Booky Ooky!

Ok, here’s the deal. I did it again. Stress, a job hunt, pride weekend, a brief illness, an Internet outage, and a consuming desire to escape and not think about anything has caused me to disappear.

The Internet outage was the worst because Thursday when I got home from work, I was going to report on my successfully finishing the Once Upon a Time Challenge, but I couldn’t. Very frustrating. Friday, I didn’t go to work, so no free Internet there, plus I was busy, so no quick trip to the public library (which, yes, would be where I work, but I’d pick a different branch, duh). Then I was out of the house from Saturday morning until Monday at 1 a.m. (and that’ll be 37 hours) which led to Monday’s illness.

Today I remain tired and have been doing the job hunt thing for 3 hours.

So, while I was not eligible for any fabulous prizes because I could not get my last 2 reviews up on time, I still have the personal satisfaction of finishing the challenge. The final list:

• Ramayana / retold by William Buck
• The Onion Girl / Charles de Lint
• Peter Pan in Scarlet / Geraldine McCaughrean
• Outfoxing Fear: Folktales from Around the World / edited by Kathleen Ragan — I read this because my original Folktales of Ireland turned out to be too dry to get through. This is one that I was going to review Thursday but couldn’t, but I’m going to do it tomorrow or the next day because this book was mind-blowingly good, and I want you all to know.
• A Midsummer Night’s Dream / William Shakespeare — This was also going to be written up Thursday (I thrive on last minute deadlines.) But I’m not going to bother now because, hell, it’s Shakespeare. What could I possibly add? It was as good as the first 3 times I read it.

As it happens and like many others, I can’t stick to a reading list. I read more than 5 books during the time this challenge was taking place, and even though I didn’t write them all up, I made most of my selections in the spirit of reading books that were or that were about fantasy/fairytale/folklore/etc. Relevant selections include:

• Alice in Sunderland / Michael Talbot
• The Black Cauldron and The Castle of Llyr / Lloyd Alexander
• Peter Pan / J.M. Barrie
• The Color of Magic, The Light Fantastic, and Equal Rites / Terry Pratchett
• The Neddiad / Daniel Pinkwater
• The Tombs of Atuan / Ursula K. Le Guin
• The Great Snape Debate / Amy Berner, Joyce Millman, Orson Scott Card
• The Griffin and Sabine Trilogy and The Morning Star Trilogy / Nick Bantock
• The End of Harry Potter? / David Langford
• Sir Thursday and Lady Friday / Garth Nix
• Go Ask Malice / Robert Joseph Levy

So see, I have been active and loving it, just not always writing it up what with vacation and all those important lame excuses I discussed above. Anyway, even though the ending didn’t work out, I gotta say the challenge was a ton of fun, and I made some super new blog friends.

Also–and this is the best thing that’s ever happened to me–before I left my house for the Neverending Saturday this past weekend, I found on my microwave a surprise gift card to Barnes and Noble for $100! It was from my parents as a Hannukkah gift, and I somehow managed to convince myself that I used it back in January. Shows you how much I clean my kitchen.

So today when I went shopping to take my mind off my crappy job, I got 9 books for 85 cents. (I estimated $100 + tax - B&N member discount to within $1. I’d say I’m a math genius, yes?) Then I went to The Strand and got one more book at low low Strand prices because I needed the number to be 10. ONE MORE BULLET POINT LIST! I promise you only have to look at 10 more of these insufferable pink squares and then I’ll be done. Oh, and before you ask: Yes I am male, and yes I have hot pink sheets. What exactly are you going to do about it?

• The Field Guide / Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black — Anyone read these? I’ve been eyeing them for a long time.
• Mort / Terry Pratchett
• The Hoboken Chicken Emergency / Daniel Pinkwater — I’m reading another by Pinkwater because I like the guy. He’s good people. Also, no book in all literary history has so amazing a title. (It just stole first place in the My Bookshelf Awesome Title Competition from P.S. Your Cat Is Dead by James Kirkwood.)
• The Dirty Job / Christopher Moore — Bringing the number of books on this list in which the main character is Death to two.
• Edition 69 / Vítěslav Nezval and Jindřich Štyrský — 1930’s surrealist Czech erotica. I don’t know why I picked this book up. And when I opened it, I don’t know why I didn’t put it back down. It’s illustrated with penises of terrifying dimension. There are some photographs at the end too that look like Georges Méliès meets Alex de Renzy.
• The Mists of Avalon / Marion Zimmer Bradley — Another I’d like to hear your thoughts on before I get started. I’ve heard mixed things, and it’s like a zagillion pages long, which is why I never bought it before. Today it was free, so I figured it was now or never. I’m gonna do it…. I swear. Right after Jonathan Strange.
• Un Lun Dun / China Miéville — I am so excited about this book I can hardly stand it. I don’t even know why except the awesome cover. I can hardly stand it.
• In the Night Kitchen / Maurice Sendak — Bringing the number of books on this list in which there is depicted a hand-drawn penis to two. I wonder how this book would have fared in the controversy department if it were released in Uptight Today instead of 1970. But seriously, this is a great picture book that I’ve wanted to own since I wrote a paper on it in library school.
• Viking Warrior / Judson Roberts — I bought this book because the guy on the cover is really hot. Like seriously lunchable. I hope the book is good because he looks even hotter on the sequel.
• Soon I Will Be Invincible / Austin Grossman — This is the one I got at The Strand. It’s been getting a lot of press (at least where I look) and I guess I like superheroes enough, so I’m optimistic. I’m jealous of the author’s job and education, though, so we’ll see if I can quell my resentment long enough to judge his work fairly.

Anyway, thanks for taking 9 hours to read my little big update. I’ve made good progress on the job hunt, so I think I can calm down and take it at a more casual pace now. This means consistent updates and hopefully something substantial like an actual book review or something weird like that.