11 August 2010

Day 137: a general update

For those of you who are kind of newish or haven't physically visited my blog in awhile, there's some more information about the project available here.  For those of you who are looking for book reviews, they are not a typical feature of my blog.  There are review elements in my post and I do occasionally review books I read (I always review ARCs).  If you're interested in following my reviews you can do so via my RSS on Goodreads or you can just friend me there.  I do also have a separate page for my book reviews here on my blog, but I don't update that automatically and there's no guarantee on how frequently I will update it. 

I also have some information on the contact page, I prefer contact through e-mail, but I've also set up a Meebo window if you want to leave a quick message.  I tend to log on daily, but remember to give me your contact information if you want to get back to me on anything.  You do not have to download a program to contact me via Meebo widget.

In other news, I celebrated my two year anniversary with Dan Walker on the 8th and recently returned from a trip to visit him.  He gave me a signed copy of Octavia E. Butler's Parable of the Sower.  It happens to be a first edition, although sadly a second printing.  However, since I love this book beyond belief and there is no way I'm going to be able to obtain Butler's signature any other way, this is the best present he could have ever given me.  I'm not really much of a book collector, but having the first printing would have been extra cool.

Some of you may be saying, hey, you can't write a general update yet, you haven't read all of the books on your previous list.  Well, I haven't because they haven't all come in from the library yet.  Most of this is because my library decided to go on furlough from August 1-8 and I had trouble getting my grubby, broke hands on what I was supposed to read.  So yes, The Ask and My Empire of Dirt are going back on the list for this update.  Unfortunately I'm unsure about how soon the second one will be available because there are only 2 circulating copies and I'm still number 6 on the waiting list.  Drat.  Otherwise, here's what I have planned.

Speak by Laurie Anderson.
This was actually on my to-read list before Dan Walker wrote a post on it, but his high praise resulted in me needing to read it.  It's highly praised enough that I'm at least hoping to enjoy it.

Bozo Sapiens: Why to Err is Human by Michael Kaplan and Ellen Kaplan.
This is another Dan Walker recommendation.  If you want to send one my way, by all means e-mail me at acampb8@kent.edu.  I actually recommended that he try to get his hands on this via First Reads giveaways on Goodreads.com.  He won and devoured the book in a matter of three or four days (between lavishing attention on me).  I too will soon be digesting this saliva covered delicacy, much like monkey brains or head cheese.

The Facebook Effect by David Kirkpatrick.
Like pretty much everyone else in the entire world (except for China), I have a Facebook account.  I know how it's affected my life, but I was interested about what it meant for my generation and future generations to all be pulled into one giant social networking site (in a way that Friendster and other sites have not).  I have my own suspicions about it and I'm curious as to whether or not they will be confirmed.

Frostbitten by Kelley Armstrong.
I grabbed this before my library closed for furlough.  Little did I realize this was the 10th novel in a series.  No way will I be reading all 9 previous novels.  It also seems like it's one of those series that I don't actually have to read previous books for.  I need a little trashy paranormal romance, since it is adult I am expecting it to not be on the level of Evermore.  I will go all ranty on its ass if it is.

Lavinia by Ursula K. LeGuin.
I enjoyed Left Hand of Darkness so much that I decided to see what her current work is like.  I'm sure her writing style has changed over the years, and I've always loved the idea of writing minor characters into major characters, particularly in the case of ancient literature where the women usually get no back story.  I'm not familiar with the Aeneid on which this is based, so I may be doing some background reading on...Wikipedia of course.

The Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold.
This was recommended to me by fellow Antioch Alumna and non-book blogger, Traveler@larger.  I'd been considering Bujold previously, but didn't want to get sucked into another author that mostly writes series.  But I can't resist a recommendation so I went ahead and slapped this on my reading list.

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