Nora (norabelle414)'s module gamma: In which Nora goes to Belgium

This space reserved for a photo from Belgium.


My goals for 2012 are thus:

• Help plan (and attend) the big giant Washington DC spring LT meet-up (planning thread here)
  
• Read 75 books
  
• Read War and Peace
  
• Learn and use more HTML in my thread
  
• Catch up on my LTER reading / reviewing
  
• Read more books than I acquire (acquire fewer books than I read?)

Categories:

• Rereads (last read more than 10 years ago)
  
• Books not originally written in English
  
• Books I've owned since before I joined LT (July 11, 2007)
  
• Hardcover books
  
• Books 250 pages or less
  
• Books from 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die
  
• Books with LT member rating of 4.00 or greater
  
• Science non-fiction
  
• Books from a series (greater than 4 books long)
  
• Books begin within 1 month of purchase
  
• Borrowed books (not from the library)
  
• Fairy tales and mythology
  

Previous Threads:
2012, part 2
2012, part 1
2011, part 5
2011, part 4
2011, part 3
2011, part 2
2011, part 1
2010
2009

Books read in 2012:

January:
1) The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart
2) The Reader by Bernhard Schlink
3) Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare (borrowed)
4) From Then to Now: A Short History of the World by Christopher Moore (LTER)
5) Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach
6) City of Fallen Angels by Cassandra Clare (borrowed)
7) Long After Midnight: 22 Hauntings and Celebrations by Ray Bradbury (A) (library)


February:
8) Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer (reread)
9) Rude Awakenings of a Jane Austen Addict by Laurie Viera Rigler (A) (library)
10) The House of God: The Classic Novel of Life and Death in an American Hospital by Samuel Shem (borrowed)
11) Incarceron by Catherine Fisher (borrowed)
12) Sapphique by Catherine Fisher (borrowed)
13) Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery (A) (reread) (library)


March:
14) Bossypants by Tina Fey (A)
15) A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness (borrowed)
16) Book of Enchantments by Patricia C. Wrede
17) Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld
18) Anne of Avonlea by Lucy Maud Montgomery (A) (reread) (library)
19) We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver
20) Princess Academy by Shannon Hale

Books read in 2012:

April:
21) The Magicians by Lev Grossman
22) A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs (A) (library)
23) Anne of the Island by Lucy Maud Montgomery (A) (reread) (library)
24) The Trial by Franz Kafka
25) Gentlemen of the Road by Michael Chabon
26) A Clash of Kings by George R. R. Martin
27) Behemoth by Scott Westerfeld


May:
28) People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks (A) (library)
29) Pretty Boy by Orson Scott Card (A)
30) The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle
31) Gnomes by Wil Huygen
32) I Love Charts: The Book by Jason Oberholtzer and Cody Westphal
33) Anne of Windy Poplars by Lucy Maud Montgomery
34) Uglies by Scott Westerfeld
35) Pretties by Scott Westerfeld


June:
36)

Book #21: The Magicians by Lev Grossman - This book is just like Harry Potter!! . . . . . . . is what someone might say if they had not read any other books about magic besides Harry Potter.

This book is about a feeling. I'm sure many of us have felt this . . . you read a book about magic and adventure at a young age (usually 7 or 8) and you can't get it out of your head for the rest of your life. You think about that book constantly, and reread it in hopes of feeling that way again, but you never quite can.

Quentin Coldwater knew that feeling, and when he stumbled through an urban garden and ended up at Brakebills, a magical college in upstate New York, he thought all of his wishes were coming true. This was exactly what he had always wanted, but it couldn't live up to his impossibly (more impossible than magic) high standards. He attempted to fill the gaping hole with laziness, alcohol, and sex, but it eventually caught up with him, as these things tend to do.

This book is most of all an idolizing tribute to Narnia, and also to Harry Potter, E. Nesbit and Edward Eager, Earthsea, Middle-Earth, His Dark Materials, and all the other magical adventures I went on as a kid.

But Quentin and his friends are not Harry Potter or Peter Pevensie or Ged or Bilbo Baggins or Lyra Belaqua. They are not leaders or heroes. They are entitled, jaded, angsty, self-absorbed asses, much more like Holden Caufield or Tucker Max or Alex from A Clockwork Orange or Tomas from The Unbearable Lightness of Being. The combination of these characters and the forementioned scenario is interesting, to say the least.

This book is ambitious, and daring, and weird. But I'll recommend it to all of you because we're all weird, daring, ambitious readers, and I am really looking forward to seeing what the sequel has to offer. I would be cautious about recommending it to anyone else.

Categories: hardcover



Currently reading:
A Clash of Kings by George R. R. Martin
The Trial by Franz Kafka
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

Currently listening to:
A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs

Coming soon:
Girl with a Pearl Earring
Collapse
Crocodile on the Sandbank
Mariel of Redwall
Behemoth
The Farthest Shore

BOOKS READ: 21
BOOKS BOUGHT: 16
BOOKS ACQUIRED: 16
BOOKS DEACCESSIONED: 7

DAYS REMAINING: 273
BOOKS REMAINING: 54
DAYS PER BOOK: 5.05

Huh. When I did this shortly after midnight on April 1, LT would not allow me to post reserved #3 for several minutes. Noting the times, wondering whether you had the same trouble.

Strange.

I think there might be some kind of safeguard against triple posting the same message? It would not let me post the word "reserved" for message #3 or #4, but I changed the message to "wtf is wrong with you??" and then it let me post.

7: Yes! That's exactly what I did. Well, not exactly, my language was tamer. :-)

Phew. This morning has been super busy. I'm all moved over to this thread now, and I've updated post #4 with my newest review, of The Magicians.

Great review, Nora.

Great review of The Magicians. What I loved about it is exactly what you hit on, how it's nothing so much as a tribute to the love of magical stories many of us cultivated as children and how almost nothing, not even finding magic is real, can actually meet the expectations we have of it. I LOVED that. And the dark, murkiness of the world they now inhabit. And the knowledge that magic doesn't make your life instantly easy or exciting.

I really didn't care for the last part, the post-Brakebills bit, because the self-indulgence got to be too much and the story got too twisty and outrageous for me. I categorized it as 4.5 for the first half and 3 for the second.

The Magician King was a lot more even and a LOT less indulgent. It never quite reached the highs of Brakebills but it never slumped into the chaos of Fillory. I hope you like it when you get to it.

Checking in. :) I read Princess of Mars for a Science Fiction class I took about two years ago; my first Edgar Rice Burroughs book. How are you liking it? I just recently learned that the Disney movie John Carter is loosely (? or not so loosely, I'm not sure yet) based on that series.

Both my husband and I are reading A Princess of Mars. I think we are both struggling a bit. Not sure why, the writing is smooth enough.

>12 Kassilem: I read a review of the movie that said the movie was "based on the book which was the inspiration for Star Wars". Really?! I don't see the connection at all . . .

>13 Morphidae: I had trouble paying attention to my audiobook, too. I don't know why, either!

Book #22: A Princess of Mars: John Carter of Mars, Book 1 by Edgar Rice Burroughs - audiobook from the library - Pretty cheesy, but fun. My narrator had this really crazy old-school Southern accent which grated on my nerves a bit, but I knew it was appropriate. Due to the cheese-factor I expected a happy ending (but didn't get one), but then I remembered that this is old-school science fiction, so of course it has a true science fiction ending in which the main story is not actually resolved.

Categories: series



Currently reading:
A Clash of Kings by George R. R. Martin
The Trial by Franz Kafka
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

Currently listening to:
Anne of the Island by Lucy Maud Montgomery

Coming soon:
Girl with a Pearl Earring
Collapse
Crocodile on the Sandbank
Mariel of Redwall
Behemoth
The Farthest Shore

BOOKS READ: 22
BOOKS BOUGHT: 16
BOOKS ACQUIRED: 16
BOOKS DEACCESSIONED: 7

DAYS REMAINING: 273
BOOKS REMAINING: 53
DAYS PER BOOK: 5.15

Well. Now I have 5 hours to kill at JFK airport. Any recommendations?

Play Marco Polo and see if anyone joins you? ;)

Now I have 5 hours to kill at JFK airport. Any recommendations?

I read that so totally wrong at first. o.o

Great review of The Magicians! I found Quentin extremely irritating but I still thought the book was pretty good. I have the sequel to get to sometime this year (hopefully)

Love what you have to say about The Magicians. I have a copy here and I'm eager to read it!

Great review of The Magicians. That book frustrated me, largely because of its joy-draining perspective, but it was still a good book and -- I agree -- a clever, weird, remarkable one as well.

I'm also glad to hear that the sequel is more even. I'll read it eventually. I will have to brace myself... or cuddle with magically fuzzy puppies immediately after reading it or something... because the self-indulgent bleakness of the first one just makes me want to scream.

There is one notable scene that will make you need to cuddle puppies, but because of it's horrific brutality and sadness rather than it's self-indulgence. Other than that, you shouldn't need to self-medicate with puppies. ;)

ETA: It probably would also help to have read The Magicians fairly recently when you tackle The Magician King or to at least find a good overview to go over. It was a couple years between my reading the first and the second and I had forgotten a lot of little details and not-exactly-main characters that are prominent in the second.

Thanks for the tips!

I listened to Girl with a Pearl Earring and thought it was well done. I liked the look into the culture of the times.

I'm back and all is well, except that I am jet-lagged and thus in a pissy moody, so I won't say any more for today.

*Hugs* Glad you are back! I hope you had a nice time. :)

Ditto the Ape-man! Hope that jet lag wears off quickly. :)

Welcome back! I find that chocolate helps with the whole "pissy and jet-lagged" thing... ;)

Thanks everyone! I'm feeling much better this morning (though that could change in the afternoon). I have a mocha coffee and a huge box of chocolates that I brought back from Antwerp and I'm ready to roll!

My camera died and so I did not get to take any pictures while I was on vacation, but that's actually nice because I hate taking pictures and it was nice to have an excuse not to.

Antwerp was lovely and relaxing and I ate very well. My brother was actually really awesome, he showed us around and took us to all the good local cafes and pubs. I went to a few museums, the most interesting of which was the Plantin-Moretus Museum. It was originally owned by a publisher (Christophe Plantin) in the mid 1500s, and the building was his home, his bookstore, and his entire publishing empire (The company had a monopoly on Catholic publications for a hundred years). After Plantin's death, the whole complex was transfered to his apprentice and son-in-law, Jan Moretus. Some of Plantin's later relatives were friends with the artist Peter Paul Rubens, so he illustrated a lot of the books that they published. There were tons of books on display and the house has three huge libraries. They had a Gutenberg Bible on display, and the two oldest surviving printing presses in the world (ca. 1600), and rooms and rooms and rooms full of teeny tiny letter blocks for their dozen presses. It was really incredible. They had a special exhibit about Gerardus Mercator (inventor of the Mercator projection), because the Plantin-Moretus publishers published a lot of his maps. They had on display the first published book of maps that was ever called an "atlas", and a bunch of drawings of African animals and Native Americans that Mercator and his crew had drawn on their world travels.

I did not get a lot of reading done, mostly due to the fact that I had my computer with me, and my time was not well-structured. I did get about 800 pages of A Clash of Kings read, most of which was on the way home. So I'm a little sick of that right now. I'm listening to the audiobook of Anne of the Island instead of reading, which is a perfect break from the dark and plot-heavy George R. R. Martin book.

Oh, that museum sounds awesome! So cool that you got to visit it.

The museum sounds super awesome, Nora. Glad you had such a good time in Antwerp. Anne is always a good antidote for anything dark, glad you're still enjoying those. :)

I've just realized today that my library's OverDrive site has audiobooks of Anne of Green Gables (#1), Anne of Avonlea (#2), Anne of the Island (#3), and Anne's House of Dreams (#5). But *not* Anne of Windy Poplars (#4)!! What the heck!??

>32 norabelle414: That happens all the time on my library's OverDrive site. :( Luckily, I still have a library card in another state registred at my parent's place. So I usually can find what I want by cheating.

Hardback or trade paperback or mass market paperback?

Trade paperbacks - hardcovers take up too much space (on the shelf and in my purse), and mmpbs are usually poor quality paper (see-though; tears easily), ink (rubs off on fingers and bookmarks), and binding (cracks; pages fall out).

Amazon or brick and mortar?

Brick and mortar - used, if I can find it. If I have to buy new, I usually use barnesandnoble.com

Barnes & Noble or Borders?

Barnes & Noble, even when Borders still existed.

Bookmark or dogear?

Bookmark, though I am not opposed to dogearing.

Alphabetize by author or alphabetize by title or random?

Read books are alphabetized first by author and then by publication date. Unread books are another story. The largest 75 or so are on a separate shelf organized by size, and the rest are organized by author and then by likelihood that I will read them soon.

Keep, throw away, or sell?

Most are kept, a few are donated or BookCrossing-ed.

(THROW AWAY?!?!? REALLY?!?)

Keep dust jacket or toss it?

Keep

Read with dust jacket or remove it?

With dust jacket. If I take it off it will most likely get lost or ruined in my mess of a house.

Short story or novel?

Novels, usually, though I do love a good short story.

Collection (short stories by same author) or anthology (short stories by different authors)?

Collections, always. I like the consistancy.

Harry Potter or Lemony Snicket?

Harry Potter. Lemony Snicket is awful.

Stop reading when tired or at chapter breaks?

When I start to get tired, I check and see when the next chapter ends to see if I think I can make it. Usually I can't.

"It was a dark and stormy night" or "Once upon a time"?

"Once upon a time . . . " only because it implies fantasy.

Buy or Borrow?

Buy, though I'm trying to change that.

New or used?

Used, always. It's cheaper and more ecological, and I like the way that used books smell, and when they have people's notes in the margins, and the challenge of finding the books that I want.

Buying choice: book reviews, recommendation or browse?

A combination of all 3. Plus how pretty the cover is.

Tidy ending or cliffhanger?

I like a classic science fiction ending. The plot points are all resolved, but the future is uncertain.

Morning reading, afternoon reading or nighttime reading?

I do most of my reading on my commute, in the afternoon more than in the morning. And then I also read before bed.

Stand-alone or series?

I like a good stand-alone book, but series are nice too.

Favorite series?

Thursday Next!!

Favorite children's book?

The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster

Favorite book of which "nobody" else has heard?

Count Karlstein by Philip Pullman

Favorite books read last year?

How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe by Charles Yu

Favorite books of all time?

Harry Potter, Thursday Next, Ender's Game, One Hundred Years of Solitude, Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, The Devil in the White City, King Lear, etc etc etc

Least favorite book you finished last year?

Running with Scissors by Augusten Burroughs

What are you reading right now?

The Trial by Franz Kafka and A Clash of Kings by George R. R. Martin

What are you reading next?

Who knows?

There's no Pulitzer Prize for fiction this year. I'm not sure how I feel about that. I don't read enough contemporary American fiction to be any kind of judge, but really? They didn't like any of them?

From what I read on Huffington Post, the problem wasn't that they didn't like them but that they could not arrive at a unanimous decision. Still super surprising though.

And I will probably steal that meme at some point. I find your mix of titles for favourite book really fascinating. :)

Ahh I totally forgot to include cover art as one of my buying impulses. Glad you mentioned it.

And I'm right there with you on Running with Scissors. I liked the movie but when I got around to reading the book I was seriously disgusted. I felt like my brain needing scrubbing.

I've only read the His Dark Materials trilogy by Pullman. Are his other books good too?

The scarecrow and His Servant is really cute and clever but it's the only other Pullman I've read. Might start The Firework Maker's Daughter today.

ETA: Count Karlstein is on my shelves so glad to hear it's a good one.

#36: Couldn't come to a decision? Lame! They should shut themselves up conclave-style until that pick one! Sheesh.

>38 Morphidae: Count Karlstein is GREAT, as is Clockwork : or All Wound Up. They're both kids' books, but very dark and Germanic and Grimm-esque. Though I do love His Dark Materials a lot, I think my favorite series by Pullman is actually the Sally Lockhart Mysteries, which starts with The Ruby in the Smoke. They're Victorian thrillers with a great female lead. I've also read I Was a Rat! and The Broken Bridge, but they were just okay.

I read one of the Sally Lockhart books by accident when my mom bought it thinking it was another Dark Materials. It wasn't bad but it wasn't the first book so I was a tad lost. I'm working on getting all his other kids books, but many of them rarely show up on swap sites. Count Karlstein took almost 2 months by the slow boat from England!

*waving* at Nora

Hi Stasia! So good to see you're back. I hope you're enjoying your break from school! :-)

Yes, I am. I am doing very well with the not sleeping part too :)

>38 Morphidae:-42: If I may, I second the nomination of Clockwork. I found that one disturbing and fascinating. Pullman puts the creepiest stuff into kids books. It's pretty astounding, and also great.

I've told myself that I *must* finish The Trial before I can get back to A Clash of Kings. It's so short! And I'm almost done! But something about it makes me fall asleep! Probably because the entire premise is that nothing happens and everyone talks themselves in circles . . .

Book #23: Anne of the Island by Lucy Maud Montgomery - audiobook from the library - This, the 3rd book in the Anne of Green Gables series, had a different narrator whom I liked better. She made Anne sound more adult (which, obviously, she is) and she was really good at the different voices. It was probably my favorite Anne book so far; I like that Anne isn't nearly as whiny and annoying as she was in the previous books. The whole Roy vs. Gilbert thing didn't really move me, but that might be due to cultural/language differences between Anne's time and mine. This is the last of the Anne books which was a reread for me. Also my library does not have the audiobook of the next book in the series, so I will be reading a paper copy which might take longer.

Categories: series, reread, owned before LT, greater than 4.00

Book #24: The Trial by Franz Kafka - The point of this book is that people talk themselves in circles and nothing real ever gets said or accomplished. And that's how it goes. Also, it was never finished, which adds to the complete absurdity of it all. I appreciate this book a lot, mostly because of visiting Kafka's birthplace and the Kafka Museum in Prague. But that didn't make me enjoy reading it. That's another check mark in the "I'm glad I read this because now I don't ever have to again" column.

Categories: not originally in English, less than 250 pages, 1001 Books, greater than 4.00



Currently reading:
A Clash of Kings by George R. R. Martin
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

Currently listening to:
People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks

Coming soon:
Behemoth by Scott Westerfeld
Anne of Windy Willows by Lucy Maud Montgomery
Gentlemen of the Road by Michael Chabon
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides

BOOKS READ: 24
BOOKS BOUGHT: 16
BOOKS ACQUIRED: 16
BOOKS DEACCESSIONED: 7

DAYS REMAINING: 253
BOOKS REMAINING: 51
DAYS PER BOOK: 4.96

Everyone else seems to be reading Gentlemen of the Road right now, so I guess I will too. I've edited above to reflect that, and added Anne of Windy Willows, which I had omitted.

Ugh, I think The Trial is on a couple of my lists, but I'm certainly not looking forward to it. Gah.

Congrats on making it through one of THOSE books. ;) Hopefully your next read is a bit more fun.

I recommend The Metamorphosis instead. It's much better!

Already read that one in school and didn't like it much at all. Well, that doesn't bode well for The Trial, now does it? Sigh.

Hmm... I know the fourth Anne book as Anne of Windy Poplars. It looks like the UK edition has a different title. Interesting.

>55 katiekrug: my copy is actually Anne of Windy Poplars. I couldn't remember which it was and I was too lazy to look it up :-P

Hi Nora - just realised I hadn't said anything:) Looking forward to what you have to say about People of the Book. Gentleman of the Road seems popular right now ... unfortunately my local library doesn't have a copy:(

That's another check mark in the "I'm glad I read this because now I don't ever have to again" column. Ugh, I dislike that column!
Happy you finished it and can read something you enjoy now!

I read People of the Book last year and enjoyed it. I liked the history parts far more than those set in the present, but then I usually do. :)

I finished a book! But I'm in Texas so you will all have to wait until Monday for a review.

*rubs hands together in anticipation*

*me too me too!*

Weekend Update: This weekend I flew to San Antonio for my cousin's wedding. I had a fantastic time. The wedding was the least-tacky wedding I've ever been to (I consider weddings to be pretty tacky things by nature), and that branch of my family are amazing, loving people. And I finished three books!

The last day was not so great. I packed all my luggage in the morning, so that I could spend the most possible time with my extended family before I had to leave. My dad and brother, on the other hand, did not pack their luggage in the morning, so I had to leave my extended family early to go and sit at the hotel for an hour while they packed. Once we got to the airport, the first leg of my trip (San Antonio --> Atlanta) was delayed an hour. This would have been fine except that, despite my begging him otherwise, my dad had booked our trip with only a 1.5 hour layover, and booked the last flight of the night from Atlanta to DC. (If you recall, this is the exact same thing that happened when I was flying home from Boise through Atlanta last September, and I then had to spend the night in Atlanta without my luggage and take a 6am flight the next morning and go straight to work.) I was SO MAD that I went to the airport bookstore and picked up an armful of books to buy to make myself feel better. But then I remembered that May 3rd is my library book sale at which I can get a dozen books for the price of one at the airport. So I put them back and got a latte instead. So proud of myself!

I have to head home now but I promise I will post my book reviews later tonight.

Wow, I'm headed to San Antonio for business Wednesday morning. Going through Charlotte instead of Atlanta, though... :)

Book #25: Gentlemen of the Road by Michael Chabon - so much fun! This is basically a bromantic adventure comedy, except with 2 Jewish mercenaries in 900s Turkey instead of Paul Rudd or Zach Galifianakis. Entertaining and funny (and short!!)

Categories: less than 250 pages

Book #26: A Clash of Kings by George R. R. Martin - Pretty good, but not as good as the first. There was a section from about pages 800 to 900 that was reeeeeeally boring. But I'm pretty excited for the next book.

Categories: series, greater than 4.00

Book #27: Behemoth by Scott Westerfeld - AWESOME!!!!! Even better than the first! The drawings especially were absolutely breathtaking. I can't wait for the next one!!

Categories: begun within 1 month of purchase, greater than 4.00



Currently reading:
Anne of Windy Poplars by Lucy Maud Montgomery
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

Currently listening to:
People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks

Coming soon:
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle
The Wind-Up Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi

BOOKS READ: 27
BOOKS BOUGHT: 16
BOOKS ACQUIRED: 16
BOOKS DEACCESSIONED: 7

DAYS REMAINING: 245
BOOKS REMAINING: 48
DAYS PER BOOK: 5.10

#64 by @norabelle414> If you recall, this is the exact same thing that happened when I was flying home from Boise through Atlanta last September, and I then had to spend the night in Atlanta without my luggage and take a 6am flight the next morning and go straight to work.

This seems to be something Atlanta is famous for. Which is awful as most flights from Knoxville are routed through Atlanta. The exact same thing happened to me coming home from San Francisco several years ago except that instead of work I had to rush back to take a VERY IMPORTANT midterm. (I normally wouldn't have scheduled a trip before a midterm but it was for a conference and it was a big honor to be representing my department.) Either way, it is NO fun.

Luckily I have many friends that live in ATL now so I can sleep there instead of on the airport floor.

#68: I enjoyed the Westerfeld trilogy, Nora. I hope you like the third book as much as you did the second!

>68 norabelle414: You're reminding me how much I want to get back to that series...I've only read the first so far. BUT I have promised myself that I will not take out any more library books until AFTER my holds come in (especially for Divergent and Bitterblue because those two will cause me to Drop Everything and Read them). And, as every librarian knows, the rule of library requests is everything comes in at once, no matter how far apart you placed the requests. So I fully expect to have four more books by the end of this week.

All this to say, thanks for reminding me about Behemoth and Goliath, but I will now show my self-control and wait a couple of weeks before I get them out of the library.... ;)

Glad you loved Behemoth, Nora. That entire trilogy is so amazing. I look forward to your thoughts on Goliath.

In my frustration with the whole situation it seems I forgot to mention that we did make it to our connecting flight in time, though we had to run full-tilt through the airport to do so.

>69 leahbird: Delta will pay for a hotel if one of the flights is delayed or cancelled, so thankfully I wouldn't've had to sleep in the airport. But being late or feeling rushed makes me very anxious, and I'm a pretty anxious person to begin with.

>71 bell7: *Nods solemnly* Murphy's Law of Library Requests, indeed.

>70 alcottacre:, 72 I'm really excited for Goliath, too! Now I just have to find a copy . . . I'm hoping they'll have one at my library book sale, which is TODAY! If they don't, I have a B&N gift card burning a hole in my pocket.

Ugh! Entitlement issues much?

Hope you find some great books at the sale!

Yeah, that's a bit frustrating, but it's nothing margaritas, tacos, and books won't solve right?

Whoa. He's a natural at being insulting, no? Sheesh. I'm sorry you had to be a party in that conversation. The booze, tacos and books sound great, though!

>75 UnrulySun:, 76, 77 Thanks guys! I'm so excited. The remaining 4 hours of work are going to go by sooo slowlyyyy

That sounds remarkably like my little brother. What's the age difference between you two? My 22 yr old brother is 7 years younger than me and the baby in the family. One day when I asked him to help me with some farm work he told me he was busy with his girlfriend. I pointed out that he was supposed to be working on the farm on the weekends when he's home from school. He yelled at me that I should "get out and get a life and a real job" which is particularly funny since his plan is to work on this farm when he gets out of school... What I do around the farm isn't work according to him even though I'm the only one in the family who is responsible for feeding and watering livestock EVERY DAY OF THE YEAR, plus whatever else needs doing.

Aren't little (entitled) brothers just a blast?

>79 leahbird: I just turned 24 and my brother is 20, so there's a smaller age difference. Both of my parents are younger children (my father is the middle of 3 with a large gap between him and his younger brother, and my mom is youngest of 5) who to this day resent and despise their older sisters, and I'm certain that their personal feelings influenced the way my brother and I were raised. To this day I am not allowed to say anything negative towards my brother or correct him at all, but he has called me "fat bitch" while they were in the room and they didn't say a word.

And to think I said positive things about your brother recently! Urgh. I hope you buy LOADS of books. Like way more than you are 'supposed' to. Then do the same with margaritas...errrr, unless it compromises your ability to carry LOADS of books.

#80 by @norabelle414> That sucks. 16-24 yr old guys are difficult in general, but soooo much worse when they are bad tempered siblings you have to live with. Ugh. It's been so much nicer around here this semester since my brother is now in school 2 hrs away. Too bad he's home every weekend.

I concur with Ape, drown out the negativity with lots of books and friendly drinks!

I agree with Stephen and Megan: Books are the key to drowning out negativity!

>73 norabelle414: Speaking of Murphy's Law of Library Requests (I'm totally stealing that), I did indeed get three books in that same day I mentioned it. The Goblin War came in the ILL bins for me, and The Serpent's Shadow, Insurgent, and Bitterblue all came in and were cataloged that day (my co-worker took Bitterblue and I took Insurgent and we'll switch when we're done, so that's how that adds up to three).

And ugh about your brother, that's just mean & rude.

I may have gone a little overboard tonight, with the margaritas AND the books. (These are probably related to each other. . . ) But I'm not upset anymore!

Here is the haul:
The Boggart by Susan Cooper
The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman
Luka and the Fire of Life by Salman Rushdie
The Night Watch and
The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters
Uglies and
Pretties by Scott Westerfeld
Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale
The Hero and the Crown and
The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley
The Magic World by E. Nesbit
Wild Magic by Tamora Pierce
The Lady and the Unicorn by Tracy Chevalier
Taft by Ann Patchett
The Forgotten Garden and
The Distant Hours by Kate Morton
and possibly the greatest book I have ever seen in my entire life: Gnomes by Wil Huygen, which is a faux handwritten anthropology of Gnomes. Topics include (copied from the back cover): History, Legends, Housebuilding, Clothing, Courtship and Marriage, Physiology, Learn how Gnomes Tell Time, Gnomes and Acupuncture, Animal Aid, Where Gnomes Go On Their Honeymoon.

It doesn't look so bad now that I see them all written out. I also bought an extremely old copy of The Last Days of Pompeii by Edward Bulwer-Lytton for my mom, and about 6 books for my ex-coworker who is losing her job again soon.

All together it was $43, which is not bad for more than 20 books.

Great haul!

That gnomes book is so cute. I gave it to a friend one spring but her kids stole it, they loved it so much.

That IS quite a haul. And at a very nice price.

I was very happy to wake up this morning to a Connection News page filled with Nora entries. :D The gnome book looks awesome!

I read and loved Princess Academy by Hale. I should try another by her.

Great book haul! That Gnome book sounds pretty cool.

Don't let your brother get to you. From what I understand that's what brothers do best. I have a younger sister and we hated each other until I moved out. Now we get along. Sometimes space helps

85: the margaritas AND the books ... But I'm not upset anymore!
OR might not have been sufficient. Good for AND.

90: I guess if I read it I'd need to cover my eyes when I got to that section.

Just popping in to catch up and say hi! I just finished Behemoth, too, and have Goliath out from the library.

No advice on the sibling situation. My (older) sister and I stopped speaking about 12 years ago - long story...

And really, margaritas can fix anything. Sometimes I think I moved to Texas just for the margaritas :)

I had soooo many margaritas when I was in Texas. There were only 2 cocktails served at the wedding: margaritas and bourbon & coke

No mojitos? Que lastima!

Mmmmm. I looove mojitos!

me too! The bar that I go to doesn't usually have mint so they can't make them . . . so I've started bringing my own mint from my yard with me whenever I go.

In a little ziploc baggie?

*giggle*

I swear officer, it's just mint...here, have a mojito!

99/100: LOL, I was thinking the same thing. Nora, you crack me up. Hope you're having a nice Sunday.

I'm in a bit of a slump now. I can tell that The Last Unicorn is a great book, but I am not really appreciating it right now. And I'm not enjoying my current audiobook, People of the Book, at all. But it is almost finished, so there's that.

Oh no! Pull out of that slump because I'd hate for you not to love The Last Unicorn because of the reading blues.

Now THAT'S a book haul!

*Gives Nora slump-be-gone hugs*

I sometimes find a bit of TV/movie binging will get me through a reading slump. Ignore books for a couple days and then coming back to them works it out sometimes. :)

LOVELY book haul, and I do love book hauls. :)

As for brothers, I wish I could tell you that they get better with age but, alas, mine is fully 36 (three years older than me) and as adept as ever at making me feel like a total pile of shoe-scraped sh*t (pardon the expression).

But, just remember, by nature or nurture, you are the better person. And someday he will have problems of his own to deal with -- my brother, for example, got screwed over by a former business partner who happened to be an even bigger jerkwad than he -- whereupon you will have an opportunity to do a little "you got what you deserved" dance. And it will give you great joy. :)

Book #28: People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks - audiobook from the library - completely underwhelming. Dr. Hanna Heath is an expert in an usually unexciting research field, has daddy issues, and sleeps with the first guy she meets who shares an interest in her field. Sounds familiar. As an Australian, she is completely perfect in every way and is thus chosen, out of all of the ancient manuscript experts in the world, to study the newly rediscovered Sarajevo Haggadah, a 600-year-old Jewish religious book, in Sarajevo shortly after the Bosnian War. She finds several pieces of "evidence" in the book: a few white hairs, a wine stain, some grains of salt, an insect wing. Hanna's research into each of these items develops into an historical fiction story of what could have happened to the Haggadah at that time period. These stories were entertaining on their own, but were pretty much ruined for me by the unoriginal, unrealistic, and generally obnoxious "plot" that held them together.

The idea that a forensic investigation would yield as much information as Hanna's did is laughable. I really didn't appreciate the "witty" observations stereotyping America or England (or anyone else). Each of Hanna's "conflicts" (and there were several) was more unrealistic than the last (what kind of 30-year-old scientist doesn't ever demand that her mother tell her who her father was?!?) and completely petty compared to what the Jews in the historical stories were going through. (Jews in Spain/Venice/Sarajevo were being exiled/tortured/killed but you can't manage to ask your mother who your father was?!?). Each of Hanna's issues comes to some kind of conclusion, but not a satisfactory one.

Hanna's story was told in the 1st person, and the historical stories were told in the 3rd person. It worked well and made perfect sense! Except the last of the historical stories was in 1st person. So that was weird.

Things I liked: The narrator Edwina Wren (particularly her accents); the background/insight into Sarajevo and the Bosnian War, which I did not previously know anything about; the historical stories were not bad (as I mentioned) and I liked the fact that they were presented in reverse chronological order.

In short, there is way too much going on here, and most of it doesn't work.

Categories: none





Book #29: Pretty Boy by Orson Scott Card - audiobook from Audible - a (very) short story about the childhood of Tomas Benedito Bonito de Madrid y Valencia, a.k.a Bonzo Madrid from Ender's Game. It gives a little background to the character and explains what made him decide to leave his family and attend Battle School, and why he acted the way he did when he got there.

Very well written (and read); highly recommended if you enjoyed Ender's Game.

Categories: series



Currently reading:
The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle
Gnomes by Wil Huygen
Anne of Windy Poplars by Lucy Maud Montgomery
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

Currently listening to:
??

Coming soon:
??

BOOKS READ: 29
BOOKS BOUGHT: 34
BOOKS ACQUIRED: 34
BOOKS DEACCESSIONED: 7

DAYS REMAINING: 231
BOOKS REMAINING: 46
DAYS PER BOOK: 5.02

On my walk home from the farmer's market on Saturday I ran across a yard sale and picked up a copy of Little Children by Tom Perrotta for 50 cents.

>104 dk_phoenix:/107 Thanks! I'm rather proud of it. The books I got for my friend were great, too, but I've already read most of them of course!

>103 leahbird:/105/106 Thanks for the encouragement. My brother is back at school now, so maybe things will pick up. But also my room is very dirty right now and that always keeps me out of the mood for reading. We'll see.

I enjoyed People of the Book but I read it in print; perhaps that made a difference. I agree though, Hanna's story was uninspiring, especially the ending. My favorite bits were the historical ones. :)

Book #30: The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle - My reading funk didn't prevent me from greatly enjoying this book, but it does prevent me from writing a real review. In my head I was trying to compare this book to Stardust by Neil Gaiman, which made it fall flat. However, I reminded myself that it was written in 1968 and not 1999, after which I enjoyed it more. Very good; recommended if you like fantasy, unicorns, fairy tales, etc.

Categories: fairy tales & mythology, LT rating greater than 4.20



Currently reading:
Gnomes by Wil Huygen
Anne of Windy Poplars by Lucy Maud Montgomery
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

Currently listening to:
Absurdistan by Gary Shteyngart

Coming soon:
??

BOOKS READ: 30
BOOKS BOUGHT: 34
BOOKS ACQUIRED: 34
BOOKS DEACCESSIONED: 7

DAYS REMAINING: 229
BOOKS REMAINING: 45
DAYS PER BOOK: 5.09

How are you liking Absurdistan?

Since I've alread read 15 books this year with an LT rating of 4.00 or higher, I think I'm going to change that category to 4.20 or higher. I won't go back and change my old reviews, but the count for that category is now 5: Clockwork Angel, Anne of Green Gables, A Clash of Kings, The Last Unicorn, and Behemoth.

>112 UnrulySun: Eh, it's okay. The narrator is enthusiastic (which is good, because he has to do a decent amount of rapping in a Russian accent), but sometimes inconsistent in his volume and pace. The story is okay. Mostly I'm listening to random books until I finish reading Anne of Windy Poplars and can then pick up the 5th Anne book on audiobook.

Sorry to hear about the book funk, Nora. Hope it's passing and that Anne is helping you through it.

Haha, I hadn't thought about the rapping on audio! That should be humorous. I will share my thoughts on the book when you're finished. :)

In the mail today from Barnes & Noble (I swear, I don't know how they got my address . . . . .) I got I Love Charts: The Book, which is based on one of my very favorite blogs, I Love Charts. I bought it for 3 reasons:

a) I love I Love Charts
b) No one else on LT has it and that's never happened to me before and it's kind of thrilling
c) I think the author is amazing and I'm kind of in love with him.

It's great and super funny.

Neato! That's only happened to me once (the 'being the only one with a copy of the book' thing) but I think another person has entered a copy since then...

Poked around I Love Charts. It looks pretty entertaining but I need another random blog to follow like I need a hole in the head.

Book #31: I Love Charts: The Book by Jason Oberholtzer - This book was less about the charts for me (possibly because I've seen almost all of them before, on the original blog) and more about the ramblings of two twenty-something philosophers. They don't take themselves too seriously, so it's a fun read. I mostly bought this book to support them, because I think their blog is great.

Categories: less than 250 pages, begun within 1 month of purchase




Book #32: Gnomes by Wil Huygen - A faux bestiary of gnomes. Amazingly detailed descriptions of gnomes' everyday lives (Sometimes bordering on TMI). Breathtaking pictures. The translation isn't perfect, but that hardly matters.

Categories: not originally in English, hardcover, less than 250 pages, begun within 1 month of purchase, fairy tales & mythology



Currently reading:
Uglies by Scott Westerfeld
Anne of Windy Poplars by Lucy Maud Montgomery
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

Currently listening to:
Absurdistan by Gary Shteyngart

Coming soon:
??

BOOKS READ: 32
BOOKS BOUGHT: 35
BOOKS ACQUIRED: 35
BOOKS DEACCESSIONED: 7

DAYS REMAINING: 225
BOOKS REMAINING: 43
DAYS PER BOOK: 5.23

Audible.com is having a sale, and I still had $2.95 in my account, so I bought Island of the Sequined Love Nun by Christopher Moore which was on sale for $7.95.

I got a ton of reading done yesterday, so I might be coming out of my slump. Also I realized that even with my slump, I'm still way ahead of schedule to finish 75 books this year, which makes me relax, which makes me more likely to read.

The name of that book keeps popping out at me when looking at Moore's bibliography on the book I'm reading now. Unfortunately it's one of the few books by him my library DOESN'T have. Grumble.

Fingers crossed for a slump-free future!

Ooooh, that's a good one! As if there is a bad Moore book...

That's one of my least favorite Moore books, but that's more because the ones I love are SPECTACULAR than this one being bad. I do need to reread it because it's been years and maybe I was just not in the right headspace to enjoy it more. Which are you reading now?

Someday I shall read Christopher Moore. I have a couple of his waiting on the shelf, but never seem to get to them. Now it seems like an urgent matter, since so many folks here on LT are raving about him lately.

By far my favorite Moore is Lamb. It's on my list of favorite books of all time.

My library doesn't have that one. :(

>121 Ape: The name of that book keeps popping out at me
Hmmmm I wonder why?

>122 scaifea: I know, right?!

>123 leahbird: I felt the same way about Practical Demonkeeping. It was great for a normal book, but it can't stand up against Lamb and Fool and A Dirty Job.

>124 beserene: You will *love* them, I know.

>125 UnrulySun: Ditto

>126 Ape: Request it. It's worth it, though I think it's very different from his other books.

Reading habits update
My office moved on Tuesday from downtown DC to the soulless suburbs. My commute has changed a lot (and will likely change some more) so my reading habits are all wonky. I don't walk more than 2 blocks, so I don't really listen to my audiobook. And when I'm on the new, unfamiliar bus I'm usually trying to figure out where I am so that I don't miss my stop. And when I'm at the bus stop I'm trying to pay attention so I don't miss the bus. So not a lot of reading getting done right now.

I'm looking for an apartment somewhere in Arlington so I can have a more convenient commute, but no luck so far.

Here's hoping you get used to your new route soon so you get more reading time again, Nora. :)

Well, I'm actually hoping to change it around, so I won't be getting used to anything anytime soon. I have 4 options for getting to work:

bus (short ride)/free shuttle (long ride);
walk/Metro/free shuttle (short ride);
bus (long ride)/free shuttle (short ride);
bus (short ride)/bus (long ride)/walk;

As you can see, none of these is at all convenient. They all take more time than my previous commute (which was technically further away - and in a different state), so it's just a matter of which one takes the shortest long amount of time and involves the least amount of time standing around waiting for a bus. I'm going to try a new route every week for the next few weeks to see what I like.

Well, at least you have options! :) You'll miss your books soon and have to settle in to a routine, though.

Which one affords the most reading time? :)

Maryland soulless suburbs or Virginia soulless suburbs? :)

Could the second one (walk/Metro/short ride) be sped up by doing the first part by bike? A 15 or 20 minute walk can turn into a pretty tiny bike ride, assuming your work clothes are reasonably bike-able.

>134 _Zoe_: that depends also on whether there's a "safe" place to put a bike for a day! Generally, I'd rather walk than risk having parts or the whole of my bike stole. :)

ETA: But I also listen to audiobooks while I walk, so the length doesn't bother me so much. I can't listen to audiobooks while I ride because I'd be killed by a car sooner or later...

P.S. ETA: Wow, I just realized I used the word "stole." Apparently my vocabulary is disintegrating.

Oh, good point! I just ride a cheap, basic bike, so I don't worry too much about these things. Someday I'll get a good bike, but I don't see that happening any time soon.

>133 drneutron: Virginia. Bailey's Crossroads.

>134 _Zoe_:-136 It might speed things up, but there's the small matter of not knowing how to ride a bike. The Metro stop is a perfectly safe place to lock up a bike, but my work clothes are not usually bike-friendly. If I did have a bike and knew how to ride it, I could almost definitely bike to one of the shuttle stops, if not all the way to work (it's a little over 4 miles, though mostly uphill). However, there isn't any place to shower at my office, which eliminates biking for more than a mile or so in at least July and August.

Wow, all this work for 4 miles?! Is the public transportation system convoluted?

Riding a bicycle is easy. It's like riding a stationary bike, except with wheels.

139: And balancing. And dodging traffic.

4 miles is an irritating distance, especially when chopped into segments. Too far timewise to walk for a daily commute, and yet it _ought_ to be simple.

The problem is that there is no bus within a short walking distance that goes directly to my office. So at least one transfer is going to be necessary. The secondary problem is that most of the busses only run once every 30 or 60 minutes. And of course, none of them seem to coincide with each other so that I don't have to wait 20 minutes for the next leg of my trip.

Oh the joy of transfers. Well hopefully you find the one with the least amount of wait time between buses.

Book #33: Uglies by Scott Westerfeld - I wish I had read this before reading Leviathan. It's an interesting premise (though not as fleshed-out as it could be), but it pales in comparison to Westerfeld's better trilogy.

Categories: begun within 1 month of purchase




Book #34: Anne of Windy Poplars by Lucy Maud Montgomery - reading this myself was not as tedious as I thought it would be, and I zipped along pretty quickly. All of Anne's "adventures" are starting to run together. How many cranky old ladies has she won over with her charm now? 30? 40? I believe she's going to get married in the next book so we'll see if that changes things up a bit.

Categories: Owned before LT, hardcover, less than 250 pages, series



Currently reading:
Pretties by Scott Westerfeld
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

Currently listening to:
Absurdistan by Gary Shteyngart

Coming soon:
Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
Fluke: Or, I Know Why the Winged Whale Sings by Christopher Moore

BOOKS READ: 34
BOOKS BOUGHT: 35
BOOKS ACQUIRED: 35
BOOKS DEACCESSIONED: 7

DAYS REMAINING: 218
BOOKS REMAINING: 41
DAYS PER BOOK: 5.32

>143 norabelle414: Yeah, the Uglies trilogy started out ok for me and went downhill, whereas I liked all of the Leviathan trilogy. Just a head's up.

Okay, this is still more encouragement to read Leviathan. I also thought the Uglies series started off pretty well and went seriously downhill, so I've been reluctant to read more of Westerfeld's work.

Also, it sounds like it might be worth learning to ride a bike, even if you'll still have to take the shuttle to avoid getting too sweaty. Then at least you wouldn't have to worry about annoying waits between buses.

I'm with the others who were disappointed by the continuation of Uglies. Haven't read Leviathan yet, but it's around here somewhere!

>How many cranky old ladies has she won over with her charm now?

That made me grin.

I wasn't that impressed with Leviathan. I felt it was too frantic. Was the rest of the trilogy the same?

I've had (heresy) mixed feelings about Leviathan as well. I liked the worldbuilding, but the characters didn't grab me.

Delurking to add to the Westerfeld conversation:

I haven't read the Uglies series but I have read all three books in the Leviathan trilogy. Morphy, based on your comment above that you weren't impressed with Leviathan I wouldn't recommend you continue with the trilogy as the other two books were along the same lines. A fun trilogy for me but I can see where some might not be grabbed by it.

Back to lurking.......

I forget, does anyone else here use the OverDrive app on their Android phone?

The latest update has a widget for your home screen which is AWESOME! It has all the buttons I need and I almost never have to go into the full app now!

>144 MickyFine: Thanks for the heads up. I will probably read the last one if I come across it for $1 or less.

>145 _Zoe_:, 146 I cannot. believe. you haven't read Leviathan. You will LOVE it. You'll love the historical fiction bits. And the drawings are to die for. Also it's much less teenage-angsty (I think the two main characters are a bit younger. Plus, the boy thinks that the girl is a boy. So the little angst there is is one-sided.)

>147 Morphidae:, 148, 149 I thought that Behemoth was better than Leviathan, but I *loved* Leviathan. The second one was probably equally frantic.

>151 norabelle414: It's on the list! But the list is long, and I'm slow.

Still, maybe I'll get to it this summer.

I've been putting this off (finished it Monday) because I don't have a lot to say.

Book #35: Pretties by Scott Westerfeld - Exactly the same plot as the first book, pretty much. Also,

SPOILER! (also, cursing)

what the fuck kind of shitty-ass doctor makes two different pills with opposite effects that must be taken together but look EXACTLY THE SAME?!?!? At least put some dye in one of them, for christ's sake. That's just moronic.

Categories: begun within 1 month of purchase



Currently reading:
Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
Fluke by Christopher Moore
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

Currently listening to:
Absurdistan by Gary Shteyngart (60% done)

Coming soon:
??

BOOKS READ: 35
BOOKS BOUGHT: 35
BOOKS ACQUIRED: 35
BOOKS DEACCESSIONED: 7

DAYS REMAINING: 217
BOOKS REMAINING: 40
DAYS PER BOOK: 5.43

Hehe. I look forward to your review of Specials.

I dunno if I'll ever get to that one, the library book sale only had the first 2. I'll read it if it falls into my lap, but I'm not going to put any effort or money into getting it

Books Things I'm looking forward to:

June 9th: DC meetup
July 17th: The Violinist's Thumb: and other lost tales of love, war, and genius as written by our genetic code by Sam Kean (the author of The Disappearing Spoon which I read last December)
October 2nd: The Woman who Died a Lot by Jasper Fforde and The Last Dragonslayer FINALLY gets released in the US.
October 25th: JASPER FFORDE IS ON TOUR IN WASHINGTON DC. I don't know where yet, but I will be there if it kills me. I'll camp out all night. Even if no one else is.

Hey, there's a very important event that you left off your list of things you're looking forward to!

OMG!!!! Can I come camp with you for Jasper Fforde?!?!? That is soooo exciting. What's an 8 hr drive when it's Fforde? Also, YAY FOR NEW FFORDE RELEASES!!!! Have you seen the US cover of The Last Dragonslayer? I usually go to the extra effort to get the UK editions because the US covers are mostly awful, but I haven't seen this one yet.

ETA: Boo, it's not so cool, but at least it's not bad.


AND, Fforde will be in Raleigh, NC, and Atlanta, GA, which are much closer.

>157 _Zoe_: Ack, yes, sorry. I was thinking long-term.
>158 leahbird: Hm yes you should probably go to Raleigh or Atl, as much as I would like to meet up with you :-)

I actually like his US covers better. Cars driving into things doesn't really speak to me.

Thanks for the heads up on the Fforde books! I've been waiting for the US release of Dragonslayer. Happiness!

Good point about the UK Thursday Next covers, they are a bit wonky aren't they? I never noticed since the US ones were fine (my comment was about book covers in general, not Fforde specifically which is why I'm now eating a bit of shoe). Actually, now that I really look at them, it's only the first UK Dragonslayer edition and the first UK Shades of Grey that I prefer. Hm. In an interesting plot twist, however, the UK cover for The Last Dragonslayer DIDN'T have a car on it but the US cover does... Strange.

If it's at all possible, I will make the trip to DC. Not only does a meetup sound fun (because NO ONE I know in ATL would go to a book event with me), but I haven't been to DC in a few years and would like to catch up with some friends I haven't seen lately.

In related news, your Things I'm Looking Forward To made me think to check my book release calendar. With the added Fforde releases, here's what it looks like:

Oct 1: The Casual Vacancy by JK Rowling
Oct 2: The Mark of Athena by Rick Riordan
Oct 2: The Woman who Died A Lot by Jasper Fforde
Oct 2: The Last Dragonslayer by Jasper Fforde
Oct 2: The Girl who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There by Catherynne M Valente

I hope I have a good sales week in late September cause otherwise I'm gonna be BROKE!

Somehow I don't know of any fall releases that I'm looking forward to. All the books that I knew about either came out this March or aren't coming until next year. Unless Tamora Pierce actually manages to get her new book out, but I doubt that.

Maybe I should read something by Jasper Fforde one day.

You should! Start with the Thursday Next books.

>153 norabelle414: I told you it went downhill. And SPOILER WARNING Specials is the same plot again just with extra super powers END SPOILERS. You know, if you don't end up running across it.

I really do mean to get around to reading Jasper Fforde. I really, really do.

I love Jasper Fforde. I wish he would come near us sometime soon -- Michigan needs a JF visit!

Another box came from B&N today (I swear they are stalking me . . . ) containing Knitting for Dummies (recommended by Amber) and Among Others by Jo Walton (recommended by Faith)

>165 beserene: Hmm . . . Chicago? Milwaukee? Those are the closest places to MI that he's visiting, I think.

I, errrr, haven't read any books by Jasper Fforde. Should I start hanging my head in shame now? :(

Yep. But just for a sec. Then grab something next library trip!

Everyone needs to read, at least, The Eyre Affair and Shades of Grey: The Road to High Saffron. If you don't like them, you don't have to read the rest. I mean, we can't be friends anymore, but you don't have to read the rest.

Got another book yesterday (though a free one): The Hunger Angel by Herta Muller from LTER.



Currently reading:
Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
Fluke by Christopher Moore
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

Currently listening to:
Absurdistan by Gary Shteyngart (69%)

Coming soon:
Among Others by Jo Walton
My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me by Kate Bernheimer

BOOKS READ: 35
BOOKS BOUGHT: 38
BOOKS ACQUIRED: 38
BOOKS DEACCESSIONED: 7

DAYS REMAINING: 212
BOOKS REMAINING: 40
DAYS PER BOOK: 5.3

169: Crap, I better read Shades of Grey: The Road to High Saffron. :)

I am also interested to see what you think about Wolf Hall. It's getting some pretty rave reviews.

Fortunately I own both of those books, though I don't know where exactly The Eyre Affair is.

I'll at least read Shades of Grey eventually, but for now I've been sort of turned off my beloved dystopia genre by too many crappy quasi-dystopian romances. Blech.

Nora, thanks for posting your Things I'm Looking Forward To list - I'm SO PSYCHED that Jasper Fforde is coming to Milwaukee! I'm going for sure, and I only hope that I don't act like some kind of a stalker idiot super-fan, though there is a good possibility that it'll happen. I'm so so excited for October 2, but I have a question for all of the Fforde Ffans here - do you know when the second Shades of Grey book is coming out? I finished it a while ago, and I still think about it most every day - what a great universe!

Hope you're doing well, Nora, and good luck on figuring out your commute/living situation dilemma. Kind of sucks balls.

>171 _Zoe_: I know what you mean! (see, Uglies, Pretties, etc.)
Don't worry about that for Shades of Grey, though. I can't honestly tell you there's no romance, but it's very subtle and it's definitely not the main plot. And there's no love triangle. Or a love line, really. It's more like a love vector ;-)

>172 LauraBrook: I'm totally going to fan-girl it up. I almost passed out when I met Jonathan Safran Foer. There was some squealing involved (though thankfully it was later when he was not nearby).

Unfortunately Fforde has said many times that it's going to be awhile before the next Shades of Grey comes out. Personally I think he did the book a disservice by admitting that from the start. I know a couple people who are putting off reading this AMAZING book because they don't want to fall in love with it and then have to wait a long time for the next one.
His next books up are (only counting UK editions since presumably he personally doesn't do much work to convert from UK to US ed.):

The Woman Who Died a Lot
Return of Shandar (Dragonslayer #3)
"Supersecretstandalonenovel. This will either be a prequel to Shades of Grey or something else entirely. I wonder what happens?"

Interesting that he might write a prequel to Shades of Grey before continuing the series. Not that I care either way; as long as he keeps publishing a book a year or so, I'm happy as a clam.

There's also a chance that he might write ANOTHER Thursday Next book before continuing Shades of Grey, since he has already named the 8th one.

good luck on figuring out your commute/living situation dilemma

Thanks! I'm thinking that moving is probably a better option than my current commute. It's just tough finding a place that is close to the Metro and a grocery store and is in my price range.

While I very much enjoy the Thursday Next series, Shades of Grey is BY FAR my favorite of his books. It was just FANTASTIC. There are a lot of people I might not necessarily recommend Thursday to- usually because they aren't real bibliophiles and don't appreciate all the connections that make the books so wonderful- but there isn't a single person I know who reads that I've not recommended Shades of Grey to. The world is amazing, the characters are great, and the story is super compelling. Can't wait for more!

I think I've read all his books except the Dragonslayer series, but I've only skipped those because they were hard to get ahold of. Very excited that we're finally getting them in the US. Didn't particularly care for the first Nursery Crime book, but enjoyed the second more.

I agree with you on TN vs. Shades of Grey. TN can be very frantic and confusing to some people (not to mention the overwhelming amount of literary references). That makes it AMAZING (every time I reread it I catch something I missed before), but also hard to get into. Shades of Grey is much more accessible.

I haven't read the Nursery Crime books, though I have the first one. It's a shame, I know. I haven't bothered with the Dragonslayer books because I'm not willing to pay to have them imported. I'm so excited for them too!

Book #36: Absurdistan by Gary Shteyngart - audiobook from the library - ick. I listened to this almost all day because I just wanted to get it OVER WITH. I love Russian novels, and the points the author tries to make are worthwhile. Russia is run by corrupt gangsters. The fall of the Soviet Union left a vacuum which is being filled by corruption loosely disguised as Capitalism. Corrupt people are corrupt. US Department of Defense contracting companies are corrupt (I feel like I should take personal offense to that . . .). Europe is corrupt. Corruption.

Misha is a 350 pound secular Jew with half a penis who is the son of a rich Russian (i.e. gangster) and lives in NYC with his trashy girlfriend he met at a "titty bar". He goes back to St. Petersburg for his father's birthday only to find out that his father has murdered a US citizen and thus the entire family is forbidden from getting a US visa. Some spoiler-y stuff happens, then Misha devises a plan to get back to the US. He has a friend who has a friend who knows the super, super corrupt Belgian ambassador to Absurdistan (a fictional former Soviet state "next to Iran"). Misha travels to Absurdistan and meets with the ambassador who gives Misha a Belgian passport in exchange for a buttload of money. And then a civil war breaks out between two the Orthodox Christian sects that comprise the population (they're fighting over whether Jesus' footrest on the cross should tilt to the left or the right), and Misha can't leave Absurdistan. While he is stuck there, he learns all about their country. They're basically run by Halliburton (the US defense contracting company), which is corrupt. Misha is taken in by a rich "Absurdi" family; they're corrupt too. The end.

There are much better ways to get these messages across. Misha is unlikable and unrelatable and I really could not make myself care about him or his problems. And I really, really, really could have done without the copious descriptions of Misha's half-amputated, infected penis. Thanks.

Categories: none



Currently reading:
Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
Fluke by Christopher Moore
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

Currently listening to:
Anne's House of Dreams by Lucy Maud Montgomery

Coming soon:
Among Others by Jo Walton
My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me by Kate Bernheimer

BOOKS READ: 36
BOOKS BOUGHT: 38
BOOKS ACQUIRED: 38
BOOKS DEACCESSIONED: 7

DAYS REMAINING: 212
BOOKS REMAINING: 39
DAYS PER BOOK: 5.44

I think I'll be passing on that last one...

176: Dang, I saw that on my library's OverDrive and thought the title was cool, but looks like I'll be skipping that one.

Book #37: Fluke: Or, I Know Why the Winged Whale Sings by Christopher Moore - Awesome, as usual. Funny and lewd, but deep in its own way.

Nick Quinn is a marine biologist in Hawaii, researching humpback whale songs. What are they saying? Why do they sing? Who are they singing to? He's accompanied by an amazing cast of characters, including his pretty young research assistant Amy, a stoned wannabe-Hawaiian surfer named Kona, an old woman who claims that the humpback whales called her on the telephone and want Nick to bring them a pastrami sandwich, and his ex-wife who became a lesbian after being stuck in the middle of two dueling prehensile Blue Whale penises.

One day, while snorkeling with a particularly obliging humpback, Nick gets smacked in the head by a tailfin that definitely has the words "BITE ME" painted on it. He's unconscious, without an oxygen tank, and sinking fast. And then shit gets really weird . . .

I can't say much more without spoiling it, but this book is great. It's extremely scientific, and extremely crazy, and extremely enjoyable.

And Stephen should read it.

Categories: none



Currently reading:
Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

Currently listening to:
Anne's House of Dreams by Lucy Maud Montgomery

Coming soon:
Among Others by Jo Walton
My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me by Kate Bernheimer

BOOKS READ: 37
BOOKS BOUGHT: 38
BOOKS ACQUIRED: 38
BOOKS DEACCESSIONED: 7

DAYS REMAINING: 211
BOOKS REMAINING: 38
DAYS PER BOOK: 5.55

Skimmed the review because I do plan to read it...ummmm...SOON! :)

Last week's commute was: Walk 15 min south, Metro 15 minutes north, free shuttle 20 minutes west

Pros: least amount of time, familiar route, minimal waiting around time, most flexible leave-the-house time
Cons: most walking, most time outside, furthest distance, less (least?) reading time

This week's commute is: Walk 5 min west, Bus 20 min north, walk 3 min south, free shuttle 20 min west

Pros: minimal waiting around time, 2 possible buses leave within 5 minutes of each other, more reading time, most direct, bus is mostly empty
Cons: some walking, leave house 3 min earlier than last week

Change "most walking" to "more opportunity to be whistled at by strange men" and then you can list it as a pro. :D

Agreed: Stephen should read Fluke. But I think he'd enjoy The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove more - just suits him, dontcha think?

>182 Ape: Nope, the walk is through my neighborhood and all the men here know better than that. Plus most of the walk is past the field of a middle school.

>183 scaifea: True

Well, the middle school is even better! Their admiration would surely be all-consuming! What could be more flattering than that? :D

My library, unfortunately, doesn't have a copy of The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove. In fact, even though they have 10 of his books, like ALWAYS all the series are incomplete, something I believe my library does on purpose as a purely malicious way of torturing its patrons. So, after ruling out series books there's only a few more I can read... Coyote Blue, Sacre Bleu, Fluke, and maybe Fool if I read some Shakespeare first.

I agree, I don't think you should read Fool without being pretty familiar with King Lear. But not too familiar, or you won't enjoy Fool as much.

On a completely, totally, definitely unrelated note, I once performed a 40-minute-long abridged version of King Lear (abridged by me) completely by myself in front of my 10th grade English class.

Sounds ridiculously entertaining. :)

It was! Especially since I actually had about 8 group members who were supposed to be doing it with me, but I got mad at them for not working hard enough and did it all myself.

Stephen: I don't think you'd be lost if you read the series ones out of order - there's not an essential over-arching storyline in them or anything.

Nora: Ohmygosh, I wish I could have been there to witness it. Sounds amazingly adorable!

188: Ah, the joys of group work.

Nora: Haha! Strangely that's not at all surprising. :P

Amber: Yeah, but...I'm meticulous...I can't read them out of order...*Twitch*

What Katherine said at #190. I hated group projects in school. Just let me do it myself!

Group projects can be sketchy, but I found in grad school that they went pretty smoothly. And of course I do collaborative and team-based stuff all the time for work now, so group work is just a reality. :)

193: Which is the rationale for group work in grade school. Trouble is the range of engagement in the project. The disengaged are far fewer in grad school. And in a job, it's real stuff that has to get done, not academic exercise, and everyone is individually accountable.

191> Ha! I'm the same way, really.

I'm reading Among Others right now and I'm loving it! I am falling behind with Wolf Hall though because it is too big to carry to work every day, and I haven't been reading much at home lately.

I hope you enjoy Among Others as much as I did (and tell me if you figure out the book's name). I still haven't summoned up the courage to start Wolf Hall.

This evening I baked some root beer float cookies with root beer float frosting:

I've never heard of root beer float cookies, but they certainly look delicious!

Will there be any left by tomorrow?

Alas, probably not. We're having a pizza party at work today and I'm guessing they will get eaten.

Those cookies look great. See you tomorrow!

>202 AnneDC: YAY!

Oh, I love Root Beer Float Cookies!

Well. The DC meetup was a roaring success. Now it is over and I am exhausted. Expect pictures from various sources to surface soon. The only one I have is this one of Zoe with a popsicle outside the Canadian Embassy:



I picked up a few books along the way. From the DC Public Library - Southeast Branch book sale I got:
War for the Oaks by Emma Bull
A Storm of Swords by George R. R. Martin, and
The Elegant Universe by Brian Greene (which I fully intend to read but probably never will)
From Barnes & Noble - Union Station I got:
The Magician King by Lev Grossman

I'm so glad I got to see so many people! It was a lot of fun.

Hello tiny piece of Canada! Glad to hear you guys had fun!

Haha! A popsicle in front of the Canadian Embassy, awesome. :)

205: The DC meetup was a roaring success.
Not insignificantly because of your efforts. Thanks!

I'm still a little annoyed that Tim/Jeremy did not show up :-(

Thanks Nora for all your work organizing! I hope you all had fun Sunday.

> 208

I only provided a resting place. It was Nora who did all the planning and organizing. Kudos, Nora!!

We did have fun on Sunday! It was a little less frantic for me as I had fewer cats to herd :-) We had brunch and put our feet in several fountains and stopped by the Capitol Pride festival and the Canadian Embassy and took a whirlwind tour of the National Gallery of Art's West gallery and went to an exhibit in the East Gallery.

I guess that makes me "one less cat" :) I'm glad it was a nice day.

Brother conversation of the day:

Brother: Do you want this Driver's Ed class textbook?
Me: No, thank you.
Brother: Okay, I'll throw it away. *puts mint condition textbook INTO THE TRASH CAN*
Me: Don't throw it away! What are you doing?
Brother: Oh, you want it?
Me: No, but you can donate it to the school or library.
Brother: Why?

I have decided that commute option #3 (see messages 130 and 181) is my favorite. I missed the first bus today (I was wearing heels and thus had to toddle to the bus-stop instead of walking at my usual break-neck speed) and caught the second bus and so I am now confident that I have a backup plan.

It also occurred to me today that, unlike any other commute I've ever had to anywhere, this one goes within a block of the library. For those just joining us, previously I had not utilized the physical library (despite downloading audiobooks and donating and spending my entire paycheck at the book sale) because the only time I would ever get to go to the library would be Saturday afternoons. But the bus I now take home from work stops one block from the library. At 4:30pm! Every day! I'm still kind of reeling from the revelation. Now I just have to come up with a book that I want to check out that I will read, so I can test it out.

Book #38: Dandelion Wine: Radio Dramatization by Ray Bradbury - radio dramatization from the library - I thought I was downloading an audiobook of Dandelion Wine, but I was not (the cover and information on OverDrive were wrong.) It was still good, though! I'll count this towards my 75, but I don't consider it the same as reading Dandelion Wine (or listening to the actual audiobook).

Categories: none



Currently reading:
Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
Among Others by Jo Walton
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

Currently listening to:
Anne's House of Dreams by Lucy Maud Montgomery

Coming soon:
My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me by Kate Bernheimer
The Human Genome: Book of Essential Knowledge by John Quackenbush
The Meerkat Wars by H. S. Toshack

BOOKS READ: 38
BOOKS BOUGHT: 42
BOOKS ACQUIRED: 42
BOOKS DEACCESSIONED: 7

DAYS REMAINING: 203
BOOKS REMAINING: 37
DAYS PER BOOK: 5.49

I'm halfway done! Hooray!

Ha! I'm so happy you for you! A library that is close is definitely awesome, especially if you can visit it WHENEVER you want.

The best thing about a public library, for me, is simply going in and browsing the shelves until you find something you want to read. It's funny the kinds of books you will pick up and consider reading when the books aren't covered in price tags. When I have to pay money for books I tend to stick to a small collection of genres and topics I know I like, but public libraries really open things up for you with that whole "FREE BOOKS" business. :)

I won't bother going into detail about how gravely disappointed I am in your brother. Bad genes, it must be, some kind of genetic mutation or something, I don't know. Very weird.

Awesomesauce news about the library being on your commute route!

>216 Ape: Yes, but (I think I've mentioned this before) too many equivalent choices gives me anxiety attacks, because I'm a perfectionist. So price tags are a way I have of narrowing down my options. The only way I'm going to be able to set foot in a library is if I have a short list of books I want to check out BEFORE I walk in the door.

I barely browse at the library at all; I just request the books I want and have them delivered to my branch. I've found that the books I select when browsing just have a much lower chance of actually getting read than the books I specifically ask for.

Ah, well, I'm a compulsive browser by nature. You never want to take me into a store with you because I want to look at everything. Several times. And I probably won't buy anything in the end.

I also request books and have them sent to my branch. If I browsed, I'd end up with piles of books that I don't have time to read. I only browse in Barnes and Noble, where I don't have to worry about going home with a whole stack of them.

>221 The_Hibernator: Exactly!

I've put a hold on Changeless by Gail Carriger, and I've blocked off time after work on Thursday to go to the library and pick it up.

If I browsed, I'd end up with piles of books that I don't have time to read.

Yep, do it all the time, and I'm okay with that. :D

I used to feel bad about returning library books unread, but now I just load up, read what suits me, and things that get returned can always be checked out again another time.

>223 Ape: I already have that problem just from ones I deliberately request, though. Especially now that NYPL lets us renew books ten times. If I didn't periodically leave the city for long periods of time, things might get really out of control.

>224 _Zoe_: If I didn't periodically leave the city for long periods of time, things might get really out of control.

That makes it sound like you're on the run from the mafia

Nora, so glad to hear about the success of the DC trip! My husband and I really looked at every possible way of getting there, but work and limited time got in the way. Crossing my fingers for September, though we are taking a cruise during the first week....so....we'll see.... :)

>226 RosyLibrarian: Book festival 2012 will be Sept 22 and 23. That's 101 days away! I have to restrain myself from making a planning thread . . . .

> 227

I have to restrain myself from making a planning thread . . . .

Oh, do it!!

I checked the calendar yesterday just to be sure that the LOC book festival did not conflict with the Jewish holidays or the green festival weekend...and it doesn't!

Junot Diaz, Mario Vargas LLosa, Philip Roth and T. C. Boyle are among the authors that will be there. Here are some others.

The Hobbit is being made into a movie though, so maybe he'll read it then? Y'know, after he ruins the experience by watching the movie first so that when he reads the book he'll think it is boring and thus continue thinking books are no fun...

My sister is the same way, though I have convinced her to read 4 books total, so maybe she isn't adopted...maybe she's just my half-sister.

Yeah the only way I found out that he hadn't read The Hobbit (It never would have crossed my mind that he hadn't) is that he bought the book from Barnes & Noble yesterday.

You and your sister get along and agree on a ton of other stuff though. My brother and I haven't agreed on anything in at least a decade, and he's never gone more than 24 hours (while he's at home, at least) without insulting me in the most hurtful way he can find.

Oh. =( Well in that case, lets put firecrackers in his pillowcase.

That might not be necessary, as I seem to have *finally* been approved for an apartment. It all happened very fast and I'm very overwhelmed right now. I'm not sure how I'm going to tell my mother . . .

Yay, congratulations on the apartment!

We can still use the firecrackes-in-a-pillowcase idea. We'll put the firecrackers in your brother's pillowcase as planned, with a button above his head so when he jumps he hits it, setting off an elaborate chain reaction that ultimately results in a bright neon sign that says "I got an apartment mom! -Nora" with sirens and strobe lights. It'll be perfect.

Seriously though, congrats! That's awesome! Woohoo!

Yes but I need to tell my mom in a way that does not make her kick me out before I have a chance to move my stuff. My lease starts on the 28th and I think I can get 2 of my coworkers to help me move on the 30th.

>235 Ape: Now you have no excuse not to come to the DC meetup in September, because you have a free place to stay. So there!

A free place to stay and super cheap bus tickets won't stop me from coming up with excuses, bwahahaha...

I'm sorry your family is so awful. You could always just not tell them until the 30th?

But that would probably be worse. My mom could either be totally fine and happy and supportive, or she could freak out and kick me out or not let me take any of the things she told me I could take. There's absolutely no way to tell which one it's going to be. But the sooner I tell her, the more time she'll have to come to terms with it. The only problem is that when my brother is home, my mom pretty much forgets I exist. So I have to interrupt her worship of him to tell her things, which makes her upset.

Well, the book I put on hold on Monday is still listed as "pending" on my library's website, so I guess I'm not going to the library today. I might have time Saturday afternoon, if it's not too hot.

My book is ready, just seconds before I leave work! Hooray!

Do you check your library's website obsessively for that kind of information like I did when I requested books online? :)

ETA: Ha! Okay, I guess that last edit answers my question. :P

I vote just telling her. Does she know you've been searching? Should be a simple "So I might have found a place..." and then 2-3 days later "Yep, I found a place..."

Of course, all this is easier said than done (or rather easier typed than said.) I still haven't called my library about wanting to volunteer... *Ahem* Going to do that, though...ummmm...later today... *Gulp*

>241 Ape: She knows I've been searching . . . I've been searching for 2 years and 1 month. Sometimes, if I haven't brought it up in awhile, she will yell at me and tell me how much she wants me out of here. Sometimes, when I mention that I got a phone call or went to an open house, she'll get very very very angry and tell me all the ways I'm going to fail if I try to live by myself.

242: Well that's quite the enticement to stick around... Congrats on the apartment!

Your mom sucks more than your brother. Are you SURE you don't want to go through with the firecracker thing? :(

Oh, congrats on the apartment! And good luck with The Mom. Sigh. Hoping it goes much more easily than you fear it will...

I think it should be okay as long as my brother isn't around. But he was around all evening yesterday.

Congratulations, Nora! That's fantastic news!!!!! Sorry your family isn't so fantastic, you deserve much better. :) Good luck on telling your Mom, I'm crossing my fingers for you that it'll go well.

Thanks Laura! I'm feeling more happy and excited and slightly less anxious (for me, anyway) today.

You obviously need to go nail it and tell her all eloquent-like so you can brag to me about how easy it was when I couldn't even pick up the phone and ask to volunteer at my local library. That'll show me! :)

Oh, by the way, I'll be starting Fluke tomorrow. :)

I'm really relieved that you found an apartment, Nora. There's so much drama going on in your house right now. Is it near where you work? That will be so great. I think you'll really like having your own place.

Good luck with telling your mom. Do it whatever way feels the most right for you. It seems as if it's going to be a hassle no matter how and when you tell her. That's a pity.

Anyway, I'm very excited for you.

...and don't forget to take your books to your new place! :D

I know it will be a bear to get to the point where you are in your own apartment but just think of the peace once you are!

Congrats on the new apartment! Hopefully your mom takes it well

Helloooo, Nora, knock knock. I didn't miss a new thread, did I? That's supposed to be impossible now, you know. Perhaps you told your mother you found a place and she has you tried up in a basement somewhere.

Okay fine, maybe I have an overactive imagination and you're just busy. I suppose that's a logical explanation, but that doesn't mean I won't prepare for the worst. I guess I should start drawing up an escape plan.

Geez Stephen. You're so high-maintenance. I only didn't post for a day and a half!

Well, yeah...do you know how wild my imagination can run in 36 hours? You're lucky I didn't come to the conclusion that you were kidnapped by rainbow-colored rabbit-hamster-monkey humanoids that wear leather and leapord-print banana hammocks and poke their victims with giant carrots sharpened to the point of being, well, very irritatingly pointy.

So your mother isn't holding you hostage?

Nope, it was father's day so I went hiking and then out to dinner with my dad and my brother. Saturday I have no excuse besides feeling introverted.

Are you sure your dad isn't a rainbow-colored rabbit-hamster-monkey humanoid that wears a leather and leopard-print banana hammock...in disguise?

Are you implying that I am half rainbow-colored rabbit-hamster monkey humanoid?

Are you implying that you aren't?

Yes, yes I am.

Alrightie then.

In an off-topic book-related discussion, I'm still waiting to hear your comments on Among Others. Even though I may end up skipping them because I've already resolved to read the book.

258: No no, I think it's a recessive gene, so you look perfectly fine and you'll only give birth to a rainbow-colored rabbit-hamster-monkey humanoid if you have weird kinky rainbow-colored rabbit-hamster-monkey humanoid sex.

Congrats on the apartment Nora! That is very exciting and will be so wonderful once you actually get there.

>262 _Zoe_: Coming. I'm procrastinating because I don't really know what to say. I was expecting to have really strong feelings about it, but I don't think I do.

>263 Ape: Ew.

>264 AnneDC: Thanks! I'll post pictures and everything once I get in.

>263 Ape: Ew.

I know, the thought of giving birth is horrific, isn't it?

The Powers That Be have apparently decided that my life was going too smoothly, and so as of the 17th they have rescheduled the perfect bus that I've been taking in the morning, so that I now have to leave the house 8 minutes earlier in the morning.

Mother fuckers. (please excuse my French.)

267: This will not be necessary when you move though?

No, it won't. But with my luck a week after I move they'll change the free shuttle stop. Or something.

No! The move will mark a change in your luck and your outlook! Surely it will.

I've just realized how long this thread is! Hopefully one more picture won't push it past the point of not loading for the internet-challenged among you. I'd like to wait a few more days before creating a new thread, for accurate thread-naming purposes ;-)

I'm currently baking a strawberry cake for my boss' birthday. (Oh, how times have changed from 6 months ago!) Here is a picture pre-oven.

Post-oven:

Yum!

Oooh, I can almost smell that deliciousness from here!

Book #39: Among Others by Jo Walton - I expected to have really really strong feelings about this book, but I don't. It was just generally good. I enjoyed the peek into life in Wales, and small English towns, and 1979, and the descriptions of the mind of a 15-year-old girl were spot-on. She alternates between wise beyond her years and terribly immature. As someone who has always looked to books for companionship when rejected by humans, I can completely relate to her.

SPOILER:
personally, I think it would have been more interesting if Wim didn't ever see the fairies. Mori could have been an unreliable narrator and the ambiguity of whether or not the magic and the witches and the fairies were all in her head would have been lovely.

But it was a good, interesting read. The plot is slow and steady (but not tedious), which is refreshing for a book about magic and witches and fairies. And it is certainly unique.

Categories: begun within 1 month of purchase



Currently reading:
Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
Changeless by Gail Carriger
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

Currently listening to:
Anne's House of Dreams by Lucy Maud Montgomery

Coming soon:
My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me by Kate Bernheimer
The Human Genome: Book of Essential Knowledge by John Quackenbush
The Meerkat Wars by H. S. Toshack

BOOKS READ: 39
BOOKS BOUGHT: 42
BOOKS ACQUIRED: 42
BOOKS DEACCESSIONED: 7

DAYS REMAINING: 194
BOOKS REMAINING: 36
DAYS PER BOOK: 5.39

*Licks computer screen*

Lots of tasty and exciting things going on around here. Hope the moving process goes smoothly.

I signed my lease today, and told my mom. She's doing okay, I think, though she's not letting me take all of the furniture I was hoping she would.

ETA: scratch that. She's texting me from the next room, when my door is open. That's a very, very bad sign.

Furniture schmurtinture. You can live a spartan life and worry about furnishing it later.

I'm so ready for you to move out, I can only imagine how you must feel!

278: Uh oh.

Hope things don't go all wonky, but I will say that I have had amazing experience with finding furniture at Goodwills and Salvation Armys. You'll need a friend with a vehicle, but decent stuff can be had to very little money. Good luck!

Well, whatever. Are the things she's not letting you take things you NEED, or just extra stuff? Either way, YOU'RE FREE! ^_^

I furnished my whole apartment from Ikea; it's pretty cheap, completely functional, and they delivered everything for an extra $100.

So, you'll be fine, but I'm still sorry that your mother is such a pain.

Hope your mom takes it better over the next few days ... and hope she gives you more furniture!

Congratulations on your new apartment! I'm sure it will all work out in the end and everything will settle down. Sending good vibes your way, Nora.

Thanks everyone! Things have not gotten any worse, which is good news around here! In celebration, I've made a new thread. Link below!