Clueless

   Is there anything better than doing your library browsing online? Well, yes. Having that information stored firmly in your head, or maybe your cellphone or something, and browsing on the shelf in the library itself, but see, my favored library is down the street from a school and the kids that frequent said library don't have a damn clue as to what "inside voices" could possibly mean. Also, their malnourished mothers shoot you the look of DEATH, as if your fat might possibly be contagious to dear sweet Jennifer, or their precious, I dunno what boys are being named these days. Hell, girls probably aren't Jennifers anymore. Point is, I like the book selection [for the most part] and most of the librarians, but I could happily cheer if most of the other patrons fell off a cliff.

  But I do love being able to flip from Amazon to the library and basically add whichever books I can find before I'm off and running after another author, forgetting whatever I'd been looking up previously. It's fun, although I have to admit our library system is really bad about picking books I'd want to read without them being forced on me.

   [random] This song is still good, two years later. [/random]

 Now, if I could only find my library card at the same time I have the money to pay off what is guarenteed to be a huge fine. Yes, this would be a good idea. Hmm. I could, I guess, find my card, lookup my fine amount online, and then know exactly what I'm in for.

  Damn you, logic! You have no place in my world! Begone!

  Yes, I'm a little weird.

  I also have a tiny, itty bitty headache that is making things a little difficult to concentrate on. This might be due to sleeping funny, or the hair that's a little too long and pulled back and that usually results in the pain. Oh, the pain. Or maybe I should eat something. NO! Logic again!


  Hmm. You know, I love vampire fiction as much as the next girl raised on a steady diet of it in her childhood, but I still think Vampyre is stupid. I cannot get the mental loop of Andrew from Buffy going on about the Vampyres and... yeah, it's stupid. People who add Ys to words because they think it looks cool or whatever the reason is, I want to smack them.

  Confession time. While I have limited interest in quite a few of the vampire/witch/sci-fi/urban fantasy/whatever the genre is/ novels out there, I love a lot of the covers. If I were a gazillionaire, I would buy them just for the pretty, pretty covers. Yes, I'm that shallow. Who knew?

 Damn, this Amazon search and rescue mission is dangerous. I think I've added twice as many books to my wish list as I have to my library list. Ooops?

   Also, I will never understand people who would prefer to read their books in electronic form. I can understand if your choice is electronic or not at all, but books are more fun if they're actually, you know, books. Something you can tuck into your pocket, or under your arm, and carry with you from room to room. Better still if it's so good that you risk life and limb and travel from room to room as you read, praying that the dog doesn't throw herself at your feet, or that one of the cats doesn't decide it's time to do that kitty figure eight thing they do in an attempt to bring you down to their level. Against common sense, I prefer to munch while reading, and I like nothing more than to curl up in a big, comfy chair, snackable to one side, drink to another, animal curled somewhere close, and a really good book that will not let me leave my little nest until I've finished. I like taking breaks, putting the book on my chest and napping, feeling the weight sitting there, reminding me to take care and not thrash about while snoozing. I like the smell of books, the feel of them in your hands, the endless cover options for a single novel, or the way a series looks on your bookshelf as you finish them, one by one.
   I like my shiny computery gadgets, but I use them to procure more books, not as a replacement for them. People are weird.

  God, how I loathe vague bitchy comments. I want to know! I need to know. While flipping through Melissa Marr's LJ, there's a comment about authors and their strange, mysterious ways. Author A has said in very explicit terms that Author S's books are awful. There's vitriol. Author S doesn't know this. Author S loves Author A's books, has quite the readership, & chooses to recommend Author A. Now, Author A is all sorts of "yay! I love S's books." Well, obviously I need to know who this author is, dammit. I don't know why I need to know. I just do. It's like those blind-items in magazines. Most of the time I don't know who the hell they're talking about unless it's really obvious, but half the time I want to know, dammit. And I never do. That's the curse of being clueless.