Book 20

I am SO behind on this....

I'm on book 20 - The Secret of Lost Things - and there have been some really fun things, but I'm not going to go back and discuss 19 books unless 50 people ask me to, and fewer than that have even HEARD of this blog. So there.

The Secret of Lost Things starts with the funeral of the narrator's mother, so that's fun. It's a very different tone from the detective novels I've been reading and enjoying. Several were by Jon Talton, who wrote Concrete Desert. I like the series, but I've run through it now. Sad. OH - I just remembered there's a prequel. Happy! (I really did just remember - I'm not THAT cute, I swear).

We all know not to judge a book by its cover, but SLT has a picture of a stack of beautifully bound old books as its cover, so I already love it. I am a shallow, terrible person. The end.

Book 9

I finished Concrete Desert today, the first in a detective series by Jon Talton. I liked it - reminded me of Robert B. Parker a bit, who reminds me of Raymond Chandler (actually, Chandler reminded me of Parker when I read him, but chronologically I guess it should be the other way around).

I stopped at my favorite mystery bookstore today and poked around the used books corner. Paperbacks for $1 = love. I got a Robert B. Parker that's a standalone, All Our Yesterday's, and one of the Archie McNally mysteries. I need something that will take me two days to read, but not more than two days, since I leave for Japan soon! Would be kinda pointless to take a whole fourth book just so I could finish the last 50 pages. Not that I wouldn't give up clothes space for book, but when they start to fight with shoe space... I'm such a girl sometimes! :) I think I'll read the Archie McNally first, since it's short and I still have pack and do last minute errands, etc.

I love summer. Reading a novel in the middle of the day is the best feeling.

Book 8

Finished The Big Sleep after painting my nails blue. Choosing a book and a nail polish color are my biggest concerns this week. Lovely. Raymond Chandler was very fond of similes.

Next up is Concrete Desert, by Jon Talton. My parents know the author, which is cool. It's sort, so I should be able to finish it by Wednesday / before I leave for Japan.

I'm going with my family to see my Japanese relatives, whom I've never met, and to take my grandmother's ashes back. I'm sad that she's gone, but she was so sick at the end, it's also a release. It was clearly her time.

Japan also presents the issue of which books to take - several long flights to get there and back, and then about 10 days of the actual trip - not that I think I will have much time to read when I'm not airborne. I think I'm going to take A Game of Thrones, Sara's Key, and The Book of Air and Shadows. I also have some free things I downloaded to the Kindle app on my phone. Should last me a couple weeks ;)

Book 7

Finished The Darkest Road. Epic end to epic trilogy was epic. So much awesome I am incoherent.

I'm going on to The Big Sleep for book 7, because I think that's about as different as I can get in tone, and I need to settle after the glory that was Fionavar and the grandeur that was the trilogy.

;)

DONE

...with 2/3 years of law school! WOOOOOO!

Read an entire novel yesterday afternoon - it was great :) Dead in the Family

Still need to finish the Fionavar tapestry trilogy, but that was a little too heavy for the day after finals. After Fionavar, I may move on to The Ghost Orchid, which I bought yesterday with 33% off coupon from Borders as a present for myself for surviving the year.

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms!!

Supposed To

I am really supposed to be working a final paper for class. Really.

I am really supposed to be reading Darkest Road so I can finally move on in the 52 books project.

I am really supposed to be doing some sort of WORK right now.

Instead, I am blogging, sitting in a coffee shop with a friend with a stack of papers next to me (that I am hoping will spontaneously generate a memo for class). I have also been reading This Time I Dance! which I got from my aunt at Xmas. I was, I admit, pretty skeptical at first, since my strong, over-indulged inner cynic does NOT do self-help books, but I'm actually enjoying it. I skim the parts that get a little too...gush, but the story - Harvard Law grad / corporate lawyer turned writer and creativity guru - is reassuring and exactly what I need to hear (or read - let's be picky) right now.

I would like to use my JD (assuming I get it) to pursue some sort of community activism / grassroots movement / advocacy. Possibly in the Pacific Northwest. And write fiction. And sleep well, through the night, and wake up not exhausted.

So. I'm putting that out there.

And, having admitted that (and having locked my cynic in a broom closet while ignoring her strident protestations), I do feel better :)

Questions and Sun

I was asked today what feminism means to me. I will forgo a discussion about how unfair this question is, given that academics who spend their careers on this discussion have yet to come to a consensus. I think it means having a choice and being a given a chance, regardless of any labels whatsoever. Can you do this? Can you think about this? Are you capable?

I didn't read today, although I meant to. It was a beautiful day. I sat outside and talked with a friend, but I didn't read for school for for 52 books or anything else. The world is becoming beautiful again, and I love it. It does, however, make it difficult to concentrate or focus on anything other than the fact of sun on my face and wind playing with my dress. I wouldn't change a thing.

Timing

I'm still only about half way through The Darkest Road, and I need to pick up the book at the library by Saturday. And go to class, read for class, prep a paper, get ready to help host a student conference, and see a friend who's in from out of town. Yeesh.

We also have to register for classes in a few weeks, and I'm still waiting to see if I get a stipend for the summer for doing public interest work. If not, I'm going to have to get a job so I can make some money, on top of my real legal job. And create a public interest directory and possibly volunteer for another organization... Thank god this is all stuff I want to do (with the possible exception of getting a part-time paying job). And keep reading and try to finally finish a story I start. And breathe.

I am so ready for summer. This week we are getting a hit of it, sunny and highs in the high 60s - low 70s :) I'm starting to think I'm solar powered - which makes it a little odd that HB and I are thinking of moving to Seattle after graduation. And by thinking, I mean we REALLY want to. It's a great town. The job market sucks, but at least apartments are cheaper! Timing is everything...

Will power

The new Kim Harrison Book, Black Magic Sanction, is ready for me to pick up at the library :) I'm about half way through The Darkest Road, and I need to finish this week, since the library will only hold the new book until the 3rd. (How is it almost April???)

More reading this morning, then off to help with another epic food night with JBH and HB. I think there will be around 10 of us tonight. I'll have to try not to overindulge...but it's hard when the indulgence is so delicious! Empenadas and margaritas and pina coladas, oh my!

In other news, it's raining, and I don't like this. But highs in the 70s are predicted next week, and I'm starting to believe it's almost real spring!!

40% off coupon at Borders extended through today. I don't really NEED anything, but it would be 40% off!! I'm such a sucker. And I do love buying books, and bookstores generally. Bookstores are to me what Tiffany's was to Holly Golightly. If I can refrain from buying a book and having several too many of anything at dinner, I will bow in awe to my own will power. If...

Book 5

Finished The Wandering Fire and immediately started on The Darkest Road (Finovavar Book 3), which arrived from amazon just in time. In the same shipment was the Griffin AirCurve Amplifier for iPhone, which works like a charm. It's nice to see that, with all the stunning technological advances of the last century, we have finally come full circle back to the gramophone.

I'm still loving the Fionavar trilogy, and the major Arthurian tie-in seems to work. I was a little worried at first: "After such a great start in The Summer Tree, please don't turn this into King Arthur fanfic! Please!" Oh me of little faith. Book 2 was great, and book 3 so far is, too - though I'm only about 50 pages in so far.

I was going to go right in to more Kay after Finonavar, but I think something different, as a breather from the intense awesome, is called for. Sort of the opposite of a palate "cleanser." Maybe one of the detective novels that is on the list, something like that. I'm 3rd in line for the new Kim Harrison book from the library, too. That would be good. Read faster, people ahead of me in line! Read faster!

New Books

I bought The Hours and A Song for Arbonne at Elliot Bay Books today. The used books were pretty picked over, so I just went for retail. I really just wanted to buys SOMETHING because it was 80% off, but then I realized that that would be kinda stupid...

I'm still working on The Wandering Fire and will probably rely on amazon for the last book in that trilogy. Arbonne is also by Kay, and may be next after Fionavar, unless I need a break from high fantasy. I was going to buy A Game of Thrones since HBO is making a series out of the book, but a friend of mine owns it, so I'll just pillage her library.

Long trip home Sunday, so I'll get a bunch of reading done, though that will mean that break is over. Good thing I only have one class on Mondays!

Delay

Well, the Elliot Bay trip got postponed due to icky weatherness. But that led to shopping with my mom, so it's not too tragic. Tomorrow!

Also: A list of things I have not read and am not reading now:
Thomas Aquinas's Treatise on Law (it's part of the Summa Theologica you know)
Ginormous excerpt from something else about "law" that is really too long to be called an "excerpt." It's a work in its own right. I don't even want to see the book it came from. You would think that law school would have cured me of a fear of big books, but you would be wrong.

Student fail. But it's spring break, damn it! ;)

Morning

I work up early and thought about going back to sleep, but then I realized if I had some coffee, I could just stay up and read! (Of course, now I'm blogging instead...)

Today is going to be a booky day, because this afternoon I have big plans to go to Elliot Bay Books, one of my favorite bookstores anywhere. They're moving at the end of the month, so I'm hoping to find some good "clear it out so we don't have to pack it!" sales :) http://www.elliottbaybook.com/

The other big wonderful news is that I got a MacBook! iHappy :D I went to turn on my old PC and it flipped me off and refused to function. Nice. So on to the Apple Store! It's like a shiny white promised land, and my pretty white MacBook is a thing of beauty and a joy forever. They tell me that in a few years, IT WILL STILL WORK! Golly!

I hope the legions of people who read my blog are all having lovely days, too!

BREAK!

Oh, spring break, how I love you.

I'm visiting my parents for the week, and my sister is here for a long weekend. Lovely.

I finished The Summer Tree on the flight out here and moved right on to The Wandering Fire. I still like it, though I have some hesitation about how the second book started... But I think it will be OK. I still like the language and the epic, high fantasy tone. Yay for book four! I'm really going to have to pick up the pace come summer, though, if I have any hope of completing this project. 48 to go!

I woke up a little cranky this morning, because I did not wish to be conscious. My parents and sister went to breakfast, and after two cups of coffee, I am feeling much more human. Caffeine!! No idea what we're doing today, except watching the Oscars this afternoon. Pacific time, so they start at 4pm or something crazy like that - but at least it will be over at a reasonable hour. I'm not rooting for Avatar for anything but technical awards, which is the only area in which I think it excelled. Still haven't seen Up but really want to. District 9 was great. I hope the Academy makes the right choices (i.e. agrees with me!).

Readings

I am supposed to be reading Thomas Aquinas's Treatise on Law, so of course I'm reading The Summer Tree. If only reading of any kind counted for credit. And now, of course, I'm blogging instead of doing my school work. 5 more minutes...

Also, how is it MARCH? Seriously, how did that happen??

Book 3

Lovely, lazy Sunday morning...

I know a book is good when I put off making coffee - the elixir of life, the magical brew of sanity and joy - to read. I am loving The Summer Tree. Really beautiful prose, classic good/evil, light/dark conflict, mages and prophesy and a volcano... what more could a girl want? It's definitely the first in a trilogy, in that it's setting the stage, giving all the background, but manages not to lose the reader in all that. Nice not to be lost.

I had a discussion with a poet / law student friend of mine about the line between beautiful and florid prose, and the conclusion we reached is that it's a hard line to see but a far too easy one to cross. (That's not much of a conclusion, is it? More like, obvious answer is obvious, and the answer.) Maybe it's like pornography, or ugly: I can't define it, but I know it when I see it. Kay stays on the good side of the line, and it's delicious.

Reading something like this also helps when I write - except when I'm torn between wanting to read and wanting to write, and I end up having my time sucked down the YouTube...

Going to see Percy Jackson and the Olympians this morning, because before noon it's $5 at the theater we go to, and that's about all I will pay to see this movie. But it looks cute, and at least the special effects will be better on a big screen.

ETA: However, if I were a character in The Summer Tree and my best friend went off to be a sacrifice, I might have a reaction stronger than "Yeah, that sounds like something he would do..." But that's my only big complaint so far. And, to be fair, it is HIS DESTINY ;)

:)

I had a great day and just want to gush about it.

It started with reading The Summer Tree. I'm about a quarter of the way through and I really like it so far. Several different stories going on at once, but not too many, and there is actual progress, not just continually introducing new elements. Then a hot shower, coffee, and off to school. Reading for Adoption and then for Sexuality and the Law - both excellent classes, and I actually look forward to doing the readings. They're back to back in the afternoon, though, so I have class for 5 solid hours.

Then acrobatic pole dancing class, which is less titillating than it sounds, since the focus is on the acrobatics. We do lifts and spins, all of which requires a lot of strength. It's sort of like vertical yoga, with some dance elements. I finally did a lift! You have to hold on to the pole and pull yourself off the ground using just your arms - which is hard if you have NO upper body strength. And it's not like just hanging from a bar, since you have to actually pull yourself up a vertical pole. This class really is making me stronger!

Drove home listening to loud music (30 Seconds to Mars), and now I'm going to waste some time poking around the internet before crawling into bed with my book and a somewhat early bed time. Mm, sleeeeeep....

The Banquet Has Defeated Me

A friend of mine made a fantastic Spanish food banquet on Saturday night, and it was epic in its amazingness. Amazing in its epicness. Delicious.

I can hardly move. I only have one class this afternoon, but it's unclear if I'm going to make it. So much rich food (Sunday night leftovers, too) that my body isn't used to, and my entire system is rebelling. All I am capable of is curling up in bed and sipping water. I managed some toast about an hour ago, but that's it.

At least The Summer Tree is off to a good start, and we're past the whole "Strange guy shows up claiming to be a Mage or something, and skepticism is required, so I am skeptical!" part, and now they have traveled ("crossed") to Fionavar. I'm enjoying it so far, and Kay can have a beautiful turn of phrase. (I wasn't sure quite how to structure that sentence, but some of his descriptions are lovely. There.)

I agreed to give a friend a ride in half an hour, so I should probably get dressed. And move...

2 down

Fifty to go! Finished Death on the Nile during a very lazy morning. I was right about the guilty party, but only in a vague way. Anyone else would have been less satisfying. Nice little mystery, classic Agatha Christie. And it was fun that it was set in some of the same places in Egypt I've read about in the Amelia Peabody series by Elizabeth Peters.

I love Fridays. No class, but it isn't really the weekend yet, so it feels sort of like stolen time, a happy limbo between weekdays and weekend, with nothing I'm "supposed" to be doing. I can do crazy things like actually finish a novel! Dinner tonight with my grandparents, which is always nice.

I had a very normal but somehow very good week. I never really realized - as obvious as it sounds now - how much my mood colors my day until the mood changes. It helps that things are beginning to settle. I have a job for the summer, finally completed a long project, and finished two books! Yay me! The job part is great, especially since I have friends who are still interviewing. Schadenfreude? Nah... They'll all be fine. I just like being finished.

On to The Summer Tree!

Book 2

Half way through Death on the Nile. Someone finally died - time to exercise the little gray cells! I got this copy of the book from a great little book store that specialize in mysteries: Big Sleep Books http://www.bigsleepbooks.com/. My favorite part is the used book corner with $1 paperbacks and $5 hardcovers :)

I'm so glad it's Thursday. No class tomorrow, plenty of time to read and finish my second book of the project. And catch up with Glee. My friend introduced me to it and now I'm hooked.

I think my next book with be The Summer Tree. It's the first in a trilogy, but the other two have been published, so no worries about being able to continue if I like the first one. Which is more than I can say for other things...like Name of the Wind! Curse you, Patrick Rothfuss. CURSE YOU! Ahem. By which I mean, I love you and want nothing more than to read your next book.

But SERIOUSLY.

Requested!

I requested three of the books on my list from the library. Love this system of not having to pay for new hardbacks!

A River in the Sky by Elizabeth Peters (Amelia Peabody series)
Dead in the Family by Charlaine Harris (Sookie Stackhouse series)
Black Magic Sanction by Kim Harrison (Rachel Morgan series)

All three are the latest installments in ongoing series that I like - fun, easy reads. I'm also planning to reread some of the books in the Spenser series by Robert B. Parker, who died recently. RIP

I'm about a third of the way through Death on the Nile. I was reading on Valentine's Day morning (aka Singles Awareness Day), and this girl stole her best friend's fiance and married him, and now the ex-friend is stalking the newlyweds on their honeymoon. Seemed appropriate for the day!

I had such plans...

I finished my first book of the project, and it only took 4/52 weeks. In all fairness, it was one of the longer books on the list and I was getting used to a new semester, but still - a month to read one novel?? Ugh

AND Glass Books of the Dream Eaters ends on a cliffhanger! Literally! Well, he's hanging by a rope from a dirigible, but STILL. It's functionally the same, and equally as annoying. Though I liked the book overall, it was frustrating in the sense that it raised a number of questions and answered almost none of them, so there was very little satisfaction. But I suppose that's what you get for reading book 1 in a series.

On to Death on the Nile next - the little gray cells!

So close...

to finishing my first book of this project. And about time, since I'm now pretty far behind. It's made even worse by the fact that I bought 7 books from amazon (thank you, birthday gift cards!) that are sitting on a shelf of my new bookcase. It took me and another law student 3 hours to assemble this lovely tower of particle board, but now it looks great - especially full of books!

I'm excited to finish my first book and move on - probably to something short and easy so I feel like I'm making progress...

Books

The List:

1. Glass Books of the Dream Eaters
2. Gardens of the Moon
3. Tigana
4. The Summer Tree (Fionvar 1)
5. Fionvar 2
6. Fionvar 3
7. Wuthering Heights
8. Dreams Made Flesh
9. The Meaning of Night
10. The Historian
11. Mistress of the Art of Death
12. Les Liaisons Dangereuses
13. Catch 22
14. Left Hand of Darkness
15. Farwell to Arms
16. The Once and Future King
17. The Book of Air and Shadows
18. Sense and Sensibility
19. The Girl Who Played with Fire
20. The Forgotten Garden
21. The Poe Shadow
22. Shadow of the Wind
23. The Angel’s Game
24. The Book of Lost Things
25. The Book Thief
26. The Firm
27. Death on the Nile
28. The Beautiful and Damned
29. The Dangerous Affair
30. Concrete Desert
31. The Secret of Lost Things
32. The Archivist
33. Snow
34. The Forgery of Venus
35. The Last Dickens
36. The Glass of Time
37. The Name of the Rose
38. Shelf Monkey
39. Dracula
40. The Somnambulist
41. The Big Sleep
42. Belle Canto
43. Against Love
44. The Art of War
45. Laughter of Dead Kings
46. Witchlight
47. The Hours
48. Tipping the Velvet
49. The Sonnet Lover
50. New Kim Harrison (February 23rd)
51. New Elizabeth Peters (April 6th)
52. New Charlaine Harris (May 4th)

Alternates
- Guns of August
- Man and His Symbols
- The Hero with a Thousand Faces
- House of the Seven Gables
- Portrait of a Lady
- The Anatomy of Deception
- New Patrick Rothfuss
- New RBP (Spenser)?
- The Secret Garden
- Emma

The alternates are for 1) if I finish early or 2) if I really can't stand one of the books and decide to abandon it, though I have to give each of them at least 50 pages. The books do not have to be read in the above order. The project is to be completed by January 18, 2011. Those are the rules.

This is on top of all the reading I will need to do for my second and third years of law school. With any luck, by the end, my new bookcase will be full and I will still have a chance of getting my JD.

First

The goal is 52 books in a year. Novels - nothing read for law school counts. I started blogging about this at another site, but, well, I wanted to reserve the blogspot name. The first book, which I have almost completed after 2 weeks, is Glass Book of the Dream Eaters. Very weird and very fun and very much not about jurisprudence.