Spring Allergy Ramblings

As I usually do when I don't have anything earth-shattering or enlightening to wax on about, I haven't done a damned thing to update the blog since last week.  Yeah, I suck.  That's not to say that I've not been skimming blog posts here and there, and trying to comment when I can.  The news of Fatin's recent tragedy really struck home this past week, and all I can say is that it breaks my heart to see such a wonderful person have to suffer something like this.  Thoughts and prayers for her and her beautiful family, indeed.

In my neck of the woods, the plague has hit.  Allergies and/or a nasty spring cold have taken me hostage and I'm currently trying to fight it off with every OTC drug in my arsenal:  Benadryl, Afrin, Hall's cough drops, Zyrtec, Sudafed daytime sinus medication, and Alka-Seltzer Cold and Sinus.  Damnit, I haven't been sick in well over a year (if you don't count my surgery), so this sucks big hairy donkey balls.

Tomorrow is the date for March's TBR Challenge, so today I plan on finishing up my read and whipping out a review, as long as I don't fall into an Alka-Seltzer-induced coma.  The book I chose is one I've had since it's release in 2005, and initially I thought I hadn't read this particular author's books before, but I was wrong.  Oh well -- it's still been collecting dust in my TBR and has now finally been unearthed for my enjoyment.  It's a contemporary, so if I can remember throughout the year, I may impose my own personal challenge to read more of this variety.

I finally finished a book on the Nook!  So it was a short story -- who cares?  My rules, so it counts towards the tally.  I read Love Is Murder by Allison Brennan last night and while this quickie didn't indulge my inner sickie as much as her books usually do, I'm all ready to dive into the Lucy Kincaid series and gork out on suspense.

On the same subject -- I adore my Nook.  I never thought I'd take to it as much as I have and have really enjoyed adding books to it, ones that I've only read reviews for and even reissues I'd never get my hands on unless I had an ereader.  Last week I was able to buy/download KT Grant/Katiebabs' For the Love of Mollie, one I've heard many many good things about.  Also this morning, BN.com had a freebie download by Lori Bright, Wild Desire, the sequel to Wild Heart.

See, this is why I haven't been getting any reading done -- I always find a way to spend more time online and skip around the blogs.  Toodles!       

  

The First Step Is Admitting You Have A Problem

My fascination with learning the Nook is veering into dangerous territory -- addiction.  I've not entirely finished one book on my new toy, but I'm close.  The problem is the valuable time I've spent in playing with it, seeing what it does, and trying different mediums to obtain ebooks from (yeah, I joined NetGalley...*sigh*).  So even though I can finally whiz-bang through transferring my ebooks over to the Nook, I have not finished one blessed book since Sunday -- digital or paper.  It's becoming a distraction,but one I want to master...

I was all happy happy last night when I started this post.  And then today hit, and I thought I'd get cute and request a galley from NetGalley. 

***SCREEEEECCCHHHH, kee-rash, blam-o!*** Or at least that's how I translate the soundtrack in my brain, a car slamming into a big brick wall.  Seriously, I'm not a genius when it comes to computers, but I tend to pick things up pretty well when it comes to them.  Hmm, then again, don't ask Wendy about my virgin blog days and trying to set my place up with all the pretties.  Yeah, not so cute...

Today I spent nearly five hours here on the computer, trying to figure out why the one galley request I'd downloaded to my computer using the software necessary for these transactions would not read on Veronica, my Nook.  Seriously, I had tech support from Adobe Digital Editions (ADE) and NetGalley, as well as various buddies of mine from the reviewing community, trying to help me.  Hell, I even called the library because I was having the same problem with their digital library and kept getting the same "User Not Activated" message when I moved the damn book over to my Nook.  I cried.  I sweat.  I ignored John.  I think I even threw something -- of course only after I safely moved the Nook out of my wrath's way.

And then the ADE gods smiled on me and pointed me in the direction of the site's message boards for users.  Forget the site's technical support and friendly advice -- they're bogus.  I went to the people who actually use the software and scrolled through the long list of topics.  "Authorizing Nook" popped up, and from there I finally figured out the problem.

So what do you get out of this post?  Probably nothing.  Hopefully you smiled.  But, I beg you -- never go to tech support and hope that they can magically fix whatever problem ails you.  In my case, I got lucky.  But then again -- I went to the people who actually USE the equipment, not the nerds who support it, and got my answers, with a little bit of cheerleading from the girls at NetGalley.  I applaud them, seriously.

Here's to a healthy relationship in the future, NetGalley!       

We Return You to Your Regularly Scheduled Program

I've been a little bit quiet this week -- ok, a lot quiet.  It's been a productive week (taxes: done, taking my new married name: paperwork turned in), just not in the way of reading.  I won't say I'm in a slump, but it's taken me five days to try to finish P.C. Cast's Goddess of Legend.  It's just that I usually find something else to do instead of parking my butt in a chair and reading.  Earlier this week I cleaned out my office TBR (yes, my TBR encompasses multiple rooms) and actually thinned out about 25 books which I posted up on Paperbackswap.  Of course, they're all much older books, less likely to move, so if they sit around too much longer I plan on donating them to the library.  I was able to unearth two contenders for the TBR Challenge, this month being an "ugly duckling or a tortured hero" type of theme.  I know it's not required that we stick to the theme, but it's one of my little goals this year. 

I go back to work tonight -- probably why I've been so scatterbrained this week.  I'm a bit nervous and excited at the same time to get back to the grind.  I think John's ready for me to get out of the house (poor guy), but damnit, I just got to the point in this recuperation where I'm feeling much better and have been enjoying the extra time off.  One thing I've promised myself is that I'm going to do my best in not dreading the whole work thing, wishing my days away.  If I've learned one thing since all of this mess happened back in December, it's that you never know when you're time is up, so it's best to enjoy every step as much as you can.  It could be your last.

And that's all I've got to say about that.  Happy weekend!  

Bored of Education?

I'm currently dancing between two books, which I frequently do if I'm drowning in review books but still want to keep up with my "fun" books (library or TBR).  This go-round it's P.C. Cast's December release, Goddess of Legend, and a YA book, Dash & Lily's Book of Dares.  Now, I lurrrve me some P.C. Cast, both in her YA stuff and in her Goddess Summoning series.  These are books that I refer to as "beefy".  Let me explain...

Sometimes in my reading, there are books that I feel are sooo good that I could roll around in and just luxuriate.  If I feel like I'm getting something out of the book beyond merely enjoyable reading, something that maybe I learn about myself or, better yet, just learn something -- anything --  from, than those books are "beefy".  Frequently those types of books are historical and even non-fiction (oh how I looove me some non-fiction British history).

However, with P.C.'s books (yes, I feel like I can be on first name basis with this author) I almost always learn...something.  Primarily in her mythological books, the Goddess Summoning series.  I'll be honest, I had zilch in school about mythology and I seriously zoned out in any of the sciences (except for anatomy & physiology, which I rocked), which means that I missed a lot in astrology - a fact that John finds seriously lamentable since I can't locate any constellations beyond the Big Dipper and Orion and his belt.  With the Goddess Summoning series, I always find myself hitting Wikipedia, looking up anything I can on gods and goddesses, and anything mythology-related.  Do you know how MUCH is encompassed in that one subject?  Oh. My. God.

When I've exhausted all I can stand on the internet in my quest, than I go to John and pick his brain (which, by the way, he loves because he's such a lovably arrogant geek).  And then (yeah, you knew there had to be more) when my ears start to bleed, because seriously, once my wonderful husband starts, it's going to be a while before he stops answering my question, I'll go and hit the books.  The number of non-fictional and reference books I've bought over the years about subjects that have interested me after I've read a romance is seriously terrifying.  Since I started reading the Goddess Summoning series, I've amassed at least three huge mythology books.  But my OCD tendencies is another topic for some other day...

I guess my point of this post is to see if I'm alone in this type of qualifying a good book: one that I love and would recommend to my friends because it was just that great, or one that I feel like I get something else out of, usually an education about a subject I'm interested in (history, mythology, cooking, you name it).

The funny thing is: I need to get this Cast review done at least before I return to work this Friday, right?  And it took me nearly two hours to get through nearly 60 pages because I was too busy looking up Coventina, Viviane, or the Lady of the Lake -- depending on which legend you're talking about.

I like to be well-informed like that...