Norabelle414's Act Two: The Season of Rebirth

Sleeping like an angel.

Goals for 2014:

• Read 22,000 pages
  
• Completely ignore the number of books I'm reading
  
• Catch up on my LTER reading / reviewing
  
• Acquire fewer than 75 books
  
• Plan & attend the Spring DC meet-up and National Book Festival LT meet-up
  
  

Previous Threads:
2014, act one
2014, prologue

2013, part XI
2012, module eta

Books read in 2014:

Paper books:
- Lonely Planet Iceland, 8th edition
- The Tropic of Serpents: A Memoir by Lady Trent by Marie Brennan
- The Walking Dead, Volume 6: This Sorrowful Life by Robert Kirkman
- Days of Blood and Starlight by Laini Taylor
- The Walking Dead, Volume 7: The Calm Before by Robert Kirkman
- The Walking Dead, Volume 8: Made to Suffer by Robert Kirkman
- The Thinking Woman's Guide to Real Magic by Emily Croy Barker
- City of Dark Magic by Magnus Flyte
- Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins
- Feet of Clay by Terry Pratchett
- Night of Cake and Puppets by Laini Taylor **ebook**
- Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J. K. Rowling
- Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell
- The Walking Dead, Volume 9: Here We Remain by Robert Kirkman
- The Walking Dead, Volume 10: What We Become by Robert Kirkman
- Three Men in a Boat and Three Men on the Bummel by Jerome K. Jerome
- The Walking Dead, Volume 11: Fear the Hunters by Robert Kirkman
- Ghost Train to New Orleans by Mur Lafferty
- Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J. K. Rowling
- The Walking Dead, Volume 12: Life Among Them by Robert Kirkman
-

Audiobooks:
- The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place, Book IV: The Interrupted Tale by Maryrose Wood
- Boston Jacky: Being an Account of the Further Adventures of Jacky Faber, Taking Care of Business by L. A. Meyer
- Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J. K. Rowling
- Death Comes to Pemberley by P. D. James
- Winter's Tale by Mark Helprin
- The Peculiar by Stephan Bachmann
-

Books acquired in 2014:

January:
1) Icelandic Handknits by Helene Magnusson (new, $35)
2) The Geek's Guide to Dating by Eric Smith (ARC, free)
3) These Happy Golden Years by Laura Ingalls Wilder (used, TBA)
4) The Clue of the Dancing Puppet by Carolyn Keene (used, TBA)
5) Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein (used, TBA)
6) Mansfield Park by Jane Austen (used, TBA)
7) Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder (used, TBA)
8) The Moonstone Mystery by Carolyn Keene (used, TBA)
9) Let the Great World Spin by Collum McCann (used, TBA)
10) Geek Love by Katherine Dunn (gift)
11) Od Magic by Patricia A. McKillip (gift)

February:
12) Archduke Franz Ferdinand Lives!: A World Without World War I by Richard Ned Lebow (ARC, free)
13) The Pilgrims by Will Elliott (ARC, free)

March:
14) Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell (gift)
15) The Lady and the Panda (used, $0.25)

April:
16) Xxx by Xxx Xxx (gift)
17) Xxx by Xxx Xxx (gift)

Feet of Clay by Terry Pratchett - Someone - or something has murdered a few residents of Ankh-Morpork, and it isn't the assassin's guild. The only Clues that Commander Vimes and Captain Carrot have to go on are clay footprints at the crime scene, and traces of arsenic under the victims' fingernails. The case gets more serious when the Patrician comes down with arsenic poisoning, which can't be a coincidence. Meanwhile, Angua has decided that Carrot deserves better than dating a werewolf, a dwarf named Cheery Littlebottom is inciting a feminist revolution in the Watch House, and Nobby Nobbs just might be the next king of Ankh-Morpork.

I love the City Watch, especially Carrot, but I just don't get the same thrill as I do from the plots of other books in the series. Perhaps because, as detective novels, all the coincidences are supposed to come together in the end. There's not as much surprise as in the other sub-series. The book is, of course, both hilarious and way better written than the last few similar books I've read. But it's not my favorite Discworld.




Currently reading:
The Geek's Guide to Dating by Eric Smith (pg 57)
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (pg 71)
Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome (pg 20)

Currently listening to:
The Peculiar by Stefan Bachmann, read by Peter Altschuler (64%)

Coming soon:
Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie
The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker

PAGES READ: 2,945
BOOKS BOUGHT: 8
BOOKS ACQUIRED: 14
BOOKS DEACCESSIONED: 9

DAYS REMAINING: 285
PAGES REMAINING: 19,055
PAGES PER DAY: 66.86

Hi, Nora!

Hi Foggi!

Aw, cute kitty thread topper again. :)

>7 PawsforThought: Thanks Paws! I would pass on the message to him but his ego is big enough already.

>1 norabelle414: Aw, it almost looks like he is dreaming about the flowers behind him on the wall.

Hi Nora! *waves madly* Rory looks adorable in your thread topper and I love your wall tat (I assume it's a wall tat). Congrats on finishing one of those book things. Have some handsome as a reward.

>10 MickyFine: Hi Micky! It's a wall decal from Ikea. I have a completely unreasonable fear of hanging things on the wall, but my walls look so bare and depressing, so I got some decals. I have one that is a tree with a bird in it as well but I can't decide where to put it.

!! I've seen that photo somewhere else I think but I'm very happy to have it here :-)

11. Your place must be the opposite of mine, then. I seem to be hanging up new things on the walls bi-weekly. I'm surprised I still have any room left.

Wall decals are gorgeous. I'm contemplating some for my new apartment. We'll see how it looks when I've hung my prints. I use the 3M strips for hanging stuff. They're super sturdy and I don't have to worry about putting holes in the wall.

>13 MickyFine: It's more of a psychological issue than a logical one, so unfortunately the sticky strips/hooks don't help much. I'm working on it though.

________________________________

I've found the most meta tag ever!
http://www.librarything.com/tag/untagged

Happy new thread!

>11 norabelle414: - We've lived in our house for almost six years, and I have only hung up four things. Maybe using the 3M things would be a good baby-step for me...

Weird! You used the Thread Continuation thingy but it didn't auto-star it for me, so I nearly could have missed this one, especially since that thread was way unloadable. Alas, you are not so lucky, I'm afraid. ;)

Also, one day when you are at work I'm going to sneak into your apartement and staple myself to your wall. Just a heads up!

Happy new thread!

>14 norabelle414: Thanks for this!

>17 leahbird: Hi Leah!

>18 Whisper1: You're very welcome, Linda ;-)

>14 norabelle414: I can always be your support group.

Hi, Nora! Happy New Thread!

(Also, from your previous thread, the plural of hiatus is hiatus. It's a 4th declension noun.)

21. It can be hiatuses too! :)

>21 scaifea: & >22 PawsforThought: No arguments with either lady. If it doesn't exist you can always make it up!

Lovely to see your posting picking up a head of steam Nora. Have a lovely weekend. xx

I agree with Paul. Just don't say hiati. Seriously.
*Glares*

24. Agreed. That just sounds like someone mixed up the letters in Haiti.

But I will fight anyone who doesn't say octopi and fungi, and I'll always argue that the correct plural of asparagus is asparagi.

Nooooo! I hate the -us to -i rule and refuse to acknowledge it. :P

26. Latin is older than you and therefore gets to decide.

>27 PawsforThought: I am another one who doen't much care for us'es, Paws but there is a reason that latin is, by some, considered a dead language. It is exceptionally difficult to master. I'm against ageism but, just because it is old, doesn't necessarily make it right.

The Murrikans have spent the last couple of hundred years trying to improve english by taking out what they consider to be superfluous letters and putting the e before the r in words such as "theater" and "center" uugggh! The English in turn stole most of its language from a bevy of neighbours or peoples they colonised.

28. Yes, because the empire that used it collapsed! ;)

All languages steal from each other, not just English.

The beauty of language is that it's an evolving lifeform, one that is shaped and formed by the people who speak it. If it weren't so, we'd all be speaking the language you mentioned. Latin died because better ways to communicate were discovered, and to use it to dictate how we speak now would just be foolish. It would be like pointing at an electric car and saying it's wrong because it doesn't have a horse pulling it.

Just because languages develop doesn't mean you have to change parts of it that work well and sound right.
Like octopi.

You might prefer the sound, and I totally understand that, I'm sure it's terribly fun to say - however, if you look at it from an unbiased perspective with an open mind, you might see that dropping the -us ending of a word and adding an -i is terribly senseless and ridiculous, regardless of its origins.

I respect linguists and I'm sure those more knowledgeable than me about this topic can shower me with reasons why we continue to use the silly rule, I nevertheless will continue to says -usses and will giggle immaturely at anyone who doesn't.

Well, any ending is complete arbitrary and could therefore be considered "senseless". The only reason you think "-s" or "-es" in plural sounds right is because you've been conditioned to think that. -i is not the least bit more senseless than any of those.

-i is senseless because it is specific to a small number of words that would function just fine if they had the traditional -es ending. Imagine if you didn't speak English, and your teacher said "Whenever there are multiples of something, you add an S or an ES." So you right "Octopusses" and the teacher says "Oh, except that one, that one has an -i." My issue is using the -i is pointless, serves not purpose, and has no reason for existing.

If any one can explain to me why someone should use -i instead of -es I would be happy to hear it, but it really has no function whatsoever. So, really, lets just abolish it, please. :)

34. We should just agree to disagree.

Just delurking to say how much I love this discussion. :)

Meanwhile, there are people who maintain that the plural should be octopodes, because it's originally from Greek ;)

I would not be opposed to octopodes (much better than octopuses).

Aaaand I shall now stop hijacking other people's thread to discuss plural forms.

>37 _Zoe_: Sing it, sister!

>34 Ape: You should use the -i ending for certain words because it's the proper ending for those words. If you don't like it, fine, don't use it properly and go on ahead and contribute to the changing of the language - which, even as a Latinist, I have no problem with. But don't, please, say that the -i ending is pointless because it isn't. At all. It's Latin.

>28 PaulCranswick: Paul: You cut me to the core, sir. Also, Latin is demonstrably not difficult to master - it's much, *much* easier to learn than English. It's just different, but different doesn't mean difficult.

>39 scaifea: My Ancient Greek professor in college used to say, "Greek is easy and fun -- and Latin is easier and funnier." Not sure if any of us ever believed him on the "easy" front, but I did always find his classes fun. He also had a sign on his door that cracked me up: "Sola bona lingua est mortua lingua" (I think. Pardon me if I have mangled the Latin; it's been some years ago now and I never took Latin, just Greek, anyhow.)

>40 foggidawn: I wouldn't exactly call Greek easy, either, although it's not impossible. Latin is nice because it very nearly always follows its rules, and those rules are very logical. Cute sign, and yes, that's correct Latin ( although the word order could be better)!

>41 scaifea: I think the word order was intentional, to echo the English phrasing, and so those of us who were not students of Latin could more easily get the joke!

ETA: He always said that, if we were willing to spend an hour or two a day, every day, outside of class time studying Greek, we would always find it easy. But what college student is that diligent? I'll admit, I wasn't! But I did find it logical in its rules.

You're making me want to take up Latin. And based on what you've been saying, it might not be as difficult as I've always imagined learning Latin to be.

Latin is nice because it very nearly always follows its rules, and those rules are very logical.

This is exactly my problem with the -i ending. English isn't following it's own rules, but is still being dictated by Latin ones. ;)

The English method of pluralizing a word is to add an -s or -es to the end. I can't fathom why cactus can't just be cactusses. There isn't a logical, rational, or intellectual reason for it. The explanation given to me is not unlike a child crossing their arms and saying "Because I like it the other way, that's why." Perhaps it has a function in Latin, but in English, the -i rule is redundant, really.

Amber, you fall under the linguist category I mentioned above, at least when it comes to Latin, as I know you love the language quite a bit, and I totally understand your appreciation for it. However, I still fail to see the purpose of the -i rule. *Shrug*

>43 PawsforThought: Paws: You can do it! I'll help you, in fact, if you're interested. Jenn (nittnutt) is going to learn Latin with me and you're welcome to join us, if you like (as is anyone else interested, too)!

>50 Ape: Stephen: *tsk* Such a 'Merican attitude to language. The Romans adopted a lot of words from the Greeks (and others), too, but they respected the other language and adapted the words in a way that kept the spirit of the original (they compromised and adapted a category of endings that would reflect the original endings). 'Mericans aren't sensitive enough anymore, apparently, to appreciate the diversity of languages that make up our own and aren't willing to learn that little extra (such as a pesky 'useless' -i ending) in order to celebrate or even preserve that diversity. Sad.
Also, for the record, how is your stance not one of a petulant arm-crossed child? *ahem*
(Okay, you know that I'm not really upset at you and that I'm just joshing, right? No real argument here - just playfulness.)

Uh, hi, Nora! How's it going? :)

Amber: Ah, but my argument is one founded on logic and reason. I have yet to hear a single explanation as to why it should be -i. If someone can provide me with one, I'll happily consider it. So, please, tell me what purpose using -i over -es has.

Oh, and yeah, of course I understand! :)

>46 Ape: Oh, I see. It's your own special brand of logic and reason. Well then. There's no arguing with that, is there? *pats Stephens head indulgently*

44. Actually, that's not true. MOST English words are pluralized with -s/-es but far from all of them. And many that do have other changes to them (calf/calves, ox/oxen, tooth/teeth, etc.) It is far from just the Latin ones that are irregular. If you want the Latin ones to change, logically you should change all words so that it's "foot(e)s" not "feet".

45. Oh, I'm so tempted now!

Also, just because I think it's cool and interesting: made-up Latin words (words that we have created using the Latin endings system, but that the ancient Romans did not create or use themselves) do not decline according to Latin rules, but use English rules for their plural forms. And that's as it should be.

Paws: You're definitely welcome to do so - PM me if you want more details.

Toothes is better!!

Amber: I'm not using my own brand of logic. I'm using the English endings system and applying it to words that end in -us. How is that my own brand of logic?

50. You might think so but it's impossible to pronounce and very few people would agree with you. Irregularities are not always bad.

>50 Ape: See the 'Merican attitude discussion above.

On a relatively warm day after a long and miserable winter, Stephen decided to pay Nora a visit. He pulled up to her apartment building only to find that she wasn't in at the moment, but it was okay because Paws was there to, so he struck up a conversation with her. "Have you seen these new electric cars?" he said. "They're great. They're so cheap, and fuel efficient, and I hear they produce almost no toxic emissions at all."

Paws nodded her head in amazement. "Yeah, they seem pretty cool, what are they called again?"
Stephen pointed to the nameplate on the back of the car. "They're called Electrusses"
Paws glanced at Stephen, her eyebrow raised skeptically. "But it says "Electrus"
"...right..." said Stephen, a little unsure of what Paws was getting at.
"So...wouldn't that make them Electri?"
"Ummmm, no, I don't think so. Anyway, while we wait for Nora we should go to that book store she is always talking about, what do you say? I'll let you drive!"

Paws seemed very pleased by this, and agreed immediately. Stephen hopped in the passenger seat and gazed out the window, but after about a minute he began to wonder where Paws was, as she hadn't entered the car. He looked out the back window, and the side windows, and the windshield, but she was nowhere in sight. He was about to get out of the car, but just at that moment she came around the building with a horse, which she tied to the front of the car. Stephen, rather alarmed, waited until she got into the driver's seat and then asked as calmly as possible, "...WHY IS THERE A HORSE ATTACHED TO MY CAR!?!?!?"

"What do you mean," replied Paws, "this is how the Latins drove."
Stephen was a bit put off. "Well, yeah, I suppose they did...but we have a better way of driving now. Why not use the car's engine?"
"Because," she replied, "this is how the Latins did it."
"Right, yes, you said that, but you could just use the engine now, it'll be faster."
"Nope," she said, "this is the way we should do it."

2 hours later, they had made it to their destination, only to find Amber at the bookstore.
"Ohhhh, hi Amber!" Paws and Stephen said together. They hadn't expected to find her there.
"Nice car!" Amber said, "I've been thinking about getting one of those. Who wouldn't, right?"
Paws nodded enthusiastically as Stephen laughed nervously. "Yeah," he said, "they're pretty fantastic."
"They're called electri, right?" asked Amber as she stroked the horses neck.
"Yeah!" cried Paws, at the same time as Stephen said "No!"
"They're Electrusses."
Amber grinned, thinking Stephen was just being naive and silly.

They all went into the bookstore and spent far too much money. Amber came out first, and several minutes later after ringing up piles and piles of books Stephen and Paws came out together. Amber had parked her Chariot beside Stephen's Electrus so they could follow her to Nora's place. The Chariot was an old gas-guzzling monstrosity, and worse, it had a horse attached to the front! Stephen slapped his forehead, and muttered under his breath "Oh, god, not another one..."
"What was that?" Amber asked, a look of dire expectancy on her face.
"Oh...nothing. Although, I must ask...why not buy a car? It would be much faster, and more efficient. In fact, it's pretty much better in every way."
"Because," said Amber, "this is how the Latins did it."
Stephen was struck with an overwhelming sense of deja vu. "Yeah...I understand that, but why not buy a car now."
"Because," said Amber, "this is how the Latins did it."
Stephen sighed. "Yeah, I know that, but wouldn't it be more reasonable to buy a modern vehicle? You'll get your errands done faster, you'll have more time to read!"
"I don't know," said Amber, "the Latins did it this way, you silly Americans know nothing about the origins of transportation."
"Oh, you are right, I know little, but I can still look at my car, and your...uhhh, Chariot, and see that the car is better."
Paws shook her head. "Amber is right, Stephen. This is the right way, because the Latins did it this way."

Stephen shook his head sadly. "Fine, the Latins did it that way, but I'm doing it this way." He untied the horse attached to his car and turned the key in the ignition. "This just seems better, if you ask me."
Amber smirked again, she was obviously humored by Stephen's antics. "Okay, you do that." She patted his head condescendingly through the window, and mumbled that he was being unreasonable. "Paws and I will see you at Nora's."
Stephen got back to Nora's place within minutes. Paws and Amber had lots of time to discuss what a silly simple-minded American Stephen was, and during their 2-hour return trip Stephen and Nora ate lots of cookies. Unfortunately there weren't any left by the time Amber and Paws caught up.

And then Stephen got his car towed and had to pay $400 to get it back, and Paws and Amber both got citations from Animal Control, because there is no public parking, for cars or horses, at Nora's apartment.

Also, I believe the Latins prefer to be called "Latinos".

You ought to know that I don't like driving as I'm not too good at it.

Though I am rather good on horseback.

51: People say "booths" just fine. If you can say booths, you can say tooths.

52: But that's no an explanation for why it should continue to be used. If someone asks a question and your answer is "Yeah, must people don't know the answer to that question" then it's not really an answer, is it? I just want to know, in simple terms so this dullard can understand, what is the reason for using -i instead of -es. Just answer that. Please. You still haven't. No one has. I just want 1 REASON.

All I've heard so far is "Because it's how it was done in Latin" and "you don't know anything about language." Fine, BUT TELL ME WHY WE SHOULD CONTINUE TO USE IT. *Sigh*

54: Crap, I forgot that part. :(

So, Nora, read any good books lately?

56. That's because the reason is that it was like that in Latin and the use has been carried over into English. Partly because it's most convenient.

Also, you know that English is only going to get more complicated, right? Sure, some things will be simplified but generally there will be more and more exceptions to the rules as time goes on.

>57 katiekrug: Why thank you for asking, Katie!

I'm currently reading Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, which I should have finished in February for my 7-month-long Harry Potter reread. Even though I'm behind schedule I will still take a break before reading Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.
I'm also reading Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome, because a weird guy on OKCupid somehow managed to convince me that we should both read it and then meet up to talk about it. But that was like 2 weeks ago.
Still working on The Geek's Guide to Dating, which is an LTER book from a few months back. It's good, but I just haven't picked it up lately.

Currently listening to The Peculiar by Stefan Bachmann, which is better than I expected.

59. Aw, I want to re-read HP too now!

How are you liking Three Men in a Boat? I read a few pages of it years ago and then never got around to reading any more of it (I left it at my parents' house and didn't remember it until ages later, when I'd forgotten what had happened so I just didn't bother picking it up again).

>59 norabelle414: Yeah, I just realized that I have not yet read my HP book for the month. It's my favorite, too (Prisoner of Azkaban) -- this does not bode well for the chunksters later in the series!

>59 norabelle414: - My pleasure ;-)

Azkaban is my next HP audio. It's my first time reading or listening to them, but it's been fun. SEveral people have said this one is their favorite.

I have heard that Three Men in a Boat is very funny. I have a copy but haven't read it yet. Interesting about the guy on OKCupid. At least he likes books/reading....?

50% chance I'll be in your neck of the woods in mid-April. Should find out for sure today or tomorrow and will let you know!

59, 62. I think the guy's idea is pretty good. It means you'll definitely have something to talk about (because first dates can be excrutiating without it) and the both of you have a shared experience to bond over (that makes it sound much more of a big deal than it is, but whatever).
Anyway, as I said, a good idea.

>53 Ape: Wow. Just, wow.
And, yeah, they were Romans, you silly thing.

Okay, let me just say that, for me, this is getting borderline not-playful-anymore-and-really-just-a-bit-irritating, Stephen. We have given you reasons. The real, honest-to-goodness reasons. Just because they're not reasons that you particularly like, doesn't mean that they're not REAL REASONS! I fear that I have fallen into the Bill Nye trap and am trying to use logic against crazy people. So I give up. As I've already said before, go right ahead and use -es instead of -i. I don't give a rat's patoot. SHEESH.

...

I think I need some Tennant Therapy.



Okay, minor irritation over. I'm back to my bubbly happy Stephen-is-adorable self. Whew.

>54 norabelle414: Animal Control - *snork!*

Weird guys who make you read books, huh? Weird.

Oh, I see you acquired Od Magic. It's great! You should read it.

:)

>60 PawsforThought: Three Men in a Boat is very funny, but pretty pointless. There's not really a plot at all, it's just a guy rambling on in a funny way.

>61 foggidawn: I think we'll be okay! Once I manage to pick the book up I read through them pretty quickly, even the chunksters.

I dont mind rambling, as long as it's good.

>62 katiekrug: I have little problem finding guys who read a bit, but many of them are lacking in other, more important areas, like self-esteem and basic social skills.
I'm going to be out of town from the 18th to the 20th. So don't come that weekend. If you're here on the 14th, though, that is my birthday and thus there will be Pimm's and books involved.

>63 PawsforThought: It would be fine for a second or third date, but it's a terrible idea for a first meeting after initial communication online. We sent a few messages back and forth a few weeks ago, but now it's just "I'm halfway done" and "I've almost finished it", etc. Nothing remotely helpful in determining if we like each other or are compatible. I would rather have just met up with him in person 2 weeks ago and got it over with.

>64 scaifea: He's just baiting you, Amber. Deep breaths! And thanks for the picture :-)

>68 norabelle414: Ha! I know. Classic Stephen. I'm such a Rube.

I'm a-coming! I arrive Tuesday the 15th and leave Friday the 18th. I've given my sister-in-law first crack at claiming an evening because last time I forgot to tell her I was coming and she was mad.

Baiting? Me? Nonsense. I'm just reminding everyone of my all-knowingness. ;)

Self-esteem and basic social skills are definitely an issue. Knowing my fellow male readers share my problems improves my self-esteem issue, though! :P

68. The guys remotely close to me (geographically, that is) seem to be opposite of the ones you meet. No one reads (other than an article or two in a car or ice hockey magazine) and their self-esteem is higher than Louis XIV's. And 99% of the ones who are single are "the next generation" (very much younger than me).

Stephen, why aren't you speaking Esperanto?

I can really only butcher one language at a time, I'm afraid.

I thought Three Men in a Boat was hilarious when I was 12. I'm a bit afraid to try it now, though I have it sitting around to read before To Say Nothing of the Dog.

75. Well, i have the mind of a child so it'll probably be fine. ;)

>75 qebo:, >76 PawsforThought: I think I'm getting a lot out of it as a semi-adult, actually. The type of person/lifestyle that the author is satirizing is really common among (the stereotype of) my generation. And I love how he refers to his dog as a person all the time.

Well, seeing as we belong to the same generation I suppose I'll recognise some things too...

TEA LOVERS:

On Twinings.com you can get $5 off for orders $25 and over with coupon code "OFF5"
Code is good through 3/31

Enjoy :-)

I don't buy Twinings tea but that's a good discount. I could very easily spend $25 on tea. In fact, most of the time when I but tea I go well over that.

Nice! I need to discover some non-milky (that is to say non-chai) teas because I've decided recently that I really need to lose a bit of weight. I've got a big box of plain black tea that I bought on the cheap, but I definitely want to start exploring more healthier teas that I enjoy without adding tons of cream and sugar.

>79 norabelle414: Excellent!!

>81 Ape: Stephen: I put milk and honey in my tea, and I've switched to skim milk without noticing much of a difference.

Uhhhh, well, you see, ummmm...I kind of brew the tea directly into pure milk, so that's sort of a caloric problem. D'oh!

I won't even being to suggest that you change the way you do that. I mean, not that you're stubborn about stuff or anything. Nooohooo, I wouldn't want to suggest that at all...

*snork!*

I wish someone would have suggested it sooner, and maybe I wouldn't be in the situation. Sheesh. :P

I really like the 100% mint tea, because it tastes sweet to me without actually being sweet.

I've tried a couple mint teas and didn't like them, but they were Celestial Seasonings and their teas are really hit-and-miss for me, so I should probably try some more.

Ah, I do like Celestial Seasonings' 100% mint as well, so maybe you won't like the Twinings.

You know, you could always make the chai tea without milk.

Do you mean the peppermint? I didn't like the peppermint, but I know they do things with spearmint too.

Chai tea without milk!? *Shocked silence* Isn't that illegal or something?

Nora!!! My what an active thread full of good natured (I think??) debate!

I'm glad to hear your date went so well! :) Do we get more details?

Rory is so stinking adorable in your topper pic... I also love your wall tat! You said you got it at Ikea? I'm going to have to check those out bc that is a great idea!

>90 TinaV95: Hi Tina!
My date apparently did not feel the same way I did because he is not interested in seeing me again.
Ikea has tons of great wall stickers! I chose a very neutral one but they have lots with great colors and designs. You can see all of them here: http://www.ikea.com/us/en/search/?query=decorative+stickers
Target has some cool-looking wall stickers as well, but I don't have any personal experience with them.

from fatbrain.co.uk

I would tick the boxes for all but the last category on that poster.

Love it, by the way. Absolutely love it.

>93 PawsforThought: Let's change that one to something else. Like when you see someone in public and you can see they're reading a book you love because it's an actual book with a cover. What should that be called?

94. Yes, that's a good idea. Displaying? Though it's other people doing it. Relating? Connecting?

>95 PawsforThought: I like Connecting.

Just to play devil's advocate, I don't think it's an either/or proposition. There is room for both. I love actual, "real" books - everything about them is wonderful including most of the things on that info graphic. But I love my Kindle too. And I resent how some people turn the debate into an argument over who is a real reader or book lover and who is not. (I'm not saying you are doing that, Nora!) For me, books are first and foremost about the story/words/language; how that is delivered - on paper, electronically, or through an audio - is of little concern to me.

96. Connecting it is!

97. If people like reading via whatever electronic devices they have, that is all good with me. Reading, whatever your mode of choice happens to be, is always a good thing. Personally, I prefer paper books and many of the reasons why I do is stated in the pic Nora posted. One of the main "beefs" I have with electronic reading devices is the one Nora and I just named "Connecting". People all around me could be reading the most amazing and fascinating books and I'd never know because all I see is a piece of metal. It might sound silly but I find it genuinely sad.
I'm not the kind of person who up and talks to strangers every chance I get (far from it) but people who read are kindred spirit so I'm not scared to talk to them. And I've aproached quite a few people to note on the books they're reading or just ask which one it is (if I can't make it out).
"Sorry to disturb you, but I couldn't help notising you're reading Book So-And-So. It's one of my favourites; I hope you enjoy it." Doesn't really compare to "Sorry to bother you, but are you reading a book I might have read and liked?" "Sorry, I'm watching people people fall over on YouTube." :|

I like reading, of course, but am just as much a book lover, and could never be fully satisfied with e-books. It's like enjoying fast cars but choosing to play video games, like choosing to forego eating in favor of gaining sustenance through pill-swallowing, or enjoying the thrill of travel to distant exotic places by looking at the pictures online.

I mean, yeah, sure, it's a lot more convenient. You can still see everything in the photos, right? And if the pill has all the same nutrients as your favorite food then what difference does it make? But no, it's not the same. The obsessive reader in me can be happy with an e-book, but the bibliophile in me will be left sad and neglected.

I'm not judgemental towards other people who chose to read with e-readers. I just couldn't do it myself. A e-reader device with a full hard drive just isn't the same as a room full of books.

I fear the day when libraries are torn to the ground and replaced with small, ugly buildings that house the souless gray servers of a digital library.

>95 PawsforThought: Love the infograph, Nora!

>97 katiekrug: I completely agree. 100%!

I love, love, love the feel and look of books. I love that I have a little library room in my house and that I have books scattered everywhere. I love bookstores, I love libraries and anywhere else that carries physical books.

That being said, I also love my tablet and the convenience of using programs like OverDrive for e-books and audio books. I feel as though I am still enjoying a story whether it is digital or audio. It may not be the same physical experience of flipping pages, but I don't think it makes me or anyone else less of a reader.

For some people, it actually makes them more of a reader. My husband is a good example of this. He is not a reader, but we got him a Nook and he's already read three books this year which is 2 more then he read all of last year. If an e-reader is the tool he needs to read, then I am all for putting it in his hands.

>99 Ape: I am with you on the tearing down of physical libraries. I truly believe in my heart it will never happen even if there are people out there that think it is the only future. I don't think they understand the cost and limitations of completely digital libraries.

Happy new thread Nora and what an entertaining discussion.... I usually run away from any type of language/grammar discussion but I am starting to think that an on-line panel of Stephen, Amber and PawsForThought would bring new awareness to these interesting issues.

I am thinking YouTube videos..... ;-0

>91 norabelle414: - Seriously?! The date is not interested? Some men really need their heads examined.

>92 norabelle414: - interesting infograph.

Have a lovely weekend, Nora!

100: Yeah, I don't really think physical libraries will actually be torn down, but it's a terrible thought, and e-books aren't helping. At least audiobooks are still housed within libraries, and they still kind of look like books on the shelves, a world of e-books would a a world without libraries at all.

101: Haha, no, can't do the youtube videos, people could see me. *Shudders*

But I do agree that any man who isn't attracted to Nora needs to get his head examined.

>101 lkernagh:. *snork!*

I inhaled some books this weekend. Not a huge amount, but much better than I've been doing lately. I'm almost caught up on my TV shows, which is obviously helpful, and I put my current books on a rotation which always seems to push me along. (Especially when I have one book I'm really speeding through and a couple slower ones).

This first review is for you, @katiekrug. I read an e-book!

Night of Cake & Puppets by Laini Taylor - E-book from the library - This is a companion novella to the "Daughter of Smoke & Bone" series and takes place during the first book. While Karou is traveling the globe, trying to find a way back to her world, Zuzana is left at home, plotting how to get "hot violin boy" (Mik) to notice her. Zuzana is worried that he doesn't notice her, but with a bit of imagination, the breathtaking city of Prague, and five tiny wishes, she can do anything.

The reader, of course, already knows that Zuzana succeeds and that Mik is just the best boyfriend ever. So this story is all about the journey and the prose. The imagery of a quest through Prague in the snow is just as delicious as the romance itself. It is saccharine, for sure, but I have a major sweet-tooth.

Some general thoughts after reading my first ebook:

I read this book as an ebook because as far as I can tell that is the ONLY format it is available in. I borrowed it from the library so I wouldn't have to pay $2.99 for it, and read it on my touch-screen laptop in ePUB format. It took me a little while to get into the story, but I had an easier time once I figured out I needed to turn down the brightness on my screen. I also had trouble turning the page sometimes (I could have used the right arrow key but I like touching the screen.) Having Windows 8 definitely helped, as the full-screen view prevented me from being distracted by other programs.

The biggest problem I had was that it was completely impossible to figure out how many pages or page-equivalents there were. The lower corner showed a percentage completed, and I tried calculating the number of pages by the percentage each page was worth, but all the pages were worth different percentages!?! I eventually found the percentages for the first 15 pages and took the mode of that which gave me 61 pages which sounds about right? But I really don't want to have to do that every time.

In conclusion, this was a fine format for a novella borrowed from the library which isn't available in print. I don't know what it would be like for a more complicated work, however. I'm not sure how I would do if I didn't read the whole story in one sitting, or if I had to go back and reference or reread a particular section. And I do still have serious issues with paying money for something so ephemeral.

Does anyone have any suggestions for short not-available-in-print works so I can continue to experiment? Particularly if they are within a series I already read.

I don't have any recommendations for other things to try. Sorry :(

I've never read anything in the ePUB format. Most Kindle books now have actual page numbers which is great. I hated only having the percentage to indicate how much I had left.

So I've got the evening of April 17th free in DC (actually Rosslyn)....

>106 norabelle414: Pagination in e-books is annoying. I use the Nook, which has "pages", but a page is rarely equal to a screen's worth of text. So it may be that page numbers get skipped, or it's 2 screens per page number, or 3 screens per 2 page numbers...
Another issue is TOC, which in some e-books has sensible divisions w/ links, e.g. chapters, and in some e-books does not, e.g. multi-chapter sections of 100+ pages, or even the entire book with only the intro and appendix separate.
On the pro side: highlighting and searching.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J. K. Rowling - Harry Potter returns to Hogwarts for his second year. He goes to classes; learns important things about himself, his friends/classmates, and the wizarding world; and hears a sinister voice that no one else can hear. Malfoy is being a douche, and some students get petrified. Harry saves the day.

I always make fun of CoS for being the worst of the Harry Potter books, but whenever I read it I'm always reminded that it's still a Harry Potter book and thus is completely awesome. SPOILERS BELOW:

It's in this book (not the 6th!) that we truly learn who Voldemort is. In the 6th we learn why he is the way he is, but in Chamber of Secrets we learn that Voldemort is a sociopath. Prior to the end of this book, Voldemort is just a Bad Guy who did Bad Things. But in the end we see how he, even as his teenage self, was able to tell both Harry and Ginny exactly what they wanted to hear so that he could get what he wanted. He had no qualms about throwing Hagrid under the bus for his own crimes, and even though he theoretically cares about preserving the pure wizarding blood, he was perfectly content to murder a pure-blooded eleven-year-old girl. It's not actually about the blood or about wizard-kind. It's all about him. A lot of people say the series gets dark at the end of book 4, but for me it's in that stone chamber under the girls' bathroom, where a 17-year-old boy is capable of that kind of manipulation.




Currently reading:
The Geek's Guide to Dating by Eric Smith (pg 57)
Three Men in a Boat and Three Men on the Bummel by Jerome K. Jerome (pg 170)
Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell (pg 173)

Currently listening to:
The Peculiar by Stefan Bachmann, read by Peter Altschuler (97%)

Coming soon:
A Storm of Swords by George R. R. Martin
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J. K. Rowling
Ghost Train to New Orleans by Mur Lafferty

PAGES READ: 3,256
BOOKS BOUGHT: 8
BOOKS ACQUIRED: 14
BOOKS DEACCESSIONED: 9

DAYS REMAINING: 275
PAGES REMAINING: 18,744
PAGES PER DAY: 68.16

>107 katiekrug: I am free that evening but I can't do anything too crazy because I have to be on a plane at noon the next day. Rosslyn is pretty convenient since I live on the Blue line. Dinner in Rosslyn? Dinner in my neighborhood? I have a Nando's....

>108 qebo: Since this story was written to be an ebook, the TOC is pretty helpful. But also kinda unnecessary since it's 60-ish pages long. I run into problems like that with audiobooks a lot, though. Some have a section every (short) chapter, which is perfect. Others randomly have a section every 20-30 minutes regardless of chapters, and others have a section every very long chapter (sometimes an hour or more). It's especially annoying since sometimes I listen to audiobooks while falling asleep and then when I wake up I have to figure out at what point I fell asleep.
I actually had trouble with the searching feature by accidentally clicking on words when I was trying to swipe. I suppose that would be alleviated if I had a dedicated e-reader.

Books I currently have on hold at the library (mostly frozen holds):

Ghost Train to New Orleans by Mur Lafferty (ready for pickup)
The Walking Dead, Volume 9
The Walking Dead, Volume 10
The Walking Dead, Volume 11
Dreams of Gods & Monsters by Laini Taylor (comes out April 8)
Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie
The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker
The Serpent of Venice by Christopher Moore (comes out ?)
Annihilation by James VanderMeer
Half Bad by Sally Green

____________________________________

Sometimes the most interesting part is trying to remember why you put a book on hold in the first place.... I have no idea where I heard of those last two. And when did I put the Christopher Moore book on hold? It's been at least a month but the book isn't even out yet? I really need to come up with a better way of noting books as "this looks interesting, should read at some point" than putting frozen holds on them at the library.

>110 norabelle414: - I fly out around noon on Friday, too, so we can both behave ourselves. Nando's would be a treat, but I'm open to anything :)

I've only ever read things on my Kindle Fire and maybe a couple pages here and there on my Kindle App on my phone. Typically, there are numbers at the bottom of the screen as well as the percentage. They must be screen numbers dependent on font size because they are HUGE numbers a lot of the time, not in any way close to a normal page count, like 2000 for a maybe 250 page book. It's somewhat helpful but not in a genuine reference way that page numbers are in books.

Screen dimming is the only way I can read on the Fire as well since technically it is a tablet and not an e-ink ereader. Once I figured that out I was in the clear.

Have you finished all the Wool novelletes? They would be a good way to do more ebook experimenting. Also The Girl Who Ruled Fairyland- For a Little While and Six-Gun Snow White by Catherynne Valente as I think they are only available in eformat. Fox 8 was also good. I'll have to check to see what others I can recommend.

My phone has a book app and the page numbers are indeed a representation of the screens, not the actual pages of a real book. I can manipulate the number of "pages" a book has by changing the font size.

I think the best you can do is, if a book has been published in paper, simply use the printed copy's page count for your statistics.

Maybe the e-readers are better though. If you flip multiple screens and the page number stays the same (as mentioned in a couple posts above) then maybe they have the screens vs. pages thing worked out.

Like Stephen, I read a number of my e-books on my iPod Touch and both the Overdrive app and the iBooks app give me page numbers. Granted, the page numbers listed represent the screens, and not the pages of the print version of the book. Depending upon the font size and line spacing, I have figured out that roughly every four to five screen pages is equivalent to one page in printed paper book format.

>113 leahbird: All of the Wool books are published in paper now, aren't they? I picked Shift (mother effing touchstone won't work at all . . . ) up from the library about a month ago but had to return it to focus on other books. I'll get to them eventually. I did think of The Girl Who but I can't find that one at any of my libraries. I'll look into the other two. I had another idea, an author I like who writes short stories that are released as ebooks but now for the life of me I can't remember who it was!

ETA: I remember!! It was Mira Grant!

>114 Ape: But if it was available in paper I wouldn't be reading it as an ebook! Oh, the irony.

>115 lkernagh: Yeah if I was reading on something that small there would definitely be a lot of pages! It was a bit easier to calculate since my computer screen was showing pages about the same size as a print page :-)

I almost BUT NOT QUITE read the entire 450 pages of Fangirl in two days. However, I went to sleep last night (3 hours after I started reading) with about 10 pages left.

>112 katiekrug: I'm not familiar with anyplace in Rosslyn except a dim sum restaurant and that's brunch food, so Nando's it is!

^ Sounds good!

>96 norabelle414: Yes, connecting.

>98 PawsforThought: LOL

>106 norabelle414: Ajax Penumbra 1969. Was hoping you'd read the her Royal Spyness series there's one for that. I'll keep pondering.

Back to lurking, not even close to caught up.

I'm sorry the date wasn't interested in getting to know you better.

... Silly man.

>117 norabelle414: *smiles gleefully*

>120 MDGentleReader: Ooh, thanks for the suggestions! I had no idea there was a Mr. Penumbra short story! I am really interested in the Her Royal Spyness books, because the audiobooks are narrated by ♥Katherine Kellgren♥, but unfortunately none of my libraries have the audiobooks. And now that I know ♥Katherine Kellgren♥ is involved, I can't just read the paper books.

The Peculiar by Stefan Bachmann, read by Peter Altschuler - audiobook from audiobooksync.com - Several years ago, the city of Bath and all its residents were completely destroyed when a gigantic door between Faerie and our world opened up in the center of the city, releasing thousands of faeries of all sorts and then closing tightly up again. Since then, fairies have been incorporated into everyday English life, and even into the government. Humans are still wary of faerie magic, but they have learned to suppress magic through the use of tolling bells, iron, and general steampunkness. The only beings who are truly ostracized are Changelings, or Peculiars - half-human, half-faerie children who live mostly in the partially-rebuilt slums of Bath. No one notices or cares when Changelings start disappearing from the slums except a little boy named Bartholomew Kettle, a changeling himself. When Bartholomew's sister Hettie is kidnapped, he has to find out what is happening to the rest of the Changelings, too. Thankfully a reluctant, lazy MP named Mr. Jelliby is begrudgingly on the case as well.

This!! This is what a faerie/steampunk story should be like! The world-building is complex, but makes total sense. There is a prologue that explains the destruction of Bath in a simple but emotional way before the plot commences. The characters are nuanced and unique but have distinct motivations so the reader is never left wondering why they are acting a particular way. Bartholomew is ostracized and abused but loves his sister. Mr. Jelliby is good-hearted but lazy and non-confrontational. The faerie chancellor Mr. Lickerish wants to open another door to Faerie, and he doesn't care what or who gets in his way. I wasn't expecting greatness from this free audiobook, but I am very pleasantly surprised. Watch out for the cliffhanger, though.








Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell - It's not enough that Cath, a fanfic-writing introvert, has to leave her home town of Omaha to be thrust into college life in Lincoln, but at the same time her twin sister and built-in-best-friend Wren is pulling away. They've always been very different people, but now Wren goes out partying every night with her roommate while Cath drifts through life feeling lost and alone. Her only solace is, as it's always been, writing elaborate and wildly popular fanfic about her favorite series of fantasy books. Wren has always helped her out with that, too, but now Cath has to deal with everything from academics to boys to family without her sister's support.

This is one of the few coming-of-age stories that I've felt like was really for ME. The combination of the introversion and the abandonment issues and feeling like she doesn't have anything in common with anyone just spoke to my soul. In the end, everything turned out to be entirely too perfect, but it's a lovely, addictive read anyway.




Currently reading:
The Geek's Guide to Dating by Eric Smith (pg 57)
Three Men in a Boat and Three Men on the Bummel by Jerome K. Jerome (pg 208)
Ghost Train to New Orleans by Mur Lafferty (pg 16)

Currently listening to:
The Whatnot by Stefan Bachmann, read by Peter Altschuler (0%)

Coming soon:
A Storm of Swords by George R. R. Martin
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J. K. Rowling
The Walking Dead, Volume 9

PAGES READ: 3,694
BOOKS BOUGHT: 8
BOOKS ACQUIRED: 14
BOOKS DEACCESSIONED: 9

DAYS REMAINING: 273
PAGES REMAINING: 18,306
PAGES PER DAY: 67.05

OMG! A faerie/steampunk story? Two of my loves all bundled up in one package -perfect! Consider The Peculiar a BB happily taken.

..... Cliffhanger.... oh dear. Is the next book out?

I am so glad you liked Fangirl. It was one of my favourite reads last year.

>124 lkernagh: It's a good one, I hope you like it! The second book came out this past Fall and I'm going to listen to it next. One thing I learned while doing a little investigation of the series today is that the author was SIXTEEN when he wrote the book. And even now he's only twenty. If you need me I'll be under my desk having a panic attack.

>125 MickyFine: It is very us :-)

Hooray, another Fangirl fangirl! :-) You're right, I identified so strongly with Cath it was almost like being at college again.

>127 foggidawn: It reminded me of being in college again except that my mean roommate I never talked to turned out to be a terrible, abusive person and the junior guy who kissed me really did prefer the girl in the kitchen. And replace the writing with reading :-)

>128 norabelle414: Yeah, my first roommate was never mean, but we never really clicked, either. Ditto for my second roommate. But I got on really well with my third, fourth, and fifth ones! And I didn't get junior guys kissing me, either... so maybe not really like Cath so much, actually? And yes on the reading -- I was the only person I know of who brought a bookcase full of books (fiction, even!) with me to college.

>126 norabelle414: So very, very us.

I didn't live on campus during uni (I was a commuter) but I definitely identified with chunks of Cath. And I totally did (and sometimes still do) write fanfic. :)

>123 norabelle414: LOVED Fangirl. It was one of my favorite reads last year too. I even waited for two hours to have Rainbow sign it. I love non-perfect main characters.

And you got me with The Peculiar...

>133 norabelle414: *snerk*

>133 norabelle414: Love it!

The Walking Dead, Volume 9: Here We Remain by Robert Kirkman - In this volume we learn what happened in the aftermath of the attack on the prison. But really we only know who is for sure still alive, because no one actually saw anyone else die. And the gang decides how to proceed from here.

As usual, the mayhem of last volume is balanced by a volume of quiet, introspective desperation. The next one will probably be crazy again.




Currently reading:
The Geek's Guide to Dating by Eric Smith (pg 57)
Three Men in a Boat and Three Men on the Bummel by Jerome K. Jerome (pg 208)
Ghost Train to New Orleans by Mur Lafferty (pg 26)

Currently listening to:
The Whatnot by Stefan Bachmann, read by Peter Altschuler (3%)

Coming soon:
A Storm of Swords by George R. R. Martin
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J. K. Rowling
The Walking Dead, Volume 10

PAGES READ: 3,828
BOOKS BOUGHT: 8
BOOKS ACQUIRED: 14
BOOKS DEACCESSIONED: 9

DAYS REMAINING: 272
PAGES REMAINING: 18,172
PAGES PER DAY: 66.81

136: That's about where the TV series is right now. :)

>137 Ape: There's a lot of back and forth, time-wise, between the graphic novels and the series. For example, The bit where Rick is talking on the phone to no one isn't until after they leave the prison. And Carole died several volumes ago, but Sophia is still alive. And after the prison is destroyed by the Governor they all go BACK to Hershel's farm but THEN the farm gets overrun by zombies like it did in the second(?) season of the tv show.
Also I'm a whole season behind on the tv show since I don't have cable :-/

I bought a book today! I saw The Lady and the Panda: The True Adventures of the First American Explorer to Bring Back China's Most Exotic Animal on the sale shelf at the library and it was calling to me :-)

139> I can't imagine why :-).

122> I went to my library's web site, thinking you could get Her Royal Spyness through ILL. NO AUDIO versions of any of them. So I went to the ILL web site. Nothing. Just wrong. I think they'd make good audio books, I don't know why the library systems didn't buy them. I enjoy the series, I think I even own a couple (including the one only in ebook format), and I get them when they are in the "new and hot" section at the library. I've got to say, though, that they are probably not worth the investment to buy, particularly not the expense of audio, even by one of your favorite narrators. :-(.

138: Yeah, I also watch Talking Dead (which airs after The Walking Dead on AMC) and the host mentions that from time to time. The sad part is I'm so enamored with the show that I can't bring myself to read the comics now. I figure there are countless books I want to read, but not a whole lot of television, so I can accept this odd anomaly in my life.

I'm sorry you are a season behind! This last season was pretty fantastic, I hope you can get caught up on it soon. :)

>19 norabelle414:.....>54 norabelle414: Is that the longest spell on anyone's threads this year with no post from the host?

Have a lovely weekend, Nora.

>142 PaulCranswick: I'm fairly sure it's not, but you would know better than I, Mr. Statistics.

I hope you have/are having a great weekend as well :-)

*waves at Nora* I assume the quiet over here means you're busy reading. Or like me your ovaries are still recovering from this week's episode of OUAT. :)

>144 MickyFine: I still don't get ABC on my TV and I haven't gotten around to watching it online yet. It's a busy week!

Well, much of the luck with the busy week. I'm sure whatever is going down, you'll totally rock it.

YOU GUYS. The cover was just revealed for the third book in the A Natural History of Dragons series. LOOK AT IT!



It doesn't come out until March 2015 but I'm already so excited!! It's so beautiful!! If you haven't read the first two you need to, ASAP.

Is someone excited?

Ooooh, wow, that is very beautiful. :)

Ah, yeah! So many of my favourite animals (orcas, dolphins, blue whales, sperm whales and giant octopus!!!!) in the same image. Heaven. I might buy the book just for the octopus's sake

>147 norabelle414: Very lovely. Do you know Kriti in the group? She just interviewed the author over on her thread and is doing a give away for some of her books.

>147 norabelle414: Ooooh, pretty!

Link fairy: http://www.librarything.com/topic/170040#4636019 .

Nora, I'm being forced by my boss to go to a vendor dinner on the 17th so I have to renege on dinner. I'm really bummed. Give my regrets to Nando's...

>154 katiekrug: Boo! You don't have any other free time while you're in town?

My only other free night is promised to my SIL and BIL. There is a chance I'll be back in June though!

>156 katiekrug: You should come back in May for the big spring meet-up! And then again in August for the National Book Festival, of course.

May and August are my Booktopia weekends, so that's not going to happen. Fingers crossed for June :-)

The Walking Dead, Volume 10: What We Become by Robert Kirkman - The remaining survivors meet another group who are on their way to Washington DC and join up with them. Rick and Carl and one of the new guys, Abraham, take a two-day detour to return to the Kentucky town that Rick used to live in to retrieve some more guns.

A little less action in this one, too, but plenty of getting to know the new guys, and set-up/foreshadowing for the next volume. I liked this one because it was less heavy-handed with the philosophy than the last.

Three Men in a Boat, To Say Nothing of the Dog! by Jerome K. Jerome - J. and his friends Harris and George are bored, and so they decide to go on a boating vacation up the Thames. (With J.'s dog Montmorency.) They have benign but hilarious adventures and also discuss the scenery around them as they travel from London to Oxford, and its importance in English history. J. narrates with many, many tangential anecdotes about this uncle that taught him how best to pack a trunk and that friend who got stuck in the river without a paddle.

Three Men on the Bummel by Jerome K. Jerome - 10+ years later, J. and Harris need a break from married life and fatherhood so they recruit George (who is still a bachelor) and the three of them go on another vacation. This time they decide to go on a bicycle trip through the Black Forest. Not a lot of actual bicycling is done, of course, but there is no lack of excuses as to why they need to be driven somewhere instead.

These books were so hilarious; I really wish they had been on my radar earlier. The best part of the first book is, of course, the dog (whom J. talks about as if he was a person). There is an unfortunate lack of dog in the second book, but it's hilarious none the less. I enjoyed the copious commentary on Germany and Germans, and felt definite pangs of nostalgia as they traveled through Prague. J. and his friends were part of a whole new class of people at that point in history - the middle class, who had spending money but no pretensions or social obligations. Reading about them having fun (and then three pages about J's uncle trying to hang a picture, and then more about them having fun) is truly delightful.




Currently reading:
The Geek's Guide to Dating by Eric Smith (pg 57)
Ghost Train to New Orleans by Mur Lafferty (pg 153)

Currently listening to:
The Whatnot by Stefan Bachmann, read by Peter Altschuler (23%)

Coming soon:
A Storm of Swords by George R. R. Martin
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J. K. Rowling
The Walking Dead, Volume 11
Life After Life by Kate Atkinson

PAGES READ: 4,358
BOOKS BOUGHT: 9
BOOKS ACQUIRED: 15
BOOKS DEACCESSIONED: 9

DAYS REMAINING: 262
PAGES REMAINING: 17,642
PAGES PER DAY: 67.34

>160 norabelle414: I'm definitely putting Three Men in a Boat back on my TBR list now.

>160 norabelle414: I toyed with the idea of reading this after I finished To Say Nothing of the Dog and your review has pushed it definitively onto The List. So thanks.

Also just watched the episode of Agents of SHIELD from last week. What the what?! I is an unhappy fangirl.

Nora, I believe that in taking advantage of differing time zones I am technically correct in wishing you a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY.

>163 PaulCranswick: Not quite yet, but I'll mark your message as unread until tomorrow :-) Thanks Paul!!

Seriously? My son -yeah, the one at Clemson - also has a birthday tomorrow! Happy birthday!!

Doing the time change math, I do believe that means I can wish you a HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Happy Birthday dear Nora! Hope it is filled with books and wine!

Oh, Happy Birthday! :D Hope you have a great day.

Woot! Happy Birthday, lady! I hope it's the best one yet!

Also, I'm adding that last read of yours to the wishlist...

Happy birthday! Hope you have a lovely day!

Happy birthday!

So many books that I have to read. The dragon books and Three Men on a Boat were already on my radar, but I'm reminded that I should get to them sooner rather than later.

Happy happy birthday, Nora!

Happiest of happies, Nora!

Happy birthday, Nora! I hope it is drenched in awesome sauce. I got you a

Thanks Jim, Lori, Leah, Paws, Amber, Foggi, Zoe, Marie, Katie, and Micky!

Something REALLY WEIRD happened to me this week but I've just realized it. A few weeks ago I put a hold on Dreams of Gods & Monsters and I was number SIX on the holds list, which meant I was definitely going to get a copy in the first round since the library system was ordering 8 copies. On April 8 (the day that Dreams of Gods & Monsters was released) I also put a hold on Life After Life which currently has a holds list of 10 people, and immediately froze the hold because I don't intend on reading it yet.

On the 9th, I got a notice that I had a hold ready to pick up, and according to the online site the book was Life After Life, NOT Dreams of Gods & Monsters. I get to the library and see: For some reason my frozen hold had been bumped to the top of the list and I had been completely ignored with Dreams of Gods & Monsters. It's 6 days later and I'm STILL number 6 on the list. ARGH. If I had gotten it when I was supposed to I would have read it and returned it by now, but instead I have a book that I shouldn'tve gotten which I'm going to end up returning unread because I'm not in the mood.

Add to that the fact that I got KICKED OUT of a book sale on Sunday and this ridiculous struggle I'm having to pick up a birthday present my mother had shipped to me and it's not been a great week.

You got kicked out of a book sale? Do tell. I just can't fathom it. Were you trying to buy too many books? (PS: too many books is not a real thing.)

Yup, you obviously need to provide details about this book sale incident!

>178 leahbird: The library is 2 blocks from the zoo and when I was walking toward the zoo for my 1pm to 4pm shift I noticed that the library book sale was also from 1pm to 4pm. So I left my shift at the zoo a little early (also due to the fact that I was completely unprepared for the EIGHTY-SIX degree weather and accompanying crowds) and got to the book sale at 3:50. Not ideal, but I figured I still had a little while to browse. So I get through one aisle and notice there is a woman at the end of the aisle staring at me. But whatever, I keep browsing. After about a minute of her staring, she blurts out (word-for-word) "WE'RE CLOSING NOW. YOU NEED TO LEAVE."

So I politely say okay and go out the door, down two flights of stairs, and out the front door to the street. When I get to the sidewalk I look at my watch and IT IS 3:55PM. That mean old lady kicked me out of her dumb library book sale five minutes early. The perfect book could have been waiting for me on the next shelf. And it's not like she had been there all day - the sale was only three hours long.

>180 norabelle414: Well then I hope you have a perfect book at home. Happy birthday!

>180 norabelle414: What an a-hole!! While we're on the subject of a-holes, let me just say that the date is an a-hole too! He obviously has no idea what he's missing!

Reading e-books is acceptable... I use my tablet sometimes when I'm traveling, but I am a through and through REAL book girl!! The not knowing page number thing drives me bonkers. I hate percentages and "minutes until end of chapter". How do you know how long it will take me to read this? What if I get a text or call? What if I need to go to the bathroom? Give me a darn page count, already!

I digress...What I meant to say was:

Happy BIRTHDAY, Nora!!!! **hearts, smiley faces, and flowers**

Not all smart like that to know how to insert fancy things!

Sorry I wasn't around on your birthday, Nora. I hope it was an awesome one! Minus the whole getting kicked out of the library sale and having your holds screwed up, I suppose! What kind of evil person kicks someone out of a library sale?

I must confess, however, that when I first saw that you were kicked out of a library sale I could only imagine drunken ravings and public flashings. :P

I guess it didn't cross my mind that someone could be kicked out for NO REASON whatsoever.

Thanks Katherine and Tina and Stephen!

It was the "no reason whatsoever" thing that really got me. I was trying to spend money on them! How hard would it be to just let me stay there until 3:59 and THEN kick me out?

In good news, I'm now number 4 on the holds list for Dreams of Gods & Monsters which means whatever was broken with my library account before has been fixed. Phew!

Happy belated birthday!

Our friends have this odd thing about wanting to close up the book sale fifteen minutes early on the last day and I've been kicked out myself... Maybe this will be averted this year by ending on a Thursday instead of a Saturday? I'll find out in a couple of weeks ;)

And YAY for being fourth in line for Dreams of Gods and Monsters. I've got it at home to read once I finish up the book I'm reading now and a "have to" read for a genre study for work (Romance... not my favorite, but I'll learn something, right?).

>186 bell7: Thanks Mary!
4th in line is better than 6th, for sure, but I rightfully should have gotten it a week ago! *sigh* I'm so looking forward to it.

The Walking Dead, Volume 11: Fear the Hunters by Robert Kirkman - The survivors meet some new people, and suffer multiple tragedies unrelated to the zombies. How they deal with the tragedies changes them and their relationships.

Holy guacamole. Even by The Walking Dead standards, this volume is really, really crazy. Really. Especially considering there are almost no zombies in it. No wonder there were two slow volumes in a row before this.




Currently reading:
The Geek's Guide to Dating by Eric Smith (pg 57)
Ghost Train to New Orleans by Mur Lafferty (pg 173)

Currently listening to:
The Whatnot by Stefan Bachmann, read by Peter Altschuler (28%)

Coming soon:
A Storm of Swords by George R. R. Martin
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J. K. Rowling
Life After Life by Kate Atkinson

PAGES READ: 4,490
BOOKS BOUGHT: 9
BOOKS ACQUIRED: 15
BOOKS DEACCESSIONED: 9

DAYS REMAINING: 259
PAGES REMAINING: 17,510
PAGES PER DAY: 67.61

Okay - I have missed a crap-ton of stuff in my absence! Rory is, as ever, adorable in every single picture. I told Sweetpea (my potato chip loving cat) that she has a fellow salt-addicted boy friend and she blinked twice and then washed the top of her head with her paw. Non-plussed, that one. You have had a crazy amount of social activities (making me a smidge envious of your seemingly-non-introverted-but-I-know-better life), an unfortunately idiotic boy who wasn't interested in more of you for some mysterious reason, lots of good reading, and an adventure with e-books! I've finally gotten an e-reader, and while I'm finally getting used to reading on it, paper wins over plastic every single time. Maybe your experience would be better on a dedicated e-reader, like you said, than your laptop. And, a belated HAPPY BIRTHDAY to you! Hope it was decent (though it sounds like maybe not)!

Reading/TV viewing update:

I'm halfway through season 2 of OUAT and am majorly digging it! I've been DVRing season 3 so I've got that lined up and ready to go as soon as I'm done with season 2. I'm surprised by how much actual watching (and not magazine-reading and watching) I have to do for the show to keep up with what's happening. Also Hook:



I don't think you watch Game of Thrones, but I've decided that Now Is The Time for me to start catching up. According to my On Demand service I have literally 3 days to watch the first 3 seasons. That's do-able. HAH! (There are between 40 and 200 holds for any/all variations of GoT on DVD in my library system, so that's kind of out.)

The first Marie Brennan book came home with me recently, but had to be returned unread. I stink! Never fear, I'm eyeing it up at work all the damn time.

Had no idea there was a new Fforde until about a week ago. Isn't it out yet? From a couple of places online, it looks like the pub date is either this past Tuesday or in November. Huh?

You've hit me with literally every book you've been reading lately - thankfully some of them were already on the TBR list. Thanks?

I have yet to see Veronica Mars. Like, at all. Should that be after I watch OUAT, GoT, and Orphan Black? Should I re-order some things?

Ok, the order of things is: finish OUAT, then watch Veronica Mars because once you've finished you'll have two seasons of Orphan Black to watch and that show was created to be binge watched. I'm not a GOT watcher so I can't weigh in on where that should go in the viewing order. Thus ends my opinion on the subject. :)

Sounds good to me, Micky! I will, however, finish GoT's first season first because I only have 3 episodes left, so at least I'll be at a good "stopping point". But then, I will take your advice! I'm assuming Nora would agree with you too. Thanks!

Nora!! Here's to you having a very

>189 LauraBrook: Hi Laura! I'm really not that social, it's just whenever I have activities they all must coincidentally happen in the same week so that I get as stressed out as possible.
I don't have cable so I don't watch Game of Thrones, though if it were readily available to me I probably would.
The Marie Brennan books are so lovely, aren't they?!
The new Fforde book was released in the UK last week, but will not be released in the US until November. That's how all of his books go, unfortunately.
I've never seen Veronica Mars either. I didn't control the TV when I lived at home, and though I would very much like to watch it now, the episodes aren't streaming anywhere either a) free or b) I already subscribe to. Hopefully I'll get a chance to watch it eventually.

>190 MickyFine: See above Re: Veronica Mars. Also I'm still not caught up on Season 1 of Orphan Black because I have so much other stuff to watch. Thankfully shows are starting to end now.

>192 TinaV95: Thanks Tina!!

Orphan Black started back up yesterday (or the day before, it's all a blur). It wasn't as great a first episode as the first season but it shows lots of potential. Get caught up!

>193 norabelle414: I watched Veronica Mars when it originally aired when I was in high school/uni. I bought it on DVD earlier this year because Amazon had it on for $10 a season. I bet your library probably has it...

>193 norabelle414: Not sure if you are an Amazon Prime subscriber, but Veronica Mars is available for free through them. :)

>195 MickyFine: That is when I watched VM too. I have a vivid memory of skipping an early morning class because I HAD TO FINISH SEASON 3. And then I cried because it was...well, you know.

>196 RosyLibrarian: But it's not! Because we got a movie! :D

Another vote for VMars. I just binged the show a week ago. Sooo good!

>194 leahbird: I'm working on it!!!! First I have to get caught up on Being Human (2 episodes), Believe (I might drop this one soon), Cosmos, Helix (2 episodes), Once Upon a Time, Pramface, Salem, The Colbert Report, The Daily Show, The Simpsons, Vikings, Warehouse 13, and Whose Line is It Anyway. Then tonight I have to watch Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., About a Boy, The Daily Show, and The Colbert Report. And THEN I can watch Orphan Black.

>195 MickyFine: My library does have the DVDs and I am on the wait list. But you can only check out two discs at a time and you can't put a hold on other discs while you have other discs out, or something. It's a weird system, and it's going to take forever to get them all.

>196 RosyLibrarian: I am veerrrrrrry suspicious of Amazon, and thus don't do Amazon Prime. I wish it was on Netflix!

>198 alsvidur: Hi Emilie!! I'll get to it eventually, I promise.

>199 norabelle414: That is very odd. The library I currently work for does split up seasons of TV but you can place holds on an entire season. Although the best way to do it is put holds on a season, suspend holds for everything that isn't the next discs you need and then carry on from there.

Ghost Train to New Orleans by Mur Lafferty - Zoe and a handful of other writers (Opal and Kevin the vampires, Gwen the death goddess, Eir the Norse healing goddess, and Bernie the shapeshifter/dragon) take the brand-new ghost bullet train from New York City to New Orleans, Louisiana to research their second guidebook. Zoe's boyfriend(?) Arthur also comes along, because he needs more anti-zombie drugs and the only zoetist who knows how to make them lives in the bayou, of course (or possibly is dead). In New Orleans, Zoe meets a long series of people whom she probably can't trust, learns a lot of information about coterie that may or may not be true, and gets stupid drunk a lot.

This sequel to The Shambling Guide to New York City was a real disappointment. The initially thrilling world-building gets way too complicated as we learn that there are two kinds of coterie: human coterie and magical/regular/non-human coterie. Also, the coterie-coterie hate the human-coterie because reasons, and conducted a genocide against them about 30 years ago. Human-coterie include Zoetists, citytalkers, and were-things (wolves, cats, rabbits, etc) while zombies, vampires, deities, ghosts, incubi, and shapeshifters are coterie-coterie. I think. The were-things were wiped out by the genocide, and the citytalkers were ALMOST wiped out, but the zoetists were not because they are too powerful, and then the remaining human-coterie started a secret society of assassins? I think. Plus some other stuff about citytalkers having special powers (besides talking to cities).

For someone who is on a business trip researching a guidebook AND managing a team of writers who don't get along very well (and at least one of which wants to kill her), Zoe sure makes some poor choices. She gets really drunk less than 24 hours into the trip, when she hasn't slept at all, and goes wandering around the city with a suspicious guy she met on the train who she knows is lying to her and has dangerous enemies. Supposedly the poor decision-making is due to her fighting with Arthur, but they hadn't been together very long and there was zero chemistry between them so it felt very forced.

I'll probably continue with the series, but not as enthusiastically as before.




Currently reading:
The Geek's Guide to Dating by Eric Smith (pg 124)
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J. K. Rowling (pg 113)

Currently listening to:
The Whatnot by Stefan Bachmann, read by Peter Altschuler (38%)

Coming soon:
A Storm of Swords by George R. R. Martin
Life After Life by Kate Atkinson

PAGES READ: 4,810
BOOKS BOUGHT: 9
BOOKS ACQUIRED: 17
BOOKS DEACCESSIONED: 9

DAYS REMAINING: 253
PAGES REMAINING: 17,190
PAGES PER DAY: 67.94

Here's what I'm hoping to finish soon:

- Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
- The Walking Dead, Volume 12
- The Geek's Guide to Dating
- The Walking Dead, Volume 13
- Life After Life
- The Walking Dead, Volume 14
- Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
- The Walking Dead, Volume 15

As soon as I can get my hands on Dreams of Gods and Monsters, that'll be bumped to the top of the list. But it'll probably be at least another week. I'm still REALLY annoyed about whatever happened with my hold for that.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J. K. Rowling - Harry returns to Hogwarts for his third year. He takes some new classes and mediates some fights between his best friends. The school year is overshadowed by a sinister escapee from the maximum security wizard prison Azkaban who seems to be after Harry. Harry learns, from many different sources, a great deal about his father's life up to the night when it was cut painfully short.

This is, as always, just the best freaking book ever. The Knight Bus, Crookshanks, learning about magical creatures, knowing who Sirius Black is before Harry does, PROFESSOR LUPIN, the Marauders' Map, boggarts, patronuses, TIME TRAVEL! There's so much creativity in this book that carries over so well to the rest of the series and to the world of Harry Potter as a whole. Every time I read it is better than the last.








The Walking Dead, Volume 12: Life Among Them by Robert Kirkman - The survivors find out that one of them is not who everyone thought he was. Also, they make it to Washington DC and consider joining a commune in Alexandria, VA.

I really like where the series is going at this point, though it's now well past where I've seen in the show (I think? The show skips around a lot). This volume was neither too much drama nor too much introspection, and sets up the situation nicely moving forward. It's also exciting that they've moved to where I live! (However, two things: a) they went from Kentucky to Washington DC via 295? No, just no. And b) if they are living in Alexandria they really should not be going into DC to get supplies, since the only way to get there is across one of several bridges and everyone knows bridges are completely unsafe in a zombie apocalypse.)




Currently reading:
The Geek's Guide to Dating by Eric Smith (pg 157)
Life After Life by Kate Atkinson (pg 55)

Currently listening to:
The Whatnot by Stefan Bachmann, read by Peter Altschuler (38%)

Coming soon:
The Walking Dead, Volume 13
The Walking Dead, Volume 14
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
The Walking Dead, Volume 15

PAGES READ: 5,258
BOOKS BOUGHT: 9
BOOKS ACQUIRED: 17
BOOKS DEACCESSIONED: 9

DAYS REMAINING: 248
PAGES REMAINING: 16,742
PAGES PER DAY: 67.51

I can never decide how much of my love for Sirius Black is because of the books and how much is Gary Oldman. But I most definitely love Sirius Black.

>204 MickyFine: Oh, Micky, my twin spirit! My love of Sirius Black knows no bounds. I loved him before Gary Oldman was cast so it's definitely not just that (though I love GO with all my heart). I actually squealed with joy when I found out that he had been cast - perfect casting imo.

>203 norabelle414: PoA is my absolute favourite of the HP books. I could read it a hundred times over. Also, Sirius Black is the best!

Oh, Gary Oldman... *sigh* Yes, definitely perfect casting!

Gary Oldman looks nothing like the Sirius Black in my head, though I agree he did a phenomenal job in the role.

I'm not a huge Sirius Black fan, but that's my personal issues. I'll get into that when I discuss Order of the Phoenix. Lupin is always my favorite, though.

_____________________________________________

I've been bored and restless lately so I signed up for a few Coursera courses (which I probably won't follow through with, but let's be optimistic for now :-). The first class up, which started last week, is called "Marriage and the Movies". It's based on the book I Do and I Don't: A History of Marriage in the Movies and is taught by the author, Jeanine Basinger. So far, however, it's super boring (though it is only week two). There's no philosophy or theory or analysis at all - just "there used to be a lot of marriage movies and now there are not". So, we'll see how long I last.

>208 norabelle414: Considering my affinity for Severus Snape, I'm not a big Sirius Black fan, either! ;-)

ETA: Lupin is definitely my favorite of the Marauders.

>208 norabelle414: Bummer that the course hasn't been great so far because the topic has sooo much potential. I get not loving Sirius Black (he has some massive flaws). I think my love for him is likely my ongoing thing for fictional (redeemable) bad boys. Hope your Monday treats you ok.

Nora, this is off topic, but I just woke up from the strangest dream. So you called me and said you were coming to Charleston because your cousin lived here and he had been in a terrible accident. It just so happened that he was Ken Cosgrove from Mad Men. So you came here and I finally met you and it turned out the accident had been a tornado. Crazy!

Hahaha that's a crazy dream! Lucky you for remembering it. My memories of my dreams only last about 3 minutes after waking up.

>199 norabelle414: Don't give up on Being Human just yet. The series just ended so you're almost finished anyway. I just figured that out and finished the series this week.

Unrelated question... Back to The Coldest Girl in Coldtown... I'm going to request it from Overdrive. Should I go for Kindle or audio? Opinion?

>213 TinaV95: Don't worry, Tina! I'm dropping Believe, not Being Human. I'm only 4 episodes away from the end of Being Human! I'm so excited and sad.
Who is the narrator of The Coldest Girl in Coldtown? I bet it would make a pretty good audiobook. Since it's OverDrive, you could just check them both out and see which one you like best :-)

I've got a new thread, with my meager book haul from yesterday's Member Preview Night at the library book sale. Link below!!