Closed. Cerrado. Kaput.

In case you couldn’t tell from the dearth of of posts over the past year, this blog is kaput. I haven’t stopped reading, but there will be no more Lusty Reader around the blogosphere. I just have no more inspiration or inclination to post about books, despite all the great ones I’ve read and am still reading.

Time to close up shop here!

I may still be on GR, but am also closing my Lusty Reader twitter. Happy reading to you all!

March 2012 Reading List

Seriously y’all, I’m on the best reading streak ever, knock on wood I didn’t just jinx myself. As a follow-up to my January and February finished read lists I posted over the past two days, check out my March list – all A’s and B’s! :) I am a happy little lusty reader

Silk is for Seduction, Loretta Chase A

Shards of Honor, Lois McMaster Bujold A- Cordelia and Aral *swoon* My first foray in reading sci-fi is going great!

Barrayar, Lois McMaster Bujold A-

Beka Cooper: Terrier, Tamora Pierce A- Adored this first book in the Beka Cooper series, loved the quirks of her character (very shy, family issues, trying to find her place in the world) and the police crime drama plot. However, after reading the reviews of the next books in the series I will DEFINITELY not be picking them up, they sound awful with horrible love interests, dragging storylines, favorite characters given no page time and unbelievable twists. But this first one was great!

Where She Went, Gayle Forman B+

The Next Always (Inn Boonsboro #1), Nora Roberts  B

Trickster’s Choice, Tamora Pierce B- I am an Alanna and Daine fangirl for life, but for some reason Tamora Pierce’s more recent books just don’t work for me as well.

Trickster’s Queen, Tamora Pierce B-

Touched by an Alien, Gina Koch B-

Something Wonderful, Judith McNaught A reread I try to reread this every year, and it’s always still amazing! :)

February 2012 Reading List

My great reading streak continued into February with 8 B+ or above grades out of my 11 total reads!  Also of note, 10 out of the 11 books have paranormal elements, I have been on such a PNR/Fantasy kick recently and I’m loving it!

Speaking of grading…all of these “letter grades” are just my personal system, so *I* personally can remember if I liked the book or not. Like if I would want to re-read it or recommend it in the future. It’s not a reflection of anything being wrong with a book if I don’t give it the best grade. My grading is not “fair” in that sense, it’s completely a personal reaction based on whether or not I hate love triangles, or I’m so totally over shapeshifters, or despise mind-reading angst-filled adolescents who fall in love with the only person whose mind they can’t read. Now if there is something more subjective, like plot holes, poor editing, etc I will certainly mention it! Otherwise these “grades” are a direct reflection of my personal tastes and liking/not liking the story.

Here is my February 2012 Reading List:

1. The Sharing Knife: Beguilement (#1), Lois McMaster Bujold A-
2. The Sharing Knife: Legacy (#2), Lois McMaster Bujold A-
3. Graceling, Kristin Cashore A-
4. A Hunger Like No Other, Kresley Cole B+
5. To Say Nothing of the Dog, Connie Willis B+ Still not sure what a bishop’s bird stump is, but this was a highly entertaining read!
6. Chime, Franny Billingsley B+
7. Paper Towns, John Green B
8. The Sharing Knife: Passage (#3), Lois McMaster Bujold B-
9. The Sharing Knife: Horizon (#4), Lois McMaster Bujold C+
10. There Is No Dog, Meg Rosoff…can’t really give this a grade and this ranking is not about being poorly written or anything like that, just personally didn’t like it! Grading books is horrible, this story about a world where each planet has a “God” as a job they apply for to manage the planet just like any other job didn’t suit me. Especially as the “God” in this story, for earth, was an irresponsible, spoiled, selfish, teenager who was just SO good-looking and seduced mortal girls as frequently as he caused natural disasters for entertainment…which is to say – frequently for both! It just wasn’t to my taste.
11. Fire, Kristin Cashore DNF I was SUPER into Graceling (even though it really reminded me of MWT Queen’s Thief series) but I had to put this one down after 40ish pages due to animal torture, never wanting to read about Leck again, and not really enjoying the protagonist’s voice…I can like flawed characters but Fire didn’t do it for me.

January 2012 Reading List

Soooooo…….I’ve been keeping track of what I’ve been reading in Excel and on my Goodreads page, but not posting it here. Time to change that! Especially because I am reading lots and lots and SO VERY MUCH of it is amazingly good. Mainly because everything on my TBR is a recommendation from twitter or other blogs.

I’ll post February tomorrow and March the next day, but here is a little bit of a teaser – the stats from my 3 months worth of reading. Lots of YA and lots of Fantasy (quite a few of the YA’s I read were fantasy too!)

January through March 2012 Lusty Reading Stats:

And here are all the books I read in January this year:

1. If I Stay, Gayle Forman A+
2. A Monster Calls, Patrick Ness A
3. Behemoth and
4. Goliath (#2 and #3 in Leviathan trilogy), Scott Westerfeld A for each One sick day at home = finishing all 560 pgs of Goliath in one sitting = PURE BLISS. best YA fantasy/adventure books ive read in years
5. Good Girls Don’t, Victoria Dahl A-
6. Just Like Heaven, Julia Quinn A-
7. Warlord Wants Forever, Kresley Cole A- I wanted to hate this book, it was so…so…bad and wrong to me in some ways, so over the top controlling alpha behavior (borderline non-consensual), fated-mates, ridiculously unbelievable and yet…I LOVED it and immediately got the next two in the series. sigh. literary-feminist-reader fail.
8. Dead Witch Walking, Kim Harrison B+
9. The Good, the Bad, the Undead, Kim Harrison B+
10. Every Which Way but Dead, B
11. Legend, Marie Lu B
12. The Iron King, Julie Kagawa B- The second half of this book was awesome, and anything to do with the mysterious new Iron King and the evolution of the Iron fey were my favorite parts. However I’m just not a big “faery” person, and I’m not into even a HINT of a love triangle, and I read a really AWESOME book right before and right after the Iron King…so what I guess I’m saying is this is not a bad book, it is a good book but these are just personal thoughts for me. This is a fun read for people into faeryland set books.
13. Texas Hold Him, Lisa Cooke C+ Surprising not horrible for a free read on my iphone, not great, but not horrible!
14. A Fistful of Charms, Kim Harrison C- Rachel Morgan annoyed me more than Sookie ever has by the time I got to this 4^th book in the series! As a reader, I don’t enjoy being jerked around so much, make up your mind about what you want, Rachel! And I didn’t get any of the other characters’ motivations either. So confusing.
15. Bad Blood, L.A. Banks D Unfortunately it was more the editing I think that made this not work for me – as in the story jumped all over the place, there were run on sentences and poorly phrased dialogue galore, and it just overall read as very unprofessional. Let alone the characters making horrible choices with no reasons behind their actions. I did not enjoy reading this book and can’t believe I finished it.

Ok, I’ll be back soon with my February and March lists! How as your reading been going so far this year???

Happy New Year

Yes – it has been 6 months since I wrote here.

No – this is not a New Year’s Resolution post to be better about blogging. I don’t do NY resolutions anyways, the only one I ever made that I can remember was that I would blog for all of 2009, which I did with an average of 15 posts a month (so shocking looking back on that now!) for the whole  year. I don’t do well with resolutions (see post on no willpower) so I just don’t make them, that way I can’t feel guilty about breaking them. This makes a lot of sense to me.

I don’t think I’ll ever blog full time again, I barely get on twitter more than a few times a week these days, but I’ve recently been thinking of imaginary blog posts that circle in my head when I’m trying to go to sleep which means it’s time to get some of them down on (e)paper.

So, it’s been awhile, huh guys? It’s not that I wasn’t blogging because I had nothing to say, I wanted to tell you about..

• The time I hit the Ambassador of Chad’s car. In front of the embassy. And drove away. But came back later out of guilt. And they came out while I was leaving a note and made me go inside and tell him to his face. And he was really nice and told me to let him know if I ever wanted to visit Chad
• I hit another parked car that same week
• Had an amazing trip white water rafting in the Grand Canyon
• Slept in a covered wagon
• Went to Las Vegas for the first time and LOVED it
• I lost my driver’s license in an airport
• Lost my credit card in NYC
• Went to the emergency room for a surprise minor surgery on my birthday
• I worked 70+ hour weeks all Fall

So about that last one…instead of blogging I was on various college campuses every day and every night, which meant no reading, so no good books to blog about, and no life in general to blog about since my social life was absolutely non-existent. Over the past 6 months I have been here:

And here:

And here:

And many more…

But now I’m here *points to computer screen* so hopefully I’ll see y’all around online a little bit more these days!

Happy 2012!

Neither here nor there: find my guest post!

I had no post planned for today while I live it up in NYC (haven’t lost my huge grin since i got in yesterday!), but when fellow DC blogger DMBosstone asked me to write a guest post for him while he was on his own, longer vacation I was happy to comply.

So while neither he nor I are “at” our blogs today, check out my guest post with my thoughts of the Quarterlife Crisis phenomenon, sweeping through 20somethings everywhere.

In the mean time, I’m off to meet my mother-in law for lunch in Union Square followed by hours of happy shopping and sightseeing. Then I have the rest of the weekend to hang out with my bestest bestie! *happy sigh* Hope y’all have a great long weekend too!

Union Square, New York

This is what’s up

Vacation from *everything* pretty much describes my last 2 weeks of life, both online and in person. We did 8 loads of laundry and emptied the vacuum twice before we were done cleaning our condo. Then after spending hours on my work inbox I still have 20 unread emails that I need to respond to immediately.

But even the sweeping mounds of dog hair that seemed to have a life of its own in the corners of our bedroom didn’t scare me as much as my google reader does right now, here is just a teeny glimpse of the horror:

 

And that is only the book blogs (I subscribe to 43 of those), but I am getting back into the swing of things, slowly but surely!

So that is what’s up. See you soon, xoxoxo,

Lusty

Lusty Holiday Giveaway

Good moooooooorning! *sing song voice* I’m so disgustingly cheerful and absolutely FULL of the holiday spirit.

I’m overflowing with it and need to siphon some off. That’s where you come in!

In honor of the holidays (whether you celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ or not [said jokingly! tone is so hard to read]) I would like to host a Lusty Holiday Giveaway!

Those ones where you have to answer trivia questions about the bloggers, or the author’s secondary character’s mom’s name, or become a follower (which I don’t even have since I don’t think you can do that on wordpress), or add the blogger’s button to your sidebar, et cetera, et cetera et cetera (said in the voice of The King and I) have really been getting my goat recently.

So NO HARD WORK or even thinking required. All you have to do is read my post from yesterday and tell me to which source you would like to win a

$30 gift certificate 

Yes, even to the internet ones. Get yourself a nice $30 pressie! Just tell me which shop you prefer the gift card from in a comment on this post by midnight EST on Sunday. I will draw a winner from the comments on Monday, December 21st.

Open to US and all International locations. All entrants from all over the planet are welcome! Bienvenue! Wilkommen! Bienvenido!

Book sources for a lusty reader

Not everyone is so lucky to have access to multiple book sources, but DC certainly has plenty! There have been a number of posts floating (links to others at the end) around about the book buying habits of our fellow bibliophiles. Are you addicted to one-click Amazon purchasing? Do you swear by your Border’s membership card? Or does Paperback Swap take care of your lust for books?

I can walk to 3 huge bookstores from my house (4 if I’m really motivated) and have many more indie bookstore choices as well. I’m so lucky I can quench my lust without having to go far!

I live in the general area of the red circle (stalkers need not apply):

1. Borders on 18th and L, conveniently underneath hubby’s office building, and on the same color metro line I take to work, and walkable distance from home.
2. Barnes and Noble at 12th and G, conveniently on same color metro line I take to work, and walkable from home.
3. Books-a-Million on Dupont Circle, always hanging out in that neighborhood, and walkable from home.
4. Barnes and Noble on M Street in Georgetown, conveniently (except for my wallet) located in supernice shopping district, a little bit of a hike to walk from home.

HOWEVER even though I have all these fabulous choices my NUMBER ONE option is always the library. Any time I see I book I want to read I immediately go to my bookmarked webpage of my library’s online catalogue. If my library doesn’t have it then I will check which of these 4 book stores have it in stock. If none of them have it I order it online.

That would make a pretty flow chart, huh? Instead I made a SUPER DORKY spreadsheet of the last 6 months of books I read (about 100 books total) and the sources where they all came from.

Clocking in at number uno source: no surprise, the library with 41 of those 100! These come from The Central Library of Arlington in Northern Virginia (red arrow to the side of the map above, about 20 minutes outside DC). Although the sign for this library always makes me laugh, the building and collection of books are AWESOME and huge (that’s what she said).

Don’t get me started on DC libraries, it would take me all day to share how terrible, useless, and unpleasant they are. I’m lucky I work by a nice suburban one!

Now on to where the sources from which I actually purchase books:

• Internet: 13 books in 6 months
• Barnes & Noble: 11
• Borders: 6

Internet: I use Amazon.com because it’s so convenient. I am an Amazon Prime member and enjoy the fast and free shipping. Regardless of the kerfluffles and drama about Amazon throughout blog-land it’s just too easy not to use. And they always have what I need, which is the most important.

For used books on the internet I don’t do PaperBack Swap or similar sites out of pure laziness, it seemed too complicated and I just don’t feel like it. Simple as that! I do use this great second-hand romance novel online store called Books are Better than Chocolate – they’re cheap and usually have a good selection.

E-books from the internet – Shhhh *bringing finger to lips* I don’t talk about this much (not totally out of the closet) but I have purchased a few erotica e-books as PDFs.

Barnes & Noble: I do pay $25 a year for 10% savings on almost any purchase and special coupons as well. Buying 11 books at 10% or more off each DEFINITELY saved me more than $25. But honestly I don’t feel a loyalty to the store, if they don’t have what I want I go someplace else!

Borders: Hubby and I are also part of the Borders Rewards program which has occasional coupons and I think you earn points when you make a purchase that lead up to something? Clearly I don’t pay too much attention. Honestly books are the type of “necessity” for me that I don’t live and die by the prices or discounts. I want a book and I buy it where it’s available. Simple as that!

I don’t go to any indie bookstores or used book stores in DC since they never have romance novels. The big box stores have fairly good romance selections, especially new releases, but NEVER have anything from series back lists. I have had the hardest time finding the early In Death books, or the Nalini Singh Psy/Changeling series, or Meljean Brooks’ Guardians series.

So that is my geeky summation of the sources of my books. Check out the following links to get inside the heads, wallets, and bookshelves of some of my favorite bloggers:

Wendy the Super Librarian kicked it off for us

Kmont’s from Lurv A La Mode

Photo essay of sources from RRR Jessica

What about you, dearest blog reader? What are your sources to quench your lust for books?

Getting Twiggy With It

Yesterday I caved and went to Borders after work. Damn you book bloggers/twitterers for getting me hooked on two new-to-me series with huge back lists *shaking fist at you* and no libraries in the DC area carry paranormal romance apparently. Harumph.

So. There I was at the bookstore, walking in with a smile on my face, good cheer bubbling up inside me just looking around at the treasures, and even with a To Buy List in hand I was drawn to the front displays. I’m a marketer’s dream, what I can say? If they had had any of these perfume sticks I would have bought it on sight.

Then I noticed it…Between the two front tables a common cover theme caught my eye. Twigs everywhere! What is up with this?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I find these covers super attractive and although the only book I know much about is Shiver my guess is the twigs/trees/branches may be symbolic of nature and literally the woods play a role in that story, but not too sure about the others.

Edited To Add: Also ever since I saw these covers I have this song/book stuck in my head from when I was a teeny tiny tot. Does anyone else remember this???

If you go into the woods today, you’re in for a big surprise

If you go into the woods today, you’d better go in disguise

For every bear that ever there was has gathered there and that’s because Today’s the Day the teddy bears have their piiiicnic.

I can’t remember the rest of it…

The covers are different enough, but still so similar I wonder if this is a coincidence or if some cover artists in New York have a twiggy conspiracy going. What do you think?