Citizen Beta

There are many kinds of bookworms. Those who stick to the genre they love, those who read everything and anything only to forget the book as soon as they finish the last page, those who chose books based on what others may think, those who read to escape, those who get everything from the library and those who buy everything new in hardcover, those who re-read the same books obsessively, those who understand literature to be a high art and those seeking mere entertainment…

I am an eclectic bookworm. I read pretty much anything, prefer “literary” novels and non-fiction but have a soft-soft for horror and crime/mystery novels if they are either really entertaining or written well. I have a large collection of books many of which are hardcover but really love time spent at used bookstores looking for treasures. I have a few books I re-read every now and then. Books are my favorite form of escapism.

I think I am known as a bookworm and friends often borrow books. I have to say this sometimes makes me uneasy: I like knowing where my books are at all times! I have tried recently to loosen up on this. For example a friend in Texas has had a copy of a book of mine for close to a year and I totally forgot until she reminded me.

The flip side of lending books is being lent books. Right now I have a huge stack of books people have lent me and I am trying to power through them out of respect—I feel like because I want mine back quickly (not that I would ever admit that!) I want to return the ones I borrow quickly. But, with reading books for work, for reviews, and those of my own choosing, the stack remains high. It is interesting to see what books people think I would like:

My mom lent me “An American Tragedy” by Theodore Dreiser. Friends have recently lent me “Her Fearful Symmetry” by Audrey Niffenegger, “The Dirt: Confessions of the World’s Most Notorious Rock Band” by the members of Motley Crue, “Lord of Light” by Roger Zelazny, and “Sunday Wife” by Cassandra King. A student lent me “Pope Joan” by Donna Cross which I actually read a few years ago but didn’t realize until I was about 30 or so pages in this time. A cousin lent me the whole Sookie Stackhouse series by Charlaine Harris.

There are many kinds of bookworms; what kind are you?

Though the weather here is still quite warm we are starting to do more indoor, crafty type things around the house.  Also, we are eating a lot of butternut squash.  A favorite cold-weather past time here is homemade dough.  And,  today I started to learn to knit!  What do you turn to when the weather turns cool?

click images to enlarge

Oh hey there!  I have been gone so long even the spammers have forgotten about me.  Are you still there?

Tell me about what you are reading.  Or eating.  Or whatever.

It is suddenly tomato soup weather here and that is lovely and I am actually making some sort of Israeli couscous, curry, apple, jicama, garlic concotion…yummy–I hope.

Here’s what I have been reading:

The new Margaret Atwood

An interesting (and scary) memoir 

A kid’s book about fairy godmothers

Neil Gaiman’s cool take on Norse myth

Some stuff in here (page 20 for short review and page 3 for something a tad more journalistic)