Sunday, October 4, 2009

Fair Week Mish Mash

Phew - this week has been a real marathon, and it obviously hasn't been a marathon I've been running here in blogland. This evening finds me taking a break from the Sunday Scramble, which is my friendly term for my frantic efforts to catch up with everything from blog reading to cleaning in a few hours before the next work week starts, to actually write a post. Fair warning, the first part is me going on about my week, the second is the more bookish part. Choose one or read both (or run screaming in horror!), the choice is yours!

This week was Fair week. Yes, that's Fair with a capital F. You see, each year our town hosts the biggest fair in Pennsylvania starting, oh, usually the last Saturday in September and spilling over into October. One stat I heard this week is that it is the 22nd largest in the U.S. which isn't too shabby considering my town is pretty small. It so happens that I'm generally a lunatic about going to the fair, and this week I proved it with reckless abandon. I think 6 out of the 9 possible days to go, I was there eating deep fried foods, tour guiding fair newbies (mostly my co-workers), seeing Sugarland in concert (excellent!), and watching the Dock Dogs competition which is new to the fair (and also awesome!). What's more fun than devouring a dozen funnel cakes and watching a bunch of dogs jump really far off a dock into the water? Perhaps, you think many other things would be more fun. I, however, had a fantastic week, though I am totally beat. P.S. If you like dogs and the Dock Dog thing comes to some place near year, you should definitely see it. I could have watched for hours. I did watch for hours.

My freakishly extensive fair going didn't leave much time left over for reading, though I'm still plodding (and I mean plodding) through Carlos Ruiz Zafon's The Angel's Game for the R.I.P. challenge. It's a little too easy to put down, but not so easy to put down that I would consider giving up on it. The jury's still out on it.

Despite my lack of a considerable amount of reading, more books did arrive at my house this week at a nice steady rate of about one per week day.

First came:



Intertwined by Gena Showalter. It's a giveaway win from Robin at My Two Blessings. I first read about through an ad on Shelf Awareness, where I ended up reading an excerpt from the first chapter. It's just the sort of fast reading guilty pleasure I need from time to time, I think.

Next came:



Black Angels by Linda Beatrice Brown - an ARC from Penguin. Susan at Bloggin' 'bout Books first tipped me off about this book with her excellent review, and I knew it was something I was going to have to read. It's her I've got to thank, in part, for the galley in my mailbox, too, so thanks Susan! =)

Up next:



2666 by Roberto Bolano. I've been curious about this one for a while. Thanks to Frances at Nonsuch Book and her Book Blogger Appreciation Week giveway, now I've got a copy which I will hopefully read when the big old Picador readalong thingy (which hasn't quite launched yet) comes along. Even though it's such a delicious looking read, it should definitely be good to have some conversation and encouragement (read: deadlines) to go along with it since at 893 pages it's quite a considerable tome.

And last:



Fat Kid Rules the World by K.L. Going from a a BookCrosser. I think I remember even from my pre-blogging days Susan from West of Mars just raving about this book, and so it's been sitting on my wish list. Now, I've got it, and let me tell you, it's accomplished quite an incredible feat. I nearly never start reading a book the moment I get it. It gets logged and then it goes to sit on the shelf gathering dust with the rest of its brethren for an indefinite amount of time until a not predetermined time. Well, Fat Kid Rules the World was waiting by the computer for its logging, and don't you know I read the first chapter? And then I read more, and more and I'm totally hooked. Troy the self-proclaimed Fat Kid has an incredibly engaging voice and it just took me right in. This should deepen my conviction that any book that has that Printz medal hanging out on the cover has a 99.9% chance of being totally awesome. Further gushing, I'm sure, to come.


In other news, I've been cruising the 24 Hour Readathon site from time to time thinking maybe, just maybe this will be the one where I actually read. I don't think I have any plans for the appointed weekend, so that's one road block out of the way. I don't think I'll probably be able to manage the whole thing without sleep - you don't even wanna know me without my 8 hours of sleep - but I could probably manage 16 or so hours...couldn't I? It would be a good chance to catch up on all the reading I've neglected, right? And play with all the book bloggers? Oh, I don't know. I'm such a committment-phobe. I need to go think about it a while. I'll probably sign up, like, the day before, or chicken out and settle for cheerleading....

8 comments:

  1. You are a Fair Freak! Glad you had so much fun. I've heard good things about Black Angels too!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oh Megan, you must do read-a-thon!!! Seriously. YOU WILL HAVE FUN! I promise, promise, promise! Oh, you know you want to read. You know you do. (Okay, I sound like a little pusher here, but it's just cuz I LOVE the idea of Megan enjoying herself reading and blogging away.) Hey, and it's another really good excuse for eating really junky food! Okay, so you probably won't get funnel cake (unless you're really ambitious), but gathering up lots of yummy crap to snack on is half the fun. Or maybe that's just me. ;)
    Anyway, if you must wait until the day before, that's fine...but please, please, please do it. :D

    ReplyDelete
  3. I warned you about Fat Kid... glad you're loving it. It's a rare gem, indeed.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Regarding the readathon, I say... Just Do It! :) There's nothing to lose, right?

    ReplyDelete
  5. Sounds like an awesome week you've had. And the Fair also sounds like such a fun thing.

    And please join the read-a-thon. I am signing up this year for the first time, and while I signed up wrong at first, I did manage to sign up correct on the second try (although I am now signed up as both a cheerleader and a reader, but will only be one, and that is cheerleader, although I will probably also read a little :-)

    ReplyDelete
  6. PS. I would also love to read Black Angels!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Kathy - I am *such* a fair freak. I'm having a little withdrawal this week now. ;-)

    Debi - I think I may, I think I might...do the Read-a-thon. I'm already kind of compiling a list of would-be Read-a-thon books in my mind and falling in love with the idea. Before the end of this weekend I'll probably crack and sign up (and then I can start making my junky food list too! LOL)!

    Susan - I finished it on Tuesday night and already wish I could read it again for the first time. I laughed, I cried, I loved it! Thanks again for the great rec! =D

    Suey - I think I will...I think I will! It's time to stop walking around the edge of the pool and jump in! =)

    Louise - I signed up to cheer for the last one and did a little reading on the side. I had a super great time, but there were so many people reading I didn't have a prayer of cheering everybody on (which was actually really awesome)! If I don't read this time, then I'll almost definitely be cheerleading. Looking forward to seeing you around on Read-a-thon day! =)

    ReplyDelete
  8. Haha! My dog did run out of the room barking while I was reading the first part of your blog post out loud (don't ask, it's something I do sometimes when I'm alone with the animals), but I don't think it was in horror. I think he hears someone in the neighbor's yard.

    I used to love going the California Sate Fair when I was a child. Los Angeles has a little fair which isn't much in comparison. I'd hate to see what my own county's fair looks like. I do enjoy going to the fair, don't get me wrong. I just like them big. I should come to you Fair!

    I'm a little envious that you got to see Sugarland in concert! I'd love to see the Dock Dogs. :-)

    I'll be really curious to hear your final thoughts on Angel's Game. Wendy over at Caribousmom gave up on that one recently, but I've also heard from people who really liked it.

    I want to read 2666 too. It's on my wish list and I imagine I'll get it eventually. I look forward to reading what you think.

    The Read-A-Thon does sound fun. I'm worried if I joined in I wouldn't get any reading done though, having to balance reading and being online. If I did it, I'd rather stay away from the computer the entire time. I wish you luck if you do join in! I do enjoy being an unofficial cheerleader. :-)

    ReplyDelete