Daily post

Sleep: 10:30pm to 2am, 3:30am to 6:30am

Pain: 6

Weather: cloudy, 86F, humidity 66%, high 92F

Daily BPAL: MR. JACQUEL
Description: Golden amber, hyssop, North African patchouli, and embalming spices.
In bottle: Amber, with an undertone of patchouli.
On me: Amber and hyssop, with a hint of patchouli. Not as dark as I would have expected.

Daily Tarot: 8 of Pentacles: Learning a trade or profession. The beginning of a profitable undertaking. Employment or commission to come. Skill in material affairs, handiwork, and the arts -- sometimes remaining only in the apprenticeship stage. Also appropriate, I think.

Reading:
Breach of Faith: Hurricane Katrina and the Near Death of a Great American City by Jed Horne
Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy by Sir Isaac Newton
Folktales Retold: A Critical Overview of Stories Updated for Children by Amie A. Doughty
Dragonhaven by Robin McKinley

Comment notifications

Weird -- my notifications are showing up in my in-box *hours* after the comment has posted online. This is quite annoying, as I like to know what people are saying *now*.

50bookchallenge, 15000pages

Book #48 -- Amie A. Doughty, Folktales Retold: A Critical Overview of Stories Updated for Children, 165 pages.

While the idea behind this was good -- analyse retold fairy tales for children, particularly picture books, the execution was a little off. It read like a series of good undergrad papers - the concepts sound, the prose a bit elementary. And it didn't really hold together as a book. The author fell into the pit common to many literary critics when they're first getting their feet wet: large blanket statement, instance #1, instance #2, something related to instance #2, a bad segue to instance #3 and oh, yeah, I *do* have a point, awkward conclusion restating initial blanket statement and throwing out a couple more titles without details just for the hell of it. The entire book was essentially 10 chapters of this, and there was no real internal cohesion. I live in fear of my own book starting out this way, as I will have at least 20-40 pages of 'introductory material' before I begin the annotated bibliography part, and just because I can recognise these pitfalls in others' writing doesn't exempt me from making the same mistakes in my own. On the other hand, the very fact that this thing got published rather than being sent rather smartly back for editing bodes well for my own feeble effort. And when all was said and done, the author did make some pretty decent points mixed in there if you looked for them.

Progress towards goals: 180/365 = 49.5%

Books: 48/50 = 96%

Pages: 15873/15000 = 105.8%

2007 Book List

cross-posted to 15000pages, 50bookchallenge, and gwynraven

ALA Haul Part Two

This is the last of the Fedex boxes, so the rest of the haul probably won't be here for another week or so.

57. Stephen Alter, The Phantom Isles
58. Eric Alterman, When Presidents Lie: A History of Official Deception and its Consequences
59. Carol Berg, Flesh and Spirit
60. Thomas H. Cook, Red Leaves
61. Kate Coombs, The Runaway Princess
62. Gillian Cross, The Nightmare Game
63. Kim Edwards, The Memory Keeper's Daughter
64. Kathryn Erskine, Quaking
65. Charlie Fletcher, Stoneheart
66. Tana French, In the Woods
67. Twig C. George, A Dolphin Named Bob
68. Vicki Grove, Rhiannon
69. Pete Hautman and Mary Logue, Skullduggery (The Bloodwater Mysteries)
70. Melissa Kantor, If I Have a Wicked Stepmother, Where's My Prince?
71. A. J. Lake, The Coming of Dragons (Darkest Age Book I)
72. A. J. Lake, The Book of the Sword (Darkest Age Book II)
73. Jack McDevitt, Seeker
74. Serena Robar, Dating 4 Demons
75. Laini Taylor, Faeries of Dreamdark
76. Cate Tiernan, Book of Shadows (Sweep 1)
77. Will Weaver, Defect
78. Terri Windling and Ellen Datlow, The Coyote Road: Trickster Tales
79. Jeannette Winterson, Tanglewreck
80. Linda Press Wulf, The Night of the Burning: Devorah's Story
81. Kenji Yoshino, Covering: The Hidden Assault on Our Civil Rights