hi. my name is loon. and i'm a book addict.

Books on the brain. Books on the brain. I've got a lot of books on the brain.

Not literally of course. I'm pretty sure that would hurt. And be very messy. I don't want to ruin the books with brain slime. So anyways... here's some of the book thoughts currently taking up residence in my brain.

I got an email from the Robert Crais mailing list the other day. It said that the publication date of his new book, The Forgotten Man, is being pushed back from August of this year to February of next year. That's like, almost a year away! Oh, the agony! I fell in love with the last Elvis Cole novel, and am really looking forward to this next one in the series. February??? ::sob::

Tanya Huff has a new book out called Smoke and Shadows. And it stars two of the main characters from Huff's 'Blood' series, which I enjoyed. But its in hardback so I don't know if I'll be reading it any time soon. I could reread the 'Keeper' series (which I truly loved) while I wait. Or I could read her other books, which I'm looking forward to doing someday. But that requires money, something I don't have much of at the moment. Maybe I can get lucky and find her at some of the used bookstores nearby. I'd try the library, but the library doesn't carry any of Huff's books. Which is a damn shame! I think I'll have to bug them about it until they do carry her stuff. Make them start with ordering Smoke and Shadows. :)

I have a gift certificate coming to me for Barnes & Noble... ::does snoopy dance:: ...which I could use to buy the Huff book. But I'm going to spend it on the new Charlaine Harris book, Dead to the World instead. Hopefully the gift certificate gets here in time, because the book comes out a few days before my birthday, which is just a few weeks away. Birthday present for me! Yay!

If I have any money left over from the Harris book I'm planning on buying some Jim Butcher books. They've been on my Need To Buy list for a while now. I've read the first Harry Dresden book, Storm Front, and loved it. The last couple of times I've been to a bookstore (why I'm in the bookstore tempting fate in the first place is a long and boring tale which I won't bother going into) I've said to myself, 'I won't buy a book, I won't I won't I won't, but if the second Harry Dresden book is there...' . It must have been a sign from the Book Gods, or quite possibly the Credit Card Debt Gods, because the second book was never in stock. The fourth in the series, and sometimes the fifth book in the series would be there, but I refrained from buying those, just in case the second and third books totally turned me off from the author. I've heard the books get better, so I doubt they will, but I'm still not going to buy them before I buy the second one. Just in case. And because I don't like reading books in a series out of order. Note to self: call the bookstore and have them order the second one so it's in the store next time I stop by. Stop by with my gift certificate, that is. Woo!

In the mean time I have a lot of books at home in my To Be Read pile that I still have to plow through. I'm trying to read all the ones my mom has loaned me first. So I can give them back to her and make room for mine. :) Every time I visit she gives me more books to try. Sometimes she can't even wait for the visit, she sends me books in the mail! Well, she's only done that once, just this past weekend, because she knows I enjoy Lawrence Block's 'Burglar' books as much as she does. I could have waited a few weeks until I drive up to Pville next to get The Burglar on the Prowl, but I don't mind the mail. No big dealio. :)

I've also been fighting off the urge to reread Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Because every time I think about it (the wallpaper on both my work and home computers are images from the upcoming movie (june 4!!!) and I check out the news at mugglenet semi regularly) I want to reread the book. But I don't want to reread it before the movie comes out, because then it will be fresh in my mind when the movie comes out, and they will leave so much of the book out that it will be distracting and will therefore ruin the movie for me. Thinking about this makes me think about how much more rich the Chamber of Secrets book was compared to the CoS movie, and that's making me want to reread the second book. I'd reread the first as well, but I don't own it. Something I plan to remedy someday. When I have a big ol' house with a room all to my own that I can claim as the Library and fill with as many books as I want. Until then I have limited shelf space. And box space as well. So if the urge ever gets too great I'll just reread CoS to quench my Potter thirst.

And sometime I have finish the John J Nance book I started a month ago but put down in order to read a book for a book club discussion. I'll just have to finish that one after I finish the 'Burglar' book. Which means I'd better get reading, because the Harris book comes out in JUST 27 DAYS. Yes, the countdown has begun!

And then there's Ten Big Ones, the new Janet Evanovich book which comes out at the end of June. And Incubus Dreams, the new Laurell K Hamilton book comes out in October. And the new J.D. Robb book, Visions in Death, comes out in August. And... oh, I'm sure I'm forgetting someone.

::sigh:: So many books, so little time. I wish I wasn't such a slow reader. Because I still have to set time aside to work on my writing projects and stuff. But the reading, its important to the writing process. It's like research. The brain reads these books and goes 'hey, this is a good writer. This is good stuff! I should be taking mental notes of all this goodness.' So yeah, I need to get on with my bad researching self. :)