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...

Geaux Tigers! And Sweet Bloggers...

It's official!!! LSU won the BCS Championship game tonight and the city is going nuts! I'm so happy for LSU, my dear alma mater. It couldn't have happened to a better group of guys and a better group of fans. Tiger stadium is like nothing you'll find anywhere else...the fans and the players are just electric and you can just feel the energy driving around Baton Rouge and it's all been transported down here to New Orleans this week! I went to school on LSU's campus in New Orleans for my Master's and after Katrina, we were transported to the Baton Rouge campus and during football season it was just incredible. I'm so proud of the team for winning tonight! Bourbon Street will be nuts tonight! We went down to the quarter for lunch yesterday and ended up turning around because we spent an hour just trying to find parking...and we were on the outskirts of the quarter which usually isn't too bad parking wise. Needless to say, I won't be braving it down there tonight :p

As for sweet bloggers, I got a package in the mail today and a card in the mail from two different bloggers! Both unexpected! The first was from Deslily. She sent me her copy of The Dragon Quintet which she just read not too long ago with a very sweet note. It has a short story by Orson Scott Card in it and she knew I'd enjoy it. Thank you so much, Pat :) You're taking care of me, I see, since I made a resolution not to buy books! (more on that in a second) The second thing was a card from Bookfool and inside were three beautiful homemade bookmarks with her photos which I love so much!! And one of them is a poppet pic :) Thanks Bookfool! They're already being put to use. You people are just too nice!!

So an update to the no buying books resolution. NO, I haven't bought any books! But I've decided that it's a totally unreasonable resolution. So here's a more reasonable one. There are books that I had already planned on buying. For instance...if a new book by Orson Scott Card or Neil Gaiman comes out, or a new book in a series I'm reading, I'll make an exception...but no more impulse buying and just shopping the shelves. I'm thinking maybe like 10 books for the whole year. Aside from that, I like Carl's idea of using the library more, and I'm going to do that. For challenge books that I don't have, I'm going to get them from the library! Sounds good. Proud of me Darla??? ;)

And another reminder that if you haven't signed up for the book giveaways for The Time Traveler's Wife and Wind Follower, go to The Catch Up Post and sign up!