April 2009 Books (in which I refuse to grow up)

Guide:
GN= graphic novel
YA= young adult/tween
* = recommended
[]= on hiatus

Books Read This Month
36. MW, Osamu Tezuka (GN)* {BSG plot devices, take note}
37. Goldengrove, Francine Prose*
38. BlackJack, Vol 4, Osamu Tezuka (GN)
38. Song Without Words, Ann Packer
39. Outside beauty, Cynthia Kadokha (YA)
40. One Secret Thing, Sharon Olds
41. The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks, E. Lockhart (YA)*
42. Brisingr, Christopher Paolini (YA)
43. All in A Day, Cynthia Rylant and Nikki McClure * (picture book. but still fun and a great pick-me-up.)

Axed, due to lack of interest/increasing pretentiousness:
Central Park in the Dark, Marie Winn
The Book of Animal Ignorance: Everything You Think You Know Is Wrong by John Mitchinson and John Lloyd

Currently Rotating Reading list:
A Year in Our Gardens, Letter by Nancy Goodwin and Allen Lacy* {I don’t wanna finish. I don’t want this to end}
The Red Leather Diary, Lily Koppel {keep picking it up and then picking it down}
Tunneling to Center of Earth, Kevin Wilson
Pretty Monsters: Stories, Kelly Link

Bought:
DK Guide to Sewing
Tunneling To Center of Earth, Kevin Wilson
All in A Day, Cynthia Rylant and Nikki McClure
Unleashed: Poems by Writers’ Dogs, ed. Amy Hempel and Jim Shepard
BlackJack Vol 4, Osamu Tezuka
Adventures in Cartooning, James Sturm, Andrew Arnold & Alexis Frederick-Frost

Currently tempted by (or, how I love my library for carrying these books):
Wildwood, Roger Deakin
Milk: The Surprising Story of Milk Through the Ages, Anne Mendelson
The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, M.T. Anderson

Notes/Observations:
I feel like I should explain something. When I say I’m totally a bookslut, I really, really, REALLY mean a bookslut. I’m not talking about the range of nonfiction that I read, I’m also talking about all sorts of books, including YA, somewhere-in-between, and oh the glorious picture books that I never outgrow. (that might explain why I am never able to spend less than 5 minutes in a bookstore. I need to see the bestsellers, what’s new, then move on to nonfiction, then to YA, then to picture books. I have to look at everything. I’m really a terrible bookstore companion that way. and uhm. i might just treat libraries the same way as well.)

So this is why you see something like Francine Prose (why have I not read her before? She’s a wonderful writer!) along with the third book of Eragon series. It may also explain the constantly overflowing bookshelves. Ah well. The life of a bookslut is always fraught with such… problems, er, I mean, pleasures.

The book list is a little shorter because I got distracted by poetry month (and knitting deadlines). And because I ended up reading really long novels, even if they were YA novels (which I consume like crack. And normally go through in about 2 hours or so). I really enjoyed A Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks, and it is so amusing. Secret Order of the Basset Hound? Oh yeah. And I would be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy the third book in Eragon series, even if it is clearly a ripoff of all things LOTR (including long tedious prose asking for Peter Jackson to edit it), its still an absorbing story and I like stories.

It’s getting to be May, and I think I’m going to try to stop buying books (stop giggling. I can hear you from all the way here!) until July (my birthday month. I always get a book. or two. or three. or what usually happens, the same books that everyone wants to get me. oops). That and I have rearranged my shelves and discovered gems that I forgot I had. And I’m going to try to stop carting around 20 or so books from the library. Just borrow what I can read in the meantime and stop renewing for the nth time.

Right.

If you’d like to amuse me, you can tell me what your book-related vices are. 🙂