Cable Man + No Posts = ?

I know, I know. I got cable and then I've been silent for many many moons. Coincidence? I wish I could answer in the affirmative. Alas, I have been squeezing out every penny of my newly purchased cable and watching it on my big ass tv. Sigh. It's been fun. But now I think my eyeballs are about to fall out of my head from too much tv. As much as I have enjoyed the many hours of "Charmed," "House," "Law & Order (regular and SVU)," and SciFi channel, my brain and eyeballs need a little bit of a break from ye newe ginormous tv. (I can't call it "ye olde tv" because I just got it, so I thought I'd spell "new" with an extra "e." Does that work for you? Can you tell tv has atrophied my brain?)


But just so you know -- I have finished two books. I finished Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice" and "Sense and Sensibility." P&P was a re-read. So good. So witty. So entertaining. The story just zipped along. S&S, however, paled in comparison. I think it was her first novel. And while it is great and I couldn't do something that amazing as a first novel, it is not nearly as witty or zippy as P&P. There were some passages that went on for pages and I just wanted them to be over and done with. But on the whole, it was a very good read. You can't go wrong with Jane Austen.


I've started Robert Fagles's translation of "The Odyssey." It's fantastic! Makes me wish that I could memorize some of those phrases and passages. Maybe someday, when I get my brain back from cable, I'll attempt it.


As for my little MINI, Simon, he had a good holiday. I bought reindeer antlers and a Rudolph nose for him. He looked sooooo cute. Unfortunately, it rained most of December here, so he didn't get to wear them very often. But there's always next year. Wow. Which is right around the corner.


I feel like this year I should make up some kind of reading list. You know, pick some books that I've never read but feel like I should have. We shall see. I'll let you know how that thought progresses.


Hope you had a Merry Christmas and have a fantastic New Year!

Cable Man Has Cometh

So I finally went over to the Dark Side and got cable yesterday. Took the poor guy 4 hours to install it. It probably didn't help him that when he went to activate my high speed internet, my computer chose that moment to act like a little diva and made her screen go blank. You could read the screen if you shone a flashlight on it at just the right angle. So by the end of the four hours, there were four cable dudes in my house, holding flashlights and angling around the screen to see if they could read what was going on. And of course I opened my persnickity computer this morning and she worked perfectly. Diva. I told you. I'm just glad I don't have to fork out the moolah for a new computer. I can put up with her hoity-toity attitude so long as she works 95% of the time.

The reason I finally got cable is for the simple reason that I bought a ginormous flat-screen tv. (Insert big cheshire cat grin here.) So now I can see actors' pupils! How wild is that? Plus, I was watching some Xena the other day and saw that the actress has a freckle on her upper lip! I've been watching the show for 13 years (it only ran for 6, but I bought the DVDs) and never knew she had a freckle! Holy cow! I love ginormous tvs! I've kind of developed a Gollum-like obsession with it. I look at it and say, "Precious. My precious" to myself. Is that bad? I didn't think so.

So, now I have my hugemongous tv and cable. I'm worried that I won't read as many books. But I'm thinking there's so much crap on tv, there will still be times when I don't find anything I want to watch. And while I'm thinking of it -- when did CNN become a channel of hip, young things with no brains? Gone are the stodgy old farts who knew what the heck they were talking about. Sigh. I sound like an old curmudgeon. Oh well. Can you tell it's been a long time since I've had cable?

Anyway, before I got cable, I read plenty of books. I finally finished "Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea" that history book about the Greeks. I did NOT like that book. Call me a prude, but there were about 10 pages of pictures in the middle of the book, and they all revolved around sex scenes. I think the author, Thomas Cahill, could have illustrated his point that the Greeks were obsessed with sex with just a few pictures. And my prudishness aside, I didn't like the organization of the book, or his "insights." This time period is evidently not his strong suit. I loved his book on the Middle Ages. This one -- not so much. Oh well. We can't and don't have to like every book by an author.

Then I finished "All the Windwracked Stars" by Elizabeth Bear. Awesome sci-fi book. She took the legends of the Valkyrie and twirled them around and put them on a different planet. Really awesome. I love those books that make you figure things out. But I loved the characters in this book. A Valkyrie who chickened out at the final battle and ran away. All her brother and sister angels were slaughtered. So she, being immortal, had to wonder among humans for thousands of years. Very interesting.

Last night I just finished "Another Thing to Fall" by Laura Lippman. She's an awesome mystery author. I loved "What the Dead Know." That got me hooked on her. So now I'm going back and reading her other novels. She has a recurring character of Tess Monaghan who lives in Baltimore. Good character. And Baltimore is another character. One of those towns that has seen its glory years fall by the wayside. Anyway, she's got good character development, and great pace. Highly recommend.

Since it's getting cold out, I thought I'd read some Dickens. I have to read certain novels in specific seasons. The classics and fantasy and sci-fi are all great to read in the fall and winter. The mysteries and potboilers are great for spring and winter. Guess I'm not the only one because they love to publish "beach reads" in the summer. You know -- the quick read authors like James Patterson. And if I haven't mentioned it before, Stuart Woods is awesome. His books are quick reads, but his character development is awesome and the plots kick butt! Highly recommend.

As for Simon, I bought him some reindeer antlers and a red nose to wear during the holiday season. I'm going to rush home tonight and wash him before it gets totally totally dark so he can be all clean and look fabulous with his antlers. Oh! I got a hand-me-down digital camera from my favorite (i.e. only) sister, so as soon as I learn how, I'm going to post some pictures of my Simon. Stay tuned for that.

Guess that's all for now. Bye.

Happy Birthday, Simon!!!

Simon, my beloved MINI, turns two today! Yay! As soon as the sun comes up and it gets a little warmer outside, I'm going to give him a long, hot bath and shine him up like a new penny.

Hard to believe that I bought Simon two whole years ago. Seems like he's been a part of my family for much longer. I remember the day I brought him home. I didn't know how to drive a stick shift, so my mom had to drive him off the lot. Pretty funny. She gave me driving lessons in the Target parking lot near my house. Took about a month before I stopped getting adrenaline dumps into my system because of the rush of fear I got everytime I got behind the wheel. I was totally terrified for a whole month. After that, I felt confident enough that I took out the "Keep Back" and "New Stick Driver" warning signs from Simon's back window. And now, he and I zip around corners like madmen. I get a little smile when I walk toward Simon in the parking lot. And I sometimes pat the steering wheel and whisper, "I love you" to him when we're alone together. I don't care if that's crazy. Simon is the most fun I've ever had with a car. If you haven't been behind the wheel of a MINI, I highly recommend the experience. Although if you can't drive a stick, I suggest you get behind the wheel of an automatic MINI. That would make it more fun for you. Now if I can just figure out a present for Simon, everything will be perfect.

On a book note, I finished Wilkie Collins's "The Moonstone." It was good,but I still like "The Woman in White" much better. The ladies in the book group enjoyed "The Moonstone." A lot of them had never read it before. It's a perfectly structured book, and it took Collins a long time to plot it out. Each part of the story is told in first person narrative from a character's viewpoint. So you get different voices from the different characters and different perspectives. Some people get the wrong idea, and the reader is taken down that false path with that character. It's really quite clever. But as I said earlier, "The Woman in White" had such a strong female character in Marian Halcombe, that I really enjoyed that book much more than "The Moonstone." But they are both great books.

After I finished Collins's two novels, I went to a bookstore and stumbled upon a new author. Elizabeth Bear. She writes fantasy and science fiction. I read "Carnival" first which is about another galaxy and there's a planet run by women. Yay. But the evil galactic empire is coming to quash them or simply envelop them in its net of planets. It sounds hokey, but it was really good. Because two male emissaries come from the evil empire, but the men have plans to undermine the evil empire.

What I love about science fiction is the fact that good authors incorporate actual cutting edge science that exists today, and they give it a little nudge with their imagination to push the technology into a realm of possibility that just doesn't exist today, but which we can imagine will exist someday. It totally fascinates me to read older sci fi novels where they've actually been pretty close to how some technologies have evolved. In "Carnival," the people of the evil empire have "wardrobes" created by nanotechnology implanted under their skin. This means they have holographic projections of different outfits. Their wardrobe also can act as a shield. One particular scene had bullets stuck in one character's wardrobe shield, and the bullets were stuck in the shield and hovering like angry bees. How cool is that? That's what I like about sci fi. And good sci fi, like "Carnival" doesnt' explain the technology. The reader just has to figure it out. Use the ol' noggin'.

I liked "Carnival" so much that I picked up more of Elizabeth Bear's novels. These are fantasy novels set in modern day, but where Faerie actually exists. The Fae, from Celtic myth. Fascinating. Anyway, this series of books is really good. Already read "Blood and Iron" which is about the start of a potential war between Faerie and the human world. I don't know why, but fantasy novels are my favorite genre. Must be all the medieval castles and velvet dresses and kings and queens. So much potential for intrigue, too. I'm reading the sequel, "Whiskey and Water" right now. I love getting sucked into whole trilogies at one time. So much more fun than getting hooked on a trilogy but having to wait for months and even years before the next book comes out. Yes, George R. R. Martin, I'm talking about you. Just finish the fifth book already!!!!

You may have noticed that one book has stayed in my "What I'm Reading" column for quite some time. That would be "Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea" by Thomas Cahill. I've loved his other history books, but this one is quite jarring. He keeps using the "f" word over and over. And then he'll use very crude words for particular sex acts. I'm a prude. I don't think a history book should use such language. It's so unusual that it pulls me out of my reading hypnosis. I just pop out of the book and shake my head. And there's no reason for it. I dunno. I think they should save such cussing for a Martin Scorsese movie. Call me whatever you like. And anyway, the book is not as coherent as his other books. It just feels like he cobbled together some tidbits, but there are no overarching themes or reasons why he's going down a certain path. Too bad, too, because the Greeks really did give us the foundation for Western Civilization. I'll keep trying to finish it, but I'll be relieved when I finally get to put it back on the bookshelf.

Guess that's all for now. Still too cold out outside to wash Simon, but my kitties think they're dying because they haven't had second breakfast yet. I call them my little hobbits. They must have first breakfast, then shortly thereafter they have to have second breakfast. I don't know how I fell into that trap, but they have completely embraced their roles as hobbits, so I'm stuck with it.

Go Read -- The Woman in White

I finished "The Woman in White" by Wilkie Collins a few days ago. It was fantastic! I wish I had written this post as soon as I had finished reading it because I was just so thrilled by that book.

I don't know why the character Marian Halcombe is not as well known as Elizabeth Bennett. She's just as smart and spunky as Elizabeth. If I ever need to invent a name for myself at a party, I shall call myself Marian Halcombe. She's my hero.

And she's not the main character of the story. Well, I guess you could say she was one of the two main characters. Anyway, she helps drive the male character on to find out the solution to a mystery.

I don't want to give it away, so I hope you go read it and enjoy it as much as I did.

I'm now reading "The Moonstone" by Collins. I loved that book when I was younger. Reading it back to back with "The Woman in White," I find it pales in comparison. "The Woman in White" is so much better. Mostly because of the spunky Marian Halcombe.

But "The Moonstone" has its charms as well. Collins structures both novels as narratives written by different characters. They only tell parts of the story that they learned first-hand. So you get the different pieces of the story from different people. And in different tones and narrative voices. Very clever. Plus, some characters mistake what they see or hear. And you don't learn the truth until another character tells his or her story. Very clever.

"The Moonstone" is the book for Monday's book group. I wonder if the other ladies are enjoying it. I love those books that are about mysteries or dramas or comedies set in 18-19th Century England. Jolly good!

Well, I have about 150 more pages of "The Moonstone" to read before Monday. Might as well settle down on the couch and fall back into the book. Couldn't think of a better thing to do on a cold Saturday morning. Later.

Drifters, Pedophiles and Victorians, oh my!

The title of this post refers to "The Drifters" by James Michener, "Thief of Souls" by Ann Benson, and "The Glass of Time" by Michael Cox.

"The Drifters" was a novel a co-worker loaned to me. Not one I would have picked up on my own. Plus, it deals with the hippie flower children of the 60s. Not my favorite time period. For some reason unknown to me, I don't like movies or books set in the 60s or 70s. Especially movies set in the 70s. Go figure. I think it's the outfits. Anyway, the books was pretty interesting. It was looooooong. Almost 700 pages long. But it introduced you to a band of young people who were hanging out in Europe. The narrator is an older man who works for an insurance company who befriends them and keeps running into them.

The thing that captivated me was that Michener, writing about the late 60s in 1972 totally understood what the young people were trying to do and what they were struggling against. He also correctly hypothesized about the consequences of the actions/inactions of that generation. Very insightful of him. A lot of times you can't encapsulate a period of history until long after it's passed. That way you can look through the prism of time to help you sort things out. But Michener really got it. I told my co-worker when I handed the book back to him that I felt like I had wasted my youth. No trips to Europe in a VW camper for me. No ragtag group of friends. No radical anti-establishment ideas. It was an interesting book. I can't say that I liked it, but I'm not sorry I read it.

As for the pedophiles part -- Ann Benson's "Thief of Souls" is my kind of book. Or it should have been. Set in the Middle Ages. That's my favorite time period. If I could do over my college years, I would become a specialist in medieval studies. How fun would that be? I guess it's for the best that I can just read about that time for fun, rather than be forced to study it for my livelihood. Anyway, it's a good book. Benson's little literary trick is she sets her novels both in the present and in the middle ages. There are always two mysteries going. The mysteries run along parallel lines. So this one deals with a pedophile/serial killer in the middle ages and another one in the present day. The book states that the medieval character is based on Bluebeard. Huh. I always thought he was a pirate. But he was actually a nobleman who kidnapped, raped, and murdered hundreds of little children. Nice, eh? I won't spoil the modern day mystery part of the book.

But the thing about the book was that you knew who was killing the kids in the medieval part. A nun was trying to piece things together. But you as the reader knew whodunnit. I guess you were supposed to know and the suspense was supposed to be about whether they could actually get enough on the nobleman to convict him. Me, I prefer to not know whodunnit until the very end. I like a little more mystery in my mystery books. Plus, the end of the book went on for far too long after the conclusion of the main events. Got a little bored, but overall it was a decent book.

Now, "The Glass of Time" was a book I just bought on a whim this past weekend. Something about mysteries set in Victorian times are like catnip to me. Plus, it had a really great cover. I'm a sucker for a good cover on a book. Crappy book covers can mean death for an author. Too bad they have absolutely no control over the covers. If they get saddled with a crappy concept, they're screwed.

But, I digress. The book was pretty good. I thought it would have worked better as a young adult novel. The cover blurb talked about "stunning plot twists" but I saw them coming from a mile away. And I don't try to figure things out. I like to be surprised. But this held no surprises for me. But, the book really captured the feel of the Victorian era. And plus, it deals with an estate and inheritance and identities. Wonder why that's such a big motif of books set in and written in the Victorian era? Hm. Something else to ponder.

Anyway, I was kinda "eh" about the book when I finished it last night, but then I read the author's acknowledgments at the end and he started off by saying it had been a terrible two years for him while he was writing the novel. Evidently. He thanked 10 doctors. 10! That's a lot of doctors. Somehow, knowing that he had written this novel during a terribly trying time in his life made me like the book a little bit better. This was his second novel. Evidently his first novel, "The Meaning of Night" got rave reviews. I'll have to pick that up next.

It's fall again. My favorite season of the entire year. And something about this season makes me want to dig in to classics and mysteries and fantasies. The summer is for adventure stories. But fall is when I dive into gigantic books and get away from reality. Plus, the books set in the middle ages and in Victorian times are much more enjoyable when you're reading them cuddled up on the couch with a hot cup of tea. Yay! Let the reading begin!

As for MINI news, my little Simon went to the fix-it shop yesterday morning to get a new dome light. Evidently it's quite common for the buttons on the light to just fall off. Mine fell off approximately two weeks after I bought my car. I just haven't made the appointment to get that fixed until now. So they fixed Simon all up. They also washed my car for me. I got what I paid for. Meaning it was free. There were water spots all over my baby boy! And the windows were all smeared. How distressing! Fortunately, it's been raining all day today, so that erased the problems. Who knew I could be excited about rain on my little Simon? My MINI dealership is going to have a "Homecoming" party next weekend. I'm so there. I already RSVP'd. It's all about the free t-shirt. Yeah, baby!

Sinclair Lewis's "Arrowsmith"

Well, I went to my second book group meeting last Monday. It's like I get a contact high from being around people who are as passionate about books as I am. Two new women were there, giving us a total of nine people. Good group.

Our book for the month was "Arrowsmith" by Sinclair Lewis. I have never struggled so hard with a text. If it hadn't been "required reading" for the book group, I doubt I would have read beyond the first 100 pages. That's my tolerance level. If a book isn't good by 100 pages in, then it's never going to get good. Life is too short to read bad books. This particular book wasn't bad. I saw what Lewis was trying to do. Decrying the split between doctors practicing for money and status, and doctors who practice "pure science" for the love of discovery. But the eponymous "hero" of Arrowmith was a truly unlikeable person. He aged in the novel but never matured. He was incredibly whiny and self-centered. The book was written in the 1920s, so this could be one of the first attempts at the anti-hero. But I just didn't like it at all. I did like a few slang words I picked up from the book. "Chickabiddies" refers to young girls. "Hobbledehoy" evidently is a rube. I enjoy learning new words.

Not many of the women in the book group finished the book. Those who did echoed my sentiments. It's interesting to see the different views brought to the book group conversations. No one talks about their jobs, or their former jobs (some seem as if they are retired). I find that refreshing. I hate how Americans (and yes, I am an American, but I can still criticize my own culture) always ask "what do you do?" as an introductory question. Europeans don't do that. I read this quote once -- "Some day we shall be judged by who we are and what we did, not what we are and who we did." About sums up my wishes for the future.

"Arrowsmith" won the Nobel Prize, I think. Perhaps it was more poignant when it came out as a criticism of the burgeoning greed overtaking the medical establishment in the 1920s. Just a few years before, you literally had "doctors" selling snake oil to people. But the book hasn't withstood the passage of time for me. It's very dated. Stilted. The characters are all very one-dimensional. Not very much dialogue. So again, I think at the time of publication it might have had much more impact.

And I'm not one to poo poo on literature like some critics. I can admit when I liked a fluffly little book by James Patterson or Stuart Woods. I don't need to savage books in order to make myself feel intelligent. That's just silly. But this book I can honestly say I didn't like.

I have high hopes for our next book -- "The Moonstone" by Wilkie Collins. One of my favorites when I was growing up.

13 Ways of Looking at the Novel -- Review

Well, it took me a bit longer than anticipated, but I just completed Jane Smiley's "13 Ways of Looking at the Novel." Very interesting. She wrote it after 9/11 when she had writer's block and couldn't finish a novel she was working on. So instead, she wrote about novels and read 100 novels and wrote little essays/critiques on each of the 100 novels.

What stood out to me was that she said the great question posed by most great novels since novels began is "What to do with women." I had never thought of it that way. But most of the novels I love do pose that very question. All of Austen's books revolve around a woman and what she will do with herself and what society will do with her. Some other that pop to mind are "The Portrait of a Lady," "Anna Karenina," "Madame Bovary," "The House of Mirth." So many.

And the answers of what to do with women have changed over the centuries as well. In the beginning, women were property of their fathers who needed to make a good or equal exchange. Nowadays the woman question is more "Now that we can choose our own destinies, what will we choose?"

Thanks to this book I have a host of novels to put in my queue. Most of them are "classics," but that doesn't mean that they are boring.

I Think I Have A Problem

Another weekend, another book buying frenzy. I think I melted my check card today. Egad! I bought five new books! I haven't even read the books I bought last weekend. This is how you know you have a problem, folks. But I couldn't resist. Or, if I'm being honest, I didn't want to resist the siren call of crisp, sturdy new spines and the smell of the printed word. But just in case you think I've gone totally insane, some of the books were mega bargains.

You know you're addicted and a confirmed bibliomaniac when you have nothing to do on a Saturday, and you find your MINI and your feet taking you to three different bookstores. Three. One. Two. Three. I spent an hour and a half in Borders. Then about an hour in Barnes & Noble. Then about forty-five minutes in this fabulous half-price bookstore.

Yep. I'm addicted to books. I'm a bibliomaniac. I think I'm going to have to start a Bibliomaniacs Anonymous. "My name is X, and I'm a bibliomaniac." Then everyone can say, "Hi, X." I'm wondering what the twelve steps should be. Probably there only needs to be one step. A Golden Rule, if you will, that says you can't buy new books until you've read all the books you previously purchased. But the new books turn my head. And I NEEEEEED to own them. They must be mine. They will be mine. Precious. My precious. (She says in a creepy Gollum voice) I guess I'm just not ready to get help. Oh well.

I get such a thrill when I bring new books to my home and introduce them to my other books. Then I get to figure out which bookcase and on which shelf they should go. Then the books take on a new dimension when they have neighbor books. They become another piece of the puzzle that is me.

Since I'm not ready to get help for my bibliomania, I think I need to create some kind of portable list. Last week I bought a used copy of one of Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum novels. Then when I went to put it on the shelf, I discovered I already owned a copy of that particular novel. Bugger. Then I felt kind of guilty for having promised my new copy a permanent home in my collection. So the book has been sitting on my kitchen table. All alone. Waiting to be returned. I feel like I have betrayed this book. I know, anthropomorphizing books is a crazy thing to do. But I anthropomorphize everything. I name my MINI, my iPod, my iBook, my cello. Everything has a name. You got a problem with that?

Getting back to the need for a list. I'm thinking I'll just write out a list of which books I have of certain authors that I'm just collecting. And then I'll write out a list of those books I need where I already have a bunch from that author. Sounds like a plan.

I'm going to the symphony tonight. I'm drinking tea to stay awake. But I'm going to stop drinking here in a few minutes. Otherwise I'll have to stumble over hoity-toity rich people during the concert. And it's being televised live on our local PBS station. I don't want my friends to call me tomorrow and tell me they saw me sit in some geezer's lap in my attempt to extricate myself from my row to go to the bathroom. Maybe I'll stop drinking now. Good idea.

Guess I'll go do something productive to get ready for tonight. Later!

The Host -- Stephenie Meyer

So I just got to do one of my favorite things on a long weekend. I woke up early this morning. Made my coffee and cereal and plopped down on the couch with a brand new, thick book. And I did not leave said couch, except to eat and use the facilities, for a solid 9.5 hours. I got totally sucked in to the book, "The Host." It was awesome!

Premise = Earth has been invaded by . . . parasites that insert themselves in human beings and take over their bodies and their thoughts. There are some humans who have escaped the mass assimilation and are fighting the "worms" to keep humanity alive. One woman who has been fighting and struggling for many years is finally captured and a parasite named "Wanderer" is put into this woman's body. Except, the woman's consciousness continues to struggle against her new "host." This never happens.

It was completely riveting. Even if you don't like sci-fi, you would probably enjoy this. It's a hefty book at around 620 pages. But you get totally sucked in. And I didn't think of it as a sci-fi book. More a study about what it means to be human. Very well written. And near the end I just bawled like a baby. Not giving anything away here. I don't know how authors can make you care about a character on paper, but Meyer did. I highly recommend.

Now that I've been freed from the book's pull, I have many weekend chores I have totally neglected, so I must get started on those so I can enjoy yet another day off tomorrow on this long three-day weekend!

Bad Movies We Love

Went to dinner at a Mexican restaurant last night with two friends. The conversation turned to bad movies we love in spite of our better judgment. My all-time favorite bad movie is "The Long Kiss Goodnight" with Geena Davis and Samuel L. Jackson. So bad it's good. When I admitted my love for this movie, my friend Leslie clapped her hands like a little girl and said, "I LOOOOOVE that movie, too!!" I knew we were friends for a reason.

Her boyfriend, Shaun, then started listing off his favorite bad movies. Oddly enough, most of them were sci-fi movies. Guess that's just a genre that inherently walks the thin line between brilliant and crap. And then those that are so crap are craptastic! His favorites are "Event Horizon" and "Screamers" and "Armageddon." I've seen the first and last, but not "Screamers." He made me promise to put it in my Netflix queue. I'll let you know after I've watched it.

Some of my favorite movies are bad on purpose. Like they're making fun of bad movies. Or at least I think they're doing it on purpose. The faux documentary "Drop Dead Gorgeous" makes fun of documentaries. It's hilarious. I always see Ellen Barkin raising her right hand with the beer can permanently stuck in her hand. Once you see it, you'll understand. Then there are the "Charlie's Angels" movies. Totally campy and laugh out loud funny.

Maybe I should take this approach to the Star Wars prequel trilogy. Those movies stole my soul they were so bad. A blight upon the happy memories of my childhood. Perhaps I should play Mystery Science Theater 3000 with those movies. I could have fun with those movies that way. Especially when Anakin has any dealings with Padme. "Are you an angel?" Blech. Puh! It makes me want to spit to clear my mouth. You'd think I'd want to cover my ears, but my initial reaction (after rolling my eyes into the back of my head) is to make "puh puh" noises like I'm spitting out something nasty tasting. Even though I did not like said movies, I still own them on DVD. Perhaps at some point on this long holiday weekend, I shall try out my Mystery Science Theater approach to these prequels. I'll let you know how it turns out.

Haven't done much reading during the latter part of the week. I hope to get into "The Host" by Stephenie Meyer. Big book for a big weekend. My friend Rachel loved this book. I read the first chapter and thought it was pretty interesting.

I have a 30% off coupon for Borders burning a hole in my pocket. Think I'll see if I can find any classic novels from the Everyman's Library collection. I'm loving those dustjackets. Yes, I'm that swayed by a superficial aesthetic such as a dustjacket. Who said books can't be pretty as well as entertaining?

Mea Culpa!

This is my public apology where I'm humbly begging Garfunkel, my sister's MINI, to forgive me for saying he had a white top. He has a BLACK top. Black. Beautiful, sleek, shiny black. White tops are for losers. So please accept my apology, Garfunkel. Aunty Bibliominiac is gonna buy you a big, bubbly bottle of vintage motor oil for your birthday. Won't that be lovely?

Not much to report today. I spent some time today on the website for the Everyman's Library editions of books. Me likey! I'm thinking I'm going to collect all of the Charles Dickens novels from this collection. Can you believe I haven't read much Dickens? I read "Great Expectations" in high school, but that's it. I know some of his other novels through movie adaptations, but the book is always better. So I plan on slowly accumulating these books and reading every word. Should be fun.

Speaking of "slowly accumulating," I was thinking today that if I didn't buy my big ass flat-screen tv, I could buy tons and tons of books. Or at least ten pounds of books. I started asking myself whether I really NEEDED a big ass tv. After much soul-searching, I decided that those few tv shows I do watch would be even better if the tv were big enough so that I could actually see the actors' facial expressions from my couch six feet away. What a concept. A friend of mine let me borrow her "Sex and the City" DVDs, and it wasn't until one disc got persnickity to the point where I had to watch it on my computer rather than through my tv that I realized Sarah Jessica Parker had blue eyes. Who knew? It was quite eye-opening. Heh. Eye pun. Sorry.

Guess that's all for now. I was going to get on the treadmill and do some exercise, but I think my cats need some attention. Yeah. Blame it on the cats. When I get a big ol' poochy belly and the cats can't find a place to lie down, they'll only have themselves to blame.

First Book Club Meeting

Hey.

I'm just back from my first book club meeting. It's a "Classics" book club. I'm a bit of a hermit, so it took me an effort to will myself to get out of the house and go to the book store. I bought myself a decaf mocha as a reward for making it to the shopping center. Then I loitered around for fifteen minutes and then finally made myself go into the little room. Funny how I can argue in front of a panel of judges and never quake in my boots, yet I didn't want to turn the door handle to go into that conference room to talk about a book.

I had a blast! Let's see, so I will remember, there was Cathy, Jen, Julie, Gail, Carol, and Mary. And me, of course.

We read "Rebecca" by Daphne du Maurier. I had never read it before. The book totally sucked me in. It was really well done. A gothic-styled novel set in the late 1920s or 1930s.

Anyway, I am kind of shy by nature. So I thought I would just kind of listen in and hunker over my decaf mocha and try to be as invisible as possible. But I found myself jumping in and talking about themes and issues and other books that it reminded me of. I wonder now if they thought I was obnoxious. I hope not. They all told me to come back next time. And they didn't say it in that fake Southern way that really means, "We're saying this to your face, but the second you leave we're going to make scathingly catty comments about you." That's quite common down South, you know.

Funny, but when I was in college taking Freshman lit classes, I never spoke. And I always got grumpy about identifying themes. I kept thinking, "Can't we just enjoy the plot without picking it to pieces?" But tonight, here I was picking and hashing away. Quite happily, I might add.

Next month's book is "Arrowsmith" by Sinclair Lewis. Never read that one either. This should be fun. Then October's book is "The Moonstone" by Wilkie Collins. One of my favorite books from when I was younger. I told everyone tonight that it was one of my favorites. Hope I still like it. Hope they like it. But you know, I'm past that point of wanting people to think I'm smart because of my book choices. I want to read the books that interest me, and if that's some "low brow" piece of drivel, so be it.

I attended one other book club about 11 months ago. At the same book store, incidentally. Different people. And boy, were they snooty old cows. The first woman to come into the room saw me sitting there all alone. And she calmly sat down and began looking through her book. Don't you think that common courtesy dictates that you should at least make an effort at introducing yourself? I mean, really. Anyway, three other people showed up. The guy was nice. But that first woman and her girlfriend were completely obnoxious. Said they only read "serious literature." I never really understood what that meant. And who gets to stand around with a literary magic sorting wand saying, "This is serious literature. This one is drivel." Silly.

So I'm glad I went back and gave book clubs another chance. I look forward to reading the next book. It sounds like they've been together for some time, so they've read a lot of books from the "Classics Canon." So I'll be introduced to branches off of the classics tree. Should be interesting.

As for my MINI adventure today -- I almost got (another) speeding ticket. I haven't had a speeding ticket since I was 16 years old. Yet a few months ago, I got behind the wheel of my mom's yellow convertible MINI for the first time and Wham! I hadn't even gone three miles before a cop pulled me over and gave me an outrageously expensive ticket. The nerve. So I went to traffic school in order for it to stay off my record. After spending four hours on a beautiful Saturday morning cooped up in traffic school, I got a wee certificate that said I knew the basics of defensive driving.

So I've been trying to obey the rules of the road so my four hours in traffic school would not be for naught. But today, I came upon this little roundabout by my employee parking lot. It's by a huge public park. And no one was around. So Simon and I zipped halfway around the roundabout. MINIs are made for cornering, you know. And wouldn't you know it, there was a State Trooper standing not ten feet from me after I shot out of the roundabout. He made me stop in the middle of the road and told me the speed limit was 15 m.p.h. and that I needed to drive slower. I played the role of the chastised schoolgirl and said I was sorry and that I wouldn't do it again. But deep down I was thinking that he had ruined my whirly twirly happiness. Sigh. Guess next time I'll have to do a super slo-mo whirly twirly round the roundabout. Won't be as much fun though.

I must say that MINIs make you a wee bit of an aggressive driver. They're just too much fun to drive. And I'm not the only one who thinks so. My mom has never had a speeding ticket in her entire life. Always always always drives the speed limit. But she was talking to me the other day and agreed that there's something about a MINI that makes you want to pretend like you're in "The Italian Job." She told me she was getting on the interstate the other day and some guy was following her very closely. Again, she drives the speed limit, but he wanted to go much faster. However, when she hit this big, almost 360 degree on-ramp, she told me she "smoked him" on the corner. To hear my mom talking about smoking someone in her MINI was too hilarious for words. Dear old Mom.

Guess that's it for now.

First Post

Okay. So now what?

Let's try some different fonts. Yeah. That will take up some space. This blank page is very intimidating.

Another font.

What about this one?

Ick. I don't like this one.

Trebuchet? Nah. Besides, what kind of name for a font is that? That's a medieval catapult. Silly name for a font.

I've heard of this one. Nope.

Ha Ha!

I have decided on this one.
Very nice.
Hope you like it.

Well, this is my attempt to not get too far behind in technology.
So I shall use this place to teach myself new tricks.

I know the title of my blog references my MINI Cooper, and I would love to show you a picture of my car. Simon. His name is Simon. Simon Patrick Alfred Cornwallis IV. (Even though this is only my first MINI, I still felt like he was the fourth in a long line of distinguished MINIs.) Anyway, I would love to show you a picture of my car, but I don't have a digital camera. And even if I did, I don't think I would know how to post the picture of him. Someday I shall learn. I promise. Then you can ooh and ah over Simon. He's Royal Grey in color. Or should I say "colour" since he's British? It's a beautiful color/colour. Grey with hints of brown and green. They don't make that color anymore. So Simon is even more special.

I've only had him for 21 months, but already we've had many grand adventures together. He's a stick shift. 5-speed. When I bought him, I didn't know how to drive a stick. So my mom had to drive him off the lot. Pretty funny. She hadn't driven a stick in over 20 years, but she did beautifully. She drove me to a Target parking lot near my house and I proceeded to pop the clutch about 150 times in a row. But I learned. I put a sign in the back window that said "New Stick Driver." On the first day I drove it, I had to go up a hill. I thought I was going to have a heart attack. To make matters worse, this 16 year-old sorority girl wannabe in her parents' Lexus SUV gets right up on my bumper. The light turned green, and I rolled back and almost smashed into her. She honked and honked. I kept thinking, "Do you think I'm doing this for my entertainment?" I killed the engine through the entire green light. People were honking. Couldn't they see my sign? On the next light, I finally managed to peel out and made it up the hill. I didn't know you could peel out in a stick. Huh.

When I finally made it safely home, I thought about it and figured out that that young lady didn't know what "New Stick Driver" meant. So I put a second sign in the back window. "Keep Back." That worked. Lots of people smiled at me as they passed by. Others gave me a thumbs up. Very encouraging. I kept that sign up for two months. By then I finally felt comfortable with my skills. And I didn't feel a rush of adrenaline or my stomach drop to my knees.

Now, Simon and I laugh about those first few weeks. We zip around the streets, cornering like a race car driver, and accelerating smoothly with no herky jerky movements. It's awesome.

I'm such a fan and big MINI enthusiast that my sister and mom each bought one. My sister bought a blue one with a white top. My mom bought a yellow convertible. They are both extremely happy with their MINIs.

But back to my no digital camera situation. I would buy one, but this fall my big purchase for myself is a flat-screen tv. I have this old old old tv I've had since college. I don't have cable, and I don't want it. So my little square tv has rabbit ears perched on top. They're pointing in such a way as to make my tv look very quizzical with one "ear" pointing almost directly sideways. Kind of cute. But, I figured with the digital signal conversion coming up, I might as well get a big tv with a digital tuner. That way I can watch my DVDs in all of their widescreen glory. So, yes, I will buy myself a big tv in a few months. And then maybe down the road I shall buy a digital camera.

My family thinks I'm crazy for not getting cable, but whenever I go to their houses, there's nothing on. You just end up channel surfing for hours. Or watching something you don't really like. Don't get me wrong. I like tv shows. I love "The Closer" and "Bones" and "Law & Order: SVU." But I can watch "Bones" and "SVU" with my rabbit-eared tv, and then I just Netflix "The Closer" and watch an entire season, commercial-free all during one eye-numbing weekend. More fun that way.

As for books, I love fiction, mostly mysteries, and history books, particularly books on medieval history. And if it's a mystery set in the middle ages . . . perfection.

I'm not one of those book snobs. I'll read anything so long as it entertains me. I work with a guy who is a book snob. One day he saw me returning a James Patterson book to the library and said, "Well, I'll never again worry about you seeing what I'm reading." Putz.

And the "Bibliomaniac" part of my blog title is so very very true. I have a disease. I need to own books. And not paperbacks. I must own the hardcovers. First editions if I can swing it.

My favorite thing to do on any weekend is to go to at least three different bookstores around town. I call it "haunting the local bookstores." Love just wandering the aisles, smelling the new book smell. Or old book smell. Sipping a mocha. The joy is in the search. And the purchasing. And the reading, don't get me wrong. I love to read them. But I find such extreme satisfaction in putting a book on my bookshelf after I've read it. I can't explain it.

I used to work in a bookstore. Actually I've worked for two different bookstores. Many many years. Loved that employee discount. Sometimes I swear my paycheck said, "You owe us." I miss those discounts. And the people. Book people are my peeps. We get each other. We get excited about the same things. New books coming out by favorite authors. New authors coming out of nowhere.

I worked at Barnes & Noble when the Harry Potter phenomenon caught fire. That was amazing to be a part of. Then when the fourth book came out, they started doing midnight release parties. A midnight release party! For a book! And hundreds and hundreds of people would show up. It was so much fun. The adults were just as excited as the kids.

But now the Harry Potter saga is complete. Guess we'll have to wait for the next big thing. I've heard a lot about Stephenie Meyers's "Twilight" series. My friend raves about them. Guess I'll give them a whirl.

Well, I believe I've rambled on for quite long enough for my first post here in blogland.

And it's Sunday, so I'm off to a bookstore or two. My cat has just exited his favorite layabout place -- the shower, he loves the feel of the cool porcelain underneath his furry fluffy body -- so now I can get ready for the day. And the books.