I wish I had lots of exciting things to report....but....not so much. That's been part of the reason for the silence on my part. Anyway. Here's what's gone on in my absence:

Reading
I actually read a book over the long weekend! Two, in fact!! This shouldn't have been such a production. I'm a librarian. I like to read. But, strangely enough, I haven't done much over the past several months. It was like once I finished work on my degree, my brain simply couldn't process anything else--not even the drivel I usually select to pass the time. I read about seven hundred novels set in Tudor England (well, maybe not that many...but a lot) since January and simply could not bring myself to write about them because, well, they tended not to be very good. This weekend, though, I managed to pull myself out of that particular rut and finish

• The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova. A long and quasi-intellectual search for Vlad Tepes/Dracula by (you guessed it) an Historian. Or several, as the case may be. As well as an anthropologist, a Shakespeare scholar, and enough scholars to staff a small college. I enjoyed it. The research bits were fun. The traveling-around-the-world-looking-for-Dracula parts were fun. It read fast. 700 pages in under a week. All in all, this is probably more of a geek book than a good old fashioned vampire hunt, but, well, I'm a geek. What can I say?
• The Woods by Harlan Coben. I discovered Harlan Coben by accident a year or two ago when I forgot to send the "no ship" order to the Book-of-the-Month club. That was when I started kicking myself for not finding him sooner. I love this guy. His mysteries, while perhaps not fabulous "whodunits" are fun to read, his characters are interesting and enjoyable, and his writing is immensely entertaining. The Woods is no different. Though perhaps not his strongest work, it draws you in from the very beginning (even though the premise is much like a bad horror flick gone awry), and holds you till the last page of the book. I read this on Monday. In fact, I think I only put it down to go to our family cookout, which, while enjoyable took me away from my book. Oh well. The Beloved had to log off from his game as well, so I suppose it's all fair.