Not all bad...

Monty Haaviko is an interesting hero.  A former drug user, thief and murderer, Monty has now settled down in Winnipeg's North End with his wife and young son, and is starting to settle into a quiet life as a babysitter while his wife works realty to support them.

A Criminal to Remember is Michael Van Rooy's third novel featuring Haaviko, and I cannot talk this series up enough.  It is entertaining and honest about the criminal lifestyle (while he sometimes misses the adrenaline rush or the high from the drugs and alcohol, he is very clear about how satisfied he is with his family and current low-key lifestyle).

 To me, this novel is another example of trying to redeem our villains.  Monty says over and over again that he used to be a bad man, he used to do bad things, but he is reformed now (more or less).  His character gives us hope for redemption and rehabilitation.  Yes, his life is full of trials and tribulations, but he overcomes them.  He is always better than the antagonists, either stronger or smarter, or he is able to outlast whatever is happening to him. 

Monty is often playing the bad guys on one side against the bad guys on the other side, while trying to make sure he comes out neutral, with little attention drawn to himself and his family, while also making sure no harm befalls them.  He has had to deal with local mobsters, people smuggling, angry neighbors, crooked cops, and making and keeping friends.  He balances most of these things while raising his son and doing his best to keep his wife, who he clearly worships (without deifying), on the right side of happy.

When I first picked up Van Rooy's first novel in this series, An Ordinary Decent Criminal, I think I took it home with me solely because it's not often I randomly grab books set in Winnipeg, and I was curious.  Usually, when reading, I make myself a map or picture in my head, because rarely have I been to the settings of the books I am reading.  If I have visited a location, my sense of direction is so terrible, that I still don't have a good idea in my head and just sort of go along with a sense of the place.  Having been born and raised in Winnipeg, though, I generally knew exactly where the action was taking place, and I felt like if I went to a certain street corner I might see the building Monty broke into, or a blood stain on the sidewalk where someone was beaten or shot (a little morbid to be excited at that last prospect, but there you have it).  It added another dimension to the story that drew me in.

I cannot wait for Van Rooy's next novel (assuming there is one) to see what trouble awaits the Haaviko family as life goes on.

Rating: 5/5

Sometimes they hit close to home

I can't remember who recommended it to me, but I recently read It's a Funny Story by Ned Vizzini.  I found this young adult novel, which Vizzini  wrote after a 5 day stint in the mental ward of a hospital as a teenager, to be well written and very moving.  Personally, I found it hit very close to home.

Today's student (teen or otherwise) gets buried under praise when they do well, scorn when they don't.  This leads in many to a drive to succeed, excel, be the best student.  This can also lead to a fear of failure.  What happens, once these kids move on and realize they aren't the big fish anymore, but only mediocre fish?  

Throughout University, and even beyond, I have felt a little let down by life.  I was a perfect student, often getting A+'s with very little effort, but I was a constant worrier.  My dad once told me, jokingly, that with all the worrying I did I'd get an ulcer.  Guess what?  Then I just worried about getting an ulcer.  

Craig Gilner, the protagonist, comes from a supportive family.  The pressure to succeed comes from within.  He convinces himself he needs to go to a certain high school, college, lifestyle, and in preparing for the entrance exams he believes will start him on the right course, he alienates himself from most of his classmates, with the exception of Aaron, who is also planning on going to this very elite school.

To celebrate acceptance into the school, they have a party, here Aaron hooks up with Nia, and Craig falls asleep in the corner.  Craig tries pot, and over the course of the year becomes a habitual user, and gets more and more overwhelmed by school work and the pressure he puts on himself.  He falls behind.  He begins to have trouble eating and sleeping, and after admitting to his parents that he might suffer from depression, he starts taking Zoloft and seeing a series of psychiatrists.

It's when Craig accidentally checks himself into the mental illness ward of the local hospital that he starts to put his life into perspective.  Over the course of his 5 day stay he makes a few important self-discoveries, and comes out knowing he might not be cured, but understanding a little better what he might need to do to cope and heal (the swift recovery seems a little suspect, but as the author has spent time in such an institution, and I have not, I'm not going to judge his recollections of the time).

How do you explain depression to someone who has never had it?  For healthy people, there tends to be 2 lines of thought regarding depression:  Snap out of it!  Decide not to be depressed anymore, and take charge of your life.  The other thought process is one of skepticism.  What do YOU have to be depressed about?  Everyone goes through tough patches, why should YOU get special treatment?  

How do you even discuss your problems with people like that?

Reading this young adult novel made me feel 2 things.  Paranoia (if this guy needed to be institutionalized, how far off can I be?) and relief.  I am not alone.  If I ever hit rock bottom, I know there is a support system, I know there is help available, and if nothing else, I know there is someone else out there that might know what I'm feeling.

Rating: 4/5

Dug my heels in...

Finally finished Odd Thomas.  Never in my life has it taken me that long to read a book I was remotely interested in.  I am really torn now.  I can't say I was overly impressed with the ending, there was sort of a plot twist that was interesting, then right at the end Koontz went "oh, by the way, here's a character that I never introduced before playing an important role in the finale."  I call BS on that.  Still really like the characters and the story, can't stand the writing.  Still want to read more in the series, despite Koontz killing off a character I really liked.

With Forever Odd on request from the library, I will see if I can make it through book two in less time than it took Koontz to write it.  Glutton for punishment?  I might be!

Armed with a headcold, and a belly full of energy drink, this post may veer off into a rambling mess.  As most of my readers (hi Gibbs!) are people who know me in real life, this will surprise no one.  For anyone that just happened to wander in, I apologize, but make no promises not to do this again in future.  Sometimes, sleep depravation is our friend.  :)

I readily admit that I enjoy a lot of bad movies, and put up with a lot of bad writing for the sake of interesting stories.  Stephen King, in his book, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft, says something (which I am paraphrasing from one of the 13 times I've read it), that resonates with me every time I read a crappy book.  He says that everyone has read books that makes them despair if they are at all interested in writing, a sort of, "well, I'll never be able to do this well" sort of feeling.  However, the flip side is also true.  Everyone has also read a terrible, awful novel that makes them think "I already write better than this."  When I'm reading bad pulp fiction, or a dragging narrative, or about cardboard characaters that I can't possibly relate to, at least I can excuse myself by saying, "this is just a confidence boost."  How long can I go on pretending that I read terrible books, not because I enjoy them, but because they make me feel better about my dream of becoming a writer?  I'm not sure I can keep fooling myself, though, when I haven't written much in years.

I start school again in September.  If high-school (and my first degree) memories can be trusted, I'll get lots of writing done then!  It was never great writing, but judging by the books I read, that shouldn't be a deterrent.  Wish me luck!
 

Forgive me, my brain is melting

Two weeks later (albeit I had a week of Folklorama dancing in the middle), and I'm still slogging my way through Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz.  It has never taken me this long to read a book I was even vaguely  interested in.  Normally if I'm not right into it by the halfway point, I just move on.  I've tried, too. I'm reading three books, but I can't get into any of them until I find out what happens to Odd, the protagonist.  The story isn't following what I would normally call a logical thought process, even for a novel about a man who sees ghosts.  

In the meantime, I have also started reading Bonk by Mary Roach, a humourous view of the study of sex and sexuality.  I'm only in the first chapter, but I'm already hooked as she tells tales of the first sex researchers and the personal experiments they had to do in order to start studying sex realistically.

I'm going to see which of these novels I'm able to finish, and with luck I might actually be able to have a review.  Or I'll get fed up and read the latest Charlaine Harris Southern Vampire novel.  Either way it is a win-win for me.

What do you do?

I wasn't even sure about writing a review for today.  I haven't decided how I feel about the book I'm reviewing, and I haven't finished it yet.

About 2 weeks ago, I read a graphic novel called In Odd We Trust,by Dean Koontz  and  Queenie Chan, based off of the Odd Thomas series of novels by Koontz.  I've never read anything Koontz had written before, but I really enjoyed this story, and the premise of it.  Odd Thomas is a boy who sees dead people and helps them bring their murderers to justice.  Sort of Sixth Sense when the little boy grows up.  Since I really enjoyed this story, I requested Odd Thomas  from my local library, what I believe to be the first novel in the series, and it came in on Monday, so I've been reading it.  So far I'm not impressed.

I'm still really interested in the plot, I like the characters, and the premise in general is interesting.  Not only does Odd use his "talent" to solve crimes, the police often rely on him to do so.  It's rare in any kind of story for the police to believe in this sort of thing, never mind using it as a resource.

What I'm torn by is the narrative.  I really just do not like Koontz's writing style.  He uses flowery language and imagery that seem out of place with his story, and he keeps recalling events that have nothing to do with the current issue.  It is putting me off, but I really want to see where this goes.

As an example of the kind of writing that's driving me crazy here, I randomly flipped pages open.  Here's a random paragraph:

                     "The real name of the pinchpenny in question was Spinker, but he earned the secret name we gave him (Sphincter).  Regardless of the total of his bill, he always tipped a quarter.

Bob Sphincter fancied himself to be two and a half times more generous than John D. Rockefeller, the oil billionaire [don't use references you have to explain, sometimes trust your reader to a)know what your talking about or b)be willing to look it up if they don't].  According to legend, even in the elegant restaurants of Manhattan, Rockefeller had routinely tipped a dime."

This novel was published in 2003.  There are probably clearer references for Odd, a twenty year old, to use, never mind the fact that most people in their twenties aren't routinely using the word "pinchpenny" to describe someone who's cheap either.  I'm finding a lot of the language Koontz is using to be really distracting as I try to read.

I am really torn on finishing this novel.  I'll let you know next week how I made out.

Villain to Victim, understanding redemptive literature

We have a tendency to want to forgive or humanize our villains and monsters.  You can see this in books like Twilight, by Stephanie Meyer (as if I needed to specify so the lucky people who don't know what I'm talking about can find out what this mysterious, under-advertised Twilight might be), or the Anita Blake Vampire Hunter series by Laurell K. Hamilton.  Vampires and were-animals (lycanthropes for those in the know) are the protagonists and romantic leads now, not the ghoulish, terrifying horrors they once were.  Hamilton has gone so far as to give the supernatural set legal rights.  It's gotten to the point where I get really annoyed when I read a story where vampires are immediately evil from the moment they change, slathering, drooling blood-suckers with no hope for redemption.  I want to know their back story, can they be reformed, and if not, is there at least an equal and opposite good monster aiding the good guys?  Blake, in Hamiton's books not only starts seeing the things she once hunted as humane and human, but she starts to wonder if she hasn't become more monstrous.  Is that why this trend came about?  Have people been looking at the evil in the world, murder, rape, pedophilia, and thinking, well hell, what's a little blood sucking between consenting adults?

This trend doesn't limit itself to fictional characters, or non-human.  There are whole sections in bookstores devoted to ret-conned history, or revisionist history, with plots like "what if Hitler had sold more paintings, or not been in the army during World War I," "what if Lincoln hadn't gone to the theater that night," and now a blending of the two, "what if Pride and Prejudice had zombies?"

Conjecture and speculation are part of what make up good fiction, but is it a worthwhile endeavour to re-write popular and classical literature? And how long should we wait before putting our own spin on someone else's brainchild?  How does this differ from the slash fiction found on the internet, where hard core fans write their own versions of events?  I am not published, but I don't know how I would feel if, after struggling to be published for years, I finally am, and my "fans" decide not only did I not write my characters properly, they could do it better.

I've been reading Pride and Prejudice and Zombies  by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith, the graphic version.  It is entertaining, and I am enjoying it quite a bit.  I'm challenging myself to remember from high school English (almost a decade ago) to see all the similarities and differences from the original material I can find as I read.  I only ever read for entertainment purposes (at least until I start University again in the fall), so this fits my criteria for something worth spending my time on.  Is that enough to make it worth the writing?  Given the success of the novel, I am not the only one (although I'm sure there's a certain faction of people who picked it up out of a morbid curiousity, rather than actual interest), as well it has spawned a whole series of books along the same vein, including Android Karenia and Abe Lincoln, Vampire Hunter.  

I'm going to continue reading them, so clearly I'm not as outraged by the trend as I might seem, but one that gave me pause, not related to this series at all, but along the same idea of giving an unsavoury character a redemption of sorts, is Fagin the Jew, by Will Eisner.  It is the story of a conversation between Fagin, a death row inmate, and a mysterious stranger.  It is the telling of Oliver Twist from Fagin's point of view.  He gives his hard luck story as a uneducated son of a displaced people.  He admits to wrong doings, stealing and conning to make his way, but only because other opportunities were denied to him.  The story ends after his death, showing that had he only been in the right place at the right place he would have been heir to a respectable life, rather than dying destitute.  Eisner adds details that weren't mentioned in Oliver Twist,  including a cameo by a grown Oliver who adds commentary.

The story was rich, and for the most part paralleled the source material.  It acts as a commentary on antisemitism, going as far as to accuse authors who used the derogatory terms for people that were common at the time of furthering the prejudice rather than fighting against it.  The art is rich and expressive, well conveys the division between wealth and poverty of the time.

How do I really feel about redemption stories and ret-conning?  If I'm honest, I think they're great.  I've always been one to side with the underdog, I've always wondered what made the villains tick.  Think of Gaston from Beauty and The Beast.  He lived his life as a macho hunter, the girls swooned over him, his life was set.  He decides to marry, and has his heart (or eye at least) set on the girl who is obviously the most beautiful and therefore perfect girl in the village for him.  He is rejected, for the first time in his life as far as we can tell.  Mentally, don't you think that mess a person up a bit?  What would the psych evaluation on this guy look like?

I love the fairy tales told from the Big Bad Wolf's point of view.  I like thrillers where we know who the killer is the whole time, and get to hear his motivations, if never truly understand them.

I can only imagine the doorways into slash fiction fan-fiction, in fact I tend to ignore it but I'm sure I've seen on fan-fic sites the words, "this is based off of Cullen_babe52's story entitled..," so it's already happening.  Do we need to draw a line in the sand?  Even the Bible says, "there is nothing new under the sun(Ecclesiastes 1:9-14 NIV)," and that's not exactly the newest tome out there.  It's been 2000 years, it's hard to imagine us coming up with anything new now, so I'll just keep reading what entertains me, and hope for the best.

Rating (for Fagin the Jew): 4/5

"Pick your furniture like you pick a wife;"

 "it should make you feel comfortable and look nice, but not so nice that if someone walks past it they want to steal it.

I spent the day reading "Sh*t My Dad Says" by Justin Halpern.  Based off the twitter feed found at www.twitter.com/shitmydadsays, it's a collection of the musings and advice Sam Halpern has given his family for their lives.

Sam has no personal filter.  He's blunt and to the point, often rude and embarrassing to his son, but he's honest, and throughout the course of the book, as Halpern frames his dad's musings with stories from his childhood and life, you see that his dad really cares about him, and this collection of silly and hilarious phrases ends up being a poignant, heart lifting story.

The copy I read is from the library, but I think I might pick this one up and keep it as a permanent bathroom reader.  The twitter length quotes are great for when you only have a few minutes to read, and need to kill some time.

There's not really a lot to say about this book.  The writing is good and it's a light read.  More than a few times I found myself saying "my dad says/does/acts that way too!"  I will recommend it to everyone I know.

Rating: 5/5

Tha Man in Black...and white

Johnny Cash: I see a Darkness is a graphic novel by Reinhard Kleist.  It chronicles the early life, rise to fame, crash and eventual rebirth of the Man in Black and his career.  

Each section begins with one of the songs he was so well known for done in comic form, including a brawl with the Boy named Sue and his Pa, a man shot in Reno during the Folsom Prison Blues, and Ghost Riders in the Sky telling cowboy Johhny to change his ways, lest he want to join their ride.

I really enjoyed this book.  The artwork is simple, yet detailed.  Kleist's black and white drawings, expertly shaded, add dimension and life to the pages.  Cash looks like Cash.  I think I would have preferred to read more about his later life.  This graphic novel covers the same events that the movie, "Walk the Line," covers, with even less about the relationship growing between Johnny and June.

Kleist uses Glen Sherley, a former inmate at Folsom Prison who wrote Cash's song Greystone Chapel, as a narrative tool.  Sherley is telling a fellow inmate everything he knows about Johnny from reading the "yellow papers."  Through Sherley, we see Cash from a starstruck point of view, but as an inmate he is impressed with Cash not because he is famous, but because he is a man who knows what it is like to yearn for freedom, like the prisoners.  He doesn't make excuses for Cash, and the story deals with the gritty details of Johnny's failed marriage, drug addiction, drunk driving and arrests.

For Kleist to have fit as much of Cash's life into the story and still have it read as a good narrative, and not an encyclopedia entry, is impressive.  If I had picked this novel up knowing nothing about Johnny Cash, I would have felt like I'd learned quite a bit in the hour or so it took me to read the story.  I recomend this to anyone who is a fan of Cash, or graphic novels in general.

Rating: 4/5

 Bonus:

 Ain't No Grave, Video done with 1000 drawings

Taming the Beast Within

Fourth post in and I'm already off schedule.  I am going to blame Canada Day in this instance, as I spent most of my week prior making sure my desk was up to date for the extra long weekend I was taking.  The most disappointing part is I had my review written by hand the day before I was going to post it, and now it's gone missing, so let's see what I can remember (since the book has already gone back to the library).

Forbidden Nights with a Vampire by Kerrelyn Sparks is another in a long line of current popular fiction that plays with the classic vampire/werewolf mythology to suit it's own needs.  It's entertaining if you enjoy the genre (which I do), with lots of sex, violence and romance.  I picked this one up at the library at random off the shelves, without realizing that it is midway through a series. 

This story deals with Vanda Barkowski, vampire owner of an exotic dance club, and Phil Jones, an old friend who becomes her anger management sponsor, guard, and love interest. Sparks tells their story while introducing characters from her previous and future novels, giving a bit too much back story for every character, as though she doesn't trust us to have read the other novels.

I found that Sparks told us details rather than showing us.  Phil has a psychology degree, and he references his education repeatedly, as in "as a psychology major, I think..." and "in my psych courses we learned...," even in his own internal thoughts, as he diagnoses Vanda's anger problems and fear of intimacy.  He tries to help Vanda keep her cool and control her anger, without revealing his own secrets or inner beast.

Several times throughout the reading of the novel I thought, "wow, this is bad dialogue," or something to that effect, yet I still read the novel in one sitting.  The plot, including a fight between the "good" mainstreaming vampires who drink synthetic blood and the "evil" vampires who enjoy drinking from humans and wreaking havoc, a sub-plot involving displaced teen aged werewolves, and just a sprinkling of Nazi's, drew me in. 

If I see more books by Sparks at the library, I'd probably grab them for a quick entertaining read.  The budding romance was well played out (as far as romances go), and the community Sparks has created has caught my attention, so I might just go request How to Marry a Millionaire Vampire, Sparks first novel, from my local library to see if I get more hooked by starting from the beginning. 

Rating: 3/5

Life advice from Dr. Leary

Why We Suck by Denis Leary, who feels more qualified than Dr. Phil due to the honorary PhD given to him, is full of anger, hate, and advice for America. Leary leaves no stone unturned in his diatribe on what's wrong with America.  No topic is too taboo as he attacks celebrities, politicians, jet-pack moms and the media with equal vigor.

He is equally disdainful of parents who let their children become stars, citing Jodie Foster and Ron Howard as the only ones to survive to a relatively normal adulthood with some sort of career intact.  He blames doctors and parents for over medicating and over diagnosing rather than disciplining.  He talks about his own childhood in a large Irish Catholic family, and how a determination to never hear "no" led to many accomplishments, including being a published poet, successful writer and actor.

His love of his family and wife, after so many years of marriage, ups and downs, and three marriage counselors is clear as he writes.  He attributes his well behaved, well rounded children to the wonderful mothering by his wife Ann.  He's still goofy in love with his wife, explaining why a born and bred city boy spends his days on the horse farm his wife loves mucking stables and learning to ride, two things he'd never thought about for himself.

Part memoir, part rant, at times funny and poignant, at no times white washed, Leary lets you know how he really feels about stereotypes, Anna-Nicole Smith, the Pope and pedophilia.  As a reader, you won't agree with everything he says, won't like most of what he says, but somewhere between the anger, the bald truth, and a strangely out of character worshipping of Oprah, everyone can find something they agree with and appreciate the honesty he's willing to display.

Rating: 4/5

Think you could be a writer?

What It Is, by Lynda Barry, is a book of writing exercises, doodles, and autobiographical stories designed to teach you to find the imagery in a situation and discover your inner creativity.  What It Is won the 2009 Eisner award for Best Reality-Based Work, which is a pretty high honour for a book filled with pictures of monsters.

Barry, an author, cartoonist, and creative writing teacher grew up thinking she wasn't any good at writing or drawing, and that she had no real talent, but used her pictures and stories as a way of distracting herself from a sometimes unpleasant home life.  The book is a mash-up of her doodles, quotes from books (hers and others), comics, and examples of the kind of thing your mind comes up with when allowed to wander.

Some of the effects are meant to be visual, with scraps of book pages, writing and doodles on every page, and I stopped to read every word, even if it did not seem to have any direct correlation to the point Barry makes on the page (incidentally I do the same thing with cereal boxes, magazines, etc., if something with words is placed in front of me I read them all), and served instead as an example of the kind of thing she was talking about.

The exercises she uses (continuous writing, keeping the pen moving even if it's only to doodle), list making (in 3 minutes name 10 cars you had when you were young), and drawing on memories for ideas are ones I have seen in the creative writing courses I have taken over the years, but Barry makes them feel more relevant.  She carries the exercises on, suggests you do them several times (even leaving spaces for your writing in her book), and walks you through the process.  The benefit of doing the exercises here is that you are never expected to show anyone (in fact encouraged, as she says, to walk away from your writing and re-read it a week later for a brand new experience), unlike in creative writing classes where everyone is expected to share or comment on everyone else. 

Writing and reading (as Barry suggests) can take us out of our everyday lives (she likens this to kids playing, able to pretend to be anything from princesses to astronauts to mad scientists.  I distinctly remember pretending to be a ninja cat with some cousins as a child) or can help us find a place within our lives that we had lost.  She reminds us that everyone is capable of writing or drawing, creative expression of some type, and that it is in fact an innate part of human existence (who hasn't drawn a doodle while sitting in a boring class, or on a long telephone conversation?).  

This was a library grab for me, so I'm doing the exercises on scraps of paper and loose leaf, but I think as soon as I'm able I'm going to hunt this one down and buy me a copy.  More people need to remember how to pretend.  This book is a must have for anyone that thinks they can write, thinks they'd like to write, and even more so for people who think they can't write.

Rating: 5/5

Biting the Bullet

Bullet, the 19th book in the Anita Blake series (definitely not for kids) by Laurell K. Hamilton, made parts of my recent 30+ hour road trip fly by.  I always buy these books immediately when they come out, and read them in one sitting, despite sleep deprivation or social setting.  Hamilton brings back characters from earlier books that I had been missing, including Jean-Claude and Asher, who despite being fairly central characters early on, had been appearing less and less often.  Readers are also introduced to a fresh batch of new characters as Anita and crew are once again embroiled in Vampire/Were politics with very little say in the matter.

 Many fans of the series have started to pull away, citing a lack of plot or an over abundance of sex masquerading as a storyline.  I read these books like crack.  It is entirely possible that I am a little biased when I say I really enjoy ever book in this series.  They are one of only a few series that I make a point of buying almost immediately when a new one comes out.  That being said, it does pain me a bit to admit that I agree with some of what the nay-sayers complain about.  As of late, there has been a focus on Anita developing her metaphysical abilities (due to a glitch in the vampire/were/necromancer triumvirates she's a part of) through sex.  However, Hamilton isn't just writing sex for sex's sake. 

The novels no longer have an open and shut preternatural crime in them.  The bad guys are taking longer to be developed, and the fight scenes are fewer and farther between.  We are instead following along as Anita comes to terms with powers she hasn't felt comfortable using, learning to control the ardeur and warp it into a power she is able to use.  Anita, and many of the main characters are forced to swallow their pride (no pun intended for those that have been following the story so far) and work together if they are going to fight the big evil.

Anita starts the series as all but virginal, and as her powers develop she is drawn into more and more sexual relationships and situations.  She  is become stronger and more controlled as the stories proceed towards the big evil we've been waiting for.  There is a certain amount of buildup necessary, unlike the earlier books where the bad guys were discovered and taken out within the same novel.

I would like to see a bit more fighting or crime solving (though Anita isn't as popular with the police forces as she once was), instead of the crime fighting by remote that came up in this novel, but I am by no means turned off by the course of events Hamilton is taking us through in the last few books.  I can see in Bullet a return to the more intricate plots that originally hooked me to this series.

Rating: 3/5

Finally I found it

A reason for reading

I don't really need one. A reason, that is. I read as much as is possible while holding down a plethora of jobs, going to school, and being somewhat social on occasion. However, now I can say "no honey, I need to finish this book! I have to write about it for the blog!" I am thankful as always for an understanding husband (although I think me reading gives him more time to watch football and play video games without being accosted).

I've been mildly addicted to books since I was five (that's 21 years now) since I read the Paper Bag Princess all by myself. What probably started as a search for approval and praise (Oh, what a smart girl! Reading all by herself!) quickly became a hobby, an escape (from nothing in particular), and became an identity.

I'm that girl that hides in the bathroom for hours reading when her cousins are visiting. I'm the girl who needs to be physically jostled if I'm in the middle of a good book (or even a mediocre one that has caught my attention). The stock answer for birthdays and Christmas lists when relatives asked my mom or me what I wanted was books. By the time I was 10 (if not younger) that changed to book gift cards, because it became harder and harder to keep track of what I had or what I'd read. Compounding that was The Book Fair, a downtown trade shop where my account consists to this day of traded in Archie Comics and Young Adult fiction (Goosebumps, Christopher Pike, etc.).

I have a soft spot in my heart for supernatural thrillers/romances (however I have yet to read any of the Twilight series), and I spend a good deal of my reading life of late reading Sherrilyn Kenyon, Kelley Armstrong, and Laurell K. Hamilton.

I don't limit myself to this genre, though, and if I have the time to spare (sadly never often enough) at the library I wander up and down the aisles randomly pulling books that look or "feel" interesting off the shelves. It's a rare day that I leave the library with less than 10 books. The librarian has reached a point where she can find my pile on sight, without needing my library card to check my name. This is how I discovered Beat the Reaper and Locke and Key, and I read through both in one sitting, although not all grabs are as successful.

Over the past year or so I've slowly developed a mild obsession with graphic novels (not to the point where I could tell you who the artists are on different stories, but I can usually keep my authors straight). They're easy to see on the library shelves (our library system marks them with a neon green sticker) so I pick them up during my wanderings. Of course, if I like one of my random grabs, then I go online and request anything and everything the author has done that may interest me (hence the giant stack of Joe Hill books sitting on my shelf at home).

http://www.dictionary.com/ defines vagrant as "a person who wanders from place to place; wanderer; rover," and I think that aptly describes my reading habits. I'm always trying to expand into different genres and authors, so please leave me a comment if you have suggestions.

That's me. I have 30 hour road trip this weekend, so I hope to read a new book or two (high on my list of probable reads are Horns by Joe Hill and Bullet by Laurell K. Hamilton). With any luck my book blog may contain a blog about an actual book by next week!