Sunday Salon 6 July 2008

Hello, fellow Saloners! It seems like it's been an age since I was around last, but as happens during the summer, my schedule was full to brimming! However, with the loverly long holiday weekend, I am able to set aside some time to come and visit with you all.

Truth be told, another reason I wasn't around much in June is my lack of reading that I put in for the entire month. I truly only read one book the entire month long (the first in Jim Butcher's Dresden Files series, Full Moon - lots of fun, I highly recommend!). I'd gotten a couple of short readings in (the first Asterix the Gaul, which was another fun read, and then Mr. Fooster Traveling on a Whim, which I read at B&N and wouldn't recommend - it's not that it's bad, I just couldn't quite find the point of the story) and I didn't even really finish my 1001 Book for June until July 1 (Kate Chopin's The Awakening). It is embarrassing.

However, July is proving to be much better. Through The Gutenberg Project, I was able to listen to almost all of Howards End at work this week while the co-worker was on vacation, and I've read Brandon Mull's Fablehaven, which I'll be reviewing later today.

Yesterday, my roomie and I met with a friend to simply get out of town for the day, and what was supposed to be just a day spent window shopping turned into a shopping extravaganza! I found a Walt Disney Classics Collection sculpture that I've been looking for for 13 years, and the store was selling it for 1/2 price, so I couldn't pass that up. My bag that I carry everywhere (we call it my man-purse) has been looking a little worst for wear and I've been looking for a new one for quite some time now, and finally found one that I liked. I'm very particular about these bags. It took me almost a year to find the one that I carry now, and it's been the better part of 7 months that I've been looking for a new one, so while this was a bit more than I was wanting to spend, I still bought it.

And now for the books! Oh, the joy of outlet book stores!! I picked up Brian Froud's Lady Cottington's Pressed Fairy Book, 10 3/4 Anniversary Edition (these are hilarious - I read the original 3 earlier in the year) for $5, Steve Augarde's The Various (I have never heard of this book, and according to LT, I'm the only member with it in their library, but it looked interesting and was only $4) and Walter Moers' A Wild Ride Through the Night for $4. I have been looking for this book for almost a year now. It is the story of Gustave Doré and his deal with Death to become an artist. Moers uses 21 of Doré's illustrations to tell his story. I can't wait to sit down to this little treat. (I think I just discovered why this book was so hard to find... While reading the blurb on the inside cover, I noticed the price is £16.99. Maybe it was never released in the States?). I also picked up John Scalzi's Old Man's War, since I received Zoe's Tale as an ARC and it is part of that series, and my friend K said that it was a great, fast read. She also gave me my birthday present yesterday, a copy of Edgar Allan Poe stories and poems (there is a long story behind why she bought this for me, and it's one of those stories where you really had to be there to appreciate it, but it means all the world to me that she remembered it). So all in all, a grand book buying day.

Thank you to everyone who stops by, and I hope to make my rounds to your Salons later today.

Happy reading!!