perkyrusalka

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I really want to see other people's answers to this. I'm curious. I have a hard time picking out one that I think everybody should read-my tastes are not for everyone, and the Venn diagrams of my preferences and your preferences vary depending on who you are.
I want other people to read Watcher in the Woods by Florence Engall Randall, but I'm afraid it won't have the same impact on my jaded adult friends that it had on me when I was just a kid.

Of the books I've read lately, most of you would probably appreciate The Aphorisms of Kherishdar by M.C. Hogarth-it's a lovely little bit of world building with pretty illustrations. Plus it's available on line for free, although there's something nice about having it in person.

And the Charlaine Harris vampire books. If you haven't read them, you should at least try the first one. Not for everyone, of course-my brother complained that he was living with those kinds of rednecks and such and couldn't handle reading about them, but they're lighter than a lot of vampire fair.

Don't read Catherine Coulter's Rosehaven. It's the worst romance book I've read in a long time, and that's saying something.



In an unrelated note: omg why are there children in the library ack? I'm perched in my usual spot-the video/classic books nook- and there is a large child leaning on my table, swaying back and forth-in essence scratching his arse on my table. It is freaking me out. No sense of person space, he has, and old enough to know better he surely is.
/freak out


Other unrelated note: Why did no one tell me you could dowload text files to kindle? Tracey, this was your job-this means one could read fic on a kindle! And Project Gutenburg stuff. Which still does not justify the price but it makes it more tempting. Just saying.

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Just how long am I going to be on this island? Is rescue a sure thing? Because if not, I want five survival manuals, ranging from how to build a boat to how to survive on a desert island with only survival manuals. (And yes, I was tempted to google for the five I would take.)
Otherwise, limiting myself to books I actually own, since apparently I'm packing right this very moment:

The top five books on my "to read" pile:
(This isn't a metaphoric pile. This is an actual stack next to my bookshelf. Literally, these are the ones on top. These are also the ones I'd probably actually pack.)
Blood Bound, Patricia Briggs
Kitty Goes to Washington, Carrie Vaughn
Flesh and Spirit, Carol Berg
Moon of Three Rings, Andre Norton
On a Pale Horse, Piers Anthony
(This stack keeps going, and I was tempted to list all of them.)

Five Books I really do mean to read, eventually:
(Perhaps a better use of my time? If these are the only five I've got, then I'll have to read them. I limited myself to books I actually posess, assuming I'm packing right this minute for this trip. If they'd actually made it to the pile, these would be the ones that keep shuffling to the bottom.)
Foucalt's Pendulum, Umberto Eco
Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte
Cordelia's Honor, Lois McMaster Bujold
Childhood's End, Arthur C. Clarke
Memoirs of Cleopatra, Margaret George (This is really thick, so it'd keep me going for a while).
(This is really thick, so it'd keep me going for a while).

Five Books that have given up on ever being in the pile, but somehow I've acquired them and I feel like I should read them:
The Ugly American, William J. Lederer & Eugene Burdick
Anna Karenina, Tolstoy
Basic Teachings of the Great Philosophers, S.E. Frost
Your Best Life Now, Joel Osteen (Especially if I'm not getting rescued.)
Fifty Best American Short Stories, ed. Martha Foley


Most people would bring books they'd already read, wouldn't they? I mean, I guess that's what this question is supposed to get at.
A Ring of Endless Light, Madeleine L'Engle
Storm Rising, Mercedes Lackey
Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson
The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett
And, um...can I have a blank notebook and a pen? Is that cheating?

I've never been much of a list maker; I think there's a kind of stress involved in seeing it on paper. But I like making lists of things with no particular time limit attached to them, and relatively little importance. (I also like spreadsheets, there's probably some relation there.) So, I'm keeping a reading list again this year, and then I made up a to-be-read list. Although there's a certain almost guilt attached with the second half of the list-nothing like buying books you've never read-although some of them I've attempted, and some of them were gifts. I'm really bad if I start a book somewhere, like on a plane, and then don't finish it-somehow I associate the book with that context and can't get back into it.



( Books I acquired recently that I still need to read )
Then there's things that are actually on my shelf of to-be-read, which means they should technically be at the front of the queue.
( Read more... )
And that's just what's on that shelf, or what I know I've got. Then there's some other books scattered about, many of which are books my brother actually gave my father, but since they found their way into my room I feel obligated to read them. I ought to gather them all up and put them on one book case, just to see what I've got. A lot of them are old-school science fiction, and I have to be in the right mood to read them. The right mood may very well be stuck on a desert island with nothing else to read, but there you go.

Having said all that, anybody want to recommend a book to me? Non-fiction, fiction, any genre. It can go in the queue. Unless the bookmobile has it, in which case it will jump the queue.

Mom and I engaged in some intense shopping behavior today. For serious; she should know better than to plan to be back "by noon". I bought a skirt, and now have to find a shirt to go with it-I hold out slim hope for a cute twinset. I should know better.

Finished reading Patricia Cornwell's book about Jack the Ripper-I now know that "coconut vendor" was a valid vocation in Victorian England. I suppose I knew that already, since somebody had to have a bunch of coconuts standing in a row for hyenas to sing about later. Also- have determined that Victorian era crime photography is way creepier than modern-day-especially the Victorian era crime illustrations. "Here's a cartoon of what we think the victim looked like in the morgue." Ick. And yes, I should have known better than to look at the pictures.

And, most importantly, and the reason for this post:
( Behold, progress! )
Y'all, we gettin' indo' plummin' at last! Ok, what we're getting is city water instead of having to use our well, but same thing. And yes, my Dad did run the water department for nearly the last 10 years.* We still had to cart water home from town in old milk jugs. You know that story about the shoemaker's kids? They had no shoes. Same thing. As it is, Dad had to dig that ditch from the mainline to our house. Note the shovel. ;)

( Also, snowman )