Comic Book Binge Buying #2

Gaming Day + General Updates

As September draws to a close, I find myself much less busy than I was over the summer. I am no longer blogging every week for work (I actually probably won't ever promise to do that again, in retrospect) and now that I'm no longer working for Kirkus, I'm patiently seeing if the fall season brings me any new review books from School Library Journal. At home, I'm still finishing up 'Breadcrumbs' - I've been taking my time with it, because... well, it's just a fantastic book.

At work, I'll be gearing up for National Gaming Day soon. This is the annual initiative of the ALA where we go pro-board and pro-video games. I've learned some things from last year: my event will be four hours instead of six, focusing on the hours when it got especially busy. We're also doing it exclusively in the afternoon, since no one really came in during the morning. I'm excited for it. I plan on playing a bunch of a Mortal Kombat vs. the DC Universe that day.

Not a lot to report... it's sad that when I actually have time to blog, I don't have much to blog about. Check my Goodreads profile for books I'm reading/read, as I've been really good about updating it lately. When October is over, the Children's Book List for 2011 should be completed, so I don't even know what I plan on doing with myself then.

Comic Book Binge Buying #1

Sucker for a 'Dark Fairy Tale' ...

I have, once again, accept the guilt of all guilts for not updating. Since I'm writing to you finally, it's safe to assume (and you'd be correct!) that I've taken my semi-regular 'reading break' and I don't currently have any review books pending. After a kind of review-heavy summer, I have to say... that's kind of welcome.

I did bring home a book from work, though. You never know when you might start to get the reading itch, and I have quite a bit of lag time during a morning of boring laundry tomorrow. 'Breadcrumbs' by Anne Ursu won 'book that peeked my interest the most' by a landslide at our last children's book list pow-wow. Even though we're set to talk about nonfiction at this Monday's meeting, the book was described as sort of a darker version of a modern fairy tale ... and I do love it whenever anyone describes a book for kids that way. The cover is also ominous. It tells you nothing. There's something about that that makes it too wicked for me not to read the book. If you're still with me, yeah... I'm weird.

It's also worth noting that I'm no longer currently writing for Kirkus Reviews. The 'new' section of the magazine I've been contributing to - Lifestyle - was started in February, but wasn't really bringing in advertising revenue and I guess wasn't generating the buzz they thought it would in general, so Kirkus decided to shut it down. I've had a mixed reaction to this news, but it's worth noting that overall, my experience working for Kirkus has been an overall positive one. I'll miss little post-its from Karen, my editor, and wouldn't rule out working for the publication at some future date. A big thank you to my librarian friend Laura; if it wasn't for her, I never would have known about nor written for Kirkus in the first place.

I did spend $20.98 on comics this week, and bought a few of the early DC 'reboot' titles. You might get some blogs (or lets be real, a single blog) on that sometime soon.

What Do *I* Know about Kids' Books?

Over Labor Day weekend, I got the chance to catch with my friend Rose, the Librarian. Die-hard followers of my blog may remember her from my adventure to Washington D.C. last summer when I went to the ALA conference. Rose is one of the members of the Stonewall Book Awards, where she reads a variety of material that is GLBTQ related. Her and other committee members then debate amongst themselves over which book is the best. It can be immensely frustrating (there's A LOT of books), but it can also be a lot of fun and ultimately rewarding. Prior to Rose joining, I was on the committee for an extremely brief time and was a member of the committee for the 2010 Award Winners List. I took over the position from someone else, so I always feel iffy talking 'bout it.