I love shopping for books. I love walking through the "stacks" of the store, finding gems that I'd forgotten that I wanted to read or that I've never heard of. I love carrying a stack of books through the store and deciding which of the books in the pile are ones that I need.
The Dude and I went to Borders last night. He had a gift card and needed to return a DVD boxed set for store credit. So, we had an extraordinary amount of money to play with and more time than usual to browse. When left to his own devices, The Dude can spend hours in Borders' music section.
The Dude had a coupon for "buy 2 books, get the 3rd free," so I knew that I could only get 3 books. I started through the literature section and found a few and then moved, methodically, through mystery, sci fi/fantasy, and romance. When I was finished, I had 6 books. I began to think about which ones I actually wanted and which ones could wait.
I ended up with:
Size 14 isn't fat either by Meg Cabot
The mermaid chair by Sue Monk Kidd
Stardust by Neil Gaiman
I put back:
Forever Odd by Dean Koontz (Did you read OddThomas? It was a ridiculously good book and I had no idea that there was a sequel and now a third one called Brother Odd)
A long way down by Nick Hornby
Guilty Pleasures by Laurell K. Hamilton (the first Anita Blake novel)
I also looked at Nora Roberts' first Eve Dallas novel (as J.D. Robb), and B is for burglar by Sue Grafton.
For some reason, I'm drawn to detective novels and mysteries these days...
Friday, December 29, 2006
Wednesday, December 27, 2006
Book review #1
Title: Angus, thongs, and full-frontal snogging: confessions of Georgia Nicolson
Author: Louise Rennison
Pages:247
Rating: 2.5/5
Synopsis: Georgia Nicolson is 14 (and British) and her world couldn't be any more complicated. She goes to an all-girl's school, the boy of her dreams is dating someone far beneath him, and her father goes to Kiwi-a-go-go land to find a new job. Oh, and she has a little sister and crazy cat who both, while lovable, have their quirks. It's hard being Georgia and her diary takes us into her life for a year.
Review: I loved Bridget Jones. I felt like I could identify, somewhat, with Bridget's struggle for inner peace. Georgia Nicolson is the teenage version of Bridget Jones, complete with diary. But, somehow, where Bridget comes off as sweet and quirky, Georgia is just annoying. The diary format makes Georgia unlikeable for the most part. It also doesn't allow Georgia or her supporting cast to develop very fully. I applaud Nicolson for trying to use the format to entice teenage readers, but in the end it falls flat. I will say this, though, I ended up wanting to read the next book in the series, so I guess she might be doing something right.
Final verdict: Light and fluffy chicklit jr. falls short.
Author: Louise Rennison
Pages:247
Rating: 2.5/5
Synopsis: Georgia Nicolson is 14 (and British) and her world couldn't be any more complicated. She goes to an all-girl's school, the boy of her dreams is dating someone far beneath him, and her father goes to Kiwi-a-go-go land to find a new job. Oh, and she has a little sister and crazy cat who both, while lovable, have their quirks. It's hard being Georgia and her diary takes us into her life for a year.
Review: I loved Bridget Jones. I felt like I could identify, somewhat, with Bridget's struggle for inner peace. Georgia Nicolson is the teenage version of Bridget Jones, complete with diary. But, somehow, where Bridget comes off as sweet and quirky, Georgia is just annoying. The diary format makes Georgia unlikeable for the most part. It also doesn't allow Georgia or her supporting cast to develop very fully. I applaud Nicolson for trying to use the format to entice teenage readers, but in the end it falls flat. I will say this, though, I ended up wanting to read the next book in the series, so I guess she might be doing something right.
Final verdict: Light and fluffy chicklit jr. falls short.
Ratings system
I'm going to post my first book review shortly, but I realized that I need a system for rating things.
I think I'm going to do a fairly simple 1 to 5 system with 1 being more awful than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick and 5 being better than the best thing I can think of at the moment.
Okay? Okay.
I think I'm going to do a fairly simple 1 to 5 system with 1 being more awful than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick and 5 being better than the best thing I can think of at the moment.
Okay? Okay.
Fun with Black Frances
One of the fun things about The Dude working from home during the winter is that he is always hard at work putting our music collection on iTunes and, therefore, on our iPods.
At Whatsamatta U., I'm allowed to listen to music while I work (I couldn't at my previous POW), so I'm always flipping through Black Frances to find something to listen to. And, admittedly, I get tired of listening to the same five things. So, I've started listening to stuff that I've never heard before.
So far I've liked:
Aimee Mann's Bachelor No. 2
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah's self-titled disc
Radiohead's OK Computer
Cat Power's The Greatest
The most remarkable out of all of these is the Radiohead disc. I have had a strong distaste for them for quite some time. This is amusing because The Dude loves them with the passion of a thousand firey suns. So imagine my surprise when it turns out that they aren't as bad as I'd previously thought.
*sigh*...I hate it when he's right :)
At Whatsamatta U., I'm allowed to listen to music while I work (I couldn't at my previous POW), so I'm always flipping through Black Frances to find something to listen to. And, admittedly, I get tired of listening to the same five things. So, I've started listening to stuff that I've never heard before.
So far I've liked:
Aimee Mann's Bachelor No. 2
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah's self-titled disc
Radiohead's OK Computer
Cat Power's The Greatest
The most remarkable out of all of these is the Radiohead disc. I have had a strong distaste for them for quite some time. This is amusing because The Dude loves them with the passion of a thousand firey suns. So imagine my surprise when it turns out that they aren't as bad as I'd previously thought.
*sigh*...I hate it when he's right :)
A few steps ahead of myself...
So, I figure that I should backtrack and introduce the major players in the blog:
Mrs. Dude: Me
The Dude: My husband
Whatsamatta U.: MPOW
The Home Team: The basball team my husband covers
Evil Overlord: My cat
Super Genius Dog: My dog
...and give you a quick rundown of the action thusfar:
I'm a librarian working at an academic institution in the midwest. I got married in January 2006 and live with my husband, The Dude, and our cat and dog. My husband is a sportswriter covering The Home Team, a baseball team.
Also, I figured that you might enjoy knowing some of my likes:
my iPod (Black Frances), Better Than Ezra, National Parks, reading celebrity gossip, magazines, crocheting, most animated films, Kevin Smith, reality television, popular culture, Animal Planet, The Food Network, Bravo (especially reality shows on Bravo), Questionable Content (a web comic).
...and my dislikes:
selfish drivers, precious indie bands, most country music, critics darlings in any medium, mean people.
I figure that this information should catch you up to speed...
Mrs. Dude: Me
The Dude: My husband
Whatsamatta U.: MPOW
The Home Team: The basball team my husband covers
Evil Overlord: My cat
Super Genius Dog: My dog
...and give you a quick rundown of the action thusfar:
I'm a librarian working at an academic institution in the midwest. I got married in January 2006 and live with my husband, The Dude, and our cat and dog. My husband is a sportswriter covering The Home Team, a baseball team.
Also, I figured that you might enjoy knowing some of my likes:
my iPod (Black Frances), Better Than Ezra, National Parks, reading celebrity gossip, magazines, crocheting, most animated films, Kevin Smith, reality television, popular culture, Animal Planet, The Food Network, Bravo (especially reality shows on Bravo), Questionable Content (a web comic).
...and my dislikes:
selfish drivers, precious indie bands, most country music, critics darlings in any medium, mean people.
I figure that this information should catch you up to speed...
Tuesday, December 26, 2006
Sprinting towards the New Year
Every year I keep a journal with a list of books, their authors, and the number of pages. Each month is a new page and I total the number of books and pages I've read each month. I can't explain why I do it, but it helps me challenge myself to read more books (and more pages) as each year passes.
I am trying to finish the book I'm reading by the end of the year (For the record, it's Angus, Thongs, and Full-Frontal Snogging...by Louise Rennison). It would make me happy to have another 200 or so pages under my belt for the year.
The problem? I hate this book. I really, really hate this book.
I don't like giving up on a book, though, so I'll see it through to the end and hope that I can finish by New Year's Eve.
On a completely different note, I am loving "Bookmarks" magazine. It's a magazine full of book reviews, suggested reading for book clubs, and articles about authors. At lunch I read an interesting article about A.S. Byatt. I know that The Dude has a copy of Possession on his bookshelf, and I looked in Whatsamatta U.'s catalog and saw that we have a few copies of various titles.
Mrs. Dude abides...
I am trying to finish the book I'm reading by the end of the year (For the record, it's Angus, Thongs, and Full-Frontal Snogging...by Louise Rennison). It would make me happy to have another 200 or so pages under my belt for the year.
The problem? I hate this book. I really, really hate this book.
I don't like giving up on a book, though, so I'll see it through to the end and hope that I can finish by New Year's Eve.
On a completely different note, I am loving "Bookmarks" magazine. It's a magazine full of book reviews, suggested reading for book clubs, and articles about authors. At lunch I read an interesting article about A.S. Byatt. I know that The Dude has a copy of Possession on his bookshelf, and I looked in Whatsamatta U.'s catalog and saw that we have a few copies of various titles.
Mrs. Dude abides...
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