Tornado watch all day, hurray!

[eleneariel]

Last night I was in the grocery store shopping for my grandmother. My mother was also there. We met up in the produce department and I began entertaining her by rubbing my hands gleefully in front of the basket of brussel sprouts, cackling and intoning, "We'll feed them BRUSSEL SPROUTS, my pretties!"

It was all fine and good until I looked up to see two Mexican men staring at me from across the onions. Obviously, they thought I was loco. I wondered for a moment if I should be embarrassed, then decided not. Life is too funny not to be funny with it.

All of the sudden we're thinking about moving the location of the library altogether and building an entirely new building instead of adding on. In a way, that would be very nice. No mess in the old building while construction is going on--a completely new building, without having to work around the existing structure--a new location. In the end it might be just as cost effective, due to all the renovation the old section we're in needs. It will be interesting to see what happens.

And finally:

March reading list

1. Carpe Jugulum, Terry Pratchett
I'm actually getting down to where there are only a few new Pratchetts to read, and barely more than that to acquire for my own. It's kind of sad. Thank goodness he's not dead yet, so he can still put out a new one per year. This one was the Discworld take on vampires, and quite the hilarious one, too. Although I think reading Interview with a Vampire should have happened before I read it, not after.

2. The Diary of a Young Lady of Fashion in the Year 1764-65, Cleone Knox
I rather hate to talk much about this one, because the chances of any of you being able to find a copy is slim. I have it in the rare book collection at work. Since even I couldn't take it out of the building, I read it on lunch hours. It was so facinating--the diary of this girl Cleone in the months leading up to her elopement. It was so....so 18th century. Absolutely facinating.

3. Julie and Julia, Julie Powell
Julie cooks all the way through Julia Child's cookbook in a year's time. A little too frank with sex and a little too liberal with language to recommend to the whole family, but then again, it'll probably only appeal to those besotted with food. I liked it. And I'll never cook a lobster due to its influence.

4. On Writing, Steven King
Who knew? Steven King is actually a very good writer. I like the way he strings words together. I like his style. I like what he has to say about the writing process. I still don't ever intend to read one of his novels, but I do now appreciate his talent.

5. Blowing my Cover: My Life as a CIA Spy, Linsay Moran
Obviously she had to leave out all the really good parts (the title page tells us that the while the CIA does not indorse the book, they have read it and removed anything of interest that might be detrimental to the agency). It was an okay read, but I got annoyed at her liberalism. On the other hand, international spying is a dirty business, so perhaps she was right to be cynical.

6. Fighting Words, James Charlton, editor
Quotes from authors slamming either 1) themselves, or better yet, 2) other authors. Amusing.

7. Soul Music, Terry Pratchett
It still doesn't top Thief of Time, but it's awfully good. A working knowledge of classic rock'n'roll helps tremendously, as Discworld's Music with Rocks In seem quite, eh, similar. I thought the parody was in fine form in this book. I'm so glad, melyndie, that we had time to go to that bookshop so I could find it for my own!

8. The Age of Innocence, Edith Wharton
aftondays read this last month and had an interesting, if cryptic, comment to make about it. It's not a book I would have normally picked up, but I did because of her influence and once I started it, found it hard to lay aside. It's hard to characterize, but I really enjoyed it.

9. The Paradise War, Steven Lawhead
It's been too long since I read Lawhead. It's still wonderfully Celtic.

10. To Catch a Spy, Stuart M. Kaminsky
A book in the hard-boiled detective novel genre, featuring Cary Grant. (Albeit a very wooden Cary Grant.) Not too bad, but not that exciting, either.

11. Thomas Jefferson: An Intimate Portrait, Brodie
I've been slooowly reading this for a very long time--over a year and a half, in fact. Either the book was poorly written or I just don't like Jefferson all that much. I'm not sure which.

12. The Mezzanine, Nicholson Baker
Footnotes! A random novel with little to no plot but a whole host of those thoughts, nicely footnoted, that I can snap my fingers at and go, "Ah, so someone else has wondered that, too?"

Comments

[emkay-smiles.livejournal.com]

I wondered for a moment if I should be embarrassed, then decided not. Life is too funny not to be funny with it.

I like your philosophy.

And gosh, woman, look at all those things you read and you're not even in school! You've got me beat by a longshot.

[eattheolives.livejournal.com]

it was an exceptionally good reading month. Don't think I manage that much all the time. =) (I think I must have forgotten to sleep several night or something. o_O)