Sunday, April 20, 2008

Quiet day, with werewolves

One of my favorite things in the world is to take a nap on a weekend afternoon with the windows open, and I got to do that this afternoon. In fact, it was a pretty lazy day all around. I spent most of it reading. I stayed in bed reading for awhile after Bob got up, then after he had gone to work, I fixed myself some breakfast and read some more, then in the early afternoon I took my book upstairs with me and fell asleep with a breeze blowing over me and birds singing outside.

I didn't sleep very long, maybe an hour, but there's just something so lovely about not having anything in particular to do, and being to just rest.

I was reading Iron Kissed by Patricia Briggs, and I loved it! It's funny -- I'd seen the book on the new releases table at Borders several times, and picked it up, but I just wasn't sure about it. Then, I saw it at the library yesterday--at least that way if I didn't like it, I didn't have to feel guilty if I didn't read it.

There are so many supernatural stories out now that it's hard to choose good ones. I'm not really a romance fan, so the supernatural romances don't really grab me. Iron Kissed is the third in a series about Mercedes (Mercy) Thompson, who can shapeshift into a coyote at will. She was raised with a pack of werewolves, and works as a Volkswagen mechanic.

In tone, I'd say that the book is similar to Kim Harrison's Rachel Morgan series--vampires, werewolves, and fae living among so-called "normal" people, like in Harrison's books, having "come out" and made their presence known to the rest of the world. In Briggs' series, the Fae live on reservations; I've only read the one book so far--I'm reading them in backwards order because I'm taking them as I can get them from th elibrary--so I don't known much more about that.

But anyway, that's what kept me occupied all day today. The ending was just really lovely, just wonderful. The book was definitely worth spending the day reading. Like I said, I'm reading them backwards -- I got the second book in the series at the library today, and I have the first one on hold.

I sat down today and put a TON of books on my library request list. I buy enough books that I don't feel guilty about always getting books at the library -- I could never afford to buy all the books I want, but I buy enough. Some books I really just need to own, even if I'm not going to read them right away. But I find it hard to justify buying hardback copies of best sellers, and I seldom want to wait for the paperback versions. So I put them on the list at the library, wait awhile, and I'll eventually get an email telling me that the book is ready for me to pick up.

I use the self-check machine at the library--you slide your card under the scanner, then put the books through one by one. Each time, it will beep and say that the book has been checked out, and when you're finished, you can have the receipt either printed out or emailed.

Yesterday as I was checking out my books, one of them came up and said it couldn't be checked out, because it had holds. On my way out, I took it up to the counter and gave it to the librarian, saying that the self-check machine wouldn't let me have it because it was on hold for someone. She said, "Let me see your card." I said, "It's not on hold for me," but gave her my card. She said, "Yes, but you're here, and they're not," and she checked it out for me.

I know I've had that happen before, but no one has ever let me check out the book. I guess it just depends on who you ask.

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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

the journal really tells me about the writter's desire to read