Library books

Much to my delight and consternation, several library books that I had placed on hold came in at the same time, which means for the first time in quite a long time (perhaps since graduate school), I will definitely have to read books in a certain order at a certain pace.

1. The Lord of Opium by Nancy Farmer (432 pages), the much-longed-for sequel to The House of the Scorpion, is due on 10/9 and cannot be renewed.

2. Likewise, the ILL book Silesian Station by David Downing (306 pages), the second in a six-book series, is due on 10/8 and cannot be renewed.

3. The problem is Rose Under Fire by Elizabeth E. Wein (354 pages), the sequel to Code Name Verity, which is due on 10/9 with three renewals but is practically certain to have a hold placed on it by some other heartless library patron with admittedly good taste. So I should read it soon lest it be snatched away from me.

4. Then I have three books that will be due on 10/20: Blood of Tyrants by Naomi Novik (431 pages), the eighth Temeraire book which I may not finish, and two young adult books that follow Elizabeth E. Wein’s The Winter Prince (each under 200 pages).

5. But my second non-renewal ILL, Thrones, Dominations by Jill Paton Walsh (310 pages), due 10/27, is a book in a series that has two books before it that I have not read. So if I want to read this one in series order, I will have to read two other 300-odd page books first.

This list is regardless of the books I have gotten from others and for myself for my birthday, which are wanting to be read but do not have time limits on them. Checking out seven books from the library at once is not excessive. It isn’t. It’s a perfectly reasonable thing to do. And if I had the leisure to do nothing but read, I could enjoy reading all seven of them in about ten days, give or take a day.

Only I have this thing called work, and I have also started a large writing project. So I will read The Lord of Opium, Silesian Station, and Rose Under Fire and see what date it is by then.

August 2013

Stuff I’ve Been Reading

1. Murder Must Advertise by Sayers, Dorothy L.
2. Black Glass by Fowler, Karen Joy
3. The Southern Gates of Arabia by Stark, Freya
4. The Nine Tailors by Sayers, Dorothy L.
5. World Made By Hand by Kunstler, James Howard
6. Memories of My Melancholy Whores by Garcia Marquez, Gabriel
7. An Artist of the Floating World by Ishiguro, Kazuo
8. The Winter Prince by Wein, Elizabeth
9. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Doyle, Arthur Conan*
10. Unnatural Death by Sayers, Dorothy L.
11. The Night Circus by Morgenstern, Erin
12. Clouds of Witness by Sayers, Dorothy L.
13. Zoo Station by Downing, David

Italics indicate library books, asterisks indicate audiobooks, and I did not finish reading number three.

It seems to have been a month of mysteries. I confess: I read four Lord Peter Wimsey novels and a John Russell thriller. The other books on the list, while very good, especially The Night Circus, were judiciously inserted between Sayers novels chiefly so that I didn’t gobble up the entire series in a month.

As I’m still reading through the stack of books I bought at the library sale or was given by my parents, I only read three library books this month. Nor do I expect that number particularly to rise during September, when I plan to reread Megan Whalen Turner’s four-book series about Eugenides, and at least two more Sayers books. I will probably also tackle Legend by Marie Lu, and, if it’s as good as I hope, I will want to read the sequel Prodigy right away. So that’s eight books already on the agenda for September, to say nothing of Blood of Tyrants by Naomi Novik, book eight of the Temeraire series, which I have just picked up from the library (where I have three more books on hold, eek).

Plus, September is the month of my birthday, and I anticipate gifts of books, book money, gift cards for books, or, if all else fails, self-indulgent book-buying (Shift and Dust by Hugh Howey, I’m looking at you).

I am a bibliophile, I am a bibliophile, I am a bibliophile. There are too few waking hours in the year to read all I wish to read. The end.

Recent Acquisitions

Here is a list of some of the books I have recently acquired, one set through trips to Half Price Books and to Recycled, the other via the gigantic Plano Friends of the Library book sale. This is probably more money than I have spent on books all year; even so, I am proud of my economy.

• Four Dorothy L. Sayers novels: The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club, Five Red Herrings, Murder Must Advertise, and The Nine Tailors ($2 each)
• The Southern Gates of Arabia by Freya Stark, a travelogue from the 1930s ($1)
• Two Kazuo Ishiguro novels, the last two of his I haven’t read: A Pale View of Hills and An Artist of the Floating World ($1 each)
• Katherine by Anya Seton, a historical novel set in the 14th century ($1)
• Pavane by Keith Roberts, an alternate-history steampunk novel ($1)
• World Made by Hand by James Howard Kunstler, an alternate-history no-electricity novel set in a small town in New York ($2)
• Karma and Other Stories by Rishi Reddi, a short-story collection by a new-to-me-author who has been published in Best American Short Stories ($1)
• Memories of my Melancholy Whores by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, a novella by the master of the novella ($1)
• Galileo’s Dream by Kim Stanley Robinson, in which Galileo gets kidnapped by someone from the far future ($8)

For a Grand Total of $25, I am now thirteen books richer. That’s at least a month’s worth of reading for less than a dollar a day. Which is what I call a Win.

WWW Wed Jul 24

What are you currently reading?

2312 by Kim Stanley Robinson.

What did you recently finish reading?

Five Red Herrings by Dorothy L. Sayers.

What do you think you’ll read next?

I don’t know, how should I know, stop asking me questions, I can’t think–or, for that matter, breathe through my nose. I have a cold and am deeply unhappy about this status quo. I cannot take on any more liquids without sinking, and I cannot pronounce the letter M. Now everyone go away while I pop some more drowsy medicine and crawl back into bed.

WWW Wed May 29

Do be a friend and ignore that this is Thursday. And now that we’ve gotten that out of the way:

What are you currently reading? Cybele’s Secret by Juliet Marillier. First you should read Wildwood Dancing about Tati, then you should read the sequel, set six years later, about her sister Paula. I am only a couple of chapters in, but it is so far excellent. A hunt for a one-of-a-kind legendary artifact? Yes, please.

What did you recently finish reading? Lord of Emperors by Guy Gavriel Kay. This second of two books set in a fantasy Byzantium called Sarantium were so fantastic that I wish there were a third and a fourth. If you know anything about Justinian, Theodora, and their times, the Sarantine Mosaic duology is even more of a treat. I liked these equally as well as Kay’s two Chinese-history-based novels, Under Heaven and River of Stars.

What do you think you’ll read next? Wool by Hugh Howey or 2312 by Kim Stanley Robinson, two recent acquisitions by new-to-me authors.

Meanwhile, I’m at my first week in a new job and loving it so much more than working at a law office. Consider: shorter commute, better hours, better pay, and coworkers I already know and like. Plus, I haven’t had to set my alarm clock once; and as a consequence of waking up naturally, I am feeling more awake throughout the day. Circadian rhythms, people. Don’t ignore ’em.

WWW Wed May 22

Since last week I have finished at one job, moved into a house, and begun another job. I have also read exactly one book since the previous Wednesday, a lamentable report, and yet I feel, on the whole, that this is not altogether without justification, considering the circumstances.

What are you currently reading? Lord of Emperors by Guy Gavriel Kay, the second of two books of the Sarantine Mosaic. This Byzantine-inspired historical fantasy is pretty fantastic, especially the court intrigue.

What did you recently finish reading? Sailing to Sarantium, the first of see above. Concurrently, my husband and I finished reading aloud in the car Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett, easily one of the five funniest novels ever written. We’d been working on it since Christmas, so it feels like a bit of an achievement.

What do you think you’ll read next? 2312 by Kim Stanley Robinson, which just won the Nebula Award. While I was trading in some books at Recycled (hunting, in vain, for Cybele’s Secret by Juliet Marillier), a pristine hardback copy snagged my eye. To make things more perfect, the amount of credit I received for my books sold exactly equaled the price of this award-winner. And since Iain M. Banks endorsed him on the back cover, I plan to give this author another try after my foiled attempt to enjoy Red Mars.

WWW Wed May 15

Oh, hello. It is Wednesday. I am moving. And going out of town tomorrow. Also, I have seven articles to write before Monday. Let us be brief.

What are you currently reading? Sailing to Sarantium by Guy Gavriel Kay. Historical fantasy based on Byzantium. Forty pages in to the first of the two books of the Sarantine Mosaic, I think I will like it.

What did you recently finish reading? The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker. This book was fantastic. Fantastic. The best read of the month so far, by far.

What do you think you’ll read next? Lord of Emperors by Guy Gavriel Kay. I suspect the Sarantine Mosaic is one story in two volumes, so I’m planning to read straight through.

The End