POST #300

THIS IS MY 300th POST! I feel compelled to make it a long one, so y'all might want to grab a coffee...

I feel like an obsessed 13 year old girl for even bringing this up, but ding-dang world, just leave the wretched Brit Brit alone already. It's insulting that her VMA debacle, which took place FIVE freaking days ago, should still be in the top news stories. Please, Paris, Lyndsay, do something stupid so the spotlight can continue to arc through the moral wasteland of Hollywood junior celebs. Columnist TV Stevie sums it up best: http://yahoo.rogers.com/yahoo/spotlight/tv_stevie.jsp?id=20070912
That's it. No more. Not wasting a single 'nother moment of my life on feeling sorry for stupid girl.

Red Garnier posted a link to alpha heroes that's worth a read.

Congrats to Amy for making it past the 50 mark in the 50 Book Challenge! Woot!!
I ALMOST made it, but I chose last week to reread a book that's already on the 50 book list, so didn't think it would qualify.
I'm sure you're asking, WHY? and WHAT BOOK? :O)
I reread Robin L Rotham's Alien Overnight because after taking the Margie Lawson writing workshop last week, I wanted to use Robin's book as a study; to try and understand WHY I liked it so much. (Robin, my autographed copy of AO now has five different colored highlighters and lots of sidebar notes. Oh, and some kitten poop, but that's a whole 'nuther story!)
Oh sure, the sex was hot, that's a given, but I liked it because her character development was excellent, the dialogue was brilliant, and she wove in the perfect amount of emotional depth without muddying the waters with an overload of backstory or narrative.
AND, I picked up so many little subtleties that I missed the first time around.
I can probably count on one hand the books I've actually REread. Once is usually enough for me. That's a compliment, Ms Rotham! If you haven't read Alien Overnight yet, DO IT. That's an order :)

And confession time...
I'm reading a Kathleen Woodiwiss and am having one hell of a time trying to stay awake. I haven't read her in about 15 years (maybe longer) and I LOVED her books. LOVED THEM! But left her behind when I started to move away from the romance genre.
So with great eagerness, I stole The Reluctant Suitor from my sister's bookshelf and dove in.
To know me is to know that I DEVOUR books. A full-length novel is easily a 2 evening read. But holy watching paint dry, Batman, The Reluctant Suitor's chapter one has taken me 3 evenings to get through. That's 38 pages, people! I keep falling asleep, and that NEVER happens. I'm usually reluctant to close a book and only do it if my clock is chiming 2am!!
Let me summarize what happens in those 38 pages: 3 couples, fresh from riding, race into the house and find a stranger standing there, expect it's really the brother who's been off fighting Napolean.
That's it! Nothing more. There are pages of dialogue (complete with inner thoughts that provide endless backstory) between two people while the other 5 people (and the butler and two dogs) are what? Standing around? Groping each other?? On pause???
I feel wretched bashing the writing of someone recently deceased, and wretcheder about bashing a writer who practically defined 'the modern romance novel' but um, Margie Lawson really opened my eyes about a few things... Or perhaps I'm just jaded now.

So, Amy, at this rate, my 50th book could quite possibly take me all the way through December!

Unrelated to anything: When I posted my TT last week, the one about what I did about my sister's visit, a few people asked why I mentioned the purchase of a tv and what did that have to do with sister.
Well,... that's because the tv was a surprise for my dh and I needed my brother-in-law's advice on what to get cause he's into all that techie big-screen-for-watching-sporting-events stuff.

Attendance will be spotty over the next week as I have house guests arriving tomorrow for the week. Hubby is taking father-in-law hot-air ballooning! Something I'd love to do myself one day, but oh yeah - I suffer from panic attacks and would probably jump out of the dang basket as soon as we were 3 feet in the air. Damn I've got issues...

Hope y'all have a GRRRRREAT weekend!