Steampunk? More Like Steam...no.

I had some unexpected free time after work yesterday, and as I was walking home, I passed the train station Waldenbooks (our train station has magical glass walls, so its insides are visible). It said most of their stock was 50% off, so, despite still working on about four books, and having an insane number on my shelves to finish, I went in.

And guess what was left! After all the manic shoppers and bargain-hunters and slow browsers had gone through, they left me a copy of Rules of Civility! Happy day! For those unaware of it, Raych at books i done read recommended it out the wazoo, and as I highly respect Raych and her love of writing things in caps (it's really the only way to go), I put it on my to-read list and put it on hold at the library, but it was taking FOREVER, so owning it now is excellent. Also, look at that cover. How can you not want to own that book? It's got a '30s lady reclining! That's what I want to do all the time! Only without the Great Depression and segregation and all that other stuff. Nope, just me and my chaise longue, with some guy in an uncomfortable chair next to me, and both of us looking fantastic.

I've also actually finished some books in the last few days, which is crazy. They are Soulless by Gail Carriger and Beauty Queens by Libba Bray.

Here's the thing: I really, really love steampunk. Or at least I want to love it. I'd never read a steampunk novel before Soulless, and it doesn't seem super-steampunky in any case, because it's mainly about vampires and werewolves and having tea, and dirigibles are just mentioned in passing, as well as some brass goggles. But I was pretty gung ho about this book since it was labeled steampunk, and then I read it and was generally disappointed. Alexia Tarabotti (the heroine) seems like she'll be awesome, but she kind of keeps coming up short. Also, she and Lord Maccon (the dude she's secretly into) have this weird relationship that's basically romance novely, which is weird because you're like "Wait...am I reading about vampires and werewolves in Victorian England, or am I reading about two people gettin' it on? I don't object to either, but I thought I was reading the former, and now I don't care about the plot (which is super-lame anyway) because I feel like I'm reading fanfic, which means the plot is irrelevant."

As my friend Julie said, "Least Convincing Will-They-Won't-They Ever." And there was also this part: "She was nothing more than a soulless spinster, lacking both subtlety and grace. Lord Maccon was a peer of the realm, Alpha of his pack, owner of a considerable quantity of property, and, well, somewhat stunning."

My Kindle notes say "Smacking of Twilight! Smacking of Twilight!" in much the same tone as one would read "Danger! Danger!", because Miss Tarabotti is supposed to be this empowered (for Victorian times) individual, and the second she's around this guy, she gets a tremendous inferiority complex that reminds me an uncomfortable amount of Bella Swan mooning over Edward's innumerable perfections. I quote from Twilight: "'Well, it would be nice if I could find just one thing you didn't do better than everyone else on the planet.'"

Ah, realistic characterization.

Unless you're looking for hot and heavy action in Victorian clothes (and who isn't?), I'd give it a miss.

As for Beauty Queens, I hate to give it short shrift, but I don't like taxing your attention spans. I agree with everyone else. It was light, it was fun, it had some really good messages, and it's made me want to read more Libba Bray. She's hilarious, and really creative.

George Eliot Was Not What One Might Call "Attractive"

Reviewing. I suck at it. Other people are good at it, and I respect that. While I'm slightly bummed that my book blog is rarely about specific books beyond "*insert title here* is kickass and you all should read it" or "This way sucks," if I tried to make it just book reviews, it would be tremendously boring, no one would read my blog and I'd sit in a corner crying while trying to come up with hilarious things to say on facebook.

I'm sure if I sat down and looked at the format of people's reviews, I could synthesize some stuff and come up with a non-horrible way of doing it, but 1) that sounds boring, 2) too much effort, 3) while I appreciate other people reviewing, I don't think I could do it without sounding like everyone else. Boo.

With this in mind, I want to talk about George Eliot. How do we all feel about George, or Georgie, as I'm sure she would totally prefer? (not really) My feelings sway depending on how much frustration she is currently causing me. Because Georgie is the Queen of 19th c. Fanfic, but she sometimes opts not to use her powers, and this is irritating. When she decides to make two characters hopelessly pine for each other, she uses just the right amount of angst, hand-brushings and long, soulful looks. When she decides to do something else, we have to endure pages about the Reform Bill of 1832. PAGES.

She's also very big on Men. Not men, but Men, who are characterized by their clear brows, piercing gazes, sturdy hands and forthright natures. These Men achieve things by the work of said sturdy hands, and while they might not subscribe to orthodox Christianity, they believe in doing Good where they can and letting a Man do as his conscience dictates. I don't know where she got so hung up on this type, but that guy appears in almost all her books.

I've read all her novels at this point except for Daniel Deronda, which better have some kind of romance, damnit (shh! don't spoil me).

For those who, like me, want Eliot fanfic novels, these're the ones that pass muster:

Scenes of Clerical Life
Adam Bede
Middlemarch
Kiiiiind of Felix Holt the Radical

These're the ones that don't and therefore suck:

The Mill on the Floss
Silas Marner
Romola (dear GOD, Romola)

I loved Mill on the Floss until the last third where it started SUCKING. All I remember about Silas Marner is that it was boring. Most people have to read it for high school, and it's short, so it's the only Eliot they're assigned, and that's a shame. As for Romola...good lord. No. Don't even do it unless you concoct some idiotic plan when you're 19 to read all of Eliot's novels because Middlemarch was soooo good and therefore they all must be. Oh yeah, also, don't read Middlemarch first since it's the fricking best one and all others will be a disappointment except for a certain couple in Adam Bede that is adorable but doesn't have enough space given it in the novel.

Aw, I miss Victorian lit. Does anyone have favorite Victorian authors/novels to recommend? And we're leaving out Dickens, because he IS Victorian England.

"Which Seat Will I Take?", the Eternal Friday Question

Hello, Readers. It's Friday, Friday, Gotta Get Down on Friday. It's ALSO the 100th post on here. I know, that's crazy. So I'm having a giveaway again, which you should enter, because I'm sure this book is good. Yeah, that's right. I haven't read it. But I have two copies of it, and I want to give one of them to you. You specifically. I feel like we have a close bond that maybe we should explore through the mailing of the printed word from me to you. (note: this close bond entails nothing else, however disappointing that might be)

GIVEAWAY giveaway GIVEAWAY giveaway GIVEAWAY giveaway GIVEAWAY

Hurray! Get the book that people I'm sure have called "stunning," "a tour de force," "a riveting journey through the lives of others," "multifaceted and exquisite, much like some fancy diamond thing," and "super-good."

Also, look at the girl on the cover. How adorable are those boots? Plus it's got 'hedgehog' in the title, which is a way more hilarious word than the French version (this book is translated, btw), which is 'hérisson.' Which basically sounds like the name 'Harrison' without the 'h.'

Just write a comment and thou shalt be entered. I guess this is open untillll ummmmm Sunday night at 9 pm CST, because that's Chicago time, aka Super-Awesome Time.

edit: Okay, on the side it says I've made 90 posts. What this means is I have ten unfinished posts dating way back. That's right, there are TEN posts that been withheld from you. So this is 100 Posts Celebration #1. Celebration #2 to come in ten more posts.

Covering All Media Platforms With My Mighty Words

A friend inquired as to whether I had "bragged" (the idea!) about going to a Stevie Nicks concert on every social media platform. I thought about it, and the answer was that while I had indeed spoken of it on facebook, twitter, google+, gchat and spotify, I had not mentioned it on my book blog. So let's just remedy that up right now.

I SAW STEVIE NICKS IN CONCERT LAST NIGHT AND IT WAS AMAAAAAZING.



There were many people dressed like this, only not pulling it off quite so well



How does this relate to books? Excellent question. Yes. Well...yes.

Ah-ha! Interviews count as reading too, right? Totally. Let's not be all snobbish and only stick with "book" books.

Here, I've gone through a very thorough website (I didn't go through it thoroughly, but the site itself is impressively thorough) and found what I'm going to assume is the best interview, based on the fact it's the only one I clicked on.

Playboy's 20 Questions With Stevie Nicks

This is from 1982, which probably means she was high as a kite the whole time. What fun indeed! There are also lovely quotes such as "My ballet teacher believes that my head was cut off in another life, too. I totally give with my body except for my neck."

Oh, 1982 Stevie. And to be honest, probably Right At This Very Moment Stevie, too. But she's one of those people who, if she said that, you'd probably nod enthusiastically. "Totally! I see that! Why else would you be hesitant with your head? It defies any other explanation. I LOVE YOU, STEVIE."

There's also Playboy asking "How do you maintain your cosmic connection considering the pressures of fame and wealth?" Oh, 1970s/'80s. You so crazy.

I tried looking up a New Yorker interview, but apparently that's never happened. So that was just me being ridiculous. Whatever, if I ran the New Yorker, we'd interview Stevie Nicks all the time. There'd be a weekly feature called How Stevie Feels About That, and it would be both awesome and hilarious, because it would ask her about things like those rubber-bracelets-shaped-like-things that were popular for a while. Silly Bandz. "How Stevie Feels About Silly Bandz." And each article would be an in-depth discussion. We'd occasionally bring in other people so they could have a dialogue, but it'd be people like Slavoj Žižek and Angela Merkel. I'd totally read that every week.

You hear that, magazines? You hire me as your editor, and you get that kind of gold. Think about it. Bam! Thought too long, opportunity's passed you by. It's a fast-paced industry. Gotta stay on top of things.

I Am Reading Things!

So today's supposed to be What're You Reading Monday or Mailbox Monday or...something. I had a harsh weekend, guys. By which I mean A SUPER-AWESOME FUN WEEKEND, but I stayed up too late every night and now I am at work and tired. Oh, hindsight! Why cannot you ever be presentsight!

As is usually the case, I've started about twenty books and am "actually" reading maybe three. These are the current ones:

Doomsday Book - This is pretty rockin', but smart enough that when I was all lazy over the weekend, I thought '...nah, I'm gonna go with something unthinky.' That's when I picked up:

Beauty Queens - OMG EVERYONE IS READING THIS. And by 'everyone' I mean absolutely no one I know in real life, but all book bloggers. Or at least all book bloggers who are willing to read YA lit. Which, let's face it, is most of them. I was hesitant, but so many people have given it stellar reviews, that I figured what the hey. And thus far (like a third through) I am enjoying it.

For those unaware, it's about a group of teenage beauty queens whose plane crashes on a desert island and they have to survive. It's extraordinarily tongue in cheek (sometimes too much so -- maybe) and overall, I like Libba Bray's sense of humor. I've never read anything by her before, but apparently she did that whole A Great and Terrible Beauty series that people either love or hate.

The Parasol Protectorate - C'mon. Steampunk. Vampires. Parasols and tea. I forget where I first saw a reference to this, but it seemed up one of my many alleys, so I put it on hold at the library. Then it was taking A BILLION YEARS (two weeks) to come in, as everyone else in Chicago is trying to read it, so I scanned Amazon, and RIGHT HERE they have a Kindle bundle of the first three books for $10. A STEAL, since one alone is $7.99. I'm absolutely not far into it at all, but here's a sample:

Purely by chance, the heavy tip struck the end of her wooden hair stick, driving it straight into the vampire’s heart. The creature stood stock-still, a look of intense surprise on his handsome face. Then he fell backward onto the much-abused plate of treacle tart, flopping in a limp-overcooked-asparagus kind of way.

Not the best of examples, but whatever. It is lighthearted and fun and involves poofy dresses, which is all I need really.

So! Those're the main things. I haven't abandoned Moby Dick or The Princess Diaries; I've just been ignoring them. And life is busy, yo. Do you have any IDEA how many tv shows I'm supposed to be watching? It is almost beyond belief. And they are all excellent. AND I HAVE NO TIME. WHY, LIFE, WHY?

In Which I Speak at Length About Something I Don't Understand

Ok, blogging world. It's just you and me this morning. And I have been on a sleep deficit since Friday. So just imagine this entire blog entry in the stumbly voice of a drunk. Because that's what it would sound like if I were reading it aloud.

Late last night when I couldn't sleep, I asked people on twitter (I am @flubdubs, by the way, o ye fellow twitterers) to name an author for me to blog about today. I got a few answers, and I toyed with the notion of writing a story where they all hung out, possibly at a lake, riding in several swanboats while shouting witty things to each other. But I am too tired. So instead I'm going to write an ill-informed article about Ray Bradbury.

Ray Bradbury is someone I thought was dead. But according to Wikipedia, he is not dead, he is just very very old. I also thought he was a supporter of polyamory, but it turns out I was thinking of Robert Heinlein (who IS dead, so if I were writing this article about him, I would've been right twice so far instead of wrong twice).

According to Wikipedia, Bradbury wore dorky Carl Sagan glasses and smiled in a vaguely awkward way. He also wore ugly '70s suits, but I cannot verify if he only did this in the '70s, as I am not going to go out of my way to do a google image search. What? You really want me to? Ok, fine. For you, I will do this.

Tan suits: the nerd's choice



Oh right, that's not a recent picture of him, that's a picture of him and Carl Sagan. Here's a more recent picture:



This is clearly the greatest man ever

 Also, those look like pretty much the same glasses as in the '70s, so good job, sir.

Bradbury wrote Fahrenheit 451, which is actually a super-kickass book that I love a lot because Mildred Montag and her three TV walls make me feel guilty whenever I watch Law & Order: SVU for 12 hours straight. He also wrote The Martian Chronicles, which apparently is a short story collection about "the colonization of Mars by humans fleeing from a troubled and eventually atomically devastated Earth, and the conflict between aboriginal Martians and the new colonists."

*re-reads synopsis* Hey, that sounds pretty good.

Bradbury was married for 56 years and never got a driver's license. Unless Wikipedia's bullshitting me, which it has been known to do. Some people love him and some people hate him, so really he's like every human being ever.

Fellow Bloggers, we should totally pick authors we've heard of but know nothing about for each other to write blog entries about. Also my workplace should have a nap room, but it doesn't, because it's not cutting edge. Damn you, Everything!! *shakes fist*

Books and I Have a Casual Relationship and I Want It to Stay That Way

Have you guys heard I Was Made for You by She & Him, Zooey Deschanel's band? Oh, I'm sorry, her "American indie country duo" (thanks, Wikipedia)? Anyway, it's awesome. I heard it in the background of The Sarah Silverman Program and thought it was a '60s girl group song. But no! It's a 2007 American indie country duo song that SOUNDS like a '60s girl group song.

"Stuff and nonsense!" you cry. "Be this a book blog or a recommend-things-at-random blog? A pox on you and your song!"

Well, fine. Have fun depriving yourself of catchy happiness.

How do you guys feel about books? I was reading Amanda from Zenleaf's new blog (Mandaland, for those unaware) and in one post she discusses how when she had a book blog she got more obsessed with books than she felt she truly was. Meaning, as her normal, un-book-blog-owning self, she read sometimes, but it wasn't something in which she invested a lot of time. Which seems to be mainly why she discontinued that blog and started one about her current life interests.

I read a decent number of blogs who talk about books with this kind of obsessive devotion. "The book is the thing"? Anyway, they're very into them. And the people who write that way also tend to read extremely quickly, so they post about new books at a frenetic pace. If I were at all catty, I would also mention that these books tend to be bad.

Here's my deal: yeah, books are swell. I object to people acting as if liking books automatically makes them more intelligent than someone who doesn't necessarily like reading so much. My best friend is brilliant and hilarious, but isn't inclined to spend her scant free time reading. Everyone has to know people like this. So there's that lovely thing. I tend to always travel with a book, but mainly because I dread boredom, not because I must needs be near to my love, The Book. But my mom bought me a book of quotations ABOUT BOOKS. Like, just about the concept of a book. And I was kind of like "Umm....?" Only not in a shitty mean way, 'cause I love my mom. But I don't have an attachment to the concept of "a book." Sure, it's great. But the people who seem to love the idea of A Book are also the people who say "At least the Twilight series has girls reading."

No! No! I would infinitely prefer that those girls watch the fantastic 2004 Battlestar Galactica series than read Twilight. It being a book doesn't mean it's intrinsically good, or better than a quality tv show.

How do you guys think of books? And if you DO think the concept of a book in and of itself is fantastic, don't be cowed by my disavowal of this opinion. I can be a jerk and totally need to be put in my place now and then.

Excuse Me, But I'm Very Important and Busy

I do the opera singing, yes? Yes. And that, with my day job and church obligations (did I mention I am a Most Holy Elder at my church? Not that we're supposed to call ourselves that, but this is my blog, so bam), means I don't have a lot of time for ye olde reading. And when I DO somehow get a free day, my mind goes "Ehhhhh you don't REALLY want to read, right? You can watch reruns of Daria. That seems like a productive use of your time."

Anyway, the fall is when young artist program auditions mainly happen, which means I should be cloistering myself in a practice room (i.e. my bedroom) for hours on end, only coming out to grab the occasional tub of hummus and then skulking back. So of course this is the time when I have not two, not three, but FOUR books I'm really excited about. FOUR.

1. Picnic at Hanging Rock - This is one of my favorite movies. And I just added up the different movies I've seen (...I have a boring job; I don't recommend doing this, for you will weep over the time lost in your life) dating back to 1931, and it's at least over 1,000. So out of ONE THOUSAND MOVIES, Picnic at Hanging Rock is probably in my top 10. I looked for the book at the library, and the entire Chicago library system has one copy. Which I am currently reading. It has lovely lines like "Even as a little girl, Irma Leopold had wanted above all things to see everyone happy with the cake of their choice." 

 It's pretty slow, like the movie, but in a lovely way. If you don't know it at all, it takes place in 1900 in Australia, a group of schoolgirls goes to Hanging Rock for a picnic (eh? like the title? see?) and four go missing. If you require closure, this is perhaps not the book for you.

2. Doomsday Book - OMG I AM INTO THIS BOOK LIKE WHOA. But it's currently on pause, because it's way long, and Picnic is like 200 pages. But it involves time travel and the 1300s, and BOTH those things make me really happy. And guess who was the queen in 1320? ISABELLE OF FRANCE. Who is one of my favorite monarchs of ever. She's the French princess in Braveheart played by Sophie Marceau, WHICH, by the way, is one of the only positive portrayals of her in film. She's commonly perceived as terrible, but she had a super-shitty life thanks to her husband Edward II, so let's all cut her some slack and remember she was the mother of Edward III, who was kind of cool, yes? Sure.

Oh yeah, the book. So I've read a bit of it and it's amazing. Like, as I read, I get sad, because there is thusly less of it. Boo.

3. The Crimson Petal and the White - This looks so fricking good I can barely contain myself. It's postmodern and Victorian, which are my two favorite things, because things being meta STILL blows my mind. Like, in Possession, when Byatt's talking about fairytales and is all "Because we all know, don't we, that the elder two brothers must fail and the youngest must win the hand of the princess" (or something like that), and I was AGHAST because you know these rules but you don't TALK about them.

So yeah. This looks great, but it is also massively massive, which makes it difficult to carry around the streets of Chicago without looking like a hunchback. Plus I got those two others mentioned above.

4. Beauty Queens - By Libba Bray. This is probably the least laudable of my selections, but I've seen it praised in like three blogs. I mean, Lord of the Flies for ladies? Okay. I tried reading Lord of the Flies twice, and I put it down both times, because I was completely bored. "Hey, I wonder what'll happen if we put a group of young boys on an island." "OMG They're HORRIBLE to each other!"

Don't try telling me it's about other things. Because I don't care about those other things. This book is described on Amazon as "Teen beauty queens. A Lost-like island. Mysteries and dangers. No access to email." I mean, all righty then, sold. I'll read that. And it's currently sitting on my bed along with these other books.

Whatever, I can have opera AND books. Sandwich and Floyd. All! I can have it all!

I can't find the appropriate gif of Liz eating the sandwich, so here's the Cheesy Blasters song:

Top 10 Underrated Books (According to Moi)

There is a difficulty with this particular Top Ten Tuesday, which is that I tend to love books everyone else loves. This is a continual source of frustration for me, as I am a unique and delicate snowflake that cannot be like everyone else, and yet I keep being presented with evidence to the contrary. So excuse me while I scour the depths of my 'read' section on Goodreads...

1. The New York Regional Mormon Singles Halloween Dance - Of course. I'm still WAY into this book months after having read it. My mom was in the hospital a month or so back, and when she came home, she'd lay in bed and I would read her chapters from this to keep her entertained. It's hilarious and insightful and well-meaning and I super-love it.

2. Kissing the Witch: Old Tales in New Skins - Emma Donoghue! They're like short stories, but not quite. They all link up to each other. She knows her fairytale shit, let me tell you. Because you can only mess with something effectively when you know it really well, and she takes old fairytales and reworks them in a non-stupid way. I love Emma Donoghue.

3. How I Became a Famous Novelist - I've mentioned this before. I love everything Steve Hely writes. So in this, a guy's ex-girlfriend's getting married, and in order not to look lame at her wedding, he decides to write a bestselling novel. Steve Hely makes fun of almost every popular literary genre. It's great.

4. I Know I Am, But What Are You? - Samantha Bee wrote a book and you should read it! Yes, I'm way into comedic essay collections and recommend a few of them. BUT you should know that I thusly have some kind of discernment. Would I recommend I Was Told There'd Be Cake to you all? No, I would not. Because I respect you, and that collection's just not that good. But this one's awesome.

5. Auntie Mame - It's not really underrated. Lots of people know it's great. But it's my favorite book of ever, and it should be on every list. Except for, like, Books That Suck a Lot. Because it does NOT.

6. Gaudy Night - There's a detective series from the '20s and '30s. It's called the Lord Peter Wimsey series, and it's by Dorothy L. Sayers, who was buds with C.S. Lewis and some of the other Inklings. Anyway, there's an English lord, and he solves mysteries while being witty. If that sounds AT ALL appealing, you should read the whole series, although it starts off not-so-amazing and gets really, really good by Unnatural Death. All I'm sayin' is I never read detective fiction, but I love it. And Gaudy Night is the best one, and all about Harriet Vane, Oxford-educated detective writer and love interest of Lord Peter.

7. Sideways Stories from Wayside School - This was popular when I was like 10, but I fear it's falling into obscurity. No! This must not happen! The Wayside School series is fantastic and must endure!

8. Fingersmith - If you're at all into lgbt lit, you've probably read Sarah Waters's hugely popular Tipping the Velvet. I'm tempted to put that on here, but if you're at all squeamish about ladies doin' things to other ladies, it's best to stay away from it. Fingersmith also has an lgbt slant, but it's mainly a good Victorian era novel about thieves and madhouses. And I LITERALLY dropped my jaw at least twice.

9. Invitation to a Beheading - I took a Nabokov course in college where we read eight of his books. EIGHT. I didn't even really like him; I just liked the professor. Anyway. He's okay. This book is amazing, though, because you have to put away all rational thought while reading it. No trying to figure out where the story's going, because it's completely abstract and random and insane. The semester I read it was a particularly exhausting one, and I remember staring in frustration at a page, trying to read it literally. It didn't help that I was also taking a Dickens course that semester. Whatevs, it should be read. Also Pale Fire and Pnin.

That's it. I ran out. Not foisting on you some okay book that I falsely call underrated. But the others should pretty much be read by everyone. Because they are all awesome.

In Which the Heroine Discovers Awesome Things

Yeah, I'm the heroine here. Because it's my blog, damnit. And I'm 5'2" and spunky, which we all know is perfect heroine material.

Anyway, this weekend has been surprisingly awesome so far. And I'm going to tell you all about some pretty great things that you should be aware of in order to lead a happier, more fulfilled life.

1. Tig Notaro is hilarious. Like...you don't even know. Unless you've heard her new standup album, in which case right now you're shouting "OMG I KNOW. I KNOW. AMAZING." It was rec'd on twitter, and I clicked on it right before bed, being like 'Eh, sure, I'll check this out.' Look, just go here. It's an mp3 of one of the tracks. You will laugh and then be a happier person.

2. The Sarah Silverman Program is on Netflix Instant, and — hey! HEY. I saw that dismissive look. No. You watch it and you laugh. I've spent the parts of my Saturday that weren't spent trudging around Chicago eating ice cream watching that. That might've been a confusing sentence, but hopefully you stuck with it.

3. Cheap books! Omg cheap books! Right, this is a book blog, so this post has something to do with those. I stick to my subject, damnit. No one say otherwise or I will point to this as evidence. Ok, so Open Books, which I've pimped out before, is the best bookstore in Chicago. If you're here, and kind of meandering around and like 'Oh, hm, I could really use some cheap, awesome books,' GO TO CHICAGO AND FRANKLIN. It's off the Brown Line. And it's GREAT. And their proceeds go to literacy programs. And yes, Chicago has a street named 'Chicago.' I get that that could be confusing.

The book part of this post is actually a bit longer than a paragraph, which is as it should be. Since I've been watching Hoarders, I've been trying to get rid of the things I've accumulated. Or at least a couple of them. I've been hoarding books. I admit to it. So I had like 15 to take to Open Books, as all their books are donated. I woke up at 7:30 this morning, and despite not having a voice lesson until noon, convinced myself I didn't have time to get to Open Books and back.

I'd basically decided not to go, when my friend Julie posted on twitter with "Really tempted to go to Open Books today. Must resist."

FATE. Great, giant, squishy fate! So off we went, post-voice lesson, and I dropped off my massive quantity of books and then bought three more. BUT the three more cost $6.50 total. My gosh, I love Open Books.

 

That's Outlander (greatly beloved by Sarah at Sarah Says), Doomsday Book by Connie Willis, and The Crimson Petal and the White, which was ONE DOLLAR. When they get multiple copies of things, they put the extras on the dollar shelf. AGH I LOVE THAT STORE SO.

Julie picked up two Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries, and Possession, which everyone should read and love. And then we walked to Old Town and got ice cream. Chicago in the summer is not nearly as sucky as I make it out to be on twitter.

Oh yeah, and I started The Crimson Petal and it's amazing and wonderful and I think I would marry it I weren't living in an obviously unenlightened society. It's like, hey, I'm an American, not a Soviet! I have rights, Mr. Rules Man! Maybe someday we'll get there. Someday.

Things I Am Currently Putting Off Reading

Ooh, according to Rachel at Books In The Sun, there's a thing (that's perhaps her own awesome invention) called Wednesday New Read Roundup, which is absolutely perfect, because I add books to my to-read list all the time without reading any of them.

Some of these I don't remember adding, but okey dokey:

Anno Dracula, Kim Newman - My friend Naomi recommended this. I shall read it.

The Collector, John Fowles - I forget how I stumbled across this. Probably while reading about serial killers, as I do that a disturbing amount. Did I mention my lovely first date story, where we did bar trivia? I didn't know that many of the answers, and it was hideously embarrassing, but then the bonus round was Serial Killer Monikers, of which I knew 4/5. Yeah, there was no second date.

Lilith's Brood, Octavia Butler - Who told me to read this? Anyway, it's on my list. And I'm gonna check it out.

Born in Africa: The Quest for the Origins of Human Life, Martin Meredith - Who doesn't want to read about the origins of human life? No one!

...And Ladies of the Club, Helen Hooven Santmyer - This was actually added just now while talking on the phone with my mother. She says it's swell. It's about a fictional group of women in Ohio who start some kind of study group. And it spans generations and so forth, as do most novels about women nowadays. Whatever, who doesn't love Ohio?

I have an unspeakable number of books on my to-read list. These are the most recent. Let's see if they can't be read within the next five years.

Moby Dick: This Book Seems to Be Somewhat Lengthy

The Field Museum -- our natural history museum here in Chicago -- has a special exhibit about whales. My friend and I went last Saturday and mainly made fun of whales, because we are part of a cold and unfeeling generation (I did, however, cry during the last episode of Hoarders I watched), but it was interesting enough to make me go 'Hm. Maybe I should look at Moby Dick. Sperm whales look pretty badass.'

I have been warned off Moby Dick for years. "Read Bartleby! Moby Dick's not that important to read,' cried my professors. And I fully believe that's true. But one of my brothers has read it, and he won't stop lording it over me (WHILE saying how horrible a read it was; thanks, Rodney), so I have to at least try it.

It has been noted many times previously how similar the attempt to finish Moby Dick is to Captain Ahab's obsessive hunt for the white whale. Will Ahab finally catch it? Will I finish this book? I know the answer to one of those questions.

Melville seems like a stand-up guy. He also writes some crazy-long sentences. Check this one out:

Though I cannot tell why it was exactly that those stage managers, the Fates, put me down for this shabby part of a whaling voyage, when others were set down for magnificent parts in high tragedies, and short and easy parts in genteel comedies, and jolly parts in farces—though I cannot tell why this was exactly; yet, now that I recall all the circumstances, I think I can see a little into the springs and motives which being cunningly presented to me under various disguises, induced me to set about performing the part I did, besides cajoling me into the delusion that it was a choice resulting from my own unbiased freewill and discriminating judgment.

Yeah. That's one sentence. And the thing is, I kind of enjoy long, meandering sentences because it shows how well one knows the language. If you're just starting French, you can say something like "J'aime le futbol." Which is great. But once you've taken years of it, you can have a sentence with commas and asides and everything. Ah, language. You are swell.

I am also reading The Princess Diaries. I have decided to compare the two. Here is my first comparison chart:

So, so far, not much similarity. But I have faith that there will be some. Oh yes. There will be some.