Bookstooge Turns '21

And here's a Year in Review post to start things off right...

Happy New Year and happy new thread!

>1 BookstoogeLT: Happy new year! :)

Happy new year!

Welcome to 2021! I hope the months ahead prove to make up a good year, and I look forward to reading your posts.

>2 Karlstar:, >3 YouKneeK:, >4 Narilka: & >5 jillmwo: Thank you all. And a happy new years in return!

today I wrote out about 4/5ths of the posts for January. I did a couple of months of old posts and now I'm looking online for something else to do.

Is there anything I won't do to avoid reading Gulag Vol II? Oh, this is going to be a rough month....

Happy new year! I hope it will be a good one in life and in books.

Happy New Year and happy reading!

Good wishes to you for 2021.

>8 Sakerfalcon:, >9 majkia: & >10 Peace2: Thank you and a Happy New Year's to you all as well.

Happy 2021, >1 BookstoogeLT:! May all your reads be worthy of dissection and/or discussion.

>12 clamairy: Thanks Clam!

Poll: Which Book Give-Away?

Doing a book giveaway in february and want some help choosing which set to give away.

Happy New Year!

>15 NorthernStar: and a happy new year to you as well.

Yotsuba #7

Another 5star manga monday entry....

>14 BookstoogeLT: Personally, I'd love the set of Deryni novels - they are almost impossible to get nowadays. But I live a little too far away to be in the running :(

>18 -pilgrim-: Oh man, the cost. Someone recently shipped a small hardcover to me from the UK. She told me, after the fact, how much it cost (because I asked). I was shocked. So I can't imagine shipping 6 books!

I've never really looked at the collectible side of books. I wonder if I should try to sell them on ebay....

>18 -pilgrim-: I love the Deryni series! I already have them though.

>19 BookstoogeLT: I haven't had much luck selling books on ebay, though I do not have extensive experience. Too many booksellers are selling the same books on abe.com for less than $4 and free shipping.

>20 Karlstar: Yeah, I've tried to get rid of books through Craigslist. Nary a bite so far :-(

My Current Reading Rotation

I hired SpongeBob to help explain my current reading stuff...

Oooo you're giving the Elenium a reread.

Happy New Year!

>23 Narilka: Yep, it's been 19 years since my last read of it, so it's time to test the waters and see how it stands up to the man I am now :-D

>24 BrokenTune: And a happy new year to you BT! You doing ok, or just extra busy?

>25 BookstoogeLT: Doing fine. Thank you. Just still in a posting slump. Btw, I finished A Tale of Two Cities over the holidays, tho I wasn't a fan.

>26 BrokenTune: That is ok. I'll still try to be your friend even if Dickens isn't your bestie ;-)

What's this stupid little popup saying "Your reply was posted to the bottom of the topic."

Never had that happen before. Is Tim messing around and doing "stuff" again?

If you use the Reply feature under a post instead of just using the big text box at the bottom you'll get that message. It's not a new feature and kinda helpful if you're replying to something several posts up and wondered where your response went. Less useful if you just responded to the most recent post.

>29 Narilka: Thanks for the explanation. I always reply using the chevron and the number so I've never seen that before. I guess I must have hit "reply" instead this time?
But now I know and ♪Knowing's ♪Half the Battle♪

Steal the Sky

3.5stars for the first book in the Scorched Continent trilogy.

>30 BookstoogeLT: I’ve caught myself hitting the Reply randomly a time or two even though I normally never use it. I think maybe when I’m only half paying attention to what I’m doing and my mind thinks I’m on another site where I’m more likely to click a reply link.

It does have some advantages though, depending on how you do things. It types the ># for you (that’s a newer feature), plus it inserts the reply box under the post you’re replying to. Like >29 Narilka: mentioned, you might be replying to a message several posts up from the bottom, allowing you to type your reply directly under that post so you can more easily reference what you’re replying to rather than scrolling up and down.

Since I usually write my replies in Word, I hardly ever use it. Plus in my own thread I’m often replying to multiple people in a single post to conserve valuable post #’s. ;)

>22 BookstoogeLT: Not sure which 4 Charles Williams novels your rotation includes, but if/when you get round to Descent into Hell, I'd be very interested to know your thoughts on it.

>22 BookstoogeLT: >33 Majel-Susan: I am also planning to include at least one other Williams this year. Maybe we should coordinate timing?

>34 -pilgrim-: Oh, yes, I'd love to! That is, if my schedule allows. So far, I've read War in Heaven and Descent into Hell, which I thought was really great. The rest of his novels, I haven't read yet.

>32 YouKneeK: I can see other people needing all those things. Those poor, needy, helpless folks ;-)
hahahahaa!

>33 Majel-Susan:, >34 -pilgrim-: & >35 Majel-Susan: I have:
The Place of the Lion
The Greater Trumps
Descent into Hell
Shadows of Ecstasy

I would be open to some sort of read-along, groupy thingy. It would have to wait until at least April for me though. But any time after that I can slot in whatever you want. I don't have a preference nor do I particularly care how it works. I've not done a coordinated read in several years so I'm rusty. But it sounds interesting.

Currently Reading: Wicked Bronze Ambition

and it's not looking very good....

>36 BookstoogeLT: I really rather enjoyed Descent into Hell, but I wouldn't be up for a reread just yet; the others are good with me, though.

>38 Majel-Susan: I figure I'll let you and Pilgrim figure out which one and what to do for the schedule, etc.
Honestly, I figured Pilgrim will be setting the pace as she's the one dealing with the most crap :-(

Clouds of Witness

The second in the Lord Peter Wimsey series by Sayers. Great book up until the last 10%, which dropped the whole thing to a 2.5rating :-(

Iron Rest

Mrs B writes a post.

>42 -pilgrim-: You two are well- matched.

>39 BookstoogeLT: I am still trying to get back to my own Kindle - where my Charles Williams anthology resides.

My life IS unpleasantly hectic at present, but it is this access that is the main issue. (Also the Curse of Chalion read.)

Can I get back to you on this, as Williams is the sort of writer where a group read is really useful, and I do want to do this.

>42 -pilgrim-: Yes, we are indeed :-D
>43 -pilgrim-: No rush, sorry if it came across that way. I just didn't want to forget about it :-)
What would work best for you? Reminding you in mid-March, or letting you remember?

>44 BookstoogeLT: I will probably remember just fine, but won't take a reminder amiss.

>45 -pilgrim-: I put a reminder for myself to remind you and >38 Majel-Susan: mid-march.
Thank goodness for google calendar!

The Guilty Reader Tag

In which I bare my soul and confess all my bookish sins.

Stopping by to wish you a belated wish for a wonderful 2021, o piffle-master.

>48 Jim53: Thanks! Glad I was able to help out last month. That's what I'm all about, helping others ;-)
You have a great '21 too and if the end of hte year catches you short, you know who to turn to :-D

#musicmonday - Dark Sky Island

Enya's latest album from 2015.

>41 BookstoogeLT: Great post from Mrs B!

>51 Sakerfalcon: She says thanks :-)

>52 BookstoogeLT: It's an important message to all of us, delivered in a creative and memorable way. Your household is a repository of writerly goodness!

>53 Sakerfalcon: Yeah, Mrs B didn't get her english degree for nothing :-D
As for me, I just like to blab. So if I blab enough, it's kind of like those monkeys, typewriters and Julius Caesar ;-)

Project X (Classified and Top Ultra Mega Totally Secret) An Introduction

My next blogging project for the year. Should be fun.

In other news, my laptop died, I'm currently using a 10 year old backup one and new laptops are more expensive than guns. Depending, my activity might be curtailed for a week or so.

>55 BookstoogeLT: How old was it and what brand?

>56 Karlstar: It was an HP and I think it was 7 or 8 years old. It just stopped booting up. I took the hard drive out last night and am hoping I can attach it to this laptop so I can get all the data I need off of it. Otherwise, oh man....

Richard II

3.5stars. Ol' Shakes is on a roll with me!

>57 BookstoogeLT: I’m sorry about the loss of your laptop! No recent backups? Hopefully the hard drive is still fine. I don't suppose it could be as simple as a bad power supply?

Warning, my page just auto-refreshed, with the loss of what I had been trying, when@YouKneek posted.

Looks like another introduced glitch. Type your replies elsewhere guys, THEN post!

>55 BookstoogeLT: Sounds like a fun project. Stinks your laptop died. Hope you get a replacement soon. Luckily you prepped several blog plots already so one less thing to worry about.

>57 BookstoogeLT: One other thought, have you considered it might be a bad TOD battery?

>59 YouKneeK: & >62 Karlstar: Not a power issue. The power light comes on when I plug it in. It just wouldn't boot up. Almost like the ram was corrupted. But when I installed the ram in the old computer (to give it all the help I could), it worked just fine.

>59 YouKneeK: Backups would be of my calibre library and the most recent I have is from over 6 months ago. Things were going so well that I stopped updating my thumb drive. Go figure

>60 -pilgrim-: Oh, that sounds bad. I'll go check out your thread. Really not liking some of the stuff going on here at LT.

>61 Narilka: Thanks. As for posting, I"m good for the rest of the month actually. Well, except 1 or 2 reviews. All my non-review stuff is good to go!

Wicked Bronze Ambition

The Garrett PI series comes to a 2 star whimper of an ending. Very disappointing...

>63 BookstoogeLT: Not the system battery, the 'time of day' battery aka cmos battery, aka several other names, it is a small, button type battery. On many systems, it just won't boot up once that has gone dead.

>63 BookstoogeLT: On the plus side, things seem to have stabilised.

On the negative, the "stable" version, is there one with all the flaws that I mentioned in my own thread, but we're explained as being temporary, not the intended result.

>41 BookstoogeLT: I loved your write-up. Solid advice delivered in a memorable way. (It takes me a while to catch up!)

Good News Everyone!
I was able to recover all the data from the harddrive of the dead computer and it is now sitting in my working computer. Currently data trashing the hard drive so I can get rid of it.

Of course, I had a "fatal error" with this current old laptop, so Mrs B and I discussed some financial stuff and I should be getting a laptop in a month or so, as long as this one holds out.

>65 Karlstar: Maybe? I didn't think laptops had that kind of battery. Not accessible anyway?

>66 -pilgrim-: Ugh, the hits just keep on coming for you, don't they? I have to admit I've enjoyed my couple of days away from interacting (even as little as I do here on LT) with everyone.

>67 jillmwo: Mrs B says "thanks".

>68 BookstoogeLT: Most, if not all, do, but they are a pain to replace. You got the data anyway, so it is irrelevant.

>69 Karlstar: Yep, my precious data is safe. Now I'm going to backup my calibre library and settings on a thumbdrive and a removable hd I have for just this occasion.

>70 BookstoogeLT: Congratulations. That must be a relief for you.

>68 BookstoogeLT: Congrats on recovering your data! I hope you’re able to find a good new laptop that fits the budget.

>71 -pilgrim-: Thanks! I was not looking forward to having to re-enter 6months of book review data :-( Which is funny, as I'm working on years of backlog data, so really, what's the difference? I don't know, but it seems very different.

>72 YouKneeK: Thank you. Me too. I'm actually wondering about having the local computer shop build me one based on my online activity. I don't need a gaming laptop, but man, when I get chrome open with several tabs, the memory usage goes through the roof.

#6Degrees - Hamnet to .....

Another 6dgrees post.

I suppose you could come up with your own starting book for your 6Degress posts, though that was still highly entertaining even if I've never heard of the starting book.

>75 Narilka: I actually did think about that. and quickly gave up on the idea because it sounded a lot like work :-D

>74 BookstoogeLT:
How do you define "chick lit"?

I have always mentally thought of it as "primarily occupied with the relationships between women".

>77 -pilgrim-: Roughly speaking, anything fictional written by women for women. Usually of post 1940's date.

>77 -pilgrim-: Oops. Cross post. I was trying to explain a little.

I don't really understand the concept of writing "for women" in relationship to the modern era. Pre-WWII lectures (however disguised) on how women "should" behave, certainly. But after that?

Publishers certainly attempt to market by gender in terms of those awful pink everywhere covers (for example).

But what constitutes a book "for women" nowadays?

Manga Monday- Yotsuba&! Vol. 8

and the 5star mangas keep rolling in.

>80 BookstoogeLT: Has something gone wrong? You normally link these to your blog.

>81 -pilgrim-: bleeping brackets that I had put around Manga Monday screwed up the link. Fixed now. That was weird...

>82 BookstoogeLT: Yes, I had not expected you to be giving a 5 star rating to the manga that link was pointing to!

>83 -pilgrim-: Do I want to know what it was pointing towards? Probably not :-D

>79 -pilgrim-: Working on the opposite to define it. Take the Mack Bolan books from the 70's and 80's. Those are the quintessential mens action books. The premise is to write something that will appeal to the male in general and include things that will interest him.
So chick lit is the opposite, something that is geared towards appealing specifically towards women. For me, that includes relationship, drama, relationship drama and feelings having as big a part if not bigger than plot and action.

>84 BookstoogeLT: Your link was to a yaoi manga: Seven Days: Monday Thursday

>85 -pilgrim-: Oh dear goodness!

PSA: Wordpress - Whoring out the free blogs

WP, in its great wisdom, continues to try to monetize the free blogs in any way possible.

>84 BookstoogeLT: That was not an immediately helpful analogy as I had never heard of Mack Bolan!

So, is Jane Austen quintessential "chick lit"? I thought you liked her books, yet you said that you never read chick lit.

ETA: I don't tend to choose books by what genre label they have, so I find the bounds of categories rather mystifying.

>87 BookstoogeLT: You might be forced to host your own site sooner rather than later.

>87 BookstoogeLT: >89 Narilka: For now it is tolerable, wonder how long that will last.

>88 -pilgrim-: Did the link not get included? Dag nabbit! I realize this is late, but here it is: Mack Bolan: The Executioner

Austen was well before 1940 and has moved into "classic" territory. And I have to say, you don't read histories, or philosophical or theological works? Of course, if you don't pay attention to that, it would explain why you kept reading those terrible dragon urban fantasy books late last year ;-)
I will give you that a lot of modern labelling is a mess and more due to the publishers wanting to sell, sell, sell. However, as much as I can't nail down a perfect description, when I see it I know it and I know to avoid it.
In this case, the "Won the Women's Award for X" was a dead giveaway.

>89 Narilka: & >90 Karlstar: I am giving some serious thought about what my Rubicon is. Part of the problem is that I really like the wp.com ecosystem. I like the reader, I like the comment system, I like the notification system. I'd probably be willing to pay more to stay in that than to go host my own and deal with all the troubles several people I follow have to deal with. For me, comments (ease of and notifications of and replies) are absolute king. And wp.com does the best job I've seen. But man, the idea of paying for a blog is really tough :-(

And now my "Talk" module on my homepage is completely frakked up! I now see what I think others were talking about.

What is the problem around this place? Gahhhh, one more irritant, just what is needed....

>92 BookstoogeLT: and it turns out that somehow my talk module was no longer sorting by "last message". Once I re-clicked that things went back to normal. But I swear I didn't change it away from that.

>93 BookstoogeLT: You're not the only one! It took me a while to work out what had gone wrong.

>94 hfglen: When I went to ask what was going on in the main LT group, I was directed to a thread where it appeared this was happening to a lot of people. So behind the scenes tinkering IS the cause, even if they don't know exactly why.

Currently Reading: Gulag Archipelago Vol II

I am making a concerted effort to get this volume done!

Currently Reading: Auxiliary London 2039

Books like this make me glad I can't read peoples' minds.

Transfer of Power

4stars for the first Mitch Rapp novel. This series is looking good!

>98 BookstoogeLT: 17 more to go? That's a lot!

>99 Karlstar: Yeah, it is one of those long running, written by somebody else at the end, kind of series. I'm hoping the quality stays this high. I really could use some reading about a good guy.

2006 Is Done!

The Blog Construction Project is being relentlessly ground down. Whooohoooo!

The Muppet Movie

My muppet adventure has started off wonderfully.

>102 BookstoogeLT: YAY!! Glad you enjoyed it :)

>103 Narilka: I've already got the Great Muppet Caper, Muppets Take Manhattan and Muppet Treasure Island bought on the strength of how fun this one was...

>102 BookstoogeLT: While Muppet's Christmas Carol and Muppet's Treasure Island are my favorites, I enjoyed the other movies too. Our family loved the Muppets, everything. Still have happy memories of the kiddos having fits of giggles while watching The Muppet Show.

>104 BookstoogeLT: I'm excited for your upcoming reviews :D I really should rewatch some of these.

>105 MrsLee: I'm hoping to enjoy Muppet Treasure Island too :-D

>106 Narilka: Don't hold your breath. At one a month, it'll be a while!

>107 BookstoogeLT: Don't sell yourself short. The way this world is, it's nice to have something to look forward to in the next 3 months :D

>107 BookstoogeLT: Muppet Treasure Island is a good as it gets. Enjoy!

>108 Narilka: Yep, definitely helps knowing there are good things coming down the movie pipeline :-)

>109 clamairy: I think my favorite scene from the movie is the riff on Dance Fever :-)

Anxiety

A 4star book in the "A Very Short Introduction" series. Good stuff.

Tools of the Trade

Where I show the stuff I have for sharpie'y up my miniatures.

>112 BookstoogeLT: The Sharpies seem to work well. Cool!

>112 BookstoogeLT: Good to see those are working out! How well do they cover, is it taking multiple coats?

>113 Narilka: I'm happy with how they are turning out so far. The real test will be if the sharpie stays on or fades away with taking them in and out of the box.

>114 Karlstar: I'm a one and done kind of guy. So while I might go over a section a few times, I don't let it dry and then do it again. Basically, as long as they stop looking like flesh colored plastic, I'm ok with however it turns out :-D

Infernal Affairs

4stars for the next Saint Tommy, NYPD book.

>115 BookstoogeLT: You mean you know when to stop and when it is good enough? I have a hard time with that when painting minis.

>117 Karlstar: More like I don't really care so as long there is more "color" than plastic'y color, I call it good enough :-D

Currently Reading: Children of Ruin

Why Adrian, why!?!?

>119 BookstoogeLT: Even though I enjoyed Children of Time, the sequel never tempted me.

>120 Narilka: You made the right choice! I'll be reviewing it next month, but Ruin was not good and was everything I feared :-(

Dr Lord Bookstooge Has Been Subsumed

Wordpress's evil, insidious and generally scumbaggery plan has worked just as they thought it would. Goodbye Dr Lord Bookstooge, Hello The Bookstooge.

>122 BookstoogeLT: Uh oh, if you've given in, I'll probably have to follow suit soon, though I blog about 10% as much as you do, maybe less.

>123 Karlstar: Well, think hard about it. Once you go dotcom, going back to free involves a lot of working of relinking posts and you'll lose any links from other, outside, blogs. They make it painless to go dotcom, not so much to go back to dotwordpressdotcom.

For me though, the NSP's (native sponsored posts) were a deal breaker. Ads are one thing, whole posts quite another.

>122 BookstoogeLT: Congrats! I think you'll be happier in the long run.

>125 Narilka: I sure hope so! It would be nice if this month contained at least one good thing :-)

Wonders of the Invisible World

I found one last McKillip book to devour! 4stars all the way for this short story collection.

January's Roundup

Pretty much a staple of the blog every month...

Psychic Grandma Comes Alive

A music monday post about the Notorious PSG...

Retribution

4.5star wrapup to season one of the Galaxy's Edge series. Good stuff!

Unnatural Death

3.5stars of good mystery...

>131 BookstoogeLT: That was my first Lord Peter novel.

As you see, unlike so many "cozy murder" mysteries, it does not treat death casually.

>132 -pilgrim-: Yep, Sayers is making this much more in the vein of Holmes than Miss Marple. I also liked that Wimsey had a real moment when he had to decide if he was even doing the right thing in pursuing murderers instead of leaving it to the professionals. We're so glutted now adays with Private Eye "X" and books and tv shows and everything, that the very premise isn't even considered in any light.

Currently Reading: Path of Daggers

This wheel of time series is still holding up, even with my complaints :-)

Auxiliary: London 2039

2 star read that I finished despite my reservations from >97 BookstoogeLT:.

The Book Give Aways Restart

Well, we'll see if they fire this time.

And I just noticed the color scheme "change". How long has that been around? And is there a way to change it?

Yotsuba&! Vol 9

The manga that doesn't disappoint. Another 5 star entry...

>137 BookstoogeLT: Color scheme change?

>139 Karlstar: Everything I click on is now this maroon'y color and color tabs next to the numbers in these posts is the same. Honestly, I can't tell you what they used to be, so maybe it's all in my head, but I don't remember it being that way.

Project X - A

Pretty self-explanatory.

Fall-Out

3.5stars of coldwar thriller

Currently Reading - One Killer Force

Not looking so good...

>140 BookstoogeLT: The left and right sidebars for me are a kind of pinkish beige and the little tab before my posts is maroon, but the tab before your posts is medium blue.

Strike that, reverse it. I think there's only a tab before your last post, if it is the last. So now there's no little tab before post 143 at all, just the whole header for the post is highlighted in grey.

>145 Karlstar: Reading on a phone: the tab before a post that I have already read is grey, ones I am seeing for the first time are blue.

>147 Karlstar: Same here, except my last 2 posts have the maroon tab and your post has a blue tab where the blue highlight starts.

Thanks folks. I guess I just hadn't noticed it and it took me by surprise when I did finally notice it.

Children of Ruin

1.5stars of completely unnecessary sequel'ness :-(

>149 BookstoogeLT: Thanks for saving me from reading that one.

>150 Karlstar: I just wish someone had been really able to convince ME to have skipped it. I saw some "eh, this isn't his best" and most of the reviews were pretty positive. Those reviewers suck ;-)
Children of Time is a standalone and this book just shouldn't exist...

>149 BookstoogeLT: Ouch. What was the redeeming quality to bring it up to 1.5 stars?

>152 Narilka: It was written by Adrian Tchaikovsky and considering my love of his Shadows of the Apt decalogy, he's earned a LOT of leeway from me. But this used it all up :-(

>153 BookstoogeLT: What did you think of his Dogs of War duology?

>154 -pilgrim-: I have not gotten around to that yet. His output is actually oupacing my reading input! hahahahaaa.

From what I remember of reviews for them though (from the people I follow on wp), it didn't actually sound very interesting to me. After this fiasco of a book I'm going to do some legwork and see what other reviewers thought and go from there.

Part of the issue is that I'm not a dog person, at all. I got run over by a black lab when I was 8 (it was racing down the dirt driveway to greet my friend, as we'd been away all day and she missed him) and it was rather traumatic to my 8 year old self. While I can intellectualize the event all I want, I still have a very visceral reaction to dogs, the subject of dogs, etc.

>153 BookstoogeLT: It's always sad when a favorite author fails so badly.

>156 Narilka: It was not good, that's for sure. Bleh......

>155 BookstoogeLT: It is not fluffy anthropomorphism, that's for sure. The Dogs there are Bioforms that have been cybernetically and genetically engineered to be everything that your 8 year old self felt them to be.

The book is a brilliant look at the ethics of such technology though, and it would be a shame if that made you miss it.

>158 -pilgrim-: I have some serious issues with Tchaikovsky's world view, so I'm not sure I'd want to get any sort of ethics in a SF wrapper from him. I enjoy his stuff when he writes a good story but anything else, I'm very hesitant about.

#6 Degrees - The Redhead by the Side of the Road to .....

Another 6th Degree's post

The Ghost

3.5stars for a Max Brand short story.

>160 BookstoogeLT: Only you can go from Redhead by the Side of the Road to Web of the Witch World via Shakespeare LOL

>162 Narilka: and don't forget Star Wars Shakespeare ;-)

#stopthestealing Me Lucky Charms!

In which my right to defend my own cereal bowl comes under question...

Gulag Archipelago, Vol 2

4stars for this non-fiction read.

Currently Reading & Quote: The Diamond Throne

Back to some old school Eddings!

Path of Daggers

and the Wheel of Time keeps on Rolling....

>166 BookstoogeLT: I have a feeling your reviews are going to make me want to reread these :)

>168 Narilka: Me too, though not all of them.

>168 Narilka: & >169 Karlstar: Be careful what you end up doing. While I'm enjoying this and consistently giving the books 4+ stars, I'm finding that I'm also incredibly annoyed and angry at some of the pure and utter drivel that Jordan chose to put in. Serious bloat :-(

>170 BookstoogeLT: I was referring to Eddings ;)

>171 Narilka: Ooop! I mixed my numbers up, hahahaha!

The Great Muppet Caper (1981)

The next movie in the muppet franchise.

>173 BookstoogeLT: I actually clicked the link and read the blog, which was nicely done. Wonders what insomnia and a weekend enables me to do. I will do so more often, especially for books/movies I have read. I don't read much about books I haven't read. Movies can be different, sometimes I like to know what I am in for plot-wise.

>174 MrsLee: Thank you ;-)
I completely understand though. Clicking through links isn't very conducive to getting people to read what is being written. But since I write what and how I do, its the best I can do to stay within the GD guidelines :-D :-D :-D

Sorry to hear you're dealing with insomnia. Anything in particular causing it or are you one of those people who just suffer from it?

>175 BookstoogeLT: Thanks, no, I very rarely am kept awake at night, but last night I decided to have a cup of tea before bed, and something was eating at my mind. Not a good recipe for a sweet night's slumber.

I always mean to read more of the links than I do, but you know, the rabbit hole of the internet can suck a person in and their whole day is gone with nothing done. I just managed to crawl out of the link to the funny real estate photos elsewhere.

>176 MrsLee: Well, that is good. Both Mrs B and I suffer from it occasionally, so I'm aware of it :-)

I hear you about the internet hole. I think I calculated that if I weren't book blogging (but still writing reviews), I could read an extra 2-5 books a month. It takes up time!

>170 BookstoogeLT: I have never dared start the Wheel of Time; there is simply too much of it - and here speaks some one who devoured both the Belgariad and the Malloreon in her youth!

>178 -pilgrim-: Eh, Eddings is pure fluff compared to Jordan in terms of scope and length. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the Belgariad, the Mallorean and the Elenium, but he's simply not in the same league as Jordan. So I'd say you made the right call.
I think they're for a younger audience than I am now, as well.

If you want a big series, I WOULD recommend the Shadows of the Apt by Tchaikovsky. It's actually really good writing from him instead of the more factory produced mush he's been churning out recently ;-)

Yotsuba #10

And another smashing success for manga monday, even if not a very verbose review.

>178 -pilgrim-: >179 BookstoogeLT: It was fairly easy to read the Jordan books as they came out, it was always worth the anticipation, for me. Reading them consecutively now is a lot!

Project X - B

the second entry in the Project X series.

>180 BookstoogeLT: I love the pic you chose! My 5 year old goddaughter does that!

>183 Sakerfalcon: Azuma (the mangaka) really captures the essence of a kid who hasn't gotten beyond the "if I can't see them, then they can't see me" idea. It is just so cute :-D

The Rifleman's Creed

Amazing what you can learn when hanging out at a gun shop.

One Killer Force

2stars for the final (for me) delter farce book.

Just working on the blog. I'm back to 2005 and you know, I was reading single digits a month. Sure is making it easier to work on getting everything into their own posts :-D

>187 BookstoogeLT: Is it time for a new thread? I think you've earned it!

>188 Karlstar: I was just thinking about that this morning. Things are loading wicked slow here at LT (and have been all week) and it's ONLY at LT, so I don't see why I shouldn't. I'm fresh out of clever titles though. Any ideas?

>189 BookstoogeLT: Kind of hard to beat the cleverness of this year's title. How about Moe Reading by Bookstooge?

>190 Karlstar: Does moe have any connotations? I'm not familiar with the word and figure it must be some sort of slang?

>191 BookstoogeLT: I'm guessing it's a reference to 'Moe' being one of the three 'stooges'...?

>192 ScoLgo: Oh, like a name, not something else. I hadn't thought of that. And that is indeed clever.

and so the new thread takes wing....

>193 BookstoogeLT: Woo hoo, I win!