Masterpiece
*****
Excellent
**** 1/2
Very good
****
Good
**** 1/2
Just okay
***
Not for me
**
Definitely not for me
*

Wordless Wednesday #12

Dystopian Challenge

April 6th through November 6th

If you can call this a “genre”, it is one of my favorites. I’ve hesitated in joining the challenge, though, because this year I’ve already read:

The Road by Cormac McCarthy
The Giver by Lois Lowry
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

and in the past I’ve read 1984 and Animal Farm by George Orwell.

However, I did have two or three potential titles that were on my TBR list for this year: Never Let Me Go and The Handmaid’s Tale; and Oryx and Crake had been on my list, but I moved it to 2008. As I was looking at some of the possible titles at Wikipedia, I found A Scanner Darkly by Philip K. Dick. I’ve been meaning to watch the movie, so this is the perfect opportunity to read the book first. I also found The Messenger and Gathering Blue by Lois Lowry, which are seqels to The Giver. So my choices became a little clearer.

I have chosen:

A Scanner Darkly by Philip K. Dick
Messenger by Lois Lowry FINISHED
Gathering Blue by Lois Lowry FINISHED
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood FINISHED
Never Let Me Go by K. Ishiguro

Bonus/Alternates that I probably won’t find time for but would like to read are:

Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
Children of Men by P.D. James
Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
We by Yevgeny Zamyatin FINISHED

Mooching and Swapping

I’ve been fairly successful with paperbackswap lately. I now have 50+ credits to use after I move! I just started my inventory on bookmooch, but that looks like a nice site as well.

I have quite a few children’s books listed if anyone’s interested.

My bookmooch inventory is here.
My paperbackswap inventory is here.

National Library Week April 15-21


This week is National Library Week.

I celebrated by giving 64 books to my small local library that they didn’t have in their system. I’ll probably give at least 100 more to the bigger library that I frequent for their library sale. I’ll also probably give over 100 to my homeschool co-op group.

Why? So I don’t break the movers’ backs when we move. Don’t worry–I have thousands left for my new home!

Thursday Thirteen #11

Thirteen TV shows that I watch. Thankfully I have TiVo.

1. Battlestar Galactica
(No new shows til January 2008–I can’t wait that long!)
2. Stargate Atlantis
3. Stargate SG-1
4. Doctor Who
5. Survivor
6. American Idol
7. Gilmore Girls
8. Masterpiece Theatre
9. LOST
10. Dancing with the Stars (this season only–see post below!)
11. Ebert & Roeper
12. Passport to Europe (when there’s a new episode)
13. Mystery!

Wordless Wednesday #11