The Inevitable Decline of Personal Blogging

I knew this would happen! Coming up on a year since my last (and only) blog post. But I think I can resuscitate this blog. All hope is not lost! After all, the Internet is forever.

In the spirit of Disorderly Reading let me address the "unbound" (not traditional printed book) formats of titles I'm currently reading.

[Audiobook on CD] Seraphina by Rachel Hartman -- Really enjoying this recording. The reader has a pleasantly mellow British accent and the story flows well with many interesting developments. Hartman paints a world seemingly born of the fairy tale relm where dragons existed, except in this world they can take human shape and have an uneasy peace with humankind. Seraphina, a gifted court musician, discovers that her mother was a dragon, thus making her an outcast from both worlds if anyone discovers her true biological nature. Besides the fact that I love dragons, I think this book addresses important themes of racial tensions and tolerance that will resonate with modern fantasy readers. I can easily see how this became a Teen Top 10 pick.

[eBook from Overdrive] The Water Room (Bryant & May mysteries #2) by Christopher Fowler. I was so enamored of the first Bryant & May mystery, Full Dark House, that I immediately put the second book in the series on hold through Overdrive, one of Sacramento Public Library's eBook systems. The first book describes in flashbacks how John May comes to meet Arthur Bryant when he joins the Peculiar Crimes Unit in 1940 during the London Blitz. The mystery was compelling, but what caught me was the details of life during the bombings that ripped apart London and surrounding areas during WWII. The Water Room takes place in modern day, but also goes into detail about the secret rivers running under London and their history for the past millennia or so. Bryants irracibility and occult preoccupation, as well as the odd cast of contacts that he consults during each investigation, make for great humorous reading. With compelling mystery, fascinating glimpses into British history and culture, and plenty of surprises, I look forward to reading the entire series.

For more frequent updates on what I'm reading, there's also my Goodreads profile, which I keep moderately up-to-date.

Yet Another Blog is Born

This will be my third Blogger blog. Let's hope is lasts past a dozen posts this time. The reasoning behind "Disorderly Reading" is that I'm rather schizophrenic in my reading habits. Being a librarian, I'm in the hub of tremendous book traffic, day in and day out. There are bound to be titles or covers that catch my eye. A reader working in a library is like a kid in a candy store. At any given moment, I have at least a dozen items checked out. The sad reality is that most of it is returned unread, as my appetite is bigger than my allotment of free time for reading.

Social networking often proves to be the aggregator of my reading lists, as well as eating up a great majority of my waking life. I have a ton of friends who are readers, and they mention books on Facebook or Goodreads and I simply have to go check them out. Or sometimes I just get a wild hair up my bum about some subject or other and end up getting books on the subject I found fascinating for the time being -- last week it was Winston Churchill, now it's macular degeneration.

So I thought I would use a combination of my librarian skills and my oddities as a reader to bring a record of my readings to this blog. Here's hoping I can keep it up.