This post has no unifying theme...

...but what else is new?

Nobody's here and it's kind of quiet and peaceful, so I figured it would be a good time to check in with the old blog. That's not to say that I have anything of import to share. My blog is so on again off again - you can definitely tell the weeks that I finish books from the weeks that I don't. Next week should be a good week. This week I'm struggling for some interesting stuff to say.

I'm in the middle of two books right now. One is Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson. I picked it up and am pacing myself through it so I can read it with Becky. I've never been in any sort of real life book discussion group so I thought it would be fun, especially since I've got this one on my Spring Reading Thing list and so need to read it anyway. So far, I'm loving it. The narrator is oppressed but humorous as she enters high school. It's all very absorbing and I'm sure if I weren't slowing myself down to keep pace with discussion I could easily have read it in a day or two.

The other is The Beet Queen by Louise Erdrich. I loved her Master Butcher's Singing Club so I've sought out a few more titles by her. This book puzzles me in several ways. The first is, it's "literary" fiction in a mass market paperback format and it has the tiniest font I've ever seen in a book that isn't considered a great classic of literature. It also has no discernible plot. It is what I suppose you would call a character driven novel. The characters are very interesting and I find that I'm very engrossed by the book - even on my lunch break when I need to focus over the dull roar of a few hundred lunching hospital employees. Erdrich's definite talent is in her ability to create whole families and even whole interwoven communities of well-drawn and believable (if not always likeable) characters. I'm interested to see how it all wraps up.

This week also marks just about the first time I was ever in a line and popped a book out of my bag to read while waiting. Usually I'm kicking myself for not having a book when I'm in a long line, but yesterday, for once, I did. So I grabbed it out of my bag and actually read and was absorbed entirely unselfconsciously in my book for several of the many minutes I had to wait in line for hoagies behind about 6 irritating sorority girls and a guy that only wanted to order a pizza and couldn't seem to make himself stand still.

So how about all these BAFAB week festivities? I've entered a few drawings, but feel weirdly guilty about not getting around to hosting one myself. I'm not sure why I feel guilty as now that I've got a decent job and some free time just about every book I read is exiting my house and finding a home with somebody new. I just do it at random...not in any way that is especially organized and drawing-ish. I kind of get a kick out of the whole surprise aspect. Like, "Oh, you think this sounds good? Well, do ya want it?" as opposed to "Here, let's have a drawing." Both definitely have their merits, like hey I bet more people come to your blog if you're giving stuff away on it, so I'll have to get around to the latter at some point here. Until then, the "I have no more room for books I've already read in my house nor do I have any time to stage a blogly drawing event. What, it sounds good to you? Good, I like you, so please do me a favor and take it off my hands!" tactic.

Speaking of drawings, I won one for Forgive Me by Amanda Eyre Ward over at A Garden Carried in the Pocket where I occasionally lurk via feed reader. I read two of this author's books last year and look forward to reading this one as well. So, there's one I can take off the old monstrous wish list of mine. Thanks Jenclair!

In other book news, I literally can't bring myself to turn down free books. Every month when the new list of books for Library Thing early review becomes available, I think, I really shouldn't this month, I'm in over my head already - and then request a few anyway. Likewise with Harper Collins First Look where I think, "Hey, they'll never actually pick me...like usual" except for when they do. So when Rachel from Elle e-mailed me about doing another jury, did I say no? Well, of course not. I knew that I should say no. But I didn't. The only logical reason for this kind of behavior is that I simply can't. I can't look a free book or eight in the face and just say "no, thanks" even thought I've got more books in my house than I have a prayer of reading in the next ten years especially at the rate that my flea-like attention span has confined me to thus far this year. And library book sale season is coming and really cheap books are almost as hard to refuse as really free books. And those Amazon and Barnes and Noble gift certificates have been sitting around unused for months now because I have actually been trying to restrain myself from this madness before the floors collapse under the weight of a thousand unread books, restraint which people like Eva try to sabotage by writing blog posts about juicy bargain books on sale at Barnes and Noble whose low prices scream that they want to come to my house.

What am I even doing here at the computer? Shouldn't I be reading?

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