By:
On:
In: Uncategorized
Tagged: ,

Yesterday was my favorite quarterly event: the Book Sale at my local public library. I adore this sale! And as usual, my haul amounted to under ten bucks. Here is just the stuff I got for myself: I’m not sure how much, if anything, of today’s haul represents a find that I can hawk on eBay. I was able to sell two of the volumes I picked up at the last book sale for more than twice what I paid for that entire haul, which was nice. We’ll see. Those O. Henry collections may go nicely, as may that TPBDown the rabbit hole….

By:
On:
In: Uncategorized
Tagged: ,

I don’t think I’ve seen this quiz before I ran across it at Sheila’s place, which seems odd, because surely by now I’ve seen (and done) every blog quiz that exists, right? Anyway, it’s about books: What are you reading right now? The Star King by Jack Vance; Wind, Sand and Stars by Antoine de Saint Exupery; The Discovery of Poetry by Francis Mayes; The Forgetting Room by Nick Bantock. Do you have any idea what you’ll read when you’re done with that? Yes. And no. I’ve fallen hard for personal travel narratives, so I have a few of thoseDown the rabbit hole….

By:
On:
In: Uncategorized
Tagged:

We are now making our way through the Little House books with The Daughter, reading a bit of them to her each night at bedtime. I’m missing large portions of the story, though, because she continues reading after we do our requisite fifteen minutes or so, which means that each night I’m picking up quite a ways after the place I’d left off. The books seem really disjointed that way. But one thing I notice is that each time in the books that little Laura gets into some bit of trouble, no matter how small, Our Narrator (grown-up Laura, obviously)Down the rabbit hole….

By:
On:
In: Uncategorized
Tagged:

Ken Jennings, nine days ago: I bet [J.K. ] Rowling’s first post-Harry Potter book -– talk about a hard act to follow -– will be a classic mystery of some kind. I don’t know if it’ll be a hard-boiled gumshoe case, a true-crime police procedural, a classic manor-house throwback, or what, but it’ll be a mystery novel. She’s been writing them all along, after all. It’s just that no one’s noticed. In the news, yesterday: J.K. Rowling has been spotted at cafes in Scotland working on a detective novel, a British newspaper reported Saturday. The Sunday Times newspaper quoted IanDown the rabbit hole….

By:
On:
In: Uncategorized
Tagged:

For various reasons, I suddenly find myself keenly interested in the writings of Anais Nin. Problem is, I’m a bit confused by the titles that exist out there, between diaries and unexpurgated diaries and books that are extracts from her diaries and so on. Can anyone tell me where a good starting point for Anais Nin might be? Share This PostDown the rabbit hole….

By:
On:
In: Uncategorized
Tagged: ,

This week, we’ve started reading Little House in the Big Woods to The Daughter at bedtime. Keeping that in mind, here’s a portion of tonight’s dinner-table conversation: ME: So, are you still reading Little House? THE DAUGHTER: Yup. ME: Ah. Did you get to the attack on the Indian village yet? THE DAUGHTER: What? ME: Yeah, the raid on the Indian village. Did you get to that part yet? THE DAUGHTER: Dad, don’t tell me the end! ME: Oh, but that’s not the end! It’s in the middle of the book…Pa takes a poisoned arrow and nearly dies, though. LaterDown the rabbit hole….

By:
On:
In: Uncategorized
Tagged: , ,

Time for some first impressions on Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, which I finished reading about an hour ago. I’ll color-obscure the text here, so you’ll have to highlight to read it. Oh, and for the purposes of the comments thread for this post, I grant full spoiler power, seeing as how I’m writing spoilers in the post itself. So if you don’t want spoilers, don’t highlight the text below, and don’t read the comments, either! These are all just random thoughts, which I’m plopping out there as they come to me. :: I love that Rowling had itDown the rabbit hole….

By:
On:
In: Uncategorized
Tagged: ,

Cracked.com’s “Six Questions the Final Harry Potter Book Had Better F***ing Answer: It’s expected that the main narrative of The Deathly Hallows will be about Harry’s hunt for the remaining Horcruxes before his final confrontation with Voldemort. If this is true, it means that the final Harry Potter Book will have the same plot as basically every RPG ever made, what with Harry having to “collect the Seven Important Things” to defeat the “loosely explained magic barrier” which will allow him to access the “final dungeon,” and in the end he’ll still be a “massive nerd.” Geez. I hope weDown the rabbit hole….

By:
On:
In: Uncategorized
Tagged:

Some recent reading: :: I was a bit disappointed in Love is a Mix Tape: Life and Loss, One Song at a Time, by rock critic and Rolling Stone contributing editor Rob Sheffield. It’s a good book, to be sure, but it just felt a bit off to me. In the book, Sheffield uses mix tapes as a staging device for describing his life during the 1990s; each chapter opens with a facsimile of those fill-in labels that come with the box for blank tape cassettes, with the titles all filled in with the songs on that particular tape. WhatDown the rabbit hole….