Monday, June 29, 2009

wrapping up and starting over

I think technically round two of the Blame Game was to end June 30, but I hope no one minds if I make June 27 the official end. It's not like it changes anything, after all...I do think it's safe to say that catching Nymeth falls under the heading "impossibility."

There were a few points to be awarded from the time of my blogging break. Though frankly, I think I kept my accumulating pretty low considering the time span. My new measure is comparing myself to Chris...it's easy to look like one's exhibiting restraint when compared to him. :D (And believe me, Chris, it's just one thing I love about you!)

Okay, here's the acquisitions to round out the last game:

The Christmas Mystery by Jostein Gaarder. I didn't actually buy this book. The very sweet and generous Jean sent this book to us. Buy she's getting a point of blame anyway, because she told me about this book and made it sound so wonderful that I would have gotten around to ordering eventually. I'm not going to let her escape unscathed simply because she gave me a copy. ;)



Girl Goddess #9 by Francesca Lia Block. Picked this one up from PaperbackSwap after "anyone care to guess who?" mentioned it on her blog. Yep, point for Nymeth.









Carmen Dog by Carol Emshwiller. Another point for the lovely, but soon-to-be-responsible-for-the-collapse-of-our-entire-house-into-the-basement-due-to-the-weight-of-books, Nymeth. Thanks to this review.









Mockingbird: A Novel of Voodoo, Sisters, and Dangerous Gifts by Sean Stewart. Trampoline: An Anthology edited by Kelly Link. Mothers & Other Monsters by Maureen F. McHugh. Now I really think I could make a strong argument for placing the blame for all three of these on Nymeth, too. I never would have seen them on sale for $1 each if it wasn't for that Carmen Dog review and the handy-dandy link she provided to Small Beer Press. But I'm trying to be a big girl, trying to take a little responsibility for my own actions.








The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon by Stephen King. The Dark Half by Stephen King. Forests of the Heart by Charles de Lint. And speaking of $1 books...these all came from the library sale in a neighboring town. Afraid I'm going to have suck up the blame for these ones myself, too.






And there we come to the end. That's all the books acquired over those last several weeks. (Well, until yesterday, that is...but we'll get to that in a minute.)

Sooooooo...the winner of a heaping pile of blame is...Nymeth!!!! She "made" me bring 28(!!!!) books into this house over the past several months. Are you not the slightest bit ashamed of yourself?!! ;) I'll e-mail you in a bit about your prize, Ana.

*****

Yep. Time to start the Blame Game 3! And yes, there's already blame to be dished. You all have been awful lately, writing such awesome reviews, making a girl crave new books. I can't help it, last night I caved. Someone mentioned hitting the bookstore, and well, there was just no will power to call upon.

So, the first points of game 3 go to:

Hard Love by Ellen Wittlinger. Like I had a chance after this review! Point for Chris!











My Invented Country by Isabel Allende. Points for both Nymeth and Eva for this one. Sorry ladies, but you're both going to have take responsibility...first Nymeth writes this incredible review and onto my wish list it goes...and then Eva has to go and really put the pressure on with her fabulous review. Seriously, no one can fault me for this.





Into the Woods by Lyn Gardner. This is a point for the much-loved, much-missed Dewey. I've looked for this book in the book stores probably half a dozen times, but no one's ever had it in stock. Always knew I would eventually order it. But then last night, when it wasn't even on my mind, it popped right up on a special display. :)






Plenty Enough Suck To Go Around: A Memoir of Floods, Fires, Parades, and Plywood by Cheryl Wagner. How is one to resist a title like that?!! Anyway, no one to blame here. Just caught my eye. But I have to admit that I have this overwhelming urge to blame Chris. (Would that be okay with you, Chris? Can I just blame anything connected with New Orleans on you, and help assuage my guilt over my own shameless buying?)

And there we have it...game three is off and running...

17 comments:

Amanda said...

Okay, I've got to ask - what is this blame game thing??

Debi said...

Amanda,
It's my way of shirking responsibility for the horrendous amount of books I bring into this house. :D I keep all these little notebooks (wish lists) with the books you all make me want when you write your fabulous reviews, and I keep track of who made me want them. And then when I actually buy, or swap, or borrow one of those books, I've got someone to blame. Of course, in the end, it's rather counterproductive...giving someone a gift certificate to buy more books that they'll then write reviews of and make me want...pretty bad logic on my part, huh?

Megan said...

Is it kind of (or "really") pathetic that I get kind of depressed that no one ever seems to blame me for their book purchases/acquisitions? I spend most of the rest of my life trying to dodge blame! LOL! (What? You mean I actually have to talk about books on occasion to acquire some blame? Oh, well, so much for that then.)

I reviewed Hard Love when I was a baby blogger and still mostly just "talking to myself" when I was blogging. Chris is right - it's great!

Amanda said...

That's a cool idea Debi. I try to get most of my books from the library, but still, awarding prizes sounds like a great thing. So how often do you award? Monthly? Quarterly? Is there a group of bloggers that does this? I've seen that bad bloggers thing around, and don't really know if that's related. Dont' really know what it's about actually...I'm so out of the loop sometimes.

Eva said...

oh Debi! You and Chris make me laugh so much. :D And I think you'll really enjoy the Allende!!

chrisa511 said...

LOL..I saw all of your books from Small Beer Press and thought "hmm, those look familiar :p" You'll absolutely love Tough Love...I just know it! It's such a perfect book! And I may actually be to blame for Plenty Enough Suck to Go Around :/ I had it in my library stacks on my blog not long ago. Sadly, I had to return it unread :( But it sounds really good! Maybe you'll get me to check it out again ;)

Debi said...

Megan,
Could you be any cuter?!! Is that humanly possible?!! And I wouldn't count yourself out of acquiring blame quite so fast...there are definitely books in my little notebooks with "(Megan)" beside them. :)

Amanda,
I do count books I get from the library, too...I figure those books are still worth blaming someone over, because they're keeping me from reading the books I already have on my TBR pile. Makes a sort of twisted sense, right? ;) And yah, it's just like Chris's Bad Bloggers...guess there's just a bunch of us out here trying to pass off the responsibility for our book addictions. :)

Eva,
It really is nice that Chris is out there making me look downright tame in regard to book acquisitions. Of course, you make me look pretty restrained, too...the difference being that you look far more responsible than Chris and I because a.) all of yours come from the library and b.) you actually get yours read. ;)

Chris,
Yeah, I was pretty impressed when I saw your purchases from Small Beer Press...it confirmed to me that I'd probably made wise choices.
A-ha! So there was a reason I so badly wanted to blame you for Plenty Enough Suck!!! WooHoo for me...and shame on you! I'm so making you take responsibility for that one now. ;)

Debi said...

Chris and Eva,
BTW, you guys are lucky B&N doesn't stock enough books...I was entirely prepared to pick up Voodoo Season and Monique and the Mango Rains, too, but they didn't have either in stock.

Grad said...

Hi Debi! I didn't know you were back. I like that you keep a notebook with the books you want to have and whom to "blame." I'll have to start one, since it beats the backs of envelopes, old receipts and other odd scraps of paper. Glad to have you back.

Ana S. said...

Hooray, I'm a bad blogger :P I confess I always feel a little guilty when I get blamed for books I haven't read yet myself, but I just know there's no way Girl Goddess #9 won't be awesome, so no guilt!

Dawn said...

You certainly have a big list of books there. I'll be happy to read 10 books this summer. I'm reading one now, but I read it right before bed and don't get much read. I bought it for an online book club last year and never got around to it.

I hope to be by visiting more now that school is out.

take care,
Dawn

Amanda said...

Debi, can I ask again, how often do you award the prizes?

Melody said...

Wow, just look at the books you received, Debi!!! I just love this blame game thing... but I don't think our wallets and our bookshelves will be too happy, LOL!

Happy reading! :D

Trish @ Love, Laughter, Insanity said...

Mockingbird sounds really intriguing! And I have My Invented Country on my list as well (thanks to Nymeth).

And I love one that just caught your eye with no blame--even though you feel like blaming Chris. It's been a long time since I picked up a book just because.

Debi said...

Grad,
Hey, I have those envelopes, and napkins, and receipts, too! They now just end up shoved into the little notebook. :) And of course, that is handier than having them scattered everywhere.

Nymeth,
Bad blogger indeed! Which really makes you a good blogger, of course! :D

Dawn,
I'm so glad you're back to blogging! Hope your summer is utterly relaxing! And 10 books for the summer is a very respectable number, btw.

Amanda,
Sorry, I didn't mean to ignore your question. This is just a thing I do for my own amusement really, and I haven't really had any set length. I think the first time it went on for about 4 months. Then the last game was about 5 months. I'm glad you said something...because I hadn't announced the ending date for this one. It's going to be Oct. 31, which I guess means this one will be about 4 months.

Melody,
Soooo true!!! I honestly need to go on a big purge, because I have absolutely NO room left to put more books in our "library" at all. It's a sad state of affairs.

Trish,
I know what you mean...I sort of miss picking up books just because they sound good. I mean I still do it, but not nearly as often as I used to. Because you all are always talking about so many fantastic ones and I feel like I just must get my hands on those ones first.

serendipity_viv said...

These bad bad bloggers who keep tempting you with such wonderful delights. There should be a law against them.LOL

Amanda said...

Debi, I think I'm totally going to copy you. I hope that's okay. This is so cool.