Text and Java

I officially declare this year to be Year of the Vampire. Having evolved from last year ("Year of the Pie" see: Sweeney Todd, Pushing Daisies, Waitress, etc) from sweetness into darkness, we can only shudder and enjoy it. And enjoy the year of the bloodsucker as I am with the watching of True Blood on HBO, the reading of the Stephanie Meyer books, the Charlaine Harris books, and listening to Vampire Weekend on the, ur...weekend. I also just finished Thirsty which was quite delicious. With a brief side step, I devoured Zombie Blondes (I do think Brian James might be Kurt Cobain's lost twin) but in fairness the zombies acted more like vampires that could walk around in the daylight. More on this as the year progresses...until then, eat garlic.

Had this one been released in June, I think it would have been one of THE books of the summer. I could not put it down. The Good Thief reminded me of Treasure Island crossed with David Copperfield. Adventure, great characters and an enjoyable narrator made this story jump off the page. I felt ten years old again reading it. Now, school has begun and I will have very little time to read for fun. Sigh... I had hoped to compete in the RIP challenge this year, but the History of Russia will prevent that. Hmm ...I wonder if that counts as Gothic horror... I have four History courses and one English this Fall, so I will be reading The House on Mango Street (again) and Toni Morrison's Paradise. Until December, I probably wont be able to fit in anything longer than a graphic novel (perfect for the train.) Those of you who can read for fun, keep me posted on what I will want to catch up on! There is a new Stephen King on the horizon, as well as a new Neil Gaiman . I have Dreams from my Fath...

As summer draws to a close, I find my self eager to get back to school. I think the idea that I will be done in two semesters makes me wish it was over. With the light visible at the end of what has been a very long, but very worthwhile tunnel, I just want to keep moving. Speaking of wishing, this picture just sums up my dream of traveling and hitting the open road. I love the idea of experiencing life in more than one place. I don't understand people who are content to just stay in one place all of the time. Of course, in addition to the camper, I want one of these to scoot around on. I have been doing a last minute rush of reading in order to get in some more fun before it becomes textbooks, textbooks, textbooks all of the time. I read my first Jodi Picoult and I really loved it. She is a much better writer than I thought she would be (breaking my whole "if so many people are reading it, it must be crap" rule see: James Patterson, Nora Roberts, Danielle Steel, etc. I pu...

I picked this one up at work. I am so guilty of judging books by their covers and this one has a very pretty cover. The overall story was cute, but it never really rises above cute. I could have used a little more meat to this story. On one level it was about the main character discovering what she wanted out of life, but Laura either hides her head in the sand or spends most of the book ignoring the issue. Oh, to date the gorgeous Marquis or not the Marquis, that was the question. I think I only liked it because it was British. Evans had more enjoyable secondary character, Mary's story would have been a better novel instead of being a story within the story. But, as it is summer, and I have sworn off heavy reading for a bit, it fit the bill. The major bonus was, at 531 pages, it brings me that much closer to completing the Chunkster Challenge .

I was not going to read Snuff, honestly...I was not. Haunted so turned my stomach that I swore I would not read anymore of Chuck's work (stomach:intestines, bad pun, I'm sorry). But the man is a genius. I recommend Fight Club and Lullaby-my personal fave. In that lovely story, a real estate agent only sells haunted houses because she knows that whoever buys it will only be reselling it in a short time. So I'm sitting at work and the day-glo pink of the Snuff cover is just calling to me, and next thing I know, I'm a hundred pages in. I liked the story. I thought it was well done, but I hated the ending. The work I love the most by Mr. Palaniuk is his non-fiction. He can give quite the education. For example, he writes about life aboard a submarine and the existence of cauliflower ears. Good stuff. My TBR pile is sickening. I just brought home Ibid. A Novel in Footnotes (by Mark Dunn who did Ella Minnow Pea which I loved, loved, loved) and three others. I need a we...

Just finished Pillars of the Earth. The funny thing about this book is that complete strangers stopped me to tell me that they had read it ten, fifteen, and seventeen years ago. I had never heard about it. I saw a lady reading it on the train and decided it fit the bill for the chunkster challenge. So, how is it? Well, the book has its moments. Sometimes I could not read fast enough, and other times I was so tired of reading about mortar or a recap of what just happened that I actually put it down and read other things. I loved Alaina and Jack, but I really loved Philip. It had action, loads of action, it had drama, and it had politics. So, as far as huge books about building a cathedral go, it is my favorite. Weighing that against the fact that I have not read any other books about building a cathedral ...there you go. As for the sequel, I think I will wait until next summer to plow into that. I am playing catch up on my winter reading at this point-all that stuff I had to send back ...

Again, I have been slacking on the blog. Sorry. My only saving grace is that I keep a book journal, so my reads are getting logged that way. I started the book journal in 2001, and it is fun to look back and to see what I have read. It all started when I bought a book at Barnes and Noble only to come home and find that I had read it, in fact I owned it, but they had changed the cover on me. In the meantime, it has been all about school work here. I did squeeze in a trip to the Bahamas. Let me just say that Carnival cruises rock! As my budget is less than friendly, it was an affordable trip that was fantastic. The airfare to Miami actually cost us more than the cruise itself. My idea of heaven has always been a deck chair, some fresh air, and a book. Mission accomplished . Just a heads up for those of you in the Mid-Atlantic region, the Philadelphia Book Festival is upon us. The only one I'm really excited about is Margot Livesy. Eva Moves the Furniture is one of my favori...