March: Well That Happened.

Hey All,
It's that time again. March was a busy month, however there was not a lot reading books. Which worries me because I've got goals to reach. I did manage to get out of town for the first time in ever (actually 2005, yeah I never travel) and that was a good time. I walk into April revitalized. Let's see how long that lasts.

March Wrap-Up

• Academy Awards 2010. Hosts for 2011: Tina Fey and RDJ. Please.
• Graphic Novel-wise I learned about Brit-pop, frailty of superheroes, and the magic of Nostalgia.
• The Pacific on HBO blew my mind. And has made me cry every time.
  
• Went to the land of tragic hipsterism. Portland Baby!
• Was able to listen to Natalie Merchant sing music from her new album.
• Visited the book mecca Powell's.
• Sarah Vowell kills me! (with her humor)
• Finally read Seamus Heaney.
• 2nd Year Anniversary of Hard Boiled Book Club! Murakami! Alcohol!

Stats Wise

• Total Read=5
• Total for the Year=19
• Avg. per month=6.1
• From Library=3
• Books I Own=2
• Graphic Novels=3
• Fiction=1
• Poetry=1

Previews, Things to Come

• Finish The Savage Detectives (No really. I will. This time.)
• Julia Child!
• Finish the Alias Omnibus, Unwritten,
• Blackest Night finishes up. Will it blow me away? Wait and see.
• Spring?
• I'll learn some binding techniques, and then feel like a fraud teaching others.
  

And then there's this (Insert shameless self-promotion):
If you reside in the SLC area, please come. I'll be leading the discussion and it will be epic!
Have a great weekend! Book Slave.

It's Already Over: February Wrap-up

Hey all,
Here's a wrap up for February. Last month was immensely busy, and it looks like March will be as well. Any one want be a patron to a blogger who just wants to sit, read, and writer? Any takers?

February Wrap Up
*I got sick, after 2 weeks of vacation. Arghhh!
*Read and Loved both The Way He Lived & Once Was Lost. Met in person and Interconnected with the authors of those books Emily Wing Smith and Sara Zarr.
*Celebrated Keats on a fake holiday.
*Read and Enjoyed: Chew, Sleeper Season 2, FC: Rogues Revenge, Superman: Red Son.
*Caught Up on Walking Dead
*Learned from Reading Comics.
*Won a dvd at book club.

Stats Wise
Total Read=9
Total for the Year=14
Avg. per month=7

From Library=9
Books I Own=0

Not good for the TBR pile, but at least my library patrons will get a chance.

Fiction=3
Graphic Novels=6

Not bad. 1/3 of the books I read this month were Fiction. Oftentimes I can allow Graphic Novels to dominate what I read because they are quick and fun. However I do have to do reader's advisory on fiction as well.

Previews, Things to Come
*Readalong of The Savage Detectives w/Bibliolatrist.
*Read Murakami for the first time!
*2 Year anniversary of Hard Boiled Book Club. Alcohol will be served.
*Starman Vol. 4, Alias Omnibus, Rocketeer!
*Julia Child. I want to be her.
*I'm going to Portland. Yeah baby yeah.

Have a great week! Book Slave.

As January Bites the Dust...

Hey folks,
I thought that I would start doing a bit of a wrap-up at the end of each month. And then a preview for the upcoming month. Enjoy!

January Wrap-up
*Started off w/a massive wrap-up for the past year.
*Some stats. I love stats, although ironically I never took a statistics class. Huh.
*Read some great graphic novels involving Batman, Sleeper, and a Giant. (BTW if you don't check out Matt Kindt that you are doing yourself a disservice.)
*Made a suggestion considering the new Spider-Man reboot.
*I learned that my life would be far worse if there was a zombie outbreak.
*I still love Cranford. And can ramble on about Jane Austen.
*Book Club + Jesus's Son=Epic Wonderfulness.
*J.D. Salinger died.
*Stephen Fry In America is must-see TV.

Book-wise Stats
Total Books=7
Completely true. However The Walking Dead Compendium was the equivalent of 8 trades so I counted it as such.

This included:
Fiction=1
Non-Fiction=2
Graphic Novels=4

Borrowed from Library=6
TBR pile=1

Previews, Coming Attractions, Things to Come
*Chuck Klosterman talking about time travel.
*Sherlock Holmes!
*More Comic goodness.
*Meeting Sara Zarr and Ann Dee Ellis.
*Return of Sleeper.
*My thoughts on the new Masterpiece Classic version of Emma.
*Launch of the new graphic novel book club @ SLCPL.
*Well...I guess we'll just have to see eh?

Have a great week! Book Slave.

Stats, Oh Stats.

Hello,
Hope you are all having a great start to the year. January is a time when we evaluate the past year and then set up goals for next year. Usually it means that you abandon those goals by the end of the month or set upon a new path. I felt that my goals for last year were pretty realistic. Unfortunately I didn't make it. I wanted to read 25% more than the year before. As you can see below I still needed another 10% or about 15 more books. It's not completely out of reach though. So I think I'm gonna keep that for 2010. I also wanted to read more of a variety of books. I want to continue to expand what I read. These goals will have to center around my TBR pile because that has been the point of all this. My TBR pile has become my Everest. It must be conquered. Or I'll have nowhere to sleep. Seriously, I'm not joking.

Here's Some Stats to Ponder
Books read in 2009: 103
Books read in 2008: 90
% difference between 2008 & 2009: +14%

Average read per month: 8.6 books/mo.
Average read per week: 2 books/wk.
Number read in worst month: 5 (December)
Number read in best month: 14 (June)

Fiction as percentage of total: 19%
Non-fiction as percentage of total: 7%
Graphic Novels as percentage of total: 58%
Everything else: 16%

Well there it is. Have a great week! Book Slave.

One Year Past

Hello,
And here we are in 2009. Happy New Year to you all. I hope you had a safe fun merry entry into the new year. I had a good time, I tell you we librarians can party it down. (And I've got the pictures to prove it.)

A One Year Blogaversary
If you pay attention to dates then you'd notice that I started this blog exactly one year ago today. I had thought about writing a blog before but like journal writing I had a tough time seeing the point. Just didn't see anything about my mundane life that would be interesting to the outside world.

So how did we get here you ask. Well I was watching CNN on New Years Eve 2007. It was like watching a train wreck being hosted by Kathy Griffen and Anderson Cooper. Now I'll admit here that I like Anderson Cooper, he's definitely my favorite news reporter. However it was painful watching him having to put up with Griffen. Why does CNN torture him so? I was thinking as I watched.

At the same time I had been looking around and noticing the insane amount of TBR books that were piling up around me. I needed some kind of self-motivater to get these books done with.

So there I was sitting there watching the ball drop. And they were talking about New Year Resolutions. I'm not very big on resolutions, but I do like to set goals even if their small. Cooper when asked said that he wanted to blog more. That's when I had an epiphany. I had two goals, read more, and try blogging. A Book blog seemed to be a way to accomplish both.

I am still amazed that there are those that read my words here, but again I am grateful that anyone does. Well to the small group of readers out there I'm looking forward to 2009.

Some Stats to Ponder
So Let's do a stat rundown for 2008.

Original Goal=52 books
Actual Books Read=90 books

So quite successful on that front I'd say.

Graphic novels=55
fiction=14
nonfiction=15
Other=6

Obviously I enjoy the books with pictures and word balloons. Maybe next year I'll read some more fiction. I do need to crack into the sci-fi genre (spaceships rather than capes) since that's what many of my patrons/customers ask about for reccomends.

Most books in one month: December (15)
Least books in one month: July (5)

So it looks like I kicked it into gear at the end of year. Probably because I had 6 days off at the end of the year.

Let's see what happens in 2009 folks. Have a great weekend! Book Pusher.