I did it!

My personal challenge for my vacation was to finish reading Inkdeath, Evil Genius, Full Frontal Feminism, and Breaking Dawn.

Challenge accomplished. :)

I'm especially glad to have finished Full Frontal Feminism because I had been "reading" it for over a year. It was a great book, I just set it down and got distracted by other things (from the library, of course). And I'm glad I finished Breaking Dawn. I was delaying because I was unhappy with how the book was progressing.

Yay, me!

It's the last day of my vacation, so I'll have to see what I can finish today, then update on my vacation challenge (to see how many books I could read on vacation). I think I had an unfair advantage in that my power was off, but hey...it's not like I'm really competing against anyone. :)

My electircity is back!

Thank gods I don't have to be so damn cold anymore. Reading by candlelight in the winter--romantic and nice, but also cold and hard on the eyes.

And I spent about 2 hours (at least) every day in the library for the past 3 days.

Let's never have to do that again, okay?

But I did read a lot. :) Not much else to do. This is turning out to be a productive vacation--just as I'd hoped!

Update on that later...when it's all said and done.

Vacation!!

Okay, I am officially almost on vacation. Well, if the weather hadn't been so bad, I would be at work right now and my vacation would start after that. But the weather is bad and I am home and working from here and the lines between working and not working blur a little. So, I suppose I'm on vacation. Until January 4th! Woo hoo!

How many books do you think I can read on vacation? I do have the holiday obligations to fulfill and I need to get some cleaning done... But I'm working on it!

Oh, and in regards to my personal challenge of reading all those books that I'd been reading forever--I got Inkdeath and Against Happiness done! Still got Evil Genius, Breaking Dawn, and Full Frontal Feminism. But I got two done!

Happy holiday reading!

Riding the train!

I'm officially on vacation. And tomorrow (well, in about 8 1/2 hours), I'm taking the train to Chicago! Woo hoo! I'm so excited to ride the train and have nothing to do but read for 4 1/2 hours. Doesn't that sound so cool? :) And I've got a whole train ride back TOO! And three days to explore in Chicago.

I'm bringing about six books with me. *laughs* In my defense, some of them are YA books that will only take me a couple hours to read. So it's not too outrageous! I swear.

And one of my stops in Chicago (if I can find it) will be Powell's. There's a Powell's in Chicago! I had no idea. I adore Powell's. Yay! And if I can find it too, I'll go to the Chicago Public Library. Oh...books. Didn't I tell you I adore them? I'm such a geek, but that's okay. I like me that way.

Maybe when the holidays are over...

...I will stop buying so many books! *snorts* Yeah, right...

Well, while I was buying my brother in law his holiday gift, I got these for myself:

• Mistral's Kiss by Laurell K. Hamilton
• Tactics #3 by Sakura Kinoshita & Kazuko Higashiyama

Speaking of holidays... I get a bit of break next week. I'm hoping to get lots of reading done and lots of knitting done. :) I volunteered to work at the library on Christmas Eve, Christmas, New Year's Eve, and New Year's. So, besides working 3 hours on those days, I don't have anything to do, which I think is pretty sweet. I do have a couple family visits to fit in between this Saturday and January 1st, but other than that... It's going to be sweet! Maybe I can use that time to catch up on my manga. That will be my personal challenge: the My Manga Holiday Catch Up Challenge. *laughs* That's a name, isn't it?

So much reading!

Well, since I had the week off, I read a lot. I visited a lot of libraries. I read a lot of picture books. Don't worry, things will be back to normal now. I'm back to work. I wish I could hang out and read all the time...but I guess I need to work and get money...so I have a place to sleep and all. You know.

I never did make it to MSU to read graphic novels. I'll have to try again the next time I'm off. :)

MSU Special Collections

I didn't spend the whole day in the library like I thought. One, because I left Whitmore Lake too late, two, because I had lunch with LaVera. But that was okay b/c there weren't as many books I wanted to look at as I thought. It seems the libraries in Michigan are increasing their manga collections. YAY! :)

I ended up getting a community user library card, which is cool. And I headed down to the little Special Collections room. The lady (and later gentleman) who helped me was VERY nice. I told her it was my first time using Special Collections and she said that was okay. You can't take things outside of the room, so I had to sit in there and read what I got out. I felt kind of silly, but it was cool.

I read the first volume of Crossroad, which was pretty interesting. No one in the Mel system has any other volumes, so I may resort to buying it. I also read Sensual Phrase, the first two volumes, which I requested for the A2 library to get and they will in the new fiscal year. It was pretty interesting--bizarre, but good. I'll wait for our library to get it.

I also finally looked at Sex by Madonna. Okay, so it was a big deal when I was in high school, everyone was talking about it. I was curious. Everyone was so offended by the photos she included. So, I sat in that little Special Collections room, with this older gentleman with a long white beard and glasses (he did look kinda like Santa) sitting not 20 feet from me, and looked at all these erotic photos and read these erotic letters and stories. I felt so naughty, but defiant at the same time. It was cool as hell! *laughs* The book was all right. I can see why everyone was freaking out about it, but it really wasn't that racy. Some of the pictures were lovely. Some were lame. I guess what made it so special was that Madonna did it.

So, that was my trip to the MSU Library. :)

Vacation reading

I didn't get to read as much as I thought I would while on vacation. I drove a lot. :)

But I did read The Crow, The Fire Within, and Thicker Than Water (which I was reading, but forgot to include in my packed books list b/c it was in my purse/bag). And I'm working on the very short introduction to Buddhism. I guess that's something, hmm?

I'll write about my visit to the MSU library later. It was cool!

Packing for vacation

All right. I'm trying to pack books for vacation. This is always a problem b/c I ALWAYS bring too many. But as I'm sifting through, I'm thinking, well, what if I don't like this one or what if I won't be in the mood for a fantasy book or a kid's book or a graphic novel? So I end up bringing tons. Also, there's always the possibility that I won't have much time to read. But...I'm going on vacation alone. And while I don't usually have any problems going to dinner or movies or whatever alone, sometimes I'd rather not be alone in public, you know? So I read. In my hotel room. :)

Here's the list that I think I'm bringing:

• The Naming by Alison Croggon (I HAVE to finish this! I've had it forever and it's good)
• Buddhism: A Very Short Introduction
• Hinduism: A Very Short Introduction
• Nietzsche: A Very Short Introduction
• Postmodernism: A Very Short Introduction
• Egyptian Myth: A Very Short Introduction
• Strangers In Paradise Pocket Book 3 by Terry Moore
• The Crow by J. O'Barr
• Shiva's Fire by Suzanne Fisher Staples
• Rat by Jonathan Burt
• Book Lust by Nancy Pearl
• The Fire Within by Chris D'Lacey
• Winkie by Clifford Chase
• Cupcake by Rachel Cohn

The Very Short Introductions are this series I found from Oxford Press that is exactly what it says. They look interesting and they're little. I'll let you know how they are. :)

A couple of graphic novels, a couple of kids' books, a couple of teen books, an adult book (that'd be Winkie actually), and a couple non fiction. That should cover me!

Besides, if I don't like anything I've got to read, I can always buy something...right?