Last year's book post was an effective way of keeping track of what I've read, so I'm doing it again this year. Of course, my resolution to read "smarter" books is pretty quickly going out the window, but hey, reading is reading.

( Onward! )

This book ("Soulless," by Gail Carriger) looks like it might hit a good reading nerve for lots of my friends. Described by the author's agent as "if Jane Austen were to write a Victorian Steampunk fantasy, this vampire/werewolf comedy of manners...". It lost me at steampunk, which I just personally abhor, but it otherwise sounds like a delightful romp.

Also, I caved and bought myself a Snuggie at Costco this weekend, after jealously watching how comfortable Drew is in his. And my god, is it comfortable. I feel like a sad American stereotype in my blanket with arms, but it is like being wrapped in a soft cloud of comfort. Perfect for watching dvds of some dude on PBS travel to Europe and stay in fancy hotels. How can I get that job?

How is it September already?? I call shenanigans. Where did my summer of summerfun go?

So on Saturday for Drew's birthday celebrating we shuffled up through the rain to Portland to check out Novare Res, a belgian beer bar. That place is awesome. I can't wait to go back sometime, though I do wish I could pick it up and transport it down to Boston. It was so amazing that so many people braved the trek, we had a fantastic time and hope everyone else did, too!

So I'm currently reading this book and am so enthralled with it that I'll be sad when I've finished it (likely to be on the train ride home). Well written young adult dystopian future fiction. It feels so good to be reading a compelling book now, the last few I've read have been total duds. I need stuff that makes my time on the elliptical speed by!

I can't say enough good things about this weekend. Yay! I spent most of my day off on Friday lazing around on the couch reading a a really good book. Then Drew and I went to Gulu-Gulu for a couple of beers, got a pizza, and lounged at home. Saturday was ms_ntropy's annual 4th of July pool party, and as a special bonus, we got to see the fabulous doplar all day! Sun! Fun! Yesterday Drew & I walked to Beverly, found some secret beaches that will definitely warrant repeat visits, and walked back to Salem to get lunch at a place on Pickering Wharf. It was a hale and hearty walk. By that I mean: my feet still kind of hurt from all that walking. But it was worth it to soak up some sunshine.

Ok, so getting into North Station an hour late was not the way I would have ideally started this day. My train had to push a disabled one most of the way. Also, the book I'm reading right now is scary and was totally freaking me out on the train ride.

This weekend was pretty amazing, though. I had a birthday and am now no longer a "fabulous 20 something." But lots of great company and good food makes that worthwhile. Yesterday I spent the day at Fenway with my dad. Of course, I got up to pee at exactly the start of the Red Sox's half of the 9th inning, and thus was in the ladies' when the game winning home run was hit. D'oh.

Now to start another week of work.

I recently made the mistake of reading some particularly unfortunate books by Meg Cabot. Leaving aside my feminist problems with a character whose defining personality trait is her obsession with the averageness of the size of her pants, these things just were not well written.

Since I've been filling my brain with absolute garbage this year, I think it may be time for me to embark on a reading program. That list is bad ass. I am entertaining the idea of attempting to start a meetup.com book club group as motivation to actually attempt this list. Though being in charge of something like that would make me feel like I should have more of a clue about literature and stuff.

So I recently discovered that Goodreads runs a ton of book giveaways. On a whim I entered for a few books that looked interesting, and lo! I won a free book. It arrived today, so it's totally legit. I just have to review it online once I'm done. Sweet!

Also, this article kind of supremely freaks me out.

This weekend was so fantastic. Joss Whedon's talk on Friday was surprisingly illuminating and interesting. Saturday we threw a party that I hope was as much for everyone else as it was for me... despite the ill-advised drunken beer run in impractical shoes. Ow. Spilling a 30 pack of PBR on the street is embarrassing.

So the Kindle is making it really too easy to purchase crap books. I just tore through a fluffy chick lit mystery book (Janet Evanovich's One for the Money) and already bought the sequel because it was there and it took like a minute to download it. And now I think I've been sucked into a series that is going to turn my brain into mush. I need to figure out how to get Project Gutenberg books onto the Kindle so I can balance the candy books with actual literature.

Because Drew is totally the best husband in the whole world, I now have a Kindle! OMG, so exciting. I usually lug around at least one, sometimes two, books with me at all times, and I can't quite wrap my head around not having to do that any more (or as much, because let's face it, we can't walk into a bookstore without buying something). I do have some philosophical issues with the idea of licensing books and not really owning them, but... technology! Buying books whenever and wherever out of thin air!

Also, I feel like I have now fulfilled a childhood dream of owning a computer book. As kids my brother and I played Inspector Gadget, as children of the 80s did, and I had a big field guide to birds that I used as a fake computer book. My brother always had to be Brain. No one wanted to be Gadget. I was recently thinking about The Net, and how back in the 90s it seemed like the craziest idea ever to order a pizza online. "Pshaw," I said, "I will never be so lazy that I can't pick up a phone and call for a pizza like a normal person." Today I am willing to sacrifice and not get the tastiest local pizza because I just can't be bothered to order from a place that doesn't take online orders. People, we are now living in The Future!

We have a lot of books. I have learned this by studiously boxing mine up and adding to the enormous stack of Drew's books. I wanted to weed my collection more than this, but I just can't part with books easily. That said, I do have a list of books that I'm going to drop off at goodwill or something soon, but I thought I'd post 'em to see if anyone wanted any free books. I'll warn you that for the most part, there's a very good reason why I'm not keeping these books, many of them are terrible.

( list o' books )

Well well. To make up for the crappiness that has been February, today was actually a banner day. Got tickets to see The National in May. We went up to Salem to poke around and get a lay of the land, and while there three marvelous things happened. One: Went to a couple of bookstores with the vague hope of finding a book that I have been hotly anticipating for a year. Since it's not supposed to hit shelves until March 1, I was prepared for disappointment. But lo! One store had it on shelf early. Then we found a cupcakery in Beverly that has amazing cupcakes. Like, better than Lyndell's. And it was supposed to close at 2:00, but somehow was still open when we got there a bit past 3:00. These cupcakes are so good, seriously you guys. And then, on our way back to Somerville, the radio played a brand new My Chemical Romance song (shut up, I love them). Finally, we topped our day with a Metafilter meet-up and the Cinematic Titanic show at the Somerville Theater. Success!

When I'm really stressed I dream about the bunnies getting loose and being hard to find/catch. Last night involved such a dream, not only did Robocop escape, but Grendel was hitting Beef Wellington on the head with a briefcase. The briefcase was actually Drew's thingy that he keeps his Magic cards in, which is actually pretty proportionally correct for a Grendel-sized briefcase. I find that oddly hilarious.

So yes, I am a wee bit stressed about the house buying stuff (working around lawyers all the time has made me totally paranoid). But also excited!

I just read what might possibly be the worse book ever: The Last of the Red-Hot Vampires. I can't explain why I bought it other than 1)it was on display in the bookstore in Salem, and 2) it promised a nephilim that gets turned into a vampire with sexy results. The thing makes Twilight look like a piece of art.

Forwarding dating this so I can keep track of the books I read this year. Because I am a nerd!

( Books I've read this year )

Alright, I am at 5,460 words for NaNoWriMo. Which is exactly where I'd aimed to be by the end of today, so I am pleased and proud. Yesterday it was easy, today it was a struggle. I spent most of today holed up in our back room at my little makeshift desk eeking out little bits, checking my word count, wondering how it took so long to just come up with a couple hundred words, repeating that process, wishing I didn't suck so hard. But I have decided that this is something that I really want to do, and when I really want something I usually find a way to make it happen. Being honest with myself about what I really want... that is sometimes a different story. Anyway. Sorry, I promise I won't be posting about the writing project that much this month, I'm sure it's not super interesting for everyone.

I'm reading a chick lit book right now, which I thought I'd never do because I do judge books by their covers, but I am surprised to report that I am completely loving it. It's written by a friend of a friend, or a cousin of a friend, I can't recall which, but it's set in Boston and it's about a librarian, and it involves romantic shenanigans. I am now going to reward my tired brain with last week's episode of Gossip Girl, finally, and then will try to not stay up too late to finish said chick lit book. Oh, and this weekend was awesome and tons of fun. I hope I won't have to become a total hermit for the rest of the month to get writing done.

Ok, so I'm reading yet another trashy teen sci-fi novel series: City of Bone and City of Ashes. And things were going swimmingly for about 3/4 of the first book, it was fluffy and entertaining, I cared about the characters, the love story was getting hot. And then ( spoilers, not that any of you will ever read these books )

Anyway, today I was wishing I had my contraband fork that was confiscated at Heathrow. The teeny tiny forks that come in those pre-made salads you can get at the grocery are not good salad eating forks. And I was too lazy to get up and go all the way to my work kitchen to get a regular fork, but if contraband fork had been in my bag, I would have been all set. How sad is it that I was too lazy to get a better fork? It's been a long day already.

John Hodgman last night was totally awesome. As a bonus nerd treat, we also got to hear Jonathan Coulton sing some songs. After the reading we stood in line for a very long time to get our books signed, but it was worth it. Had a brief conversation with Mr. Hodgman and got my book personalized. Now I have to actually take care of it, which means I can't lug it around in my bag where it will be prone to tears, water damage, and general destruction.

And the answer to my question of "what is the next awesome thing" is answered handily in the new book: mole men. I can get behind that.

I just signed up for NaNoWriMo. I will be productive in November!

Also, anyone in the Boston area in need of a last minute trip to the Garment District on Saturday? My costume... is not coming along so well. I may be ditching my original idea and moving on to something else.

Finished Breaking Dawn. Whew. I need something to wash this crack out of my system!

Well I spent most of my weekend consuming media in various ways. And driving to and from New Hampshire- I love driving, especially when no one else is in the car so I can turn my iPod up and caterwaul away to my "emo rock" playlist. Oh, Blink 182 and My Chemical Romance! *ahem*

Anyway, so I spent a good portion of the weekend reading the Twilight series, which I swear must be laced with crack because ohmygod it is so entertaining. I am on the last book in the series, and am kind of sad knowing there won't be more.

Also, finally saw Mamma Mia, which is a total cheese fest, but involved Colin Firth singing and dancing. We spent a good chunk of yesterday watching this British comedy show Black Books- so, so hilarious. I think I hurt myself laughing at some points. And Step Up 2 The Streets is exactly as ridiculous as it sounds like it would be.

Finally, I call shenanigans on the weather. What is up with the rain this summer? It is dreary and needs to cut it out. I'm also desperately in need of more time off, and am really looking forward to the fall when we at least get a few more long weekends. These long weeks are getting to me.

Reminder that Book Club is tonight! If it's too rainy to be outside then I suppose we can end up upstairs at Charlies instead. Hopefully it won't be super crowded, students aren't back in town yet...

I may babble incoherently about the book I am currently reading: Twilight. Yes, the teenage emo vampire fest. I am at heart perpetually twelve years old. And OMG this book is the most delectable fiction confection I've read in a few months. I've had a pretty lucky year with regard to delectable fiction confections, now that I think about it. If this book were food it would be a chocolate peanut butter cupcake and I would want a dozen of it.

Also, Fox News in the morning is more egregiously irritating than usual today. Going on and on about how the "people" don't like the image of Obama as a "world citizen." I know the average American is pretty lame, but can we please not imply that most people don't want a president who can actually be engaged with the world? That is stupid. Grah.

All this week my mental clock has been several days ahead. Yesterday felt like Friday. Today I feel like I'm going to work on a Saturday. I can only hope that tomorrow doesn't feel completely sucky. Especially when I'd rather be curled up on the couch reading.

So yesterday I decided to start the 100 push ups routine, since everyone else is doing it, and I would like to eventually be able to do 100 push ups. Ha. It does not seem possible, but it can't hurt to try. In the initial test I was actually able to hammer out 20 at once, which was surprising because in kung fu class I am usually dying at the end of 10, but in class we do them faster and I think my form is rather poor when doing them fast.

Also, we finally joined Netflix, and I forsee an overconsumption of media in my future. Which is dangerous, because I have not been reading much lately, for want of finding anything that fits the very particular book craving I've been having. I just want a good Victoria era story with a mystery and a dash of subtle romance. But written recently, not written back in the actual Victorian era. And without too much dialect. I am having a really hard finding books that meet my criteria, and have not been feeling the love for anything else. Blerg!

I have discovered a new source of reading pleasure that combines my love of history with my love of gossip- old diaries. Currently reading the 1872-1874 journal of Alice Stone Blackwell, and it is way more absorbing than I thought it would be. She's 14, living in Dorchester, and so far has spent most of the journal mooning over a girl in her school (often taking one of her servants out on night-time horse rides to the girl's house to look try to catch a glimpse of the girl through her window), and going into Boston to get books from the library. She recounts an argument with a schoolmate of her who doesn't support the women's movement because she doesn't want to vote.

I also learned that in 1872, the Boston Public Library was the largest free circulating library in the entire world. Neat! OMG, history is so cool.

I am so loving Borders' "reserve in store" feature. You can search online to see if a book is in stock (or "likely in stock") at locations near you, and then they will send you an email when your book is ready to be picked up! This is amazing. Though I'm not getting my hopes up too much, I went to the Downtown Crossing location yesterday in the hopes of picking up the first book by an author I've just discovered, and was disappointed. But I did find out that there is a brand new book by said author, and it's the third in the series (I'm currently reading the second in the series because I couldn't control my book impulse buying). I love finding new authors for historical fiction mysteries! Especially when they are readable and don't suck. I did check out Porter Square Books yesterday, too, but they didn't have what I was looking for. Where is this newfound middle-class guilt over where I buy things coming from? I'm trying to be a responsible consumer, but it's hard to get away from convenience and cheapness.

Also, with apologies for harping on NPR so much lately, but this blog post on the All Songs Considered blog is really interesting. What is the sound of this generation?

On gray, wet, cold morning such as this, my morning commute music is often debatable. Do I want to wallow in the grayness with depressing music? Or fight it off with cheeriness? This morning I tried to construct for myself the ultimate, most irresistibly happy playlist. It did indeed chase away the gloom. And now I want more suggestions!

So what I'm looking for are songs that make it practically impossible to be glum. Not songs that make you happy because they are so good, or songs that remind you of good memories, but songs that exist on their own as gleeful little entities. ( What I listened to this morning )

In book-related thoughts- I'm reading Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, and I'm not quite sure what to make of it. Can it really be 100% true? It's detailing exactly the kind of "corporatocracy" that I believe exists, but to have it all spelled out as "this actually happened, I really did this" makes me wonder about the veracity of the source. Oh god, I'm such a librarian.

So I spent a lot of this past weekend talking about these books, but I'm gonna do it one more time. Over the past week I devoured two books by Deanna Raybourn, Silent in the Grave and Silent in the Sanctuary. And they were so, so good. A little heavy handed with the thesaurus at times, but I was thoroughly charmed by the characters and absolutely compelled by the stories.

And now I really wish I had a modicum of talent for writing, because I'd love to write a thrilling historical novel. I truly lack any kind of creativity whatsoever, but it would be really fun. I'm now reading Raybourn's blog, and the idea of doing all kinds of research and then writing a book sounds so neat. You'd think that someone who spent her entire life with her nose in a book would have picked up some writing skills.

So that's that. This weekend was fun, even though I did imbibe a bit too much yesterday in boozeahol. Also, Drew is the bestest and I have a usb turntable coming to me! I'm super excited to get all my vinyl into mp3s. And then I can burn non-iTunes music onto cds for people! I know y'all want your very own copy of the 1998 Sub Pop Singles Club.

I will never understand why some songs get stuck in my head. On a fairly regular basis lately I've had Richard Marx in my head. Where does that even come from? And earlier it was Air Supply, but that's acceptable because Air Supply is sweet. But now- the Dead? Why is Casey Jones in my head? Get it out!

Also, you know a book was delicious when you finish the first in a quasi-series and need to run out to Borders the next day to get the next book! Silent in the Sanctuary, here I come!

Being all posty about shows, hows about a list of upcoming shows I'd like to go to, if anyone wants to keep me company?

April 3: Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks (Paradise)
April 20: Neil Hamburger You know you want more Neil Hamburger! (Middle East upstairs)
May 9: Clinic (Paradise)

And of course, there's Rush in February July.

I'm reading Bill Bryson's "The Mother Tongue" right now; it's about the history of the English language. Really interesting, and chock full of neat factoids, but I'm put off by the organizational style of the book. In that, it doesn't feel like it has much organization. So I'm balancing it out with a light read about a Victorian lady solving murders with the help of a sexy mysterious stranger.

Also, Supernatural last night kicked some eff'n ass! What a great show. It brings me much joy.

Local bakery update (not cupcakes!): When Pigs Fly officially makes the best bread ever. Picked up a loaf of sundried tomato bread to go with our lasagna last night, and it's ridiculously tasty.

In sad non-local news, I've been informed that Burgers & Cupcakes has closed shop in New York. But I need it to exist so that once a year we can have one perfect day in New York. That perfect day involves: a heck of a lot of walking, reading books at Vol de Nuit with begian beers and french fries, and then dinner at Burgers & Cupcakes. I am a simple woman with simple needs, and a restaurant that serves only burgers and cupcakes is one of those needs.

Also, I've decided that I seriously need to read more books. Next year will be a year for reading books! I'm reading The Thirteenth Tale right now, which is entertaining enough. But it has reminded me that I never read Jane Eyre, and I think that needs to be rectified. There are a bunch of other "classic" type books that I need to actually read, too. I'm not sure if that will involve Ulysses or not.

I may have linked to this article in the past, but this article makes me jolly.

Seriously, the Outlander series is so good, I have yet to find anything else that compares. I'm totally going to have to re-read them again. Now I want to go to Scotland.

Also, there are huge ads up in the subway for some sort of electronic book reader device, and it says "sexier than a librarian." Bah. I am sexier than an electronic reading device! Besides, books smell good and look nice on your bookshelf. I just can't see Sony competing with that.

So I'm reading Them by Jon Ronson, thanks to Drew's recommendation, and it is awesomely entertaining. I am genuinely surprised by several things: 1) the number of different interpretations on the "New World Order" theme, 2) the number of people who appear to believe that a small secret group is controlling the world, and 3) that people honestly think any group of people is organized enough to actually carry out all the activities that the New World Order supposedly carries out. Dude. Sometimes it's an exercise in futility for a group of us to figure out dinner plans for one night. The book is really quite good, though.

Also, I have the sniffles.

Also, also Drew made peanut butter chocolate cupcakes this weekend and they are delicious. Take that, Kickass Cupcakes! Oh, and a cupcakery review: We tried the cupcakes at Modern Pastry this weekend (from the Medford location). Good, better than Kickass, but not great. The cake was moist and tasty, but the frosting was a bit too thick and definitely too sweet. Good size to price ratio, though. Lyndell's is still the winner, with a close second coming in from Joseph's Bakery in South Boston (my work often gets our cupcake treats for "First Fridays" from there).

Book meme! As seen on ms_ntropy and faux_eonix

( clicky )

I don't mean to be so posty in such a short period of time, but I am. So this morning as I scanned the bookshelves looking for a new book to read, I grabbed Neal Stephenson's Quicksilver, since it comes up so often in Metafilter book recommendations. I ignored my recollection of the several times Drew has warned me away from the book. I should know better by now. Dude. Duuuuude. When every paragraph is stuffed with similes and metaphors, it begins to feel like I'm reading a seventh grade creative writing project (augh, that was a simile, wasn't it?! It's as if my brain is infected with them. Auuuugh!). I got five pages in and decided my commute would be better spent doing that train-nap thing where you nod off and wake up every 15 seconds worried that you just missed your stop.

Anyway, so has anyone here read all of Quicksilver, and if so, would you recommend I stick it out? Otherwise, I'm putting my shiny new library card to use tonight.

So I just finished Harry Potter.

I'll cut this for those of y'all still reading the book.

( a few thoughts )

Wow, where did my morning go?! I got the best reference question ever today, it was to find some "beach reads" lists for this summer, and I just spent way too long browsing around looking at book info (I never get to deal with fun books at work, though I've come to find some of the law books fun, in a sick "I like doing securities research" kind of way). And because I am a huge nerd, I am going to share with you some news that made me squeal with glee in my office and clap my hands: There is a new sequel to Gone With The Wind coming out!!!!.

Hooray! I read Gone With the Wind in 7th grade, and conveniently, the sequel "Scarlett" came out a year later. I loved, loved, loved those books so much. I used to re-read GWtW once a year until maybe my sophmore year of college. Seeing Galway in Ireland last fall fulfilled a years-long dream I've had of seeing that city, which started with reading Scarlett. This is totally the awesomest thing ever.

Speaking of summer reads, I've been on a big "summer music" kick lately. I need some new indie-pop! Any suggestions? I think I like things way more twee than anyone else I know, but jangly, Beach Boys-inspired pop confections are just made for the summer.

Tonight's kung-fu class was awesomely hard. I have not exerted myself to the point of wanting to puke before tonight. Well, maybe back when I played field hockey, but that was a lifetime ago. Sunday night the German au pair in my [kung-fu] class and I went to see a band that a couple of guys in our class are in. It was what you'd expect from a band playing at All Asia, but it was fun and a very enjoyable time. I'm almost making friends in class! It's only taken a year!

Good god, the bunnies are going insane tonight. Beeferton kocked a baby gate over onto himself and it scared the ever living crap out of him. Now Robo is doing lord knows what, but there are suspicious sounds of a bunny getting into trouble in the other room.

I'm starting to get more psyched for my trip to DC for work/conference, as a plan is forming to meet up with some college friends and catch up. Hooray for having something to do after enduring a day of conferencing/working like crazy out of our DC office to catch up on the reference requests that are sure to build up. And hooray for seeing old friends!

Other news: Guitar Hero II rocks my socks, but I really suck at it.

Oh, and also: Book Club: put it on your radar for Saturday the 28th starting in the afternoon. Unless I hear objections from the peanut gallery. I'll send out an official notice soon. The book is World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War.

Hey Boston folks, book club meeting today at the Thirsty Scholar! Come by even if you haven't read the book or aren't really a member of book club! 1:00!

Also, Alien Nation starring James Caan is my new favorite movie.

I'm currently reading a totally awesome book: The Historian, by Elizabeth Kostova. It's so good that I've been liter-ambulating when I've been unable to put it down to walk to and from the T this week. Vampires! Eastern Europe! Archives and libraries! It has it all. Though I've been shirking on the book club book. Speaking of, I will be setting our next meeting soon, I've been waiting to see how the December event calendar is shaping up.

We had a good trip down to MD for Thanksgiving, depsite earning some bad traffic karma by screwing up in a toll lane and nearly getting into an awesome fight when a lady actually got out of her car to yell at me, holding up the toll lane traffic and gesturing wildly at me to get out and join her. Um, no. Who does that?! I think we'll be going the more sane, if a bit longer, route through Pennsylvania from now on. Besides, we got to go through Scranton, and that made me geekily jolly. Also: Dunkin Donuts' gingerbread latte is delicious and is now one of my favorite things.

While at the in-laws', we perused some of their Caribbean vacation brochures, and the lure of taking an actually relaxing vacation someplace warm is starting to sound really good. There are places with bars you can swim up to while hanging out in a pool! I'm not a huge fan of baking in the hot sun, but I am a huge fan of paying for some all-inclusive place and getting "free" drinks while lying around reading. That just may be our big trip for next year, though I will be sorry to miss out on incandes_flower and tenillypo's European Adventure. I think that someday a bunch of us should rent a villa in Italy for a week. That would rock.

I have a confession. For the longest time after reading Beowulf in high school, I thought Grendel was a big old dragon. Then the dragon idea was deflated by "English majors" who apparently have better reading comprehension skills than I. So I then thought Grendel was a big old hairy monster. Imagine my disappointment when watching Beowulf and Grendel and finding out that Grendel was just a lame troll.

Man. My bunny's name isn't as badass anymore.

And, um, wow. That movie was a big old turd. In fact, it is on my list somewhere between the Star Wars prequels and The Mexican, though not winning the Worst Movie Ever award, as that is held by Unbreakable. Inappropriate colloquialisms, unmatching accents, Sarah Polley's wretched "performance," and Grendel peeing on a door for some reason. Ugh. I'd like those two hours of my life back, please.

Anyway, so that happened this weekend (sorry to the folks who saw it Friday, my logistics for seeing it couldn't work until later in the weekend).

But my weekend also involved ice cream filled cupcakes, so I can't complain. Science has proven that they are delicious. And the store has a variety of other pastries that can be injected with soft serve.

So I'm debating whether or not I can go to kung-fu with a rattling, hacky cough that comes upon me every 10 minutes. I don't think I can. I feel tons better, but I can't shake this cough, possibly because my sinuses are a freakin' mess.

For something a little less gross... I've been meaning to post this for a while, but never got around to it. But I'm posting now. Boston folks, I've been running a little book club thing for the past few months, and it's been a lot of fun. I originally set it up by just emailing the people I thought would be interested, but I figure some of you all may have interest and may want to join in the Joy of Reading. So let me know if you want in! We're meeting up on Friday night to talk about "Life With Jeeves," and next month's book is "A Short History of Nearly Everything" (or something like that) by Bill Bryson. Books!

So it looks like a lot of bands are doing things with MySpace, so I gave in and got an account. If you're on MySpace, please friend me so I don't look like a total loser: my thingy. I will then friend you back. Danke!

In other news, this weekend's Book Club meeting to discuss The Gospel According to Jesus Christ, by Jose Saramago, was a smashingly good meeting. The book was good, too! Any day that starts at 1:00 in one part of town and ends at 11:00 across the river has got to be a good day.

c_m_i and I are getting plans under way for a NYC trip in a couple of weeks. We have tickets to see Architecture in Helsinki, and plans to see comedy at Caroline's, a walking & eating tour of the LES, Chinatown, and Little Italy, and a plan to finally explore Brooklyn and check out the Brooklyn Brewery. Can you believe that in all the times I've been to New York, I've never ventured out of Manhattan? That's just silly.

I've finally purchased my own copy of Jordan's Eye of the World. Am convinced that those books come laced with crack. I'll probably be purchasing the next five books of the series in due time, because I need more cowbell super nerdy fantasy fiction. Seriously, I've already read these books, and I have a couple of new ones that look frightfully good (also bought Saramago's Blindness this weekend), but I can't put this down. Send help.

St. Patrick's Day party totally rocked. You folks are all the best! The rest of the weekend involved recovery, purchasing a big ass tv, reading, and watching last week's OC (so awesome! I now have a Volchok problem- seriously, we had to sit through all that Johnny crap when they had a totally awesome bad boy waiting for a plot line?)

I just dropped a wad of cash for the Bates reunion in June, but it feels nice to not have it hanging over my head. So we are totally set. We will sleep in a dorm room, eat overpriced food, and booze it up at Pub 33 and The Goose for a weekend!

Last night was my second kung-fu class, and I think it went pretty well. The instructors said that I was keeping up well with the rest of class, and they were having me do stuff that was more complicated than what they usually start people with because everyone else is training for some seminar they're having soon. I can do kicks and some arm stuff that looks cool! So I committed to going for the next three months (i.e. I paid up for the next 3 months). Yay!

Have finished the March Book Club book, Forever by Pete Hamill. I liked it, it's a good read. I'm really looking forward to the Saramago next month.

This weekend involved so many of my favorite things, it was totally a Jennie's Faves Weekend. First there was singing (and free dinner!) at Jake Ivory's, thanks to cayetana and her co-workers. Seriously, free food, cheesy songs, and huge bottles of Corona. That's a Friday night. There was Buffy watching with tenillypo. I just love that show so much. Am very tempted to buy the big box set, but I've got to get my iPod fixed before I go plunk down $150 or so for dvds.

Speaking of my crapped out iPod- has anyone sent in theirs to get the battery "replaced?" I'm under the impression that they just send you back a new one when you do that... is that true? My battery just won't hold a charge anymore, and I've been iPod-less for a couple of months now, so it's time to do something. I really don't want to have to buy a whole new one if I can avoid that.

Finally, yesterday we got tasty Indian food while discussing our first Book Club book, The Ground Beneath Her Feet. I'm very excited that Book Club is getting off the ground, though not thrilled that our first book (which was actually one of my suggestions) turned out to be so meh. Especially when it was my one of my all-time favorite books five years ago. I ended up finding it very shallow and pedantic this time around. And precious. And pretentious without enough substance to back up the claim to pretension. It wasn't all that bad, just very disappointing to re-read it and have such a totally different experience with it this time around. Anyway, after that we watched four straight hours of Season 6 of Oz. So wonderful! The show totally became a soap sometime in late Season 4, but I still love it.

This weekend was all I could hope for in a weekend. Full of weekend-ness. Watched some Oz with tenillypo (because we have a problem... an awesome problem), and watched some Battlestar with the second circle folks. BSG is starting to grow on me. I love that crazy guy with the imaginary girlfriend. Celebrated my friend Rebecca's birthday at the new and hipster-ific Middlesex Lounge. Fun, drinks, music. That's good times right there. Went over to thiswakingdream's place to watch Junebug (kinda meh, not bad, but not great) and gorge on barbeque (bbq burritos!). Finally, yesterday, thanks to jawalter's suggestion, saw Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story. Which completely rocked my socks off. I'm going to have to re-read that book soon. Oh, and I finished reading The Ground Beneath Her Feet for upcoming book club-age. I have thoughts on it, but I'm holding off on sharing those thoughts until our meeting next week.

That's that.

Time for us to start begging our friends for bunny-sitting whilst we're off in sunny, balmy Maryland!

( Poll behind the cut! )

So, I was asking for book recs a little while ago, and now I have a book to recommend to you all. The Areas of My Expertise, by John Hodgman, is just about the funniest thing I've ever read in my entire life. You would do well to pick it up if you end up with any bookstore gift cards as part of your holiday loot!

Oh boy! Browsing through Amazon trying to spot some good books to pick up for our upcoming trip to Maryland, and I see that there's a new book in the Outlander series! How exciting. The last one was pretty bad, but the reviews for this one look promising. Don't mock me! The Outlander books are actually well-written, and I've loved them since I was in high school.

Whilst poking about on Amazon, I also finally figured out a long-forgotten book from childhood that I was trying to remember: Vampire Vacation. It was pretty awesome, and involved kids hunting vampires in Transylvania. Heh. I was such a nerdy little kid.

On that note, anyone have anything good to recommend? My drug of choice is historical fiction and non-fiction history, oh, and books about spies, but anything that's really good and not too sci-fi-y (i.e. "Dune" or some such nonsense) would probably float my boat.

I seem to have come down with The Plague at some point last night, as my head is all stuffed up and gross feeling. Ick. Good think I cooked up some soup for lunches yesterday! Barley and veggies is about all I can handle right now.

So this weekend involved some quality time with my girls. We talked, cooed at aquarianna6's uber-cute little baby, talked more, ate lots of food, and drank tequila. Drew and I also viewed some fine cinematic entertainment, in the way of The 40-Year Old Virgin and Transporter 2.

So I finished The Subtle Knife last night and have started on Amber Spyglass. I think I'm going to have to seek out everything else Philip Pullman has written once I'm done with these, I'm addicted. I should also finish Salt: A World History at some point, as I only have 2 more chapters to go. I have a problem with actually finishing books, I kind of get distracted and flit on to others before I finish lots of them.

Finally, big hugs to all my friends who need them right now. My ears are always here for you whenever you want 'em.

Man. I got some asian pears at Whole Foods, and was all excited for exotic and different fruit, but I'm not really liking them at all. And I have 4 of them left. Bleh. Anyone really, really like asian pears and want to trade some other fruit for them? I'm such a townie.

I almost missed my stop this morning because I was so engrossed in a book. Artemis Fowl is proving to be a really entertaining read. I can't remember the last I've actually lost complete track of time and stops on the T.

So it's hot. Haven't been doing much as moving results in my being covered with a sticky film of sweat. Yesterday I took a shower at the gym after working out, and had to take another when I got home because walking from Porter made me feel gross. But I was a good little doobie and surprised Drew with the new Eco book- it has pictures! It's also the gift that keeps giving, as I can read it when he's done!

I just started The Book last night, and am about 70 pages into it. Nothing big has happened yet, but *squee* just for how fantastic it is to be so absorbed in a fantasy world that the crowded, slow train melted out of my conciousness this morning. It's kind of bad that I get so into these books that I half expect to see people in the real world doing magic. Heh, after reading several Robert Jordan books back to back a few years ago, I started to sometimes think "why don't you just heal that" when I got a case of the sniffles.

So, my fellow Cooking Light subscribers, I have a recommendation for you. In this month's issue, their feature on grilling a steak and using the leftovers in other recipes is fantastic. Seriously, the steak is good the first night with some garlic mashed potatoes and spinach, but lo, the second night, you must make the Southwestern steak wraps! So good! Most of what I make falls in the good-to-very-good range, but it's really rare to pull off something that gets a wow from both of us, and this was a big wow. I subbed cayenne for the black pepper, 'cause we like things spicy, and used light cheddar instead of full-fat jack because that's what I had, but it was super tasty.