abecedarian

Granted, but that power only works on inanimate objects. You'll still continue to age like the rest of us low-lifes. I wish Donald Trump would lend me his checkbook for 48 hours.

I bet you read those words somewhere...didn't you?!?

I have several lists: Interlibrary Loans This one is huge, and includes a lot of ideas for anyone interested in the Olympic Challenge. New Wish List This is more for stuff I'm interested in actually ordering sometime. For cookbooks or crochet pattern books, I like to preview with Interlibrary loan to see if I really need the book.

I sure hope Short Stories count! Several of us at Bookcrossing relied on them. I even stooped a few times to cookbooks, online story collections, and worse yet-Travel Guides. The tricky part of this challenge was the fact that a country did not have to be reckognized by the UN to be on the list. What they had to have was an Olympic Committee. Scotland for example was not on the list. It seemed wrong to me to skip such a print-rich nation just because they didn't field their own team. So, I read for them because I wanted to. Also, it seemed insane for me to only read one Russian title. Some places have too much to choose from to select just one..so I doubled up..or quadrupled in Russia's case.

It seems to me everyone has different gifts. Not all are called to the writing life; Reading is for everyone who can learn the skill. What utterly amazes me is what reading means to each individual reader. Some do read and feel compelled to write what they glean from the words of others. Some write for publication, some for their own purposes. Thank God for all of them. I believe that all readers glean from their reading. We glean ideas and life changing information from the time we first learn C-A-T says 'Cat'. Hopefully that process never stops til we die. What we do with the written word is up to us.

Some Kind of Wonderful-Grand Funk Railroad

What a Lovely Lovely World-Gail Davies

Wild Swans is an excellent book for helping one understand the ins and outs of Chinese family life. Right away, one gets the idea that just like the rest of us, there's the ideal and then there's reality, Human nature being what it is.

It's good too. This happens all the time. I'll buy a book, usually at a deep discount, then let it rest on the shelf til I run out of interlibrary loan books. Then I'll find that bargain book was an absolute gem of a book. I wonder if they don't ripen on the shelf like apples and bananas

I'm reading Wild Swans:Three Daughters of China by Jung Chang. I found it at a garage sale last summer for less than a dollar.

I finished The Pyramid over the weekend, and I have to admit I wasn't overly impressed. Some fault might lie with me, since I may have been coming down with a tummy bug..but I just couldn't get enamored with this one. I'll not give up on Kadare though, since I liked Broken April very much. B)

Could be. I would have never imagined a book about blood feuds to be so memorable either..go figure. (Abc skips off to the library site...toodles!) Ps...good news-three listings in English, life is sweet)

Which would you reccomend as a followup to Broken April? (Since I've gotten over my ridiculous fear of dead Russian writers, Kadare just doesn't seem so scary either;) )

Addictive, isn't it?

I thought I'd better update my Olympic Challenge list since it has been a long time since I last did so. As of today, here's the lineup: 1.Canada: Tigana-Guy Gavriel Kay Lines on the Water-David Adams Richards Widdershins-Charles deLint Country of Unrequited Dreams-Wayne Johnston 2.Algeria: Broken April-Ismael Kadare 3.Chinese Taipai: The Butcher's Wife- Li Ang 4.Iceland: The Fish Can Sing-Halldor Luxness 5.New Zealand: Whale Rider-Witi Ihimaera 6.Nigeria: Things Fall Apart-Chinua Achebe No Longer At Ease-Chinua Achebe 7.Sri Lanka: Reef- Ramesh Gunesekera 8.Peru: Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter-Mario Vargas Llosa 9.Malaysia: The Rice Mother-Rani Manicka (highly recommended) 10.Norway: The Women at the Pump- Knut Hamsun The Half Brother- Lars Christensen 11.Bolivia:The Fat Man From La Paz-ed. Rosario Santos 12.Argentina: The Wandering Unicorn-Manuel Mujica Lainez 13.Mozambique-Voices Made Night-Mia Cuoto (not reccomended) 14.USA-Dan Eldon: The Art of Life-Jennifer New Travels With Charley-John Steinbeck The Pearl-J. Steinbeck 15.Haiti-Breath,Eyes, Memory-Edwidge Danticat 16.India-Shalimar the Clown- Salman Rushdie A Fine Balance-Rohinton Mistry (excellent) 17.Pakhistan- Broken Verses- Kamila Shamsie 18.England- Never Let Me Go- Kazio Ishiguro Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell-Susanna Clark Trangsressions-Sarah Dunant ; Anansi Boys-Neil Gaiman Heavy Water and Other Stories-Martin Amis 19.Australia-Dirt Music-Tim Winton, The Book Thief-Marek Zusak 20.Iran: Reading Lolita in Tehran- Azar Nafisi 21.Sweden: Barabbas- Par Lagerkvist 22.Ireland: The Committments; The Snapper; The Van(the Barrytown Trilogy) by Roddy Doyle Suffer the Children- Mary Rafftery Ireland: A Novel-Frank Delaney Angela's Ashes-Frank McCourt 'Tis- Frank McCourt 23.Afghanistan: A Bed Of Red Flowers-Nelofer Pazira 24.Botswanna: Tears of the Giraffe- Alexander McCall Smith 25.Spain: The Shadow of the Wind- Carlos Ruiz Zafon The Club Dumas- Arturo Perez Reverte 26.Finland: Troll-Johanna Sinisalo 27.Japan: The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With the Sea-Yukio Mishima Silence-Shusako Endo; A Grain of Wheat-Toyohiko Kagawa 28.Korea: Korea Unmasked- Won-bok RHIE 29.Germany: The Reader- Bernhart Schlink Perfume-Patrick Suskind 30.Morocco: Dreams of Trespass- Fatima Mernissi 31.South Africa: Cry, the Beloved Country-Alan Paton 32.Dominican Republic: In the Time of Butterflies-Julia Alvarez 33.Russia: Lolita- Vladamir Nabakov; First Circle; One Day in the Life Of Ivan Denisovich- Alexsander Solzhenitsen Soul-Andrei Platonov A Dream of Polar Fog-Yuri Rytkheu Anna Karenina-Leo Tolstoy 34.Scotland: Sunset Song-Lewis Grassic Gibbons 35.Italy: The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana,Foucault's Pendulum- Umberto Eco If On a Winter's Night a Traveller-Italo Calvino 36.Samoa: Where We Once Belonged- Sia Figiel 37.Guatemala: The Long Night of White Chickens-Francisco Goldman 38.Czech Republic: Love and Garbage- Ivan Klima Metamorphosis and Other Stories-Franz Kafka 39.Algeria: A Sister of Scherazade-Assia Djibar 40.Chile: Daughter of Fortune-Isabel Allende 41.Angola-Return of the Water Spirit-Perpetula 42.Cape Verde: The Last Will and Testament of Senhor de LaSilva Araunjo- Germano Almedia 43.Mexico: Like Water For Chocolate- Laura Esquivel 44.Serbia: Time Gifts- Zoran Zivkovic 45.Estonia: The Compromise- Sergei Dovlatov 46.Vietnam: The Stars, The Earth, The River-Le Minh Khue 47.Trinidad: Stories from Blue Latitudes-ed. Elizabeth Nunez 48.Uruguay: The Decapitated Chicken and Other Stories- Horacio Quiroa 49.China: Bound Feet and Western Dress-Pan Mei Natasha Chang 50.Somalia: From a Crooked Rib-Nuruddin Farah 51.Andorra-Views from the Bridge of Europe 52.Latvia: Views from the Bridge of Europe 53.Luxembourg: Views from the Bridge of Europe 54.Antigua-Annie John-Jamaica Kincaid 55..Tajikstan: Hurramabad- Andrei Volos 56.Bangledesh: Janini-Sharkat Osman 57.Egypt: Miramar- Naguib Mahfouz 58.Bahamas: The 99 Cent Breakfast-Patricia Glinton Meicholas 59.Cook Islands: The Book of Puka-Puka- Robert Dean Frisbie 60.Bosnia: Zlata's Diary- Zlata Filipovic 61.Kiribiti: Sex Lives of Cannibals- J. Maarten Troost 62.Georgia: The Winter Queen-Boris Akunin (readily available in English and very good!) 63.Lebanon: The Stone of Laughter- Hoda Barakat 64.Bulgaria: Natural Novel- Georgi Gospodinov 65.Sudan: The Wedding of Zeine- Tayeb Salih 66.Singapore: The Bondmaid- Catherine Lim 67.Belgium: Marcel- Erwin Mortier (Dutch)In the Shadow of the Ark-Anne Provoost 68.Philipines: Comfort Woman-Maria Rosa Henson 69.Laos: Mother's Beloved-Outhine Bounyavong 70.Portugal: The Relic-Eca De Quieroz 71.Tunisia: Behind Closed Doors-Monia Hejaie 72.Slovakia: Incipient Feminists-Norma Rudinsky 73.Solomon Islands: Two Hill Diggers-Geralda Kauhuroasiva 74.Barbados: In the Country Of My Skin- George Lamming 75.Cameroon: Houseboy-Fernando Oyono 76.Kazakstan: Night Watch-Sergei Lukyanenko 77.Palestine: Arab Women: Between Defiance and Restraint-ed. Suha Sabbagh 78.Swaziland: Nest in A Cage-Fohik Ogunleye 79. Jordan: Pillars of Salt-Fadia Faqir 80.Uzbekestan: The Railway-Hamid Ismailov 81.Cote d'Ivoire: As the Crow Flies-Veronique Tadjo 82.Armenia: Efronia: An Armenian Love Story-Stina Katchadorian 83.Ecuador: Bruna and Her Sisters in the Sleeping City- 84.St. Kitts: Crossing the River-Caryl Phillips 85.Bahrain: QuixotiQ- Ali Al Saeed 86.Israel: Israel, Palestine and Peace-Amos Oz 87.Djibouti-Fools, Thieves and other Dreamers-Abdourham Ali Waberi 88.Benin: Fools, Thieves and other Dreamers-Florent Couoa-Zotti 89.Senegal:Fools, Thieves and Other Dreamers-Seydi Sow 90.Kenya: Land Without Thunder:Short Stories-Grace Ogot 91.Burma/Mynamar: Freedom From Fear-Aung San Suukyi 92.Thailand: Sightseeing- Rattawut Lapcharoensap 93.Hungary: Fateless-Imre Kertesz 94.Brazil-Esau and Jacob-Joachim Machado 95.Central African Rep.-African Tales: Folklore of the CAR 96. American Samoa-The Birth and Death of the Miracle Man-Albert Wendt 97. Zimbabwe-House of Hunger-Damb udzo Marechera 98. Cambodia-First They Killed My Father-Loung Ung 99.Croatia-Night-Verdana Rudan 100.Guyana-The Ventriloquist's Tale-Pauline Melville 101.Libya-In the Country of Men-Hisham Matar 102. Ethioia- From the Hyena's Belly-Nega Mezlekia 103. Cuba-Dreaming in Cuban-Christina Garcia 104. Honduras-The Big Banana-Robert Quesada 105. Guinea-The Dark Child- Camara Laye 106. Costa Rica-Years Life Brief Days-Fabian Dobles 107. Uganda-The Abyssinian Chronicles-Moses Isegawa

Bill Bryson is always good for a belly laugh or two..specially on audio-the guy has such a droll delivery! How about The Barrytown Trilogy by Roddy Doyle..Contains The Commitments, The Snapper, and The Van..alll three are connected stories that center around a lower middle class Dublin family..the language is awful, but that's part of the humor. You'll swear you know these people!

I've heard of lots of people feeling creeped out by this book..I wasn't bothered at all, but I can't remember if I read it before bedtime or not. I actually felt reassured by the both This Present Darkness and Piercing the Darkness. Everyone's mileage varies!

Did you read One of Ours by Willa Cather? I think a couple of us read it with SFG75 at TFS..It was another novel set during WW1 and was very good. I'd steered away from Cather before..after trying My Antonia twice. After One of Ours, I'm interested in trying her again sometime.

Keep it up you two! I don't have enough on "Get to it eventually list".. I was aware of All Quiet on the Westerm Front, and was recently reminded of it when my husband was going through some of his grandfather's stuff. He served in the US Army in France during WW1 and suffered the results of shell-shock for the rest of his life..spending time in and out of the VA Hospital's psych ward.

November: 96. Natural Novel-Georgi Gospodinov 3/5 97. The Wedding of Zein-Tayeb Salih 2/5 98. Travels With Charley-John Steinbeck 5/5 99. The Bondmaid-Catherine Lim 3/5 100. Widdershins-Charles deLint 5/5 101. Marcel- Erwin Mortier 3/5 102. Comfort Woman-Maria Rosa Henson 4/5 103. The First Circle-Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn 4/5 104. Mother's Beloved: Stories from Laos-Outhine Bounyavong 2/5 105. In the Shadow of the Ark-Anne Provoost 5/5 106. The Relic-Eca De Quieroz 3/5 107. The Book Thief-Markus Zusak 4/5 108. Behind Closed Doors: Women's Oral Narratives in Tunisia -Monia Hejaij 1/5 109. Incipient Feminists: Women Writers in the Sloval National Revival- Norma Rudinsky 1/5 110. Blue Highways-William Least Heat Moon 5/5 111. Two Hill Diggers-Geralda Kahoroasiva 3/5

um..that rating system..the colors didn't transfer from TFS...and I when I tried to edit, I was not allowed to take out the rating system...didn't have time to mess with it anyway! Too many family issues this morning..

January: 1. The Fish Can Sing-Halldor Laxness 5/5 2. Reef-Romesh Guinesekera 2/5 3. The Traveller-John Twelve Hawks 2/5 4. Things Fall Apart-Chinua Achebe5/5 5. Suffer the Little Children-Mary Rafftery 3/5 6. Ireland-Frank Delaney 5/5 7. Whale Rider-Whiti Ihemaera 5/5 8. The Butcher's Wife- Li Ang 2/5 9. Aunt Julia & The Scriptwriter-Mario Vargas Llosa 2/5 10.Undead and Unwed-Mary Janice Davidson 2/5 11. Creative License-Danny Gregory 5/5 12. The Rice Mother-Rani Manecka 5/5 February: 13. The Women At the Pump-Knut Hamsun 3/5 14. The Fat Man From La Paz-ed. Rosario Santos1/5 15. Anansi Boys-Neil Gaiman 5/5 16. The Wandering Unicorn-Manuel M. Lainez 2/5 17. The Rough Guide to Cult Fiction 3/5 18. Voices Made Night -Mia Couto 2/5 19. Dan Eldon: Art of Life- Jennifer New5/5 20. Breath, Eyes, Memory-Edwidge Danticat 4/5 March: 21. Shalimar the Clown- Salman Rushdie3/5 22. Broken Verses-Kamila Shamsie5/5 23. Never Let Me Go- Kazuo Ishiguro 3/5 24. Dirt Music-Tim Winton 4/5 25. The Pearl-John Steinbeck 4/5 26. Reading Lolita in Tehran-Azar Nafisi5/5 27. Barabbas-Par Lagerkvist 4/5 28. Cheap Ways to Tie the Knot-Cara Davis 2/5 April: 29. The Committments-Roddy Doyle3/5 30. The Snapper-Roddy Doyle 5/5 31. The Van-Roddy Doyle 5/5 32. A Bed of Red Flowers-Nelofer Pazira 4/5 33. Tears of the Giraffe-Alexander McCall Smith 3/5 34. Morality for Beautiful Girls-A.M. Smith 3/5 35. 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus-Charles C. Mann 4/5 36. Troll- Johanna Sinisalo 3/5 37. The Shadow of the Wind-Carlos Ruiz Zafon5/5 38. The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With the Sea-Yukio Mishima 5/5 39. Korea Unmasked-Won-bok RHIE 3/5 40. The Reader- Bernhard Schlink 4/5 May: 41. Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell-Susanna Clark 3/5 42. Transgressions-Sarah Dunant 4/5 43. Menopause for Dummies- Marcia Jones 3/5 44. Dreams of Trespass: Tales of a Harem Childhood-Fatima Mernissi 3/5 45. Memory in Death-JD Robb 3/5 46. The Step Diet-James O. Hill 3/5 47. Relics-Mary Anna Evans 2/5 48. Cry the Beloved Country-Alan Paton 5/5 49. In the Time of the Butterflies-Julia Alvarez 5/5 50. Lolita-Vladimir Nabakov 5/5 June: 51 Sunset Song-Lewis Grassic Gibbon5/5 52. The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana-Umberto Eco 4/5 53. Where We Once Belonged-Sia Figiel 1/5 54.One of Ours-Willa Cather 4/5 55. The Long Night of White Chickens-Francisco Goldman1/5 56. Love and Garbage-Ivan Klima 5/5 JUly: 57. Heavy Water and Other Stories-Martin Amis 4/5 58. Perfume-Patrick Suskind 4/5 59. A Sister of Sheherazade-Assia Djeber 3/5 60. Daughter of Fortune- Isabel Allende 5/5 61. The Return of the Water Spirit-Pepetela 1/5 62. The Last Will & Testament of Senhor la Sillva Aruanjo -Germano Almeida 1/5 63. Like Water for Chocolate-Laura Esquivel 5/5 64. Time Gifts-Zoran Zivkovic 4/5 65. The Compromise- Sergei Dovlatov 3/5 66. Oracle Night-Paul Auster5/5 August: 67. The Stars, The Earth, The River-Le Minh Hhue 2/5 68. Twelve Sharp- Janet Evanovitch 4/5 69. Leaving a Trace-Alexandra Johnson 3/5 September: 70. Stories From Blue Latitudes-ed. Elizabeth Nunez 3/5 71. The Decapitated Chicken and Other Stories-Horacio Quiroa 4/5 72. The Sea-Crossed Fisherman-Yashar Kemal 2/5 73. Bound Feet and Western Dress-Pang Mei Natasha Chang 4/5 74. This Day" Diaries From American Women-Joni B. Cole 4/5 75. From a Crooked Rib-Nurrudin Farah 4/5 76. Lines On the Water-David Adams Richards 4/5 77. Views From the Bridge of Europe 3/5 78. The Club Dumas-Arturo Perez Revertea 4/5 79. In the Hollow of His Hand- Doris and Larry Puckett 3/5 80. Annie John- Jamaica Kincaid 3/5 81. Dark Demon-Christine Feehan 3/5 82. Bleeding Heart-Susan Wittig Albert 3/5 October: 83. Hurramabad-Andrei Volos 3/5 84. Janini-Sharkat Osman 2/5 85. The Hidden Writer: Diaries and the Creative Life-Alexandra Johnson 4/5 86. The 99 Cent Breakfast-Patricia Glinton Meicholas 3/5 87. Miramar-Naguib Mahfouz 2/5 88. Definately Dead-Charlaine Harris 3/5 89. The Book of Puka-Puka- Robert Dean Frisbie 3/5 90. Zlata's Diary-Zlata Filopovic 91. The Sex Lives of Cannibles: Adrift in the Equatorial Sea-J.Maarten Troost 4/5 92. The Winter Queen-Boris Akunin 4/5 93. The Floor Sample-Julia Cameron 3/5 94. The Stone of Laughter-Hoda Barakat 1/5 95. Danse Macabre-Laurell K. Hamilton 2/5

That's true, common sense dictates that we don't loan what we can't bear to lose. However..I DO have a story about a book I received through interlibrary loan once... I'd requested a G.A. Henty book and didn't notice the publication date. I just assumed it was a reprint and was shocked to get to the library to find an original edition, tied up with a piece of yarn, inside a baggie, with a note from the lending librarian saying, "This is OLD and fragile, please handle with care!" Like I could be comfortable handling this volume NOW???

That's true..not that you can't play a joke on them anyway..but mugglenot has a valid point too.

I'm to the point where I don't like to borrow stuff from anyone. There's been too many times where one of my kids damaged an item and I felt like I had to replace it. What I really really hate with a purple passion, are those extended loans -where the lender says, You can have this as long as you need it..then just give it back when you're done...this is for stuff that will probably be landfill fodder by the time their usefulness is over:irked: