Shooflypie

It's been quite a while since I posted something that was a Sunday Shuffle, Heavy Rotation, or Monthly Mix, which means it's well past time to get caught up with my pop culture intake... BAKER'S DOZEN Yes, I've read 13 books since last time I wrote about books. I'll try to keep my comments short... A Storm of Swords by George R.R. Martin - I took just over three weeks to read this, though I did read a couple others during that time as well. The first half of the book does great character work and the second half is full of big event after big event and made me leave any other reading aside. It's my favorite book of the series so far and the first half or so is being adapted into the current season of Game of Thrones , which I also recommend. Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell - On the surface, I should have liked this a lot. It's a romance set in the 80s and the titular characters are into the things I was into - I was the same age during that ...

As I mentioned last week, I'm currently reading the 3rd book in George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series, A Storm of Swords . I'm doing it not only in anticipation of the 3rd season of Game of Thrones starting two weeks from tonight (apparently this book will get me through Season 4 as well) but also because I like the books. I haven't just been reading the novel, though, a practice I started out of necessity with the 1st book in 2011 when I had to read for college course work as well and then continued that summer with the 2nd book. I'm maybe 100 pages shy of being halfway and thought I would pause to talk about when I've been reading alongside... Vampires in the Lemon Grove by Karen Russell - This is yet another big short story collection in a year of big story collections. While I liked Russell's debut novel, Swamplandia! , I liked her first collection St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves even more and was primed for this book. Th...

I've been a sequential reader for most of my life, preferring to read only one book at a time and move to the next one. Of late, however, I've needed to go against my natural preferences in order to read books for school and also be able to keep up some pleasure reading. I've managed to do it, though with my overall yearly total taking a hit (which was and is to be expected). As of today, however, I've wandered into completely new territory...I'm reading 4 books at once. I started A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin just about two weeks ago. It was one of the first books I bought for my Nook, having wanted to start the series for a few years and using the upcoming HBO adaptation as the final push to start it. It lingered on my electronic shelf for a few months until the HBO premiere date got even closer (as in this coming Sunday). I'm on pg. 262 of 787 on my Nook. A few days later I started Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey . My English class this semester...