Nora (norabelle414)'s chapter 2 - In which Nora has a library card

This is my very first ever thread #2. So that's nice.

Read so far this year:
1. The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency - Alexander McCall Smith
2. Fool - Christopher Moore
3. Room - Emma Donoghue
4. The Pillars of the Earth - Ken Follett
5. On Stranger Tides - Tim Powers
6. Packing for Mars - Mary Roach
7. The Help - Kathryn Stockett
8. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks - Rebecca Skloot
9. Native Tongue - Suzette Haden Elgin
10. The Tombs of Atuan - Ursula K. LeGuin
11. I Love Knitting - Rachel Henderson
12. The Postman - David Brin
13. Water for Elephants - Sara Gruen
14. Beastly - Alex Flinn
15. The Magician's Assistant - Ann Patchett
16. Eating Animals - Jonathan Safran Foer
17. Lost in a Good Book - Jasper Fforde
18. The Well of Lost Plots - Jasper Fforde
19. Something Rotten - Jasper Fforde
20. Thursday Next: First Among Sequels - Jasper Fforde
21. One of Our Thursdays is Missing - Jasper Fforde
22. Sorcery and Cecelia - Patricia C. Wrede
23. Magic by the Lake - Edward Eager
24. The Anubis Gates - Tim Powers
25. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay - Michael Chabon
26. The Prague Golem - Harald Salfellner
27. Hoot - Carl Hiaasen
28. ReWired - Larry D. Rosen, PhD
29. The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins
30. The Enchantress of Florence - Salman Rushdie
31. Fodor's Prague & the Best of the Czech Republic - Maria Teresa Hart
32. Blindness - Jose Saramago
33. The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake - Aimee Bender

Currently Reading: Quicksilver by Neal Stephenson (long and rather boring)
Snotty Saves the Day by Tod Davies (LTER, just started)

To recap discussions from last thread:

1) I would like to start listening to audiobooks and am looking for suggestions. I am leaning towards something long and tedious, that I might not have the patience to read myself. (Also, something I don't already own)

2) On Saturday I'm going to get my butt out of bed and get my library card updated to something from the last decade. Which will hopefully allow me to borrow audiobooks and also continue along my current path of not buying more books than I can read.

I did not want to tempt a zombie invasion so here I am on thread #2!

Yay for new threads, and library cards. :)

I don't have it quite yet. Your job is to bug me on Saturday until I go to the library. (It helps that the ATM and the farmer's market are along the way)

Checking in as well. And yay for libraries!!!

Aww, can't I start bugging you now? *Pokes Nora continuously in the shoulder*

yup. It's possible I could go after work, since my friend is not answering her phone, depending on how I feel when I get home.

How do you feel? Like going to the library? I think you feel like going to the library. Definitely. If not, I feel enough like going to the library for both of us. So...GO TO THE LIBRARY! :)

I forgot I had to go to the store (I was out of hair mousse AND gum! What a tragedy!! Oh, and also toothpaste.) so I went there on my way home from work and didn't get home until 5:30, at which point it was pretty much too late to go to the library.

But I will go tomorrow!

*Stern glare*

It's Saturday morning... Rise and shine!

the library doesn't open until 11! relax!

It's 11:03. :)

They still had me in the system from when I was 10, and I still had my old library card, but they had to give me a new bar code to work with the "new" system (they got it 6 years ago), so they had to charge me $1. Lame.

I also went to the farmer's market on my way home and got food for today:
1 apple cider donut
3 white peaches (my first of the season!)
1 giant beef empanada
1 block of herbal jack cheese
1 loaf of bread

Life is pretty good.

Sounds like a yummy trip!

Neat and yay! Hey, we had that thread awhile back where people posted pictures of their libraries, but why not 'post pictures of your library card' threads!? Those are just as fun to look at. :D

>13 Ape: That one is so cute!

Congrats on the shiny new library card, Nora! Now go use it so much it gets worn out!

P.S. Food looks fantastically tasty.

Congratulations on the library card! I never used the library much until I moved to New York and had to leave the vast majority of my books behind. I still buy too many books, but I'm doing better.

16: The library is a mile and a half away and not near anything else I frequent, the computer is a foot away, the book store is near the hardware store and the grocery store, and I tend to acquire books at multiple times the rate I read them. And yet, I want the library to exist in principle, there are books I buy that I don't really care about keeping, and a return deadline would introduce discipline plus a walk... You are an inspiration...

I've been a paying member of the "Friends of the Library" club for years, because it gets you into the library book sale a day early. But I've just now gotten around to getting a free library card.... you can see where my priorities are.

Though I love love love the library in theory, I'm a perfectionist and so I get kind of anxious when there are too many equivalent options. At least when I'm at a bookstore I can narrow things down by price or the likelihood that I'm going to find the book elsewhere.

The online catalog directly increased my use of the library. In a large system like San Diego, the branch libraries don't have all that much, but I can get online here at home and find out if the library has a book anywhere in my system, and pick it up at my home library a few days later. Marvelous!

16: Wooooo, pretty!

>23 ronincats: Yup, that's what I do too. I rarely actually browse at the library.

I love my library card; my last card actually wore out! The downside, for me, is that I always have a huge pile of library books to read and then don't get through books from my shelves. So, should I cut down on library visits? Or quit my job so I have more time to read?

I tell myself that just because I got a book from the library doesn't mean I have to read it--in fact, that's partially the point. I feel no guilt for prioritizing a book from my shelves (though that doesn't always happen), and many library books go back unread. I can always get them again.

Well, I was going to spend all day reading, but I forgot the part where my brother is a giant f*****g a**hole. So back to locking myself in my room and playing loud computer games.

Ugh. Is there are park or somewhere outside of the house that you can escape to to read?

Boooo! Brother's really suck. :(
Just don't tell my sister that. . .

>29 _Zoe_: I could, but I'd have to shower and get dressed and then be in public. I'm really not feeling it today.

Haha, wow, that sounds a lot like me on some days. :D

>31 norabelle414: That sounds like me most days right now. :) Sorry for the irritating brother issues.

As for prioritising library books versus my books, library books usually end up getting read first because I'm always worried I'll forget about them if I return them unread. But I tend to go through phases where I read more of my own books anyway so it balances out a bit.

My goal is to finish two books by Thursday. That way I'll have 35 down and 40 to go, which is do-able. But let me tell you, neither of them will be Quicksilver. Though I am slightly over halfway through. I'm on page 500!

Have fun with the library card.

I recently discovered my library PIN which means I can now go online to place any book in the system on hold and have it delivered to my branch library (which is two blocks from my house). For me this is the equivalent of amazon.com without the bill, for when I need a particular book. It's a new enough development that it still feels like magic.

But, I also browse the library shelves, which feels more like stepping into a secondhand book store where I never know what I will find. Since the branch collection is relatively small, whenever I see a book I'm interested in (which would be...every trip) there is an element of surprise that forces me to check it out right now (because it might not be there the next time).

Result: more library books than I could possibly read in the 3 weeks before they are due back. (But I can renew them online too...)

>35 AnneDC: Nice! Which library do you go to? When I was little we used to go to the Northeast library, though we lived just a few blocks from the Southeast branch, because it had fewer stairs (my brother was a wee baby in a stroller at the time). I have some good memories of endless card-catalogs, blissful silence, and massive reading tables (though my mom assures me there were dirty floors, broken furniture, and tons of homeless people. She's pretty pleased that I don't remember that part.)

I should probably join the DC library as well, now that I plan to be spending a bit more time with my dad in Southwest.

It looks like the Alexandria City Public Library system does not have the Soulless series, which is REALLY DISAPPOINTING. It seems to be so popular on LT, but they don't have it at all?!?

Now that I am all set up with the library card, I can download some audiobooks for work. These are the currently available ones I might be interested in:

Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict
Dark Worlds of H. P. Lovecraft, Volume One
England's Mistress: The Infamous Life of Emma Hamilton
Fahrenheit 451
The Hound of the Baskervilles
Jane Slayre

What do you think? Are any of them really worth reading myself?

I also figured out that OverDrive has an Android app, so I can download my audiobooks straight to my phone. Which is awesome.

37: Yay, glad you are enjoying the perks of your library card! Fahrenheit 451 is a good read and fairly short so you can get used to listening to an audio book. I'm afraid I haven't read the others.

Fahrenheit 451 I'm not sure about, because I kind of want to read that itself. Especially if it's short!

I really like The Hound of the Baskervilles and I think it would work well as an audiobook (although, I don't actually listen to audiobooks so... *shrug*). However, it is on the shorter side.

I will definintely listen to The Hound of the Baskervilles. I like listening to British people, and that's guaranteed to have a British narrator. And I won't get too distracted because I more or less know the plot (thank you, Wishbone).

Right now I'm listening to Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict, which is in the first person. But strangely, I like it; it sounds like a person is talking to me instead of reading to me. Which is exactly what I don't like about 1st person books. Interesting.

I'm currently listening to The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, which is read by several people (each character has his/her own voice) and they're all really lovely British accents (plus, the book is fantastic so far), so I definitely recommend it for you.

>42 scaifea: I've read that one! It was good, I read it in just a couple hours.

I decided to be decisive and went ahead and used my free Audible.com credit on Moonwalking with Einstein by Joshua Foer. And about an hour later I remembered that he's going to be at the National Book Festival this year, and he can't sign my phone. Which means if I really like it and want to get it signed, I'll have to buy a hard copy. *Sigh* I guess technically I didn't pay for the Audible credit so that's okay.

The Art and Science of Remembering Everything, huh? Now wouldn't it be ironic if one of the keys to memory was reading something over listening to it? ;)

>44 Ape: For me, it totally is. But I was getting anxious about having to decide on something, so I just clicked. It was like 1:30AM.

Oh how many rash decisions have been made in human history at 1:30AM.

So many. At least I was sober. God knows what kind of internet shopping I would have done if I was drunk.

News Flash: If you try to cancel your audible.com free trial, they offer you 3 months for half price. I took it. Why the heck not?

So now I have another credit. But I have no rush to use this one as it won't expire until my 3 months are up.

48: Ha ha, way to work the system.

It ends up as something like $8 per credit (one credit per month), plus you save 30% on any additional books you buy.

I can't figure out how to sort books by price. It's probably hidden to prevent people from doing what I want to do, which is use my credits on the most expensive books I can find.

So today I went to a shop in Dupont Circle to buy some yarn (I had a Groupon), and on my way back to the metro I found the most amazing shop. It's called Kulturas, and it sells used books, and consignment clothes. Amazing.

Ohmygosh, that sounds amazing! *totally jealous right now*
It's been a fantasy of mine to open a yarn shop/tea shop/bakery/used bookstore all in one. I've never thought of adding consignment shop to the mix...

Well after I was done buying yarn and browsing used books and clothes, I did go to Teaism for dinner. I had a crabcake sandwich with ginger-soy broccoli and a mango lassi.

No baked goods yesterday. But I did walk past Soho Tea & Coffee which has baked goods AND an official Bookcrossing shelf.

You're really not helping the jealousy factor right now... ;)

Well, I did not meet my goal of finishing 2 more books before the end of June. But I will probably finish THREE books TODAY, so I'm still okay.

Half-Way-There Summary

Books read: 33 (okay)
Books purchased: 34 (bad)
Books acquired (purchased + free): 42 (v. bad)
Books read that were on the shelf for a year or more: 2 (v. v. bad)
Books discarded: 6ish (okay)

>54 scaifea: Don't worry! There's tons of tea in Wisconsin. Wisconsin Tea Rooms

#56: Excellent - thanks!

I like the idea of a halfway summary. The comparison of my books read to books purchased is going to be ugly, though.

Well I meant to do a quarterly summary back whenever that was, but I forgot.

I thought I was doing so well about buying books, but apparently not. I'm buying in fewer batches, but the batches are pretty big.

Egads, the year is half over and I don't think I've done a summary since March. *gulp* Looks like I've got a little fun "homework" to do when I get back from work today!

55,58: Oh, such a good idea, and I'm so afraid... This challenge keeps me from straying, I've been diligently finishing books rather than abandoning for shiny alternatives, but this hasn't stopped me from acquiring; if anything, it's given me permission to acquire more...

> 53

Hooray! You were back at our Bookcrossing shelf!! Did you find anything interesting or leave any registered books?

>62 SqueakyChu: I didn't actually go in, I was just walking down 22nd towards the Metro and walked past it. Sorry!

Right now I'm sitting on the West Lawn at the Capitol, waiting to see Steve Martin and Little Richard and some other people that aren't as cool. But that doesn't start until 8 so for now I'm just sitting in the hot and the hukid. And the only book I brought is Quicksilver and it's boring. *sigh*

Sounds like it will be a great night, Nora, and sorry about the boring book. Booooo. I'm just about to make a hotdog for dinner and settle in to watch a few episodes of Top Gear. That's right - I know you're jealous of the glamour that is my life. ;)

I'm going to have a hot dog for dinner too! What better way to celebrate the birth of the US than with meat by-product stuffed in imitation animal intestines?! Yummy.

Ohmygosh - Steve Martin? And I bet the fireworks won't be too shabby either. Nope, not jealous. Not one bit. ;) Hope you have a fantastic time!

Now, you all know how I feel about e-books.

BUT because I love you I'll post this link I found anyway:

http://lifehacker.com/5818038/hamster-ebook-converter-is-a-free-and-easy-way-to-...

It's about a free program you can download that will convert e-book files to different formats, so you can read them on whatever device you want.

Sounds like a fun 4th. We thought about heading down to the mall, but were worried (needlessly I guess) about a repeat of Sunday's thunderstorms. But we have a decent view of the fireworks from our roof.

All the way back to message #36, my local library is Mt. Pleasant, and I sometimes go to Cleveland Park which is also close. Now that I've discovered the online hold, I probably have no reason to set foot in any other branch.

>69 AnneDC: I used to be able to watch the fireworks from the roof of my dad's house in SE, but now his new apartment in SW faces west so I can't see anything.
It drizzled a bit during the concert but it was welcomed. The people sitting behind us were HORRIBLE HORRIBLE PEOPLE but other than that it was really fun. Steve Martin was good, Little Richard was awesome, some woman butchered a song from Beauty and the Beast (which takes place in France, btw). Fun was had, but I probably won't do it again if I can help it.

I forgot to mention that I went to see the movie adaptation of The Help last week. It was good and I recommend it. The clothes and sets were to die for.

64: How cool you got to see Steve Martin - I just read one of his book, An Object of Beauty and enjoyed it.

71: Did you read the book? I loved it and was hoping the movie would get high ratings. Is it really out yet or did you do a pre-screening? Yay!

>72 RosyLibrarian: I did read the book. I thought it was very entertaining but not revolutionary. I did see a pre-screening; the movie doesn't actually come out until August. (It might be limited release in some places before then? I don't know.) My only real complaint about the movie is that Emma Stone is too pretty to play Skeeter. And not tall enough, and too skinny, and blonde. Wasn't Skeeter a brunette? or am I just imagining that? But I do love Emma Stone so I let it go.




Book #34: Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict by Laurie Viera Rigler, read by Cassidy Orlagh – I wrote a long post about this book and then lost it (through my own stupidity) and now I’m annoyed and don’t feel like writing it all again. This book was a good choice for an audiobook. I was vaguely interested in the plot, but didn’t really care enough to be distracted from my work.
A woman from 2000s Los Angeles (Courtney) has man-problems, loves Pride and Prejudice, and magically switches places with a woman from 1810s England (Jane). As a story it was fine, if stereotypical. However, there were two major(ly awkward) events that happened at the end of the book (when Courtney had been Jane for several months and should have known better) that would have been plausible at the beginning of the book, but were just weird and infuriating at the end. Also, at one point the author mixes up Mr. Elton (from Emma) and Mr. Collins (from Pride and Prejudice). Big uh-oh.

Book #35: Tears of the Giraffe (The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, book 2) by Alexander McCall Smith - Not as good as the first. There was too much about Mma Ramotswe's and Mr. J.L.B Matekoni's personal lives and not enough detectiving. While I do like the two characters A LOT, that's not why I'm reading the books. The first book had a much better balance. Maybe I will read the third and if I don't like it, I'll stop there.

(Something VERY STRANGE is going on with author touchstones)

>73 norabelle414: I generally find most Jane Austen continuations, homages, etc. too irritating to read. I did try this one but I don't think I made it very far through it. One of the few I really enjoyed was The Jane Austen Book Club, but mostly because I saw the film first and knew it wouldn't drive me crazy.

I liked The Jane Austen Book Club (book & movie) too. I also liked the movie Lost in Austen. It was really cheesy, but not inaccurate or unbelievable or annoying.

Maybe at some point I'll work up the nerve to try Lost in Austen. But I'm afraid I may hate it, and make other people sad.

I've had a friend visiting me since Sunday so I've been a little lax in informing you all of the exciting things that happen to me. What a lame friend I am!

I forgot to mention that I was walking down the street on Sunday and I saw a box on the side of the road with my favorite words on it: "Free Books"! It was mostly self-help type books about dogs and babies (neither of which interest me in the least), but I did get We Need To Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver. For freeeeeeee

After looking a t the reviews for We need ToTalk About Kevin , I understand why it was in the box! :) LOL

I am going to be interested in what you think about the book.

73: I can see her being too pretty for the part, but it is Hollywood and there are tickets to be sold! All I remember about her hair was that it was extremely curly. Ah, I'll go see it anyways since I loved the book. How lucky you got to see a pre-screening.

I too liked the movie Lost in Austen. And there was a similar book called Austenland that I didn't mind too much either, but I generally stay away from Austen adaptations.

And yay for free books!

Also, I just realized that this is the UK printing of We Need to Talk About Kevin. That's kickass.

Does that mean you have to read it in an accent?

>81 norabelle414: No, it's still about Americans and takes place in the US. I just like variety in my personal library. Why should all my books be printed in one country!?
Also, I'm guessing there will be extra 'u's. So that's fun.

>80 RosyLibrarian: Speaking of Austenland, http://jezebel.com/5818724/austenland-to-be-adapted-for-big-screen

83: Jeez, I feel like every book I read gets turned into a movie. I'm not sure if it's a good or bad thing...

Just checking in, Nora. Congrats on the new library card! I love my local library and use it a lot - much more than I should in all probability.

Another fan of both Lost in Austen and Austenland here! Fun, escapist stuff, and very enjoyable.

Congrats on the free book - the fact that it's a UK publication makes it even awesomer. *jealous*

This is to remind myself that I finished Snotty Saves the Day.

Wouldn't you remember it better if you wrote it on your head with a Sharpie marker? ...always works for me!

>87 norabelle414: And what did you think of it? I got it as an ER book too, and read it last month.

Ack! I NEED to go back to Prague NOW. I just looked at your pictures and it is even more beautiful than I remember! I was there in the winter, so everything is bare and covered in snow in mine. I hope you had a fantastic trip! Are you going to at the meet up during the National Book Festival? Two friends and I are driving up for it and I am so excited!

>88 Ape: Sharpie washes off, and does not look so great at work.

>89 ronincats: I felt about the same as you, I think. At first glance it seemed perfect for me, but was poorly executed. Review is pending; I'm hoping I'll feel up to it soon.

>90 Kittybee: I think we picked the perfect time to go. It was not too hot, but we still wanted to be outside all the time.
I will definitely be at the National Book Festival, possibly with several other people in tow. I'm excited!

Are you going to at the meet up during the National Book Festival?

I'm sure we'll plan some kind of meetup for the festival.

Four years ago today, I made the best decision of my whole life. Happy Thingaversary to me!

Cool! Happy day! Now go buy some books... :)

Happy Thingaversary! :)

Happy Thingaversary, Nora!

I feel like there should be a Thingaversary song to to the tune of "A Very Merry Unbirthday". Either way, happy Thingaversary!

Woo hoo! Happy Thingaversary! And you have to buy four books to celebrate!

93: Yay, Happy Thingaversary!

I apologize for not being around much lately; I've been rather blue and haven't read much.

I'm listening to the audiobook of Lost Boys by Orson Scott Card at work, and I'm still reading Quicksilver, but not really getting anywhere.

100: Hope the blues work themselves out and that you feel better. :)

Thanks guys! I am self-medicating with hummus and computer games and watching tv shows online.

I hope you feel better soon! That sounds like a promising treatment course ;)

Only until Sept 1, when Netflix ups their basic plan by $6 and I have to say bye-bye to either online streaming or dvds in the mail

#105: Yeah, I found out about that today. I am not very pleased about the news either.

Me either.

I went to Goodwill today, which usually results in a giant armload of books, (my Goodwill has as extra-large book section,) but today I only got three:

Children of the Mind by Orson Scott Card - one of the only Ender's Game books I haven't read, and I've been looking for a cheap/easy copy forever
Trickster's Choice by Tamora Pierce - I've only ever read The Song of the Lioness trilogy, and this looked like a decent place to start
The Magicians by Lev Grossman - I just read about this book today on NPR and they said it's Harry Potter for grown-ups. We'll see about that.

Also I got a fake Gucci purse. It says "Made in Italy" on the outside, and "Made in China" on the inside. I mostly just bought it for that. Pretty hilarious.

108: I saw that article on NPR too and wondered about that one! I would be interested to see if it comes anywhere close. (Does anything ever come close to HP?) And LOL at your purse. That's pretty funny.

I've gotten one "hated it" vote from a friend on facebook. (My RL friends will talk about books all day long on facebook, but none of them will ever join LT...grr.) I'm trying to keep an open mind. Most things that people advertize as "like Harry Potter" (Artemis Fowl, Percy Jackson, etc) I don't like at all. But this book appears to be going in the other direction.

I've read it. It is boy finds out there is magic and goes to special magic school, but think more prep school/college age with a lot of bored upper teens doing what teens do when they go off to college. If you thought Harry got teen angst, it's nothing compared to these guys. I think teens and twenties will like it better than I do, but the ending actually salvaged the story for me. I'll be interested in your opinion!

I'm off to go wait in line at the movie theater for Harry Potter. I'll let you know how it is :)

#112: Cool, Nora! Have a great time!

The movie was good. It's probably the most true to the book of all of them. The other people in the theater were annoying. My brother is a little shit (excuse my french). Work is boring. Same as usual.

I think my sister is going to bribe me into taking her to that one. She seems to be mentioning it a lot, so... *Shrug* The good news is there is a movie theatre here where the tickets are only $4, so it won't be a complete waste. (I should mention I'm not a particularly huge fan of the movies...)

I paid almost 4x that for my ticket. *sigh*

I'm not a huge fan either, but it's not like there's another book coming so I have to take what I can get.

Yeah, I know, most movie theaters are crazy expensive. I can't believe they haven't raised their prices, it's been $4 there since I was a boy. They charge $6 for 3D movies (for the glasses) but other than that...they're amazing!

Oh, and they recently added a HUGE arcade...I mean, one of the bigger one's I've ever been in. And did I mention this is in some dinky little town in Ohio?

...of course, it's something like a 30 minute drive away, and we have to use it because it's the closest movie theater around...but still! :)

Here's the review I promised:

Book #36: Snotty Saves the Day: The History of Arcadia by Tod Davies

This book *sounds* like something that would be perfect for me. I love fantasy in all forms, and elaborately made-up worlds, and fake footnotes, and fairy tales, and imperfect protagonists. But really, this was just disappointing. It was poorly thought out, and the "subtle" morals of the story are beaten over your head again and again and again. Not only that, but there is no proof for the morals, just the whining of the "author" of the footnotes. To cap it all off, I didn't even agree with some of the morals (such as that cities and city life are bad). The footnotes consisted entirely of the "author" discrediting his equivalent academics on the opposing side of their civil war, but only using statements such as "Professor Dumb-Dumb argues X, but everyone knows that Y is really true."

The plot itself was just weak, and tended to contradict itself. At one point Snotty, who is stated to be about 12, has a tete-a-tete with the tempting bad guy during which they stop for a MARTINI BREAK. Like it's the usual thing they do, not as if it were a temptation Snotty had to overcome. Also, who names their main character Snotty? Who is this book for? Not me, that's for sure. I would certainly discourage any child from reading it, and won't recommend it to anyone.

Hehe, great review. It's always sort of fun to read about a really terrible book.

It was like a car wreck. Every time I saw a superscript number, I knew I was going to hate the footnote. But I couldn't not read them!

Book #37: Lost Boys by Orson Scott Card - audiobook from the library - Not bad, but not really my cup of tea. But then at the end there was a short interview with OSC, in which he said it wasn't his cup of tea either. I think that made me like it more. It's a little heavy on computery stuff that I don't understand because it takes place before I was born, but I did catch a few of the jokes about everyone hating IBM but knowing that it was the future. It was also a bit heavy on the Mormonism, but I thought that was more interesting.

I liked the plot, though it was pretty slow at first. The characters who were supposed to evoke reactions in the reader did so. The twist was good, though it was partly spoiled for me by reading the tags on the work page. I won't spoil it here; I'll just say that OSC is great at blending reality and fantasy seamlessly.

All-in-all, I recommend it, but I wish it had been shorter.

Message 122 - In which Nora complains a lot:

1) I'm feeling increasingly left out that I have not read Soulless and quite frankly I'm very upset at my library for not having a copy. That series was one of the main reasons I got a library card. Our library system is giant and rich. I have requested that they get the books multiple times, online and in person. I'll probably end up buying it (full price ?!?!), which I REALLY don't want to do because I've been doing so well at not buying books lately. But I'll probably be buying Game of Thrones anyway because I was counting on Goodwill having that one and they had a miserable selection the last time I was there. But I don't blame them because they rely totally on donations. Unlike my library. Which I'm sure has a waiting list a mile long for Game of Thrones so I'm not even going to try getting it from there.

2) Right now I'm listening to Catching Fire on audiobook, downloaded from my library/OverDrive directly to my phone via the OverDrive app. It's a fine book, but that's not the point. The whole thing is TERRIBLE quality. Every hour or so there's a section of a few seconds that is almost completely garbled. And almost the entirety of chapter 14 is missing. There's about 30 seconds of reading, and then it cuts to Chapter 15 in the middle of a word. I've been trying for about an hour to find somewhere I can report a problem, but now I think I've found one and am drafting an e-mail. OverDrive kept telling me to go to my library's help page with any problems, but I could not find a link to the help page ANYWHERE on my library's page. I eventually had to click a link that says "New to downloadable media?" and then tell them that I was not having any of the bajillion problems they listed. And then they gave me a link to contact someone.

3) It's freaking hot out. It's 96 degrees and the news keeps saying that the heat wave hasn't even hit us yet. UGHSDFKSJDFJLKSDF. Doesn't Mother Nature know that I have to walk over a mile to and from work every day? I'm tempted to just take days off work if it's too hot, but I'm trying to save up my time off for the trip I'm taking in September.

/complaining

*Nods sympathetically*

*Hugs*

I cannot concentrate on a.ny.thing today, but it's 3:50 and I'm the last person in my office, so it looks like I'm not alone. Leaving 10 minutes early? Yes please!

I'm in the same not-yet-a-heat-wave, working at home in my non-airconditioned office... It does make one sleepy and grumpy. Though even minus the heat wave, your complaint #2 would be especially annoying, the search for hidden tech support.

Sympathies on all your rant topics. At least it's hump day. :D

I completely understand the rant about Soulless. My local library does not have any books in the series either.

I understand about the heat too. It is 11:45pm and still 102 here. Ugh.

The good news about the Carriger series is that they come out directly to paperback so if you do end up buying them, you won't be spending an arm and a leg.

I really love it when books come out straight to paperback. It's so much fun to rush out and buy a new book that I'm excited about instead of trying to pretend that I don't care.

My weatherman says don't even try to go outside today, so I am listening.

I have conceded defeat to the weather gods and moved the computer out of the office and placed it six feet away from the air conditioner, where the temperature is tolerable if I also run the fan and keep the blinds closed to the morning sun.

I just stumbled upon your thread today, Nora, but I hope to stay caught up from here on out!

Taking Friday off of work was a mistake. I rely on work so much to get me out of the house and often it's the only socialization I get. Plus my brother had minor surgery last week and is "stuck" (because he's too important to walk places or take public transport) at home, which means a constant stream of duckfaced bimbos in and out of the house. If I hear the word "like" again I will probably go on a murderous rampage.

So it was not good for my current funk. Nor is the fact that I still don't have anyplace to live. And my mother admitted (in front of her friends, of course, so it couldn't result in a productive conversation) that she's purposely being "mean" to my brother and me to give us "incententive to move out". Does she really not realize that my brother and I are as different as could possibly be?

But in the midst of all of this, I figured out that I can play mind-numbing computer games and listen to an audiobook at the same time. So:

Book #38: Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins - Audiobook from the library - This is book 2 of the Hunger Games trilogy. The plot moved along at a good pace and I was interested, but I found it really, really, really predictable. All of the amazing revelations Katniss made, I made at least 20 minutes earlier. A couple of them I even predicted while reading the first book. At one point a character almost dies and I found myself wishing that he/she would (though I knew he/she would not) just because I was not expecting it. But my library's online audiobook system has the 3rd book, and I'm apparently now incapable of actually reading a book, so I will listen to the 3rd at some point in the near future.

Currently listening to: Invasive Procedures by Orson Scott Card
Currently reading: Trickster's Choice by Tamora Pierce
Currently sitting on my bedside table making me feel guilty: Quicksilver by Neal Stephenson, The Trial by Franz Kafka
Currently tempting me but I can't read more because I'm in a "group read" with my best friend who takes a month to read 20 pages: Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout

>132 Cait86: Hi Cait! Welcome. Luckily for you my thread doesn't move too fast.

133: Sometimes I do that too for the ultimate leisurely afternoon. Usually I hit up pogo.com and play something I don't have to focus on - like mah jong, because I'm an old woman. :)

Hope you're feeling better and that this funk tapers off.

Thumbs down to the annoying brother. Just let me know if he needs another minor surgery. I might not have the proper tools, but I figure I can get the job down with a couple forks and a hammer. >:D

You can't do much worse than he already got. He had a cyst on his tailbone, and they had to cut a huge chunk out of his buttcheek. *snort*

Currently, he's visiting family in Wisconsin. If you're reading this, Amber, run away!

Ah, well, good. Let me know if you require my services anyhow. *Puts forks and hammer away with a minor sigh of disappointment*

You know, his airplane probably flies vaguely over your state. Don't I remember you having some sort of bra-catapult?

So the pain in the butt has a pain in his butt?

:D

Unfortunately the bra-catapult doesn't quite have the range to hit airplanes. :( I could just stand outside and flip the bird at the sky...but the neighbors think I'm strange enough already, so...

You know, I have forks and a hammer too... :)

Yikes! I live in Wisconsin - should I be on the lookout for a limping weirdo with a heavily padded derriere?

Yes! Be careful! He's about 6 foot 2 and looks like this*




*bimbos may vary

*Eyes glaze over and go unfocused*

Thanks, Nora, I'll be on the lookout.

>145 Ape: It's true. THAT is related to THIS. C'est impossible!

*Eyes glazed over and go unfocused*

*Ahem* Sorry, always seems to happen whenever I see a lady with a book. Or wearing little clothing. Stupid eyes. At least I don't drool. ...much...

:(

If no one sees you drool, it doesn't actually happen.

Right. Never happened. Wait, what about the soggy spots on my shirt?

So I've basically been demoted. From program administration to someone's personal assistant. The former involved entering things into a database and e-mailing people in my office that I've known for years, the latter involves a lot of calling and e-mailing people I don't know. *hyperventilates*

But it's okay. Because it's Friday, I came home early, and I'm already two beers and half a bag of cookies deep! Weekend!!

To bad I'm drinking by myself.

Look at it this way, at least you don't have to deal with annoying drunks when you drink by yourself. ;)

It's too bad aboutthe demotion. I'd have a hard time dealing with having to call people I don't know as well. I'm just terrible at initiating phone calls with strangers. I never have any clue what to say for minute or so...horrible!

Sorry to hear about the demotion, Nora.

151: Ugh, sorry to hear!

151: And by now you've gotten through Monday. Will you eventually get to know the people you have to call and email?

Yesterday (Monday) was horrendous.
I worked from 7:30 to 5.
I did more stuff that's not my job, like setting up meetings I'm not involved in between several people who wouldn't answer the phone.
Sat through a 2.5 hour staff meeting (during which I missed several calls and e-mails I was waiting for) with our new "supervisor" that did NOT go well.
Didn't get any work done because the guy in the next cube is always chatting on speakerphone about nonsense.

When I left for work in the morning my mom told me it definitely wasn't going to rain, so I didn't bring an umbrella, and then of course I got off the Metro in the afternoon and it was POURING. I called my mom to see if she would pick me up at the Metro (I mistakenly thought she would feel bad for me seeing as I was getting home an hour later than I'm supposed to, and she told me not to take an umbrella) but she would not. So I walked a mile home in the rain.

Then my brother came home from Wisconsin in the middle of the night and woke me up.

-.-

Sorry to hear all of that, Nora, sounds horrendous. I suppose there isn't much to be done about the family issues, but is there any chance the nonsense at work will settle down after awhile?

If not, just keep in mind there is an unlimited supply of e-hugs waiting for you here when you need them.

*Hugs*

Yesterday was better. New "supervisor" and annoying cubicle neighbor were at an off-site meeting almost all day.

I got a phone call from a friend of a friend who is moving to DC and needs another roommate. She seems nice and I think we'll be able to work something out, though she is on a very tight budget.

The issue with the new "supervisor" is her attitude, mostly. None of the rest of us feel like she listens to what we have to say. She'll ask a question and then interrupt your answer with another question. And she's SO BAD with computers, but instead of admitting it and letting us help her, she just refuses to do anything involving computers, stating that she's "too busy".



"Book" #39: Invasive Procedures by Orson Scott Card - listened to as audiobook from the library - This book was meh. I kind of liked it, but probably mostly just because I never read medical thriller type books, so it was fairly novel for me. OSC is really good at writing characters that are DETESTABLE though. I'm sure I looked scary as I walked down the street listening to this, being so angry at the villains.

I'm often curious what I look like to other people when I read books in public. It must be amusing.

Ugh. You're supervisor sounds like my MIL. Let's put them in a room together, lock the door, and see what happens, eh? ;)

>160 scaifea: I am all for that. Or even locking the "supervisor" in a room by herself would be nice ;-)

I learned today that the "supervisor" refuses to check her work e-mail on her gov't issued Blackberry, stating that she's "too busy". That's right ladies and gentlemen; your tax dollars are paying for the Blackberry and she refuses to use it to do her job.

Then after work I went out for drinks at my bar with my friend Jacob. At the end of the night the bartender asked what I had so he could tally it up and I said "three gin & tonics and a chocolate cake". He just looked at me and said, "Do you want to talk about it?"

I think you should go see the movie Horrible Bosses. It will definitely lift your spirits but don't get any bright ideas after seeing it. :)

Nononono, the MIL must go in the room too - don't hog all the benefits for yourself!
And I love the bartender story (chocolate cake sounds really good right now).

:)

I'm a little bit hung over. Nobody tell the horrid "supervisor"

I am going to call her on her Blackberry. :0

Ugh, I'm sorry about the work situation. I also love the bartender story, though. And I hope things work out with the potential new roommate. The bright side of her tight budget is that she would probably be willing to take the smallest room....

Yeah I did mention that I would be willing to pay more rent for a larger room and/or my own bathroom. I'm not sure what else I can do to help.

I hope things work out for you with the new roomie, Nora. I wish I had words of advice for dealing with your idiot of a supervisor.

OMG guys I finished a real book!

Book #40: Trickster's Choice by Tamora Pierce - It was okay. Solid plot. Solid writing. Kinda funny. My favorite part is that there's a guy who used to be a crow, but turned himself into a person, and he wants to get with the main character, Aly, so he gives her random shiny things as presents.
My library has the sequel so maybe I will read it at some point. As soon as it's not too hot to leave my house during the daytime.

Next up:
Olive Kitteridge
Watchmen
The Book Thief

Yay for actually getting through a book! Hope you enjoy your next reads. :D

I have a confession to make: Pretty much the only reason I haven't started The Book Thief yet is because it's in the far back bottom corner of my bookshelf, for the obvious reason, and I'm too lazy to move all my stuff out of the way to get it. *Sigh*

But I'm about 1/4 done with Watchmen and have started A Wind in the Door by Madeleine L'Engle which is not my favorite of her books, but opens the door for me to reread the rest.

Also I'm currently listening to the audiobook of Mockingjay (The 3rd Hunger Games book), which is going fine and is less predictable than Catching Fire. However, I think something is wrong with the audiobook, as I feel like I have missed some parts (especially considering the problems I had with the previous (audio)book).

What? You mean audiobooks AREN'T as good as regular books? ...but, it's technologically advanced, just like ebooks! ;)

Mmm, there may not be anything wrong with your audiobook. From what I remember of reading Mockingjay earlier this year, there are some sections where it felt choppy. Although that was closer to the end so maybe there is something wrong. *shrug*

Audiobooks are not technologically advanced, and are completely different from ebooks. I personally don't like audiobooks, but I'm realizing that they have a place in situations in which I CANNOT read (usually because most of my attention needs to be elsewhere) and thus are not a replacement for actual books.

I've only had audiobook-related problems with the Hunger Games books, not the Orson Scott Card books. I don't know if that's a coincidence or what.

Could it be an abridged version of the book? Sometimes they are sneaky about that...

#176: True - I hate when the publishers do that!

I don't think so. Overdrive says it's unabridged, and the part that I think is missing is a fairly major plot point that everyone keeps referring to. I'm just so confused.

Audible.com is having a special sale, where you can get 3 books in the same series for 2 credits. Which happens to be the number of credits that I currently have. Suggestions??

http://www.audible.com/sp/3for2

I think I've narrowed it down to:

The Sword of Truth, books 1-3 by Terry Goodkind (though I might want to read these myself)
The Harper Hall Trilogy by Anne McCaffrey (this is looking like my top choice because for some reason I have a hard time reading her books)
The Galactic Empire Trilogy by Isaac Asimov
Alvin Maker, books 2-4 by Orson Scott Card (At this time I cannot confirm or deny that these aren't floating around my house somewhere)
A Time Odyssey Trilogy by Arthur C. Clarke

But I have until Aug 16th to decide. So I will probably worry about it endlessly until the 14th or so, and then freak out and pick something randomly.

Seeing as those are all SF/fantasy can I suggest Janny Wurts' Cycle of Fire Trilogy - starts with Stormwarden. I've read the books but I haven't listened to the audios though, as far as I can tell, they have been getting a favourable reaction.

Thanks Calm! But I don't see that as one of the sale titles :-(

Sorry to hear that. I checked they were available at audible but couldn't get access to the sale titles:(

I hope you like whatever you end up getting.

Darn. It didn't occur to me that non-members wouldn't be able to see the sale page.

You have great taste norabelle414, I trust that you will choose correctly. Have you considered something by Philip K. Dick---maybe Ubik.

Nora: I listened to the entire Sword of Truth series and enjoyed doing so (i.e. I don't regret not having read them myself). Just sayin'.

>185 labrick: Welcome Spencer! Unfortunately there were no Philip K. Dick books offered. I have read Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? and The Man in the High Castle, but I have never heard of Ubik. I will have to keep an eye out for that.

>186 scaifea: Ooh good, thanks!

So I have one vote for Sword of Truth, from a coworker I got one vote for McCaffrey and one for Arthur C. Clarke and one vote AGAINST Asimov. And one vote from me for Alvin Maker, only because I've read the first book (and established that we don't have the others). So I've narrowed it down to 4!

Well, darn. I've looked at the list again and now I see a whole bunch of other things I might want. Here are the complete lists of what's available for Fantasy and SciFi (I'm not going to bother with Mystery or Romance because I don't usually like those, and I didn't see any good Nonfiction) (series that I think I'm interested in are marked with an asterisk):

FANTASY:

Destroyermen, Book 1-5
by Taylor Anderson

Kate Daniels, Book 1-3
by Ilona Andrews

*Sisters Grimm, Book 1-5
Michael Buckley

The Sharing Knife, Volume 1-3
Lois McMaster Bujold

*The Dresden Files, Book 1-4
Jim Butcher

The Mediator, Book 1-4
Meg Cabot

House of Night Series, Book 1-3
P. C. Cast, Kristin Cast

The Hunger Games, Book 1-3
Suzanne Collins

Elemental Assassin, Book 1-3
Jennifer Estep

Night Huntress, Book 1-4
Jeaniene Frost

*Sword of Truth, Book 1-5
Terry Goodkind

Nightside, Book 1-11
Simon R. Green

Pendragon, Book 1-3
D. J. MacHale

*Harper Hall Trilogy, Volume 1-3
Anne McCaffrey

Georgina Kincaid, Book 1-3
Richelle Mead

Dream Park, Book 1-3
Larry Niven, Steven Barnes

Shadowmarch, Volume I-IV
Tad Williams




SCIENCE FICTION:

Saga of the Skolian Empire, Book 1-3
Catherine Asaro

Galactic Empire Trilogy, Book 1-3
Isaac Asimov

Grand Tour, Books 3, 6, 16
Ben Bova

The Lost Fleet Book 1-6
Jack Campbell

*Tales of Alvin Maker, Book 1-4
Orson Scott Card

*A Time Odyssey, Book 1-3
Arthur C. Clarke, Stephen Baxter

Stainless Steel Rat, Book 1-4
Harry Harrison

Mass Effect, Book 1-3
Drew Karpyshyn

Revelation Space, Book 1-3, 5
Alastair Reynolds

Prince Roger Series, Book 1-3
David Weber, John Ringo

The Heritage Universe, Book 1-4
Charles Sheffield

Kris Longknife, Book 1-8
Mike Shepherd

Skylark Series, Book 1-4
E. E. "Doc" Smith

Laundry Files, Book 1-3
Charles Stross

Honor Harrington, Book 1-12
David Weber

I vote for:

Kate Daniels, Book 1-3
by Ilona Andrews

*Harper Hall Trilogy, Volume 1-3
Anne McCaffrey

*Tales of Alvin Maker, Book 1-4
Orson Scott Card

I'm having a bit of a rough day, so I think I'm going to go home early.

I vote for the McCaffrey (YA level, but some of her best Pern books), Bujold (always a good story), Weber (the first three Honor Harringtons are the best and quite entertaining). The Sisters Grimm is a children's series with fairy-tale characters--amusing if that is what you are looking for.

Book #41: A Wind in the Door by Madeleine L'Engle - Hmm. Definitely not her best. The plot wasn't very consistent; it was slow (but in a good way, not a boring way) for almost all of the book, and then everythinghappenedallatonce and then it was over. I also found it rather strange that there wasn't a single mention of the events of the previous book in this one. Not even a "Meg and Calvin had been through a lot together" or "Their father had been missing once" or something like that. It made me feel a little awkward that there wasn't. Meg has matured in this book, though.
Basically, it's a coming-of-age book, but in the most complicated way possible.

Unfortunately this book has ended up in the trash can, as the tape and glue that's been barely holding it together for the past 10 years failed. I'm torn over whether or not I should get a new copy. I don't like it, but my collection of 14 other Madeleine L'Engle books will feel weird without it.

#192: my collection of 14 other Madeleine L'Engle books will feel weird without it.

It definitely needs to be replaced then!

>193 alcottacre: Well, if you insist!



I have made a barnesandnoble.com purchase, but I will keep you all waiting until they get here to find out what I ordered ;-)

"Book" #42: Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins - Listened to as an audiobook from the library - Eh. Kind of a weak ending for a decent series. There were two (potentially) super exciting events in this book, and the (first person limited) narrator sat out both of them. So lame. And then it seemed as if the author couldn't decide how she wanted to end the series, so she just kind of mushed a bunch of endings together.

Have I mentioned lately how much I dislike first person narration?

The series itself was very imaginative, if not as solidly plotted as I would like. I always love the idea of themes from ancient times (like gladiators) reappearing in a futuristic way. (See Battlestar Galactica and Stargate SG-1) But the series really deserved a stronger ending than this.

Sorry your past couple reads haven't been stellar for you. Maybe it's time for some comfort re-reads (if you do that kind of thing, that is)?

>196 MickyFine: Don't worry, A Wind at the Door sets me up for oh, so many great re-reads.

#197: Don't worry, A Wind at the Door sets me up for oh, so many great re-reads.

That is good news!

Another boring weekend here. My brother was moderately civil to me, though he did steal my screwdriver. I managed to get some reading done.

Currently Reading:
Watchmen
Olive Kitteridge
The Book Thief

Currently listening to:
The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury - I didn't like it at first, but it's growing on me.

Possibly Coming Soon:
Many Waters by Madeleine L'Engle
From Then to Now: A Short History of the World by Christopher Moore
The Human Genome: Book Of Essential Knowledge by John Quackenbush

Also, I've made up my mind that I'm going to get the Anne McCaffrey books from Audible. Doing that now.

WELL I got those 3 Anne McCaffrey audiobooks for 2 credits (which as you may recall were about $8 each, so I got 3 books for $16) and then was notified that I could pick one from a (small) selection of other audiobooks for $4.95. They had a couple good books that I've already read/own. (A Mary Roach book!). I ended up getting Across the Nightingale Floor by Lian Hearn a.k.a Gillian Rubinstein, who wrote a book I read/liked in middle school called Galax-Arena.

So basically I'm a complete sucker for a sale. But as long as I'm getting the audiobooks books for way less than half price (the full price of the $4.95 audiobook was $26!) it's all good. That's what having a job is for, right? And at least I don't have to worry about audiobooks taking up room on my shelves or in my purse.

I think you'll really enjoy the McCaffrey books. They are some of my favorites.

What?? I completely didn' t realize that Lian Hearn was Gullian Rubinstein! I also enjoyed Galax-Arena long ago, but I never got around to reading Across the Nightingale Floor despite buying a copy years ago. I'm suddenly much more motivated to read it, if I even still have it around.

Darn confusing pen-names. I get writing everything under a name different than your given name (a la Dr. Seuss or Mark Twain), and maybe I get writing completely different genres under different names (I think a lot of romance authors do that), but Across the Nightingale Floor seems to have a similar target audience as Galax-Arena, and Gillian Rubinstein hasn't written that many books.

Also, why does LT show the author of Across the Nightingale Floor as Gillian and the author of Galax-Arena as Lian? It should be the other way around. ALL of the editions of Galax-Arena list Gillian as the author, and I've tried recalculating but to no avail.

Oh God. One day only, the top 500 bestseller paperbacks are 50% off at barnesandnoble.com. Also I just got a membership so I get free shipping. Bye-bye, paycheck.

Gah! You shouldn't have said anything. I have a feeling this will end badly for some of us ;)

I'm seeing the right authors on the work pages.

Ok so here is the plan: I have 9 books in my B&N shopping cart. If I can be super-productive for the rest of the day, I will get some number of them. Or some amount of money of them. Or something.

So I am going to sign off of here until at least 5pm.

Here is my list if you would like to talk amongst yourselves while I am gone ;-)

The Disappearing Spoon by Sam Kean
Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky
How To Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe by Charles Yu
The Zombie Survival Guide by Max Brooks
The Lost City of Z by David Grann
The Brief Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz
Super Sad True Love Story by Gary Shteyngart
A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
One Day by David Nicholls

Recommendations and Unrecommendations are, as usual, greatly appreciated.

I know, I got that email this morning too - was going to resist, but a little virtual shopping never hurt anyone right? *ahem*

Disappearing Spoon was very interesting, but I listened to it instead of reading it - that was a big mistake. I'd have enjoyed it more in print, if for no other reason than that I'd have pictures to reference!

Salt: A World History was one that I never finished, but it was my first foray into reading NF, years before LT. It's interesting and packed full of info, though.

Okay, going to add up some books to my cart and then go off to work and decide later - I'm a total copycat! And congrats on your audible choice! Those bonus $4.95 sales are a killer, though. :)

Salt was pretty good, Lost City of Z is one of my faves.

You know I'm pushing for the zombie book. :P

Actually, I haven't read that one, but it's on my wishlist...

I really enjoyed A Visit from the Goon Squad. Egan does some very cool things in exploring her chosen themes and the variety of styles she uses in telling her narrative are thoroughly enjoyable.

Dearest Stephen, you will be pleased to know that due to a certain buy-2-get-1-free sale, the zombie book is free.

I ended up getting all of the above books, MINUS The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao and Super Sad True Love Story

Hurray! Mine'll be free too when I decide to place a request for it at a public library. I figure if I ever need to consult it in the event of an actual zombie apocalypse I can just loot it from an abandoned library/bookstore anyway, right?

If there's a zombie apocalypse, will you give me your address so I can send it to you?

I succumbed too, and bought 2 books and a season of Will & Grace on DVD. Congrats on your excellent purchase, Nora!

Of course not, the mail won't still run during a zombie apocalypse. Besides, things would be scary enough already, giving my address would just add to the horror. If you want to find me during a zombie apocalypse, you will find I have barricaded myself inside my local public library. You might think that Walmart would be a more sensible choice, but I find their book selection is less than satisfactory.

You clearly have not read The Postman. The mail ALWAYS runs.



*sigh* My B&N order (the first one) is not going to come until tomorrow. I might not make it that long.

You are right, The Postman is on my wishlist. I think with the funding issues we are having now post-apocalyptic courier services will only run a couple days a week, so by the time the book will get here any advice it can give me I'll have already learned the hard way. :(

Maybe your mailman will steal The Postman and read it and be inspired to be a better mailman.

!? Mail deliverers steal books? Well then, all the more reason to keep my address to myself... :P

Dear Ladies and Stephen and sometimes Jim,

Work SUCKS today. Pls save me.

Love,
Nora

Ha! I guess the group really is pretty overwhelmingly female.

Sorry about the work :(

220: Alas, I can merely sympathize. If you wish to vent, well, work is dull today so I'll be checking in later...

Consider yourself saved!

...ummm... *Saves Nora*

Okay, so that wasn't as heroic as I intended, but my powers are limited over the internet.

Zoe: Book readers in general are overwhelmingly female. Only once in my life have I ever seen a man browsing the shelves at my own local library.

Book readers in general are overwhelmingly female.

In my experience that's actually not true. The males I know read more than the females I know. And I also see more men reading around the city than I do women. But all of the people I know (in real life) who like to talk about books are female.

Who wants to give me their baby so I can make it wear this t-shirt?

http://get.unshelved.com/store/Shirts/ReadToMe/1.large.png



and then read to it. I hope it likes science fiction!

224: Huh, interesting. Maybe it's where you live? That definitely doesn't seem to be the case around here. I've only known 2 male book readers in my life, I think. The only men I see in public libraries are their for the newspapers/computers.

I love the shirt. :)

Well DC is exceptionally literate, but the same was true when I lived in Clemson, SC

I think the split of people I know who read is pretty even between genders. But I do agree that the people I'm more likely to talk books with are female.

Well, I suppose this is fitting with the whole stereotype that men aren't great at communicating, I guess. *Grunts and scratches*

Speaking of Clemson, we're headed there tomorrow to move the son back. This year he's off campus in a townhouse, so we needed a uhaul trailer to get his furniture moved.

University Village?!

Paw Path, up Main Street and across 123. A couple of miles north of campus.

oh sad, I thought he was living where I did lol.

I don't know where Paw Path is but it's probably nicer than University Village.

Nora, I hope today is a better one for you at work. ((Hugs))

Work today SUCKED. Way worse than yesterday. Several of my coworkers have requested a transfer because of the "supervisor". I spent from 10:30 to 4:15 printing out dozens of 10-12 page documents for her (that are specifically designed to be reviewed electronically), and by the time I left in frustration at 4:15, she still would not tell me exactly what she wanted.

I was supposed to go to a movie after work today but I was NOT feeling up to it. So I came home, and there was a book-sized package waiting for me! Now to refresh your memory, I ordered THREE books on Friday and SEVEN books on Monday (+1 for my mom). So when I got home and there was a package the size of ONE book I was rather confused. I opened it, and it was a book I ordered on MONDAY. Then I was even more confused. But while I was typing this, another package came with all three books I ordered on Friday. So here are the newest editions to my library:

The Lost City of Z by David Grann
A Wind in the Door by Madeleine L'Engle (replacement copy)
Soulless by Gail Carriger
A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin

I've also gotten 3 e-mails today telling me that books from my Monday batch are going to be delayed. So apparently B&N bit off more than they could chew with their 50% off sale.

Bookstores in trouble because demand is greater than supply. That's what I like to see :-)

Sorry about the suckage at work - can't someone blast this new supervisor out of the way? Yikes - I so feel for you, Nora.

Yay!!!! You got books in the mail!!!! This afternoon I received 2 emails from B&N stating that 2 of the 3 things I've ordered have been delayed. Then, an hour and a half later, I got an email saying that they'd both been shipped. ??? What? Still no word on item 3, but I'm sure it will be delayed and then shipped before sundown. ;)

Stupid work-people! If you decide to go on a suicidal rampage, I totally understand. I'd like to talk you out of it of course, but it sounds completely reasonable to me.

I love the B&N troubles, I don't think I'd complain much about receiving packages late if it was because there was such an influx of book orders. Great!

At least at the end of a frustrating day at work, there were book packages at the door to welcome you home!

Ta da!

Book #43: The Book Thief by Markus Zusak - Not too shabby. It was entertaining, informative, and heart-wrenching. The plot moved along at a nice pace and the characters were well developed. A+ for plot.

However I didn't really like the writing style. I thought the narration was gimicky, and the foreshadowing (though meant to engage the reader) was annoying and distracting. I felt less engaged with the characters when I knew when they were going to die and what they would (or mostly, wouldn't) get to do before the end of their short lives.

Yay for new books. I hope you enjoy Soulless, it's been one of my favourite fluffy reads this year. And I'm sorry that the narration of The Book Thief didn't work for you. I really enjoyed every aspect of it, but that could just be my lit major roots showing...

I *appreciated* the narration, but I didn't like it. Like vegetables.

OMG has anyone seen The Daily Show from Tuesday? There's a whole segment on bookstores and it's HILARIOUS!

It's on Hulu RIGHT NOW.

I liked the 'condescending nerds' comments!

Haha, yeah, I got lucky and just so happened to catch that episode. Very funny. :)

I'm going to have to quit this job. At some point soon. I would be fine with crazy bitch "supervisor" treating me like I'm a moron and I don't matter, except that she's trying to turn me into her personal assistant and prevents me from doing my actual job. She now has plans to move me away from the other program administrators (my friends) and over into a cubicle next to her. Which clearly means that she does not want me doing my current job, because it involves passing information and documents back and forth with the other program admins all day.

They've hired a new administrator (to replace the one who is retiring today), so you'd think that he would become her personal assistant, especially since I've been doing the same job since 2007. But no. I don't think the supervisor even knows how long I've been here, or that I developed all the procedures for the program admins. I know for sure she has no idea that I actually have a degree in science and I don't just work here because nowhere else would hire me after college.

I work here because I like(d) it here. So if I don't like it here, then I should leave, right? I like all of my coworkers a lot, but most of them are looking for new jobs now. But I don't know what to do if I don't have this job. It's the only constant thing in my life right now, what with my lack of friends and lack of a place to live and terrible relationship with my family.

I also have NO idea what else I would do. Get a different job? Doing admin stuff, or actually try to find something in my field? What if I can't find a job for a long time? This is the only job I've ever had so I haven't had an interview since I was 19, and that was for a summer internship, not the full job I have now. What if I can't find a job for a long time? Should I keep working here while I try to find a new job, even if it might mean being here for months? I could quit and then start looking for a job, but I don't trust my mom to keep letting me live with her if I don't have a job. I could go back to school, but I don't know what I would study or what direction I would go in since I don't know what I want to do.

Mostly I'm just terrified.

I'd strongly suggest not quitting your current job before you've at least updated your resume and scouted around to see what else is available and feasible. After an initial relief, you'll feel horribly anxious. (Been there.) Do you have access to anyone above the supervisor? If things are so awful that you're thinking of quitting, then you can hardly make things more awful by speaking up. Especially if so many people are unhappy with this new supervisor. Maybe a group of you could talk to someone?

Many issues come from the fact that I work for a contracting company. So my actual Company Boss (CB) works in a building across town, and the Government Boss (GB) who works in my office doesn't actually have anything to do with the company I work for. The "supervisor"'s actual job is contract lead, which means that she is the liason between the contract employees in our office and CB. So CB has two sources of information about how our office is running: the "supervisor" and the company's client, which is GB. GB loves the "supervisor", because she sucks up to him. The rest of us get fed up with him because he doesn't really do any work, and always wants to socialize with everyone else and prevent them from doing their work. We try to be really nice about it, but he is kind of starved for attention and so he idolizes anyone who will listen to him prattle on. Talking to GB about the situation (he can tell CB that he doesn't like someone in the office and CB will pretty much do whatever GB wants) would be a fireable offense, as the "supervisor" sees it. (Though before she was here we reported to GB for everything). Going to CB would be feasible, but highly frowned upon. I will have to talk to him to put in for a transfer, but he will not do anything about the "supervisor", as the company paid a LOT of money to get her here.

I think a few of us (including at least one person who has already put in for a transfer and at least one who is unhappy but planning to stay) are going to try to talk to CB together sometime next week.

Ugh. Seems not the best way to run a company, but alas not unusual. An individual can be disregarded or blamed. Safety in numbers. I hope the meeting with CB is useful.

GRRRR! Well, whatever you do, DO NOT quit your job without having something else in line. Jobs aren't easy to come by so don't take it for granted. I would definitely considering searching around (after the talk next week, if that happens) and perhaps submitting some job applications, but you definitely don't want to wind up with no job at all for an extended period, especially with the home situation.

I second (third?) the recommendation that you have another job lined up before leaving your current one. I hope the meeting with CB sheds some light on the situation and maybe things will change for you at the job. Fingers crossed, Nora!

I third/fourth having a job ready to go. I know too many people who have thought they'd just find a job and have been out of work for 2+ years. You might have better luck living where you live as opposed to where I am, but still, having money is a good thing. Hang in there!

Thanks for the input, guys.

More books in the mail today!

The Zombie Survival Guide by Stephen Max Brooks
A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe by Charles Yu
Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky
The Disappearing Spoon by Sam Kean
One Day by David Nicholls

The Zombie Survival Guide by Stephen Max Brooks Ha!

I got One Day in the mail today as well! Book sales (and free express shipping) are the best. Hope you're having a good Saturday, Nora!

I hope the survival guide doesn't come in handy any time soon. :)

I dunno. If there's a zombie apocalypse I'll only have to worry about survival, not pandering to a horrible, technologically-inept bitch in order to keep my job. That sounds pretty appealing right now.

Yeah, and in the event of a mass extinction of humankind my social anxiety suddenly becomes less of an issue!

Wishing you lots of luck with the new job search and quitting your old one. It's a hassle for sure, but being unhappy at your job is so much worse.