It's Monday, What Are You Reading? #21

The last IMWAYR I participated in was in October the Monday after Dewey's 24 Hour Read-a-Thon. And I said then:

The next test novel I pick up will be City of Tranquil Light by Bo Caldwell because it's a review copy.

I still haven't.

First it was NaNoWriMo prep and then NaNo itself thru the month of November. Then it was the holiday season and the crocheting of gifts and other things that about took over my life.

Then the week after Christmas I started work on a baby afghan for the soon-to-be born grand-nephew. Cameron Kelso was born Friday. The afghan is 1/4 done. I'm on row 42 of 155 (I'd originally planned 205 rows but have decided to make it bassinet or buggy sized instead of crib sized) and aim to be done by the second week of February. Which means 4 36in or 300 stitch rows per day. I'm 8 rows behind after taking time off Thursday and Friday to play with a new thread order from Joanne.com. Sigh.

Sadly, I've not actually done very much reading since the Read-a-Thon which is very very unusual for me and a week or two before Xmas I'd begun to really feel deprived by its lack. And Sheila's Monday posts keep showing up in my email and I read them and feel teased and tempted by the book covers and I keep ordering books from the library and keep sending them back barely cracked when the come due 3,6 and 9 weeks later.

I've been getting my story fix via netflix and library DVD because I can crochet while watching. I did finish listening to the audio of The Help which I mentioned having started in my last IMWAYR post and my experience was so enjoyable I sent for five more audio books from the library. But I haven't started listening to any of them yet. Four of them came due for the first time today and I lucked out that they all renewed for me.

The four:

The false friend by Goldberg, Myla
Finn by Clinch, Jon.
Juliet by Fortier, Anne, 1971-
A people's history of the United States: highlights from the twentieth century by Zinn, Howard, 1922-2010.


The fifth:

2666 by Bolaño, Roberto, 1953-2003

Today I had a slew of books checked out three weeks ago come due and four of them plus a DVD checked out last Monday, The People Speak, unexpectedly did not renew. I had not cracked open one of them since the day they came home. But even the one I knew from the beginning would not renew, Jonathan Franzen's Freedom, I had barely read a dozen pages, if that. And here I'd waited three months for my turn and knew, KNEW, there was 145 people behind me waiting for their turns at 10 copies, I kept neglecting it. At times like this I get sorely tempted by the printer/scanner sitting eight inches from my left elbow. (get thee behind me oh evil one)

But at least I had the foresight to get in line for the Freedom audio as soon as I noticed it was available and my turn is coming up next in probably close to three weeks or even four since I was still at position 2 last Friday and there is the transit time and the up to 14 days that person has to pick it up....

Next week I have over a dozen books with no renewals left coming due on Monday:

Bad blood
Eleanor Rigby : a novel
Encyclopedia of folklore and literature
A fine white dust
Fundamentalism and American culture
Generation X : tales for an accelerated culture
Losing my religion : how I lost my faith reporting on religion in America--and found unexpected peace
A people's history of the United States, 1492-present
The postmistress [text (large print)]
See you in court : how the Right made America a lawsuit nation
Standing in the light : a Lakota way of seeing
Standing in the light : my life as a pantheist
Wayward girls & wicked women : an anthology of stories
Witches and Jesuits : Shakespeare's Macbeth

I'm going to have to make some painful choices.

Meanwhile while at the library today for the first time since early October, I checked out (some books yes of course) 5 DVD which have only a 1 week borrowing period so will come due on the same day as that list above.

So I either need to get busy or just pile all those books into a bag and send them back and start with a fresh account like I had when I got back from Longview in August.

Sigh.

And I probably still won't get choose to read tonight as I still have 7 episodes of Joan of Arcadia 2 left to watch and that was due today as well and needs to leave when Ed leaves for work at 8 something in the morning along with Crossing Jordan season 1 which I never even got started and the four books and DVD mentioned above.

Plus I haven't started on today's 4 row quota for the baby afghan and I can do that while watching videos.

Forgive me for not chasing down images of books this time. But I know how much I love to see them on other book blogs so I'l paste in the picture from a post last week that shows some of the books surrounding me here at my work/play/sleep station even tho that post was all about crochet:


Also I probably won't get to visit other IMWAYR posts until late tomorrow or the wee hours of Wednesday as I seem to be stuck on the swing shift schedule Ed was on between Halloween and Christmas, waking in the early to late afternoon and I'm likely to not lay down at all until Ed has tugged those books and DVD outta my grippy hands.