I went on the mental equivilent of a drinking binge last night. I stayed up to finished Robin Hobb’s Liveship trilogy. As a result I skipped exercise this morning, because I cannot function on four hours of sleep.

Saddest part, is that I didn’t particularly like the series, which is why I had to finish it. So I could hurry up and read something else.

Jason has made a resoultion to read 52 books in 52 weeks, which lead me to wonder just how many books I’d read last year. I worried that I hadn’t made 52 (I have to restrain my reading during the semester, or I won’t get any school work done), until I remembered that I’d read all the Robert Parker Spenser mysteries (All 28 of them).

So just to satisfy my curiosity I went back and counted.

Not including textbooks, I read 117 books last year. Not all of them were new books that I hadn’t read before, but still, not too bad.

And I’ve read three (new) books already this year!

No, not the beach or Paris. I spent my vacation reading.

Still enjoying my vacation. Spent a few days in Baltimore/VA visiting my grandmother and other family–it’s good to see my cousin after his 2 years in the Peace Corps. Lots of pictures were taken with the new camera Michael got my for Christmas, but I haven’t installed the software and downloaded the pictures yet.

Why haven’t I?

Because I’m reading Robin Hobb’s ‘Tawny Man’ series. We’d been waiting for the third book to come out in paperback, so now we have the third book, I’m absorbed. (In fact the only reason I’m not reading right now is that I have to go to the grocery store, and knew that if I picked up my book, I’ll not make it to the store this morning.

So no serious posts (in fact I’m hardly checking my e-mail), no dwelling on the news, just enjoying my vacation. Hope that others are able to do the same.

Year’s Best Fantasy edited by David G. Hartwell (2001)

I’m a sucker for short story collections–I love short stories, and fantasy collections are my favorite, so if I come across a collection, I usually buy it. This has, of course, led to some rather poor choices, such as “The Sorcerer’s Academy” and “Earth, Air, Fire, Water”, neither of which I’ve been able to finish. But for the most part collections tend to be good, and help to give me that reading fix, at times when I just can’t get involved in a novel.

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Thomas the Rhymer by Ellen Kushner (1990)

Thomas the Rhymer is one of the books that managed to be precisely what I want to read. The tale is of Thomas the Rhymer, minstrel who falls for the queen of Elfland. The story is told from four different points of view: The longest narrative is from the point of view of Thomas, but the other three are those around Thomas, two of whom are an older couple who take Thomas in.

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We’ve got tickets to see Ani Defranco tonight at the CAC.

Which explains why I’m tired and just want to go home and lie on the couch reading.

I’ve actually been reading. At least after we get our daily dose of DS9. (We’re holding off on starting Season 7 of Buffy and any of the Angel, but that may start this weekend.) But I’ve read some good anthologies, which I’ve been meaning to write more about, but have not yet managed to do so. But for now, I highly recommend ‘Firebirds’ edited by Sharyn November as well as Ellen Kushner’s ‘Thomas the Rhymer’. And despite my earlier protestations, I picked up Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Sword And Sorceress XXI. Mostly because Diana L. Paxson has taken over as editor, although partially because I have a hard time finding anthologies that I really like, and I’ve always enjoyed the Sword And Sorceress series. The other book I’m reading is ‘Year’s Best Fantasy I’ edited by David Hartwell.

And I’m not quite sure what I’m going to read after that. I’ve got several mystery series that look good, as well as (ahem) some new fantasy series that I haven’t read before. Although the temptation is to go back and reread ‘Thieves World’… HEY! VOLUME II IS OUT! MUST BUY! (runs off)

Denial of the Soul (1997) M. Scott Peck

My introduction to M. Scott Peck was the abridged audio version of this book, purchased when I regularly listened to books on tape at work, and preferred non-fiction to fiction. I listened to it several times, but when I chose physician assisted suicide as my topic for my legal/ethical issues in public health class, I felt that I wanted to read the entire book, and have it as a reference, for although I do not agree with all of what he says, I felt that he made many good points that I would want to expand upon for my project.

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Seeing as how I’m supposed to be reading for school and not for fun, it took me the better part of the semester to read this anthology. But that was a okay, as it allowed me to enjoy it for longer, and going back to look at some of the stories as I wrote this, it was like reading them all over again.

The Faery Reel edited by Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling

Any time I see a fantasy anthology edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling, I’ll often as not pick it up, because I know that it’s going to be good. Usually very good.

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The DA has an interesting article on a recently publiched book about UFO sightings in Flatwoods.

Because they don’t think we’re crazy enough here in WV as it is…

(1)
If Paul as an apostle
wrote epistles to his misses
should Ephesians take as gospel
all he said within his missives?

or as skeptics would we wonder
(while with God and stuff we blunder)
why epistle apostolic,
intellectually cause colic?
— Lenny Aniello

or if you prefer…

(2)
A crash reduces
your expensive computer
to a simple stone
— Unknown

or even….

(3)
I believe in coincidence.
Coincidences happen every day.
But I don’t trust coincidences.
— Elim Garak (Cardassians)

When you see this, post poetry into your journal.

(via Erin)

I’m so excited!

I got tired of lugging my personal HTML and CSS books back and forth to work, so I finally asked the boss if I could buy copies for work. She agreed, and so today I recieved:

HTML & XHTML The Definitive Guide
Cascading Style Sheets The Definitive Guide
Dreamweaver MX 2004 The Missing Manual

I’m so excited!

Now, if only I had time to read my new books…

Myths and Legends of Japan (1913) F. Hadland Davis

Although I prefer Royall Tyler’s Japanese Tales (1987), this Dover collection is still well worth having if you like folk tales. There is a discussion and history of the Gods of Japan, as well as a section on Buddha legends, both of which were unfamiliar to me.

There was also a collection of fox legends, which immediately made me think of Erin, who loves fox stories.

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People of the Lie M. Scott Peck

Considering that the book was written in 1983, there were several passages that I found particularly striking.

When it no longer bothers us to see mangled bodies it will no longer bother us to mangle them ourselves. It is difficult indeed to selectively close our eyes to a certain type of brutality without closing them to all brutality. How can we render ourselves insensitive to brutality except by becoming brutes?

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