14) Lindor Lindt white chocolate truffles
15) Garden mint and chocolate orange handmade soaps
16) 2 puzzle books for summer - she likes to do them on holiday or in the garden when it's too hot to read
17) Me to You 'Happy Birthday' bear
18) Bourjois lip gloss
19) Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater
20) Little boutique-sweetshop packs of mini eggs and rainbow buttons

And 21, on Monday market day, will be a black sheer scarf with tiny silver sequinny things dotted across it, after she admired mine this morning. I was wondering which colour/style scarf to buy for this last present, so that was quite nice timing on her part!

Does that sound like the right mix of class 'n' kitsch, d'ya think? Each thing is going to be wrapped and stashed in a massive gift bag, so hopefully it'll be almost like a treasure bag or Christmas stocking, where she won't know what's coming next...

Hi Ellie! *Hugs*

Pear cider! Num!

Glad you're back, and (as yet) un-eaten by the cats.

Awesome gift bag. Makes me wish I could be there to see the glee! You'll have to share how it goes.

howdy! :)

Sounds like you've been busy indeed!

Today's been pretty quiet in the shop, mercifully - a couple of big sales rather than lots of little ones - but yes, it's been generally busy, at work and outside it. We have another book pick-up to do after work today, for example, which is always a pain. These ones ain't free so we have to start trying to price them up on the spot while the lady looks on, it's not a particularly pleasant way of doing things...

I had to hurry things along for Hannah's present because I suddenly realised that she's going back to uni a few days before, so it was either give it to her early, or wait and give it to her about a month too late! Just that one last pressie to get anyway, it'll be a relief when it's done (though I have to wrap them all now, without her seeing them, eeek!).

Ohhhh, I just want to be outside right now, enjoying the sunshine, reading in peace and listening to the birds. I'm actually chilly in here, shivering away while people swan about in shorts and sundresses, it's ridiculous! And I have a headache again. :-(

*Hugs* to everyone, I'm just in that kinda mood today!

P.S. Has anyone seen the new stats page for your library? It's so interesting! This is mine - just insert your username instead of mine after 'profile'...

http://www.librarything.com/profile/elliepotten/stats/physical

Apparently if I placed all my books one on top of another in a giant book stack it would be somewhere between the Niagara Falls and the Taj Mahal in height; their weight in gold would be worth $24,142,396, and I'd need over 175 feet of shelves to house them all. That's where I'm going wrong, then!

Love the gift bag! You're just getting City of Bones now? I thought you would've had and read that ages ago. 'Tis a good'n :)

Ah, it's nice seeing you again. I seriously thought you dropped of the face of the Earth. I enjoyed seeing your new thread!

Hi Katie! For some reason I kept skipping over those books - you know, when you just keep thinking, 'another time... later... maybe not for me...' no matter how many good reviews you see? It's a whole other matter having them there in front of me in the bookshop though - I was determined to buy SOMETHING shiny and new, since I never usually go all the way over there!

Haha, hello Nathan - I do tend to go a tiny bit AWOL when the school holidays hit and the hordes of tourists and families descend on the shop, particularly when I'm not reading all that much! And when I get hooked on a new TV programme... I think I disappeared for a while when I start watching Gilmore Girls, didn't I? And FNL? Now I watch those things first thing in the morning - one episode, while I have breakfast - so they don't cut into my life so much - but things like Campus (Professor Beer, mmm) and The Big C and The Ricky Gervais Show (I love those guys!) are all on 4OD so they're just too darn tempting!

>14 elliepotten: I don't watch much TV anymore. The last time I really watched TV and actually enjoyed it was...maybe October before I got on LT. Oh no, I'll be one of those people who won't own a TV now in the future. That's not good. Or is it? Ah, conflicted! The only shows I watch now is Pawn Stars, Man Vs. Food, Bizzare Foods, Chopped, House, Fringe (but only very rarely, the same with Bones), never American Idol, except for the finale, and others that I can't seem to recall, but I don't have the patients to sit down and watch shows now, and I check when it's over every five minutes.

Waves!

See, being a Brit girl with only four channels (yes, that's right people, FOUR) the only ones I've ever heard of out of that list are 'House', 'Bones' and 'American Idol', and I've never watched any of them!

*waves back to Kath*

Half an hour until closing time! Then we only have cleaning to do and we can go... and that book-buying stop... and cooking dinner... *sighs and thinks hopefully of sitting outside with a nice risotto and a drink before it gets too chilly*

There are 2-3 shows I like pretty well..

Starring :)

I love TV. I hate TV. It's complicated.

I'm actually addicted to two reality shows right now. Oh, the horror. Something must be wrong with me. I can't get enough of Deadliest Catch and The Ultimate Fighter though.

Oddly, I haven't been keeping up with the new season of Mythbusters. Hmmm, yeah, something is definitely wrong here.

ugh... not a fan of reality shows :PP

Me either...usually...

Oh yeah, I can't forget about Mythbusters and Dirty Jobs on the Discovery Channel. And the Most Extreme on Animal Planet. And I don't really watch anything from the Science Channel or National Geographic anymore. And Clash of the Gods if it's on. It usually isn't anymore sadly.

Whew! I almost didn't find you in time to catch up!!! What a lucky young woman Hannah is to have such a thoughtful sister! I think the gift bag sounds wonderful, and I congratulate it for filling it so successfully. *leaves muttering, "City of Bones, eh?"*

Hi Ellie! Glad to hear you've been having fun (and working) while you took a little LT break. Your list of presents for your sister sounds like the perfect mix of kitsch and classy. I have to agree with you that I do lose all other "priorities" when I start watching a new TV show. I'm nearly caught up with Midsomer Murders and as soon as I get a new one from Netflix I watch it that night. (This is terrible, but I've even considered upping the number of discs I get a month so I can watch them all!) Thing is, I really like where my life is at right now - I've got a house to myself, two snuggly cats, hundreds of unread books, music galore at my fingertips, and a fairly flexible schedule for work. If I want to come home at 2:30, put on my pj's and read until I go to bed at night I can! (Not that I'm doing that tonight or anything - ahem.)

At any rate, I'm glad you're doing well, headache aside, and good luck with all of the crazy children in your shop this weekend! (Hug) and a *smooch* for you dear!

Yeah, I get stuck on shows too. Especially if there's a back catalogue and I can just sit and watch several episodes in a row or 1-2 a day. But I can usually keep it down to 3 or 4 shows at a time. Right now it's Supernatural, X-Men (the 90s series, ah nostalgia), and finishing Rome. Tomorrow the new Doctor Who starts here in the US :D

What do you think of Blackberry Wine, Ellie? I read it a few years ago and I was sort of on the fence with it. I think my favorite Joanne Harris books are Chocolate and Five Quarters of Orange. I've got Blue Eyed Boy in myTBR Tower still to read.

Glad I'm not the only reader with a bit of a TV fetish... I finished Gilmore Girls - all seven seasons! - on DVD, I'm on season three of FNL, but there are some great comedy shows on TV right now as well! I LOVE The Ricky Gervais Show (can you top those three guys for comic chemistry?!), Campus is so surreal it's brilliant, The Big C is pretty funny and strangely uplifting, and I'm a sucker for things like Stand Up For The Week because there are so many stand-up comedians I like to keep up with, plus Have I Got News For You is back on... *sigh* If one of my favourite comedians is on, I have to watch it! Sarah Millican, Jack Whitehall and Micky Flanagan being some of my new favourites. Hooray for TV that makes you laugh! Plus old faves like Dara O'Briain and Marcus Brigstocke who are always funny anyway.

Hey Caro - long time no see! I'm quite on-the-fence about Blackberry Wine myself at the moment, and I haven't even finished it yet! I've put it to one side for a while to read a bit of fluff for Easter. It's okay, but I'm not quite sure where it's going at the moment. There have been enough hints to whet my interest, but it's not exactly magnetic stuff thus far. I adored Chocolat so it's possible that my expectations are too high for this one!

Oh, and I forgot... Graham's ill again. THE SWINE FLU HAS RETURNED! Maybe it just never really went away, but all we know is, he got really tired again, spent half of yesterday in bed, and had a fever again by last night. Bloody chuffing hell. :-(

On a happier note, I'm starving and there's a delicious fresh fruit scone in the office with my name on it! Book and scone, book and scone, book and scone... *feels spirits lifting like magic*

Oh no! Sorry to hear about Graham..
:(

How has the day been going post scone?

I'm still eating the scone! And the drink I ordered at about 9am. And I haven't even started the lunchtime panini I ordered at around 2pm. (To put this in perspective, it's now 4:30pm)... We were doing quite nicely until a whole bunch of kids appeared at about 3pm, and the day's been downhill from there! :-(

Daaaaamn, I hate the school holidays.

*Hugs* Stay well, dear.

Am doing, thanks... :)
And congratulations on not fessing up to your BIRTHDAY TOMORROW in time for me to do anything about it, btw. Your computer won't handle an e-card and the post offices aren't open until Tuesday, very stealthy of you! :P

When I get home I'm going to crack open my book, get an Easter egg out of the cupboard, cook a garlic bread, and be a complete slob. And possibly sleep a bit, since the water meter/pipes in my flat are doing something VERY noisy and weird that kept me awake all last night. It was like a cross between a loud single note on a trumpet, and a swarm of angry hornets, except it didn't stop. And the man at the water board said it was down to their Billing department to deal with it because the meter's spinning round and mounting up like we're using an entire reservoir, and THEY'RE not open because it's the Bank Holiday. So I've got at least another night or two of it. *sighs deeply and feels very sorry for the poor Easter egg that's gonna get it good and proper in about an hour and a half's time* ;-)

Muahaha! Stealth is my middle name!
*Trips over a chair*

Fail! Evidently you need more ninja practise, sweets...

I didn't have Easter eggies, but I DID have garlic pizza bread, a bit of bolognese and a bit of sweet popcorn, so it was all good... Likewise, I didn't read a bloody thing, but I DID manage to wrap all 20 of the presents I've bought so far for Hannah, and I bought the last one this morning, hooray!

I suppose... *Goes off in the corner and practices ninja karate chops, to the amusement of everyone else in the room*

Mmmm, I haven't had a garlic and pepperonic pizza in some time... *drools*

Na, this isn't actually pizza, it's just garlic bread in a flat pizza shape instead of in a ciabatta or baguette. Garlic and pepperoni sounds... intense. Garlic and chicken I can go with!

Keep practising, Grasshopper.

Oh! I just saw 'garlic pizza' and skipped right over the bread part! That makes sense. :)

Right, I'll keep practicing. I'm staying away from the nunchucks though, if you don't mind. I've seen too many videos of men hitting themselves in the crotch to even think about those horrid things! I'm just sticking to karate chops.

*Somehow manages to accidentally karate chop himself in the groin*

-.-

Oh jeez. BAD Grasshopper.

Ooooh, we just had the most enormous not-quite-sale! The thin, frail-looking, health-problem-ridden little mouse of a woman who's been coming in since we opened arrived today in a dazzle of Gypsy-Rose-Lee colour, it was amazing! Bright clothes, a headscarf, multiple necklaces, the works. She was like a different woman, I didn't even recognise her for a minute. Previously, following an accident just before we first met her, she has been known to us as 'Whiplash Lady'. Thankfully she finally has a name, which is always better with our best customers! She always goes a teensy bit overboard with her buying, but this was incredible! She's stashed away an enormous boxful of things to come back for tomorrow, including three books, a £20 Paperblanks journal, £20 of art prints, two old maps at £15 for the pair, a handbag notebook at £4.50, a pile of audiobooks, and one of our new £50 hand-crafted Swarovski pens with beautiful red enamelling. *keels over*

On the other hand, lovely though she is, she hasn't paid yet. And now Mum's implying that I should probably be here tomorrow to actually sell her the stuff, rather than taking my promised day off. :-(

Still, I managed to suppress the almighty 'WHEEEEEE!' that was threatening to burst from my grinning lips, so I did well, I think! :-)

Awww! And here I just sent you a message about your day off tomorrow! Maybe you should get Thursday off, then...

Glad you might make such a large sale though. Just don't celebrate by going to amazon and buying £20 + £20 + £15 + £4.50 + £50 worth of books, you hear? ;)

Darn it, you rumbled me! I might have to do a massive 'The Postman's Going to Kill Me' order, to make up for the suckiness of NOT HAVING A DAY OFF! Honestly, Mum was only kinda joking about that, but then I came home and Hannah put on her best 'feeling icky' face (despite going out for dinner tomorrow night, I hasten to add, and going to the cinema with Dad on Wednesday as well...) and now I'm working tomorrow. If she doesn't go back to uni on Thursday I might JUST get Friday off (Royal Wedding, woohoo! *waves tiny Union Jack frantically*)... but then again I might not. So that's nice.

And I was feeling icky last night, forgot to finish/review/add to my online grocery shopping in time for the deadline, and when the 'lucky jackpot' delivery arrived tonight I found that all I'd ordered was a bit of salad, a pizza, some cream crackers and an unholy number of chocolate chip muffins. *secretly feels slight pleased about that last part*

At least tomorrow's No Longer A Bank Holiday, so except for the schoolkids and the 'How many bank holidays this week? Bugger it, I'll take the whole thing off!' brigade, it might be a bit quieter. Which means extra time for me and my inevitable Lime Lounge mocha to bond with a good book. Hooray! *Waves tiny Union Jack again just for the joy of that happy, happy thought*

Yeah, I'm a bit sleepy now. Bedtime, methinks!

*Pondering*
Why do the British get "bank" holidays and the Americans get "government" holidays? Especially when so many of them are, in reality, "church" holidays.

You can call it whatever you want, s'long as it's still a holiday! :P

I love the grocery list, Ellie. I think salad, pizza, crackers, and chocolate chip muffins covers just about everything. "Oh look, I'm eating healthy, heh heh," "Oh screw it, gimme NOM NOMS," "I'll just have 1...10...50," and "CHOCOLATE!!!!!!"

Oh, and yay for murderous postworkers. It's always fun when the mailman sits at the mailbox for a minute or two trying to stuff all the packages in the mailbox.

Have you read Five Quarters of the Orange yet, Ellie? If not, I think you should add this to your wish list because I think you'll enjoy this one.

*waves hello*

Hi! Just skimming through . . . I'm not even going to try to catch up all the posts I've missed.

Yello everyone! I THINK I've got Five Quarters of the Orange somewhere around here Caro - or maybe Mum has. Or we'll get one in the shop, I'm sure. And I've also got Sleep, Pale Sister, The Lollipop Shoes, Holy Fools and Gentlemen and Players still to read. No lack of Harris in my house!

Stefano - I do like your 'journey through Ellie's culinary experience' - it's almost like you were here! *looks around warily*

I hate Bank Holidays now we have the shop, because nobody seems to be able to last 24 hours without shopping these days so we have to be open every time! And people EXPECT you to be open at all hours and get huffy if you dare to want to close on time to get home! *simmers quietly*

On the plus side, I have my second mocha here, plus a piece of raspberry cheesecake in the fridge to take home, AND a crispy bacon, mozzarella and mushroom panini, all from the lovely people over the road. And it gave me a good excuse to sit on their sofa and read a book for a bit in peace while I waited. Hooray!

Plus plenty of muffins at home for watching Campus later, obviously... :-)

Oh my good grief... Whiplash Lady (she now has a name, but may also have Google, so I'll just call her B) returned, and went on a marathon spree that surpassed even what we expected!

Although she put back the audio tapes and the handbag notebook she'd picked up yesterday, she picked up even more today to add to the pile! She more than doubled her pile of art prints, bought FOUR Paperblanks journals at about £60 the lot, a £15 tote bag, three expensive mind-body-spirit books, a £55 Swarovski crystal pen, a £10 old book, a £50 edition of Wordsworth, two old maps at £15 the pair... When she hit £250 we decided we'd better give her a discount, but we still made £225 in one sale! AND when she came back with a big portfolio bag to put everything in, she brought me a £10 yummy-smelling candle from the new boutique on the road out of town, which was lovely of her. *keels over and gasps for water*

I made myself feel less mercenary by heading over to the huge 'HELP SAVE JAPAN' event being held at The Virts card-flourishing community (they are AMAZING guys, their tutorials are legendary!) and fulfilling my promised pledge... Then went back into the office and grinned a bit more! ;-)

>45 elliepotten: Where I live now there is a staunch refusal to be opened on holidays by many shop owners. Coming from NYC where everything is opened 24/7/365 it still strikes me as odd, but I definitely see why they do it. There is more to life!

We've always had Christmas, Thanksgiving, and Easter off but had to work every other holiday. This past year we finally got to be closed on the 4th of July. Not enough sales to make up for labor, yet our boss wants us to be open again this year? He had 1 store open last year that literally only sold 14 pizzas all day. Sometimes I think he just gets a kick out of making us slave away while he takes up to 15 vacations a year (yes you heard me right, 15). He's already had 6 this year and it's not even May. . . .

Yay for book-buying addictions! Ummm, I mean Whiplash Lady's addiction, of course... ;)

>47 jessieb30: - It wouldn't be so bad if we had staff to take over so we're not working EVERY time, but there's only the two of us, and we need both at the shop every day, so that's a no-go...

Awww Katie, that sucketh. Not that we have 4th July here, but I know we'd definitely be working it because it's our 2nd anniversary at the shop! :-)

Stephen - Yeah, except now I'm apparently her new BFF and she's been back today, left a handful of books 'for later' and disappeared again. Which is decidedly less awesome than yesterday since I'm deaf in one ear and a bit fed up, Mum's got a splitting headache, Graham's still got flu and we'd all rather be at home if town's not too busy today... We can't go anywhere now unless she reappears! :-(

AND she made me look at 66 weird photos of her, her house, her new dress, her shrine (!) on her phone, showed me her new bracelet, and generally got a bit weird. Why do they all congregate in our shop, that's what I'd like to know?! On second thoughts, don't answer that. ;-)

Awwww...I'm sure she is sweet, really. Then again, maybe that's just me. I just love crazy book people... ;)

No, really, she does sound a bit...off. But hey, if she's going to spend that amount of money on a regular basis, it might be worth putting up with her, right? *Shrug*

Sounds like things have been lively for you Ellie!

>51 Ape: - Exactly! *takes a deep breath and waits for the pound-signs to resurface in her eyes* :-)

>52 mckait: - Indeed...

Don't mind me, I just get royally tetchy when I've not had a day away from the shop in a while, ESPECIALLY during manic holiday weeks! I may be wonderfully charming, amazingly winning, and just plain ol' delightful to be around (*coughs loudly to cover Stephen's snort*) but my people skills just don't extend to three solid weeks of Easter frenzy!

Well, she came back at nearly 4:30, bought another £25-worth of books on religion and churches and whatnot, a couple of audio books as well, showed me her new jangly bracelets and the mad textile design she sewed onto her cardigan, and set aside ANOTHER £20 or so of books for tomorrow... Wow, I wish I had money to spend like that on books! :P

I may be wonderfully charming, amazingly winning, and just plain ol' delightful to be around

*Nods in agreement* And apparently you are still sensible, even under all that stress! *Smooch* ;)

Now that I think about it...we get a lot of "crazy" people coming to our twice annual library book sales. Hmmm. I wonder why that is...and here I thought books helped me STAY sane...

Poor Ellie! At least you've had some good sale days at the shop lately!

ALL book lovers are crazy. Otherwise, they wouldn't love books, now would they? :)

Hope your evening was more relaxing, Ellie!

Crazy logic, Stephen. You want to try this very comfy coat? The sleeves are a bit odd, but I'm sure you'll like it. ;)

Here, let me help... *hides straps and buckles out of sight round the back*... Some people may think of it as restrictive - we prefer to think of it as cosy.

On second thoughts, dear Stefano, you covered for that snort of derision so beautifully all by yourself that I might let you off this time.

Soooo, things are looking a tad rosier this morning. After dragging myself out of bed far too late, I thought ahead and bundled a big choc chip muffin in my bag for today, so I'm sitting here quite happily with a book, a mocha from over the road, and a half-eaten muffin. PLUS we went across to Mind this morning to pick up our fortnightly batch of books, and I managed to find FOUR books I wanted. If you remember my mixed feelings about Don't Mention the War!: A Shameful European Rail Adventure, you'll remember that I also said I'd probably read the first one if I ever came across it. Well, to my surprise, this morning I did! So I got Don't Lean Out of the Window! for free, and also found a big book full of photos of film stars, from black-and-white shots of the movie greats to modern photos of icons like Morgan Freeman and Julia Roberts. It's a nice book, I'm planning to try and steal it home with me later... ;-)

I also bought The Legacy by Katherine Webb and The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz, for a very reasonable £2.50 the pair. Angie knocked a pound off for me, she's so lovely! :-)

And it's sunny too. And I might get at least tomorrow morning off, since we found out a lot of places, if they're opening at all, are opening after the Royal Wedding coverage is over at about one, maybe half past. And, well, since Graham's still sick, and Mum's got a lot to do, and I was so eager to WATCH the wedding, we're thinking we'll have at least the morning off, then decide at lunchtime whether we can be bothered to head into town and open up or not. I just have no idea whether it's going to be packed with wedding-cynics, or whether everyone will be at home and end up watching it anyway, or going to street parties, or whatever else is going on... Nothing certain yet (Mum really is the boss when it comes to these moments!), but *fingers crossed*!!!

I'm thinking most people will expect most places to be closed. . . . so I'll cross my fingers for you too

WOOHOO! The verdict is... DAY OFF! Yippee! Now I can watch the royal wedding (admittedly, I was more interested in Harry, but what the heck), Mum can do whatever jobs she wanted to do, then we can both have a well-earned rest before we go back to work for the rest of the Bank Holiday weekend. I think we deserve it, me because I just get darned grumpy after too long at work, and Mum because she's knackered because she's got an ill Hannah at home (she has terrible stomach problems like me, but eats crap all the time and makes it worse), an ill Graham at home (still got flu), and potentially an ill Domino at home (she keeps eating stuff she shouldn't and getting sick). Fun, fun, fun.

AND, amazingly, we sold our second £50+ Pens of the Forest pen in three days this morning. The first was a red Swarovski crystal and enamel ballpoint to our obsessive book-buyer B, then this morning it was a polished wood fountain pen for a 21st birthday present. Hooray!

Oh, and I got two more parcels in the post, from my cute young postie instead of the usual one - another review book called Blood Magic by Tessa Gratton, courtesy of Random House, and the complete Being Human box set, series 1-3, for my Aidan Turner fix. Hooray!

I like cosy!

More books!? *Snorts* ...oops...

I'm glad you get some time off! It makes sense, I can't imagine there would be many people in tomorrow. Even with the humbuggers, certainly there are more people interested in the royal wedding than the usual holdiays many people might get off for. Enjoy the wedding!

Oh, and hurray for cute young posties who deliver books! Wow, you are lucky. Every mailperson I have wherever I go are always crazy guys with unkempt beards! :(

The Legacy by Katherine Webb &
Blood Magic by Tessa Gratton, sound too good.. darnit

Annnnnnd, I got yet more happy tidings today! B, our illustrious book-buyer, returned for her £25 of books and offered me a choice of three bracelets she'd bought new from the charity shop. Not quite sure why, and I really don't want to accept it to be honest, but it's a very nice thought! Another regular customer came in and revealed that under her stylishly elegant-bohemian dress sense and stunning exterior, she is in fact 54, and that when she lets her beautiful blonde plaited chignon down her hair reaches past her knees! (She's 5'8", to put that in context). And finally, I got an email to say I'd won an Easter giveaway on one of the blogs I read, for $15 of books, hooray! :-D

Could today GET any more awesome?!

Oops, B's back... and has set aside about another £50 of books for later this week, insisted that I keep TWO bracelets out of the three she left for my perusal, took a free copy of a book we've been desperately trying to shift, and is coming back in a few days to sit and look at an antiques book with me. Hmmmm. I just don't know what to make of her! Is she totally loaded, or just frivolous? Is she just a very philanthropic person, or completely bonkers? I'm not sure! She said she'd been in town and tried to buy about 18 bright watches from the jeweller's as gifts, except she'd reached her daily limit on her card, and that she'd left a bracelet and a watch as a gift for the woman in the solicitor's who was out to lunch. I mean, what do you say to that???

At least for once we've got an eccentric customer who's not only quite nice to chat to, but it also incredibly generous and buys plenty too!

I am leaning towards bi-polar.. but then.. I could easily be wrong..

I think you should still call her whiplash lady. Only it'll the shop owners getting the whiplash from her exorbitant spending! :o

She seems nice though, and if she's got the money then...well...GO HER! *shrug* :)

She sounds like one of those people who obsessively buy things off of the television. Do you think it might be some form of dementia?

Well, Ellie, what do you think about the wedding? I loved every second of it!

Hope you had a nice (half?)day off today, Ellie. I missed most of the ceremony, but I saw parade through the streets afterward, it was magical! :)

First up, B. I thought it might be a form of OCD and/or bipolar actually (being bipolar myself, I get a kind of 'gaydar' but for bipolar people on occasion!), but... well, she mentioned her 'difficult' next door neighbour and said SHE was bipolar, so I'm thinking that if she is she definitely hasn't been diagnosed as such. Who knows??

Now, to yesterday. Ohhhhh, what a lovely day. In the end we had the whole day off, it was marvellous. I got a few things done first thing, had breakfast, read a book, then switched the TV on at about 10:15 in time to watch the last of the guests and royal family arriving. And it was SUCH a beautiful wedding, I'm so glad I was at home to watch it! A lovely couple, a stunning dress, heavenly music, that gorgeous venue...

It was just so nice seeing the little human moments that make weddings so special - something often lacking in these massive events. Harry watching wide-eyed as Kate walked up the aisle and whispering, 'Wait until you see her dress!'; William mouthing 'You look beautiful' as she arrived at the altar; him stroking her hand with his thumb during the carriage ride; Harry ogling the maid of honour; William looking ecstatic, driving back to Clarence House with his new bride in a sports car; the pair making eyes at each other during the lessons... Another marvellous British celebration to bring out the cheering crowds and make everyone feel happier!

Short answer: I loved it, it was a perfect fairytale wedding and everyone involved did themselves proud! I cried all the way through! :-)



*sighs wistfully with a dreamy smile on her face*

That little kid on the left does not look happy about being there :P

PS: I did not watch the wedding as it was on at, 4am here I think? Anyway, I had to sleep to go to work. Watched a little bit of the highlights on some pop culture 'news' shows.

Haha, she's a funny little thing isn't she? Her name's Grace van Cutsem - she's Williams' goddaughter. She's only three though, so I'm not surprised at hera looking so unimpressed! The other, rather more eager girl is William's eight year-old second cousin, the Hon. Margarita Armstrong-Jones. She's a doll!

The kiss was adorable. I was expecting some deeply romantic moment, but it was so quick and he seemed so bashful! I, naturally, loved it. :)

Yes - when she wrinkled her nose up, laughing, and he went puce! :-)

He was the color alot, wasn't he? His face was practically the color of his outfit most of the time. Poor guy! I can't imagine having a wedding as public as that.

I remember when I was a child, after I discovered what a wedding was and how it worked, I was absolutely terrified at the prospect of standing in front of a bunch of people and kissing a girl. For a shy kid like myself, nothing could be more scary!

...and to be honest, it still sounds a little horrifying!

So yes, kissing a princess on a balcony in front of thousands of people and all those TV cameras? Oh dear...

Hello Miss Potten. I am still speaking to you. That should come as a great surprise.

W-w-w-what? Great surprise? Why? *bottom lip trembles and eyes fill with tears* What did I do? :'(

28) The Darkest Kiss by Gena Showalter



Okay, so I’m a sucker for books with hunky men on the front, and this one’s maybe my favourite of the Lords of the Underworld covers I’ve seen so far! The second in Showalter’s series, this instalment focuses on Lucien, bonded with the demon of Death. He didn’t feature all that highly in the first book but as the leader of the Budapest warriors, and the Lord with the gravest responsibilities – to retrieve souls from their dying bodies and escort them to the fires of Hell or the gates of Heaven – his story promised to be quite intriguing. Happily, Showalter didn’t disappoint!

The Darkest Kiss begins a few weeks after The Darkest Night ended, with Maddox and Ashlyn happily curse-free and ensconced in the Budapest mansion, Aeron imprisoned in the dungeon battling his terrible bloodlust, and the tyranny of Cronus, the king of the Titans, looming large over the Greek-loyal immortal population. When Anya, minor goddess of Anarchy, erupts into their lives, Lucien’s hard-won calm and inner strength begins to crumble as he finds himself falling in love – just as Cronus orders him to kill her. What does she have that Cronus wants so badly? Could she really reciprocate his feelings, despite his scarred face and the demands of his demon? And how on earth can he escape Cronus’s threats without killing them both?

If I hadn’t already bought four of the Lords of the Underworld series, I might not have bothered reading on after The Darkest Night. Happily for me, Showalter really ups her game in this second novel. Although the sexual tension was still all but decimated by the self-conscious and jarringly graphic language – a little subtlety would have gone a long way – I liked it much better than the first book. Where The Darkest Night involved all of the Lords around the central Maddox-Ashlyn storyline, this novel focuses much more closely on Lucien and Anya, with only occasional forays into the activities of the other warriors. Where Maddox was all about testosterone and violence, and Ashlyn, as a human woman, seemed frail and insubstantial beside him, Lucien is a more complex and sympathetic character, and feisty Anya a compelling and worthy heroine. She gives as good as she gets, and provides an edge of grounded humour to what would otherwise have been a pretty dark storyline. All in all, definitely worth a read – if you liked The Darkest Night, read on, and if you weren’t so keen, give this one a try before you dismiss the series altogether!

>78 elliepotten: Nary a word. Not so much as a "yoo hoo" in weeks. *hmf*

But, in the magnanimity of my admiration for your English Rose-ness, I shall gloss over it all. Provided you undertake to get me Princess Beatrice's hat.

Oh, dear lord, take it! Take it! The sooner that monstrosity is off British soil the better! Besides, I think you'd wear it better... Or you could use it as a wine rack or something? ;)

Apologies for my silence, dearest - things have been INSANE around here. People dropping like flies with swine flu, Easter holidays riddled with revolting small children and the kind of people who really shouldn't be allowed in bookshops (or out of the house full stop), and hardly a page read the whole time. There's ONE MORE DAY of Bank Holiday/Easter madness to go and I'm teetering on the edge of homicide/crawling under the duvet and not emerging until the entire summer season is over, so bear with me... *takes very deep breaths and tries to compose her face into 'benevolent bookseller' expression*

There's a page on Facebook dedicated to That Hat. My favorite entry, I think, was the woman who posted, "Smiling. Waving at crowds. And contacting the Mothership, all at the same time."

Remember Auntie Richard's Mantra, dear Ellie, as you hand clutches the handle of the box-opener: "They *ALWAYS* find the body. They *ALWAYS* find the body. They *ALWAYS* find the body."

I doubt those books are, shall we say... for me, I'm glad you enjoyed it more than the first book in the series, Ellie! :)

>82 richardderus: - But if I could just hide it in the - NO! They *ALWAYS* find the body. They *ALWAYS* find the body. *Mops brow* Whew, thank heavens you were here!

Love the hat comment, btw. I told Mum and she nearly sputtered yoghurt all over the desk!

>83 Ape: - Nope, probably not one for you! I'll try and read something a little more substantial soon, I promise! :)

Right, I really need to start yanking myself out of this reading slump. One book in nearly two weeks?! RUBBISH! :)

Any ideas? I've only got a few weeks left before the summer holidays begin, I want to make the most of the semi-lull! The good news is that I've passed the halfway mark of Blackberry Wine, but it's slooooow going - and I haven't touched my non-fiction read in weeks.

I have reviewer books to read, and a massive event lined up over on the blog for July/August time, so if I can get the bookish wheel turning again now that would be awesome. Any words of wisdom out there?

*ahem ahem* I already believe I told you how to cheat, you just read short books. I read 8 books in April, despite reading more pages in January when I only finished 5 books. Cheater cheater, pumpkin eatershort-book reader.

Yep, that's Ape-Wisdom for you. *Bows*

Strangely, Ellie, Stephen is right. Get momentum by reading. Shorter books are easier to finish. Momentum gained, say after three or four little bagatelles, you can ramp up the page count. The Man in the Picture. Goodbye, Mr. Chips. Sarah, Plain and Tall. Then on to more substantive fare.

*Eyes Richard* And what's so strange about me being right, hm?

Well, that you so seldom are, perhaps?

I woke up just in time to watch Kate get out of the car and walk into Westminster Abbey, so my husband I watched the wedding ceremony in bed. Very sweet and romantic ceremony, I thought. They make a cute couple, and I was tempted to dig out a Regency romance to read later in the day, but settled for blood and gore instead in Attila the Hun by Sean Stewart Price.

Ya know, I don't really like romance books, but you made them sound pretty interesting. So I looked to see if my library has it, and it does, and it had an excerpt. I must say, I'm intrigued. I'll prolly get that the next time I'm in a slump.

Speaking of, a couple short books I like that might help you out are Castle of Otranto (first 'gothic' novel, but it's so dated that it's hilarious--has the line "Ah, me, I am slain!") and Dragonsong by Anne McCaffrey (obviously dragons, but focuses much more on relationships and/or humans). Might I also suggest short story collections and graphic novels? Those are usually my go to types when I slump.

Richard: Ah, but I am a quiet fellow who keeps his mouth firmly closed unless the topic being discussed is on I am interested in, therefore I am rarely wrong, not because I am a particularly bright individual but merely because I do not allow myself to orate any flaws in my admittedly cursory intellect, the like of which you have so brilliantly demonstrated with your hasty yet misaligned jab, good friend!

Oh, and carrots are yellow...I think...

:)

Oooh, speaking of carrots... Did you know carrots were originally purple? The Dutch bred the plants for the recessive orange colour in order to honour the House of Orange. :D Factoids I learned in high school history.

I knew about the purple carrots! I think I prefer them orange though, purple carrots would look so wrong with mash and gravy!

My go-to books for a reading slump are the same books I go to during read-a-thons and holidays. Y'know, read-in-a-day type books. Thrillers, YA, paranormal romancey things... Like that Gena Showalter. Which took me over a week to finish. *weeps*

I'm going to try and get stuck into Blackberry Wine today - it may be Bank Holiday Monday, but we're competing with a Bakewell Spectacular fair thing on the showground, a cattle market, an open-air normal market, plus it being the last day before people go back to work/school. We've already had a few rude customers, ONE sale, and two bees, in an hour and a half. Definitely a good day for reading! :)

Bah! Here I was trying to post a completely untrue statement and I was almost right...sort of...

Hope your day remains a good one for reading. Or do I hope your day becomes less good for reading with lots of (nice and lovely) customers? Hmmmm...how about this, I hope you have a nice day! *smooch* :)

I did not know that about carrots, and it makes these seem a little less novel. I'm still growing them, though. I wonder what it'll do to carrot cake?

The purple ones look like disfigured onions. Yuk!

Wowwwww! Those carrots are amazing! Somehow, even though I knew the original carrots were purple I still couldn't actually picture them. Ooooh, I'd eat carrots every day if they looked like that! :)

We've made about £15 in the shop so far (three hours in), and I still haven't read a page! Drunk lots of coffee and Ovaltine, yes, and carried on organising my 'book to screen' blog event, and done a blog post about all my shiny new books this week (yay!) - but no reading. Must Try Harder!

Huh! Lots of news-to-me in reading up on carrots: Ancestrally purple, native to Iran, related to dill, cumin, fennel, parsley.

Come one, come all, to Miss Potten's Amateur Academy!

Woohoo! And hooray for short books as well! I read Owl Cry last night in about an hour and a half - it may be a children's book, but I sobbed - and Anna Quindlen's extended essay-book thingy How Reading Changed My Life today, in between reading Paul McKenna, watching bad TV while filling my blocked ear with olive oil, showering, etc etc. And I've got a few more here if I need them, including The Diving Bell and the Butterfly which also fits my 'book to film' upcoming blog event AND is one of my blog challenge books for this year. :)

See? I knew it would help! You should listen to me more often, sometimes I give great advice(by accident.) By the way, did I ever tell you that giving hugs to young fellows from Ohio is known to improve health and wellness in young English lasses? It's true, I swear! :D

Woohoo Ellie, for breaking your funkification! Very proud of you, dear! *smooch*

Stephen, I've heard that rumor too, it must be true! Perhaps you two would like to be some test subjects? You know, just to help bolster the numbers, purely scientific. :)

BAD Stephen! ;)

Now, to the reviews from yesterday...

29) Owl Cry by Deborah van der Beek



This sweet little book tells the story of an orphan boy and his relationship with a loveable baby barn owl called Barney. When Solomon goes to visit his new adoptive parents for the first time, he disobeys Mr Oakley's instructions not to venture into the ruined hayloft - with devastating consequences. Suddenly he's left with a baby barn owl to raise, determined to atone for the trouble he's caused by helping Barney to survive.

Part Enid Blyton, part Jacqueline Wilson, this is a story of one boy's longing for a home, with a meddlesome social worker, a kindly father figure, a wise veterinarian, a dog called Jessie and, of course, the mischievous Barney thrown in for good measure. There is a good dose of information about barn owls mixed in with the narrative, and the author's illustrations are absolutely charming. All in all, it is a heartwarming and deeply moving tale for youngsters - and the young at heart - that will make you smile and cry in equal measure! Highly recommended.

Ooooh, woohoo, the postie strikes again! All things I forgot were on their way... Kate and Wills Up the Aisle by Alison Jackson (she's the one who uses the fuzzy photos of lookalikes to completely send up celebrities), Desperate Romantics on DVD (hooray!) and my Anaconda DVD from the card-flourishing grand masters over at the Virts community. Awesome...

Onto review #2!

30) How Reading Changed My Life by Anna Quindlen



When I picked this book up, I wasn't quite sure what to expect. Was it going to be a serious discourse on certain key books, a la Francis Spufford's The Child that Books Built? Perhaps a few bookish essays in the vein of Anne Fadiman's Ex Libris, or a sentimental autobiography about hardship and bookish redemption? Actually, it is none of those things.

Instead, what Quindlen offers us is an extended essay on books and reading, split into sections and garnished with bookish quotes from the likes of Thoreau and Whitman. In delicious prose that exudes enthusiasm, Quindlen meanders skilfully across a range of topics including the feeling of a being a book-lover in the midst of others who just don't 'get it', book snobbishness, academic elitism, book clubs, libraries, how men and women read differently, banned books and coming-of-age reading. Perhaps the most telling part is that on the future of the book and the rise of modern technology. This book was published in 1998, and Quindlen seems to find the idea of e-readers and online reading a bit of a curiosity, comparing it to the old fantasy films in which we were all eating capsule meals by the year 2000. I guess it just goes to show how quickly technology is leaping forward these days!

Though the final result bears little resemblance to what I'd expected from the rather self-centred title, this was even better than I'd hoped - a marvellous, well-reasoned look at the world of books, with enough of an 'every woman' feel to the anecdotes and examples to make it more inclusive and therefore more enjoyable to read. There is also a section at the back of the book with 'top ten' reading lists like '10 Books That Will Help a Teenager Feel More Human' and '10 Mystery Novels I'd Most Like to Find in a Summer Rental', which is a nice touch and added a few more titles to my wishlist... Highly recommended!

Laura: Well, y'know, I'm such a loving and adoring fan of Ell...errrr, I mean, "science," so I suppose I'm willing to be Ellie's test subject.

Sweet little review for a sweet little book, Ellie. :) And yay for posties who bring surprises. Hmmm, I'm still waiting for one of my birthday books, an ER book I won in March, and I just got notice I won a member's giveaway book (Labyrinth by Kate Mosse.) *Cheers on the mail person*

You are such a smoothie. But how about my second review for my SECOND sweet little book, eh?

Labyrinth was one of my favourite books the year I read it... whenever that was... rather absorbing, and made me want to learn all about Carcassone and the Languedoc.

I need to go check out the current MG stuff, thanks for the reminder!

Oooh! Thanks for pointing that out, you snuck it in there without me even noticing (and I usually notice when that kind of thing happens!)

Yep, it's a fact, you're incapable of writing a bad review. :) The book sounds great, even if it does have a hideously bad cover.

Not as bad as some of those old fantasy books you've been reading from the library! :)

I thought it was quite nice and simple actually - it's a pretty thin book, from the 'Library of Contemporary Thought' series. I think the other cover's a really plain one, white and grey or something equally vibrant, so I liked this one better!

How Reading Changed My Life and Owl Cry both sound like great reads. I love reading books about books. Hopefully they are available at my library. Thanks for the lovely reviews.

Hmmm, I'm not so sure I've read any fantasy in quite some time, although The Conqueror Worms was terrible! :P

Added How Reading Changed My Life to the Mount Doom TBR pile.

Woohoo! Strike one!
At least it's not a BIG book, so it probably won't stick around on the shelf for too long... She says, optimistically. :)

Okay, I gave up on Blackberry Wine. It was one of those books where I kept finding other things to do so I didn't have to go back to it, and when I DID the pages were crawling past so slowly... I adored Chocolat (possibly because it was magical and chocolatey and I was imagining Johnny Depp in it) but this one's leaving for the bookshop, pronto. I'm starting the creepy Long Lankin instead. It opens with the old folk song and sounds really terrifying, but it's a YA novel I got for review so I'm hoping it won't be TOO bad! I'm nearly 50 pages in already; seems that reading slump had more to do with the book than with me! :)

Right decision! I gave up on my ER book, Killed at the Whim of a Hat, on p9...because TWO SILVERFISH came out of it! One from the envelope (now trashed) and one from the book itself (now inside two plastic grocery bags in the garage).



*total skeeve moment*

If the publisher sends me another one, which I sort of doubt, I'm not sure I can bring myself to read it....

ACCCCCCCCCCCCCK! Don't make me see pictures of critters with more than a gadzillion legs.

*shudders*

Yeah! I know! Now imagine THE REAL THING skittering out on its obscenely large number of legs when you open an envelope! THEN its baby sister coming out of the SPINE OF THE BOOK!!!!!!!!!!!

*has fantods*

I once had a centipede run circles around me in a tub. Much screaming ensued.

I tend to squoosh first, freak later.

Sorry, but I just find that hilarious. Actually I'll probably have the opposite reaction. I'll probably be in awe at it and keep it as a pet.

>120 DragonFreak: I see the "Freak" part of your handle has a solid set of roots, there, Nathan.

Harumph. I was too busy screaming my head off to unfreeze the rest of my body long enough to squish it. MrMorphy had to rescue me.

>121 richardderus: Ha! I guess it does.

The bug thing IS cool!! I mean, it doesn't have any stingers or pincers or anything, right? I'm not afraid of bugs for the simple fact that they are odd-looking, but I do tend to avoid ones with stingers and whatnot.

Those aren't the ones that eat books though, are they? THOSE THINGS are horrendous monsters that should be extinguished from existence. >:(

They do indeed eat books. I take no chances. I threw the book away.

Okay then, that bug is officially no longer cool. *Glares at picture menacingly*

ETA: EEEK! I went to the bug's Wikipedia page and there is a picture of a book that was eaten by one. Oh, the horror!

The picture in 115 is a centipede not a silverfish.

This is a silverfish:

Yikes, double post.

I'm expecting that book as an ER, too. I will know to open it outside now. Thanks ever so much for the warning!

Yeah, the pic in #127 is what I think of as a silverfish. I get them in my house sometimes, if it's a bit damp anywhere, they're not nice-looking little blighters! Wikipedia lists an alternative name as 'carpet sharks', which is probably a bit much given that they're only a few millimetres long. Freakishly fast though, like tiny bits of quicksilver (hence the name, I guess!). We once found some lurking in our shaker pot of chocolate cappuccino topping, eeeeeuw!

Now, I'm going to stop thinking about silverfish because Mum's just arrived back in the shop with my lunch, a delicious bacon, mozzarella and mushroom baguette-panini, hooray! We've made £2.25 so far today (two and a half hours in!) so we're trying to find things to fill the day, and looking forward to possibly having THREE WHOLE DAYS off next week, make the most of this 'dead zone' before the summer really gets going. *thinks fondly of all the books and junk food she can devour in three days*

>130 elliepotten: Anything with mozzarella, bacon, and mushrooms in it must be good. I can almost taste it.........my mouth is watering!

>127 Morphidae: Not a face even a mother could love. It's just as icky as ol' zillion-feet!

THREE WHOLE DAYS!? Sounds lovely, I hope that happens!

thinks fondly of all the books and junk food she can devour in three days

Oh dear...hmmm, maybe instead of a readathon, you can have a 24-hour junk-foodathon! :D

Or both! I could keep a tally of how many books I've read AND how many pounds I've put on in the space of three days. :P

Oooh, you could compare calories to pages. That would be an interesting statistic! :)

Yeah, at a ratio of about 20:1! I'd have to eat broccolli all day just so I didn't want to cry at the end!

>134 elliepotten:-6 That ratio may problematic. If you really did read, and if it was a 500 page book, that means the amount of calories gained is 10,000 calories. I think that's insanely more than what you're supposed to eat in a day.

Ooooh, you could buy huge big bags of M&Ms, and eat 1 every time you finish a page! No wait, that would be distracting. How about at the end of each chapter, you eat a number of M&Ms equal to the number of pages you read! That's what I call encouragement to read...or a perfectly good excuse to eat loads of M&Ms. If you read, say, several hundred pages over 3 days...wellll...who's counting, right? ;)

Or if you are bored of reading, just alphabetize the M&Ms, that will keep you busy for hours! Trust me.

>137 DragonFreak: - Oh Nathan, don't be silly - if I was eating 10,000 calories I'd never have time to finish a 500-page book! I'd be too busy rubbing my stomach and sleeping. :)

I threw away TWO BAGS of M'n'Ms the other day in an inspired attempt to not eat them (hooray!) and now I'm kinda wishing I hadn't. Ah well. I think there's a little Easter egg around here somewhere. And I had a Flake cake today with my mocha, that was nice. I'm going to stop talking about food now, it's making me hungry!

M&Ms...in the trash!? *Gasp* What a heart-breaking thing to do to such precious little things. Oh Ellie, what a dangerous path you are going down. This will only lead bigger atrocities...what's next, are you going to throw puppies in the trash too? *Sniffle*

:P

Nope, not reading all the 140+ messages I have missed, so I am just going to wave 'Hello!'

Don't worry, I won't throw any small cute baby animals in the trash. I'll be too busy imagining them in a sesame seed bun, ravaged by hunger as I will surely be without M'n'Ms... I'm kidding! Jeez, like I'd do anything but squidge the baby animals and take lots of photos! ;)

Hey Stasia! Don't worry, I've been on *cough*Farmville*cough* so much these last few days that it feels like I've seen you every day!

Yeah, yeah, I'm still reading as well, obviously. But this Long Lankin book is seriously screwing with my mind, I locked my windows last night because I was getting the heebie jeebies when it went dark! *blushes profusely*

Yeah, Farmville is becoming a regular LT hang out :)

Seriously Stephen.. you need a ticket to England..

What what!? There's another LT hang-out that I'm missing out on? And it's on one of those...those...social networking things. Wahh! *Goes off to play Runescape by himself*

Kath: Yeah right, I think they are still suffering from the wedding-crazies over there. All the ladies will still be angry it wasn't them chosen to be a princess. It's bad enough that even the nice LT ladies like to throw things at me and hit me with heavy objects, could you imagine what it would be like for me in England? If Ellie didn't kill me one way or another, all the other English ladies would! 0.0

It's okay Stephen, I'm missing out too. . . . I don't play FarmVille, only CityVille.

So you guys should try CV, *nudge, nudge* My friends stopped playing and those games are terribly difficult without random gifting.

Whaddya do in CityVille? What kinda stuff do you do/get instead of planting and harvesting and giving each other trees and animals? *sits down and waits eagerly for the PowerPoint presentation to begin*

Stephen - Oh come on, you don't have hair like that! *flicks blonde tresses and readjusts pearls*

It's a bit like SimCity, but socialized. You still plant/harvest crops to supply your businesses. And you expand your city by building houses/apartments, city buildings (city hall, police station), businesses and their other buildings (coffee shop, book store, franchise HQ, warehouses), and 'decorations' (streets--which I don't know why they consider a decoration, trees, shrubs, playgrounds). As for sending, it can be energy, building supplies, parts of collections, permits, etc. You can also earn money and supplies by branching out to friends' cities--harvesting, collecting rent, franchising, or becoming a city worker (postal, police, city hall). It's a nice little addictive game :P

I could have hair like that! Naturally I would want to look slick and awesome if I were visiting England, and what better way of doing that than greasing your hair back? ... ... ...

YOU, however, could not look like that. No matter how hard you tried. Unless you fell out of a tree, got hit by a truck, set your hair on fire, and maybe got attacked by a bear. Then maybe you would look that bad...although my bet would be that you would still look better.

Should I be posting another "man getting slapped by woman" picture after that last paragraph? D'oh! ;)

Stephen, was that a Lichtenstein painting in 146?

I don't know, I just googled a man getting slapped and found that. *Shrug*

No conclusion on that yet, but I did find this blog(?) post that used the same image.

Haha - I love the little 'writer bio' at the bottom of that blog post! ;)

I'M OFF WORK! AHAHAHAHA!!! *wiggles a little victory dance around the living room* Sorry, just had to get that out of my system. I already finished Long Lankin by Lindsey Barraclough - jeeez, it's creepy! And brilliant, and sad, and nerve-shattering, and generally completely exhausting. I'll review it... soon. Like, maybe Friday when I'm back at work. 4.5 stars anyway, an incredible debut, if scarier than I expected for a YA novel! I think I'll read Wishful Drinking next and then I'm good to go from there! Okay, I just can't help it... *takes up the wiggly dance again, trying not to step in the pizza or knock her drink over*

Woohoo! Enjoy it, Ellie! ^_^

Yep, reading Wishful Drinking by Carrie Fisher and The Espressologist by Kristina Springer right now. And d'ya want to know what the naughty, naughty, giddy-from-the-days-off book addict did? Check out what arrived by courier and postie this morning!

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich
Beautiful by Katie Piper
Some Girls Bite by Chloe Neill
The Girl in the Painted Caravan: Memoirs of a Romany Childhood by Eva Petulengro
Zooborns book of baby animals (for my grandma)
Dead Beautiful by Yvonne Woon
Buried in Books: A Reader's Anthology
Flu by Wayne Simmons
Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson
Once More With Feeling: How We Tried to Make the Greatest Porn Film Ever by Victoria Coren
The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham
Looking for Alaska by John Green
Killing Floor by Lee Child
Manufacturing Depression: The Secret History of a Modern Disease by Gary Greenberg
A History of the World in Six Glasses by Tom Standage
The Year of Living Biblically by A.J. Jacobs
Cinderella Ate my Daughter: Dispatches from the Front Lines of the New Girlie-Girl Culture by Peggy Orenstein
Skippy Dies by Paul Murray
Hellraisers: The Life and Inebriated Times of Richard Burton, Richard Harris, Peter O'Toole and Oliver Reed by Robert Sellers
The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
Twenty Something by Iain Hollingshead
Gone by Michael Grant
A Voice in the Distance by Tabitha Suzuma
Confessions of a GP by Benjamin Daniels
How I Paid for College: A Tale of Sex, Theft, Friendship and Musical Theatre by Marc Acito
Superbug: The Fatal Menace of MRSA by Maryn McKenna
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon
Lolita by Vladimir Nabakov
Short Treatise on the Joys of Morphinism by Hans Fallada
Unseen by Mari Jungstedt (for my stepdad)

Ummmm... I think that's it! :D

Good Lord that's a LOT of books! I'm so envious and now I'm resisting the huge urge to go splurge on Amazon myself!

Oh...my...god! I didn't even need to read the post, I just scrolled to the bottom of your thread, saw a huge list of blue words, and groaned. Oh, Ellie dear...NAUGHTY!! ;)

Ooooh, and I see some disease books in there, goody. Yay for MRSA!

ETA: Oh wait, Flu is a zombie book. Well, that works too. :)

The only one book I recognize in there is Skippy Dies, and the only reason why I know that, is because it was in the Time magazine. I think Skippy dies in the first sentance if I remember right. Darn it, I should have put a spoiler warning on that one.

Hi Stephen! Yes, Flu is a zombie book, but I found it when I went searching for that Day by Day Armageddon book so you're still responsible... :)

Nathan - Yes, I believe he does. I guess the clue's in the name, huh? Is that really the only one you've heard of - not even Lolita or The Day of the Triffids? There are some awesome books in this list, some real gems, you should check some of them out!

I'm looking forward to the Katie Piper book - I don't normally buy books like that but I watched her documentary series 'Katie: My Beautiful Friends' and she is one amazing woman. Buried in Books is by one of the women who put together A Book Addict's Treasury, one of my all-time favourite 'books about books'. *sighs happily* I'm looking forward to 'em all really! :D

>160 elliepotten: Actually, The Day of Triffids is on my Wishlist. You've read it, right?

Wow...I'm in awe of that book list...and all of those came in one day? Amazing!

That must have been one heck of a box to carry all those books. And an impressive post person to carry it as well. :)

you're still responsible...

Whatever makes you feel better. ;)

Nathan - Not yet, but I read The Chrysalids not long back and loved it, so this one went straight on the wishlist!

The postman only brought one li'l parcel - the Victoria Coren one. That woman gets more interesting by the day. First she was just 'that sassy beautiful blonde woman on 'Have I Got News for You''. Then she was a journalist and Alan Coren's daughter. And Giles Coren's sister, now I think about it. (Apologies, non-Brits, if you have no idea who these people are.) Now I find out that, in fact, she's a pro poker player with winnings over £1.2 million, AND she used to review porn movies. Hence this book. Amazing.

The rest came by courier - I spent the whole morning hanging across my kitchen windowsill trying to see up our (long) drive, for good reason since once again he stopped outside the neighbour's house to try to deliver there instead. I went barrelling up there, looking v. stylish in my jogging pants and fluffy slippers, scared him to death, then came hurtling back down the drive with a huge box and two smaller parcels and proceeded to hold my own mini Christmas Day in my living room. It was GREAT! :D

Oh! Hearing you describe it that way makes me so envious! Ok, you are forgiven, simply for allowing me to live vicariously. :)

Wait, huh, what? Did someone mention a rich lady who reviewed porn movies?

What a fantastic haul, Ellie! I'm green with envy! Now how many of those have you already read, and how many will you be 'sneaking' off home for a quick read before they go back on the shelves? ;-)

Ellie, I'm incredibly envious of your enormous postie delivery today!!! I'm trying to tell myself that it's okay to buy 6 books next week (for my bday and Thingaversary pressies), and I think your fabulous haul just did the trick. Thanks for that! Feel free to do this more often in future, m'dear!

I only knew of Victoria Coren b/c of "Have I Got News..." and had no idea about the rest of her, so to speak. Hmmmm, may have to add this book to the wishlist too.

I have a book question for you too - how popular are (or were) the Brambly Hedge series by Jill Barklem, and the books by Jenny Partridge, specifically Peterkin Pollensnuff? I know that Brambly Hedge was a children's TV series (that I happily stumbled upon on public tv here a couple of years ago), and that Peterkin was part of the Oakapple Wood series, but that's about it. They're hard to find here in the states, and one of my goals in life (sad, isn't it?) is to own all of the Oakapple books especially. When I was growing up, Peterkin Pollensnuff was the main fuel for my budding Anglophilia. (The family across the street was half English, well Mom was from England, and she'd always bring me back a small treat when she'd visit her family. Between them and the family next door whose husband/father is from Australia and used to bring me treats as well, I was quite wonderfully spoilt with "exotic" gifts.) I've always wondered about these books, and the only people I knew in England before you were friends of my Grandmother and they've all passed away. Any info, if you have any, is immensely appreciated Ellie!

Wow! What a ton of books! I hope your postman will recover from his back problems soon :)

LoL at your description of chasing down the courier :D

Stephen - Yes, you heard right! Such a guy...

Caro - Nope, I was at home, these ones are aaaaaall for me. Except one for my grandma and one for my dad. And I haven't read any of them yet, that happy happy time is all ahead of me!

Stasia - Haha, yes, the poor sod did buckle a little as he got out of the van. The stupidest thing was, he'd obviously shifted them to the front seat as his next delivery, so instead of just opening the sliding door and lifting them up, he had to try and get them across over the gearstick and onto his lap before he could get out! I just saw him kicking the driver door trying to keep it open, then this huge pile of parcels appear! :)

Laura - I'll look into it tomorrow! Watch this space...

Finally day-off tally:
I've read the rest of Lindsey Barraclough's Long Lankin (can't be bothered tracking down the book no for the touchstone, the proper link's up there somewhere), the whole of Kristina Springer's The Espressologist and Carrie Fisher's Wishful Drinking (which has some very interesting things to say about bipolar, I'm keeping that one) and hopefully by bedtime I'll have made a start on du Maurier's My Cousin Rachel. Lots of reviews to catch up on! I've also watched most of season 1 of Gilmore Girls (again), only this time I'm trying to put together a complete list of movie and book references along the way. I think I missed a couple of the movies showing at the old bookstore cinema thingy, but other than that it's looking great! I'm such a nerd... :)

I volunteered in an elementary school office which got deliveries from UPS delivered by a very personable man, as good looking as he was pleasant. We particularly looked forward to his deliveries in the summer when he wore cute khaki shorts! (Bad ladies, bad ladies!)

Yes, you heard right! Such a guy...

Hey, wait a minute. If you show interest in a rich lady who reviewed porn movies that's okay, but if I show interest I'm behaving 'like a guy?' Now how is that fair, huh? And I know you showed interest, I read the post! *Scrolls back up and reads post 165 again* Oh...ummm...she was other things besides just a rich lady who reviewed porn movies? Oooh...hm, I must have missed that somehow. But still...! :P

And HURRAY for so much reading!

Oh, my UPS guy, is "good looking and pleasant" also. Just don't get to see him too often:-(

Hmm, maybe I'll have to jot down those film and movie titles from Gilmore Girls as well when I do my next rewatch (it'll be next up after I finish watching Dawson's Creek). When the show was still on tv, the website for it actually had a page for Rory's reading list which I quickly appended to my own. But I don't know if said webpage is still extant. *shrug*

Oh! For anyone interested, someone entered Rory's reading list here on Librarything, as an user account. You can see it here: Rory Gilmore.

Mine has a sense of humor. Duncan jumped up on the door one day last fall, when UPS was making a delivery.. and managed to hit the door handle just right .. got out... and had the poor guy up against the wall of the porch. I was glad Duncan is essentially a pacifist and didn't eat him. I think he was glad too. Dan was right out the door behind him.. and saved the day.

Ellie! Found you again. Don't know how I lost you... : ( Now to go back to the top of the thread and get caught up!

>176 Ape: Thanks, Stephen!

My courier guys at home are usually pretty crap, because they can't find the house but also can't be bothered to ring for directions. The ones at the shop are just vile. One's friendly but extra-creepy, with several teeth missing and practically oozing grease. And one's plain unpleasant!

There are loads of different pages for Rory's reading if you Google it (aside from her LT library, of course!) - I'm cross-checking against a few different sites as I go and trying to get in all the mentions of books and movies by Rory, Lorelai and the others too. So when they mention a ''Here's Johnny' kind of hello' I've assumed they've either read or seen The Shining and added it to both lists. Totally nerdy, I know, but I'm a sucker for a list and there's so many great movies and books coming up, I don't want to miss anything! I'm nearly at the end of season 1 and the lists are already pretty impressive! Six more seasons to go... :)

*slinks off under cloud of own geekiness*

So how did the 21st birthday basket go?

Okay, first review of the week! I went for a quick one first, to start me off:

BONUS READ! - Kate and Wills Up the Aisle: A Right Royal Fairy Tale by Alison Jackson



In some ways Alison Jackson's publicity for this book was 'the royal wedding' that kicked off 'The Royal Wedding'. For anyone who's never come across Jackson's work before, she basically uses fuzzy photography and celebrity lookalikes to send up her subjects. In this book she combines her photography with a pithy commentary by Kitty Soames, bringing us right up-to-date by taking us through the story of Kate and William - their romance, their engagement, and most importantly, their wedding! From Charles and Camilla to Elton John and the Beckhams, no one escapes Jackson's eye for the absurd!

It's always hard to explain a photography book in a review, so here's a couple of examples: a young Kate sitting in her bedroom surrounded by posters of William. The Queen teaching her to shoot pheasants, much to her horror. Kate designing a new coat of arms with marker pens and Tippex. William going for a pint and a game of pool with Michael Middleton. The wedding party doing the conga around the throne room... I could go on. I'll just say that this is a pointed but quite affectionate tribute to the Royal Wedding, and well worth a look for a bit of a giggle!

>181 Morphidae: - Fine, I think! She's eaten the chocolates already, taken the birthday bear up to uni with her (she named it Will in honour of the Royal Wedding day!), and she's looking forward to the books when she comes home for the summer in a couple of weeks. Oh, and she said the mug was awesome too, huge enough for her tea-related needs and shallow enough not to knock over! :)

31) Long Lankin by Lindsey Barraclough



This amazing debut novel opens with the ballad of Long Lankin - a tale of murder, witchcraft and supernatural menace that immediately sets the tone of the story to come. Cora and her little sister Mimi aren't exactly thrilled when they're sent to live with their great-Auntie Ida at the creepy old Guerdon Hall, but with their mother falling apart and their father unable to cope they have little choice in the matter. Things get even worse when they arrive on her doorstep and are met with a barrage of threats, warnings, rules and the bitter knowledge that she wants them gone as soon as humanly possible.

But what Cora doesn't know is that there is a dark evil lurking in Bryers Guerdon - an evil that has been haunting the village for hundreds of years and has ripped her family apart down the generations. Why are the children forbidden from visiting the old church, and who is the man in black in the graveyard? Why do all the doors and windows have to be kept permanently locked, and what are the long scratches marking more than one local door? Together with her new friends Roger and Pete, Cora must uncover the mystery of Bryers Guerdon before it's too late for her little sister - maybe even for them all...

Although this is a young adult book, for me it bordered on Stephen King-esque in the way it preyed on my mind and used psychological thrills to build tension. In some ways it reminded me of the film 'Signs'. You know, the one with Mel Gibson and the alien threat and the crop circles? You weren't sure what was happening, but you knew it was evil, you knew it was out there - and you knew that sooner or later it was coming for you. Barraclough excels at building unbearable fear in the reader using tantalising clues, a slow reveal of the truth, and terrifying glimpses of the menace on the marshes, skilfully bringing the whole story to a macabre and gritty climax in the inevitable final encounter between Lankin and the last of the long-suffering Guerdons.

I can't recommend this highly enough. It is an outstanding first novel that had me absolutely gripped, weaving a complex tale that spanned centuries yet never felt dull or over-written. It captures post-war rural England beautifully, and has a refreshing thread of humour through it that owes much to Barraclough's wonderful eye for the little things children say and do that always make adults smile! The Long Lankin ballad is a haunting theme that preys on our deepest fears, and I raced to the end of the book, heart pounding in my chest, winding up absolutely exhausted, weeping, as I finished the final chapter. Read it!

Great review, Ellie! I will have to see if I can locate a copy of the book.

Hope you like it - it scared me so much that I had to lock all my windows the first night and put it down well before bedtime to do something fun before I gave myself nightmares! Brilliant though, especially in the lead-up to actually seeing Long Lankin properly, when you just get those terrifying little moments that chill you to the bone... *shudders*

Um, remind me not to bring that one with me to the office (assuming I ever get my hands on a copy) to read at night while I am here alone. . .

Added to Mount TBR. Meh.

You want a taster of the ballad? I'm going to include it in full when I post the review over on the blog, but since Blogger's been down for days (apparently) I'm kinda stuck on that one...

Said my lord to my lady, as he mounted his horse:
'Beware of Long Lankin that lives in the moss.'

Said my lord to my lady, as he rode away:
'Beware of Long Lankin that lives in the hay.

'Let the doors be all bolted and the windows all pinned,
And leave not a hole for a mouse to creep in.'

The doors were all bolted and the windows all pinned,
Except one little window where Long Lankin crept in...

*shudders again*

Sounds good Ellie - added to the wishlist.

Nearly there! One more review after this and I can start reading again...

32) The Espressologist by Kristina Springer



I bought this because I'm a sucker for a sweet story that makes me hungry - think Joanne Fluke's Hannah Swensen Mysteries and Joanne Harris's Chocolat. This book proved to be a very nice addition to the foodie-novel genre! It is told from the viewpoint of Jane, a young barista at her local Wired Joe's coffee shop, who has been surreptitiously keeping a notebook detailing her customers' coffee preferences and personalities. One day it strikes her that she could matchmake her friends and customers using her notebook as a guide. She calls this new science Espressology. When her boss discovers her little secret she's sure she'll be fired, but to her surprise he launches it as a festive promotion and suddenly Jane is caught up in a whirlwind of coffee, romance and local celebrity. But will she ever find her own perfect match?

This is definitely one to appeal to the coffee addicts out there, filled with froth and foam and steaming espressos. At seventeen Jane is a little young for a chick lit heroine, but I bought this expecting an adult novel and wasn't disappointed. The Espressology idea is quite unique and as an added bonus, there is a section at the back of the book with a brief interview with the author and a delicious selection of coffee recipes - the coffee hot chocolate and toffee nut latte sound particularly yummy! A fun little novel that neatly straddles the adult-young adult bookish border, and should appeal to anyone who likes 'a little love with their latte'!

#191: I am not a coffee fan at all, but the book sounds like a fun one, so I will give it a try!

I'm a tea AND coffee fan, so I'm pretty much covered by most of these books... ;)

'Scuse me, I have Red Currants to tend to!

*hops away back to Farmville*

Now that's one I shall definitely NOT be reading, no matter how good it is. *Shudder*

ETA - that was a comment on Long Lankin not the coffee book. Now a tea book might get a shudder, but not coffee. The coffee book I might try.

Speaking of which - time to put the kettle on, I think.

Haha, yes, I almost had the same reaction myself - I'm not one for scary stories, I've read one Stephen King which was excellent but it's not something I can do too often! - but there was something about that old ballad that kinda got under my skin and made me want to read it... On Random House's trailer, which I'll post as part of my blog post when Blogger FINALLY get back online, the daughter of one of the publicists is singing it, it's beautiful, very hypnotic.

Time to put the kettle on meself, I reckon. I don't think I can bear to write a fourth review in one day, I need a break! :)

#193: I am farming and LTing at the same time, lol. I am running 5 different farms which has become almost a full-time occupation!

omg, stas... lol

Blooming-nora! And you wonder why people suspect that supernatural forces are at work... ;)

I've only got my two, and with all the changes and complications Farmville has added in since I last hit the ol' home farm, I'm having enough trouble running those!

*sends Kath round to Stasia's to find that stolen Time-Turner so we can all have a go*

#198: Blooming-nora! And you wonder why people suspect that supernatural forces are at work

Who is Nora and what supernatural forces? I want some!

*shields Nora selflessly* I don't think you need any more! You're like a Jedi Master already!

I've got my encyclopedia ready in case Stephen makes any jokes about his light sabre at this point...

ETA: Enough reviews for today! I'll get to Wishful Drinking tomorrow, I think. For now, I'm off to fill the last half an hour of work with a few pages of my book, and think about what I can eat when I get home! I bought a muffin with my mocha this morning, forgot about it, then got really REALLY hungry this afternoon and have ended up only having two biscuits, a cereal bar and a banana all day. :(

Wishful Drinking...such a great, and accurate, title.

No worries, I am a farcry from a Jedi Master. *Pouts*

If I cannot have supernatural powers, I want to be a Jedi Master instead!

>202 Ape: - You were still going to make that joke, though, weren't you? :P

>201 richardderus: - Indeed. I'm kinda fascinated by Carrie Fisher. I find her quite refreshing. Several of HER problems have also been MY problems, and there is this slightly sick sense of 'There, but for the grace of God, and a couple of stratospherically famous parents, and a dead man in my bed, and a few more years, go I...'

Just astonishing what we can find to be grateful for as a result of reading, isn't it?

*Sniffle* Being a sub-par practitioner of The Force is no laughing matter. *Weeps*

Wow this thread is really busy. Hi Ellie!

Hi Ellie!!

Hello! Yes, I've been reviewing like a crazy person (see #204, raaaaawr) today, sorry about that! Not read a page, mind - maybe tomorrow... :)

*runs out to hunt down Stas and that stolen Time-Turner*
*quckly slows to a walk*
*considers using cell #*
*decides a break is in order*
*zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz*

Pssst. Lets cover Kath in jungle grass and prop up some fake trees so she thinks she accidentally time traveled to some prehistoric time period when she wakes up. *Snickers*

#210: You stole my time turner? The one I did not even know I had? Wow, that is low, Kath :)

>210 mckait: - As with all exercise, it's the thought that counts!

>211 Ape: - Add a couple of little plastic dinosaurs as well! Though it might ruin it if you run past with a plastic pterodactyl making dinosaur noises...

>212 alcottacre: - But necessary!

Wasn't me.. I never found you....

#213: Thievery is necessary?! What kind of friend are you?! lol

THE KIND THAT CAN'T KEEP UP!!! :D
*throws her arms around Stasia for a big hug*

((Hugs)) back at you, Ellie! lol

Hello again! Well, my actual reading of My Cousin Rachel may not be coming on that well (one chapter last night, I'm up to page 42 which is fairly pitiful) but my Gilmore Girls Book and Movie Uber-List is coming on marvellously! :)

Oh, and yesterday's blog post (which took all day, oops) has a photo of all those books I bought...
http://musingsofabookshopgirl.blogspot.com/2011/05/mammoth-bunch-of-new-books-th...

In the meantime, here's that review I'm owing:

33) Wishful Drinking by Carrie Fisher



This is definitely what I'd call a sketchy book. Sketchy because it is adapted from Fisher's one-woman show, flitting to and fro between various areas of her life and events in her past. Sketchy in that her ECT treatments have undoubtedly damaged her memory and therefore many of the details that might otherwise have been included in an autobiographical book have been lost. And sketchy in that in true bipolar style, her prose veers from insightful genius to a little incomprehensible and back again.

That being said, I really enjoyed it! I could almost hear Fisher recounting her anecdotes, deadpanning at every comic twist, offering up each tidbit of her life with a bittersweet kind of relish. I didn't really know anything about her other than that she played Princess Leia, grew up into the actress I'd seen in When Harry Met Sally and Undiscovered, and was severely manic depressive, so for me it was an interesting read. She covers everything from her alcoholism to her relationship with her beautiful but decidedly unconventional mother; from the trend in her family for multiple marriages to the inescapable legacy of the Star Wars movies. She is irreverent, self-deprecating and has a refreshing voice that simultaneously pays tribute to and breaks down the illusion of Hollywood glamour thrown up by her glittering background. I'll be eagerly awaiting the release of Shockaholic at the end of 2011!

Wishful Drinking does not look like my cuppa, but I am glad you enjoyed it, Ellie!

I'm loving all the book reviews lately, Ellie. Yay. You need 3 days off more often. :)

Wishful Drinking looks great, its gone straight onto my wishlist. I vaguely knew she drank a lot and had mental problems but I'd love to know a little more about her.

Thumbs-upped your cool review, Ellie!

Extra bonus: It's a pretty short book, so ideal for summer days, read-a-thons and lazy moments... :)

I gave up on The Wonder of Girls yesterday, after it veered from 'Wow, I didn't know that about female neurobiology!' to 'Jeez, if you mention the female 'spiritual tree of life' one more time I'm going to throw this book across the room!' It all got a bit bleurgh after that, so I took a few book/movie recommendations from the appendix at the back and got rid of it! Soooo, now I'll be concentrating on My Cousin Rachel and maybe starting a re-read of So Many Books, So Little Time by Sara Nelson. I read it once, in 2007 according to my collections, but a lot of the book references went over my head - obviously now I'm a few years older AND run a bookshop I'm hoping I recognise a lot more of them! :)

Saw Carrie Fisher on an ad last night...the way she looks now...GADZOOKS! Time has whupped her *hard* with the Wrinkle Stick and the Chin Crumpler! *mourns the loss of Princess Leia*

>218 elliepotten: Eliie, I'm reading this book, Wishful Drinking as we type here, and enjoying it myself. This woman, despite electric to her brain is very funny. Did you hear her quote in the news recently, when asked about losing a bunch of weight? She said, "Before you had to like me for my brain. Now, I'm trying to give people more options!"

Love her.

Haha! I like that, maybe I should try it... ;)

Reading's going a little slowly right now - My Cousin Rachel is one of those books you really don't want to rush, y'know? - but on the plus side, I've done a TINY bit more clearing-out of clothes and stuff, brought a pile of books to the shop this morning, and I've started adding all the Gilmore Girls books and movies referenced in season 1 to a new Amazon wishlist ready for my next 'need to buy' moment... Yay!

I already sold one of my books today - Dita Von Teese's Burlesque and the Art of the Teese for £7, as a birthday present for someone who paints pin-up-type pictures and goes to a lot of burlesque parties, I wish I'd put a bit more on it actually - and I've made a little extra space on my shelves at least. Bree Tanner has gone, after I decided it didn't really add enough to the Twilight series to warrant keeping it; a couple of books I was given as gifts, including a poetry book, a photography book and Little Miss Giggles (don't ask); my old copy of The Railway Children which I've read a couple of times and realised was almost exactly the same at key moments as the movie anyway... "Daddy! My Daddy!" *bursts into smiley tears* What else? Beastly, that was one. Can't remember the others...

Jeez, is it home time yet? :)

>224 richardderus: Ha, Gadzooks, that's funny. Wait, you haven't read that book...never mind.

#226 You must try getting rid of the entire Twilight series.

>226 elliepotten: ...there are "Gilmore Girls" novels? For real?

>227 DragonFreak: - Gadzooks - isn't that the name of that little dragon in the Chris d'Lacey series?

>228 PiyushC: - No thanks, I liked them!

>229 richardderus: - No! But there are a hell of a lot of books and classic movies MENTIONED in 'Gilmore Girls', Rory (and a couple of other characters) being an uber-reader and all. I'm making a complete list to use for a reading challenge next year. Dorothy Parker, Anna Karenina, Madame Bovary, Moby Dick, Slaughterhouse-5, On the Road, To Kill a Mockingbird, Gone with the Wind... I reckon I'm at about 150 books and movies so far, and I'm only up to listing season 2!

On another note: WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH PEOPLE TODAY? We've had the family from hell (lots of rowdy kids), followed by another family from hell (mutton-dressed-as-lamb mother, common-as-muck daughter, spoilt-brat granddaughter, all of whom felt free to throw rude comments about our stuff around as if I wasn't sitting RIGHT THERE), followed by a group of girls who walked past the shop, yelled a few choice insults about us, then threw an apple core through the door. I HATE SATURDAYS. I already had a bad night's sleep, a headache, no lunch and a general feeling of 'please, let me go home and sleep', and I had to come in the back because I thought if anyone else was mean or vile I'd either cry or kill one of them. :(

Rant over! *smiles wanly and feels very glad there's only an hour to go before we close*

*Sniff* Please don't cry. Just kill one of them, LT will cover for you! It's much less stressful that way. :P

Sorry you've had such a rotten day though. Was there any reason for the apple core being thrown? Blech, damn kids! I'm prescribing you with another 3-day weekend sometime in the near future. Doctor's orders, no arguments!

HA! *wipes away tears of laughter* 3-day weekend, indeed. No chance of that - it's six days a week from now until the end of the summer vacation, possibly even as far as October half-term!

And possibly I should rephrase 'group of girls' - it was more like 'obnoxious bunch of 17 year-old chavs who really should have grown out of the vile-teen years and learned some manners by now.' I hate Saturdays.

Possibly things were made worse by the fact that I may or may not be coming down with something. Nobody's quite sure what yet. It could be a cold, it could be flu, who knows, but all we DO know is, right now there are lots of headaches, queasiness and general all-round icky-feeling involved, and I'm right off my food. That makes me sound like a pet, but it's true! I made delicious smoked salmon and scrambled egg on toast last night and threw half of it away. I declined my favourite Flake cake today (normally one of the highlights of the day!), had to force down a tiny bag of chocolate buttons for a bit of a boost before we came home, and - this is really bad - I ate the tiniest bit of my stepdad's delicious lasagne and couldn't stomach any more. *cue disaster-esque DU-DU-DUHHHHHHH* I always feel like I'm coming down with something and then never do, maybe this is just me fighting something off again and I'll be right as rain in a day or two without it getting any worse. :)

Sooooo, in order to make the best of a fairly shite situation, I'm going to very quickly do a tiny bit of tax-return-getting-together-of-papers, then make a cup of tea and sit wrapped up in a fluffy dressing gown with a book or a movie or something, then go to bed. Apologies for the miserable posts folks, tomorrow's another day!

Hope you feel better soon, Ellie. Sounds totally miserable. {{{hugs}}}

Days like that, you just want to crawl in a hole and wait for a comet to hit the Earth, so that you'll be the only one alive. Ahh...peace...

And yes, I was referring to David's "special" dragon Gadzooks. Or Zooky if you perfer.

Sorry to hear your weekend is off to such a bad start, Ellie! I hope you feel better soon! ((Hugs))

Morning! Lots of hugs, just what I needed. Well, I went to bed really early, woke up for about an hour and a half at about two or so (watched more GG, forced down a banana and a mug of tea), and then got up again at seven, took a barrel-load of supplements (in an attempt to stop the icky feeling) and a couple of paracetamol washed down with more tea, and now I'm just biding my time until we go to work. At least it's a shorter day for us on Sunday, and it's given rain so although it might mean extra cleaning tonight there might be a few less customers around to deal with! Keep lookin' on the bright side, right? :)

>Nathan - Yay, I got one! Those dragons are just so CUTE - they made me smile all the way through Icefire!

Lookin' on the bright side sounds like a good plan for the day, Ellie!

Just starting to feel rubbish again now, with forty-five minutes to go before I can take any more paracetamol. Mum's getting me a mocha from over the road so even if I only sip at it through the day it's something with a little more substance than water. Plus I have Lucozade, and a banana, and a couple of little fruity biscuits with yoghurt on the top... We're just on red alert again because this would be spot on timing for me getting flu from that second bout my stepdad had just a couple of weeks after the first. We weren't so careful the second time because it wasn't as bad for him (being round 2 and all). And he started just like this - headaches, then general 'I don't want to be at work right now' feeling ill and tiredness, wakeful nights... then full-on fever and flu. If y'all could keep your fingers crossed, that would be marvellous! In the meantime, I'm going to try and finish this tax return, get some reading done to pass the time, and look at the funky clothes catalogue that came the other day, and generally just wait for this evening! *bright side, bright side, bright side* :)

Oh Ellie! All crossables will be crossed here. *Hugs*

ditto 240
please keep us posted as you can..

*gives Ellie patented-pops-no-sickie-smooch*

#230 150 books and movies and you are still on Season 2! Anyways, once you are finished with your list, would you care to share it?

Hope you feel better soon Ellie! There's nothing worse than being so ill you feel horrible but not ill enough to justify taking time off work.

Since I started working at the bookshop I've only taken half a day off work sick - when my stomach was playing up and I'd gone so wobbly I could hardly stand up - but even then I went in at lunchtime! I've had a couple of days where I've been slumped across the desk in the office dozing or groaning, and one day where I had to sit in darkness, bolt upright, trying to get comfy in a director's chair with my head nestled amongst the coats on the rack because my migraine was so bad. Makes this look quite manageable, really!

I'll definitely share the list when I'm done - I'll link across to the blog, or just post an uber-long list here for your delectation. In fact, if I'd thought it through I could have posted one season at a time until I was done, couldn't I? Maybe if I remember tonight... :)

It's good to hear from you, Ellie! *Hugs* Have you been feeling better, or are you just putting up with it?

The blog...sheesh, I haven't been reading. I'm such a bad follower! :(

#245 You work in a bookshop!!! Wow! That must be so awesome! How do you manage to get your hands off, of all those books!

Season wise posting sounds good, or the blog, else I can PM you my email id and you can send me the excel, whatever suits you best :)

247: She owns a used bookshop, with her mom! She's awesome, right? ;)

How do you manage to get your hands off, of all those books!

I'll let Ellie answer that one... :P

#248 Of course she is ;)

And by now I know that she owns that bookshop with her mom, I stalked her enough on her profile page and her blog, am an absolute pro at stalking ;)

Yay, we can be co-stalkers! :D

Somebody get this young man a plane ticket..
lets start a fund..

251: Stop being mean to Ellie! She's been sick and doesn't need this kind of stress. ;)

Don't worry, Ellie, you're safe. Now move a few inches to your right, please, you aren't in view of my spy/stalker camera. :P

Eleanor darling, it's the Thread Police. We'll do it Brit-style and come have a nice, cosy (oh how that hurt to misspell cozy!) chat, reminding you of your social duty to start new threads about now because lame-ass weirdos living in the 1990s still exist and still have dial-up (I know! Can you feature?) so can't load threads this long.

Hey, I'm not a lame-ass! I have sunglasses...that are BLUE. 8-)

...okay...maybe...

#250 Only if I get to have the top window!
*wonders if we scared her away*

#253 Dial-ups! I thought they had gone extinct!

Okay, co-stalkers, I'm making a new thread now, okay? I just couldn't be bothered yesterday! :P

Today it's humid and headachy and there are thunderstorms and hail and brimstone threatened for later so I'm trying to get stuff done NOW in case the power cuts out again!

Okay, thread's up!

http://www.librarything.com/topic/116942