Reading Rambo

As a blogger, you're given books. A lot. Average-person-reviews are the new newspaper critic (good lord, why) and so publishers are totally fine sending out copies of their books to people with any kind of established presence in the hopes - I assume, based on my own experience - that they will write a capslock-filled, gif-laden post about the wonders of those books. That's fair.

SO WHY AM I BUYING SO MANY BOOKS.


In the past week I have purchased:


These two on a date that went immensely south, but LOVE PASSES, BOOKS ALONE REMAIN. (...that's the quote, right?) Then the following SIX YES SIX at Chicago's own Open Books's half-off sale. I mean. Look. They're used books already, and then they were half-off. What did you want me to do - not buy any? That's INSANE.



When I found myself trotting around the store with 6 books piled in my arms, I announced to my queer women discussion group that was also roaming around that I was cutting myself off and going home. In my…

I seem to be developing a canker sore. Add that to not being able to walk due to the ILL-FATED MOVE of trying to run for the first time in a year up a hill in Washington state, plus the slow realization that eating crumpets coated in Nutella and ricotta cheese will NOT in fact help me lose weight, and I am just in stellar shape body-wise right now.



What other vestiges are there of my trip? Oh, nothing. Just the FIVE BOOKS I BOUGHT IN SEATTLE.


From the bottom: The Underground tour that I recommend to all ends with a FANTASTIC GIFT SHOP. In this shop they had not one, not two, but MANY MANY books on women in the Pacific Northwest. I limited myself to two of them. One is about "Untamed Women of the Olympic Wilderness" —


And the other is Good Time Girls of the Alaska-Yukon Gold Rush, which I am QUITE psyched about. First sentence: "The red light district of Fairbanks, Alaska, was once hailed as the best in the West." How can you not want to read more? YOU HAVE TO KEEP GO…

I am officially older. As you know if you follow me on absolutely any social media. BUT FOR THOSE WHO DO NOT, I decorated a cake for myself:



And, of course, despite my idiotic current state re books (OMG YOU GUYS I HAVE 28 ITEMS CHECKED OUT FROM THE LIBRARY AND I CAN ONLY CHECK OUT 30 MAX I HAVE A PROBLEM HELP MEEEE), I got some more of them.

So...Champaign, Illinois is home to the University of Illinois (where I went and it is awesome, so be aware). There are university people and there are townies, and the two clash in the Books section of Goodwill. I found a multi-volume set of the diaries of Samuel Pepys there last December. There's also, of course, a panoply of semi-creatively-named romance novels.

So of course I found Victorian People and Ideas, because what Goodwill DOESN'T have that, and also Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, which I am scared of, because it deals with Serious Things, but it seems to be one of those Actually Good YA Novels, and I'm pro-those.

Dad Is Fat …

I've been doing pushups and planks for zombie musicalness, as I am wearing a tank top in the show and must look BADASS, but I still have some lovely underarm not-awesomeness. You guys wanna point me in the direction of which exercises fix that? Please and thank you.

I've been trying to get through some of the actual books on my shelves. I've also (as of right now) instituted a no-buying-of-new-books policy until May, and I know you, Me, you're gonna try to use the loophole of used books not being new, but YOU CANNOT BUY THOSE EITHER.


I have some books on my shelves that I actually super-want to read. Some of them are insanely old and some I got within the last couple months. And all are currently being usurped by library books. Oops.

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, Michael Chabon. The cover for this is just so cool. And when we were reading Telegraph Avenue, everyone was like "I LOVE KAVALIER & CLAY" so I was like "Okey dokey then."…

For some reason, Tuesday feels rough this week. But I guarantee this will make you feel better (unless you're a heartless monster):



Every time I hear this song, I grin like an idiot and sway while lip synching, for only I and the dulcet strains of celestial music from the ever-acclaimed (by me) film Mannequin exist. Yeah, I'm at work, but they can deal.
The Night Circus finally came in at the library, and I read the introduction expecting, I dunno, whirling sparklers to leap out of the pages and do a dance, because OMG people love this book and that's obviously the only explanation I could think of. The first few pages are interesting, and I'm expecting it to get better. SO HIGH MY EXPECTATIONS ARE. We shall see how it goes.
Let's do a new thing called What Did Alice Add to Her To-Read Pile This Week?
The Discovery of France, Graham Robb - I saw a real-person review (shh, it's a thing) of this and it looked good. Plus despite French lit being half my major, I know …