Nora (norabelle414)'s chapter 5 - In which Nora tests a new feature

Check out this fancy new thread!

Read so far this year:
1. The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith
2. Fool by Christopher Moore
3. 9837747::Room by donoghueemma::Emma Donoghue
4. 1051327::The Pillars of the Earth by follettken::Ken Follett
5. 13065::On Stranger Tides by powerstim::Tim Powers
6. 9199704::Packing for Mars by roachmary::Mary Roach
7. 8019757::The Help by stockettkathryn::Kathryn Stockett
8. 9069024::The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by sklootrebecca::Rebecca Skloot
9. 37925::Native Tongue by elginsuzettehaden::Suzette Haden Elgin
10. 12800::The Tombs of Atuan by guinursulakle::Ursula K. LeGuin
11. 2460603::I Love Knitting by hendersonrachel::Rachel Henderson
12. 19121::The Postman by brindavid::David Brin
13. 522063::Water for Elephants by gruensara::Sara Gruen
14. 5141188::Beastly by flinnalex::Alex Flinn
15. 6009::The Magician's Assistant by patchettann::Ann Patchett
16. 8645055::Eating Animals by foerjonathansafran::Jonathan Safran Foer
17. 7025::Lost in a Good Book by ffordejasper::Jasper Fforde
18. 7107::The Well of Lost Plots by Jasper Fforde
19. 7049::Something Rotten by Jasper Fforde
20. 3279998::Thursday Next: First Among Sequels by Jasper Fforde
21. 9953434::One of Our Thursdays is Missing by Jasper Fforde
22. 26628::Sorcery and Cecelia by wredepatriciac::Patricia C. Wrede
23. 56891::Magic by the Lake by eageredward::Edward Eager
24. 51371::The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers
25. 5927::The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by chabonmichael::Michael Chabon
26. 2207718::The Prague Golem by salfellnerharald::Harald Salfellner
27. 123835::Hoot by hiaasencarl::Carl Hiaasen
28. 9487109::Rewired by rosenlarryd::Larry D. Rosen, PhD
29. 4979986::The Hunger Games by collinssuzanne::Suzanne Collins
30. 4647380::The Enchantress of Florence by rushdiesalman::Salman Rushdie
31. 11089406::Fodor's Prague & the Best of the Czech Republic by hartmariateresa::Maria Teresa Hart
32. 3773276::Blindness by saramagojose::Jose Saramago
33. 9477632::The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by benderaimee::Aimee Bender
34. 3283984::Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict by riglerlaurieviera::Laurie Viera Rigler (A)
35. 4570::Tears of the Giraffe by Alexander McCall Smith
36. 10879216::Snotty Saves the Day by daviestodd::Tod Davies
37. 32188::Lost Boys by cardorsonscott::Orson Scott Card (A)
38. 8662515::Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins (A)
39. 2720226::Invasive Procedures by Orson Scott Card (A)
40. 6081::Trickster’s Choice by piercetamora::Tamora Pierce
41. 5668::A Wind in the Door by lenglemadeleine::Madeleine L’Engle
42. 9279041::Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins (A)
43. 393681::The Book Thief by zusakmarkus::Markus Zusak
44. 8084157::Soulless by carrigergail::Gail Carriger
45. 8101931::One Day by nichollsdavid::David Nicholls
46. 31712::The Martian Chronicles by bradburyray::Ray Bradbury (A)
47. 6075::The Zombie Survival Guide by brooksmax::Max Brooks
48. 7233::Watchmen by moorealan::Alan Moore
49. 4248::Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (A)
50. 10112735::Olive Kitteridge by stroutelizabeth::Elizabeth Strout
51. 8366::A Game of Thrones by martingeorgerr::George R. R. Martin
52. 134710::Napoleon's Buttons by couteurpennyle::Penny Le Couteur
53. 2129::Running with Scissors by burroughsaugusten::Augusten Burroughs
54. 10010::Many Waters by Madeleine L'Engle
55. 4745313::Quicksilver by stephensonneal::Neal Stephenson
56. 9530166::A Visit from the Goon Squad by eganjennifer::Jennifer Egan
57. 32570::Brokeback Mountain by proulxannie::Annie Proulx
58. 9564128::Jane Slayre by erwinsherribrowning::Sherri Browning Erwin (A)
59. 12225::Fingersmith by waterssarah::Sarah Waters
60. 11269262::Dead of Night by maberryjonathan::Jonathan Maberry
61. 8024489::City of Bones by clarecassandra::Cassandra Clare
62. 251710::The Body by kingstephen::Stephen King (A)
63. 12403::The Hound of the Baskervilles by doylesirarthurconan::Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (A)
64. 1324914::City of Ashes by Cassandra Clare
65. 11227385::Wide Sargasso Sea (Norton Critical Edition) by rhysjean::Jean Rhys
66. 5615413::City of Glass by Cassandra Clare
67: 24193::Firestarter by Stephen King (A)
68: 10264::Othello by shakespearewilliam::William Shakespeare

Currently reading: 11291032::Out of Oz by maguiregregory::Gregory Maguire,
9559907::The Disappearing Spoon by keansam::Sam Kean,
1729243::The Invention of Hugo Cabret by selznickbrian::Brian Selznick
Currently listening to: 6193812::The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Other Jazz Age Stories by fitzgeraldfscott::F. Scott Fitzgerald

sweet:)

Cool, I like the new continuation thing. I noticed it RIGHT AFTER I posted my new thread.

Well anyway, HI NORA!!! :)

I almost sent you a message earlier telling you not to make a new thread until it went live, but then I forgot :-( sorry

It carried over automatically - so you are still starred:)

*Sigh* Now I have to wait a WHOLE 2-3 weeks to try it! :P

>5 calm: Hooray!

>6 Ape: The benefit is really for the readers of the thread (or non-readers) as they no longer have to keep track of new threads that other people make.

Ooooh, fancy! Now I have stress the I won't be able to figure it out if I need a new thread (not likely this year, but anyways)...

It's really no different. Instead of creating a new thread from the group page or the sidebar, you click the link at the bottom of the old thread (which only appears after 200 posts). It takes you to the exact same "new topic" page, except that it says "this topic is a continuation of (topic X)" at the top.

Go ahead and post some past threads for me, if you want to create the connections. But won't do anything about moving the star/ignore settings. They would be intrusive on the user.

Format for telling me is

123123 -> 323131
123313 -> 91823

I may have let out a tiny exclamation of joy that your new thread was automatically starred for me! Nice new digs, Laura. :)

>10 timspalding: So, like this?

105698 -> 119514
119514 -> 122421
122421 -> 125086

Nice feature!

Fancy schmancy!

Yay, new thread!

Also, I now share your frustration with libraries. I obviously didn't have a chance to go pick up a hold on the weekend, and it expired yesterday, and was gone today. And yet they always take a little while to actually appear on the hold shelf after we get a notification that they've arrived, so I don't see why they have to be taken away instantaneously on the expiration date. Blech.

I would totally pay for library delivery/pickup.

"Book" #67: Firestarter by Stephen King - audiobook from the library - fine, but not great. I think this just isn't my kind of book. It was good for an audiobook, though. Or maybe I'm just not capable of really enjoying audiobooks, because they suck.

Currently reading: Out of Oz, Othello, The Disappearing Spoon
Currently listening to: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Other Jazz Age Stories by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Too bad! I'm listening to Stephen King's The Shining, and I'm truly getting into this one!

Or maybe I'm just not capable of really enjoying audiobooks, because they suck.

Many do suck. You just need to get the right combination of a great story and a narrator that can bring the story to life. What I do, when I take CDs from the library, is to take quite a few and play a bit of each until I find one that "sticks". Of course I do this mainly because of my hearing impairment (I cannot understand many narrators), but I'm able to "preview" book to see which ones get my attention. I'm also able to discover some excellent narrators. As a matter of fact, sometimes I listen to books on audio that I probably would not have read otherwise in hard copy (e.g. Oh Play That Thing, Schindler's Ark).

I didn't really mean that they suck, just that I don't enjoy listening to books on audio. But it has boosted my # of books significantly, since I can listen to books at many times that I physically cannot read them.

Book #68: Othello by William Shakespeare - too much talking, not enough happening. This is definitely a play that's better watched than read.

At least plays are short! It looks like you'll make it to 75 without any graphic novels required ;)

Here's hoping. The Invention of Hugo Cabret came in the mail yesterday, and it looks like it will be a quick read. I love a good book with thick pages and lots of pictures ;-)

My brother came home last night. This morning, he left the front door open so the heat was running overtime and the dogs got out. Super. Is it time for him to go away again yet?

But on the other hand, my mom cooks tons of good food for my brother when he comes home, but he's on an all-Taco Bell diet. Extra pumpkin waffles and butternut squash mac&cheese for me!

If I make him 'disappear,' can I have his room?

absolutely. I claim his bed, though. He has the best mattress on the planet. You can have my mediocre mattress

Okay, you can clean the stains out of it then.

23: What a dope. He lives in WI, doesn't he? Want me to hunt him down and have a talkin-to with him?

No, he goes to school in Virginia. He's out getting drunk tonight, though, so I don't have to actually see him today.

I'VE SPENT HOURS WORKING ON THE STUPID TOUCHSTONES IN MY STUPID FIRST POST AND THEY WON'T WORK!

You all just have to deal with it.

Did you enter all those work numbers yourself or did they just show up? Either way, I'd report it as a bug.

I entered them individually all by myself. It took me forever.

It could be a personal (i.e. my work computer) problem. If they're still not working when I get home, then I'll worry.

That's why I don't use touchstones in the opening post. Even with the updated tag system thing, I still find it annoying.

That's why I didn't use them for a long time.

29: Ick. Tim will be thrilled.
I've taken to splitting my list by month, so if there's trouble, the damage is contained.

Nooo, the whole point of my pestering Tim about this is to make the system functional enough for everyone to use touchstones without worry!

Nora, did you still put the square brackets around them all? Did the touchstones show up while editing or not at all?

Nobody panic until I get home and am sure that it's not this terrible computer's fault.

The brackets are right, and the touchstones show up on the right side like they're supposed to, every time.

SantaThing is up! I'm very excited, but also conflicted because I don't know a) how much I want to spend and b) where to order from. I've narrowed it down to Harvard Bookstore or Book Depository. (I generally try to avoid Amazon, and I've had bad experiences with Powell's). Also, I want to sponsor someone like I did last year, but I'm not sure how much I want to spend for that.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and other Jazz Age Tales - I'm going to review these short stories separately so I don't forget them.

1) The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - I've actually already read this story in graphic novel form, but listening was much less distracting. It's a really sad, desolate tale, but a realistic representation of human behavior/emotions, especially for the time period. As most people now know, thanks to Hollywood, is that Benjamin Button was born a 70-year-old man, and gradually got younger as time went on. This really made everything in his life go badly. When he was first born, his parents were afraid and resented him, swiftly followed by every single person he ever met. He was different, and didn't fit into other people's ideas of what was proper, and so he was never accepted, and his life never went well for more than a year or so. And then he grew into a baby and died. The End.
(An interesting thing to note is that the original story is the complete opposite of the award-winning movie. For obvious reasons, but still. Does Hollywood really have to exploit everything?)

Last night I ate too much sushi for dinner. Today for lunch we had our office Thanksgiving potluck, and I ate too much. Yummmm.

The second short story in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and other Jazz Age Tales, 'The Diamond as Big as the Ritz', is turning out to be EPIC. It started out as some kind of horrible, unrealistic Ayn Rand fairy tale, only more right-wing and more racist, but now there's a spectacular twist.

It's only too much if you vomit, I say. :)

Me too!

Although last night I did have trouble sleeping :-(

Short story #2) The Diamond as Big as the Ritz - John T. Unger is from a town in the South called Hades. His family is rich. He goes to the most expensive New England prep school. He loves other rich people. "The richer a fellow is, the better I like him!" One of his friends invites him to go home with him to Montana for break. Turns out this kid, Percy, is the son of the richest man in the world. This man, Mr. Washington, is descended from George Washington, but left his rich Virginia family mansion, with a bunch of slaves who were never told that slavery was abolished, to make his fortune in the West. Once in Montana, he saw a squirrel with a diamond in its mouth and followed it into a hole in a mountain, which turned out to contain a diamond the size of a building. So now Mr. Washington doesn't want anyone to know about his diamond or his land or his money, so he won't have to pay taxes on it. So he bought anti-aircraft weaponry and shoots down any plane that comes anywhere near his property. The passengers, if they survive, are kept in a 30-foot-deep glass pit with a grate on top. And John T. Unger is staying at this house. But he's cool with it, because rich people are awesome!

And then there are some twists. So you should read this story.

35: Nobody panic until I get home and am sure that it's not this terrible computer's fault.
Can we panic yet?

Yes. I've tried it several times. It seems to be related to the sheer number of touchstones in that post, as touchstones elsewhere in the thread work fine.

Noooo!

Despite my bitching and moaning about my impending book funk, (which has not matured into a full-blown funk,) I'm actually more than a week ahead of schedule to finish 75 books this year.

Book #69: The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick - This book is standalone evidence of why ebooks suck. It's one of the most beautiful books I've ever seen. The story is good, but I'm not even going to talk about it because it's nothing compared to the feel of the thick pages in your hands, the starkness of the white text box against the black page, and the minimalist beauty of the pencil drawings.
I really, really enjoyed this type of graphic novel better than the "traditional" kind. Every few pages of just text, there are a few pages of just pictures that tell the next part of the story. Pictures really can sometimes tell a story better and more richly than words, but separating the text from the illustrations lets each part shine on its own.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Other Jazz Age Tales Short Story #3) Tarquin of Cheapside - Um. Nothing really happened here. Very vivid writing, but not much plot. It was only 15 minutes long. Supposedly it's one of F. Scott Fitzgerald's fantasy stories, but there is nothing fantastical about it.

45: I enjoyed that one too. I'm actually looking forward to the movie.

Oh, I'm so glad that you enjoyed the Selznick book. It's one of those books that I loved so much that i want everyone else to love it too!

Yeah, it was awesome. I loved the artwork too!

Just put a hold on Hugo Cabret at the library because my friend wants to see the film and I, of course, want to read the book first. But I've only heard good things so I'm looking forward to it.

Hooray for being ahead of schedule! I think I'm still behind, and of course I chose this time to pick up an 800-page book. But there's still hope.

Hugo is one of my favorites. I don't know how Mr. Selznick does it, but I'm glad he does. I just read Habibi by Craig Thompson and felt the same way.

Happy Thanksgiving, Nora!

"Book" #70: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Other Jazz Age Tales by F. Scott. Fitzgerald - audiobook from the library - Excellent. I love short stories. The 3rd and 4th stories were not as good as the 1st and 2nd, but they were short, so it's all good.

Currently reading:
Out of Oz (really excellent, but a very slow read)
The Disappearing Spoon (mostly set aside in favor of Out of Oz)

Currently listening to:
An Education by Lynn Barber (A memoir. Ugh. But it's very short.)

DAYS REMAINING: 36
BOOKS REMAINING: 5
DAYS PER BOOK: 7.2

I have run into a small problem, in that something is wrong with my library's OverDrive service that prevents me from logging in, and the man in charge of it seems to be on vacation until Dec 20th. So after I finish An Education I will have to listen to Audible audiobooks for awhile, instead of library audiobooks. I know, my life is so difficult.

*Faints*

Bummer about OverDrive. One of these days I will get around to actually using it either from my work library or my local library or perhaps even both. You know, at some point. :)

Hope you had a good Thanksgiving holiday, Nora! After you recovered from the over-indulging, of course.

>55 Ape:, 56 OverDrive is working again. I still think I'll forgo library audiobooks for a bit and try to listen to some of the ones I've actually paid for. Micky, do you have a smartphone? I never would have started listening to audiobooks if it wasn't sooo convenient to listen to them on my phone.

>57 ronincats: Thanks Roni! I had three great Thanksgivings (one at work, one with dad, one with mom) and managed to survive living in the same house as my brother for a whole week.

Everyone: Sorry I've not been more entertaining lately. I had Thursday, Saturday, Sunday, and Tuesday off of work and really did not want to do anything except sit around in my PJs and watch Netflix, knit, and play computer games. So I didn't. Now I'm working today, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday. And then I'll have next Wednesday off. Don't ask.

In other news, while I was at home being lazy yesterday, the "supervisor" grabbed one of my coworkers that she was yelling at. So maybe we have a chance of getting her fired. Does anyone here have experience in HR? My coworkers and I are wondering what counts as a "hostile work environment".

I know nothing about HR, but I hope you can get her fired! That would be fantastic.

Legally, apparently it's not so simple.
http://employeeissues.com/hostile_work_environment.htm
http://www.timslaw.com/hostile-environment.htm

Still, grabbing an employee is a clear incident, and the grabee should officially report it. Even if nothing happens immediately, it is on the record so a pattern can be seen over time.

My concern is that we work in a small office, and the "supervisor" really does not like the employee that she grabbed. So if she hears that ANYONE mentioned anything to HR about her, she will know who it is and retaliate. Which is, of course, grounds for an EEOC complaint, but could be kind of hard to document, and won't do my coworker much good if she gets fired.

I have made note that DC only requires single-party consent to legally record a conversation and have recommended that my coworker record any conversations she has with the "supervisor". It's so easy now with smartphones.

Sorry to hear about the ongoing crumminess of work, Nora. :(

As for whether I have a smartphone, yes I do. I've even read a couple ebooks on it (1 ER book and 1 from Google Books) but I've found audiobooks don't really work for me. I need to read a book, I have too much of a tendency to tune out to something I'm listening to, particularly if it's someone talking. But I'm glad they've been working for you.

>62 MickyFine: Oh yeah, I always forget that OverDrive has ebooks too.

>63 norabelle414: They do! Also, depending on your library, you can also get films through OverDrive too.

I was just trying to add a touchstone from the work number, and I found that it didn't work if I just inserted in the work number in the existing touchstone; instead, I had to delete the square brackets and then re-add them. Have you tried that?

>65 _Zoe_: I'm pretty sure that's how I did it in the first place, but I tried it again anyway. Does not work.

I think it's just the sheer number. Has anyone seen a post with more than 100 working touchstones lately?

Blech. I only have 80 in my Dewey Decimal Challenge thread, but that at least is working. Have you started a bug report?

No, it's not that big of a deal for me. I'll just not use that many touchstones again.

Well, I found another potentially related bug and reported it there. We'll see if anything comes of it.

Things that have happened so far today:

1. Mediocre performance review (3 "exceeds expectations" and 2 "meets expectations" instead of my usual all "exceeds expectations") resulted in . . .

2. a raise! Plus a discussion about me eventually getting a promotion.

3. the "supervisor" passed out because she hadn't had anything to eat since lunch yesterday. She woke up, ate one girl scout cookie, and went back to her meeting.

4. the "supervisor" realized that she had forgotten to register for the conference we're going to on Monday and Tuesday. The location is secure so if you're not registered, you can't get in. She's presenting at this conference. The deadline to register was 25 November. (seriously?!? how is this woman still alive?!?!)

5. lunch

Ha! Congratulations on the raise and potential promotion.

Can you get promoted away from the "supervisor"?

Not at all. My contract is tiny (only about 9 people). I could get transfered to another contract, but that would be essentially getting a completely different job, in a different place, with different people, doing different stuff. The only skills I would have related to a different job with my company are secretarial/administrative assistant type skills, which is what I'm trying to get away from.

So a promotion would get you out of the secretarial biz? Worth enduring the supervisor for the sake of marketable skills? Apparently she likes you...

Well she's not in charge of my performance evaluation, or whether or not I get a raise or a promotion (she could probably argue against the promotion, but how much money I make is not her business)

Ah. I made an erroneous assumption.

I'm in a weird situation since I'm a contractor. It's hard to explain sometimes. And I have tons of different bosses who tell me different things.

Yay for lunch! And you know, the other positive things you listed. But really. Lunch. Best time of day at work. :)

It was! I had leftover pizza (spinach, roasted red peppers, sausage, and feta), cheesy cracker/chip things, a fruit cup, a diet dr pepper, and milk duds.

She fainted? That's it? Damn, that nightshade extract must have been watered down.

That's what I was thinking.

Oh, congratscongratscongrats!!!
(and that lunch sounds delicious!)

Your lunch does sound supremely tasty. Although today I had probably the best (classic) lunch of all: PB&J. :D

> 58

Why was your supervisor "yelling"? That's verbal abuse, apart from the fact that she "grabbed" (physical abuse) the other employee. An employee has the right to feel safe in a work environment. Go to your HR department and get yourself a copy of your company's code of ethics. It seems to me that your supervisor has breached proper conduct for her position in the company.

Homestly, in all the years (30 plus) I've worked for my company, I've never been yelled at once (in my memory - hope it's still good) by a supervisor. I can remember one instance of an administrator being rude to me. Later I was told that I should have "written her up" (registered a written complaint) but I did not know that I had the right to do that to someone who was in a "superior" position. Eventually she was fired anyway. It all comes around. For your sake, I wish it would be sooner rather than later.

I'm having trouble picking books for my Secret Santee. LT did an excellent job picking, as she has pretty much every book I've ever read and liked. I can get books from her wishlist, but that's kind of boring, but I don't know what else to do!

Who is it?

>86 _Zoe_: I PMed you.

Oh, sympathies. Yes, LT did a good job picking. I've added several of my Santee's books to my wishlist, which is not necessarily helpful to anyone... Sadly, the book I most wanted to get for him(?) is unavailable through Book Depository, and I'm not quite ready to commit to alternatives just yet...

I've added several of my Santee's books to my wishlist

Me too!!

Me three! It's happening more this year than last year, but that could just be my greediness rearing its ugly head.

I'm in the home stretch! I just have to work from 8am to noon tomorrow and then I'm free until Thursday! Hooray!

Yay!

Huzzah! Hope you're enjoying your time off, Nora!

I am. I'm in bed with my laptop RIGHT NOW

Jealous! I am at my desk at work (on my break) RIGHT NOW. Not so exciting even with the caps.

"Book" #71: An Education by Lynn Barber - audiobook from the library - Pretty good, for a memoir. I related to Lynn a lot. I enjoyed the way that her life seemed perfectly normal to her, but she realized later (from other people) that maybe it wasn't. Her stories and the way she told them were interesting and engaging, but not vulgar or unrealistic. She behaved like a perfectly normal person. For example, she worked as an editor at Penthouse but spent most of her time aruging with another editor about Oxford commas and -ize vs. -ise. She wrote two books about sex, but it's not some kind of risque secret, it's just what she did. I especially enjoyed how she kind of semi-stalked her now-husband when they first met. Even though memoirs are still not my thing, It was nice to read one by someone I actually respect, for a change.

Currently reading:
Out of Oz (really excellent, but a very slow read)
The Disappearing Spoon (mostly set aside in favor of Out of Oz)

Coming soon?
How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe by Charles Yu

Currently listening to:
Moonwalking with Einstein

DAYS REMAINING: 23
BOOKS REMAINING: 4
DAYS PER BOOK: 5.75

I love the title of your coming soon book, Nora. Hope you get to it before the end of the year so I can read all about it. :)

>97 MickyFine: It's going to be a movie or tv show or some nonsense soon, which is why it got bumped up my list. Also, it's not a katrillion pages long.

Is a katrillion bigger or smaller than a bazillion?

I think the order is million, billion, bajillion, bazillion, trillion, katrillion, quadrillion, in my opinion. The Wikipedia page for indefinite and fictitious numbers does not give any orders of imaginary magnitude.

Do note, however, that the reference for "katrillion" is from a Bunnicula book.

My favorite is Godzillion, which I believe are numbers so large they squash asian urban environments under their scaly feet. Your computer's spellcheck might tell you that the 'proper' spelling is Mechagodzillian. DON'T BELIEVE IT!

No! Mothrillion is WAY BETTER than Godzillion!

Pffft, Mothrillion is too cute to be taken seriously as an indefinite and fictitious number of great magnitude.

#101 Stephen: *snork!*

My dad is going to China for three weeks, and I'm going to be housesitting for him. (He doesn't have pets so I don't have to stay at his place every day if I don't want.) Maybe this will pull me out of my reading funk. I've brought Out of Oz and The Disappearing Spoon with me and hopefully getting out of my comfort zone will encourage me to read more. Also, I didn't bring my knitting (mostly because my current project is very unwieldy) so I won't have anything to do with my hands if I just watch Netflix, so I'm likely to get bored of that and read more.

*crosses fingers that Nora will get in some reading time*

Happy Friday!

Today I watched the SciFi Channel miniseries "Neverland", which is meant to be a prequel to Peter Pan. As is typical of SciFi Channel miniseries, the acting was great, the CGI was phenomenal, and the plot was weird and not so great, but who cares!

I've had a bad cold since Thursday, so today when I was grocery shopping I bought some cold medicine. I kid you not, my cold disappeared the minute I stepped outside of the store with my NyQuil, tissues, and cough drops. Oh well, I guess now I'm prepared for the next cold.

SciFi Channel miniseries, the acting was great, the CGI was phenomenal

Wait, what, huh? Really? Why can't they get the actors and CGI wizards to work on their movies? Those things are SO BAD!

I dunno man. Their made-for-tv movies really do suck. I watched a bit of "Snowmageddon" yesterday and it was awful.

ETA: Go Packers!!

Yeah, they are very very awful. Bad stories, bad acting, atrocious CGI. I don't think CGI makes a movie, but bad CGI can certainly spoil one. Hard to get into the story when you are rolling your eyes are the ridiculous-looking 'monster.'

Wait, Packers? Not the Redskins? Hmmm...well, I don't blame you. You won't see me cheering for the Browns or the Bengals often... d'oh.

Ew, Redskins?!

No one who has ever actually lived within the city limits of DC likes the Redskins. Only suburbanites do.

LOL... SciFi makes these "bad movies" on purpose... they're supposed to be awful, and they know it... that's what gets people watching! They like the ridiculousness of it. I watched 'Stonehenge Apocalypse' last year and laughed hysterically through the whole thing, it was so terrible... though, my understanding was that as a miniseries, Neverland was supposed to be a more serious, better-produced effort and not one of their joke tv-movies. I do plan to watch it soon!

*Shrug* Oh well, so long as you don't like the Steelers or the Saints we're good. :)

Faith: Ah, well, I've never really liked comedic horror, so that might explain it...

Ohmygosh, I *love* SciFi movies, exactly because they're so horribly terrible! They're so much fun to watch! But, of course, they must be watched with someone who shares a similar sense of humor...

"Book" #72: Moonwalking with Einstein by Joshua Foer - audiobook from Audible - The story of a journalist (who happens to be the brother of my future husband) who sets out to learn about the world of professional mnemonists (people who memorize things) and accidentally becomes the United States Memory Champion.
The latter parts of this book were way better than the bulk of it. I had heard of many of the techniques mentioned in this book, but I also knew that I wasn't going to take the time to use them in everyday life. So I was much more interested in how Joshua did at the championship, and especially his research on whether a man claiming to be a savant was actually utilizing memory techniques but possibly unaware of it.

The best parts were 1) Joshua Foer doesn't take himself or his work too seriously and 2) at the end, everyone gets drunk.

Currently reading:
Out of Oz (the end is in sight!)
The Disappearing Spoon (mostly set aside in favor of Out of Oz)

Coming soon:
How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe by Charles Yu

Currently listening to:
This is the Story of a Happy Marriage by Ann Patchett

DAYS REMAINING: 19
BOOKS REMAINING: 3
DAYS PER BOOK: 6.33

My library's OverDrive site login is down AGAIN (they fixed it before, but now it's having the same problem again) so I guess I'm still listening to Audible books...

Adding Moonwalking with Einstein to my wishlist - sounds really interesting!

Madeline and Zoe and I saw Joshua Foer speak at the National Book Festival, and he was awesome. He didn't use any notes!

I wish there was some way I could give you my Audible audiobook, Amber. It's not like I'm ever going to listen to it again, really. It'll just sit in my "purchased books" forever. One of the many reasons I'm not a fan of virtual books.

Madeline and Zoe and I saw Joshua Foer speak at the National Book Festival, and he was awesome

Agreed!

Yup! I really liked the book, too.

>111 norabelle414: Excellent, then you can help me go against them when they play the Giants on Sunday! :)

Oh no, you're a Packers fan?! Go Bears! ;)

There's only one NFL team in the world that is owned by the citizens of its home city, instead of by one greedy rich jerk. There's also only one NFL team in the world that is currently undefeated. I don't think there's any question where my allegiance lies.

"Book" #73: This is the Story of a Happy Marriage by Ann Patchett - audiobook from Audible - This is an essay written by Ann Patchett exclusively for Audible, and read by her in the free audiobook. It's a memoir of the failed marriages in her life, from her grandmother's divorce to her mother's divorces to her divorce, and how they influenced the happy marriage that she eventually (much, much later) ended up in. As usual, Patchett's writing is character driven, but this time the character is herself. I didn't think there was any way I could be more in awe of this woman, but I am.

(I really hope I read 76 books this year so I don't feel bad for counting one so short)

I'm slowly catching up on threads, Nora, and hope you are enjoying your Wednesday off!

123: Amen! Go Pack Go!!!

I might be done with Out of Oz today! Hooray! I was on page 520 out of 568, but now I'm confused so I'm going back to page 512 to reread some stuff. I'm going to try hard to finish it today.

Go, Nora, go! Finish that book!

Done! No review until later tonight or tomorrow, though.

Book #74: Out of Oz by Gregory Maguire - The fourth and final book in the series The Wicked Years. This is a truly epic ending to a truly epic series. It only took me so long because I didn't want to miss a single delicious word. The very best part of the book is that it ties beautifully into L. Frank Baum’s sequel, The Land of Oz, which provides a real sense of closure. (In that the story does not have to be over, it just continues elsewhere.) Now I really want to go back and read the whole series again.

The beginning of the end takes place in San Francisco, where Dorothy's aunt and uncle have taken her to see the big city and the ocean for the first time. Dorothy, now 16ish, is pretty much unmarriageable (in Kansas, at least) due to the fact that she won't stop talking about an imaginary country named Oz. Dorothy and Toto stand on the roof of the hotel waiting for a sight of the ocean. As dawn breaks on April 18, 1906, "the buildings of San Francisco started to shake".

Meanwhile, in Oz, war has broken out. Munchkinland has seceded from Loyal Oz, which is ruled by Shell, Elphaba's brother, who has declared himself divine. Shell's army has marched to the great Munchkin lake of Restwater, Oz's main source of potable water, and plans to annex it. Lady Glinda Chuffrey refuses to take a side in the war, being an Emerald City citizen currently residing in Munchkinland. Unfortunately, her villa is strategically located on the shores of Restwater, and is thus commandeered by Loyal Oz's army. Under the guise of entertaining the troops, a travelling puppet show descents upon Glinda's home, with the secret purpose of depositing a magical book, the Grimmerie, in Glinda's lap. It might come in handy soon, if only there were someone in Glinda's household staff with enough magical blood to read it . . .

But that's all just in the first 60 pages.

As with the other Oz books, this is a long and detailed story of physical and emotional journeys. A cast of well-known and brand new characters lays its mark upon Oz, from The Glikkus to Kvon Altar, from Shiz to Ovvels. Oz has been in political, religious, and emotional limbo since the day the Wizard arrived and usurped the throne from the Ozma regent, but by the time the story ends, all that was lost will be called forward.

One more book, Nora, until you reach 75!

I knowwww I'm so excited! I'm trying to decide which book I want it to be.

Hope you're 75th read is a gooder!

I'm thinking I'm going to rearrange some things so that How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe is my 75th. That feels appropriate.

C'mon, start an 800+ pager...c'mon, you can do it. C'mon! *Nudge nudge* ;)

*gazes at the thickness of the book Stephen is reading* Mmmhmmm. I wouldn't succumb to the peer pressure, Nora.

I am planning to start War and Peace after I finish 75 books.

If I started an 800 pager now, that means my 75th book would be an audiobook. And no one wants that.

Micky: My current book is 60 pages bigger than my average book size this year! ...okay, granted my average book size is only in the 240's this year, but still!

Nora: Audiobooks don't have pages, 800 REAL pages. Dooooo it. It'll be a bet. If you do it and finish it, you win. If you do it and don't finish it, I win. See? That's totally a fair challenge. *Nudge nudge nudge*

I'm not joking about War and Peace. Or did you mean to read a book that has *only* 800 pages?

I've been trying to read War and Peace all year, and it hasn't stuck. I stopped reading around page 20 (which sounds wimpy, I know, but it's ENORMOUS) simply b/c I wasn't/couldn't devote enough mental space for it to keep all of the names apart. Lame excuse, maybe, but I couldn't hack it so I gave up.

If it works for you and you have any tips, Nora, please pass them along!

Well, I took two semesters of Russian in college. I recommend that lol.

The great Russians are so daunting, but I did really well with Anna Karenina last year so I feel that I'm ready to tackle the next.

The trick to Russian names is this: {first name}{patronymic}{last name}

First name: these can be tricky because Russians always use tons of nicknames. The full name might be something like "Darya" or "Alexander" but there could be all kinds of nicknames like "dasha" or "dashenka" or "sasha" or "alex"

patrynomic: for men, this is their father's first name with -evich or -ovich on the end, like "alexandrovich" or "vladmirovich". For women, it's their father's first name with -ovna on the end, like "alexandrovna" or "vladmirovna"

last name: for men, this is their father's last name. For unmarried women, their father's last name with -a on the end. For married women, their husband's last name with -a on the end. Thus why Anna Karenina's last name is "Karenina" when her husband's last name is "Karenin"

The more formal the situation, the more names are used.

For big books with lots of characters, I usually keep a cheat sheet of character's names and a one-sentence bio in the book as a bookmark. Also I use the internet a lot.

Okay, I'll go back in time and take two semesters of Russian. ;)

Seriously, that was very helpful. I suspected the whole married women last name thing, but that was a lot of great information. Thanks, Ms. Smartypants Nora! Perhaps I'll give it another shot in 2012!

Currently reading:
How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe by Charles Yu (almost done; this book is awesome!!)
The Disappearing Spoon by Sam Kean

Currently listening to:
Dark Worlds of H. P. Lovecraft, Volume One by H. P. Lovecraft
Long After Midnight by Ray Bradbury
Christmas music

Coming Soon:
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

DAYS REMAINING: 12
BOOKS REMAINING: 1
DAYS PER BOOK: 12

I almost bought The Disappearing Spoon with my Amazon gift card, but it was too expensive and I could've gotten 2-3 books for the price of it. So I did.

Get Napoleon's Buttons instead. It's better, especially if you haven't taken advanced-level chemistry

Too late! The giftcard has been depleted. This is all your fault for not telling me sooner to buy the other one.

Exhibit A: http://www.librarything.com/topic/122421#2906719
Exhibit B: http://www.librarything.com/topic/122421#2941070

I rest my case.

Ummm...those are totally taken out of context. *Nervous laugh*

Glad you're enjoying your current read, Nora!

it can only be described as Thursday Next on crack. If Jasper Fforde and Douglas Adams made sweet, sweet love and had a baby, it would be this book.

Wellllll I was going to finish my book tonight but then I had to watch the season finale of Terra Nova and it was AWESOME. I regret nothing. I'll finish tomorrow-ish.

>150 norabelle414: That is a fantastic description. Of course, I only have experience with Douglas Adams (I know, I really do keep meaning to read Jasper Fforde) but it still sounds good.

Love Fforde. Love Adams. Their bastard love child? Gotta have!

This book was made for you, Jim.

Book # 75: How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe by Charles Yu - Charles Yu is searching for his father, who disappeared several years ago. His father almost invented time travel, but then things in his family went badly and he vanished. Charles Yu now fixes time machines for a living. The solitude gives him time to think about where his father might be. However, Charles Yu lives inside of science fiction (Minor Universe 31, to be exact). So he doesn’t actually work on time machines, he works on chronogrammatical vehicles, which move people back and forth through narratives. His personal time machine has an operating system named TAMMY, and Charles and TAMMY are accompanied by a non-existent dog named Ed.

One day, Charles Yu meets his future self, and does exactly what any experienced time traveler knows not to do: he shoots himself. Before he dies, he gives himself a book: How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe, by Charles Yu. It’s an autobiography, which he hopes will tell him where he can find his father. As soon as he writes it.

Does your head hurt yet? :-) This book is spectacular. It’s everything I could hope for from meta-science fiction. It’s nerdy and complicated and confusing and satisfying. It’s everything I could hope for from my first-ever 75th book. I loved it. My only complaint is that I’m now desperately craving more of this world.

YAY, congrats!!

So... Onward to War and Peace?
(And congratulations!)

Hurray for Nora!!!!!!!

Congratulations on making it to 75! And the book sounds really fun, too - off to add it to the TBR pile...

Thanks guys!

War and Peace is coming soon, but I plan on taking many months to read it, so don't look for it any time in the near future.

Currently reading:
The Disappearing Spoon by Sam Kean

Currently listening to:
The Dark Worlds of H. P. Lovecraft, Volume 1 by H. P. Lovecraft
Long After Midnight by Ray Bradbury
Christmas music

Coming Soon:
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
From Then to Now by Christopher Moore (LTER)
The Human Genome by John Quackenbush (LTER)
The Meerkat Wars by H. S. Toshack (LTER)
(can you tell what my New Year's Resolutions are??)

DAYS REMAINING: 9
BOOKS REMAINING: 0
DAYS PER BOOK: 0

Congrats!

Felicitations on reaching the magic number, Nora!

Congratulations on hitting the 75 book mark!

I started War and Peace last night! I read chapter 1, which was a whole 5 pages. Today I will read chapter 2, which is just over a page.

168: Zipping right along. :-)

Yay, congratulations!

And how many pages total?

1468. But it starts on page 30 so I'm already on 35 :-)

Nice. Well I wish you much luck on wading your way through it. :)

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays, Nora!

Congrats on 75, Nora!

Have a great holiday season, Nora! Looking forward to seeing you at many more meet-up sint he future...

Happy Christmas, Nora!!

mistletoe smooches!

Merry Christmas Nora!

Congratulations on reaching 75, and have a very Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas Nora!

Thanks everyone! Happy holidays to all of you, too!

Happy Holidays!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas, Nora!

Congrats on 75, and happy holidays as well. I hope to see you at another DC area meetup one day.

Thanks for the holiday wishes, everyone. I think I got to all of your threads, but if I didn't, feel free to kick and scream and pout.

A few housekeeping notes:

- I will hopefully finish at least two more books this year, so don't look for a 2012 thread for me quite yet. I'll let you know when I start one.
- I am going to start planning the big, giant Washington DC spring LT meet-up sometime in the first week of January. At this point we will probably just settle on a date; the other events can be planned closer to the day of.
- I have a $35 Amazon gift card to spend (ugh, Amazon, but it was a gift so I can't exactly ask to exchange it for a B&N gift card). Does anyone have any suggestions? I mean, besides an expansion pack for The Sims...
- My SantaThing books have not arrived yet but I am (im)patiently awaiting them.

- My goals for next year are thus:
- read 75 books
- finish War and Peace - my current rate is ~5 pages per day, which gives me a finish date approximately never in the first week of October 2012.
- catch up on my LTER reading / reviewing (including one from March . . . oops)
- possibly some other goal(s) related to not accumulating books and/or getting rid of books and/or reading books I have owned for a long time and/or using the library and/or reading more books than I listen to.
- I might start participating in TIOLI again in the new year. I'm still debating.

I want to come to the Spring LT meet-up! It's about a 9 hour drive for me now that I've moved. Woo hoo!

My SantaThing books haven't come yet either. :(

I'm going to try doing TIOLI too. I was waiting for the new year.

And, I also want the new expansion pack for The Sims...

> 188 - We would love to have you! The DC meet-up group is the best meet-up group ever, if I do say so myself.

Did you order your books from Harvard Book Store? My friend hasn't gotten hers from HBS yet either. I'm hoping they come today!

I did TIOLI for almost a year and it was amazing for reading motivation and socialization. At some point it got too big for me to handle, but I never would have gotten to 75 books this year (or 5 whole threads!) without it.

I'm actually several expansion packs behind, because I like to wait until they are on sale. I have World Adventures and Ambitions, so if I get one from Amazon it will probably be Late Night. (Although Generations sounds more appealing to me.)

I haven't received SantaThing books from Book Depository yet, though they appeared in nearby cities before Christmas. :-(
Looking forward to the DC meetup. Wasn't drneutron/Jim thinking about a Library of Congress tour?

My sister used to be obsessed with The Sims, until the newest generation (3?) which she can't play on any of my mom's computers. I played the very very first very original one a long long time ago, but never got into it.

My computer game addictions include Age of Mythology and Diablo II, both of which i can't even begin to guess how many hours I've spent playing.

189: No, I went with BD again this year and gave them the benefit of the doubt. Next year I'll be choosing something else.

That is encouraging about TIOLI. I am excited to do something a little different.

I think I am up to date with them. Late Night would be my suggestion. I have Generations and it didn't change as much as I thought it would. Late Night lets you play with apartments and being a celebrity which is kind of cool. Showtime comes out in March if you wanted to save your gift.

191: I love Diablo II and Diablo III is coming out soon!

I soooo desperately want to play Diablo III, but my computer is several years old and could never handle it. At my family's Christmas gathering I watched a couple game demos on my mom's Kindle showing gameplay for the Barbarian and the Witch Doctor. *Drools* I'm going to be so depressed when it's released and I can't play it. :(

>190 qebo: Well to get to your house they probably have to travel by Pony Express, right? ;-)
At the very least, I'd like us to get a tour of LOC and a visit to the Folger, along with Eastern Market and Capitol Hill Books and possibly Liber Antiquus if people are into that. I can also get a tour of the Capitol for anyone interested (I have major hook-ups for LOC and the Capitol). Other suggestions are more than welcome.

>191 Ape: The Sims 3 does require a decent computer. When it came out (early 2009) it wouldn't even install on my 2006 laptop, but it works great on my late-2009 laptop. I don't know if she's missing out on too much. The Sims 3 is amazing, but it's completely different from The Sims 2, to the point where I often play TS2 as well.
Is Age of Mythology related to Age of Empires? I used to play the hell out of Age of Empires.

>192 RosyLibrarian: The only reason I went with HBS is because I have gotten extremely tardy packages from both BD and Powell's. So I guess now they're all even.

>193 Ape: When you come live at my house to fetch me books from the library and disorganize my bookself so I can reorganize it, I'll let you play computer games on my computer.

bookself...nice typo. Freudian slip? :)

Yeah, Age of Mythology is a part of the "Age of" games. They focused on the Mythology games during the big gap of time between Age of Empires II and III.

It's so freaking amazing! It's basically like the Age of Empires games, except it has a firm root in mythology over the economy/culture of the Empires games. With the expansion you get 4 civilizations (Greek, Egyptian, Norse, and Atlantean) and then each of the civilizations are divided up into 3 Major gods you can worship (Greek, for example, is Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades), so you have 12 options to start with, each with different bonuses and god powers. (Zeus has a lightning bolt that can kill a single unit, Hades has archer guardian statues that you can summon to protect a town cetner, etc.)

THEN with each age you advance through you are given a choice between two minor gods, which gives further diversity to the game play and strategy. If you are getting killed by ground units you might take the god that unlocks the Minotaur, or if someone is flying units you might take the Manticore, etc... :)

Personally I'm a fan of Kronos, he lets you time shift buildings, which means you get to move them around the map. There is a 'deconstruction' and 'reconstruction' period where the building is vulnerable, but it's so much fun to transport your guard towers to surround an enemy town. Muahaha.

*Takes a deep breath* Sorry, I so extremely love that game, and NOW I want to play it again. This is all your fault. :P

Ohmygosh, I *love* Age of Mythology! Now I want to play it again too, but with those sorts of games, I end up staying up all night and playing obsessively, and I can't afford to do that with the Charld around. Sad.

I'll be cheering you on, Nora, as you wade your way through War and Peace. I haven't been brave enough to tackle that one yet. :)

Amber: ...I played last night. D'oh. And...now I'm gonna go play again...

Nora, why do you do these things to me? WHHHYYYY?? :(

>195 drneutron: LOL probably.

>196 Ape: Yeah, I have that around here somewhere.

>197 scaifea: Children ruin everything. You should send him to boarding school ASAP so you can do nothing but play video games all day.

>198 MickyFine: You could read it with me, you know. I did not read chapter 6 last night because I was super tired and that chapter is a whole TEN PAGES long.

>199 Ape: I was only talking about The Sims. You're the one who brought up AOE.

I might start participating in TIOLI again in the new year. I'm still debating.

*gives nudges*

I might start participating in TIOLI again in the new year. I'm still debating.

*nudges mbellerose*

> 187

About planning the DC meetup. I do want to come so please, if you can...

Don't do it the weekend of April 6th and 7th. That's Passover, and I would not be able to attend.

Avoid April 20 and 21st. The first night is a film festival for which I already have tickets. That Sunday is the Kensington Book festival of which I am chair. Feel free to visit the book festival (free) that day, though. It's in Kensington, Maryland. We will again have a huge collection (like over 1,000) of free BookCrossing-registered books to give away.

Avoid May 19/20 - the weekend of my younger son's wedding!

Book #76: Dark Worlds of H. P. Lovecraft, Volume 1 by H. P. Lovecraft - my first Lovecraft ever. The narrator was super annoying and his voice was really deep which made it hard to understand him over the sound of the wind and/or traffic when walking outside (which is when I do 99% of my audiobook-listening). Overall I liked the stories a lot but I think I will stick to reading Lovecraft in the future, especially to avoid this narrator. This volume contains The Dunwich Horror and The Call of Cthulhu.
The Dunwich Horror - Crazy witch-man has a crazy albino daughter who has a crazy witch son who grows to be the size of a giant man by the time he's 7. They perform weird noisy rituals on an altarstone on a hill on the summer and winter solstice. They constantly buy lots and lots and lots of cows, which all disappear. But I'm sure they're not raising any kind of monster in their barn. Nothing to see here.
The Call of Cthulhu - A man investigating his uncle's death uncovers the fact that many different cults from around the world worship the same octopus/man/monster and try to call him up from where he is resting.

Very good, highly recommended if you like science fiction and short stories; I'll definitely be reading more.

> 194

Other suggestions are more than welcome.

Some day I'd like to visit Busboys and Poets. I've never been there.

>202 SqueakyChu: Don't worry. We will work around your schedule. No more discussion until next week.
>204 SqueakyChu: I'll keep that in mind.

Currently reading:
The Disappearing Spoon
War and Peace

Currently listening to:
Long After Midnight: 22 Hauntings and Celebrations by Ray Bradbury

Coming Soon:
From Then to Now: A Short History of the World by Christopher Moore (LTER)
City of Fallen Angels by Cassandra Clare
Clockwork Prince by Cassandra Clare
Rude Awakenings of a Jane Austen Addict by Laurie Viera Rigler (audiobook)
???

DAYS REMAINING: 3.5
BOOKS REMAINING: 0
DAYS PER BOOK: 0

>200 norabelle414: I could but I'd have to go buy a copy. Plus, my reading plate is kind of full already with the whole Shakespeare project. But thanks for the invite! Now go read two chapters!!! :)

I was only talking about The Sims. You're the one who brought up AOE.

Nu uh! And if I did, it's only because you made me bring it up. Obviously.

:)

I was bored today so I calculated a ton of statistics for my books read in 2011, under the assumption that I will finish The Disappearing Spoon by the end of the month (almost certain), that I won't finish another book this year (almost certain), and that my SantaThing books won't come this year (possible, but hopefully not true). I'm resisting the urge to post them now.

Stories from Long After Midnight: 22 Hauntings and Celebrations by Ray Bradbury:

The Blue Bottle - some humans have travelled to Mars to search for a special blue bottle which is filled with whatever the beholder most wants it to be filled with.
One Timeless Spring - I really liked this one. A pre-teen boy is convinced that his parents are poisoning him and his teachers are brainwashing him. But then he kisses a girl and realizes that it's just puberty.

My SantaThing books were waiting for me when I got home today!! Hooray! So now all of my Christmas acquisitions are:

From Mom:
A copy of Madame Bovary hollowed out to be a hiding place
A copy of Tales of Edgar Allan Poe finagled to be a purse

From Dad:
Our Bodies, Ourselves (new edition) by The Boston Women's Health Book Collective
The Fleagle Gang by N. T. Betz (I'm related to the Fleagles)

From SantaThing :
The Return of the Sorcerer: The Best of Clark Ashton Smith by Clark Ashton Smith - I've never even heard of him but he looks AWESOME. The cover has blurbs by Ray Bradbury and H. P. Lovecraft.
The Crimson Petal and the White by Michael Faber - from my wishlist courtesy of Zoe and Morphidae. So excited.

Well I was planning on waiting until I finish The Disappearing Spoon for statistics, but now I'm in a mood. I know I'll finish it soon (only ~20 pages left) so let's pretend I finished. Tada!




2011 End-of-the-Year Summary

Books read: 77 (hooray!)
Books purchased (paper+audio): 73 (neutral)
Books acquired (purchased+free, not audio): 85 (v. bad)
Books borrowed (friends+library): 19 (decent)
Books read that were on the shelf for a year or more: 9 (bad)
Books deaccessioned: 18ish (good)

----------------------------------------------------

(most of this bit is stolen from Stephen)

Books read: 77 (paper+audio)

Paper books: 61
Audiobooks: 16

Pages read: 22,874 (no audio)

Average paper book length: 375 pages
Median paper book length: 352

Average pages read per day: 63
Average pages read per week: 441
Average pages read per month: 1,906

New reads: 69
Rereads: 8

Fiction/Nonfiction

Fiction books read: 65
Nonfiction books read: 12

Best new books:

Brokeback Mountain
How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe
A Game of Thrones
Soulless
The Postman

Worst books:

Running with Scissors
Snotty Saves the Day
Rewired: Understanding the iGeneration and the Way they Learn
Quicksilver
Eating Animals

-------------------------------

*Drools over Statistic post* Oh, ummm, sorry. :)

I had to hand-calculate the number of pages and pages-per-day twice, because I did not think I could possibly have read that much. But it is apprently true.

Haha, yeah, it adds up quickly. I keep a running total of pages read on my opening post and sometimes when I edit it I get that "wait, did I make a typo and screw up that number already?" but nope!

I made a collection for all of my "read in 2011" books and set my physical dimensions stats page to only calculate from that collection. But it doesn't accept zero as a valid number of pages so it was guessing the number of pages for my audiobooks. So then I changed every audiobook to 1 page and 0.01 x 0.01 x 0.01 cm and 0.01kg. So my stats page calculated the number of pages and I subtracted 16 (1 for every audiobook). But I thought that 22800ish was wayyyy too high, so then I put the page number for each of the 61 books into Excel* and had Excel add them up. But I was getting the same number so I went through and checked each book again. And then I decided it had to be correct.

I'm completely astounded at the number of pages I read. I clearly read VERY fat books. I'm glad I did the calculations because I now feel a lot better about the fact that I have not read 75 books in one year until now. (And even this year I'm not 100% comfortable with including audiobooks in my number)



___________________________________

* There was of course a benefit to doing it this way: Excel calculated the mean and median for me, as well as pages per day/week/month.

215: I'm completely astounded at the number of pages I read.
I'm a little bit astounded at your obsessiveness...

Very nice stats, Nora. I'll have to do some of those myself soon. I'm not sure I'll be quite as detailed as you and Stephen though. Too much math makes my brain hurt and I'm already doing plenty of it with my research projects at work. :P

Indeed, you read about 3,000 pages more than me and I read 81 books! But then I read several 100-pagers this year, so that doesn't help the Average Book Size stat.

Stories from Long After Midnight: 22 Hauntings and Celebrations by Ray Bradbury:

The Parrot Who Met Papa - Papa being Ernest Hemingway. Hemingway used to go to a bar in Cuba and talk to this parrot there. He told him all kinds of gossip about other celebrities (which could be used for blackmail) and the rumor is that he told a story to the parrot that was never written down. The parrot becomes a celebrity because it knows everything Hemingway said, and speaks in his voice. Now Hemingway is gone (dead, I think), and someone has kidnapped the parrot. A reporter travels to Cuba to figure out whodunit. But the real challenge is getting the parrot back, and what to do with it. (I *loved* this one)
The Burning Man - a woman and her nephew pick up a hitchhiker who is probably Satan.

The plan for today:

1) 9am - 9:05am : finish The Disappearing Spoon
2) 9:05am - 3pm : be super duper productive at work
3) 3pm - 4pm : review The Disappearing Spoon; create new thread for new year
4) 4pm - 5pm : go home
5) 5pm - 6am Tuesday : read, sleep, play The Sims, eat, bathe(?)

*snort* I like how bathing is questionable. :)

Yay reading and playing The Sims! That is pretty much my day too except the plan is to go jog at some point.

Sounds like a good weekend! (Minus the work part)

Book #77: The Disappearing Spoon and Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from The Periodic Table of the Elements by Sam Kean - Not bad; the same concept, but not as accessible or entertaining, as Napoleon's Buttons. Each chapter explains the history of and/or anecdotes involving a handful of elements. Some elements are explained ridiculously in-depth, others are merely mentioned in the life story of the person they are named after. The main problem with this concept is that many of the larger elements are boring. They are hunks of grey metal-ish stuff found in the ground, and they don't do anything. Other elements are so amazing that they really need at least their own book, if not more than one book.

Where this book really shines is the in-between elements. Europium is used in paper Euros because it is invisible but glows under a black light. Gallium looks like any other metal, but has a melting point of 84 degrees F (great for pranks). The first semiconductors were made of germanium instead of silicon. And on and on. Really interesting, entertaining stuff.

The writing leaves a bit to be desired. It gets dull when discussing complicated topics. The author has a tendency to drop in unnecessary analogies involving pop culture references, which make things more confusing and will render the book less relevant in 10-20 years.(Not that the science will be the same in 10-20 years, which I guess makes the book’s relevance irrelevant, hm?)

Other complaints include: the periodic table at the back only lists abbreviations, and not the full names of the elements. If someone has all of the abbreviations memorized, they do not need to read this book. I know more of them than most people, but I get lost in the lanthanides and actinides. Also, the “footnotes” are in the back of the book instead of at the bottom of the pages, which is endlessly annoying.

But those are mostly nit-picky personal preferences. I came away from this book feeling entertained, and knowing significantly more about things like the history of chemistry, the future of chemistry, quantum mechanics, and radioactivity (although I don’t know if that will hold true for people without previous education in chemistry to build upon).



(Sorry for the weirdness with the full title; the touchstone won't work the way I want it to)

Books read in 2011 (not even going to attempt touchstones):

1. The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith
2. Fool by Christopher Moore
3. Room by Emma Donoghue
4. The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
5. On Stranger Tides by Tim Powers
6. Packing for Mars by Mary Roach
7. The Help by Kathryn Stockett
8. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
9. Native Tongue by Suzette Haden Elgin
10. The Tombs of Atuan by Ursula K. LeGuin
11. I Love Knitting by Rachel Henderson
12. The Postman by David Brin
13. Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
14. Beastly by Alex Flinn
15. The Magician's Assistant by Ann Patchett
16. Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer
17. Lost in a Good Book by Jasper Fforde
18. The Well of Lost Plots by Jasper Fforde
19. Something Rotten by Jasper Fforde
20. Thursday Next: First Among Sequels by Jasper Fforde
21. One of Our Thursdays is Missing by Jasper Fforde
22. Sorcery and Cecelia by Patricia C. Wrede
23. Magic by the Lake by Edward Eager
24. The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers
25. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon
26. The Prague Golem by Harald Salfellner
27. Hoot by Carl Hiaasen
28. Rewired by Larry D. Rosen, PhD
29. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
30. The Enchantress of Florence by Salman Rushdie
31. Fodor's Prague & the Best of the Czech Republic by Maria Teresa Hart
32. Blindness by Jose Saramago
33. The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender
34. Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict by Laurie Viera Rigler (A)
35. Tears of the Giraffe by Alexander McCall Smith
36. Snotty Saves the Day by Tod Davies
37. Lost Boys by Orson Scott Card (A)
38. Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins (A)
39. Invasive Procedures by Orson Scott Card (A)
40. Trickster’s Choice by Tamora Pierce
41. A Wind in the Door by Madeleine L’Engle
42. Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins (A)
43. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
44. Soulless by Gail Carriger
45. One Day by David Nicholls
46. The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury (A)
47. The Zombie Survival Guide by Max Brooks
48. Watchmen by Alan Moore
49. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (A)
50. Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
51. A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin
52. Napoleon's Buttons by Penny Le Couteur
53. Running with Scissors by Augusten Burroughs
54. Many Waters by Madeleine L'Engle
55. Quicksilver by Neal Stephenson
56. A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
57. Brokeback Mountain by Annie Proulx
58. Jane Slayre by Sherri Browning Erwin (A)
59. Fingersmith by Sarah Waters
60. Dead of Night by Jonathan Maberry
61. City of Bones by Cassandra Clare
62. The Body by Stephen King (A)
63. The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (A)
64. City of Ashes by Cassandra Clare
65. Wide Sargasso Sea (Norton Critical Edition) by Jean Rhys
66. City of Glass by Cassandra Clare
67. Firestarter by Stephen King (A)
68. Othello by William Shakespeare
69. The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznik
70. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Other Jazz Age Stories by F. Scott Fitzgerald (A)
71. An Education by Lynn Barber (A)
72. Moonwalking with Einstein by Joshua Foer (A)
73. This is the Story of a Happy Marriage by Ann Patchett (A)
74. Out of Oz by Gregory Maguire
75. How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe by Charles Yu
76. The Dark Tales of H. P. Lovecraft, Volume 1 by H. P. Lovecraft
77. The Disappearing Spoon by Sam Kean

(A) = audiobook



I have a brand-new thread for 2012 now, which you can find here.
However, unlike SOME PEOPLE, I'm more than happy to let you continue posting on this thread until Sunday morning.

Yay on finishing your final book of the year. Sounds like you have a thoroughly-enjoyable long weekend planned out. :)

*Thumb*

Don't you hate people who try to kick you out of their obsolete outdated threads? I'll post on last years thread, play video games on Windows 95, and listen to my music on cassette tapes as much as I like, thank you very much!

See you in 2012

I just had to post here 1 more time. :)