Um, er, sorry about that...

I haven't blogged in days and days and days.

Tonight, a bookish entry. Here are some of the things I've been reading and thinking about lately:

I'm reading The Now Habit* by Neil Fiore. It's an interesting take on procrastination and feeling overburdened, and how to move from these feelings (and the useless stupor they often encourage) to productive work and really enjoyable leisure time.

I'm also re-reading Tamora Pierce's Tortall books. Pierce's writing, particularly in her earlier books, makes me cringe from time to time, not because it's bad (it's not), but because it occasionally has a slightly awkward "I'm writing fantasy" tone that reminds me very much of the writing I did so much of when I was eleven or twelve. I've lost a lot of my writing imagination since then, to my chagrin, but I do love reading books like Pierce's that are the sort of thing I wish I'd been clever enough to try to write. It's not historical fiction in any way. Her protagonists are fairly modern girls, and if fantasy's not your thing then it may grate on you to watch them romping through semi-medieval castles; but then, if fantasy's not your thing, I imagine the magic in the books would be much more bothersome! My favorites are the newer Tortall books, the Protector of the Small* quartet and Trickster's Choice* (I can't wait for the sequel, Trickster's Queen*, to be out in paperback), but I also enjoyed re-reading the Song of the Lioness* quartet and the Immortals quartet.*

I'm also looking forward to Young Warriors,* a collection (edited by Pierce and Josepha Sherman) of "Stories of Strength". Pierce's own young heroes (not all of them warriors) span a wide spectrum of strong personalities; the events of their lives blur together a bit from series to series, but their thoughts and reactions are the fruit of Pierce's long and always-developing meditations on strong women and men. It will be interesting and thought-provoking to see what kinds of stories appear in this collection -- and maybe I can collect some new favorite authors!

I tend to read while I'm out on walks by myself (in safe areas, of course), but I may have to quit doing this on my lunch walks at work. It turns out our walking path is at least sparsely populated by copperhead snakes, and they're venomous, although like all snakes they are shy. Pity, that; it's great fun to read about knights in training and knights on missions when I'm out for my constitutional walk through the almost-woods and missing my riding lessons.

Speaking of riding, my riding lessons start again on Monday! Hooray! The equine herpes virus (normally like a cold for a horse, but in this case a common mutation with much nastier symptoms) is officially gone from the riding center's stables, and my teachers and friends there can breathe again. I'm extremely glad their ordeal is over -- as I've mentioned before, I know it was emotionally devastating for them, and I can't but imagine that it was financially devastating as well.

In a somewhat similar vein, I'm waiting for Mornings on Horseback* by David McCullough to show up at the (beautiful) library within walking distance of Boyfriend's house. I no longer have any idea how I happened upon this book, but it's a "character study" of Theodore Roosevelt, particularly (I think) his early life. This sounds like the kind of biography that is exactly up my alley. While I wait, I'm reading The Three Roosevelts* by James MacGregor Burns and Susan Dunn. I'm enjoying it, certainly, but I'm getting a bit bogged down in the politics and losing sight of the human being behind them. I was disappointed to find that this library system doesn't have a copy of McCullough's Brave Companions,* a collection of 15 or 20 short biographies of various thoughtful and interesting people who lived in the not-too-distant past.

So many books. So little time.

*full disclosure: These are Amazon.com referrer links. If you like a book and buy it from the linked page, I get a small premium from Amazon.com. If you object to this, you can get a "clean" page by searching for the book's title and/or author on the website (or in the brick-and-mortar bookstore!) of your choice. (Sorry there are so many of them in this post; I've been reading a lot.)

Oh, and this sort of thing is why I so enjoy walking around my apartment complex: