Check In

Sometime after my last trip to the library I remembered that I had a pretty hefty reading list at the beginning of January. I wanted to check in with that to see how many books off the list I read. 

I checked this morning. 

I read two off that list. 

Two. 

What in the world? 

Anyway, I finished Everyone Worth Knowing and was not too pleased with the "climax" and resolution of the story. Honestly, it felt far too rushed and cliched. You find out toward the end that Bette actually loves to write (even though there had been no indication of that ANYWHERE up until the last part of the book...) and eventually takes up writing. Of course, she gets the handsome hunk, even though it looks like she won't. In my opinion, it ended with far too many neatly tied bows around half-problems. She's rather selfish too and if my friends ever let me get away with half of that crap, I need new friends. 

Moving on...I am borrowing the NEW JAMES DASHNER BOOK!!!!

But because I went to the library, I feel I need to finish those books first...so Kill Order has been languishing on my desk for the last week while I work on What the Dickens and The Amber Wizard. I better get a move on because according to Goodreads, I am 2 books behind and I seem to be reading slower with every new book I read. 

I am sure my new found obsession with Mad Men hasn't helped my reading. It has been on my list for at least a year and last week on a whim I started season one. Wow! I was totally blown away! The costumes, the sets, the content, the smoking, the drinking, the business end of things...just everything! Look for more thoughts on the show in the future. Right now I am still just loving the look of the show and how everything in the character's lives is connected --even when it doesn't look like it. Fascinating stuff. 

Do you watch Mad Men? What do you love best about it? Or, if you hate it, what is it that makes you not love it? 

If you don't watch Mad Men, what is your show of choice? That one thing that keeps you from reading or doing whatever it is you really want to be doing? 

I went to the library...again

Ah, September. 

Back to school, leaves starting to get crisp, cool breezes, and afternoons made for curling up with a blanket, a cuppa and a good book. I love fall. 

I was just getting back into the swing of my reading thing and was really getting into A Wizard of Earthsea...when I went to the library. Again. Oops. 

Seriously, I don't mean to sabotage my own reading plan but that seems to be what happens. 

I was talking to a friend of mine who recommend a good fluffy summer read called "Everyone Worth Knowing" by Lauren Weisberger. Lauren also wrote "The Devil Wears Prada" which was hilarious and cringe-worth at the same time, and I think this book is following the same course. Not that it is bad, of course. I can very easily sympathize with the rather average Bette Robinson who is stuck in a horrible bank job with a horrible boss who won't even let his employees leave the building for lunch. But I struggle with the almost too easy transition she makes into her new high profile job at Kelly & Company, a PR and event planning firm for every known person (and even the new faces) in the celebrity world. She goes from bumming around her apartment every night to going to a different club every night of the week. Coming in late to work is ok, because she's been out with her co-workers checking out the latest cool place for the next big party they are throwing. 

I usually like the stories of a nobody turning into a somebody, via a new found confidence in themselves, but I don't quite get that vibe from this story. I'm not halfway through this book, so there is hope for a turn around. Stay tuned...

I also picked up on whim "What the Dickens" by Gregory Maguire. It's a fairy tale about a rouge tooth fairy...and with a tag line like that, how can you refuse?! 

I picked up another fantasy book called "The Amber Wizard" by David Forbes. I know practically nothing about the book or the author except that the back of the book says that he is living about 1.5 hours from where I currently live. That's pretty cool, right? 

I am going to get a bit of reading done today--thank God for days off and Labor Day! But...I'll probably spend most of it hanging with my friends doing nothing. Which, really, is always more important that reaching a reading goal for the year.