mdyesowitch linked to this post about romance novel warning systems and I nearly spit water on my keyboard before I got past the second category of stories, so I had to share.

(No really...I'm working here. Don't you see me working?)

*insert fan girl pout here*

http://www.mythadventures.net/

Probably one of the key influences in drawing me into fantasy books...*sigh*

Wanna see what I've been doing to occupy my time lately?

( Sure you do! )

Oh, and I've also been trying to get to the gym more, am devouring the Dresden Files books, have finished Season 3 of Dr. Who and keeping busy at work.

And cleaning plum wine off my ceiling. (Note to self - the wine is not salvagable after having pineapple sitting in it all night. Returned to the bottle, it will carbonate. Champagne has NOTHING on carbonated plum wine - either for loud bangs when "uncorked" or for fountaining of contents. While amusing, it would be advisable to find a better motivation for cleaning the kitchen.)

And I went to Cirque du Soleil for the fist time on Friday night. Wow. Seriously. Just WOW. (but how could I not love a circus with seelie sluha and unseelie satyrs on hamster wheels.) Poe and Killian were a couple rows in front of me, so they couldn't see the look of fascination and wonder on my face for most of the show, but I am properly convinced that I should have been finding a way to get tickets and join the annual birthday trip to Cirque for several years now.

One thing I can always count on Christmas for is a healthy addition to my book collection, followed by the need to reorganize my shelves a bit to accommodate the new additions in their proper places (since I'm semi-obsessive and alphabetize by author).

Looking at my bookcase, there are gaps where I have loaned things, but at this point, I'm not really sure who has what anymore (which is probably a bad thing on my part since most of what seems to be out on loan is my Neil Gaiman collection).

So, if you would help a girl out -- if I've loaned you a book, or you have a book on loan that you know is mine, could you let me know which one(s) you have?

This is NOT a request to return anything. I'm just trying to get a feel for how much space to leave available when I start shuffling books around.

Merci beaucoup! (or to quote Poe, "Mercy Buckets!")

So I went to see Stardust last night with most of the Friday night crowd. ( Cut to avoid possible spoilers, though I'll try to be good )

Anyhow -- long story short -- Stardust was delightful and I think I've had my quota of ice cream sundaes for a while. :P (Thanks again rosered32 and keshian - that was very sweet.)

Our copy of Book 7 arrived, as promised, on Saturday. Shar has started reading it and was a quarter of the way into it when I left this morning. I'll note that this is MUCH earlier than I was really expecting him to get to it, but still, it'll be at least a week before I get to touch it and I'd originally promised myself I'd finish the series I just started before I picked up Deathly Hallows...

therefore, I wish to extend much love and thank yous to all of you who've already read/devoured it for not discussing it without the protection of filters/cut tags. Those of us with a built in time-delay system for reading the book deeply appreciate your discretion! =)


[And no, if Shar's already started reading it, I probably won't try to finish the current series I'm working on before then...unless the George RR Martin fans out there really think that the Song of Ice and Fire series can be read in less than two weeks with only an hour a day at most spent on it. No? Didn't think so. =D]

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Course I'm better than halfway in, so I better figured out what I'll be picking up next.

So I picked up a couple new books last week - since having more than my book case doesn't really slow me down and I was tired of re-reading the same old things. (I've read just about everything on my shelves at least twice now since I re-read my entire collection, including all 9 (at that time) Robert Jordan novels while I was unemployed.)

I went on a bit of a vampire streak, with 2 of the 3 being vampire novels... Sunshine by Robin McKinley, who is one of my all time favorite authors, and Touch the Dark by Karen Chance, an author I was previously unfamiliar with. (I was tempted by the new Kushiel book, but it's only in hardback right now and I have a preference for paperbacks.)

Sunshine was devoured earlier this week and I started in on Touch the Dark yesterday on my lunch break. They were both quite good - McKinley has never disappointed me when it comes to heroines I can really associate to, and a true sun worshipper proved no exception.

I just put down Touch the Dark and, aside from a strong desire to check publication dates because certain bits felt a great deal like Sunshine, I was pretty pleased with it. I expected something much fluffier than I got - I expected something light on plot but a fun romp and instead got a remarkably well paced novel with very few of the painfully obvious plot twists that authors so often use. And even if it had been light on plot, any author who can stretch a seduction over 3 chapters and still have me panting for completion right along with the main character has my vote.

So seeing as my plans for this evening didn't pan out as hoped, I think I'm going to go find a much delayed dinner and take a cold shower...but if you're looking for something good to read, I recommend either book.

I just hope the third one I picked up, by Sharon Shinn, proves as entertaining. I've read one book by her previously (The Shapechanger's Wife) and found it quite enjoyable, and the blurb on this one made me chuckle, so I have my fingers crossed.

Our copy of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince arrived 2 hours ago.

By some force of will I have successfully not opened the cover nor read any of it. I doubt this state will last long enough to prevent me from finishing it prior to Shar's return from faire tomorrow night.

I guess the question of who gets to read it first may be settled after all. *evil grin* (I'll consider it compensation for being good and not watching the new SG:1 and BS:G episodes quietly awaiting me in the DVR.)

Flopped out on the couch playing on LJ as I enjoy my first night at home this week...Wedding on Monday, movie on Tuesday, ballgame/company picnic last night - it's been a busy week. A good week in all, but a very busy one nonetheless.

Just finished _The Shapechanger's Wife_ by Sharon Shinn, a short little fantasy novel that I've been reading on my lunch breaks and was close enough to the end of that it wasn't worth bringing next week. Better to get going on something new. I'm debating whether to move on to _I, Robot_ which fraggle42 loaned me or if I want to poke through my collection for something else. I'm kind of on a fantasy kick right now, so I might go for the copy of _Firebird_ by Mercedes Lackey that I picked up from my Mom, or maybe re-read something. I wish I knew which of my boxes held my copy of the Narnia Chronicles...although they're so well worn they'd probably fall apart traveling in my pockets at lunch. (I read them over and over and over and over again when I was younger.)

Speaking of books in boxes, mshathvri's sudden obsession with learning French has me wishing I knew which box had my one or two French novels from college. I doubt they'd make much sense to me these days, but it would be nice to pull them out and give it a shot. I probably remember more than I realize, and it would be a good refresher to see it in writing. Every time I try to seriously remember how to speak or write French I have a renewed appreciation for what a challenge literacy really is...even with a good understanding of phonetics, it's really hard to remember what certain words are and how they connect. And it would be mildly amusing to sit at lunch chewing on a sandwich and reading a novel in a foreign language.

Ultimately, I'll probably pick something fairly short for my next lunch break book...after all, the newest Harry Potter is out at the end of next week so I should have our pre-order copy from Amazon shortly -- although if it shows up while Shar's at SLO Faire, it won't last the weekend and I'll just be back where I started. (And I think I'm going to insist on reading it before he gets his hands on it - it'll be a much shorter wait for him to read it than it would be for me if he got it first. I don't think even Book 5 took me more than 14 hours total to read.)

Hmmm...it's probably time to update my Amazon list so I can put in birthday requests to my mom next month. I'm sure I've got a ton of stuff on there, and that some of my favorite authors have probably put out new stuff. Perhaps I'll wander over there for a bit and do some window shopping -- and contemplate whether I want to re-read _Kushiel's Dart_ which is seeming mildly appealing at the moment. But first - another cup of tea is in order.