Thoughts on a Friday and Bad Bloggers

11 Days until Christmas guys! Where the hell did all of the time go? I was on my way to work today and I nearly slapped myself. I've been so busy trying to get ready for Christmas and rushing to get things done that I haven't taken the time to actually sit back and let it sink in that it's Christmas time and to actually enjoy this season of the year...which is one of my favorites. So I figuratively slapped myself instead of knocking myself out while I was driving over a lake and told myself to spend these next 11 days just Christmasing my little heart out. Yes it will be Christmas music, Christmas cookies, and tinsel everywhere until I'm puking red and green sprinkles.

And with that thought, surprise surprise, I had such a better day at work today. It's funny how just a change in mindset can change your day. It's not always as simple as that, but it's wonderful when it is. How often do we have bad days just because we tell ourselves it's a bad day? I know I'm guilty of that more often that I should be :/

I thought I should get in a Bad Bloggers post before Christmas!! I don't know what to expect for Christmas. These days, my family mostly refuses to get me books :p Because you know...I have like 800 already waiting to be read :p But every now and then they'll surprise me and I'll end up with a pile to add to the shelves! So just in case there's a pile after Christmas, I thought I'd wipe the Bad Blogger slate clean and I think with this post, I'm going to wrap up this round too!! The next round will go until June of 2013. Here's what's come in since the last post:

1. Grandmother's Kitchen Wisdom by Myles Bader - This is a very sweet book that came from an even sweeter friend :) My dear friend and adopted mother, Pat (aka, Deslily) sent this one to me saying she always thought of me when she saw it on her shelves. It's an incredibly AWESOME reference guide that has the answer to pretty much any question you could possibly think of when it comes to what to do in your kitchen or with stuff you would find in your kitchen. LOVE IT and can see myself turning to this book quite often!! Thanks again mama! (Gift from a friend)

2. Che Guevara: A Manga Biography by Kiyoshi Konno - Yet another awesome manga biography from the folks over at Penguin. Can't wait to read this one!! (Bought it)

3. Confessions of an English Opium Eater by Thomas De Quincey - Oh dear...I found yet ANOTHER awesome series of books that Penguin puts out...this comes from a series called Penguin Great Ideas. And there are a LOT of them, lol. I've added pretty much all of them to my paperback swap wishlist. I found this one on bookcloseouts.com when they had a really awesome sale. That's where I found the Che Guevara biography and a bunch of these other one's as well! (Bought it)

4. War Against the Animals by Paul Russell - So I know this book didn't appear on my wishlist for no reason at all, but I don't know exactly WHY it appeared there :p Sadly, I forget sometimes who put a book on my radar. And I think that's the case with this one. But it was on super sale during the bookcloseouts sale so I picked it up! (Bought it)

5. Rope by Alison Deming - This is a collection of poetry that I found on book closeouts and it sounded really beautiful and I couldn't pass it up for $1.99 :p So I haz it. (Bought it)

6. Quarantine: Stories by Rahul Mehta - Aha! Time to hand out some blame. I heard about this one from Colin over at The Book Pirate. Sounds like an awesome collection...stories about an Indian American person who's also gay trying to find their way through life. Sounds good, eh? Point to Colin! (Bought it)

7. The Open Road by Pico Iyer - Another point! When I announced that I'm getting to see the Dalai Lama speak in May 2013, Jill told me about this book. It's written by a man that has followed the Dalai Lama around for thirty years and from what I gather it's a sort of biography of him. Well Jill was kind enough to send me her copy of the book!!! But she still has to take the blame for it :p (Gift from a friend)

8. The Red Market by Scott M. Carney - And yet ANOTHER point! This one goes to Debi! Ever since she talked about this one, I've been wanting it. She always read the best sounding nonfic. This one is about the illegal organ trading network. Point to Debs! (Bought it)

9. The Morville Hours by Katherine Swift - Holy crap I can almost blame half of my loot on other people! Susan gets the blame for this beautiful book. When she talked about it I knew I had to have it right away. Gardening in France...enough said. (Bought it)

So....drumroll...here are the final totals on points for the last 6 months!:

Ana -6
Debi - 6
Pat - 3
Nancy - 2
Susan - 2
Neil Gaiman - 1
Carl - 1
Kelly - 1
Gray - 1
Jeane - 1
Beth - 1
Carole - 1
Sharon - 1
Max - 1
Nerds Heart YA - 1
Amy - 1
The Fabulous Beekman Boys - 1
Mom - 1
Memory - 1
Kij Johnson - 1
Leah - 1
Colin - 1
Jill - 1

We have a tie!! That means that both Ana AND Debi HAVE to let me FORCE upon them yet ANOTHER book onto their already stressed bookshelves...you know, because they've been so evil and have forced so many upon mine over the last six months. You two ladies can pick any book that I've reviewed since 2007 that I may have made you want as bad as you have made me want all of these books :p We're starting fresh now until June of 2013!