Great Books

The Times decided what the Greatest 100 Books of all Time are. Or at least, while they have been in publication.

I've read 12 of the 100.

• Animal Farm by George Orwell
• Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret by Judy Blume
• The French Lieutenant's Woman by John Fowles
• Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
• The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
• The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
• Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
• Lord of the Flies by William Golding
• The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkein
• 1984 by George Orwell
• A Passage to India by E.M. Forster
• To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Back in my wishing to impress days, I would have kept the list and checked out some of the titles to further pad my reading habits. Now I realize that the list is arbitrary (to a point) and my reading perference is no longer so cultured.

But it is still fun to compare.

Book Review VI

Title: The Nazi Officer's Wife

Author: Edith Hahn Beer

Genre: Non-fiction

Summary: A Jewish woman evades deportation to a work farm during Hitler's rule of Germany.

What was Good: This woman's voice was amazing. It's one of those novels that if I were teaching, I'd use for a good example of voice.

Or I'd use it to teach about WWII. The Diary of Anne Frank tells it from a child's point of view. This woman made choices that she knew could get her killed. The difference is astounding.

What wasn't: Occasionally, the narrator would enter the story and the sequence of events would be disrupted before it got back to first person point-of-view. It held true with an oral telling of the story, but threw me off for a printed work.

The Take-Away: A compelling tale well told.

Recommendation: Have a box of tissues handy while reading.

Book Review V

Title: The Amber Spyglass

Author: Philip Pullman

Genre: Fantasy

Summary: The conclusion of Lyra's and Will's journey. They enter Death and learn the secrets of Dust, the Amber Knife and fulfill the witch's prophecy about Lyra.

What was Good: Every question I had was answered and most of my conclusion was cleared away.

What wasn't: The bulk of the controversy in this trilogy surrounds Dust and what the Church is going to do about it. Until the reader understands the motivation of the Church and aligns it to their own beliefs, the same level of confusion for Lyra and Will are confusing to the reader. I'm certain that this was the purpose of Mr. Pullman. I enjoy thinking that I am smart and this seriously ruined some of that notion for me.

The Take-Away: The intended audience for this novel sits in that fuzzy area between young adult and adult readers. Even Barnes & Noble recognizes this, stocking the first two books in the YA section and the third in the adult Fantasy section.

Recommendation: Read all three novels relatively close together and reduce the confusion that Mr. Pullman sets up so nicely.

Why Nano?

It helps. Just ask Lani Diane Rich. Her 2002 Nano Novel Time Off For Good Behavior is available everywhere from Warner Books!

Truth & Confessions: I haven't read it, but it is on my list to read.

Fantastic Resources

I've been making liberal use of Holly Lisle's site for quite some time now. In addition to daily postings about how she handles her writing, a multitude of articles about writing have been posted.

The real nuts and bolts of writing are openly discussed. The good, the bad, and the uglier than ever imagined.

I feel guilty though, because I've benefitted in numberous ways, but never have I read one of Holly's books. I'm going to rectify that as soon as the Oshkosh Public Library fulfills my reserve request for Midnight Rain.

And, of course, I'll review it here.

Writing Progress

Another 500 handwritten lines has been translated into typed manuscript.

I went from

9 / 100,000 (0.0%)

to this.

12 / 100,000 (0.0%)

What works for me is to handwrite a rough, rough draft. Every 500 or so lines, I type it.

As I type, I change anything that is obvious. Once entered, I highlight all of my verbs. This has a huge impact on my editing. Repetition is apparent as are "to be" verbs (those nasty is, are, was and weres that creep into good writing.) I consider this the rough draft.

I print my rough in 10 page increments for editing. I usually add a substantial amount of words, as I tend to write dialogue with no tags.

After editing this 10 page section, I enter edits. This draft would be considered a first draft and fit for viewing, once I'm ready for someone to view.

The progress bars above represent that transition from longhand to typed manuscript, but not verb highlighting. That's tomorrow's goal.

This sounds incredibly anal retentive, I know. But it satisfies my creative left brain, the repressive right brain and helps with consistency between the beginning, middle and end.

What works best for your writing?

Power of Words

Stew Rieckman, executive editor of the Northwestern, incorporates some of today's technologies with yesterday's.

The competition to be first to break any story is fierce. Print journalism suffers from the 5 o'clock news, which in turn suffers from those 24-hour news shows. News journalist are restrained in ways that bloggers aren't; the facts need to be checked (regardless of what some major networks seem to think.) Bloggers just hit the update button and it's published. What about the editoral and opinion pages?

Stew's has some goals for the revamped Northwestern site.

One thing we are doing differently, however, is that we will hot link to local and regional bloggers off our Opinion page. I am compiling a list of Oshkosh bloggers to include on the page. We will feature the blogs and news sites that are already linked from my blog. But if there are additional blogs you want included, just shoot me a comment.

The advantage to the local bloggers is that the link on the Northwestern site should hopefully drive more traffic to their site. The problem with the blogosphere is getting notoriety. This should help bloggers like Stacey Penney of Oshkosh who has an interesting blog, Raspberry Latte, that is always updated, always lively and always conversational.

Granted, he has some lovely things to say about my blog. I'm grateful to hear that he's read it, liked it and wants to send some traffic my way (even if he spelled my name wrong.) I'm most interested in finding out how many blogger are near me and what their lives are like. I've lived in Oshkosh for two years, Fond du Lac for two year before that, then Neenah for a year. Before that was the college routinue of 9 months in one place and 3 in another, neither of which were in Wisconsin. I know my neighbors, but not which neighborhood bar to go to.

I've read the one's linked to on Stew's blog, which are political or news commentary. He is missing my writing group, but I'll send him an email. Political blogs are easy; pick any subject to cheer or jeer. Journal blogs are harder and missing from his blogroll. I hope that Stew is sucessful in find more of them and posting entries about them. The ideas expressed in these yet unknown journal blogs are the documented values of today's people, not a reporter's view of them whether the reporter be journalist or blogger.

The power a blogger has is an unrecognized force. I often "hear" news from my blogroll and seldom read the paper. I'm glad to see that the Northwestern is working with it, not against it.

If Only It was in the Form of a Check

My blog is worth $11,855.34.
How much is your blog worth?

via 100 Bloggers

Early Life of NaNo

An articles about the early life of NaNo.

It was a dark and stormy month...

From cyberspace, National Novel Writing Month looked like a real organization. From inside Chris Baty's apartment, it looked like a bunch of thin people in bad sweaters, bent over their laptops, cranked up on Frito-Lay products and Red Bull energy drink.

Two years ago, Chris Baty wanted to write a novel. As something of an in-joke, he dreamed up National Novel Writing Month -- or NaNoWriMo for short. Twenty-one of his friends signed on and six finished novels. Last November, 140 took the challenge and 29 finished. This year, using a cute Web site featuring two cartoon kids waving books beneath the slogan "No plot? No problem!" Baty invited the whole world to join him in dashing off 50,000 words in thirty days. Once mention of NaNoWriMo hit MetaFilter.com, an online clearinghouse for issues being discussed by "bloggers" -- people who keep online diaries known as Weblogs -- it spread like a literary Ebola.

The article is good, if lengthy.

Book Review IV

Title: The Old Kingdom Series

Sabriel

Lirael: the Daughter of the Clayr

Abhorsen

Author: Garth Nix

Genre: Fantasy

Summary: Death and those not quite Dead have had free run of the Old Kingdom for the last 200 years. The return of Sabriel starts a chain of event that will put Death where it belongs - beyond the Ninth Gate.

What was Good: Mr. Nix balances the fantasical elements with modern world. Necromancers enter through the aid of simple bells. Being magical, however, they have a will of their own and don't always act as the user intends. Magic has a place as character in this fantasy trilogy. Mogget, in the role of "all-knowing" also acts as comic relief and occasionally usurps the starring role. The interaction between the magical world and the politics of the ordinary draws parallels between any two political parties. Really, there is something for everyone in the trilogy.

What wasn't: Sabriel is a stand alone novel. Lirael and Abhorsen are one novel split into two books. The ending of Lirael didn't feel like the end of a book, but the end of a chapter and the last half was missing.

The Take-Away: A friend from my writer's club introduced this author to me and I wish I had listened to her sooner. She was right; I did love them.

Recommendation: Get Sabriel and read it first. If time is short, wait until Lirael and Abhorsen can be read together.

Hunter-Gatherers

This last weekend was spent in South Dakota, hence, no post on Friday. My husband is a hunter; as I have family in that area, we take advantage of the numerous fields and expertise they can provide.

As I tell it, if things ever got so bad that we had to rely on his hunting skills, we would be vegetarians. He pretends this is amusing.

Getting caught up is always fun. Even more so when realization that this week is horrible for me because of NaNo preparations. Between the Kick-Off party and Halloween related preparations, I'm going to be a busy girl this week. I just hope I can catch-up on some sleep. Otherwise I'll be a zombie for the trick or treaters.

Book Review III

Title: The Devil Wears Prada

Author: Lauren Weisberger

Genre: Chick Lit

Summary: A naive recently graduate college girl gets the fashion magazine job a million girls would die for.

What was Good: The insider's view of what really goes on behind a fashion magazine was shocking. Parts were so completely unbelievable that they had to be true. No other excuse existed for them. The reader is drawn into believing the hype just as the main character is. After a while, it becomes impossible to believe people haven't read this book, just as it is impossible for Andrea to believe that no one has heard of Miranda Priestly.

What wasn't: The second reading revealed the underlying bitterness that dominates the back story of this novel. The first reading revealed a fun, if outrageous look at the world of fashion. This time, the anger of the year lost soaked through every word.

The Take-Away: The paperback was recently released. Reading about the horror that is Miranda Priestly will make you love your boss all the more.

Recommendation: Get the book and gossip around the water cooler about how your boss compares to Andrea's. Then run out and get Everyone Worth Knowing to see if it is as good.

Book Review II

Title: Back to the Bedroom

Author: Janet Evanovich

Genre: Chick Lit

Summary: An over-achieving cello player becomes dependent on the next door under achiever after an ankle injury.

What was Good: The tentant, Elsie, is the fore-runner for Grandma Maser in the Stephanie Plum series. I loved her.

What wasn't: Everything else. This book had a sort print run for a reason.

The Take-Away: Elsie is fantastic and believeable. She complete steals the show.

Recommendation: Borrow it from the library and skim for the scenes that Elsie is in.

Wasting Work Time

Not recommended, but fun nonetheless 30 Things to Do on the Web Job hunt without fear

Book Review I

Title: Fast Women

Author: Jennifer Crusie

Genre: Chick Lit

Summary: After being dumped by her husband, Nell Dysart uses her skills as an office manager to improve a dective agency. Only the owner doesn't want anything changed.

What was Good: Witty characters, interesting subplots.

What wasn't: The characters just moved too fast. Fell in love too fast, solved problems too fast. The internal action and dialogue didn't always make the pace seem believable.

The Take-Away: Ms Crusie's characters keep me coming back. I enjoyed reading it, even if it wasn't a timeless piece.

Recommendation: Buy it for a vacation reading and discuss it with your book group.

Searching for Joy

Kelly tagged me to find joy.

THE SEARCH FOR JOY

Search your blog for the word "joy" used in the context of "happiness." If you cannot find the word in your weblog, you may use any of the select list of synonyms below.

joy - amusement, bliss, cheer, comfort, delectation, delight, ecstasy, elation, exaltation, exultation, exulting, felicity, gaiety, gladness, glee, good humor, gratification, happiness, hilarity, humor, jubilance, liveliness, merriment, mirth, pleasure, rapture, regalement, rejoicing, revelry, satisfaction, wonder

If your weblog does not include a built-in search engine, then you can use Google to search it only for the word you wish to find. Just follow the directions on Google's site or use advanced search.

If you've found the word and it was not used facetiously or sarcastically, good for you. All you need to do is link to your earlier entry, and write a few words about that joyous moment. If, however, you have no joy (whole words only) in your weblog, you must dig deep in your soul and find something wonderful in your life right now. One little thing that fills you with warmth, that bubbles you over with quiet happiness, or tickles you with its good-hearted hilarity, or makes you glad you just took a breath, and are getting ready to take another. It doesn't have to be anything big. A smile someone gave you; your cat on your shoulder; the way the light angles through your window and casts rainbows on your floor. All it has to be is something genuine, something real, something that matters to you.

Because we all need joy in our lives, and need to take the time - from time to time - to recognize it. And sometimes, we need to pass it on.

Even if we're a big pain in the ass when we do.

When you've dealt with your own joy, pass the quest on to five other bloggers.

As I saw this making the rounds, I half hoped someone would tag me, yet dreaded that they would. I feared (incorrectly) that I wouldn't be able to find anything.

But I did, about my kids and about books.

I tag Inga, Heather (even though she doesn't read this, I can always hope,) Kayla and the crowd at Writeminded.

Color Quiz

What is it about personality quizzes that makes us feel warm and fuzzy? Validation? Recognition? Easy posts?

you are seagreen #2E8B57

Your dominant hues are cyan and green. Although you definately strive to be logical you care about people and know there's a time and place for thinking emotionally. Your head rules most things but your heart rules others, and getting them to meet in the middle takes a lot of your energy some days. Your saturation level is higher than average - You know what you want, but sometimes know not to tell everyone. You value accomplishments and know you can get the job done, so don't be afraid to run out and make things happen. Your outlook on life can be bright or dark, depending on the situation. You are flexible and see things objectively.

the spacefem.com html color quiz

via Holly Lisle

Template Change

It is a subtle change that greatly effects the archives. I switched something in my template settings (yes, I know what I did, it was on purpose.) All of my paragraph breaks have been lost. The front page will sort itself out shortly, but there is no hope for the archives, I fear (short of going back and manually fixing everything.)

It was done strictly for the convenience of an upcoming post that would have been impossible to edit without the change. Thanks for understanding.

Organizer

A fantastic and free (for the cost of printing) organizer. Contains several customization options. Really freaking awesome. The folding is a bit tricky unless you've been privy to making books with small children. via J-Walk

Writing Update

After entering edits... I went from

7,451 / 100,000 (7.5%)

to

9,092 / 100,000 (9.1%)

I'm about 3,200 words behind my scene/word count ratio, but I'm okay with that. My first 6 scenes were succinct. Later ones are going to be long. Now it is back to hand writing. It works better, in the sense that I can do it anywhere. Dialogue seems more natural. When I type, I automatically can edit based on what happens in the next paragraph too. But man oh man do I hate reading my own handwriting.

Time Management

Jory has another wonderful post about breaking appointments. I can relate to her frustration of always being first and always being early. I have the complete opposite reason to blame. Rather than being early for everything as a child, I was always late. Often my mother's fault, who still has to work out this issue. I've had friends who get their own time schedule for events. Example: In college one girl was particularly bad. If we needed to leave at 7, she was told 6:15. EVERY TIME. What I particularlly liked about Jory's article was this:

I went to a seminar a few years back for people interested in taking on enormously ambitious projects. The instructor made a brilliant distinction. "I really don't care what you feel like doing," she said. She was in the midst of a family emergency and she didn't want to be there with us that day, "But I am committed to being here," she said. I thought of all of the grand plans I've had in my life--the novels, the businesses, the trips with friends and family--and wondered why most of them had never happened. They didn't because, at some point in the planning process I didn't feel like doing something. We don't always feel like making our lives better, but if we are committed to that outcome, we do what we need to anyway.

I got an email ages and ages ago about time management. The professor took a clear 1 gallon jar and filled it with rocks. He then asked the class if the jar was full. Unanimously, they agreed it was. He then poured in mid-sized gravel. He asked again if it was fully. Still a few agreed, maybe half. He then poured tiny rocks, like fish tank gravel. Repeat question, but with fewer people agreeing. Next he pour in sand. Once again, everyone agreed that the jar was full. The professor pour in water until the jar would hold no more. The students were welcome to try and find something else that would fit in the jar, but he was positive that any addition would cause the water to overfollow. He point was, do the big things first. Add in the rest by progressively small units. But then the big stuff will always fit. I took this approach in college. My "rocks" were anything listed on a course syllabus. Everything was written into my day-runner while the teacher reviewed the syllabus and any expectations held. What else could the first day of class be for? I usually found a conflict between a project and a test, but it would be easy to resolve. Find out as much as possible about the project requirements and work on them ahead of time. Often, it could be handed in early even. My mid-sized gravel was often my work schedule. Then a group of us made regular plans to go to a coffee shop the next town over. Little by little, my scheduled filled. I never felt rushed or hurried. My GPA and close friends will attest that I was thoroughly obnoxious in my study skills. I contribute all of it to applying that email to my student life. Adult life is a bit harder. No one is handing me a schedule that says in three months a 1000 point project is going to be due. Most of the time, I have to make it up as I go. But I still write as much of it down as I can, knowing which things are rocks, which are gravel and which are sand.

I'm switching to Dove

Dove needs to be commended for their Real Women campaign. They choose their models because they had curves and maintain a normal healthy weight. Rather than promoting the too-thin, drug abuser that seem to dominate Hollywood's image, Dove is standing up for real woman.

NaNo Strategy

I'm gearing up for NaNo and have worked out a strategy. In order to write 50,000 in 30 days, one would need to write 1,667 words a day. Except that I know that nothing will happen on weekends because I have a family and kids. Same with Thanksgiving day. I have 21 writing days. So, I need to write 2,381 words a day or 714 words more than the people using the fully 30 in order to have 9 days off. (I did it this way last year too. I made it. I also was home sick for two days, thought I was going to die and couldn't even think about getting the laptop started to work on it. But that's another story.) My title is Letters to Elvis. I know little about the man and anticipate using this to pad some of the days. Afterall, discoveries made by the main character count. I like the idea of writing a chapter a day. Each of my chapters will be a letter to Elvis, from a girl who didn't know he was dead. The letters are going to be read by someone at the cemetary or Graceland or something of that sort. He will have a child, also a girl, two years younger than the MC. Their lives are hugely different. So I need 21 chapters. Actually, 25 because I know that some of the chapters won't fulfill the word count goal. My outline is the topic of the letter, the ages of the respective characters and the man's reaction. Maybe his wife's. I have an Excel sheet to track my progress (go figure, eh?) I have seven letters outlined and already the characters are giving me some interesting revelations about themselves. The idea came from a book recommended by a member of my writing group - The Writer's Block. It's to help you get over the hurdle of writer's block in various ways. Each page contains a story starter, a spark word or something else to get your pen moving. Mine was "Over 100 valentines are received by Elvis every year. Write about one of them." My blog will be hurried posts about word counts and referrals to my profile page for excerpts. If something is really shiny, I might post it here too.

Recipes from Friends

Some of my favorite recipes are from people I know. This weekend I made Minestrone Soup from Average Jane. It was fantastic. Even though she warned that it made alot, I doubled the batch. My husband had seen the print out of the recipe and said, "Hey, are you making this?" Husband code for "This sounds good. You should make it." I forgot the tomato paste, and used part of a bag of pre-cut cabbage that was intended for coleslaw. As a result, I had carrots in my soup, but didn't have to spend all the time chopping a head of cabbage. It worked for me. I was going to make Beer Bread to go with it, but no one wanted it but me. It is one of those recipes that are so easy to make, that I make it all the time. Beer Bread

3 cups self rising flour 3 tablespoons sugar 12 oz beer, room temp Mix all three ingredients together. Pour into greased bread pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 55 minutes. After removing from oven, melted butter can be poured over the top.

I never have self-rising flour, but have a recipe for making self-rising flour. I'll have to post it at another time. I'm a bit short on time today. Update: For self-rising flour, combine 4 cups all purpose flour, 2 tablespoons baking soda, 2 teaspoons salt. Store until needed.

Tag, I'm It

Since Beyond Dusk tagged me I've ventured into my archives as instructed.

Here's the gig. 1. Delve into your blog archive. 2. Find your 23rd post (or closest to). 3. Find the fifth sentence (or closest to). 4. Post the text of the sentence in your blog along with these instructions. Ponder it for meaning, subtext or hidden agendas... 5. Tag five people to do the same.

Twenty-third entry was entitled Bookcrossing. The fifth sentence was also my final sentence:

I wish they would have given a hint of some sort.

I still bookcross, but not as much as I did at first. I have to make time some weekend to go through my designated box and get some books numbered. I tag Kelli Fiat Lux Dulcie Mae Kaysea Love Matthew Update: Holly was tagged too.

Building Character

I started reading this blog about a month ago. The postings were infrequent, but well-written and nicely developed His last post had several revelations that were astounded the readers: Everything was fake.

But I realized an important idea along the way: when crafting a persona, what you don’t say is often more important than what you include: since I never explicitly stated that I wasn’t a student at that durned university across the street from the station, people naturally inferred that I wasn’t; since in “The Master,” I mentioned that I was a bartender at a Big Ten school, and not, coincidentally, that I was earning my BA, it never even occurred to anyone to ask if I had.

As he expected, people felt betrayed. Blogs are assumed to be written by real people, not characters from a book, which essentially was his goal. Their collective outrage has been expressed in the comments to the final post as well as emails sent directly to him. I was thrilled to find out that he had created such a believable character that took what appeared to be ordinary life and made the details memorable. The collection is similar to Bridget Jone's Diary. Helen Fielding's novel started as a column in a British newspaper. I believe, but am not certain, that it was declared to be fiction at the initial column. The Gas Guy did basically the same thing, except he told us it was fiction at the end and the medium was a blog, not newsprint. I say this man should be credited for his achievements, not criticized for disappointing his readers. If the medium had been a book or some other printed form, John Q. probably would have loved it.

Er, Spring Cleaning

It feels really good to clean out the blog roll of ones that never post, seldom post, or I simply don't read. Here's what I got rid of, and why Excel 12 was abandoned by owner, J-Walk. J-Walk is an MVP and signed a confidentiality release, making the blog ineffective. Bahgdad Burning hasn't posted in ages. Interesting when she does, but I'm not even sure that she is alive still. Terrible, eh? Certified Non-Toxic is often too busy at work to post. He might have abandoned this project. Lifestylism was quite odd and I didn't read it after a while anyway. Gas Guy revealed to his faithful readers that the whole blog was an experiment in character developement. Some truth was thrown in, but mostly fiction. Great concept, but no more posts. Volume 22 is abandoning his project after three years and a switch to the night shift Fast Fictions is a wonderful idea, I just don't care for the writing. Literary Chicks is seldom read more than the first lines that come through the feed and hate going to the site proper to finish any posts because of their floating graphic. It makes things difficult to read. I recently added Beyond Dusk because of the links she has and the relevance to writing that I'm focusing on. Plus, she has been sending tons of traffic my way. I wanted to see what sort of relevance she has. It's sort of like spring cleaning, but I don't need a shower afterwards.

Update on the Writing

Long time readers know that I've been using Randy Ingermanson's Snowflake Method for plotting with great satisfaction. In June, I finished Step 7. Steps 8 and 9 were completed in July. Step 10 was started at the end of July. A scant three months later, I have 22 pages typed and the first edit of those pages written on the printed pages. Tomorrow, I begin entering those changes. I'm hoping not only for a significantly better version, but also a increase in words. I missed out of many of the details necessary to bring my characters to life. I've got the voices of the supporting character's pegged. I fear, however, that my main character is going to come off as whore-ish, instead of insecure in one of the scenes. Until I let someone else read it, I won't know. I should be further than those 22 pages, if I had been true to my writing time. Instead I made excuses for not getting it down. Last month I buckled down and wrote all but 1,500 of my 7,478 words. I made some excel charts and daily writing goals (besides time committed.) This editing session is taking way longer than I expected or wanted it to, but was extremely necessary. Major character holes existed. I've patched most of them. A couple of spots are still weak, but I'm hoping to get them a bit later, either in another scene or through foreshadowing. Once this edit is typed, I'll let you know how many words I've added. My total should be around 11,000, in relation to the scene count I have. The trick was setting those daily writing goals. I usually write at work, at each of my breaks. Two 15 minute sessions and a 30 minute lunch doesn't seem like much, but I can handwrite an average of 165 lines or which is almost 900 words. Typing 500 lines takes me a day. This editing is taking a week or better. Okay, so now that I looked at it, I really only buckled down for the second half of the month of September. Mike Perry states in Off Main Street that the bald man who holds his mortgage is his motivation for writing. Mike is also a full-time writer since 1988 (I believe.) I'm more of a daily goal person. Which means I need to get my nose back to this last hole, or I won't be able to start typing my edits tomorrow, like I told myself I would.

For Ruth...

Tom Swiftie, a play on words that follows an unvarying pattern and relies for its humor on a punning relationship between the way an adverb describes a speaker and at the same time refers significantly to the import of the speaker's statement, as in "I know who turned off the lights," Tom hinted darkly. [named after a narrative mannerism characteristic of the Tom Swift American series of adventure novels for boys]

"The fire's going out!" Tom bellowed. "I will not finish in fifth place", Tom held forth. "I can't play the guitar because my fingers are too big", said Tom fretfully. "Nay!" Tom bridled hoarsely "I like measles!" laughed Tom infectiously. "I hope you're not afraid of needles", Tom injected. "Have you anything by Hugo?" asked Les miserably. via J-Walk

Bookworm Report, September 2005

The hint of crisp fall days has been hanging around my house for the last week. This morning, I actually broke out a coat and admitted that it would soon be time for daily use of it. The sandals have been banished to the back of the closet and I've been wearing socks almost every day.

Bookworm Review

Year	Pages	Books
2001	1,507	4
2002	3,228	8
2003	0	0
2004	4,146	11
2005	3,408	8

• Fast Women by Jennifer Crusie
• Back to the Bedroom by Janet Evanovich
• The Devil Wears Prada by Lauren Weisberger
• Sabriel - The Old Kingdom Series (Audio) by Garth Nix
• The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman
• Lirarel by Garth Nix
• Abhorsen by Garth Nix
• The Nazi Officer's Wife by Edith Hahn Beer

For the year, I’ve read 84 books, or 31,136 pages, which averages to 9 books a month, or 3,460 pages per month, and an average book length of 371 pages.

Last month I said I'd be reading more non-fiction about writing and I have. I read those books more slowly because I get super excited about what I'm doing wrong and here's how to fix it. Then I write, instead of read. Perhaps that is why my list is shorter than normal this month...