mmmm....books....

I swear, if books were candy, I'd have been sprawled on my chair last night at 2 am, with chocolate smeared all over my face.

 

After a looong dry spell, I spent the last of my birthday money on Naomi Novik's fourth book in the Temeraire series.   I also stumbled upon one of my favorite Romance author's books at the used bookstore for seventy five cents--and it was one I hadn't read before!

 

So after finishing the romance, a good Jo Beverly tale, I sank into the Novik book. 

 

Is there anything more satisfying than a long anticipated sequel that lives up to expectations?  Conversely, is there anything more maddening than a sequel that peters out, or worse yet, has a slapped on ending that resolves nothing...

 

I don't know that Novik's books are my ultimate reading experience.  Oh, but they are well crafted, detailed and thorough.  I enjoy the alternate history aspect of it, too.  I can't think of who wrote the books where the island of Nantucket is zapped back in time, and they adapt their technology to the available resources.  I don't thinks it's Turtledove, Flint maybe?  No web access here, so I don't know.  Great stuff, though.  I used to love the Leo Frankowski Conrad books.  The series lasted one or two books longer than it should have, but what fun...  

 

I am often intimidated by the commentors over at SQT's site, because they are hard core sci-fi/fantasy readers who offer deep insightful comments on the books they've read.  I AM the Homer Simpson of Sci-Fi.  I was happiest at B. Dalton, where my simple mall customers wanted basic books.  There was none of that snobbery associated with B&N, where customers demanded LITERATURE.  The B. Dalton customers loved good books, too, they were just more enthusiastic and straightforward.  I always cheerfully introduced myself to newbies at B&N as the queen of cheap, mass-market fiction.  If you had a question about classics, I was not your girl.  But if your customer could only remember that it was a spy novel with an apple on the cover and their dad wanted something like it, I could show you things similar to Len Deighton.   

 

I don't do deep and meaningful.  I can think of nothing worse than being trapped in a room with nothing to read but Oprah's book club books.  How.Freaking.Depressing.  There's plenty of awful stories in the newspaper if I need the horror of what people are capable of doing to each other.  Give me light escapist fiction. 

 

Last night was wonderful.  I am dragging this morning, but it was oh, so worth it to close the cover on a book worth my time.

 

But now there's the wait for the fifth. 

 

sigh...