Tag Archives: Library Loot

Another case of my eyes being bigger than my bookshelf (TSS)

Posted on June 20, 2010 by unfinishedperson | 2 Comments

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Eva at A Striped Armchair and Marg at Reading Adventures that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. To join in this week’s event, click on the badge at left. I am also using this post for a second post in this week’s The Sunday Salon.

If sometimes in the case of physical appetites, our eyes are bigger than our stomachs, I think it also can be true that in the case of reading appetites, our eyes can be bigger than our bookshelves. Exhibit A is above. Exhibit B can be found here from earlier in the month, and I’ve only finished three from the stack pictured there: Easy to Kill by Agatha Christie, Born Standing Up: A Comic’s Life by Steve Martin and Brasyl by Ian McDonald. Today I might get to starting another by Ian McDonald: River of Gods, if I don’t get caught up in reading blog posts from the last week or starting any of the above books (in other words, it’s unlikely I’ll get to the McDonald today).

From bottom to top in this stack are:

Backseat Saints by Joshilyn Jackson: I saw this one mentioned a couple of weeks ago by Marie of The Boston Bibliophile and also saw her discussing it on Twitter.
Between, Georgia also by Jackson: Marie and a few other bloggers also mentioned this one on Twitter and since I hadn’t read it, I picked it up at the library even though it was in large print. I loved Jackson’s gods in Alabama too.
Sad Cypress by Agatha Christie: For the Agatha Christie Reading Challenge.
And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie: Ditto.
The Beekeeper’s Apprentice by Laurie R. King: I recently read A Slight Trick of the Mind by Mitch Cullin, which was a pastiche of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes, and while it was good, I didn’t think it was great (one reason that I haven’t posted a review yet of it). However, I’ve heard great things about King’s pastiche of Holmes that includes Mary Russell so I thought I’d give her series a try. I didn’t think our library had this one until I discovered it in the Young Adult section.
How The Scots Invented The Modern World: The True Story of How Western Europe’s Poorest Nation Created Our World & Everything in It by Arthur Herman: I came across this one while shelf-reading at our local library, where I work on the circulation staff and being of Scottish descent, there was no way I could pass this one up.
The Truth About the Irish by Terry Eagleton: Likewise, I’m of Irish descent as is my wife and I couldn’t pass this one up either.

I have a feeling I’m going to be busy for a little while here.

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Also earlier today while I try to steer clear of politics for the most part here on my blog, I did put up a post under my Unfinished Rambler persona called “Obama in 2012? Hell, yes, after today“. Also earlier this week, in the guise of Unfinished Rambler, I wrote about how people like to share the strangest things with my wife, and also sometimes me, in “Up Jumped the Boogie“.

Last but not least, I have added a Book and Movie Reviews page here, so please check it out. See if we agree on the movies we’ve both seen. If not, well, too bad…because your taste in movies must suck then .

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Posted in Books, Mind, The Sunday Salon

Tagged Books, Library Loot, The Sunday Salon

I’m not bogarting my small stash of Library Loot this Friday morning. Here, have a toke.

Posted on March 26, 2010 by unfinishedperson | 2 Comments

I don’t participate in this meme every week, because even though I work at our local library usually a couple of a days a week (this week three, as I’ll be working there tomorrow also), I don’t always check out books. In fact, I’ve been making a conscious effort not to do so and instead keep a list of books I “find” while shelf-reading so that I might return to them later. However, after starting a Donald E. Westlake book (Smoke) the other day, I thought about trying to find one of his that wasn’t in a series (since I’m such a stickler for reading books in a series in order).

I’ve only read a few of Westlake’s work last year after being introduced to him by my brother-in-law last year, but most of the books at our library are part of series that Westlake wrote. I searched on the regular shelves before I started working yesterday, but nothing there in particular caught my eye, with most of them being later books in a series. Then later as I was returning books to the shelves as part of my job, I saw it: Memory, the final never-before-published (well, until now) novel by Westlake, who died on Jan. 1 last year, on the “new book” shelf. To say I was excited would be an understatement.

Then later as I was shelf-reading in the biographies, I happened upon Step by Step: A Pedestrian Memoir by Lawrence Block, who among his credits and for whom I know him, has the “Burglar Who” series with Bernie Rhodenbarr. I’ve only read a few of that series, but to me, what was interesting was that this was an autobiography and not about his writing, but about his racewalking. I figured anything I can read to get myself out walking and running is good, and this seemed to fit the bill.

I did pick up one other book, but as my wife took it with her this morning, I don’t have my own photo of it. However, I can tell you that this is what it was:

I thought she’d be interested after I read this review by Kasey Cox, who along with Kevin Coolidge owns our local bookstore (yes, only one in our town) From My Shelf Books. Yes, I thought I might be interested too, but as I’m reading Westlake’s books now as well as delving into The Complete Sherlock Holmes: All 4 Novels and 56 Short Stories, I don’t know if I’ll get to it now. That said, my wife read about 15 of 1088 pages last night before she went to bed and already said, “This is really good.” That said, she’s still trying to get me to read The Double Bind by Christopher Bohjalian and I haven’t read that yet either. So I’m making no promises at this point.

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Posted in Books, Mind

Tagged Books, Donald E. Westlake, Lawrence Block, Library Loot, Stephen King, Under The Dome

Delving into graphic novels again: Maus and Persepolis

Posted on March 3, 2010 by unfinishedperson | 21 Comments

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Eva at A Striped Armchair and Marg at Reading Adventures that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. To join in this week’s event, click on the badge at left.

Today I finished reading the graphic novel leaning up against the couch in the middle, Kingdom Come by Mark Waid and Alex Ross with Todd Klein. My brother-in-law recommended the graphic novel a while back to me, but our library only recently purchased the collection that originally was printed in single-magazine form as Kingdom Come 1-4. After reading that, and being both impressed and bewildered by it, I decided I want to check out a couple of more graphic novels and a book I saw recently on the shelves of our local library while I was shelf-reading there as a volunteer.

The two graphic novels, which I picked up today, are:

My wife has read the latter of these, plus its sequel, and said they both were very good. However, I have read neither, even though I have checked both of these out of the library on previous occasions.

The book, which I also got today, is Reading Comics: How Graphic Novels Work and What They Mean by Douglas Wolk. I have read a few graphic novels, mostly lighter fare like an Iron Man collection and another Superman collection, and haven’t quite always understood how they work. That’s not to say that I haven’t enjoyed them, but I sometimes think I’m missing something. Even with Kingdom Come, I didn’t realize all the other comic book heroes on which Waid, Ross and Klein were drawing, no pun intended, until the end of the book when there was this great explanation of all of the characters they had included. Of course, if I were a comic book geek like my brother-in-law, I probably would have gotten some of the references.

I’m hoping Wolk’s book can help me understand at least a little of how graphic novels operate. As for the other two, I’m just hoping to enjoy them, even though I know neither are “lighter fare.”

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Posted in Books, Midweek Review, Mind

Tagged comics, graphic novels, Kingdom Come, Library Loot, Maus, Persepolis

The call of Spenser and Cthulhu

Posted on November 18, 2009 by unfinishedperson | 5 Comments

This is a combination of the past two weeks’ Library Loot actually. You may say, “That’s sad.” However, I have been sick with the flu (swine maybe) for the past few weeks and so haven’t been reading anything. Plus as I mentioned the last Library Loot I did at the end of October, I’m working on toward focusing on my own bookshelves rather than the library. (So there .) To that end, last night I did finish a book from my library, The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith, which I loved. A friend gave me and my wife the first four She’s already read all of the series (using the library for the rest), one right after another, and loved them.

So to my two pieces of loot:

The Professional by Robert B. Parker: I was put on the hold list for this before it even came out, and I am a big fan of Spenser, although recently, like Connelly’s Harry Bosch series, I don’t think Parker has been up to par with them. However, if nothing else, it’s a quick read with the dialogue (my favorite part of the Spenser novels) dominating the action.
Tales of H.P. Lovecraft, selected and edited by Joyce Carol Oates: Lovecraft came up after a discussion on Facebook about Neil Gaiman, who wrote a short story called “I, Cthulhu,” using Lovecraft’s Cthulhu from his short story, “The Call of Cthulhu.” So I decided to find some Lovecraft at the library and this is all that was on the shelf, but it included “The Call of Cthulhu.”

I also was semi-familiar with the name Cthulhu anyway as I’m a fan of Metallica, who had the song “Call of Ktulu” on their album, Ride The Lightning, because they became fans through late bass guitarist Cliff Burton. Appropriately, I’ll end with that song: