This week a lot of my "book time" was devoted to finishing all the reading and wrapping up for the Once Upon a Time II Challenge that ended on the 20th. The challenge is hosted by Carl V. at Stainless Steel Droppings (a great web site – you should take a look), and it was lots of fun. It gave me just the nudge I needed to launch into Susan Cooper's The Dark Is Rising novel sequence, and for that I'll be forever grateful. I read the first three books for the challenge, and I'm about halfway through the fourth book (The Grey King) now, and hope to get a review posted later this week. My wrap-up post for the challenge is here. Another good thing about the Challenge was that it got me to re-read Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, in honor of the summer solstice. Can't remember the last time I read Shakespeare. Yes, I can – about twenty years ago I think, for a play-reading group I used to belong to. Wow, that's a long time between. Shame on me. And thank you, Carl.
Also this week I started reading My Fantoms, by Théophile Gautier (translated by Richard Holmes). It's the latest book I've received through the Early Reviewer program at LibraryThing, and it seems to have taken forever to get here. So I'm trying to plow through it as rapidly as possible – which for me, slowpoke reader that I am, is not an easy task. But ghost stories are something I love to read, so it's going faster than I expected.
I have to confess that most of my reading time today (aside from browsing the Salon, of course) has been spent following all the controversy about the new home pages at LibraryThing. Some members are very firm in their opinions, both positive and negative. For my part, I don't really see the need of a "home page" since we already have "profile pages," and I doubt I'll ever use mine much. But I guess their tech people need something to keep them occupied, and that's OK. I know – if you're not a LibraryThing customer, you have no idea what I'm talking about – sorry.
Well, I guess that's about it for today. I believe I smell popcorn being popped in the kitchen. So I think now it's time to go settle down with a tall cool drink, grab the NY Times Book Review and see how many new books I can put on my wish list. Probably the nicest way to spend a lazy Sunday evening in June, don't you think?
I haven't spent too much time checking out the new home page feature on LT so this is the first I've heard about a controversy.
ReplyDeleteI hope you have a great week!
I didn't realize there was a controversy either until you mentioned it. Personally, I think it looks fine. Some people, I suppose, have too much time on their hands to worry about such stuff. Just a cursory look and it looks fine to me.
ReplyDeleteI definitely noticed that quite a few people are vehemently against the Home page. I'm with you on it - it's okay, but I don't think it's entirely necessary. It might be a bit nicer when we can modify it to suit our needs better, though, which Tim has promised.
ReplyDeleteI'm still waiting for collections! Wish they'd worked on that instead.