Hey, thanks, Mauvais! I'll check it out!!

Ooooh yes! When I buy my house I hope to have a room for meditation, yoga and reading- no noise- no distractions. Clean lines, simple furnishing, bookshelves, my buddhas and a big comfy chair with a side table for my pot of tea and plate of biscuits

Ellis, my husband is a huge Terry Pratchett fan. It really annoys him that the folks at Barnes and Noble have no idea who he's talking about, and he gets a little gratification from the looks on their faces when they find the section and see how many books there are (by an author they haven't heard of). I've only read Moving Pictures and Good Omens (which I thought was hilarious).

Mauvais, I don't do meditation or yoga (tried, but I can't seem to sit still with nothing to read for that long, plus yoga kicks my ***), but I do have a comfy papasan with foot stool. I also bought a gorgeous asian-style lamp at a garage sale for down there, but I still need a little table to put it on. I guess I forgot to mention I collect orientalia. Anyway. Hawaii is still going slow. I think I'm going to read "It's My F***ing Birthday" next because my birthday's in August.

No weight loss today. Only have a week until the reunion. Hoping for a miracle (also known as 5 more lbs. lost) between now and then.

Ta!

Thanks for the welcome!
I aspire to become a compulsive book buyer and having my own soundproof library too one day!!!
Apart from my beloved dystopias (thanks for the tip about Alas Babylon, AmberSparks!), I’m always reading comics – do comics count as beach blanket books?

Amber, I am also a compulsive book buyer. If the world only had expensive bookstores like Barnes & Noble then I could beat my problem, but here where I live we have a store called Half Price Books. Everything is used, they also buy books from people (sort of like a pawn shop). Unfotunately, a lot of paycheck goes to this store, everything they sell is at least half off of the original (publisher's) price. But my weakness is the back corner of the store. It is the clearance area, and they have paperbacks for $1 and hardbacks for only $2. I have stacks of books in my apartment that I have not even gotten to because I buy more than I can read at a time. I love it though, I was never a big reader until this past year when I became single and had a lot more time. It really helps me release stress to just curl up with a book. I am so glad that I don't work at that store though, I might not have any paycheck at all

So I just wrote a nice long reply, only to have an "error" after I hit the submit button. I hate that.

VERY cranky and hungry today. When I'm hungry, I get really irritable like I have PMS (on the shot, no PMS for me). Does this happen to everyone else?

Mette, did you mean comics like Archie, or Spiderman, or Foxtrot. I love Foxtrot anthologies.

Can't remember what else I was going to say. Hunger also seems to give me amnesia. I won't give in! I cheated last weekend and am only just now where I was last Friday. No cheating!!!!

As long as I'm already drooling, is there anyone else who has a somewhat inappropriate relationship with Cracker Barrel's apple dumpling?

My DH is a huge WWE fan and just loves J.R. (bought his hot sauce and BBQ sauce) and today I found J.R.'s cookbook! I bought it for only $9.99 and put it away for his birthday in October

I also bought him a book (only $4.99) on Bruce Lee's personal philosophies and quotes since he is a huge Bruce Lee fan too - that one is going in his Christmas parcel- yes I do think about Christmas in July

I love getting deals on books!

Comic books? Don't see why they can't count as beach blanket books!

I was thinking more of graphic novels like Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman and such. In my world graphic novels definitely count as books – there are so many great stories, artwork and writers.

But I’m a big reader of funny comics too!
I absolutely adore Larson.

Running With Scissors by Augusten Burroughs

Hollywood, Interrupted: Insanity Chic in Babylon -- The Case Against Celebrity
by Andrew Breitbart, Mark Ebner

both are sit in the sun page turners I think!!!

Mette - I have all the Sandman graphic novels! Great stories!

I also enjoy the Preacher series too.

I prefer to think of them as heavily illustrated books

Heh! “heavily illustraded books”! Yes, that’s exactly what they are.

It looks like we like some of the same things, so maybe you would like Y: The last man by Brian Vaughan too. It’s an ongoing series (3 books are out – I don’t know how many there will be in total), and the premise is that a virus has killed off all the males, except for one. It’s a great story – about Yorick, the last man (hence the title), and presents some great views of how women would arrange the world if men disappeared. It’s this wonderful mix of personal stories, great ideas, humor and seriousness.

That sound like an interesting series - I will definitely look for it!

Random Family Random Family: Love, Drugs, Trouble, and Coming of Age in the Bronx, Adrian Nicole Leblanc ok this is the best book I have read this year!!!

Ugh. Still slogging through Hawaii. When does it start getting interesting? I'm at the part where the Alii Nui (female) has decided to allow Abner to teach her about God (she's just sent her first letter to Honolulu).

I managed to go the whole weekend without cheating, and no weight lost. A no-cheating weekend, a not-interesting book, and now it's Monday. This is going to be a dark cloud day, I think.

Neil Gaiman wrote Good Omens with Terry Pratchett, right? That book was hilarious. I should read that again, just for a pick me up. Anyone else really like Nick Hornby? What is it about Brit authors?

Mette, just thought of another "world came to an end" book, though not really a dystopia (only two characters): Z is for Zachariah. It's supposed to be a "young reader" book, but it's one of my favorites. Also, The Giver is a pretty good dystopia book, though also a young reader type (and the end isn't great, but still).

No cheating this weekend and I'm still the same weight. Also, still struggling through Hawaii. This is going to be a black Monday.