Book report!

[kleenexwoman]

It appears that the orgy of New Stuff is not totally over yet. Grandma Debbie dropped by a few days ago and gave me a Border's gift card that she'd gotten at the Chanukah gift swap and didn't really want.
FREE BOOKS YAY.

I got:
--ALL of the Pendergast books that I don't yet have, not including "Dance of Death" because they didn't have that in paperback yet. Mom looked at me funny when I produced my haul. "Haven't you read all of those already?"
"Um," I said, "yes. Why?"
"Well, what's the point of reading them again? You already know what happens."
--"Was," by Geoff Ryman, as a present for Mom. I told her it was about "The Wizard of Oz," which she loves, but I didn't tell her anything else. Well, once she reads it, she'll know what happens and then I'll be able to steal it for my own.
--"Magic for Beginners," by Kelly Link. Not an instructional book, but a book of lovely surreal short stories. Everyone should go get this, or her first book, "Stranger Things Happen." Everyone.
--"Now We Are Sick," edited by Neil Gaiman and Stephen Jones. A little book of "kid's" poems that are not, in fact, for children. Reminds me of a book I used to love called "Ghastly Girls and Beastly Boys," which was a book of poems about children who did terrible things and often got punished. I need to find a copy of that.
--"THUD!" and "Where's My Cow?" I'm starting "THUD!" today, over eggs and toast and tea. It was a choice between those two or "Anansi Boys," and much as I love GNeil, PTerry demanded more immediate attention. Maybe I'll go back to Border's and buy "Anansi Boys" after I finish "THUD!"
--"Know-It-All," by A.J. Jacobs. Exemplary bathroom reading material; focuses on the quest of one man to read the entire Encyclopædia Britannica. Nicely chopped into little sections, good writing, quite funny in a slightly deadpan, Bill Bryson way.
--New copies of "Coma" by Alex Garland, "Hogfather" (PTerry), and "The Transmigration of Timothy Archer" by Philip K. Dick, because I lost mine. I also need to get another copy of "The Divine Invasion" for myself. Border's doesn't have it, for some reason. I spend more in replacement books than I do on new books. Maybe I should get little book leashes.

Also finally sent out little gift packages. If you don't get one, it doesn't mean I don't love you, it just means I didn't have anything I thought you might like. One of the things I dislike about Christmas is that it's a specific mandatory gift occasion. I like giving gifts, but not for specific reasons. So various people may be getting either random mix CDs or earrings (I make a lot of earrings) during the year. Just pretend you got them today, retroactively.

Also I have a sore throat. Mom is feeding me fizzy tablets that are supposed to cure that. They seem to be working OK, but now I want to throw up.

ETA
Things I like: Cheery, upbeat songs about how we're all going to die.
Things I hate: Not being able to go on the computer for more than an hour a day because Mom thinks it's unhealthy. diraskyria, I promise that when I get unlimited Internet access back, the first thing I will do is read the new chapters. FIRST THING.

Comments

[lily-lemony.livejournal.com]

"Well, what's the point of reading them again? You already know what happens."

This theory just doesn't fly with me. I get something new out of a book everytime. I've read Lolita dozens of times and still love it and get more out of it everytime.

Are those fizzy tablets Airborne? They're good for you. The lemon lime ones are better than the orange ones though. Take your Vit. C, Echanachea, and multivitamin, dear. /mothering

[kleenexwoman.livejournal.com]

Yup, they are Airborne. Mom claims that they are marketed specifically towards teachers who have to work around germy little kids all day.

[lily-lemony.livejournal.com]

They WORK, quite well. :) I took one daily when I worked at Planned Parenthood and I use them as much as I can now. I was using them before silly Oprah discovered them.

Sore throat...

[wolf-heart9.livejournal.com]

...gargle with warm water and Listerine (mixed together) or warm water and salt. I can't do the warm salt water anymore because it makes me gag.

Feel better, hon! Sounds like awesome books. :D

Re: Sore throat...

[woodburner.livejournal.com]

OH YES, Listerine. Listerine works wonders. I've been using that.

Re: Sore throat...

[wolf-heart9.livejournal.com]

Works really well with the warm water because of the heat on the throat. And it doesn't make me puke the way the salt water does.

[bestfiend.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry to hear that you are under the weather and I'm especially sorry that you have limited computer time!

Your book list sounds great, I think I'm going th check out Magic for Beginners. I love, love, LOVE short stories!

[kleenexwoman.livejournal.com]

:D Thanks. I'm hoping both situations will clear up soon. What's the fun of being sick if you can't use it as an excuse to listlessly click around your friendslist all day?

[woodburner.livejournal.com]

WHY THE HELL ARE WE ALL SICK?! I swear, it's creepy, all my friends across the GLOBE are SICK.

...it's a pandemic oh noes we're all gonna die ;-;

It's the holiday season...

[wolf-heart9.livejournal.com]

I've avoided the cold thing since right before school let out for the winter break. But my stomach's something foul. I think it's a couple of cases of food poisoning.

[ghostgecko.livejournal.com]

Silly mom. My mom keeps telling me to get rid of some of my books. "What are you going to do with all of them," she asks.
"Read them again," I say. It's bleeding obvious, isn't it? Besides, I don't have a photographic memory. Rereading is needed to refresh the memory. And a lot of them are nonfiction, reference stuff.

[kleenexwoman.livejournal.com]

Exactly. I envy the people who can keep entire books in their heads, like the Book People from "Fahrenheit 451," but that just does not happen for me. (Anyway, Mom listens to books on tape more often than not. I don't know what that does to your reading capabilities.)

[diraskyria.livejournal.com]

Hehehe, all this books stuff reminds me of me trying to explain how my stepmom getting me a publication of Alice that I already had was a wonderful thing. Now one can remain pristine while the other collects notes in the margins!! =D I can't wait to get at it.

Meanwhile, sweetie, don't worry so much about SiaC. You're already miles ahead of everyone else; no one has read as much nor contributed as much as you have. =D and I've been bogglingly proficient on typing it up. I figured that a poor access to the interweb was the case, so, seriously, no worries. : )

[kleenexwoman.livejournal.com]

That's almost the same reason I have two copies of "Good Omens." Well, kind of: one is autographed and must remain pristine, the other is not autographed and can be read and chewed extensively when I feel like it.

You have indeed been quite prolific lately. What are you on, a whole chapter a day? Amazing. Better value than a magazine serial.

[diraskyria.livejournal.com]

On one of those days, I posted three chapters! Oof! =D

It helps that it's all written out, and all I do is copy it into the computzors. =D I'm starting to catch up with myself, though!! Ohno!!