TBR Tuesday

I have not one but two books I would like to talk about in this post today. First, however, I must talk about another, or more like a series from an author not of either book.

My mother worked in a medical clinic through my late teens. Many books went by in that clinic but one stood out to her from the rest. It was Charles de Lint's The Onion Girl, and with an unforgettable cover like that, who could have blamed her. Such a vast amount of patients had the book and all had very good things to say about it. With me at the time whining that there weren't any good books to read since I didn't read books beyond my five top authors in those days, my mother decided she had a new author for me: Charles de Lint.

We were poor and not a single copy of The Onion Girl could be found in the only bookstore we could afford, a used bookstore. She had me look at other books from the author, we discovered many of them were in a series, and learned the order of the books. I grudgingly began reading the books in the best order a used book store could provide, planning to get to The Onion Girl when a copy could be found.

I found myself addicted to the Newford series and still have fond memories for the books. Years passed by while I still held in my head a quote from one of the first books which recommended two books, one of which I never could find, and the other title which went forgotten.



2009. Seven years later. I went book shopping with some friends in a different used book store and found a copy of the remembered title, John Crowley's Little, Big. I couldn't speak at first. I half thought I would never find a copy. I always wondered how good it must be that it's so hard to get a copy, or how poor was the book that enough requests weren't in for a new publication of it. I guess I'll find out! However, I'm thrilled to be able to read it.



With this blog post I had to drag out a copy of my book with that seven-year remembered quote recommending two fantasy books. (This book is called Dreams Underfoot, should anyone wonder.) I almost dropped the book when I saw the other title, then scrambled to another bookshelf to remove a book: Mark Helprin's Winter's Tale. I was with one of those very same friends the day I bought it, a recommendation by her. Of course, Little, Big has been strongly recommended by her as well. I know who my fantasy person is whenever I look for something new to read in the genre. Many thanks to her for helping me acquire copies of these two books!

Now for that quote taken from the back cover of Dreams Underfoot.

"Like Mark Helprin's A Winter's Tale and John Crowley's Little, Big, Dreams Underfoot is a must-read book not only for fans of urban myth but for all who seek magic in everyday life." (Source not provided.)

TBR Tuesday

I've recently explored other blogs quite a bit more than usual and have come across the title "TBR Tuesday." I hope no one will be upset if I use this, too. It just means they had a clever idea. I would like to twist it a bit to define what my own TBR Tuesday will be but am still in the thinking process. This is what I am thinking:

Select a book from my TBR pile.

Select the page number for which also represents the current number of books in my TBR pile.

Share a quote from it.

Share the book's summary.

It is my hope that this will be a way of rediscovering my To-Be-Read books because when you have so very many it is tough to keep them on in your head when many of them sound so very good.

This week I picked up a book I chose for TBR Tuesday and found page 174 to be blank! This wasn't the best start. It seems Darcy's Story by Janet Aylmer wasn't the book for this week. With that, I selected a second book.

Frank Beddor: The Looking Glass Wars


Quote from the Book
"Dodgson jumped up, spilling tea onto the rug and dropping his fountain pen, which dripped ink onto the pages of his journal." (Beddor 174)

Summary from the Book
"When she is cast out of Wonderland by her evil aunt Redd, young Alyss Heart struggles to keep memories of her queendom intact until she can return and claim her rightful throne."

Website of Interest
http://www.lookingglasswars.com/

Why I Chose This Book
I ended 2008 and began 2009 reading a two-in-one book of Lewis Carrol's, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. The Looking Glass Wars then seemed the perfect book today since I had been saving this book to read for more than a year before reading those two stories of Lewis Carrol's.

February's Bookpile

I had meant to post these at the end of February. Instead I was rather late in posting about books I read and so I procrastinated about posting the bookpile for the month of T0-Be-Read books as well. Here they are at last!



Where they're from:

PaperBackSwap: A Certain Slant of Light, Chocolat, The Devious Book for Cats Ella Minnow Pea, Green Angel, and Ophelia
Borders: A Dirty Job, The Graveyard Book, and Persuasion
BookMooch: Confessions of a Shopaholic and Cut
Early Reviewers: Never Tell a Lie
Gift: Hunted

Award Ceremony

I almost feel like I should have a little ceremony on these posts sometimes. The stage is set, the seats are filled in the audience, and the lights have been dimmed as I call attention to those who are seated.

"The award for recommending the following book which I brought home in the month of February goes to..."

A name is called and everyone claps and cheers. Though I am unsure what this award should be, perhaps it would look something like a bookshopping receipt or one of those slips of paper informing you of a transaction done from shopping online. The person is, I am sure, most happy for this award.

I am being humorous. Forgive me if I am poor at it. I see some things funny to which others may simply wonder, 'What?'

Why is BookMooch sinking?

This is a question some fellow booklovers have asked themselves. As I look at my list of books acquired last month and where they each came from, I see quite a bit more from PaperBackSwap than from BookMooch. It seems the answer is this: I don't check my e-mail as often these days. When a book on my wishlist becomes available another person snatches it first. However, the biggest problem is having books on BookMooch which are reserved. It seems everything is reserved these days. I can hardly find books at all.

Sometimes I've simply given points away because I wonder when I may find books I want. I did this just last week to someone who mooched from me. They mooched two books and were given two points back. I just want a home for the books I have listed. Goodness knows I never wanted some of them to begin with but am giving them away on PBS and BM because the other option was my sister throwing her books in the trash, something that was actually her preference. I know those reading this post must be cringing now.

PaperBackSwap seemed the easier way of getting books. However, it's most alarmingly more expensive. I was given two points for joining PaperBackSwap and sent six books so far in all. That is enough for eight books. I have requested and received thirty-six books from them. This means I've paid them an estimated $100. By having the option of buying your points instead of earning them, a book for a book, PaperBackSwap is gaining on BookMooch.

I would personally choose BookMooch over PaperBackSwap if a book were available on both sites. It's cheaper, and there is the bonus of both communication as well as those lovely book condition notes. The whole experience is more personal. Someone requests a book and says, "Thank you!" The sender sends the book and says "I hope they enjoy this book." The receiver receives the book and says, "Thanks again!" It's such a happy place! PaperBackSwap has 'communication,' too. You can send a letter to people thanking them after you receive a book. This is something I do but am unsure just how many others do. I rarely receive a "You're welcome" back. Maybe it's like a chain of never ending e-mails, but it's polite, and if someone sent me a "Thank you," you can bet I will send a "You're very welcome! I hope you enjoy reading it." On to new subjects...

The Bookpile

I am so happy because by posting these books later than usual I can smile and laugh at my TBR pile for having read some of these books already. Conquering four out of thirteen isn't a whole lot, but it's something. You can read about the books I have already read here: Hunted, Ophelia, Never Tell a Lie, Green Angel


First off, I would like to give a squee for this lovely page. I am of course revealing Kerian is not my real life name, but this was too exciting. Thanks again to my wonderful friend foggidawn for this signed ARC!


I will start at the top of the bookpile and work my way down which starts us off with Cut. This isn't a book I picked out for myself at all. Rather, it was recommended as a book I could pass on to a few teens. Cutting is terrible. I'm not talking about cutting classes but think you know that.

I would like to share that through my teen years I went to a friend's house after school every day for a year, the main purpose to not just hang out with a friend, but to keep her company when she felt alone and to hide all the sharp object I could without hiding the kitchen knives and her father's razors. By the next day in math class, she'd only say this: "I found them."

I wish I could have done something better for her. I feel a little better knowing I can accidentally leave this book sitting out for a group of girls I know of who are either cutting as an 'art' or cutting as some sort of relief. (For anyone who knows I have a teenage sister, she is not doing this so know she is fine.)

On bad days I gather my cell phone, coat, and shoes to head out the door. I walk not knowing where I will go. One day it took me to a grocery store. There isn't much in this part of my city except those, hotels, gas stations, fast food chains, and hair salons. I went looking for a book to cheer me up. Instead I found a measly selection of books but found the dvds. They had a measly selection of those as well. However, they did have Jane Austen's Persuasion. I bought it and had an Austen marathon that weekend. The following week I excitedly purchased the book. I have only read three of Austen's books as of yet but consider myself a big fan. This is one of the books I was recently reading during the week but am momentarily paused on pending if anyone wanted to read it at the same time as me.

I hadn't been that interested in Confessions of a Shopaholic when I went to see it in theaters. I blame that on having gone to actually see Coraline that day with it so happening that they were sold out. I suppose I could have enjoyed Confessions of a Shopaholic better were it not for that though I have never been that girly, into chick lit, nor shopaholic save for bookshopping myself. On hearing the book actually takes place in England I thought perhaps I would read it and so got the book. This isn't one I would necessarily read soon.

A Certain Slant of Light. Hum. One of those long ago recommended books by a friend. I can't recall a detail about it save for the main character is a ghost. No one sees her until one day, perhaps a hundred years later even, when a boy can see her.

I can't pin point Chocolate to any one individual for the book recommendation. I can say that yet again I have seen the movie, though only after this recommendation was made. Thank you to a vast crowd of LibraryThingers! This is one I want to read very soon! I would have started it sooner if I didn't have that Austen inspiration. I wanted to take advantage of feeling up to something less modern. I look forward to reading this book and not so much for any weight gain from the consumption of chocolate while reading this book.

I had been very eager to read humorous Christopher Moore's A Dirty Job ever since I finished reading You Suck. Though it's not part of that book much nor Bloodsucking Fiends, it does have a slight connection. There is a scene when the main female character from those books drops into the shop of the main character of A Dirty Job. She has a very interesting conversation with him in the way of something other worldly or undead. This book's cover has an old fashioned stroller being pushed by a man with a hand covered in skin. The baby girl inside has a skeletal head and there is an ax in her buggy. (I have remembered the word, alas.) No other spoilers here!

Ella Minnow Pea is the name of a girl in it's book. The country has some stunning and most shocking terrible times or removing certain letters from the alphabet, or perhaps simply banning them. I'm told it's very funny and have two friends I can think of from the top of my head who have read it. My mother and I both look forward to reading it.

I hunted week after week for The Graveyard Book before finding it in stores. One would imagine I would have then jumped right into it, right? I have just been caught up in so many books. It was driving me insane that so many people I know have read it and I could not discuss it with them. I can't wait till I will be in on the book's secrets, but to add to that, I also can't wait to enjoy another of Neil Gaiman's books.

It seems a woman who stands in my kitchen now was ever excited the day I showed her my newest addition to my TBR pile. A Devious Book for Cats had arrived, and excited as I was for this humorous book, I was showing it off to people here. (We have four cats, so do call us crazy.) I figured I would finish the book I deemed myself at the time to be stuck in (since I wanted to read this) and slid the book into their waiting hands to read before me. Weeks later, and I find it hidden away unfinished when I ask to 'borrow' it for a 'photo shoot.' (How nice! I am the proud owner of a famous book.) Oh well. It wasn't the book for her but I will be happy to read it.

* This post will be edited and a link will be added for Green Angel on Monday. It's going to be on the entry after this one.

The Bookpile, Part 2

With my last blog entry I had said I would post the rest of the books tomorrow. That was on Sunday. Tomorrow can so easily turn into the next day and the day after that. For the most part I was caught up in reading. More on that "tomorrow," though.

These are the last of the books that joined my TBR pile last month. I got them all in one stop at Half-Priced Books. I can teasingly say I put the blame to the person I went book shopping with. My intentions had been to buy merely one book for a friend from a bookstore that sells new books where I knew the book would more likely be in stock.



I enjoyed Christopher Moore's books enough that I want to read more of them. While Fluke was not the book I had in mind to read by him next, the day's book shopping buddy wanted to read it so I got it for both of us. Fluke's subtitle is I Know Why the Caged Whale Sings. It's hard for me to imagine the reference to Toni Morrison's book to be missed, but just in case, she has one called I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. This originally made me wonder if there is a great connection between the two books or if Fluke even makes fun or laughs at the other. All I can say without yet having read it is that it's about marine behavioral biologist studying humpback whales. One day he finds the words "Bite me" carved on one of the poor creature's tails and from there a great question is asked of how it came to be there.

As though I don't have enough vampire books and haven't been reading enough of them lately, La Vida Vampire made it's way to my home. I had never heard of it before coming across it that day. This book is about a two-hundred-plus year old vampire who gives ghost tour guides after being unburied during a Victorian house renovation. She has a lot of problems between being taught about the world so very long ago, that she is blamed for the death of someone from her tour guide, and that someone is looking for her.

I was so excited to find another book by Neil Gaiman. One of my friends I've gone book shopping with had really recommended this one the first time we went book shopping almost a year ago. If anyone has any other book suggestions by this author I would love to hear them. I've previously read Stardust and Coraline by him, both books I loved. Neverwhere is about a man who stops to help an injured girl and ends up being taken to another world, both good and very bad. He seeks to return to London as he knew it.

I have a lot of sisters so when I find books about sisters I sometimes pick them up. I don't usually get them, though I did buy Whistling in the Dark. There are three sisters left alone after their mother is hospitalized and their step-father leaves them. The oldest sister, distracted by her boyfriend, doesn't pay attention to her younger sisters. The next thing you know someone has been molested and someone else murdered. One of the three sisters tries to care for another of them as she worries that the murderer is after her next and wonders who will believe their story.

I've never read anything by Kate DiCamillo and had previously not planned to read any particular books of hers, but The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane seemed like a cute little story. Before I was a cat person and before I had thought I was a dog person, it was rabbits that held my interest. I love the soft, little creatures and have owned two. This book is about a rabbit named Edward who was happy because he was owned by a very nice girl and then one day becomes lost. I wonder if it will be sad and stay away from it for a bit just in case.

I am really confused what the title is for the next book. I think it's a series called Wicked, but that it contains two books inside, Witch and Curse. The pages stop at 361 and begin again to reach 291. There are also two authors but they seem to have written the books together. I basically only bought this two-in-one because I come across it so many times. If I don't like them I can always rip the book in two and put them up on BookMooch. (Kidding!)

San Francisco native and teenager Holly is sent to relatives in Seattle after her parents die in a car accident. She finds things there very strange, though. The sentence that got me to make this purchase most was this: "...Any wish she whispers to her cat seems to come true." A cat person, perhaps. There is something sometimes creepy how one might swear cats actually hear you.

Lastly, after years of silently insisting I would absolutely not read this book, I bought the first Artemis Fowl book. At least after reading it I can actually say if I don't like it or not. Too many people I know have read it for me to not read it and see more of what it's about.

Another Book Pile

My last book pile was on January 10th. Like January one year ago, I did far too much book shopping last month. I think it's caused from trying to avoid getting books when I have birthday and Christmas shopping to do. I put off posting another book pile till as late as possible. By then I had enough books for not one but two piles. I'm tired and want to go to bed early so I'm only going to post one of the book piles tonight.

Where they came from:

PaperBackSwap: Sunshine, Coraline, The Duchess
BookMooch: Go Ask Alice, Dead Until Dark, Careers for Bookworms & Other Literary Types
Borders Marketplace: The Tree Shepherd's Daughter, The Thirteenth Tale, Mistress Bradstreet: The Untold Life of America's First Poet
Gift: The Giver, My Sweet Audrina
Target: Harry, A History

I've already read The Giver and My Sweet Audrina so they're not actually part of my TBR at all. One of my sisters gave me a huge pile of books she either had multiple copies of or that she no longer wanted. I took these two aside and placed the rest on BookMooch and PaperBackSwap.

I've only read The Giver once about six years ago. The details have become fuzzy so I would like to read it again. It's about a twelve year old boy named Jonas who receives training from a man known as The Giver, someone who is the only one who can see everything for what it is, to my understanding. There's a lot more to it but I don't want to give away what details I can remember.

My Sweet Audrina is the only standalone by a ghost writer I used to read a lot of books by but stopped reading more than five years ago. Audrina lives in a strange world competing with her dead older sister, the first Audrina. Through this book she grows up and many mysteries and secrets are revealed, some most very shocking.

My sister who received perhaps seven books in Charlaine Harris's Sookie series from us for Christmas gobbled the books up and has been excitedly telling me how good the books are. I knew about them before she did, but I only managed to get a copy of a single book last month. Many are already aware of the series and recognize it as being what the television show "Trueblood" is based from. It's a vampire series beginning with Dead Until Dark. My sister and I have never seen the show so neither of us will be able to compare them.

Robin McKinley's Sunshine was a book I kept running into on LibraryThing. It's yet another book about vampires. I would look at the book description, close the tab, and some time later another LTer would mention it causing me to look over it once again. Well, I finally gave in. Someone has already asked me what I think of it because they want to know about it to read themselves. My plan is to try to read this one soon to let them know.

I used to work with someone whose other job was for a publisher. She always came into work with advanced reader copies whose covers I would stare at in hopes of being permitted to read the back cover. She sometimes sat her book down directly in front of me and walked away. I was good and didn't touch the books. If they were face up I would just look at it and wonder what kind of story it was. She would then come back and ask why I didn't flip it over to read the back cover yet. One of those many ARCs she had was Stephenie Meyer's The Host which she teasingly asked me if I would like to touch one afternoon. Another was The Tree Shepherd's Daughter. This book is one with a very interesting book cover about a teen who moves from California to Colorado to live with her dad after her mom dies. It's the first in a series of books with fairies in it.

I like some historical fiction and was curious about The Duchess when I saw previews to the movie. However, I never saw it. I got the book thinking that I may read that and then see the movie later on once it's out on DVD.

As a Harry Potter fan I am eager to read Harry, A History, a book I first heard about on LibraryThing. Many people will recognize its title from a book within J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series called Hogwarts, A History. While that's a book I strongly hope will one day be an actual book muggles can read, Harry, A History in the meantime tells the history of Harry as the series built up an alarmingly impressive amount of fans all over the world. These fans, or many of us rather, got to experience the waiting periods and everything that came with them between each of Rowling's book releases. It's a lucky experience many of us have had that introduced us to new people who we connected and became friends with. Goodness, it's something that introduced me to some of the best people I have ever known and come to love.

I took a book quiz last month that told me I was a slight bit of a book snob when it comes to books that are popular and might fall under mainstream fiction. I don't want to read a book because everyone else is reading it. I want to read it because others who enjoy the same books as me or people that I actually know versus strangers enjoyed it. Since I've heard a convincing amount of good feedbacks from it, I decided to get The Thirteenth Tale.

One of my absolute favorite poets is Anne Bradstreet. I did a presentation on her in a college Women's literature class but would still like to learn more about her. I was happy when I came across a book about her online, Mistress Bradstreet though it took me a while to get it. I have a hard time with some nonfiction books but I have an interest in the time period Bradstreet lived in as well. Perhaps after reading this when family members talk about family history I can tell them a little more about the Puritans then they can tell me.

I apologize for the sloppy and incomplete blog entry. I've been very tired lately and hope to get to sleep soon.

The First Bookpile of '09

Some of these books I actually got last year but I felt there weren't enough of them to post in a photo until two arrived in the mail these last two days. Here is the newest contribution to my TBR pile.



Where they came from:
PaperBackSwap: Shadowland, Bloodsucking Fiends, The Boleyn Inheritance, and The Alchemyst
Bought new: Revelations and The Secret of Lost Things
Gift: Eats, Shoots and Leaves
From 2008: Shadowland, The Boleyn Inheritance, and Eats, Shoots and Leaves

As I try to write a little about each of these books I am finding that I can't really remember why I had any interest in reading Shadowland which is always a bad sign. I am sure whatever the reason was that it had to do with something someone said about the book, though, so Mediator series fan, I hope this book is good! It seems to be about a teenage girl who sees ghosts and is trying a new life after recently moving to my home state of California.

Eats, Shoots and Leaves is subtitled "The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation." Unlike the other books in this pile, it's not in my TBR pile, though I am planning to read it soon and this copy is new to my home. One of my aunts gave it to me happy she could recommend a really good book that she thought I would like. She was right. I love this book! It's hilarious and perfect for anyone either wanting to know a little more about punctuation or who has an issue with all the wrong punctuation they see in the world. That is precisely why the earlier editions actually came with brilliant punctuation marks for the reader to add anywhere they see use for them. I think the previous time I read this book the only flaw I found was that punctuation, I learned, is sometimes different for different countries. This book was originally published in the United Kingdom so I couldn't learn so much about punctuation for the U.S. as the author isn't American, but it's still a very funny book and good read.

I have been sitting anxiously waiting all week for Bloodsucking Fiends to arrive. I've heard friends mention and discuss the vampire series but didn't really get interested in it until I went book shopping with one of them in October. My mistake was in not buying this book that day. I went to another bookstore some time later and accidentally bought book two, You Suck, so I am thrilled to have book one at last. These books are supposed to be very funny. This may be one of the next two books I read.

I was silently laughing when I came across The Secret of Lost Things last weekend. I'd never heard of the book before but the title made me think of The Book of Lost Things and a joke about it's copies always disappearing. I thought perhaps it will reveal the secret as to why or how it happens! Obviously not, but it was a funny thought at the time. I had to pick this book up and learn a little about the story. It's about an eighteen-year-old bibliophile who leaves home for New York bringing only her books with her. She quickly makes herself at home working in a used bookstore. This book is said to be a literary adventure as well as an adventure for this girl trying to make a new home in the world.

I really shouldn't have gotten The Boleyn Inheritance just yet since it's part of a series so I'm hitting myself over the head. It's book three in the chronological order for Philippa Gregory's Tudor series. Many have heard of book two which I think was the author's first published work, The Other Boleyn Girl. I've already read that one but missed book one. The Constant Princess sits in my TBR pile. I'm hoping I will enjoy this series, though. Book two was very good. I enjoyed it much more than The Queen of Subtleties by a different author.

I spent a lot of time just ignoring The Alchemyst but began to hear enough about it and positive feedback that I decided to try the first book in this series out. A lot of people have already heard a little bit about Nicholas Flamel and so may recognize the name. The biggest reason why I recognize it is because of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone which had originally made me so against reading a different book from another series that included him. For those who aren't sure what Flamel is known for, it is for creating the elixir of life, the drink to make one immortal, in a sense. Reading the back of this book's cover, the story is that Nicholas Flamel, born in 1330, did not die in the 1400s as the record shows. They go on the say there isn't a body buried in his grave at all and that he lives still by drinking the elixir of life. While I once snubbed this book, it sounds like it will be very interesting. It's good for booksnobs to consider those ill-seeming books sometimes!

More Books

It's been over two months since I posted a bookpile, so here is the latest pile of books that have made their home among my bookshelves.



Bought new: Cancer Vixen, Rebel Angels, Love & Lies, You Suck, The Journal of Curious Letters
Bought used: The Book of Lost Things
BookMooch: Firefly
PaperBackSwap: Dreams Underfoot, Blood and Chocolate, Orxy and Crake, Then He Ate my Boy Entrancers, Beauty
Gifts: Shade, The Tales of Beedle the Bard
Early Reviewers: Mistress of Mellyn

It'll take me a while to get to all of these so I will say a little about some of them now. I've just realized I didn't include the two books I got copies of but have already read. These are Dreams Underfoot and Blood and Chocolate.

The first of these two remains the first book of one of my favorite series, Newford, by Charles de Lint. It's not a novel, however it's full of many short stories and is therefore great at introducing people to Newford, a fantasy series. The author insists there isn't any particular order for this series and says to jump in anywhere. One of my favorites was The Onion Girl, which I strongly recommend to anyone who was sexually abused. It's a book about healing and conquering your fears, or in this book's case, your torturer. Widdershins is likewise great, though should not be read before the previously named book. Another great novel and favorite of mine in the series is Memory and Dream, a book about an artist whose paintings come to life.

Blood and Chocolate is something I haven't read in ages but which was made into a movie not all that long ago. The movie is terrible and a completely different story than the book.

Cancer Vixen is a comic book of a true story about one woman's battle with breast cancer. There was actually a line of nice-smelling beauty products selling alongside this book by the brand C.O. Bigelow beginning in October, National Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

I'm hesitant to say anything about Rebel Angels since I'm currently reading it. However, I've been reading it since the start of November, so this will tell you it does not hold my interest. Book one in the series was far better. Book two took one idea from book one and went off on it, wandering away from my mind's interest.

Love & Lies is a follow up of a character I read about in another book which she'd been a side character in. It's about a girl with a passion for writing and a goal to write a novel within a one year time span.

I wasn't doing my homework when I picked up You Suck. The series came highly recommended to me by friends and so I checked all through it in search of some type of book order. Finding none, I bought this one...and then found out in the car on the way home that it's actually book two. (Book one hadn't been in stock, or else I would have known upon seeing it's title. I had forgotten what it was.)

The Journal of Curious Letters is another book that came as highly recommended to me. Some say it's a great book to read for those that are fans of the Harry Potter series and are in search of something to read. I'm eager to read it but think it will have to wait till after the holidays.

Beware should you find yourself wanting to read The Book of Lost Things. It may only be found among the lost things. I lost it the very day I purchased it and found it a month later. Others have very similar stories, so I dare say it comes with a curse for those who get their copy from a library. It does sound like a very good book, however. My best advise is not check it out and, if you are going to borrow it, only borrow it from a very good friend. Also, read it quickly so as it will not do a disappearing act during your reading.

I've only read the first four books from the Georgia Nicholson series but purchased book six despite not yet reading book five. I did this for my thirteen-year-old sister who has taken a great interest in the series. She loves humor and so this is perfect for her. I likewise find them humorous, love the English phrases, and they are perfect quick reads to finish in a couple of hours. She has learned what the phrase 'boy entrancers' mean from me since I was quick to make sure she didn't get any ill ideas from it, and one day I heard our mother shouting, "You played with my fake eyelashes?!" I knocked on my sister's door and discreetly told her she was wanted for messing with someone else's boy entrancers. I found the whole thing very amusing.

I've heard some great things about some of Robin McKinley's books. Sadly, my first experience with one of her books was a bad one. I think it was Spindle's End that I had purchased and opened the book to the first page to begin reading when I found every other sentence to contain parenthesis around it. I couldn't read like that. I tried anyways, scanned some pages in advance, and soon gave up. All the pages were the same. Hopefully Beauty will be much different. I believe it's one of two books I've heard to be the author's best. I'm going to try to give her works another shot. Beauty is the retelling of the fairytale Beauty and the Beast.

Shade does not sound like any other other vampire story I have ever read. It's an adult fiction (versus young adult fiction) mystery book. I'm very curious how it will turn out.

Mistress of Mellyn is part romance, part mystery, part gothic, and part fiction. It's said to be good for those who really enjoyed books such as Jane Eyre and Rebecca, the first of which I've read a few times and is one of my favorites. I've as of yet to read or purchase the other.

My TBR pile is currently 151 books, though one of these is a book I am currently reading and borrowing from someone else.

More Bookshopping

For the second time this week, I left a bookstore with a small pile of books last night. I also left with one preordered book from the store and received one in the mail today from PaperBackSwap. I greatly enjoyed being able to simply explore the bookstore at my own pace verses being rushed to quickly grab specific books I'd come for before leaving. Also, I was pleased to see the bookstore removed their YA books from the children's section to extend the genres further. That was a major bonus. The store looks beautiful and the store associates were very kind.



To Be Read pile: 129 books

Current, Past, and Upcoming Reads

I finally manage to have a day off from work and instead of reading, what am I doing? I'm online catching up on LibraryThing, except the site is temporarily down. While that's happening, I thought I might write about the pile of books I'm currently making my way through.

First off, I have some books to write about that I'm rather late on. I've read an advanced reader's copy (ARC) of Jane Elliott's The Little Prisoner. Weeks have gone by and still I have nothing written about it here. I'm going to go ahead and say that like the author of that book, I lived an abused life as well, (though luckily my experience was rather different in some ways,) so it's a little hard to write about. I'm going to try to pull myself through writing something nice up for it soon. I would simply write a complete free write save for the fact that it is an ARC, and I'm expected to provide a review for it.

Another book I've read that I still need to post about here is Cinda Williams Chima's The Warrior Heir. I will have that submited either today or tomorrow. I finished reading it last week but have been working a lot lately. If it weren't for public transportation, I probably wouldn't be able to sqeeze any reading in for five days of each week.

Current read: P.C. and Kristen Cast's Betrayed, book two in the House of Night series. I'm halfway through and hope to finish today. I'm going to pick up another book today, J.R.R. Tolkien's The Fellowship of the Ring but it will be a slow read for a book discussion.

I have a pile of books I'm working my way through right now for some new book releases this fall. I'm not reading nearly as fast as I'd like to be so I'm behind schedule, but so long as I get to them, I'm happy. I'm someone who really enjoys series. When I have my own books, that's what I'd like them to be. There are some series that I own multiple books from despite the fact that I have and had as of yet to read the first book in the series to. Because of that and the new book releases (always very exciting), I'm tackling these now. These series are Cinda Williams Chima's The Heir, P.C. and daughter Kristen Cast's House of Night, Cornelia Funke's Inkworld, Christopher Paolini's Inheritance Cycle, and Jonathan Stroud's Bartimaeus trilogy.

I'm going on a bookshopping trip for the second time this week tomorrow, but my plan is to read Eragon next. Sadly, I'm going to be starting the book having seen the movie first, but with luck it won't do too much damage since it's been some time since I've seen it now, and because of course the book will be much better!

My last bookshopping trip was on Saturday. Half Price Books had a twenty percent off sale. The location nearest me is rather small, so I left with merely six books.

My TBR pile

My to be read pile increased by another two books today and this is why one of my sisters says I can't buy any more books. (I told her I get some for free. Heehee.)

Top 106 unread books on LibraryThing

No one zapped me or said 'you're it' for this but after reading about it on the LibraryThing blog, I'm doing this on my own anyway. Here are LibraryThing's top 106 unread books. Please note they're going by 'unread' and not 'TBR.' I guess some people refer to their TBR pile for what others such as myself refer to as their wishlist. This is a real shame because while I'm an obsessive LT tagger, I tag by 'TBR,' not by 'unread.' This leaves me a little unhappy. I may just do a post for top 106 unread TBR books as well to compare the differences. That will have to be done later though, because it's already 2am and I'd rather be sleeping.

Here are the rules everyone is following:
bold = what you've read,
italics = books you started but couldn't finish
crossed out = books you hated
* = you've read more than once
_ = books on your TBR list (hmm, I'll have to think that over when I'm more awake)


1. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell ^^
2. Anna Karenina
3. One hundred years of solitude
4. Crime and punishment
5. Wuthering Heights
6. Catch-22 a novel
7. The Silmarillion
8. Don Quixote
9. The Odyssey
10. The brothers Karamazov
11. Ulysses
12. Madame Bovary
13. War and peace
14. Jane Eyre
15. A tale of two cities ^^
16. The name of the rose
17. Moby Dick
18. The Iliad
19. Emma ^^
20. Vanity fair
21. Love in the Time of Cholera
22. The Blind Assassin
23. The Canterbury tales
24. Pride and prejudice *
25. The historian : a novel
26. Great Expectations ^^
27. The kite runner
28. The time traveler's wife *
29. Life of Pi : a novel
30. Guns, Germs, and Steel: the fates of human societies
31. Atlas shrugged
32. Foucault's pendulum
33. Dracula
34. The grapes of wrath ^^
35. A heartbreaking work of staggering genius
36. Frankenstein
37. Mrs. Dalloway ^^
38. Reading Lolita in Tehran : a memoir in books
39. Middlemarch
40. Sense and sensibility
41. The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas42. Memoirs of a Geisha
43. The sound and the fury
44. Brave New World ^^
45. Quicksilver (The Baroque Cycle I)
46. American gods : a novel ^^
47. Middlesex
48. The poisonwood Bible : a novel
49. Wicked : the life and times of the wicked witch of the West *
50. A portrait of the artist as a young man
51. The picture of Dorian Gray
52. Dune
53. The satanic verses
54. Gulliver's travels ^^
55. Mansfield Park
56. The three musketeers
57. The corrections
58. The inferno
59. Oliver Twist
60. The Fountainhead
61. To the lighthouse
62. A clockwork orange
63. Tess of the D'Urbervilles
64. The amazing adventures of Kavalier and Clay : a novel
65. Persuasion ^^
66. One flew over the cuckoo's nest
67. The scarlet letter
68. Robinson Crusoe
69. Anansi boys : a novel
70. The once and future king
71. Atonement: A Novel
72. The god of small things
73. A short history of nearly everything
74. Oryx and Crake : a novel
75. Dubliners
76. Cryptonomicon
77. Angela's ashes : a memoir
78. Beloved : a novel
79. Collapse : how societies choose to fail or succeed
80. The hunchback of Notre Dame
81. In cold blood : a true account of a multiple murder and its…
82. Lady Chatterley's lover
83. A confederacy of dunces
84. Les misérables
85. Watership Down
86. The prince
87. The amber spyglass *
88. Beowulf : a new verse translation ^^
89. A farewell to arms
90. Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance : an inquiry into…
91. The Aeneid ^^
92. Treasure Island
93. Sons and lovers
94. The personal history of David Copperfield
95. The road
96. Possession : a romance
97. The history of Tom Jones, a foundling
98. The book thief
99. Gravity's rainbow
100. The War of the Worlds
101. Tender is the night
102. Candide, or, Optimism
103. Never let me go
104. The plague
105. Jude the obscure
106. Cold mountain

As you can see, I've hardly touched any of them, and I added to the rules as I went along. ^^ = books I know that I definitely want to read one day that I don't own.

Now it's ten till 3am and I am saying goodnight!

2008 Challenges

At first I thought this would be silly but eh, if I don't complete it, so what. I guess that's not the right attitude to be entering these, but it is very late and I am short on words. These are simply main goals.

Jane Austen Challenge:
Goal: To read the following books so I may at last enjoy Emma Campbell Webster's Lost in Austen. It will be well-worth the award.
Mansfield Park
Persuasion
Emma

YA Series Starters:
The following are books I own that are in a series. For some of them, I already own the second book(!) so I really need to get these read.
Frank Beddor: The Looking Glass Wars
Rachel Caine: Glass Houses
Christopher Paolini: Eragon
Angie Sage: Magyk
Jonathan Stroud: The Amulet of Samarkand

Short Story Collections:
I own many of these in fantasy. I wish to complete reading one of them this year.

TBR Pile Soaring

On Sunday morning a small book sealed in plastic was handed to me after appearently being passed around the breakfast table. It had entered the house within a box of cereal. I was baffled over that. I thought it was supposed to be a joke that my family wanted me to have it, but they were serious. I became the owner of Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black's The Spiderwick Chronicles Great Escape, special edition of The Seeing Stone, Volume 3.

On Tuesday around noon the mail arrived. I immediately brought it into the house and sorted it. Not a moment after I sat down again, there was the sound of the mailbox opening again. Through the window I could see packages being placed in the mailbox, so I went out to fetch them. One of the three packages was addressed to me. I opened it to find the first two books in Rachel Craine's Morganville Vampires series, Glass Houses and The Dead Girl's Dance. My mooched books had arrived.

Tuesday evening found me wandering around a mall while waiting to be taken home because it seems no one wants me to walk outside at night. With a half hour to stall, I remembered that I hadn't bought the one book I would allow myself to buy after not buying any during February. From my game of walking through the book aisles in Target knowing I couldn't pick any books out, I knew exactly where to find the books I wanted. I went straight to them and picked three up continplating which to chose. In the end everything weighed down so that I picked Cornelia Funke's Inkheart. It was the cheapest, had the most pages, and the last book in the trilogy comes out later this spring.

My TBR pile now consists of 94 books. Better get reading.

Rereads, Anyone?

I have nintey books tagged as TBR, but tonight I am really struggling to pick a new book up. I tried to begin a reread because I am craving historical fiction, left over from my latest read. I couldn't do it - the book had to be put down after eighteen pages. I couldn't reread a book that basically told the same story I'd just read only from another's perspective - it was much too soon. I looked through my short pile of soon to be read books, but each in itself would take so long to read, and I am looking for something easy. I paced from one side of the room to the other scanning my shelves for something appealing but nothing. I grabbed an Austen book that I have as of yet to read, sat on my bed, but still could not bring myself to read. What is wrong tonight? Perhaps it's simply too soon since the last book I read and I can choose better in the morning. This is what I hope. I considered rereading some historical fiction with nothing to do with the Tudors, but passed it because it was two connected trilogies and would lead me away from reading TBRs. I also considered rereading just two favorites that are intertwined then returning to my TBR pile once more. As I said, I hope the morning will provide an answer.

This has at least made me think about, with having so many unread books to tackle, how many rereads I will read this year, and which ones. I thought to gather them up here.

Charles de Lint: Newford: The Onion Girl and Widdershins



My two absolute favorites by this author, and that's saying something as I've read quite a lot by him. I've only read each of these two books once but that was enough and the stories have not left my mind. I think about them from time to time and wish I would reread them, knowing the pleasure yet pain this would bring. This is the year I will at last reread them, though. It's far too much of a favorite, and five years wait for the first of the two is long enough.

Stephenie Meyer: Twilight, New Moon, and Eclipse



In preparation for the author's latest book in the Twilight series, Breaking Dawn, I will be rereading these books over the summer. Probably in July. Book four will be released on August 2nd, and I know I will read all these books rather quickly. (Shouting for a friend as this would be too difficult to resist the temptation at their possible drop from faint: EDWARD CULLEN! ;)

J.K. Rowling: Harry Potter and the ... ?



I'm really not sure which books I'll be reread from the Harry Potter series this year. I will definitely be rereading Deathly Hallows. I think I may finally reread Order of the Phoenix and Half-Blood Prince beginning this weekend for a weekly group discussion. (I am super, super sorry for not doing this sooner! You know who you are.)

Rosalind Miles: Guenevere and Isolde trilogies



These are the trilogies that I would begin rereading tonight had I not so many TBRs to tackle. I adored both series, but unlike any other series I've enjoyed as much, I never once reread them. The very month I finished reading the second series, I began a mythology class, and was I ever wanting to reread them only two months later when I'd learned all about the triple goddess and the likes. I may dig into my old notes before rereading these.

One of my sisters pointed out to me that I couldn't very well reread a book when I own so many that I have not yet read. I wondered then what everyone else does. Do they reread their books, or not at all so long as they own books they have not read? We will always own books we have not read! It's our own disease! Letting books sit on a shelf never to be read again sounds absolutely dreadful - I cringed at the thought while my sister spoke to me. No. I will reread my books! Hers may be forgotten and collect dust if she so wishes.

Note: The artwork featured with Charles de Lint's books was done by John Jude Palencar, and the artwork featured with Rosalind Miles' books was done by John William Waterhouse. They did the cover illustrations of those books. I admire their work greatly.