Category Archives: books

Fall?

Today felt much like a day of early fall. It was overcast and breezy and the temperature never got above 60. A perfect afternoon for football, but not so good for working on the sprinkler system. (Which was my original plan.) I have a solenoid to replace and the cool and breeze made the idea of working in the water unattractive today. A good excuse to goof off.

Molly and L and I took a stroll through the neighborhood, wasting a dollar at the corner store buying a PowerBall ticket. Given that we have a gigantic 1 in 195,249,054 chance of winning, I think it is a pretty safe bet that buying the ticket was a waste. If I turn out to be wrong, the party’s on me. {*grin*}

My reading of the last year seems to be feast or famine. Right now it is in feast mode, since I have 6 books setting on the shelf as yet unread and yet another on the way. It really works out well to read the publishers blogs, because all of that precious new reading material has come from volunteering to read new issues on their blogs. Now all I need is to find a similar source for my expensive scientific book habit. After being a member of a certain scientific book club for 20 years, I quit a couple of years ago. I don’t want to say that I was their best customer, but the annual report did take a nose-dive and they do keep asking if I wouldn’t like to rejoin. {*grin*}

Well, enough meandering. Time to go figure out what to fix for dinner.

Luck Prevails

Do you ever feel like you are just too lucky at times?

I follow a couple of sci-fi and fantasy publishing house blogs. From that simple act  follows the corollary that there are book giveaways from time to time. I would normally assume that the chances were slim-to-none of me winning any given contest. But … in the last several months I have been fortunate enough to win Dragon Keeper by Robin Hobb (In hard copy along with a really cute pocket dragon broach that I gave to L.), Royal Exile and Tyrant’s Blood by Fiona McIntosh, and Wilderness by Dennis Danvers.

Then this morning I saw a chance to get a galley copy to review of BRAINS by Robin Becker. So I fired off an email and by this evening found out that the galley copy will be here soon. It feels a bit like a visit to Disneyland when you are a kid – all your wishes coming true. This is especially a living dream for a Science Fiction and Fantasy aficionado like me. Given that I already have a library of hundreds of volumes of the genre, there is nothing better than getting new books from authors old and new to read. I keep waiting for someone to come along and pinch me so I wake up.

Now if only I could find a few detective fiction publishing house blogs to follow and have similar luck with them. My reading worries would be over!