Game of Thrones!

Yesterday, I finally finished Game of Thrones, so that can finally be crossed off the list of books lingering from last year. I really enjoyed it, so I have no particularly good excuse for why I kept putting it down. The motivation that finally got me to finish was that season 2 of the show starts next week; now that I've finished the book, I've started watching season 1, and I'm hoping to read the second book this week.

I've also decided to take The Warden off the list, because it's been so long since I made real progress on it that my memory is getting hazy and I'll probably just start it over some point. So, new goal: Finish those other two in April.

Still alive! Still reading!

Hello! Sorry for the radio silence. Here's what happened...

I was concentrating almost exclusively on The Game of Thrones, because the second season starts soon and I need to catch up. And I'm really enjoying it, and making slow but steady progress.

But then it looked like someone might have a hold on Why We Broke Up that wouldn't let me renew it, so I decided to read that first. But then renewing it worked. So I'm reading both.

But then I needed something to read on the train, and both of those were way too heavy to carry around the city all day, so I started Robin McKinley's Sunshine. And now I'm kind of more into that than the others, at least for the moment.

And I still have bookmarks in the books listed in the sidebar, too.

I will finish at least two of these books by this weekend. I promise.

Oh, my library...

Yes, as you've all noticed, my library has some Issues. About that children's/YA policy, here's the official line:

"Adults unaccompanied by a child who do not require immediate materials from the Children's area shall be asked to relocate to other areas of the library."

There are signs up that have it worded a little differently - I forget exactly how, but they're where I got the "Looking for a specific book is okay but browsing is not" idea. And they're posted in the YA area as well, so I assume that's included. I assume the basic idea is to protect children from predators. They've never challenged me - it probably helps that I'm female and young-looking - but I'm always ready with an "I was looking for xyz book" answer just in case.

And yes, I do know this library is "backwards" (as a commenter put it) in many ways. As someone who trained as a librarian (though I don't currently work in a library), it drives me completely crazy. Making it worse: I am in the second-largest city in the state. Not that tiny towns don't need good libraries too, of course, but for some reason I expect this sort of thing less in cities. But here, actually, I've lived in two nearby much-smaller towns that had great libraries - and were part of a system, so it was actually easier to get specific materials than in this plays-well-with-no-one city library - and the city's is much much worse. Sigh.

I did just get an email that they're holding Saving Francesca for me again finally, so I'll go retrieve that over the weekend. Still working on Imaginary Girls - the writing is good but I really dislike pretty much all of the characters so far so I'm having a hard time.

Miscalculation

I am enjoying Saving Francesca but didn't finish it, planning to renew it at the library today - but they wouldn't let me. I assumed that meant someone else had requested it, but no, I just checked the catalog and it isn't on hold. They were just being mean, apparently. Sigh. (Some of the people who work at this library are mean to everyone, all the time. It makes me sad.) So I've requested it again, and in the meantime I will continue with Imaginary Girls and start the Steve Jobs biography, which is due on Monday. I'm going to have to make a point of carving out reading time for the next month, because the Oscar nominations were announced today, so I am embarking on my mad struggle to see as many of the nominated movies as humanly possible. So we'll see how that goes.

Bad Week

This was one of those weeks that wasn't bad because some huge awful thing happened, but rather because of a progression of small things, plus my general mood and the fact that I haven't slept through the night since November. The fact that I also haven't gotten much reading done this week plays into this from both ends. On the one hand, having a bad week means I've been too distracted to have much time for reading, and have had trouble getting into books when I do have time. But on the other hand, I know perfectly well that the very fact that I'm not reading much brings my mood down and contributes to the bad-week stuff. So it's a very bad cycle.

So! It is Friday night! The work week is over! I am starting fresh! I'm going to finish Anna Dressed in Blood tonight, really, this time, I swear. And maybe make some progress in Game of Thrones. And/or start another library book. But I will read! And I will feel better!

Stop SOPA

As a gesture of support for SOPA Strike, I will not be posting tomorrow. I will return Thursday and hopefully have a review of Anna Dressed in Blood by then! I'm really enjoying it so far and just need to find a decent block of time to make some serious progress.

Book buying report: I couldn't resist preordering Elmore Leonard's Raylan, which arrived today. But there are two earlier books about the character that I want to read (from the library) before diving in.

DONE.

Sorry things got so boring around here, but I have finally finished Tinker Tailor! But please don't take my relief at being done as a sign that it wasn't AMAZING. It just took me way longer to read than I expected, because it was so complex. I will sleep on it and post my review tomorrow.

Next up: finishing Small Town Sinnners.

This is taking much longer than planned.

I'm still reading Tinker Tailor! And loving it! But it's taking forever! I don't know what my problem is. I only have about 50 pages left now. I will finish it soon. I swear. I have a whole stack of library and other books I am excited to get to as soon as possible.

Oops.

(I see I have used this subject line before, already, and it's only January. Double oops.)

Well, I still haven't finished Tinker, Tailor. I did get caught up on a bunch of non-reading things this weekend, so that's something. And even though, as I said, it's not that slow of a read, I did realize that the labyrinthine plot meant that I had to be really awake to read it, so the past two nights I didn't read as long as I'd planned because I got too sleepy to follow it properly. Oh well. I did go ahead and see the movie yesterday - it was really good! - because I didn't want to risk missing it in case it doesn't stay in theaters here for long. But anyway, I have less than 100 pages left in the book, and I swear I will finish tomorrow!

Movie prep

The new Tinker Tailor movie is finally in my area, so now I'm trying to finish the book before going to see a matinee tomorrow! I'm only a little past page 100 (of about 350) but it's a quicker read than I expected. I'm hoping to get to 200 tonight, and then I can finish up in the morning. Off to read!

First Finish of 2012: Team Human!

(Well, technically my first finish was Secrets of a Summer Night, last night, but this was the first I both started and finished in 2012...)

I stayed up way too late last night reading, and then hurried home from my parents' house today, all so I could finish reading Team Human by Justine Larbalestier and Sarah Rees Brennan. It's a vampire novel, but it's unlike any vampire story you've read or seen. It was hilarious and touching and romantic and serious and . . . just everything. I loved it. Its tagline is "Friends don't let friends date vampires." What more do you need to know? There are Wuthering Heights jokes and awesome kissing scenes and a girl sleuth with her trusty sidekick and very real-feeling sibling and friend relationships. Unfortunately (well, for you) it's not actually out until July, so I'm going to save my full review until closer to the release date, but don't worry: I will NOT let you forget about this book.

Happy New Year!

Good evening! It's January first, so my project can finally officially begin. A recap: in 2012 I'm trying to read at least 100 books from start to finish. I have a bad habit of starting things and never finishing, even if I like them perfectly well, so I'm hoping that reporting on my progress here will keep me accountable. I will post at least short reviews of all 100 books, and will post progress updates most other days. (I'm not pledging a post every day, because that's just dooming myself to failure, but I'll manage as close to that as I can.)

I'm only counting books that I started in 2012, so first on the list is the one I started shortly after midnight: Team Human by Sarah Rees Brennan and Justine Larbalestier. I've only read a few chapters so far, because my family has a big annual New Year's Day party that's taken up all my time today, but I love it already. I'll probably finish it by tomorrow; next on my list to start are Catherine the Great by Robert Massie (a Christmas gift) and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy by John Le Carre, because I'm planning to see the movie next weekend.

I had a list of ten unfinished or abandoned books I was trying to finish before starting this project, and I got through five of them, which isn't too bad. I finished Claire de Lune last night and will have a review for you soon. I'm about 100 pages from the end of Secrets of a Summer Night, and I'm planning to finish it as soon as I'm through writing this. I'll try to finish the others soon as well, but they won't count toward my 100 since I started them before 2012.

Hope everyone had a great holiday!

A Change in Reading Venue

I'm still reading Death Comes to Pemberley, and it is delightful! I was going to try to finish tonight but got sidetracked by... laundry? I don't even know. So we'll see. If not tonight, definitely tomorrow.

My reading is going better because I finally gave up on - of all things - reading in bed. It sounds like a nice idea, but it's never as comfortable as I want it to be. And sometimes I like music and a big mug of tea or glass of wine with my book of an evening, but once I'm in my room, I can't leave to brush my teeth without the cat trying to get in, and if he hears me playing music or even turning pages or sometimes rolling over, he starts crying to get in, so it's just not very pleasant. (He's not allowed in at night because I'm mildly allergic and if there's cat hair on my sheets, I wake up wheezing. He has his own blanket to sleep on the bed during the day.) So! I am actually much more comfortable sitting at the kitchen table with music on and a mug of tea and the cat playing at my feet, and not being in bed means I read longer before falling asleep, too. This all sounds kind of obvious but it was something of a revelation for me.

Turning Christmas money into new books...

I spent some of today with a cousin I don't get to see often enough, and we started our outing at Trident. So, of course, I had to use some of my Christmas money to do my part to support one of my favorite independent bookstores! I found three books I'd been wanting, all discounted: Cover Her Face by P.D. James (her first, which I don't think I've ever read), Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh (my late grandmother's favorite author), and Sister Pelagia and the White Bulldog by Boris Akunin. I am excited about all three, but not allowed to start them until January!

Since Christmas I've been reading Death Comes to Pemberley. I'll probably finish it in the next day or so, and then make a push to finish a few other of the unfinished books by the end of the week. I'm saving my new Catherine the Great to start on New Year's Day. Whee!

Merry Christmas!

Sorry for the lack of updates! I've been visiting family, which means lots of time helping cook and clean and not much time on the computer or reading. But! Santa brought me P.D. James's A Death at Pemberley and my brother gave me Massie's new Catherine the Great. I am VERY excited and looking forward to getting some quality reading time in tonight after the holiday madness subsides.

Packing for Christmas!

I read a lot yesterday and finished the Secret Circle trilogy, so now I'm concentrating on Claire de Lune. But I leave tomorrow to spend Christmas with my family, so it's time to decide which books to pack! I will probably get a book or two for Christmas, but I feel the need to bring a whole bunch anyway, of course. My current plan:

From the list in the sidebar: Claire de Lune, Gone with the Wind, A Game of Thrones, Liberty's Exiles, and my Kindle with The Warden on it.

Other: Team Human ARC, and Legend and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy from the library. Legend is due next week, so that will be a priority, and I'm just in the mood for Tinker Tailor.

I realize that's a little more than a book a day, but I need options! What if I only had a few books and wasn't in the MOOD for any of them? Horrors! (Yes, my parents are both readers. There are plenty of books in their house. NOT THE POINT.)

What will you be reading over the holidays?

Why are they published like this? Why?

I finally finished Dragon Tattoo today, and was in the mood so went ahead and watched the Swedish movie from a few years ago. The movie did quite a good job of cutting down on the infodump sections of the book while still making it make sense, I thought.

So, anyway, I'm on to The Secret Circle, and I find these books extremely annoying because they're a trilogy but published in two volumes, with a book and a half in each. They cut the second book off in the middle! It's maddening! That's why I'm reading all three back to back, because I can't just put it down when the second book is halfway through but the physical book I'm reading is over. I'm sure they did it for marketing reasons, but it's driving me nuts.

Sleepy Saturday

Yesterday I finished and reviewed Alias Dragonfly - you can see that below - but I didn't make much progress in Dragon Tattoo because I fell asleep while reading. I'm determined to finish tonight, unless I fall asleep again, which . . . well, honestly, that's possible. I finally have a few days free after a difficult, busy fall, and sleep is sounding really good right now.

A plan, of sorts

I finished Once Upon a Winter's Eve just now, and I promise I'll have reviews of that and Dash and Lily for you this weekend. (This has been a tough week, so I'm giving myself a break.) But for now, I'll say that it was completely delightful, and the only thing wrong with it was that it was short. Since, you know, it was a novella. I realize those are supposed to be short. But I would have been happy to read much much more about these characters.

My plan: I've picked something I want to finish each day/few days, and then if I have more reading time I can use it for library books or whatever. So. Tomorrow's book is Alias Dragonfly, Friday's is Dragon Tattoo. The weekend will be for the Secret Circle trilogy, then Monday for Claire de Lune and Tuesday for the Kleypas. If I keep to that schedule, I'll have 11 days for the other four books, which . . . might possibly be doable, depending on how much free time I end up with over the holidays. We'll see.

I did want to talk for a moment about why I haven't started Team Human or some of the other things sitting here that I'm really eager to read. It's partially that I'm trying to finish the list in the sidebar, but honestly, it's mostly something else. Frankly, I've been pretty miserable recently. There's a big thing going on with a close family member that means I'm always worrying and never giving my full attention to anything else. So I've been reluctant to start Team Human because I don't want it to be forever associated in my mind with this awful thing my family is going through. But... I guess it's probably too late for that. So at this point, I think I'm saving it to be a treat sometime in the next few weeks when I REALLY need a pick-me-up.

Kindle update!

Since I finished reading the review books, today I reregistered my Kindle to myself so I can start using it for other things. I'm not planning to buy a lot for it, but it will be great for NetGalley books and library books and the occasional ebook-only book I want to purchase. I made a little progress on Alias Dragonfly - that's from NetGalley and I had previously just been reading it on my laptop screen. I also downloaded Tessa Dare's Once Upon a Winter's Eve, so I can read that this week and potentially include it in my holiday reads post.

In non-Kindle news, I think I have exactly 100 pages of Dash and Lily left, so I will probably end up finishing that tonight or tomorrow morning, depending on how sleepy I am!