Sunday 26 December 2010

New year: book club? critiquing circle?

These things are meant to happen in the new year! The book club should be interesting, as it will involve an extremely varied reading list. The critiquing circle will be the same, I guess. The only thing we'll have in common is that we live in similar time zones and all are members of Absolute Write!

Meanwhile, I have to finish reading the Wheel of Time series (currently near the end of book 11), at least up to book 13, in anticipation of book 14's release. Then I have craploads of other books I have yet to read, which are piled up on my bookshelves - books in front of books in front of books! Well, okay, just books in front of books. Hehe. But seriously, I should stop buying more books until I've read all the ones I already own!

But isn't it nice, going into a book store and buying a shiny, sparkly new book? Or two...or three. The problem is, here in Aus books are not cheap. If you could get a book for $15.00, that would be a bargain. Especially if it was new. You can expect to pay $15.00 for second-hand books, and I mean just paperbacks, not even hard covers or large format books or anything. When I was in the U.S., I positively drooled over how cheap books were there in comparison. Aussies get ripped off, and it's not right!!

Anyway...mooooving on, 'cause I'm not bitter. No really, I'm not!

Hope everybody had a fabulous Christmas. Mine involved trying not to die of heat stroke (managed, just!); drinking champagne, and a delicious drink known as a Snow Ball (got to get me some Advocaat!); and eating food. Oh, and swimming in the ocean. That was probably the best part, aside from the Snow Balls.

7 comments:

  1. Oh man, TWoT is basically the reading project of my life; I've read the first four (possibly five) books twice. The first time, I was about 10, and the second, I was about 15 or 16. Each time, I meant to keep reading, but then stuff would come up and I'd forget about them (which was why I read them over again--had to refresh my memory!).

    I'm almost 23. We'll see how this goes. You'll have to let me know how you like Brandon Sanderson's rendering of Jordan's style. I like that he acknowledges that RJ would've probably written several things DIFFERENTLY than he did, but that he wanted to do the story justice, and he wrote with the intent to stay as true to RJ's vision as possible.

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  2. I know what you mean about books. I now own 436 of them. XD I got two huge bookshelves for Christmas which was amazing.

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  3. Brooke - I already have 3 large bookcases, but I kind of need another :D The problem is my place is small and I have nowhere to put another bookcase!

    Shayda - yeah, everyone has been raving about Sanderson's input, but of course the whole story was planned by RJ originally so at least we know he isn't going in his entire own direction. Plus RJ's wife is there to crack the whip if needed. :D I'll let you know how I like it. Actually you could probably look out for my Goodreads page...I think I'll put a link to my profile in my links here.

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  4. It's all snow and shivers over hear, which is why we have the cheap books. We burn them for warmth.

    Good luck on the critiquing group; I'll be joining a new one next year as well and I have high hopes.

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  5. If that's the case, we should have major book sales during winter. Sure it's not as cold here as it is in places over there, but we DO shiver sometimes. lol

    Getting good critique is pretty awesome huh? Gives you stuff to work with when you feel like you've done all you can already.

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  6. Wow, that is incredibly pricey for books!! Here in the US, that's like the price of just getting a hardback. And unless you have an extremely fat paperback, you rarely find it that price. :P Anyhow, Happy Holidays!

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  7. Yeah, it's why I always love going to bookstores when I'm in the US :P Pity I never seem to have enough room in my suitcase to buy up large!!

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Thanks for your words, me hearties! and don't forget to leave a link to your blog somewhere I can find it!