Grrr...has it already been nearly three weeks? Three weeks is just not a long enough check out time for library books. I'm afraid I've got to return The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher by Kate Summerscale with only the introduction read (and it looked so nice sitting on my nightstand). I really do want to read it, but as I am so slow reading NF it's not a good idea to borrow NF books from the library (particularly when they can't be renewed). I may have to dig out my remaining B&N gift card and just buy it.
In the meantime...now for something completely different. I've received a review copy of Jane Fletcher Geniesse's American Priestess: The Extraordinary Story of Anna Spafford and the American Colony in Jerusalem that I've decided to read next. When I was first offered it I thought no, this doesn't really sound like me. It seems to be a combination history (America and Palestine in the 1880s), religion (a Protestant sect called The saints), maybe a bit of women's studies (Anna Spafford) thrown in as well. When I read the description more closely it sounded intriguing, and now that I've started it I'm sort of hooked. I'll let you know how it turns out.
A fellow international book blogger has started posting a series of "Read and Tell" interviews. She kindly asked me to take part. You can read my answers here. I'm looking forward to hearing other reader's perspectives as well.
I'm starting to learn how to catalog books at my work. Actually what I am doing is known as copy cataloging (working with an already existing record and cleaning it up before it is exported into my library's online catalog). I always thought I was a very detail-oriented person, but I have to say this is one of the most nit-picky things I've ever learned how to do. There is a rule for EveryThing! I have no idea how I am going to remember it all (I'm going to start dreaming of call numbers and subfields and authority records). I sometimes think surely there isn't enough room in my brain for yet another password or tiny bit of information. I keep squeezing it in, and I wonder what is falling out the other side!
Earlier this month I mentioned that I lucked out and won a Penguin. I never did get it in the mail. I wonder if in the end US readers aren't included? Alas, M. Simenon, no fear. I will read you yet!
I sometimes wonder if I bore people to absolute tears with my chatter (are you even still with me or have you abandoned reading this post already?). Is the minutiae of my reading life of any interest to anyone? (Sorry, latest bout of self-doubt appears to be creeping in). It's been very quiet around here, and I find myself wondering if I am on the wrong track. What the right track is, I'm not entirely sure, but other bloggers seem to lead infinitely more exciting lives than I do--traveling, exciting hobbies, living in beautiful and picturesque cities--and if they don't have more exciting lives they write about mundane subjects in such a witty way that I'm engrossed from first word to last.
I think I need a vacation.