Sunday, August 22, 2010

The Sunday Salon: What A Week It's Been

Recently I was thinking, as we all do from time to time, that I really should concentrate on reading the books I already have and stop, once and for all, acquiring more.

Yeah, so that didn't work well this week:


As you can see, they are all books I really NEEDED to get. For instance, continuation of series that I've committed to, local authors that I'm anxious to support, great bargains that I couldn't pass up, and even a "for fun" one that I just got a kick out of and will have fun blogging about I'm guessing.

So yeah, so much for that "maybe I should stop buying books for awhile" thought. Never going to happen.

This week, it's been a bad bad reading week. I didn't read much of anything. That's because it was one of the craziest weeks of the summer to date. Let me just recap for you in a nice bullet list:

  • I participated in the annual event at the local university where people come from all over to go to classes of all sorts for a very minimal fee... we call it Education Week. This means I dropped all other responsibilities and went to "school" from 8 to 4 every day.
  • My sister in law had her baby, and we visited her one night and were on call for her other kids several times, though they never ended up coming over
  • My 88 year old grandma got sick and we were all prepared to "let" her pass on. That was scary, but as far as I know, she is now doing better and maybe we won't have to say good bye just yet.
  • All three kids got sore throats and sniffles.
  • We supported the church picnic, but thankfully, I wasn't in charge this year!
  • We bought (yes BOUGHT) all four seasons of Prison Break and have continued, every night, with the marathon.
  • We sent one son off to Lake Powell for scout camp.
  • My sister came and slept over one night.
  • We went to the county fair to see if Toto's things she entered got placed. One of her pictures is going to the State Fair. We think that's pretty cool.
  • We went to the Writing for Charity even last night and supported the local authors in their endeavors to earn money for low income kids to get books. Now that was a fun thing to do!

 Toto with her picture that's moving on to the State Fair.

 Grandma, shown in the middle here, at Grandpa's 90th birthday party.
James Dashner and Shannon Hale emcee at last night's event.
 (You do know that Shannon Hale is very pregnant with twins, thus the wheelchair, right?)
On the panel you'll see (from left to right) James Dashner, Brandon Sanderson, Bree Despain, Sara Zarr, Ally Condie, Jessica Day George, Brandon Mull and Shannon Hale.

Meanwhile, the only reading I got done was between the classes on campus and that was only now and then. So I haven't much to report on that front, just trying to finish Children of God, started The Eternal Ones, and hoping to read more in Bleak House today.

But hey, I do have lots of new books to add the piles!

However, this week, everything will get dropped in favor of Mockingjay! Wow, I can't believe it's finally here! Happy reading everyone! 

10 comments:

  1. Sounds like you had quite the week! I haven't been quite so busy and have been reading along at my pretty much normal plodding pace. I can relate to that "I'm going to stop acquiring books but I *can't*" sentiment. On Friday night I sat among just the books that won't fit on the shelves and kind of stared at them hopelessly for a while (instead of doing the smart thing and actually *reading*!). I keep *thinking* I'll stop getting more...but then I don't. Could be because even though all reason indicates that I don't need and hardly want to acquire more books, I get all depressed when I don't get any in the mail for a week. Twisted, huh? ;-)

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  2. Oh my, you have been busy! I've been really good lately about not buying books or even picking them up from the library but those darn review books will just come straight to your door without any effort or money. Congrats to Toto! From what I can see of the photo, it's great!

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  3. Looks like you got some chunksters this week!

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  4. What a week you have had, and it sounds like it is very interesting.

    I have a book buying problem, and I finally put into place some self-imposed guidelines. So far, it is working. The WoT books are coming from the library for me, from now on. Which, by the way, have you started The Shadow Rising? I have not, but will do so in the beginning of September.
    I did buy (pre-order) Mockingjay, and oh yeah...I cannot wait to read that one!

    Was the author panel interesting? It looks like it could have been considering who was sitting on the panel.

    Congrats to Toto! That is really cool to have a picture go to the State Fair!

    Have a great reading week with Mockingjay!!

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  5. I certainly can see why you didn't get anything read, but it looks like you have a great pile there on which to work.

    I'm guessing you like the Robert Jordan series? I have the first one, but tried it and found it difficult to get into it. Is it just that way for the first one? And does it get any easier to follow? Or is this a stupid question? ;)

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  6. Megan: Yes... I just can't. Not going to happen. I give up now.

    Lisa: The photo is a field of purple flowers, no really composition to it, but it's bright and cool looking, so.. I guess we'll see what happens!

    reveiwsbylola: Yes, I'm going to go crazy.

    Ibeeeg: I have not started it yet, but now that I have it in hand, it will be calling to me. I hope to get to it soon too.

    The panel was very fun. They are all a bunch of silly jokers and had a rolling on the floor many a time.

    Unfinished: Actually, a very good question. The first was very hard to get into really because all the background and world building stuff that has to go on at the beginning. But once that's established and you fall in love with the characters, it's great. There are some slow parts in some of the ones I've read so far, but when there's action, it's all nail biting for me! So, I'm really enjoying them...slowly but surely.

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  7. Busy, busy!! I'm so jealous about the Writing for Charity event. I knew Shannon Hale was pregnant, but not with twins. I fear she will be too busy to write!

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  8. Sounds like a fun, fun week.

    And don't worry about the reading what you have and not acquiring more syndrome. We all do it. :-D

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  9. Too bad you never do anything. ;)

    Geez! What a week! I'm glad you're still functioning!

    Thanks for showing pics from the charity event. It looks like it was fun.

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  10. I was really sad about missing the charity event. And all the Utah blogger hype about it too. Darn vacation :) Looks like it was a blast!

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