Sunday Salon: Fall Behind

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Due to the election excitement and other personal stuff, it’s been kind of a slow literary week for me, both in terms of reading and in terms of blogging. I had a backlog of reviews from the read-a-thon and from the books I finished while I was working through the backlog of the read-a-thon, but that’s pretty much tapped. I also just didn’t have a lot of time to actually sit and read, and I’m at least three days behind on my Google Reader list, which builds up to daunting proportions really quickly.

I spent all day yesterday finishing The Hero of Ages by Brandon Sanderson, which was meant to be a quick two-day tear-through read, but wound up taking me all week, just because I never had the time to sit down and read for long enough to get into it. (It wound up being quite good, though.) Review’s coming tomorrow.

Now it’s back to A Breath of Snow and Ashes by Diana Gabaldon. I put this one on hold to read The Hero of Ages, which is something I very rarely do, although I remember enough of where I was that it shouldn’t be a problem to go back to it. The problem is that while I am five pages past the halfway point, that still means I have 484 pages left to read. I enjoy these books, but MAN do they put me off pace.

Fortunately, I’ve got Fables to fill in the gaps. I’m still waiting on Vol. 9 to come in at the library – both copies are now at least a week overdue, with no word that they’re ever coming back – so I’m trying to make Vol. 8 last longer than an hour and a half. But, good news: Bigby’s back!

The current shining star in my reading world is the audiobook of Inkdeath by Cornelia Funke. While I liked but didn’t love Inkheart (cool idea, went on about 1/3 too long), I loved Inkspell, and Inkdeath is thus far taking more after the second book. I’m not sure exactly why these books are so appealing to me; I think it’s mostly because the Inkworld and the people that live there all feel real enough that it seems like I could step through the pages and join them. Inkdeath is the best kind of audiobook – the sort that makes me want to do things like go to the gym and do household chores, just for an excuse to listen to it.

Also, I am SO EXCITED about the Inkheart movie. I’m a little sad to see that it’s not coming out until late January, since I was sort of hoping it would be my dad and I’s “I can’t make your mother see this with me” Christmastime movie. And, it’s entirely possible that it’s going to wind up like The Golden Compass did last year – visually gorgeous, but missing the spark that made the book so good. Still, I’ve got high hopes if for no other reason than the casting. Cornelia Funke wrote the part of Mo with Brendan Fraser in mind, so that’s perfect, and while Paul Bettany, Helen Mirren, and Andy Serkis aren’t how I pictured their characters in my mind, they’re better than what I pictured.

Okay, enough squealy fangirl-ing. I’m going to the gym to listen to some more Inkdeath. Might be the only reading I get done today, too, since I have all of the errands and chores and such that didn’t get done yesterday.