Fiction Gorging

I haven't read much beyond coursework this past semester... anytime I read a novel during the semester it's because I'm avoiding work. But the last class was Tuesday, my internship is over, and I'm free to gorge as much as I want. My hold list is full, and the stack of books to read is almost as high as my waist.

My current book on cd (in the car) is "Shoot the Moon" by Billie Letts. It's a different kind of book from her first, and the main character isn't as engaging, but I'm still enjoying it. I do think that the book on tape experience is very different from actual reading, but it made the commuting to school and to my internship quite pleasant. This is my second try to read "Shoot the Moon," the first time I couldn't get into it. Probably because the guilt associated with stealing time away from schoolwork. But I loved "Where the Heart is" so much that I gave it another chance, and I'm glad I did. It's a bit of a murder mystery, and I think I have it figured out but it's not over yet.

I put it on hold because I loved her first book, thoroughly enjoyed the second one, and figured I couldn't go wrong with the third one, so I'm glad that I gave it a second try. She's one of the authors that I just keep an eye out for, hoping that she'll keep writing.

Yesterday (or was it the day before?) I finished "The Family Tree" by Sherri S. Tepper. A very thought-provoking book, as most of hers (that I've read anyway) are. If you are the kind of person who reads the end first to see what happens, don't bother to read this one because half the fun is getting to the end and realizing how strong our assumptions are. This was actually the second time I'd read "Family Tree." I haven't read all her books, but I might need to cycle through and re-read old favorites and add some new ones.

And last but not least, I'm working my way through the Southern Vampire series by Charlaine Harris. I found her this spring, but only read the first one because, again, I was supposed to be doing schoolwork. I've never read books about vampires before. I think I tried Anne Rice once, but she scared me too much. These aren't as scary...I'm on "Dead to the World" now, having read "Living Dead in Dallas" and and "Club Dead" also this week. I'm enjoying them heartily. They remind me a bit of the Janet Evonavitch books about Stephanie Plum...two love interests, one "good," one "bad," both dangerous. Of course, if you like Stephanie Plum and vampires you have to read "Undead and Unwed" by Mary Janice Davidson. The first in a series, "Unwed" introduces the character that Stephanie Plum would become if she became a vampire. If not, they'd be best friends. I don't know how I got on the vampire kick, but I have the second Davidson book, "Undead and Unemployed" on hold and will drop everything to read it when it comes in.

Ok. It's after ten and I'm on the circulation desk all day tomorrow. If I don't head to bed now I'll be walking around like a member of the undead myself.

Book Log

One of the ideas I have for blogging is to create a Log of what I'm reading, and what I want to read. I've been a prolific reader as long as I can remember, and I wish I'd started keeping track years ago. I could've charted my reading patterns...the years I spent wallowing in trashy romance novels, the ongoing fascination with science fiction that caused me to put a "Beam Me Up Scotty, There's No Intelligent Life Down Here" bumper sticker on my car in 1985, the vow to read every Newbury Award book-just think of creating that content map!

Rumor has it that I was initally hired at the library because I was there so much that the other patrons thought I worked there already. Whatever the reason, I've been there part time for over three years, am almost halfway through my MLIS at Simmons, (for an idea of how long this is taking me, take a look at the title of this Blog) and the best part of the job is seeing what everyone else is reading. I've got scraps of paper in every pocket, scribbled all over with titles and authors I want to try next. I have to hold myself back from putting books on hold for friends and relatives that I think they'll like. I love to troll through book catalogs and put yellow stickies on every page to remind me to put this or that book on hold.

I only learned recently that talking with people about books and helping them find new ones to read is called Reader's Advisory. I've always thought of it as a guessing game: "I'm looking for a book, my sister read it and said it's great...it's got recipes in it, and the title has something to do with chocolate and drinking...can you help me?" If you got "Like Water for Chocolate" out of that then we're on the same page-it's like a puzzle, fitting the right book to the right person. It makes my day when I can put a book in someone's hand and have her say "That's exactly what I was looking for!" Even if that person is just me.

So stay tuned for notes on what I'm reading, and let me know what you're reading!

An interesting read

Despite the fact that I publish a regular column in my local newspaper that is read by people I know and see every week, and despite the fact that I used to have a website at About.com, where total strangers read my stuff every week, I am experiencing some serious stage fright at writing anything in this, my first attempt at a blog.

That said, I'm going to throw caution to the winds and start.

I didn't really know much about blogs two weeks ago, I just knew that they're supposed to be cool, and Gary Trudeau's comic strip Doonesbury featured a character blogging for a political candidate last fall. But I thought it would be interesting to see if blogging could be good for my library. I work part time in a public library as a sub at the circ desk, the ref desk, and in the children's room, and also as a ref sub in public library of a neighboring town.

So I signed up for a continuing ed workshop at Simmons College, and here I am. Of course I just finished the semester on Tuesday, took Wednesday to recover, and now it's 8:33 pm and I have no idea how far I'll get before I crash for the night. I'd like to figure out how to put together a blog for my library, maybe for Reader's Advisory to start. I'm going to have to figure out how to do the technical stuff...I'm more of a content person, but once I get going I like to tinker a bit.

If I can fend off the stage fright.

And so it begins...

Interesting article in the Globe this morning:
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/living/articles/2005/05/02/getting_the_word_out/

It's about blogging about books, to get the word about the authors that aren't being marketed by their publishers.