Nora (norabelle414)'s chapter 3 - In which Nora keeps Barnes & Noble in business

THREE threads?!?! Preposterous!

Read so far this year:
1. The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency – Alexander McCall Smith
2. Fool – Christopher Moore
3. Room – Emma Donoghue
4. The Pillars of the Earth – Ken Follett
5. On Stranger Tides – Tim Powers
6. Packing for Mars – Mary Roach
7. The Help – Kathryn Stockett
8. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks – Rebecca Skloot
9. Native Tongue – Suzette Haden Elgin
10. The Tombs of Atuan – Ursula K. LeGuin
11. I Love Knitting – Rachel Henderson
12. The Postman – David Brin
13. Water for Elephants – Sara Gruen
14. Beastly – Alex Flinn
15. The Magician's Assistant – Ann Patchett
16. Eating Animals – Jonathan Safran Foer
17. Lost in a Good Book – Jasper Fforde
18. The Well of Lost Plots - Jasper Fforde
19. Something Rotten - Jasper Fforde
20. Thursday Next: First Among Sequels - Jasper Fforde
21. One of Our Thursdays is Missing - Jasper Fforde
22. Sorcery and Cecelia – Patricia C. Wrede
23. Magic by the Lake – Edward Eager
24. The Anubis Gates - Tim Powers
25. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay – Michael Chabon
26. The Prague Golem – Harald Salfellner
27. Hoot – Carl Hiaasen
28. ReWired – Larry D. Rosen, PhD
29. The Hunger Games – Suzanne Collins
30. The Enchantress of Florence – Salman Rushdie
31. Fodor's Prague & the Best of the Czech Republic – Maria Teresa Hart
32. Blindness – Jose Saramago
33. The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake – Aimee Bender
34. Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict - Laurie Viera Rigler
35. Tears of the Giraffe by Alexander McCall Smith
36. Snotty Saves the Day by Tod Davies
37. Lost Boys by Orson Scott Card
38. Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
39. Invasive Procedures by Orson Scott Card
40. Trickster’s Choice by Tamora Pierce
41. A Wind in the Door by Madeleine L’Engle
42. Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
43. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

Currently Reading: Olive Kitteridge
Watchmen
Soulless

Currently listening to: The Martian Chronicles

I love that beginning of a new thread feeling, when the list of touchstones is longer than the thread itself.

In other news, I only need a book by an author whose last name starts with U and one that starts with X to have the entire alphabet in authors. (I just acquired my first Y author - Charles Yu)

Hi Nora! So it's settled, may the zombie apocalypse commence. I'll work on the contagion if you can buy me all the used lab equipment. I know there are places online that sell them. Maybe we can use your supervisor as a test subject. Then again, if I mess up and can't reanimate her then you have no reason to wish for a zombie apocalypse, and where does that leave me, huh? :(

I still think it's worth a try.

Sounds reasonable to me.

Definitely, and I should know. I'm the epitome of reasonable...ness...

The air conditioning at my house has been out for several days. It was okay until last night, and today has been brutal. It's about 90 degrees in the house and I cannot for the life of me manage to stay awake. I slept from 11AM to 3:30, and only woke up because it started to rain and all of the windows in the house were open.

Peeking in, Nora. Hope your a/c is up and running soon.

Hope the rain helps cool things down.

SERIOUSLY! How you don't go on a suicidal rampage is beyond me. I admire your fortitude.

I have to keep the curtains in my room closed because it looks right out onto the sidewalk on the ground floor. Today, since the windows were open due to no A/C, the curtains caught in the breeze and knocked over a couple plants and a lamp, so I spent an hour or so this afternoon picking dirt and lightbulb fragments off of the floor, armchair, and pile of laundry. *sigh*

Book #44: Soulless by Gail Carriger - Yum. This book was so good. I'm not sure what I was expecting (I don't think it was this), but it was very good. Extremely well-written, well paced, not too predictable. SUPER entertaining. Highly recommended for anyone who likes paranormal stuff.

Currently Reading: Olive Kitteridge, Watchmen, blah blah blah. Also One Day by David Nicholls, which isn't turning out to be as bad as I thought it would be.

Coming soon: Many Waters by Madeleine L'Engle, The Zombie Survival Guide, some other books I don't remember now.

Yay, I'm glad you liked Soulless. Not sure what to say about your mom except WTF?

I'm also glad you enjoyed Soulless. I suppose reading is one ray of light in your life right now. Sorry about your job and mother situations. Blech.

So sorry to hear about your work and mom situation, Nora. My suggestion is to keep your job (having an income really does help) and start looking very actively for another job. Hopefully, you'll soon find a job you like better. Once you're settled in a new job and are certain it's a good fit for you, think about looking for another place to live. I know the DC area is expensive, but perhaps you could afford some place with a roommmate. There are agencies which will look for suitable roommmates for you.

Hope everything works out.

Not sure what to say about your mom except WTF? Yeah, seriously.

Wasn't there a potential roommate in your previous thread?

>16 qebo: She's decided not to move to DC right now.

I'm okay. I hope everyone else on the East Coast is too. TPTB made us go home, because the building I work in is over 150 years old and they need to check it for structural damage. So now I'm navigating the Metro.

Glad you are okay, and hey, at least you're away from your terrible boss!

Just de-lurking to say when I lived in DC on a (starting) government salary, I found two decent places to live for not very much money - a group house (not ideal, especially the one I was in as I was the only female and thus the only one who ever felt the need to clean - but it was kind of fun in its own way) and an apartment complex in Alexandria west of 395 (rent wasn't bad and included utilities; found a roommate on Craigslist). Obviously I don't know everything about your situation, but the home life sounds bad enough that a longer commute/higher living expenses might be worth the trade-off.

Back to lurking now!

Well my current commute is an hour, because I have to walk a mile to the Metro station. There is nowhere to park at my work and I don't have a car so I have to be near a Metro station and a grocer. But most of the reason I can't find somewhere to live is probably psychological, I'm afraid.

Gotcha. My best friend is similar in that way.

I didn't have a car when I lived there, either. The group house was close enough to a Metro stop to walk but when I moved to the apartment, I had to walk to a bus stop and take the bus to King St. to get the Metro into the city. It was a pain - but I got a lot of reading done!

> 18

So now I'm navigating the Metro.

That was the slowest DC Metro ride I ever took, but I'm glad the system was still running post earthquake. It took 45 minutes to get home on what is usually a 20 minute ride. I'm not complaining, though. It's better than walking. :)

My total commute (walk+metro+walk) usually takes me 55 minutes. Today it took over 3 hours.

But really, Metro did a phenomenal job of keeping things running (safely!) and keeping everyone well informed.

I think my heart rate has finally returned to normal speed. Maybe.

Book #45: One Day by David Nicholls - I was all prepared to gush about this book. How it's not like the other books; not Nicholas Sparks or Jodi Picoult or any of that nonsense. It's a great idea, and a great story, with a great writing style. Dexter and Emma become friends on the day after their college graduation, July 15, 1988, and they have strong romantic feelings for each other, but the situation isn't right for them to get together. (As is so often true in life). But, they manage to stay friends. Through years and years and jobs and emotions and relationships and breakups and gains and losses. It's not easy, and they are both far from perfect, and they fail (a lot), but they manage. And that's the most beautiful thing I can think of. Dex and Em, Em and Dex. Best friends, estranged friends, bickering acquaintances, completely in love but never talk about it because the situation isn't right. I won't lie and tell you it hasn't made me want to call my own "Dexter", and tell him I forgive him for not calling me on my birthday two years ago, and I'm sorry I told him to f*** off the last time he drunk-dialed me. Because neither of us is perfect, but if someone wrote a book about one day of my life every year, I'd want him to be in some of them.

The format of the book is magical. There's one chapter per year, the events of July 15, every year. And nothing in between. The story moves a long at a faster pace that way, because you're eager to find out not just what happens that day, but also what has happened in the past 364 days. Sometimes the chapters end with a little teaser, since the reader will never directly know what happens the very next day. But the answer is easily deduced from the next year's chapter. It even has repetition (which I love when done correctly) to emphasize the ways in which their lives are the same for multiple years, and the ways in which they come full circle.

And then I got to page 348, at which point the book became complete shit. And stayed complete shit through the end. Why can't authors understand that a book doesn't have to end in both romance and horrible, shocking tragedy? The contrived scenarios are unrealistic, and if I'm going to read a story that is unrealistic why would I read one that doesn't make me happy? (And doesn't have dragons in it?) Life, love, relationships, and friendships almost always, like the world, end not with a bang but with a whimper. This novel had the potential to reflect that, but fell short.

This is a book about growing-up, and the difficulties of friendship, and the difficulties of ordinary life (not contrived tragic life) in general. I recommend it to anyone who wishes that The Unbearable Lightness of Being didn't suck so bad.

But for the love of all that is holy, STOP READING AT THE BOTTOM OF PAGE 347.

Please PM me if you would like my address to send me your copy of the book, so I can glue pages 348-435 together and return it to you.

I'm not joking.

The End.

An excellent review, and thanks for the warning about One Day. I'll make sure to keep a close page count.

Delurking to say I totally agree with your sentiments about One Day ... I was enjoying it right up until that point too! Stupid authors not knowing how to end their books without melodrama - such a bummer, especially considering how realistic Nicholls managed to make Emma and Dexter's relationship the rest of the time. :(

"Book" #46 - The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury - listened to as an audiobook from the library - Not too bad. I liked the short story format of the book. Usher II was my favorite story, and I also really liked the second to last one about the automated house with no people living in it. I want little robotic cleaning mice for my house! All of the stories, and the concept as a whole, were really imaginative. I like it a lot more looking back on it than I did while listening to it, though. It was a little too slow and dry for an audiobook.

Spoiler!
My only problem plot-wise was that I found it really implausible that earthlings would travel to Mars with the intention of living there for the rest of their lives, but would then leave to go BACK to earth upon learning of a nuclear war there. I dunno about you, but if there was a nuclear war here, I would want to get as far away as possible.

Have you seen the TV serial of The Martian Chronicles? Came out in the late 70's/early 80's sometime? I love it - v. cool, slightly cheesy, vintage sf. I have a weird experience with it, though: the first time I saw it, I was pretty little (5, maybe?), and both my mom and I were really sick with the flu, laying on the fold-out couch bed in the living room so dad could take care of us both at the same time. So, the TV was on, and this insanely weird show was on about aliens and stuff, and being so sick, I just couldn't figure out what was happening. Years later, I was obsessed with finding out what that show was, or if it even existed (I thought it might have been flu-halucinations or something, that's how weird it seemed at the time). And then, in college, a friend wanted me to watch "this really crazy old sf show", and Bam! there it was! The flu-halucination show! What a relief to figure out, finally, what that show was and that it really did exist. Anyways, I may be partial to it for that reason, but I think it's a really cool show.

#25: Thank you very much for the warning about One Day, a book I will probably get around to. . .one day :) Sorry, I could not resist.

I do hope both your work and living situations resolve themselves soon, Nora. Stress at one is hard enough. Stress at both is practically unlivable.

I'm not sure how one can do anything but read when it's this rainy out.

For my personal reference (and possibly your entertainment), here's what's coming up:

Olive Kitteridge then Fingersmith
Watchmen then A Game of Thrones
The Zombie Survival Guide then From Then to Now: A Short History of the World, Many Waters, and/or Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers

The graph, while true, isn't an accurate representation of your current situation. It sounds like you've been pushed WAY BEYOND that tiny little smidge.

My vote is for Stiff, between those two books. Mary Roach...she's dreamy... :)

Book #47: Watchmen by Alan Moore - a reread, kinda. I skimmed through it in preparation for seeing the movie a few years back. Good, but quite complicated. I'm not really sure what else to say.

There goes the power. Thank goodness for Smartphones, candles, and LED booklights.

this is to remind me that I just finished the zombie survival guide.

I hope your power is on again soon, Nora.

Oooooh, you finished the Zombie Survival Guide after the power went out? Creeeepy...

Your book group sounds like my kind of book group. :D

#38: Your book group sounds like my kind of book group.

Yeah, but you might have to talk to actual people if you were in the book group, Stephen. . .

The power was only out for about an hour, thank goodness. It's still raining a bit, but no major damage that I've seen. Just teeny twigs covering the ground, and leaves plastered to every surface.

The book group is just a Facebook group that my best friend from college and I have. It's basically a (failing) attempt by me to keep our friendship alive and kicking. But she refuses to pick books, and never likes anything that I pick. Since it's just the two of us I can't exactly go on with the reading schedule if she won't keep up with it. Rather annoying, but I've learned better than to pick a book I'm super thrilled about reading, since in all likelihood it will take us 3 months to get through it.

Book #48: The Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection from the Living Dead by Max Brooks - As most of you know, I take zombies very seriously. Thus I was quite thrilled to see that this book had been tagged often as "non-fiction". A non-fiction book on how to prepare for zombies is just what the world needs! I was quite excited.
My hopes were dashed, however, on the top of page 2, which reads: "Their origin stems from a virus known as Solanum, a Latin word used by Jan Vanderhaven, who first "discovered" the disease". So, the zombies in this book are specifically the zombies from Max Brook's universe. I don't have a problem with that, but the truth is that we don't know how the zombie outbreak is going to come (when it does). Thus, some of the information in this book might not apply to our own zombie survival scenario. But it's still good information.
I really appreciated the weapons section, as I don't have much knowledge about them. There were only a couple paragraphs about each weapon, which is exactly the amount of information I want.
The "On the Defense", "On the Run", "On the Attack", and "Living in an Undead World" sections were pretty repetitive. This is useful in case of an attack, when you can focus only on the section you need, but I was just bored.
BUT the best coolest awesomest part of the book was the "Recorded Attacks" section. It gives case reports (from 1 paragraph to 2 pages in length) of dozens of recorded zombie attacks, ranging from 60,000 B.C. in central Africa to 1587 A.D. in North Carolina to 2002 A.D. in the Virgin Islands. This was without a doubt my favorite section.
I enjoyed this book a lot. It was both informative and entertaining. However, I will not be tagging it as non-fiction.

39: A book group with 2 people and only 1 reads the book? Doesn't sound like much talking is required.

I really need to get my hands on the Zombie Survival Guide. :)

#40: As I loved Brooks' World War Z, I will have to see if I can get my hands on the Zombie Survival Guide.

Glad to hear that you did not lose electricity for long, Nora.

I have been holding out on you guys: I'm actually going on a super fun amazing exciting vacation in less than a week! I have been planning it for months but then we got our new "supervisor" and she almost wouldn't let me go. But now I have the okay from everyone, so I can be just excited about it instead of terrified that I'm going to have to pay my dad back for the plane tickets and hotel rooms.

So, next Monday my dad and I are flying from DC to Boise, ID to visit my great-uncle. Then the three of us are going to drive leisurely across Oregon to Portland. And then drive leisurely up to Seattle, WA. And then drive leisurely to Twisp, WA where my cousin lives, and then drive leisurely back to Boise! I'll be gone two weeks in all. I'll have my laptop, so don't worry that you won't be able to hear my lovely stories.

So of course, the big question: What books should I take with me?

Yay! Sounds like leisure is just what you need right now. :)

Stephen's right, this vacation sounds perfect for you right now. Just three more days of crap until you're free! As to what books to take with you - geez, that's a hard one. Can you read while flying/driving? Or do you get carsick?

Reading while flying/riding in the car is what I live for.

I've realized after years of experience that the trick to taking books on travels is to only take paperbacks, especially large ones. It's the most efficient.

Ummmm, have you read The Terror be Dan Simmons? 900+ pages and it's a good read. You aren't traveling by boat, right?

Wellllll that looks good but won't have the opportunity to/probably shouldn't buy more books before I go. So I'm going to stick with some of the 200+ books I own that I still need to read.

If I really wanted to torture myself, I would just bring Quicksilver (yeah that's right, I haven't finished it yet). I'd be sure to finish it if I was that desperate.

dooooo itttttt

I wish I could go to bed. Today was bad bad bad. But I'm not physically tired and if I'm not physically tired then I'll just lay around thinking about how bad today was.

I meant buy more books. And now you can't use tiredness as an excuse. :)

I don't have time to go out and get them, and if I order them they probably won't get here before I leave

Those are horrible excuses.

Also I need to save my money as I'm probably going to have to quit very soon.

I bet they have books in Portland and Seattle. Your To Read collection? Looks good. Choose a variety to suit different moods. No torture. It's a vacation from torture.

Ok, that's better I guess... :(

I won an ER book.... and it's about zombies! Yayyyyy!!

Dead of Night by Jonathan Maberry

I won that one too! :)

YYAAAAAAYY now we have that two-person book group you wanted! Except both of us will read it.

Cool! ... *tiptoes away*

jerk.

Oh...god...

Ummm, hey. No, errrr, I wasn't going anywhere. Just thought I heard something...outside... *checks window* Nope, nothing there, heh heh... *Returns to bed and pretends to go back to sleep*

...wait, no, that wasn't right. What were we talking about again?

We were talking about how we're going to read our free zombie books together.

Right! Well, I'm sorry to say that since you have won the same book as me, you probably won't get it, because I haven't had any luck of actually receiving the ER books I win this year.

If we do actually get them, though, I could certainly read it with you. So long as there is no verbal communication involved. :)

Maberry's pretty good. I gotvhis sequel to Patient Zero last year via ER, and really enjoyed it. I requested this one, but got The Secret Life of Pronouns, that sounded really intriguing. I'll be interested to see what y'all think of his zombie work.

Stephen: I am 12 for 12 on getting my ER books. Almost all of them have been on time, too! So maybe this will be your lucky month.

Jim: You can borrow my copy when I'm done with it :-)

BTW, I'm 30 for 32 on ER books overall. I seem to have scored pretty well. :)

Hello, lovelies!

I've done some soul-searching and I think this is what I'm going to bring on my trip:

A Game of Thrones - If not finished (which I almost definitely won't be)
Napoleon's Buttons by Penny Le Couteur - Nonfic, science/history
Quicksilver by Neal Stephenson - historical fic
Many Waters by Madeleine L'Engle - YA, sci-fic
Fingersmith by Sarah Waters - If I don't finish Olive Kitteridge
The Lost City of Z by David Grann - Nonfic, history/exploration
Running with Scissors by Augusten Burroughs - because I feel bad only taking books I've bought in the last 6 months
Children of the Mind by Orson Scott Card - sci-fic
A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan - contemporary fic

66: I hope so. I'm really looking forward to this one, obviously. :)

Jim: ...32?? Wow... :o

Oh, cool, I wonder of my library has Napoleon's Buttons, it sounds fascinating!

Haha, I checked my library's website. No buttons but there is Napoleon's Privates. o.O

LOL!

I had never heard of Napoleon's buttons before, but I got it from my Secret Santa

Ah, see, I got a science book too. Never Suck a Dead Man's Hand, I hope yours is better than mine was. I wasn't a big fan of that one...

I got Napoleon's Buttons AND Packing for Mars. So it was a pretty great christmas.

Yeah, that does sound pretty nice. Fortunately my other book was Perdido Street Station so it wasn't so bad. :)

That looks like a great list of books to take. I just bought The Lost City of Z yesterday at a Borders closing sale, so maybe I'll get around to reading it in the near-ish future too.

#68: Some nice reads there, Nora! I hope you have a wonderful trip.

"Book" #49: Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury - Listened to as an audiobook from the library - Not bad. Nice and short. I liked it, but I think I would have liked it better if I had read it myself. It was insightful, but of course, I'm a reader, so it didn't tell me anything I didn't already know.

It actually reminded me of a story which I am now going to tell you about a crazy boyfriend I once had. He was not a reader, supposedly because he didn't have the attention span for it. (He also didn't have the attention span to watch an entire tv show straight through, among other things). The only book he had ever read was Lolita. At one point after we had broken up we were chatting and he told me that he wanted to read a book, and so he needed me to tell him a book that he could read that would change his life, because he didn't want the delayed gratification of reading a bunch of different books in an attempt to find the perfect one. I told him that all books change your life, but just a little at a time. He didn't like that answer. Then I told him that everyone is affected differently by books and so no one can know what book will change his life except him. He didn't like that answer either. So then I told him that if he read 1000 books, I could absolutely guarantee that the 1000th book would change his life dramatically. He seemed to believe me on that one, but he still wasn't happy about it, and hasn't talked to me since. I think now if I could go back in time, I would've told him to read Fahrenheit 451. He would like it a lot. It wouldn't actually change his life dramatically, but he would think that it did.

Also, there's an "afterward" bit at the end (at least of my audiobook), in which Ray Bradbury writes about how he feels about writing and his books/stories/plays. He's kind of a dick. (or at least that's how he comes across)

Done with work for the next 17 days! Woohoo!

Enjoy your vacation, Nora! It's well-deserved. :D

WOOHOOOO indeed! Hope you have an excellent trip, Nora!

Hurray!!! :D

I loved your 'review' of Fahrenheit 451. He didn't like books? Pffft, I can't imagine what you saw in him.

:P

He actually liked books, and reading. He just didn't like doing one thing for more than 5 minutes. Weird. I know. But it was cute at first, and he played piano and I liked that.

Ah, okay, 5 minutes is better than nothing I guess. :)

The sad part is, the only guy I've ever dated who was an avid reader was one of the worst jerks.

Reading can do that. Spending time alone reading doesn't allow a person to polish their social skills.

Nah, I know plenty of personable people who read, and tons and tons and tons of assholes who don't.

Nonsense! I'm right! *Pokes Nora in the eye*

Put that thing away! This is a family thread!

Sorry, I figured if my social skills weren't polished then at least my...well...nevermind, I'll stop. :(

Audible.com update: My 3 months at half price are up now, so I used my last credit (Bossypants by Tina Fey, read by Tina Fey) and then began the process of cancelling my account. They offered me a $20 coupon. I took it, and said I still wanted to cancel (knowing that it would most likely mean losing my coupon). They told me I could put my account on hold for 3 months, and I decided to do so. So they won't charge me or give me credits for 3 months, and I get to keep my coupon, keep my 30% member discount, and keep my wishlist (if I chose to use it).

I'll let you know how things go in December. I almost definitely won't actually renew my membership, but I want to see how many more discounts/free things they'll offer me ;-)

Yes, please investigate for my sake too! I have their lowest level of subscription possible, and I've thought about canceling a few times. They have a lot of nice stuff that I can't get through the library, though, and that's what is holding me up.

I think the key is this: When you try to cancel, they ask you for a reason. I've been picking "Trying to reduce expenses" as my reason, so that's probably why they keep giving me discounts.

Free stuff is good.

Sorry, that's all the insight I have to offer.

Packing for 2 weeks is HARD!

Book #50: Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout - Interesting, but super duper depressing. Does nothing good ever happen to the people in that town? Also, the "special features" at the end of the book had an interview between a reviewer, Elizabeth Strout, and Olive Kitteridge. That was just weird. This book wasn't bad, but it was not my cup of tea and I don't see what all the fuss is about.

Currently reading: A Game of Thrones
Many Waters by Madeleine L'Engle

I didn't like Olive Kitteridge either. I was beginning to think I was the only one.

>97 thornton37814: I'm with you, Lori. I liked everything about it except the plot, but who wants to read a book with a bad plot??


I've apparently done something to my back in my sleep. Slept on it funny or something. So now I can barely sit upright without large amounts of pain. Exactly what I need on a day when I'm going to spend about 8 hours on airplanes.

Sorry to hear that, Nora. I did something similar a couple week ago. It's hell getting old... :P

I took some ibuprofen and went on a walk for about 30 minutes, and now my back feels significantly better (but still not great). I guess I'll just keep some drugs with me at all times and maybe I'll make it through okay.

Good evening, from dark Meridian, ID. I think I'm going to use this as an unofficial travel journal, if for no other reason than there is no where else on the internet where people will listen to me. But it will also be mostly book-centric.

Monday, 5 September 2011: Day 1

Sights seen: the inside of the Salt Lake City airport, the Boise airport, Boise State football fans, a breathtakingly attractive man on the airplane reading James Joyce
Pages read: 230 (A Game of Thrones: 119; Napoleon's Buttons: 93; Quicksilver: 18)
Books finished: 0

Now I'm going to go sleep in this nice comfy hotel bed, and hope that I don't mess up my back any further.

"a breathtakingly attractive man on the airplane reading James Joyce" = practically porn, no? ;)

Ooooh, a hot man reading a smarty book? *drools* I'm sorry, what were you saying?

Hope your back is feeling a little better, Nora, and nice reading progress while traveling!

oohhh, you ladies have no idea. He was totally my type, too. I would have done him right there on the airplane if, you know, he had ever looked in my direction.

Wow, airports just got MUCH more terrifying...

ETA: And I'm never reading in public EVER.

So jealous of your HGRB experience!

I'm so addicted to HGRB.

Does anyone want a Google Music invite? I have 8 free invites left.

Tuesday, 6 September, 2011: Day 2

Sights seen: downtown Boise, tons of amazing huge mountains which are apparently called "foothills", lots and lots of sprinklers, fields of onions, fields of mint (actually smelled these before seeing them), cows, horses, tons of Basque food being shoveled into my mouth.
Pages read: 20 (Quicksilver) (Possibly more later)
Books finished: 0

Well, my back felt a bit better when I woke up this morning. But then I slipped and fell in the bathtub, so now just everything aches. (Yes, I am that clumsy.)

Wednesday, 7 September, 2011: Day 3

Sights seen: more downtown Boise, vistas that go on for at least 30 miles but are apparently "too hazy to see anything", lots and lots of sprinklers, the Idaho state capitol building, the old Boise train depot
Pages read: 65 (Quicksilver) (Possibly more later)
Books finished: 0

My back feels a lot better today, and I managed to bathe without hurting myself further this morning. My body doesn't ache much but I do have some bruises.

Hey! No injuries today! Something to celebrate, Nora. Boise must be beautiful, even with the hundreds of sprinklers. And, it's a Thursday and you're not in the office - WOO HOOOOO!!!!!

Nora, can I join the club? I just fell today, too. Can you believe it? I slipped on the stupid (is it rubber?) sidewalk in front of the building where I work. Had I been older (or had porous bones), I'd for sure have broken a hip. An older man asked if I was okay and offered to help me up. I said, "No. I'm okay, just pissed." ...and I was, too! I always hated that stupid sidewalk that is slippery and needs to be washed all the time. Who washes a sidewalk?!

I told the building engineer that I'm going to write a complaint. I just looked...and have no bruises or anything. Not that I'm complaining. I don't care too much for broken bones, either.

Are you healed yet?

The real reason I visited your thread was not to gripe, but to see if you'd help me with the LT Meet-Up at the National Book Festival. It seems as if Jim is overwhelmed with work.

Here's my plan. It will be on Saturday and marketed as the Fifth Sixth Annual Bookcrossing-LibraryThing Meet-Up. You keep the LibraryThing members entertained, and I'll do the same for the Bookcrossing members. We'll all meet each other at the same time.
I thought a good time would be 1:30pm to 2:30pm. We should meet in a shady area with places to be seated. I think a good place would be the Sculpture Garden outside of the Hirshhorn Museum. In the event of rain, we can go inside of that museum and meet in its lobby.

Our previous meeting place (the Museum of Natural History) is too far away from the Book Festival.

Your thoughts?

I love it. I will totally help you out. And I agree that Natural History was a bit too far away. I would suggest the National Gallery of Art sculpture garden, however, because the Hirshhorn sculpture garden is sunken into the ground and rather labyrinthine. We could also meet on the front steps of the National Gallery of Art. There are trees on the sides and the walls are at appropriate sitting-height.

THe Hirshhorn garden has benches, trees, and great nooks in which to congregate. If we give directions to go down the left-hand ramp and look for people with LT or Bookcrossing signs or tee shirts, that might work.

However, I'll defer to whatever place you pick. Just let me know exactly where.

Is that time okay? I'm trying to pick a time in between the authors I want to see and those my Bookcrossing friends want to see, but I also have to see all of my LT friends at the same time! :)

That time is fine with me, but I do notice that Sarah Vowell is speaking at 1:40-2:55 and she is pretty popular and a good speaker.

Why don't we move this chat over to the Meet-up thread, and we can ask what people think.

Moving...

Hello from Moscow, ID!

Thursday, 8 September, 2011: Day 4 (yesterday)

Sights seen: Rte 95, lots of little towns, lots of mountains, lots of historical markers about Lewis & Clark and the Nez Perce, University of Idaho (go, um, Vandals?)
Pages read: 62 (Many Waters)
Books finished: 0

For the next several days I will be in Twisp, WA and I have no idea what the internet situation is, so if I'm MIA for a couple days that's why. After that I'll be in Seattle and I'm reasonably sure they have internet there.

Hi Nora! I hope you are enjoying your trip.

I'd also like to add that I am currently suffering from a back injury. I fell out of my sister's truck and moved my pelvis bone a half inch in the wrong direction. Chiropractors are good people to enlist for help. Hopefully all you fellow back sufferers are on the up and up and that you are enjoying your vacation Nora!

What a bunch of klutzes we are! ;)

No internet or cell phone service in Twisp. But the inn we're going to stay at in Seattle does have free wi-fi. So updates will come then.

False alarm. No internet in the Seattle hotel. (Why do hotels always say they have free wi-fi when they don't?? Someone should be in charge of policing these things.) Updates on Friday-ish.

Friday!? But...but...that's like...a million days from now. :(

No kidding! What a bunch of wangs.

Is it Friday yet?

Almost, sorry.

*Spoiler Alert* I have not finished any books yet. But I have been cycling them so I don't have to read any one book for too long, so I should be done with 4 books soon.

Oh! That was like being told you could open a present 1 day early before Christmas when you're a kid. You get all excited, you unwrap it, and to your horror you find clothes! So, so disappointing Nora. I saw you posted and then...that? That's it? That's the post? C'mon, you could have at least cursed and made it exciting, sheesh. ;)

Seriously though, I hope you are enjoying yourself. Any more hot book readers sighted during your travels? :)

God damnit, motherfucker.

My EYES! My EYES!

When will you learn to watch your fucking language!?

Well, that's a little better. As if the clothes had a cool picture on them or something. :)

Internet! It almost didn't happen, but then it did.

And you can't get mad at me, because technically it is still Friday here.

Friday, 9 September 2011: Day 5

Sights seen: Lake Coeur d'Alene (Idaho); Grand Coulee Dam (Washington); Twisp, Washington (where my cousin lives); the Twisp River Inn, where my uncle and I stayed while we were visiting my cousin (my dad stayed in a cabin behind my cousin's house
Pages read: 78 (Many Waters: 30; A Game of Thrones: 48)
Books finished: 0



Saturday, 10 September 2011: Day 6

Sights seen: I was woken up at the inn by chickens checking out my window; I rode a fat horse bareback through the national forest; we went to a glacial lake which was so clear that you could see the bottom - at least 30 ft down.
Pages read: 44 (A Game of Thrones: 44)
Books finished: 0



Sunday, 11 September, 2011: Day 7

Sights seen: Another day in Twisp. I rode the lovely fat horse some more, my cousin drove us around in the mountains, and we ate lunch at a small waterfall
Pages read: 67 (A Game of Thrones: 67)
Books finished: 0

Monday, 12 September 2011: Day 8

Sights seen: breathtaking scenery in the North Cascade Mountains; Seattle
Pages read: 57 (A Game of Thrones: 45; Napoleon's Buttons: 12)
Books finished: 0



Tuesday, 13 September 2011: Day 9

Sights seen: Coffee at a coffee shop for breakfast; Pike Place Market (more coffee, and I had shrimp cocktail for breakfast. best day ever); went to the Seattle Aquarium and saw the sea otters get fed; Ate clam chowder from the market for lunch; wandered around; bought some fruit from the market (the fruit vendor thought I was a local); had coffee at 3 more coffee shops; browsed 4 bookstores; got asked for directions by tourists twice; ate japanese food for dinner; went to the top of the space needle
Pages read: 65 (Napoleon's Buttons: 65)
Books finished: 0



Wednesday, 14 September 2011: Day 10

Sights seen: I climbed to the top of a mountain and I could see Mount Adams, Mount Saint Helens, Mount Hood, and Mount Rainier, all at the same time. It was probably the most amazing thing I've ever seen.
Pages read: 17 (Napoleon's Buttons: 11; Quicksilver: 6)
Books finished: 0

Thursday, 15 September 2011: Day 11

Sights seen: the mighty Columbia river; a 600 foot tall waterfall; a fish ladder with GIGANTIC 2-foot-long terrifying-looking salmon in it; a fish hatchery with a pond of sturgeon, one of which was 10 ft long and over 70 yrs old; wild bighorn sheep
Pages read: 109 (Quicksilver: 81; Many Waters: 38)
Books finished: 0



Friday, 16 September 2011: Day 12

Sights seen: the World Center for Birds of Prey (tons of eagles, owls, vultures, falcons, hawks, etc,etc; plus the world's bravest rabbit)
Pages read: 209 (Many Waters: 30; A Game of Thrones: 179)
Books finished: ONE

Nora, your vacation is starting to make me jealous! To see all of that nature, AND read books? Totally awesome. :)

I rode a fat horse bareback through the national forest

Is this secret code for "I saw another hot bookreader and he looked my way this time," or am I reading too much into this? :P

Glad you are having such a good time! Or I'm assuming you are, anyway, considering how wonderful everything sounds.

Sounds like a great trip! Seattle's one of my favorite cities to visit.

Nope. An actual fat horse. His name is Ingot and he's a Norwegian Fjord. Pictures coming sometime after I get home.

Yay pictures! I can't say I've ever seen a fat horse. I'd Google but I'm deathly afraid of what I'll see. I'll just wait for your pictures. :)

you can check out the Wikipedia page for Norwegian Fjord horses. They're draft horses, but short, so they look very stocky for their height

Aha! See, that's what I am, just short and stocky. Tell it to my man-boobs.

I looked at pictures. Cool!

So much for a smooth trip. We just got deplaned in Salt Lake City due to mechanical issues. So I probably won't get back to DC until tomorrow morning.

Boo on mechanical issues!

"Mechanical issues?" Did one of the robot stewardesses go on a laser beam rampage or something?

What? They have those now, don't they?

Yep. They're Fembots.

It's official: I'm stuck in Atlanta until 7am. And then as soon as I land I have to go to work.

God is clearly punishing me for not finishing Quicksilver like I promised I would. But I only have like 30 pages left, so hopefully nothing will go wrong with my flight tomorrow if I finish it tonight.

Also I finished 2 other books today, and one on the 17th. But I lost count of pages, so I'm not going to bother with that.

Yeah, I can see why god would punish you for such a thing. I understand he's a big fan of alternate history and fantasy.

Yeah he's clearly a fan of fucking terrible 90000000 page boring pieces of crap.

Haha! Hey, it doesn't matter whether you like them or not, they're good for the soul. ;)

There wasn't even any fantasy in it! NONE. And you had to know lots and lots of tiny details about the time period in order to understand the alternate history, which I don't.

It's the equivalent of writing a story about how 10 years ago, I went to Dunkin Donuts. And then labeling the story as alternate history, because actually I went to Starbucks. Stephenson did not manage to make me give a shit what was real and what was "alternate".

I would really like someone to tell me what, exactly, was redeeming about that book. Because I don't get it.

But the difference between Dunkin Donuts and Starbucks is hardly a tiny detail! :P

Well I'm sure the stuff in the book wasn't either. But if you take a bunch of mid-17th century-sounding names and make them do mid-17th century-type stuff, I'm not going to know what really happened and what didn't. I get that the main characters were not real, but that alone doesn't make it alternate history. I just really didn't understand the book, and there wasn't enough plot to compensate for that.

Well then, I'll certainly be avoiding it! I'm terrible with regular history as it is. When I read historical fiction it's the action-oriented, animal-sacrificing, bowel-spilling, ancient history...err, stuff! :)

Book #51: A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin - (finished 16 Sep 2011) - HOLY CRAP HOW HAD I NOT READ THIS BOOK UNTIL NOW?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!??!?!??!?!?!?! Must. Buy. Sequels. It was just pure perfection. Really.

Book #52: Napoleon's Buttons by Penny Le Couteur - (finished 18 Sep 2011) - Yum. I love a good science book. This one had the perfect ratio of technical details to useless knowledge. It started to get a little repetitive towards the end, though, because when it comes down to it, there are surprisingly few compounds found in nature, especially since most of the ones in the book are organic.

Book #53: Many Waters by Madeleine L'Engle - (finished 19 Sep 2011) - This is one of those books that I read over and over and over and over when I was a kid. Mostly because it was one of the few that I owned. It holds up decently well over time. I always felt that it didn't really fit in with the rest of the Time Quintet, mostly because it is all about Sandy and Dennys, who otherwise are only background characters. Even when they have their own book, the twins are still rather flat characters.

Book #54: Running with Scissors by Augusten Burroughs - (finished 19 Sep 2011) - For a little while there, I forgot that I hate hate hate "humorous" memoirs. Thanks for reminding me, Augusten. This book was terrible.

Book #55: Quicksilver by Neal Stephenson - (finished 20 Sep 2011) - This book is best summed up by the following quote from page 674:

"Occasionally one discovered correspondences between things in the real world and the figments of pure math. For example: Daniel's trajectory from London to Ipswich had run in nearly a straight line, but after every one of the Dissenters had been let out of gaol, Daniel had executed a mighty change in direction and the next morning began riding on a rented horse towards Cambridge, following a trajectory that became straighter the farther he went. He was, in other words, describing a hyperbolic sort of path across Essex, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire.

But he was not doing so because it was a hyperbola or (to look at it another way) it was not a hyperbola because he was doing so. This was simply the route that traders had always taken, going from market to market as they traveled up out of Ipswich with wagon-loads of imported or smuggled goods. He could have followed a zigzag course. That it looked like a hyperbola when plotted on a map of England was luck. It was a contingent truth.

It did not mean anything."

Woohoo! Wow, that was a huge boost to your book total, huh? :)

Yep, Napoleon's Buttons definitely sound interesting. I need to put in a request for that one sometime.

Oy!

Welcome home, Nora. Too bad about work, though. :(

Your trip sounded fanstastic! Looking forward to seeing you this weekend.

Madeline! Did you see the Washington Post last weekend!? They've totally changed the layout of the National Book festival so that now it's all the way down at the other end of the mall!! WTF?!

(I don't think it's worth changing our meet-up location at the last minute, though)

Yikes! Glad you caught it.

> 161

totally changed the layout of the National Book festival

Again. *sigh*

The Hirshhorn is sort of in the middle of both mall sites so that, unless the National Book Festival is moved off the mall completely in future years, we'd be sort of close to the meet-up site wherever they locate the festival.

Feel free to site your LT meet-up wherever you want it. I'm going to stick to the Hirshhorn site for the BC meet-up.

I'll leave mine there too, then. No sense in moving things around since people seem to be okay with it.

We'll see how it goes. It looked kind of neat when I eyeballed it last year.

Book # 56: A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan - interesting. The plot was good and interesting and moved along, but was made confusing by switching back and forth through time and different characters. I didn't really understand who was who until the end (especially since I found two of the main characters annoyingly similar). I *appreciate* the creativity of the plot-jumping and switching between 1st and 3rd person (and 2nd person. Wtf??) and the random powerpoint presentation in the middle, but it was annoying and distracting. I could go back and read the whole thing again from the beginning and possibly understand everything better, or I could read a new book. I'll probably pick the latter.

Hola Nora! Just a few things...

1) Sorry about your bitch-ass supervisor. In the nicest possible way I hope that she gets hit by a bus.

2) You've read tons on your vaca!

3) Thanks for another nudge to read A Game of Thrones, I've finally got my own copy.

4) Thanks for the un-nudge about Quicksilver - how in the hell did you ever ever read that? Just that little part scrambled my brain.

Hope you're having a good night!

>166 norabelle414: Sorry you didn't enjoy Goon Squad as much. I think one of the things I really liked about it was the the varying stylistic choices for each of the different chapters. It was a successful experimentation that I really enjoyed and felt made the novel more compelling. But to each their own. :)

>167 LauraBrook:
1) Me too!
2) Thanks for the support. I finished 8 books on my week-long trip to Prague so I felt kind of lame only finishing 5 on my 2-week long trip. But they're very different scenarios so I can remind myself I still did well.
3) Awesome! It really is great, I promise.
4) That isn't even a really boring part. At least that bit makes sense.

> 168 I liked the creativity a lot, but I would have appreciated a time-frame at the beginning of each chapter (just "1985" or "20 years later" or something), and an idea of how characters were related to each other from the beginning. Trying to figure both of those things out was distracting to me.

It's official - Joshua Foer is cuter than Jonathan Safran Foer.

I...can't tell them apart!

One has circle glasses, the other has rectangle glasses.

Oh! Hmmm. Well, I'm certainly impressed by the first one's effeminate podium. It's the kind a person could dry-hump while giving a speech behind it, for sure.

Wow... um, okay Stephen.

Have you taken any Nyquil yet?

I don't have any, but yes, that was totally the cough syrup talking. ;)

Now I just need an excuse for the times I say similar things when I'm not sick. Hmmm..

I added the following books to my collection last week:

Meet the Austins (1997 edition) by Madeleine L'Engle - funny story about this. I've spent a significant amount of time searching for an affordable copy of a short story by L'Engle called The Anti-Muffins. Though it was originally written as a chapter of Meet the Austins, her publisher thought it was too controversial for a kids' book, and it was cut out. She then published it separately, but it has been out of print for 30 years or so at this point. So the cheapest I've ever been able to find was $28, which is a lot for a short story. So imagine my delight when I discovered that, since 1997, The Anti-Muffins has been returned to its rightful place in Meet the Austins, and I could just buy a new copy of that for $5. Beautiful.
Amy and Isabelle by Elizabeth Strout - bookcrossing from SqueakyChu
Brokeback Mountain by Annie Proulx - bookcrossing from SqueakyChu
Dead of Night by Jonathan Maberry - LTER - Aug 2011
Crocodile on the Sandbank by Elizabeth Peters - bookcrossing from _Zoe_ (I think?)




I had an AWESOME time at the National Book Festival this weekend! Thanks to all the LTers who showed up, and *nudgenudge* to everyone who didn't. Both listening to authors speak and meeting LTers in person are amazing experiences, so you should come next year!

This year, I got to see:
Jennifer Egan
Gregory Maguire - he sang!
Cassandra Clare
Susan Cooper - she's such an inspirational woman. She brought me to tears!
Joshua Foer

And that was all without rushing around or getting up early.

(PS. Just in case you're interested, I'm currently reading Fingersmith by Sarah Waters and loving it, and currently listening to Jane Slayre by Sherri Browning Erwin and Charlotte Bronte)

*Topples over from Nora's incessant nudging*

Glad to hear you had an AWESOME time!

I hate my job I hate my job I hate my job I hate my job I hate my job I hate my job I hate my job I hate my job I hate my job I hate my job I hate my job I hate my job I hate my job I hate my job I hate my job I hate my job I hate my job I hate my job

Crocodile on the Sandbank was really from Madeline; I just entered the drop-off location. I can't even say that I carried it from her house since she did most of that too!

I'm sorry about the job :(

Maybe if you say it enough times it'll become (un)true.

Okay, probably not. I'm just trying ot be optimistic...I'm bad at it though, as you can see.

I've calculated that I need to finish one book every 5 days for the rest of the year to get 75 books, so that's what I'm going to try to do:

Book #57: Brokeback Mountain by Annie Proulx - I love short stories, and this one is an example of why. It's so sweet and beautiful and simple. I read the whole thing on the Metro this morning. I didn't need any more, and I didn't want any less (for once). I love the binding, too. It's really nice for a stand-alone short story. I'm tempted to keep it just for that reason, but I got it through bookcrossing so I feel compelled to pass it on.

BookCrossing books may also be permanently (or temporarily) kept. It's your free choice!

If you want to keep Brokeback Mountain, perhaps just register another book for BookCrossing that you don't like as much or want to pass on.

Short books! Graphic novels! Cheat! You can make it to 75! A book every 5 days? You can do 2 book every 5 days! Go go go go go!

Alas, I can't do 2 books every 5 days. I have a shitty job that requires not only 9 hours of work each day, but also 3 hours of mindless video-watching or computer game-playing each day, just to calm down.

184: I used to have one of those. Now I don't and I'm happy but broke. Happy > $ in my book any day.

This is the best thing I've ever seen in my whole life. If there's such thing as a flowchart-gasm, I just had one.

I love it that that chart exists, but I have to mention that it directed me straight to a Neal Stephenson book ;)

Me too. Don't be fooled!

Although I do notice that Quicksilver isn't on the chart. Maybe I just read the wrong Neal Stephenson book?

The Chart is amazing!! :D

Cryptonomicon is the one I read. Interesting enough, but I haven't been driven to pick up another of his books in the years since then. It's not that I've particularly ruled it out, but it's never been a priority.

Me too.

I've heard a bunch of people rave on and on about Snow Crash. But they were mostly giant nerds who don't read very much.

I wish I could order an author's books by number of pages. Then I could pick a short one to read.

I read Snow Crash and wasn't that impressed. Dated and chaotic.

Yeah I noticed you read it, but forgot to comment. Quicksilver was definitely chaotic (it can't be dated, being historical fiction), with no actual purpose behind the chaos.

What a fantastic chart! Almost makes me want to read the books. Neal Stephenson... judging by descriptions, the books intrigue me, but then I'm put off by such comments as "it's like a very long, vivid, and enjoyable dream" (from a review of Snow Crash). Except I'm not so sure about the "enjoyable" part.

I have discovered that chart is blocked on my work computer! *sob* I just wanted to look at it! It's so pretty!

If today was a book, it would be Nora And The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

Sorry to hear that. :(

de-lurking to say I love that chart! Thanks for posting!

(and sorry you are having a Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day - hope it gets better!)

:(

*singing*

...The sun'll come out Tomorrow,
So you got to hang on 'til Tomorrow.
Come what may!
Tomorrow, Tomorrow,
I love ya, Tomorrow,
you're only a day away.

*Hugs* Hopefully that helps today start off a little bit better, Nora.

So what happened? :(

In your performance review, isn't there a place where you state your side of the picture? Tactfully, of course...

Say it anyway. The packet almost certainly gets reviewed by at least your boss' boss. Plus it gets documented in case there's an issue later. Take every opportunity you can to say what it is you want to do and where you want to go with your job in the future. Even if it doesn't help now, there may be a change in the future that brings in a better manager and you'll want to have that sort of thing in your file.

which is the boss to whom I have already tried to express my frustrations, and who shut me down with a warning

Yeesh. What happened to the plan for a few of you to meet with someone? Was this it?

So you're actively looking for another job now?

he didn't want to hear anything more from any of us.

This is not the first time I've heard of such a situation. My reaction to this is that it is very sad. It doesn't say much about a company which is not receptive to the complaints of workers who only want to be productive workers in a nurturing environment.

I don't understand why some threatened managers seem to want to take revenge instead of want to improve themslves. Makes no sense to me at all.

I am truly blessed with an *angel* of a manager (who is the cushion between myself and her own boss).

Quiet weekend here. Lots of rain.

Do any of my knitting friends have some good (easy) patterns they like? I seem to have trouble understanding a lot of the patterns I find in books and such. I'd especially like to learn how to knit socks and/or things for babies.

Nora: This is my absolute favorite baby blanket to make and it's super easy - it was one of the first patterns I tried when I started knitting. I've probably made at least 20 blankets from this pattern as gifts. Give it a try and let me know what you think! If you have any questions about it, I'd be happy to help if I can.

http://www.debbiemacomber.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=nnp&pageID=194

That looks perfect, Amber!! Why can't all patterns be that simple? I even have a 30" circular #8 needle, so all I need is enough yarn.

Nora: I know! It's a great pattern. Another great thing about it: one of those fairly cheap giant skeins of soft baby yarn is plenty to make it.

Trying to be helpful, Nora, but I can't seem to find any articles online about how to knit a body bag.

I think a body bag is just an afghan with a zipper, really. Thanks for looking though.

Attention!

I've posted photos from my trip!

https://picasaweb.google.com/111206218313689169598/NorthwestTrip0618Sep2011?auth...

I'm currently working on a "coffee mitt" (like the cardboard sleeves for your paper coffee cup, but knitted) from One Skein Wonders, and it is ridiculously confusing for such a simple thing. It's taken me (at least) three tries just to figure out what they're trying to say.

Yay pictures! Makes me wish I had a faster internet connection.

The pictures are great - thanks for sharing! As far as the knitting pattern goes, sometimes they're just written *very* poorly. Apparently writing directions is an acquired skill, which many people do not possess.

Indeed. The pattern goes something like this:

Row 1: Slip 1, P3, *K2, P6; repeat from * to last 6 stiches, K2, P4.

Row 2: Slip 1, knit the knits and purl the purls.

Row 3: Repeat row 2

(it took me several tries in which I messed up the pattern to realize that repeating row 2 is the same as repeating row 1, but more confusing)

Stephen: This is the only picture you need: Me and my fat horse.

Yay!! :D I could load up the album with the small pics but couldn't enlarge any of them. Thanks! :)

I feel like that horse may spend its spare time carting hobbits about. :)

He's a Norwegian Fjord. They all look like that. I tried to make him run but he doesn't know how to run because he's a draft horse. So he would just kind of kick a little and then go back to eating. and eating. and eating.

I feel like he should cart some dwarfs around, because his name is Ingot. But hobbits are probably acceptable as well.

Knitting patterns: Yeah, I used to rewrite patterns once I'd puzzled over what they *really* meant! Eventually you see enough of them that you know what they're trying to tell you - ha!

And that horse is *adorable*! I'd a big fan of the draft horses.

Looks like a fun trip. I used to live in Portland and I noticed you went to Multnomah Falls. LOVE that place, I miss it.

Beautiful pictures! Thanks for posting them Nora. It looks as if youhad a fabulous trip.

The fat horse reminds me of a Clydesdale horse that used to live on the farm where my kids took riding lessons. I assume he was just a pet because the kids rode other horses, and I know that Clydesdales, like the Norwegian Fjords probably, were meant to be work animals.

I used to visit that Clydesdale (I can't remember his name) while my kids were taking riding lessons. He always sneezed on me and ruined whatever tee shirt I happened to be wearing at the time. Oh, well. Fond memories... :)

(duplicate post)

Currently reading:

Fingersmith by Sarah Waters (almost done)
Dead of Night by Jonathan Maberry (ER book, reading with @Ape)
Jane Slayre by Sherri Browning Erwin (audiobook, almost done)

Coming soon?

The Lost City of Z by David Grann
The Body by Stephen King (audiobook)
Crocodile on the Sandbank by Elizabeth Peters
??

*Update*

@Soraya71 just lent me 4 Cassandra Clare books (which I am eternally grateful for since they were ridiculously expensive at the book festival) so I'm going to oust The Lost City of Z and Crocodile on the Sandbank in favor of those.

Nice! Hope you enjoy your Cassandra Clare fix. :D

Book #58: Fingersmith by Sarah Waters - Really good, but a little more verbose than I wished it had been. However, it's been awhile since I read a book with plot twists that I did not see coming at all. So kudos to you, Ms. Waters, for keeping me on my toes.

Book #59: Jane Slayre by Sherri Browning Erwin and Charlotte Bronte - listened to as an audiobook from the library - Jane Eyre already has many supernatural elements to it, so it lends itself enormously to this type of mash-up novel. Jane was raised by vampire relatives, who did not suck her blood because they thought they would get sick from drinking commoner blood. She receives a message from her uncle's ghost, who tells her she is decended from a long line of vampire slayers. She goes to a boarding school which turns out to be run by a bokor (voodoo witch doctor) who is actually running a zombie farm. And so on. Really excellent; I liked it a great deal. The action sequences were great. Also, listening to it on audiobook was great because it is long and this way I did not have to worry about all the other books I could be reading in the same time period. Plus the narrator does good voices.

(edited because I can't count to 59)

Look at me, all ahead of schedule and stuff :-)

Book #60: Dead of Night by Jonathan Maberry - LT Early Reviewer - All in all, not too bad. It's a cop drama, which is not my kind of thing. And the science tries way too hard to be correct and ends up just being confusing. But at least it tries!

And there are zombies! The action sequences and descriptive passages are excellent. I'd totally recommend this to people who like zombie books (especially if they like cop dramas, too), but only after they've read all the really really good ones.

Currently reading: City of Bones by Cassandra Clare

Currently listening to: The Body by Stephen King

Days remaining: 81

Books remaining: 15

Days per book: 5.4

SHORT BOOKS! Must I force my recommendations upon you? Go read Pluto, Animal Lover. It's short, big text, lots of spacing, and I gave it 5 stars. Grayson is a decent nonfiction that is super tiny, and Ravel is quite interesting too. GO READ THEM NOW BECAUSE I TOLD YOU SO!!! I mean, errr, I'm just trying to help you out, is all. *Smiles sweetly*

ETA: Oh, When the Emperor Was Divine is another worthwhile one.

The series I'm reading now is on the chubby side, but they have quick plots. And The Body is short. And I have Wide Sargasso Sea coming up at some point and that is short.

But mostly I like fat books. They're better than short books.

My library's fall booksale is tomorrow so maybe I will pick up some short books there. (I can already hear my three bookshelves groaning)

I tend to find myself liking fat books more as well. More time to develop a connection with the characters. HOWEVER, it doesn't hurt to read a short book every once in awhile, since they can often times be read in a day.

When I didn't have a car and had to be driven to the library, I had to try to time my reading so that I'd finish my books within a day or two of my next chance to get a ride into town. I found grabbing one or two 100-pagers was perfect for that. I could return them unread if I finished my books at the perfect time or I could fill in a day or two with quick little books when I needed to.

Obviously that's not a problem for you, but I've grown a liking for those quick little books, and I've found that a lot of times they can pack a wallop as far as atmosphere is concerned. Having to fill in 300 pages with fluffy plot can definitely lessen that aspect of a book.

Have fun at the library sale!! :D

I like short stories, but short books are inefficient. So I like omnibi: collections of short stories or two or three short-ish books put together.

I'm always terrified of being stuck somewhere without a book, so if the book I'm reading has less than 100 pages left, I carry another with me. That's also one of the reasons why I read multiple books at the same time.

Oh, collection of short stories, icky! I rarely enjoy those. Nothing worse than starting a story knowing it's going to end before you can get into it in any way and then being forced to read another one. *Shudders*

I will say, though, that your phobia is a perfectly reasonable one. :)

239: I do the same thing - that's partly why I get to read so many books at once, simply b/c I panic at the thought of not having anything to read. Glad to see I have such good company!

#240 Stephen: Oh, I feel exactly the same way about short story collections. Yuck. I am glad, however, that there are people out there who will give them the loving attention they deserve.

Last night I saw The Thing, and it was TERRIFYING

Aw, yes!! The Thing is excellent! A classic!

Is that based off the video game by the same name? The commercials seemed similar but I wasn't sure...

ETA: Oh, it turns out the game is a sequel to the '82 film. Hmm.

The movie I saw yesterday is apparently a prequel to one of the previous movies (the 1982 one, I think). But I haven't seen any of the others so I'm not sure.

Oh wait, I've only seen the older movie. It's really worth a watch, though.

Library book sale tonight! Squee!

We should make Nora strap a webcam to her head so we can all shop vicariously through her. :D

Oh Stephen. You so wish you had given me your address when I asked for it. They had a book called The War of the Worlds Plus Blood, Guts, and Zombies by H. G. Wells and Eric S. Brown. Personally I don't think The War of the Worlds needs MORE science fiction, but on the other hand, I do love zombies.

Haha, interesting! Yeah, I still need to read The War of the Worlds. Hmmmm...need to do that soon... Y'know, I didn't think of counting aliens as a Halloween read!

So, what kind of haul didja get? And Stephen, great idea in the Nora-Cam. That'd be entertaining for sure! Or, for that matter, any of us could have a camera and it would be interesting.

In order to find out what I bought at the book festival today, you'll have to head over to the

NEW THREAD
http://www.librarything.com/topic/125086