Sunday Salon...the ban

Okay, I know I've tried this book buying ban kind of thing before. And every time I tried, I truly had good intentions. And still I failed. But hey, that's no reason not to try again, right? And I'm hopeful, really I am. For one thing, I have a lot of inspiration this time around:

1. Nymeth's post about tackling her TBR mountain. Yeah, and I suspect I was not the only one who had a nerve struck with her post. ; ) Seriously, isn't it just easier to face a monster head on when you've got friends doing battle along with you?

2. This:
Our once lovely library. Now there are books piled on the floor and books piled on the table and books scattered through the rest of the house... I'm in the midst of trying to rearrange it a bit, and weed it out a bit. But the bottom line is that there are just too many books for the amount of shelves. It's just become overwhelming. And not nearly as fun to be in there because it's like running a gauntlet just to get to a chair. :(



3. Reading the book Affluenza. Yep, it was the final kick in the pants I really, really needed.

Now I'm not claiming that I now have a will made of iron or anything. In fact, to help ensure success, I'm starting slowly. Very slowly. And I plan on rewarding success heavily to further motivate me. My goals are to buy less. And to tame the TBR piles to levels where I don't have to feel guilty about bringing more books into this house.

So, to buy a new book, I must:

a. If they are books from my TBR pile that I plan to keep, I must read 10. Or...

b. If they are books from my TBR pile that I will then give away, I must read 5. Or...

c. If they are books from the library, I must read 8.

d. PaperbackSwap doesn't count...but I can't buy credits.

Like I said, I'm starting slowly. But I'm hoping that success will lead me to realize that it's really not as hard as I imagined. And thus I will be able to raise those numbers without it leading to failure.

If I really follow through here, I guess there will be less blame to hand out, huh? Of course, I do still have this big box of books sitting here that I brought home from vacation...some of those have blame attached when I finally get around to it.

Anyway, wish me luck...

Sunday Salon...

Been a long time since I've Sunday Salon-ed. (It is okay to turn that into a verb, isn't it?) The reason for my long absence: I'm always so impressed with others' SS posts...they're so well-written, so thoughtful, so relevant...but me...well, I just tend to ramble. But. I've decided it's time to stop worrying so much all the time...I need to stop apologizing for being me.

Thanks to everyone who answered the question about how many books you have going at any one time. I wasn't alone in smiling at Wendy's use of the term "monogamous reader." But when I started thinking about carrying that analogy further, well... Seems I'm one promiscuous little hussy. ;) Perhaps I really should think of settling down. Keeping so many books happy all at the same time really isn't an easy thing to do, after all. But who do I kick to the roadside?

Oh, how I love my quiet moments with Twelve Moons by Mary Oliver.
And well, I've neglected Starry Rift for far too long as it is. The first several stories brought me such pleasure earlier this year. Do I now just toss it aside and forget simply because I'm busy?
And then we have Affluenza and The Jungle. I've made commitments. I must stick with them, for the sake of the child (in other words, they're for homeschooling).
And well, speaking of for the sake of the child, there's College-Prep Homeschooling.
And then there's The Scientists, Africa: A Biography of the Continent, and Collapse. Yes, I've fulfilled my commitments to them. I read as much of them as I needed to for school. But considering the time I've already invested into our relationships, do I now just say "good-bye" without seeing where they might lead?
And finally, there's Oh Pure and Radiant Heart. She's new. She's exciting. She's making me look at the world in fresh ways. I don't think I can bear to lose her right now.

And so you see my dilemma. Perhaps I'm just not meant to be a one book kind of woman. I've had a taste of playing the field, and I just can't seem to go back.

*****

Elsewhere in my bookish world...

I'm rarely one to indulge in retail therapy. Honestly. I'm more likely to drown my sorrows in plate of chocolate chip cookies. But I'm afraid this week my feelings of "overwhelmedness" coincided with Book Closeouts big kids/ya book sale. Yeah, I went a tad overboard. But allow me to rationalize just a bit...a.) how often can you get 29 books for $75?!! (and that includes shipping!), b.) they weren't all for me--I not only bought books for all three munchkins, but I picked up some gifts as well, and c.) some of these books were ones that were high on my wish list so not buying them now for $1.99 would have been stupid when I likely would have paid full retail for them sometime in the next few months.

Okay, before my lovely box of books arrives, I think I should just go ahead and update the Blame Game 3. Not many acquisitions, but all but one come with points to be handed out:

The Planets by Dava Sobel.

Though I've seen this book around since, it was Carl who first brought this book to my attention. Between the nice things he had to say about Dava Sobel's Galileo's Daughter and the extraordinarily beautiful cover on this one, well, I just couldn't help but order it when I saw it on PaperbackSwap.






Normal by Amy Bloom.

No question. Point for Eva. Absolutely couldn't stop myself from immediately hitting our library website and ordering this one after her awesome review.









Where the Wild Things Were: Life, Death, and Ecological Wreckage in a Land of Vanishing Predators by William Stolzenburg.

No points. But I am clinging to the excuse that we're likely going to read this for environmental science this year.








The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness.

I can't tell you how excited I was to find this book at B&N yesterday! Ever since reading Nymeth's review, I have been dying to get my hands on this. And every time we went to a bookstore, I looked for it but no one ever had it. I'd pretty much resigned myself to ordering it, and I almost didn't even bother to look for it yesterday since they didn't have it the last time we were there. But anyway, Hooray!




*****

Do you enjoy sitting outside during the summer, reading and drinking a nice cold beer? Uh, forgive me...I couldn't find any other way to make this next little tidbit bookish in nature.

I'm so excited...we're going to start brewing beer again! (Okay, truth in advertising time: "we're" is probably more accurately stated as "Rich." But I'll help him as needed, and I'll enjoy the fruits of his labor. :D )

Sunday Salon...round 5 (a mini round)

Okay, most of you probably already know about this site (as I tend to live years behind everyone else), but just in case you don't, I thought I'd share. It's called Fifty-Two Stories. I'll bet you can guess what it's all about just from it's title, huh? Yep, each week they post another short story on-line for our reading pleasure. Pretty cool in my book.

Sunday Salon...round 4

Honestly, I have no idea why I'm even posting today. I had a lousy, no make that LOUSY week of reading last week. If it hadn't been for my "vacation," I wouldn't have had much of anything to report in my monthly wrap-up yesterday. Even so, it wasn't exactly a spectacular month. And it was definitely an odd month of reading for me. I didn't notice until I'd published it that the only fiction books I'd read all month were graphic novels. It's not that I'm saying there's anything wrong with that, but it definitely isn't my norm. Nor is it my norm for the non-fiction to outnumber the fiction.

I feel a little let-down that Carl's Sci-Fi Experience is already over. I didn't get a single book read for it. :( I did read a pile of awesome sci-fi shorts though, and am very happy about that. And I am halfway through The Stainless Steel Rat's Revenge. I've decided that I should read a Stainless Steel Rat book each year for the Sci-Fi Experience...it just seems fitting, doesn't it? And they really are just plain fun.

The 1% Well-Read Challenge ended yesterday as well. And yes, I totally blew that one (only read 2/10 books). I know you're not surprised. Nor was I. But yes, I am a glutton for punishment. Yes, (another) 1% Well-Read Challenge begins today.

As for the coming week, at the rate I'm going I'll be happy to finish up the Stainless Steel Rat book and House of Stone (which I didn't have a chance to read a single page in last week). Just seems like there's so much else going on...

Sunday Salon...the third

Today marks my return to the real world. But oh my, was last week wonderful and relaxing...oh, alright, it was downright luxuriously lazy! I spent maybe ten hours working on homeschool stuff, instead of the 60+ hours I spend during a normal week. Cleaning the bathrooms and vacuuming twice was the extent of my housecleaning. I kept up with the laundry for about half the week, then started blowing it off. The kids were with my parents for 3 days. And I totally ignored the computer! Amazing how much free time can be found when one blows off all one's responsibilities. :)

So, what did I do with my week of indulgent laziness? I managed to spend a couple hours scrapbooking. Went antiquing. And watched more TV than I do in a typical month.

And, of course, I read, read, read...two plays, a handful of essays/articles, a handful of short stories, three graphic novels, and five other books. Yes, I do realize that for some that constitutes a pretty average week. But for me, well, we may be talking record-setting here!

But as I said, the real world looms large, so I'm not expecting to add much to the page totals today. (Not that I actually keep track of page totals anyway. Every time I read someone's monthly or yearly wrap-ups that contain page totals, I think I really ought to do that, too...but I just can't get my act together on that one.) No, today's goals include getting everyone ready to head back to school tomorrow (including doing several things for homeschool that I blew off during the previous week), trying to get caught back up on the laundry, and reading as many blog posts as I can before pulling the old "mark all as read" trick.

If I get my act together (yeah, big IF there), this coming week should include lots of book babbling, not to mention oodles of points to award. Oh my. The acquisitions of the previous week are downright shameful. Books from the library, books arriving from PaperbackSwap, books I'd ordered from Amazon, books I bought at various stores, and books I received as gifts. I'm hoping if I spread out the awarding of points throughout the week, no one will notice quite how bad I've been. Or at least maybe you can pretend not to notice, okay?

As for what I'm reading now: I'm still working my way through Mathias B. Freese's short story book (Down to a Sunless Sea). I just started Shakespeare Wrote for Money (which I was absolutely powerless to resist after finishing The Complete Polysyllabic Spree). I'm reading House of Stone (the second book about Zimbabwe this month...and I've got two more waiting for me, as I've decided it's time to go back to allowing myself to following my current whims and stop worrying so much about what I should be reading for challenges). However, having said that, I did just start reading The Strand Prophecy last night, because I realized that while I read a pile of short stories for Carl's Sci-Fi Experience, I'd yet to read a single book (but don't worry, I really did want to dig into this book anyway). Started reading Globalization: Opposing Viewpoints for homeschool last week, though I have no intention of reading the whole book...just picking out particular topics and reading "both sides" of the argument. Also still plugging slowly away in both The Scientists and Africa: A Biography of the Continent for homeschool. I think that's all I have going at the moment, but I'm vastly tempted to pick up The Plain Janes...and I shouldn't be faulted there, after all, I do have to return it to the library soon.

Well, anyway, despite the fact that I now feel completely out of the loop, and despite the fact that my wish list is bound to grow by leaps and bounds today as I bop around trying to catch up with you all, I have to say my break was highly restorative. And I'm actually giving thought to making these blogging breaks a bi-monthly thing.

Salon Sunday...my second time around

Care to guess where I've spent a good deal of my time this past week? Yep, in our newly-completed-at-least-for-the-time-being library! Is it the library of my dreams? Well, yes and no. No, in that it isn't full of floor-to-very-high-ceiling bookcases with rolling ladders and a big work table and enough comfy-sink-right-in chairs for the whole family and a fireplace... But yes, in that we actually have a cozy little room in our very own home to sneak away to read.























































































































































*****

A little late with this week's Library Loot. (Many thanks to our lovely hostesses, Eva and Alessandra.) Annie and I never got to the library until yesterday. But I did pick up a new pile of goodies. Shouldn't have, but did. What I wanted more than anything was the next Sandman volume, but it was checked out. I actually knew it was before I went, because I looked it up on the library's website...but I had to look for myself, just in case. And though it wasn't there, I'm glad I moseyed over to the graphic novels section to check anyway...because I found two other fabulous goodies that I've been wanting to get my hands on!

However, in picking up both of these, I've found myself forced to confront a problem I knew was coming. It involves awarding points in The Blame Game. See, I have all these little notebooks in which I write down "I want that book" books. I also sometimes just write down these titles on scraps of paper and then later stick them into one of these notebooks. I generally write down the book's title and author, along with where I heard about the book. And here is where the problem arises...I sometimes find that I've written down the same book on more than one occasion. And when this happens, who gets the point? I have a similar, yet different problem as well...sometimes I get all excited about someone's review, write it down, but don't get around to actually picking the book up. But then someone else comes along and pushes me right over the edge and makes me immediately seek out the book. I've decided that in both these instances, I'm just going to award a point to each book-pusher involved. I just don't know how else to be fair in doling out the blame.

Okay, after that long, horribly drawn-out explanation, I shall finally get around to showing what books I picked up and who gets the blame:

The Plain Janes by Cecil Castellucci and Jim Rugg. I had this one written down twice. Carl's review and Dewey's review. Point for each of them.









American Born Chinese by Gene Juen Yang. Need more proof of my failing memory? I wrote this one down three separate times! So points are awarded for Alison's review, Nymeth's review, and Dewey's review!








Those are the only point winning library books (though tomorrow's Mailbox Monday will yield a few more), but I did pick up a few other books while there:

Globalization: Opposing Viewpoints edited by Louise I. Gerdes. Swim Against the Current: Even a Dead Fish Can Go with the Flow by Jim Hightower. Globalization and Its Discontents by Joseph E. Stiglitz. Just some books for homeschooling.



























Cat and Fish by Joan Grant. Kitten's First Full Moon by Kevin Henkes. A couple for me and the resident cat-obsessionist to enjoy together.

*****

So what's on my reading horizons for the week?

I hope to read both Amulet: The Stonekeeper by Kazu Kibuishi and Rose by Jeff Smith and Charles Vess for the Graphic Novels Challenge (and because I need to return them to the library). I need to read "Appointment With Death" (the play) by Agatha Christie, Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe by James R. Arnold and Roberta Wiener, and chapter 7 of The Scientists by John Gribbin for homeschooling. I'd love to finish In the Land of Invisible Women by Qanta A. Amhed and Down to a Sunless Sea by Mathias B. Freese. Of course, as usual, I'm sure my goals far exceed my reality.

Sunday Salon

***Warning: I am feeling a tad "chatty" this morning. This portends a rambling, say-nothing-of-consequence post.

My first Sunday Salon post. Not sure what took me so long to sign up, because I absolutely LOVE reading everyone's posts. Don't get me wrong, I very much enjoy reading book reviews and couldn't imagine blogging without them, but there is just something I adore about reading posts where people just chat about books and reading. When Nymeth joined in last week, it was just the push I needed to finally go sign up. I know, I'm such a little copycat.

And speaking of being a copycat, I did a monthly wrap-up post for January. I always enjoyed reading Dewey's monthly wrap-ups so much. Despite the fact that it also made me feel like such a pathetic reader in comparison. :)

On the surface, my January reading list doesn't look all that horrible, but if you actually look closely, it's easy to see how little reading I actually got done. It's definitely one of those months when I look back and grumble a little in my head, "Man, if I didn't have to homeschool Annie, just think what I might have gotten read for fun." But I don't really mean that grumbling...1. I actually enjoy homeschooling, 2. I feel extremely lucky that I'm able to give Annie what she needs, and 3. I generally like all the stuff I read for homeschooling. But you know how it is...that whole "you MUST read this" feeling.

Anyway, while I didn't do so hot elsewhere, my short story reading was definitely up. And that makes me happy, because I really do love short stories despite the fact that I don't always seem to make enough time for them. I have Carl's mini-challenge for Dewey's Books Challenge to thank for the incentive for getting many of those read. Of all the ones I read, I think "The Fluted Girl" by Paolo Bacigulupi was probably my favorite. "Ass-Hat Magic Spider" by Scott Westerfeld was really great, too, in a very different way.

But you know what may have been my very favorite reading of the month? The essay "Bugs in the Brain" by Robert Sapolsky. This is proof that reading challenges are a good thing for me. Despite the fact that I fail to finish so many of them, they do get me reading things I probably never would read otherwise. In this case, if not for the Essay Reading Challenge, I never would have had the guts to pull Sapolsky's book, Monkeyluv and Other Essays on Our Lives as Animals, off the shelf and actually read something from it. I admit it, I get totally intimidated by so many books. Both fiction and non-fiction. I didn't use to be this way. I actually have my own suspicions of why that changed, but believe me, that's a whole new realm of rambling you don't want me to enter. Anyway, back to the essay...not only did I understand it, I absolutely loved it! I'm now so very excited to read his book, A Primate's Memoir. It's one of Rich's favorite books, and though he has repeatedly assured me it is not "above my head," I still doubted.

So, what's on today's reading slate? Well, first of all, I do hope to do some blog reading...I've been so inundated with other things the past week that my blog reading has suffered immensely. Secondly, I hope to read a few more chapters in Africa: A Biography of the Continent by John Reader. (I am really loving this book!) Would also be great if I could make a little more progress in The Scientists by John Gribbin. (I'm enjoying this one as well, but it's slow going. Partially because when I read something for homeschooling, I take notes and write down questions for discussion and whatnot.) If possible, I'd also love to read another story from Down to a Sunless Sea by Mathias B. Freese. (Can't quite get a handle on what I think of this book yet.) And if I'm really lucky, maybe a few chapters in In the Land of Invisible Women by Qanta A. Ahmed, MD. Yeah right, who am I kidding...I'll never get all that reading done today, but it's nice to have goals, right?

One thing, on a reading related front, that we will be doing today is buying blinds for our little library. I'm sooooo excited! After we get those up, I'll have to share photos. We (or I should say "I") still haven't painted the walls (that's just going to have to wait until summer), and we (or I should say "Rich") will probably build some more shelves. But once the blinds are up, it's as done as it's going to be for the time being. And let me tell you, we are absolutely loving it!

***Okay, no complaining...I did warn you right off the top.