second chances and strange requests

I'm at the point in my reading life where I give up on a book if it doesn't interest me. I'll give it 25 pages before tossing the book aside.

I've been feeling very guilty because I did that to Tamora Pierce's book The will of the Empress. The characters that I've known and loved through the Circle of Magic and The Circle Opens series are so annoyingly teenaged in this book (like Harry Potter is extremely annoying in HP and the Order of the Phoenix) that I couldn't abide reading about them. Time, and the fact that the next book has come out, has mellowed me and I'm trying again. This time, the book is great fun and I'm enjoying every word. Lesson learned: second chances should be given to authors you know and trust.

This week, I went to my first Minnesota Library Association convention. One of the sessions I attended was about romance novels. Being one of those people who sticks my nose up in the air when romances are asked for/discussed, you can imagine my shock when the presenter (Jennifer Brannen from St. Paul Public Library) of When love hurts: taking the pain out of romance RA (reader's advisory--you know, when you ask the librarian to recommend a good book) actually grabbed my interest and piqued my curiosity with, oh horror, a romance! She read the opening of Julia Quinn's Romancing Mister Bridgerton and it was funny, well-written and made me want to read the book!!!!! This morning, for the first time ever, I requested a romance...and I lived to tell about it. I'll keep you posted.

I also heard Will Weaver speak at a breakfast meeting and, from what I remember (I'm barely coherent at 7:00 a.m. after waking at 5: 40 a.m.), he was very enjoyable. I checked out Saturday night dirt, his new young adult novel about stock car racing. He managed to talk his publishers (Farrar Strauss & Giroux) into sponsoring a race car which is parked in front of the schools/stores where he is appearing. How cool is that?

I'm looking ahead to a week of vacation with lots of sewing time (a new winter coat!), furniture building (a trundle for my daybed) and reading. Does it get any better than that?