I Dare Ya! I Double Dare Ya!

"We Double DOG
 Dare ya!"

That most wonderful time of the year is quickly going to be upon us.  Time to prepare!  It's the TBR Double Dog Dare!

It last from January 1 to April 1 (but you can set your own parameters).  The main idea is to help you thin out your To Be Read pile.  I personally have a spreadsheet with over 70 books listed, but I probably actually own (or have requested from the library) around only 30 all together. Not too crazy. I will be making exceptions for my two book clubs, but my face to face book club is picking all the 2013 books later this month, so I should be able to have those first few in hand come January 1, thereby sticking to the Dare.  The Sword & Laser club is virtual, so not as much pressure, but if they pick good books those months I will make exceptions for them.  Who knows, I may luck out and they'll pick something I've already read like they did this coming December (The Hobbit).

I like the TBR Double Dog Dare because it's not strictly a reading challenge and hey, it's all books I already picked, right?  It's just that extra kick in the kiester to slow down thebook buying and get to the book reading.  Actually, there's no rule that you can't still buy books during the Dare, but you just have to put off reading them until after April Fools.  Which somehow seems appropriate.

I'm actually pretty patient, so if any amazing books come out over the next couple of months, I'd be waiting for them to come in paperback anyway.  I do sometimes snap up Kindle Daily and Monthly Deals because hey, $1.99 and $3.99 books?  Can't go wrong with those.  But if I get any of them during the months in questions, you can be sure I won't be reading them until 4/2/13.

So how about it?  Got a few books you've been meaning to get to but neve do?  The time is coming to make time for them.  Sign up here: The TBR Double Dog Dare at Ready When You Are, C.B.

Thankful

All the Thanksgiving-related books are checked out in my little elementary library and hello, I need something to read as well next week!  So I went looking for books with the theme of (non-religious)  thankfulness or at least someone being thankful for something in the end.  Here's the list in case you were wondering:

Mouse Soup - Lobel
Where the Wild Things Are - Sendak
Sylvester and the Magic Pebble - Steig
A Chair for My Mother - Williams
Hey, Al - Yorinks
Boxes for Katje - Fleming
My Life in Dog Years - Paulsen (I like to read the opening chapter on Cookie)
These Hands - Price
Lion & Mouse -Pinkney
Thank You, Mr. Falker - Polacco

You're welcome.

Can you think of others?  Add them in the comments.

More Baths Less Talking

As if you didn't know, Nick Hornby has a semi-regular feature in The Beliver magazine called "Stuff I've Been Reading" which is a funny and informative rundown of reading and how it fits into Mr. Hornby's life.  He's collected previous columns into other slim books: The Polysyllabic Spree; Housekeeping vs. The Dirt; and Shakespeare Wrote for Money.  The titles all make sense if you read them, but probably not until then.

There's little new here.  Just the same fun, inquisitive, open-minded, and hilarious observations of reading and life and how they go together.  He continues the format of listing "Books Bought" and "Books Read" at the head of each column, which of course rarely match up.  If you like to read widely, you'll enjoy these books. It doesn't matter if you care to read the same books as Mr. Hornby, it's still great stuff and who knows?  Maybe you will get a few recommendations.  But that's certainly not the point.  These are not book reviews in the traditional sense.  He's showing how his reading and his life intersect and how you can't dismiss your moods, your company, your surroundings and other factors that influence your reading.

It boils down to "Read what you enjoy, not what bores you."  And all bets are off when the World Cup is on or his kids are dragging his attention away.  Like they do.

Some favorite bits:

Fitzgerald knew Lucille Ball!

Everything about Dickens.

And especially the discussion of Carl Wilson's Let's Talk About Love which I now am going to have to read. He discusses a few books that he recommends for artists of any stripe, whether authors, film makers or whatnot, like the The Conversations: Walter Murch and the Art of Editing Film by Michael Ondaatje.  (I've read that one!  But it's been a while.  I need to re-read it.  It was amazing!)  But the Carl Wilson book is more for the consumers of the art and how they choose and perceive art.  It comes out of the 33 1/3 series which was a series of short books on important albums.  They are all about great albums and how they influenced the writer.  Except for Carl Wilson's.  He decided to take on the issues of taste and snobbery in art.  He writes about Celine Dion not because he is a fan but because he can't understand why other people like her so much and it is apparently a great meditation on how we decide what we like or don't, what's "good" and what's "bad."

Until I read that I probably don't know what I'm talking about, but I think Nick Hornby definitely gets marked down in the "good" column.

Election Day Holiday

Well, it's raining and cold here, so the lines were short.  My favorite part was when the election officials started pounding on their tables, someone blew a whistle and one of them shouted "First-time voter!"  That happened twice while I was in line.

Makes me really wish we would make this a national holiday.  It would be a combination of 4th of July and New Year's.  There would be a ban on election ads and it would just be a celebration of voting and democracy.  You now how in some cities the public transportation and the cabs are free on New Year's Eve?  They would do that so everyone could get to the polls and vote. Then we'd all go to see parades or eat BBQ or whatever traditions we came up with.

I can dream.

Happy Election Day everyone!

The Dirty Streets of Heaven

The streets of heaven, in Tad Williams' new urban fantasy are actually nice and clean. It's the metaphorical streets that are paved with "paperwork and bullshit" that make them dirty.

Bobby Dollar is an advocate.  An Earth-bound angel who gets a call when there is a death in his area and shows up to defend the soul in question and do his best to get it into Heaven.  At the same time he is met with a demon prosecutor who does the same for the Opposition.  It's an old system that has worked well for centuries until suddenly some souls start disappearing on them.  Not going to Heaven or Hell, just...blinking out to some other place.  Both sides are understandably upset and paranoid and Bobby Dollar finds himself in the middle of things and trying to clear his name, not knowing who he can trust on either side of this.

It's a fun, light read.  It's got all the trappings of a hard-boiled detective novel, except the bullets are silver, the bad guys are Really Bad and the good guys glow a lot and are inscrutable.  Bobby is a great and earthy Earth-Bound angel who makes for a great point of view character.  He is, of course, as flawed as any Humphrey Bogart character, and sometimes even more flawed.  Heaven doesn't come off that well (it's pretty boring) and we never actually see Hell (but it sounds about like you'd think it would).

There are some great lines and fun side characters.  One of Bobby's sources of info, for example, is a were-pig.  No, really.  It's not quite as funny as an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but it's in the same general ballpark.

The religious stuff is very non-denominational.  There's a Heaven and a Hell, angels and demons and all, but it's not strictly Catholic or anything and even an atheist looks to be reviewed favorably for leading a good life.

The femme fatal  is an Uber version of the trope.  There are some slight loose ends, leaving the door open for the inevitable sequels, but the main "case" is wrapped up in a satisfying manner without feeling you must get the next one.  I guess on a scale of 1 to 5 I'd give it a 3.5.

Read for the November Sword & Laser pick.