Half way through Georgiana... then Rick from work loans me 1632, which is basically Island in the Sea of Time, substituting Appalachians for Nantucketians, and the evil Inquisition for William Walker. Hm. Still haven't made it to number 30 yet. Feel like such a reading pansy.
Write Club with Julie (the famed Lisa did not show up) was cool... should have worked more and harder, but it was good just to talk to Jules.
Working in interlibrary loan has its perks-- or it would if they were helpful perks. One of my ILL requests for term paper research came in while I was on vacation. As I'm already freaking graduated, I don't need that research-- but my kind co-workers knew I was on vacation and actually held the dang thing for me, and even entitled the paper "came in while you were gone" so I could retrieve it. That's love (well, it's not love, but it's consideration). I'm going to miss them. Also, had my merit evaluation yesterday, and liked how my habit of office socialization was described as "creates a sense of community and builds morale." I guess as long as everyone gets their work done, that's what it is.
I ran into someone I know at Write Club, and Julie didn't, so maybe I'm a townie too. Yay me!
And on the lost souls front: forgiveness is a dish best served cold. Just like revenge. Maybe those two things are more linked than we think, as a society. Kind of like in those societies where intense gift-giving is seriously akin to an act of war. I should do my best to really think that one through, because I bet Jason would like that theory, and it might reconcile him to certain societal norms. Then again, why? We likes our Jason just the way he is-- full of piss and vinegar. And I don't forgive because it's akin to revenge, but because it's just an easier way to live. Three years is plenty long enough to hold a grudge. For me.
Dann took me to lunch today (thanks to his golf winnings)-- Pizza House coupons. All our departmental lunches for the past 4 years have been at Pizza House-- so it's not shocking that I was able to correct the waiter as to how many "toppings" are in a calzone-- it's just disturbing. Dann was not impressed, but he did think Pizza House would hire me if I can't get a job elsewhere.
Oh, yeah, the Red Wings won, blah, blah, blah, but Dwinn came over to watch them with Dann, so I got to see the Dwinn for a half an hour and fill him in on all the things he didn't miss in France. Both Winninghams in one night! What a deal.
Number 29: Princess in the Spotlight
I'm trying to read Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, but I keep falling asleep. But I HAVE to make it to 30 by June 30th. Not that 30 will be enough for 6 months of reading (I feel like maybe I'm getting old or something), but whatever.
I wonder if I've slowed down because I haven't been re-reading things as much.
Vacation is the cure to a stunted reading year-- or it would be, if I'd been able to get my hands on more books. As it was, I had read every book I had brought (only 6) by the end of the second week (which was not altogether that fast, but I was savoring them, and reading international Newsweek cover to cover in between; we ended up combing the few foreign language bookshops we could find. New books in English cost about 12 or 13 euros; used, perhaps 2 or 3, if you're lucky enough to find them-- which is how I ended up reading some of my less interesting choices. Our final real hotel in France had a book exchange area, and we picked up two books there-- but they only held romances.
Enough. I read:
Summers at Castle Auburn by Sharon Shinn (16) (really quite good)
Possession by AS Byatt (17)
The Love Talker by Elizabeth Peters (18)
Jane and the Stillroom Maid by Stephanie Barron (19)
Sleeping with the Enemy by ?? (20)
The Simple Truth by David Baldacci (21)
Clouds of Witness by Dorothy L. Sayers (22)
Redgauntlet by Sir Walter Scott (23)
Diamond in the Rough by ?? (24) (as romance novels go, it wasn't bad, and better yet, not badly written)
Time and Again by Nora Roberts (25) (so, romance writers now write science fiction... educational in that regard, I suppose, but this worked neither as science fiction nor romance)
I also read a trilogy of books by Ann Marston, all with those kind of names that I should know to avoid when choosing books, but they were only 10 cents apiece at the library book sale, and I took them along knowing I would abandon them in France... Cloudbearer's Shadow (26), and then whatever (27) and (28) are in th "Sword in Exile" trilogy. Ok, they weren't that bad. But they needed more convincing relationships (male and female and bloodkin as well). The only thing I believed in the books was the magic.