Saturday, July 26, 2008

Dibs and Dabs of Stuff

This morning I'm grinning from ear to ear. San awarded me the "Just Plain Fun to Read" award. Yay! Thank you San! It's proudly displayed on the right sidebar.



Thursday evening I rediscovered the public library. Wanted something new to read. Didn't want to face the dangers of walking into Barnes & Noble...or any other bookstore for that matter. So I stopped by on my way home. While there I picked up a copy of the latest book by the late Madeleine L'Engle, The Joys of Love. Apparently this had been in the possession of her family and is published posthumously. At my friend Micheal's suggestion, I'm trying out a book by Lois McMaster Bujold, Cordelia's Honor. Michael and I've been functioning as good personal libraries for each other lately. That's a great way to save and keep in touch with friends. The third book I picked up, and am in the process of reading now, is Maria V. Snyder's, Poison Study.

Getting books at the public library has been added to the lifestyle changes list.

With books I'm like a kid in a candy store. It can be hard to choose. When I have more than one new book I sometimes use a method for choosing which to read first. Two or three of the most interesting looking (it's a mood of the moment thing) get into bed with me and I read a few lines or a page from each. The one I get hooked by at the time is the one I start with and read for the next few days. That's what happened last night with Snyder's book. I was hooked in the first paragraph. Wow! Talk about good writing. You wake from a nightmare caused by experiences you lived through. You're in prison. You're walking towards your own execution thinking "how nice to have it all over," and then boom, you're getting offered one of those jobs which might kill you, but while you do it your still alive. Who couldn't get hooked by a book that does that in 6 short pages?

While at the library, I proudly noticed that Susan's book Shelter was on the shelves. Yay, my friend is known locally too!

Michael is teaching me how to play Dungeons & Dragons. This is apparently going to take some time because the game isn't being played yet. He is in preparation still because he's writing the scenario and needs to gather a team of players to play it. What we've been doing towards my part is design my first character. The story is set in an alternate US history. It has lots of cultures in it and I'm a Half Elf, Asian-American, Female Sorceress. So far we've done the creation dice rolls that tell you what your strength, knowledge, and some other stuff are. Then we added the extra points by race and selected weapons I'm supposed to be good with. Those were longsword, rapier, and short and long bow. Now I'm in the process of reading through a list of feats to choose one which I can have as a starting feat. Why they call these feat I've no idea. They seem sort of like talents to me. But I'm new to this and maybe talent has another meaning in the game.

And on a frustrated but also affectionately amused note, now that my desk top has been cleaned and decluttered (for the most part), Hyram has decided that it is his favorite perch again. So he keeps jumping up in the middle of the desk. And I keep shoving him over to one side. His tail flicks a lot and when it disrupts mouse movements I lift him down. He turns around and jumps right back up. So we're in the battle for computing/cat perch space right now. I love that he wants to be close to me. I love how he purrs when he's up here even while flicking his tail swiftly and roughly. But I don't love to have my mouse, in my hand at the time, flicked by his tail so that my efforts to work are disrupted. Oh well! Maybe someday I'll get a deeper desk and have more room for him. I'd give him the entire side of this one but so much of the back edge is lined with stuff that he'd knock off and I'd then have to crawl under the desk to retrieve them. At least Hooboo hasn't decided he wants the space too so there are no cat fights going on while Hyram rests on his new throne. :)

10 comments:

murat11 said...

Wait till you (re)discover that you can access any book in the universe that SAPL doesn't have via Interlibrary Loan. That's a dark chocolate to taste sparingly.

Sandi McBride said...

Great post! And congrats on the award from San...that's about my fave, too lol...you love reading as much as I do...I have an award for you at my place...check Friday's post, just before the Brenda Photo Challenge post...
hugs
Sandi

Lee said...

:) Thank you for reminding me paschal. I was aware that IL existed. I've haven't figured out how to access it from the web. Guess I need to look harder. And I'm wondering if I can use IL to override an "everybody is waiting in line to borrow this book" status on something like say, Twilight, which has 152 people in line to read it.

Cheers! & Joy!

Lee said...

Darn, Sandi! I thought I'd read that post really carefully. Sorry I missed the mention of my name. (sheepish grin)

Thanks for the compliment and I'll be over to collect in just a moment.

Hugs!
Lee

murat11 said...

Once you're on the library's Search page, there is an IL tab to click: the linked page will walk you through the process. Sadly, you can't use it to jump over the Twilight queue: only if there is an entirely different edition not already in SAPL: not likely with newer books.

The good news is that IL is good for books, music, and movies.

Lee said...

Ah, thank you Paschal! Maybe I can check Half Price, although what self respecting teen would get rid of their copy of Twilight?

I'll definitely check it out.

Peace!

jsd said...

I do miss the SAPL system - it rocks! The library here is small, but the children's section is really good. But, alas no interlibrary loan.

we just got a gently used and free computer desk - so I'm waiting to find the cat on top off it too :-) There's an online Burlington Group that basically anyone can offer things they don't need or want anymore and other can ask to have it and/or people can request if others have stuff they're looking for.

Lee said...

I'm remembering their digital media library. Plus their collection of CD's. Not all in greatest of shape but I listened to Janis Joplin borrowed from them.

No IL!? I thought that was universal with libraries. Did you ask their circulation person?

Is that group in Burlington a free cycle group? I belong to the Yahoo group for San Antonio. Haven't used it but I know its there. You just have to be able to go get the stuff. :)

Hugs!

San said...

Lee, I already knew you love books, and yes, I believe this particular award really strikes a chord in us bookworms.

Your blog is so much fun to read and the award looks just so right on your sidebar!

HUG.

Lee said...

Yep, lover of books r us. :)

Thank you San!

Hey, you know what? I think the book readers/lovers of us should put mini library shelves on our blogs to show the rest of the world what there is out there that they might want to read too. I think I'll look for a good one to use.

Hugs!