mishmash Monday again

I've totally been off my blogging game lately. Not posting much. Not commenting much. Sickness in the house. Mostly just busy. Hope to get back on track a bit this week in preparation for Dewey's Read-a-Thon. Oh, and speaking of the read-a-thon, Annie would love some help in narrowing down her book pile. If you'd like, pop over here and vote for the first sentences that sound most intriguing to you. I haven't made my pile yet, but am really looking forward to it. :)

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Don't you just love the feeling you get when you finally get someone to read a book you just love? Yeah, like with Herding Cats. And it's even more fun when you get to witness it in person. Thanks to Carl's Once Upon a Time III Challenge, I was able to convince Rich to finally read American Gods. Just a few of his comments thus far--"This guy can sure write an engaging story, but I don't have a clue what the hell is going on yet" and "I just encountered the most bizarre sex scene I've ever read!" And yes, in case you're wondering, he really is enjoying it. :)

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And I do have some new acquisitions. With points to award! Now, this pile might seem a bit large--well, not when you compare it to Chris's normal hauls ;) --but I have a lot of excuses to throw out there. First being that I skipped posting last week, so this is actually two week's worth. (Other excuses will be forthcoming.)

Mission Planet Earth: Our World and Its Climate--And How Humans Are Changing Them by Sally ride and Tam O'Shaughnessy. Guide to the Planet by Matthew Murrie and Steve Murrie. Ready for another excuse? See, these two wonderful looking books can't be counted against me because I won them from the lovely Amanda. Thanks again, Amanda! I think they both may end up in my read-a-thon pile (unless Gray asks to take them with him on their boys weekend out, that is).

Okay, so as far as excuses go, I'm going to have to go with that old standby, "But these were free!" This next batch all came from PaperbackSwap. And while I will take no responsibility myself, I'm more than happy to pass out the blame. ;)

King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table by Roger Lancelyn Green. Okay, I'm actually going to award two points for this one. While it may seem a bit unfair to blame Nymeth for this one when I asked her directly for a recommendation for a place to start with Arthurian literature, I'm going to do it anyway. After all, she didn't need to be such an enabler, did she? ;) And well, Becky's getting herself a point, too. If not for her Arthurian Challenge, I might have been able to resist ordering this book for a little while yet.

Tom's Midnight Garden by Philippa Pearce. Straightforward case of blame. Another point for Nymeth.










Catalyst by Laurie Halse Anderson. Hmmm...no one to blame. But hey, it was still free.











Eleanor Rigby by Douglas Coupland. Nymeth narrowly avoids blame for this one because her recommendation to Chris might have been enough to push me over the edge...if I hadn't already been pushed over the edge by this review. Point for Rhinoa.







We Never Talk About My Brother by Peter S. Beagle. I manage to avoid responsibility for this purchase by pointing out two things. One, it was a purchase worth making beyond anything having to do with me. (For explanation, read link at number two.) Number two, Nymeth is a wonderful sales person. And I actually did order it the day she wrote about it, they just had some slight problems getting things shipped out...but all is fixed up now. Anyway, yet another point for Nymeth.


Crap. My excuses seem to be getting weaker and weaker here. All I've got to go with on this next group is that they were on sale. But it was a really good sale! Book Closeouts had all their Manga on sale for 99 cents each, so I let Annie pick out a whole truckload for herself. And well, I figured at those prices it wouldn't hurt to pick up a few I wanted too. Seriously, you can't argue with that logic, can you? Well, pretend you can't.




The Dreaming 1 and 2 by Queenie Chan. I really wanted to read these after reading Rhinoa's reviews. And our library supposedly has them, but no one can find them. :( But this made it very exciting to find them priced so inexpensively. Two more points for Rhinoa.

Legend of Chun Hyang by CLAMP.












A Midnight Opera 1-3 by Hans Steinbach.
























And finally, this last bunch were all picked up at B&N yesterday. Rich gave me a gift card for Easter. What could I do?

How to Breathe Underwater by Julie Orringer. Field Notes from a Catastrophe: Man, Nature, and Climate Change by Elizabeth Kolbert. These are actually the two books I went into the store determined to buy. These points really belong to Nick Hornby.


The Monsters of Morley Manor by Bruce Coville. Juliet Dove, Queen of Love by Bruce Coville. An Enemy at Green Knowe by L.M. Boston. A half-price sale on all their used books led me to these three, each only costing $1.50. And Eva gets a point for the last one, because she's talked so lovingly about the Green Knowe series. Of course, that means there will be more points in her future, as I'll need to read others in the series first.

The Robe of Skulls by Vivian French. The Garden of Eve by K.L. Going. The Castle Corona by Sharon Creech. As I was hanging in the kids' section with the boys, these three just begged to come home with me...what could I do, right?











Whew. If typing this post wasn't enough to make me stop acquiring books, I don't know what will.

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Annie really wants me to do the first sentence game to weed down my read-a-thon pile, too, so perhaps I'll do that tomorrow. Of course that means actually gathering up my pile to start with. And yes, I know from previous experience that it will need some serious weeding down.