Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Uh-Oh Part 2...And Lots Of Other Stuff

It's all gone to shite! Anyone placed bets on my New Years resolution not even lasting a whole month? If you did, you won! To be honest, this is the longest a resolution has ever lasted I think, lol...sad, huh? A couple of days ago I thought I'd take "just a peek" over at bookcloseouts.com and it all went downhill from there and I left with 5 books :/ And with shipping they were all under $30, so who can blame me :p Here's what I got:

Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbuy - I've been wanting this one for awhile. I fell in love with Ray Bradbury's writing last year and this one came highly recommended by plenty of people! It can be a bonus read for the plant category in Annie's What's in a Name challenge!

Time and Again by Jack Finney - This one came recommended by Carl and I've never been disappointed by anything that he's recommended. So I'm really looking forward to it! Love those time travel books!

The Pinhole Egg by Diana Wynne Jones - I've been wanting to read some Jones for ages. I know that both Nymeth and Darla D. are huge fans of hers and I loved Miyazaki's Howl's Moving Castle which was based on her book. Can't wait!

In the Miso Soup by Ryu Murakami - This one came recommended by Scott at Booky Ooky and I'm really excited about it. I've been on this Japanese kick and I wanted something different. This one looks sexy, violent, and sadistic...I love a book like that every now and then ;)

The Beekeeper's Apprentice by Laurie R. King - This is my super bargain buy! Hardcover version for $4.99 and I got the last copy on their website! It first came recommended by Eva, Dark Orpheus seconded that recommendation and then Deslily sealed the deal for me on this one. I really can't wait to read this whole series of Mary Russell books!

As if that wasn't enough (heh....) I went and ordered two books from England today through Amazon UK :p I had to pre-order my copy of Odd and the Frost Giants by Neil Gaiman. It's not being released here in the states. It was written for World Book Day which is a UK thing and the books only cost 1 Pound (about 2 dollars)! Of course with shipping over seas, that comes out to about 12 bucks....but it's a new Neil Gaiman book, so I bought it and while I was there, I also picked up The Lost Boy by Duncan Staff which Quixotic reviewed on her blog today. It sounds great and I haven't read a true crime book in a long time. Don't know if "great" is the right word, but interesting...

Other news...I've been selected for Barnes and Nobles first look program for the month of March! Anyone else make it in? We're reading a book that sounds really good and reminds me a little of The Thirteenth Tale from the synopsis. The book is called The Sister and is written by Poppy Adams. This is her first book and I can't wait to join in the discussion and talk with her about her book! You can read more about the book and read an excerpt here.

More good news of the day...there's going to be an Ender's Game video game!!! It was announced today! The game is going to focus just on the battle room. They decided that there was so much that they could do that they would choose just one aspect of the book and the battle room is what the game will be. I can't wait! It's going to be on all of the gaming consoles including PCs and the handheld consoles. A company called Chair is doing the game. The same company is also making Empire, one of Card's latest political thrillers into a video game. Card is fully on board with the game and is excited about it. Me too :)

Now for a meme...Literacy Chic tagged me for this one and I love these. They're fun.

Book Meme Rules

1. Pick up the nearest book ( of at least 123 pages).
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag five people.

The book nearest me is Watership Down by Richard Adams. Actually it's the ARC of the new Fablehaven that I'm about to start, but I can't release any of that yet ;) so we'll use Watership Down, the next book on the stack!

"Later, Hazel had said that there was nothing for it but to cross the open pasture and under Silver's direction they had crossed it, with Dandelion running ahead to reconnoiter. When Fiver said the iron tree was harmless they believed him. Strawberry had had a bad time."

I can't wait to really read this one! Ok...so tagging five people...Nymeth, Debi, Bellezza, Stephanie, Rhinoa! Have fun :)

And finally, I wanted to give big hugs to Eva for giving me the You Make My Day Award :) Her blog makes my day too. It's one of the many blogs that I visit every day always hoping that there's a new post...and there usually is. Partially out of laziness and partially because I can't decide who to pick, I can't pick 10 people to give this to right now! But I'm sure you all know how much I love visiting all of your blogs everyday and you really do all "Make My Day"! Seriously...the first thing I do after waking up is go down all of my live bookmarks and check for new posts and then I check (borderline obsessively) for new posts all day from you all. So have a great day guys!

Tomorrow, a review of The Stainless Steel Rat Saves The World. Then a break from the rat...

18 comments:

Ana S. said...

My resolution to not buy any more books has gone to hell, too :/ I've been gathering the courage to post about all the books I bought last week :P

I haven't read The Pinhole Egg yet, but it's hard to go wrong with Diana. I hope you enjoy it!

I really want to read that Mary Russell series, too.

The Ender's Game videogame sounds like a lot of fun! Speaking of Card and videogames, the other day my boyfriend told me that he wrote the insult wars for the game Monkey Island! I LOVE that game and I had no idea!

Thanks for the tag, I'm going to do the meme later. Reading that passage made me miss Watership Down. I really think you'll enjoy that one.

Anonymous said...

I'm not doing too badly on my resolution to buy less books. And I'm actually getting rid of some via bookmooch, which is awesome.

Nymeth - I had no idea that he wrote the insult wars for Monkey Island! Awesome. :) I love that game too.

I hope you enjoy The Lost Boy. It's tough using the word "enjoy" for a book about such a horrible series of crimes, but it really is a good book.

I also have Odd and the Frost Giants on pre-order. :)

I still need to read some Wynne Jones too. Actually, I think The Pinhole Egg may be the book of hers that I picked up last year and haven't got to yet...can't check as it is on a shelf in Wales, but I'm pretty sure...

The Sister sounds interesting - look forward to your thoughts!

DesLily said...

That's my Bubba boy! LOL, oh, how I knew this wouldn't last! LOL You both enjoy reading and "sales" toooooooo much! LOL I didn't make a resolution but am trying hard to cut back for other reasons. I did good this month. Only 3 "used" books (two Mary Russel and on McCaffrey replacing an old paperback) Though I haven't bought much my wish list has grown horribly!

Very curious about Pinhole Egg.. have had that on and off my wish list many times.. it sounds so good, but I talk myself out of it because it is book SIX of a series, and don't know if they are still "stand alone" or not. So now I am waiting for you to read a few books! sheesh! (Fablehaven/ Pinhole/ and MOST OF ALL Dragonriders of Pern!!! ..I am not a patient waiter!!!) Get your nose in those books boy! hehehe

Carole McDonnell said...

Congratulations on being chosen for the Barnes and Noble book this month. I like that kinda thing...plus it's a free book. And that's always good.

Anonymous said...

I signed up for the B&N first look book, but haven't heard anything yet (so maybe I wasn't one of the lucky ones)!
Stephanie
www.thewrittenword.wordpress.com

Debi said...

You know, I'm guessing it's probably a relief to have your resolution so blatantly smashed to smithereens, isn't it?

I hope I can get around to Watership Down someday. Annie adored it, and of course, Nymeth's review made me want to pick it that very second. (Of course, Nymeth's reviews always do that to me!)

Can't wait to do the little meme...I love that kind, too.

Carl V. Anderson said...

I've ruined that same resolution Chris. I have purchased 18 books this month. Most, but not all, of them used. Dandelion Wine is one of the few I picked up this month that is used. I look forward to reading that one.

And now I'll probably have to go buy that Gaiman book. ;)

I am a bit scared of the Ender's Game video game concept. If done right it would be incredible. Too many games are done poorly, however. Here's me crossing my fingers.

And Nymeth, that is cool about the Monkey Island thing. I enjoyed all the MI games. Very fun.

chrisa511 said...

Nymeth, Glad I'm not alone in ruining my resolutions :p Trust me, it took a LOT of courage to muster up this post! I bought these like last thursday, lol. I can't wait for the Ender's Game video game, even though they haven't even started working on it yet! Lots of waiting time there!. Monkey Island is fun...though I haven't played it that much. Megan likes it. I had heard that Orson Scott Card had worked on that some. He's done a lot. Can't wait for Watership Down!

Quix, I just can't make myself join Bookmooch! There are so few books that I'm willing to part with that I can't do it. I seriously think there's something wrong with me. I have so many books that I know I'll NEVER read again...but I still keep them. I'm really looking forward to The Lost Boy...I've been wanting to read a book like that for awhile and your review won me over real quick! I can't wait for Odd and the Frost Giants!!! So excited! I think you bought The Pinhole Egg too, because I remember someone saying something about it...it must have been in your bookporn piles!

Deslily, Not only did it not last, but apparently I just went psychotic and went off the deep end, buying 7 books! Lets not even talk about what my wishlist looks like now! Oh shit...Pinhole is book 6 of a series???? Why'd you have to tell me that? You know what that means, right? I have read books 1-5 first now! I had no idea it was a series! Oh well....I'm starting Fablehaven tonight!

Carole, Free books are ALWAYs good things ;) And this one sounds like it'll be quite good too. I'm looking forward to it. Thanks!

Stephanie, Did you check your personal message box on the website? They don't email you, so the only way you know is by checking on there! I hope you get in...that'll be fun!

Debi, Boy, is it a relief ;) Though I've learned that I can control myself better. I only did this one week out of the month instead of EVERY week out of the month. I'll be reading Watership Down hopefully by the weekend...we'll see though. I've been such a slow reader lately...well, busy too. Can't wait to see your meme answers...aren't those fun :)

chrisa511 said...

Carl, It kind of felt good to ruin that resolution, didn't it? lol..bibliophiles really shouldn't have resolutions like that...it's not natural. But then again, neither is a house that you can't walk in because there are too many books. I kept hoping that maybe Odd and the Frost Giants would turn up in the US, but it looks like it's not going to happen, so I sulked over to Amazon UK and got ripped off for that and the other book...but then again, it's a Gaiman book, so there's no getting ripped off really ;) I was scared at first of the EG video game, but OSC is supposed to be involved along the way and he is VERY picky about his projects. I think it has the potential to be really cool. I think the plan is to eventually develop other aspects of the book into different games as well. I would love to see the computer game made into a video game!

DesLily said...

Hooray for Fablehaven!

Eva said...

Yay for Mary Russell! :) I still haven't bought any books, but I've mooched several. And resolutions were made to be broken! hehe I'm sure I'd be buying more books if I had any disposable income right now. ;)

Ladytink_534 said...

Thanks for the link! I promised to stop buying books too but that promise went out the window when I realized how many of my favorite authors have books coming out over the next few months.

DesLily said...

Oh Chris!! go read my post and click the link to see a video interview of James A Owen (Here There Be Dragons)! It's a great interview and he describes his books fantastic!!!

chrisa511 said...

Eva, Mooching is just fine ;) And I totally agree that resolutions are made to be broken...I just don't know if they're made to be broken so soon! My disposable income is quickly running out...if it was ever there in the first place :p

Ladytink, Isn't it horrible and wonderful at the same time how many great books are coming out soon? Scary, huh? lol...I don't think it's possible for book lovers to "not buy books"...sheesh...

Deslily, heading over there now!

Anonymous said...

You resolved not to buy books? Oh, Chris. Impossible.

Dewey said...

I love the Mary Russell series! I hope you enjoy it, too. You probably will, if you like Sherlock Holmes.

Bookfool said...

Oh, darlin', you are so baaaaad!! And, for crying out loud, do NOT post a link to Book Closeouts, ever! I saw a book I want on the opening page. I gritted my teeth and backed out the door, fast.

Ender's Game, the game? Sounds like fun.

BTW, I'm a huge fan of Jack Finney. I'd have recommended Time and Again if Carl didn't. His short stories in About Time are my favorites, though.

Bellezza said...

Ooh, looking forward to addressing the meme you tagged me for. Also, let me know when you get your prize package. Finally, I'm changing your link on my blog to wordpress etc. See you on the other side!