Anna's Secret, Innermost Thoughts

Yes, it's a meme, but it's about books, therefore it's obviously an awesome meme. If a bit long.

1) What author do you own the most books by?
*toddles off to count*
Um, if it counts I have the complete works of Shakespeare. If it doesn't count, it's probably andpuff (Tanya Huff). She's prolific and I'm obssessive.

2) What book do you own the most copies of?
Um, I know there are a couple of Shakespearean plays I own two copies of. I also have two copies of a few books that were sent to me for review. Perhaps I should get around to reviewing them so I can do a giveaway...

3) Did it bother you that both those questions ended with prepositions?
Nope. I'm only a part-time grammar nazi.

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You see, yesterday was the 31st of the month and therefore payday, which means grocery shopping. When we come to the small book section, I usually give it a once-over to see if anyone I "know" is in there. Since Victoria Dahl has a new contemporary romance (official release date Jan 1), this is how it went:

Me: Oooh, honey, check to see if Victoria's there today.
Him: Didn't you say she's not out until tomorrow?
Me: Well yeah, but that doesn't mean she won't be on the shelf. Oooh, look, there she is!
Him: Don't you already have about a million books you're supposed to be reading?
Me: Yes, but I don't have this one. It's Victoria Dahl!
Him: Yes, dear.
Me: Too late, it's already in the cart! You can't put it back!

And since I had to read the whole thing last night in one sitting, this is how I came to ring in the new year with Victoria Dahl. Or, y'know, her newest book, because in spite of how it sounds in our conversation, it wasn't actually her sitting on the shelf in the bookstore. (That probably would have been fun, too...)

I totally hung out with Neil Gaiman tonight. And by "hung out with" I mean I was in the bookstore when he visited, did his reading and Q&A, then stood in line to have my book signed. The store (shop if you're British) was impossibly crowded, which is really no surprise, although still impressive considering the size of this particular McNally location.

Of course, Mr Gaiman was funny and charming. For those unaware, his visit was a result of a contest that Winnipeg tied for first place with a city in Georgia for. The final decision was Neil's, and when he narrowed it down to those two, he couldn't pick one over the other. "I couldn't toss a coin," he said, "and I couldn't just pick one randomly because if I did it would definitely not be Winnipeg in December."

For those who can't truly appreciate that statement, allow me to show you what my kids wear every time they step out of the house:
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Neil Gaiman is coming to town.



Dec 15. We will teach him all about cold, I imagine.

Well, that was unexpected.

Amazon just sent me a notice that Tanya Huff's The Enchantment Emporium (which is a June release) has already shipped. I get ridiculously excited when they send my books ahead of schedule. Ok, this is probably because I only pre-order books I'm already excited about, but reasoning doesn't stop my happy dance. Which looks remarkably like the Snoopy dance.

Well, you all know the dance. You may as well join me.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure there isn't a person on the planet who'd be surprised at this result. (Although for the record, I still haven't figured out how to convince someone to give me a PhD in "reading genre fiction.")

What Kind of Reader Are You? Your Result: Obsessive-Compulsive Bookworm   You're probably in the final stages of a Ph.D. or otherwise finding a way to make your living out of reading. You are one of the literati. Other people's grammatical mistakes make you insane.
Dedicated Reader
Literate Good Citizen
Book Snob
Non-Reader
Fad Reader
What Kind of Reader Are You? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

I got an e-mail last night with a full list of the blogs participating in Book Blog Appreciation Week thus far. It's a pretty long list, but you just might find a new and interesting blog by checking it out. Or you could use it to help you out in filling your nomination ballot for the BBAW awards. Because I know you're all filling one out, right? Deadline's the 31st, so get to it!

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If I screwed up any blog names or links or left anyone out, please let me know so I can fix it!

Edit: By all means, please feel free to link back here or steal the list! If you'd like the coding with the links intact, e-mail me at the address here and I'll send it to you.

Know what has the power of awesome? Book blogs. (Not that I'm at all biased on that front by any means...)

Because of the fierce awesomeness of book blogs, the people who run them, and the insane effect these blogs have on our TBR lists, Amy of My Friend Amy has organized Book Blogger Appreciation Week from September 15-19th. Everyone go mark it down on your calendars. I'll wait.

Done? Alright. Here's the lowdown: nominations are going down for book blog awards. Soooo... speak up! Make your voice heard and nominate your favourite book blogs. Clicky on the BBAW banner below for the list of award categories and the e-mail address to send your nominations to.



As a side note, they are adding Most Altruistic Blog, Funniest/Most Humorous Blog, Best Sci-fi/fantasy/horror/spec-fic blog, and Best Commenter/commentator as categories, so be sure to bear that in mind when you're filling in your answers.

My count for science fiction reviews over at genrereviews is dipping a little low, so that's what I was supposed to be reading this weekend. I even had a shiny new copy of Endgame, but as it turns out, that's the fifth book in the series, and even 50 pages in I have absolutely no clue what's going on. Publishers, take note: if the latest offering in the series doesn't work as a standalone novel, mark on the cover that this is part of a series, kthxpls. If a book looks interesting enough, I have no issues hunting down a copy of book one. However, having spent my money on book 5 already, now I'm annoyed and don't really want to be spending the extra time and money it will cost to dig up the rest of the series. Why yes, I am petty like that.

So instead I devoured the Kelley Armstrong novel that's been sitting, patiently waiting for me to have a chance to get around to it. I'm not going to write out a full review for a number of reasons, but if anyone really cares, random thoughts behind the cut.

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Lately I've been doing a bit of hunting for YA sf, actually. With the recent success of Twilight, there seems to be no shortage of dark fantasy and horror clogging up the YA section, and my TBR stack reflects that. I have no science fiction for teens, though, and my mad powers of search on the interwebs seem to indicate that's because there isn't much of it out there right now. Which makes me very sad. I did manage to find a book or two during my last trek to the library, but if any of you have recommendations for YA sf, please let me know. (Vampires and zombies need not apply.)

sarlias sent me a two-month paid subscription thing, which basically means I can abuse twice as many icons. Icons are awesome and make my page colourful.

Alright, I have issues. We all knew this, but perhaps you guys can help me out. I have a ridiculously huge pile of books to be read. No seriously, the pile you're imagining as I say that is not doing justice to how many shiny new books I have right here. (And by "shiny new" I mean the majority of them I bought used, but they're new to me and that's all that matters.) I actually have them assorted according to genre and they're sitting in boxes next to my desk because there are too many of them to actually sit on my desk. Were I to have them all in one box, I would never ever be able to move it. We're talking a whole freaking lot of books. Most of which I'm actually pretty excited to get reading, so having a priority list doesn't always help.

Right now I'm in the middle of reading Joe Haldeman's The Accidental Time Machine, which is basically about a guy who invents a time machine that can only go forwards. Also, he can't control how far forward.

Next? I have no freaking clue. Usually I have some sort of game plan, but... not at the moment. So I shall force you all to decide for me. At some point or another, I plan to get them all read and reviewed. Y'know, eventually.

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Edit: And it looks like Zombie Blondes wins out!