So, uh, long time, no talk. How are you? Read any good books lately? Terrorized any booksellers?
Been terrorized by any booksellers?
Have you been thinking back fondly to a time when Christmas decorations didn’t come out until after Thanksgiving? I have. Although that time may predate my birth.
Sorry for the lack of posts over the past several days, I was swallowed by the Snot monster and then spit out on my couch, leaving me with only enough energy to watch bad daytime television and curse my inability to move more than three feet in any direction without getting exhausted. My kitchen is decimated. I actually used some of my sick days (for what they were for, not as mental health days)! And I came to loathe the walls of my apartment for their never changing bleh-ness. Oh, and I reread a lot of books because they were close to me in my bookshelf and I didn’t feel like looking for something new.
Dude, I hate being sick.
Fortunately I am now back at work (merrily spreading my germs on to fulfill my part in the never ending cycle of disease), have new reading material, and I plan to take care of that kitchen problem in the next few minutes.
Unfortunately my little fever-denatured brain cells did not come up with anything new and insightful about the book world during my lay-about other than the Christmas season starts way, waaaaay too early. Oh, but it did work hard enough to give me work related dreams. Imagine, if you will, waking up at three am in the morning, fearing that you did not pay your coworkers because you forgot to hit submit on the payroll screen. Or dreaming of sorting through box after box of back stock because you know—just know, damn it—that the book the customer is looking for is back there somewhere! Would that make me Sisyphus and the boxes my hill? ‘Cause being a sissy I admit to fully.
Enough whining though, some exiting stuff happened while I was asleep at the wheel: elections, Rumsfeld resigning, Britney kicking Kevin to the curb, Reese and Ryan breaking up, the author of Sophie’s Choice died, and some books came out. During my delirium I saw the commercial for the new JD Robb, and it could have been the fever affecting me, but I was not impressed.
Anyway, in the spirit of getting the whole book ball going, what book type gifts are you giving this holiday?
(You can admit it if it’s the Marley & Me Special Edition. We don’t judge.)
20 comments:
Feel better. Rest up.
If I do buy any books this Christmas they'll either be local history or shipping (the Twin Ports on Lake Superior or the Edmund Fitzgerald for my mom) or some of the Eating Well cookbooks which I have come to love. Haven't drawn up my Xmas list yet so I don't know for sure. I do know that I've already gotten my holiday card from my local independant bookstore with a discount coupon in it!
Haven't terrorized or been terrorized by any booksellers, but I was sneered at and dismissed by a couple of seasonal booksellers. :shrug: I whined in my blog and then got over it.
Books I've bought as gifts already: The Omnivore's Dilemma for Mom, who expressed interest in it; Mapping the World of Harry Potter, for the HP-ophile in the family. I may end up buying Neil Gaiman's Fragile Things for the b-i-l, but have to make sure he hasn't bought it yet.
Okay, I was about to send paramedics to go looking for you, but as you know, you've given us very little location information to go on. So it's a good thing you've shown up again. Next time, would it kill you to call?
As for gifts, I admit that this time of year I don't think about books for anyone but me. I save up all my new release hardback wishes for my birthday and Christmas. So this year I'm asking for Lisey's Story by Stephen King and The Beatrice Letters by Lemony Snicket (I already bought The End).
The people on my list get magazine subscriptions from me, because I love to spread the anxiety of getting yet more reading material in the mail when you're still three months behind on the last stuff. Bwaa-haa-haa.
It's not great literature, but I'm giving my sister-in-law James Lileks, Interior Desecrations: Hideous Homes from the Horrible 1970s (Crown), because it's so funny I have to give it to somebody. I like to buy folks interesting calendars, too. Oh, and I'm assembling a "Barbados in a Box" for a friend--and I'll probably find a travel guide about Barbados to put in there, along with rum, a calypso CD, sunblock, a vial of sand, etc.
Sorry to hear that you're sick(I thought that you were overwhelmed at work and btw,I know all too well the feeling of "Did I forget to do that?" that haunts you thru out the night)and glad to see you back in the blogosphere.
I'm planning to send a friend of mine The Meaning of Night and Glass Books of the Dream Eaters for the holidays. They're a perfect match-up and hopefully,she doesn't have then yet:)
Glad you're better, BSC. Yes, I love to give books for Christmas because it gives me another excuse to hang out in bookstores and to buy books in different genres.
I recently picked up a copy of George Martin's A GAME OF THRONES for a friend who likes smart, complicated fantasy.
I also bought KIFFE KIFFE TOMORROW, by Faiza Guene, about a Muslim girl in Paris. I couldn't wait though and gave it to a teenage friend of mine who just spent a year living in a Muslim neighborhood in Paris.
Sorry but I really enjoyed the lastest JD Robb, but I do get a kick out of Mavis anyways.It is light enjoyable reading after dealing with people all day.
The other book I am submerged in is GREYWALKER by Kat Richardson. Again another realxing read, actually quite intriguing and it takes place in the Northwet.
Enjoy your reading.;)
I generally give gift cards from bookstores, so the recipients can choose what they like for themselves.
But I am giving "The Literary Ghost" to a special friend. It's not new, but it is wonderful.
(hope you feel better!)
Diane P: On Tuesday night, attended a talk by J.D. Robb (and, yes, she was introduced as J.D. Robb, not NR).
I was very impressed by her work ethic. She writes eight hours a day--every day--even on vacation. Of course, her output confirms this. She's averaged 6+ NEW books every year for 25 years.
She was thoughtful and funny and a delight to hear.
I'm midway through "Born in Death," her latest, and just grateful that Mavis is finally whelping. She's been pregnant for at least the last three books. I was getting bored with all the angst over the birthing.
I love buying books as Xmas gifts. So far I’ve purchased Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures by Vincent Lam (the Giller Prize winner) for one of my kids, The Complete Stories of Edgar Allen Poe for another (he asked for it – I was impressed) and When Madeline Was Young by Jane Hamilton for my sister-in-law. My own wish list is way too long.
Sorry to hear you've been sick. Had my own bout last month - the pits.
(If this message comes through twice - sorry. Had log in trouble.)
Haven't terrorised any booksellers but did see a woman giving a staff member a hard time in WH Smith's over the state of the books in the Customer Orders cupboard. She was ordering a book for a present, and didn't want hers ending up that way. It had to be perfect! (She said much of this while riffling the Customer Orders to point out how much they'd been riffled already.)
I ususally buy my husband the latest Pratchett for Christmas; apart from that, I have formulated no plans whatsoever. It's still too early. Ahem.
I buy books for me. I pretty much do Christmas - buy the presents, write the cards, get the tree - stay up to unseemly times on Christmas Eve to make sure Santa's come - but the bit that's for me is a box of books from Amazon, and a doable jigsaw for Christmas Evening. Haven't begun choosing them yet, though I want the latest Bujold, and the last Laurie R. King. I only buy books for presents if I know the person wants them - I hate being given books I haven't chosen, because I feel obligated to read them, and that irritates me. And I really dislike Christmas Present books - large overpriced books full of glossy photographs - 'Ireland from the Air' - that are only bought as presents - impossible to shelve, impossibly rude not to keep them.
My dh used to buy me Pratchett for Christmas, but I'm not great at delayed gratification in my reading, and at some point I stopped waiting for Christmas. Not a huge Tiffany Aching fan, though any Pratchett is better than none.
Marianne, the latest Bujold is wonderful. Enjoy!
YaKnow, booksellers DO rummage in the boxes in the back of the store to find the book(s) people need. Speaking as an author who was at a group signing -- Everyone else had signed and sold most of their stock on their table, and I had no books to sign. The wonderful bookseller kept looking, tho, and finally found the box with my books.
yeah, like raine I do gift cards. I'm so far behind on the What's Hot in Books world that I tend to give books that people read last year.
Except I forgot--Igot my husband a Christopher Moore book the other day. He complained that I was buying too many books for myself, so I bought it for him. It'll only look slightly used when he gets it at Christmas.
I think I'm going to give a few people Amy Sedaris' I Like You.
Feel better soon!
Hmm, if I hadn't thrown the Eyre Affair across the room with such violence, I could give that to somebody. Somebody I don't like, that is.
My teenage daughter has recently developed an interest in forensic science and anthropology, so I think I'll get her a copy of either "Dead Men Do Tell Tales" or "The Bone Lady."
And it's true that the latest Bujold is wonderful. I keep rereading it and seeing more each time. Alas that the sequel won't be out until July.
For my Dad I bought Explorers: The Most Exciting Voyages of Discovery -- From the African Expeditions to the Lunar Landing
and for my Mom a collection of Mark Twain stories.
I love giving books b/c they're easy to wrap.
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