booktastic

I had a very nice Thanksgiving, thank you. Mr. Hall had a rare day off and we relaxed for the first part of the day (well, he relaxed: I baked two pies and a turkey and sweet potatoes while preparing mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy, fried squash and buns… not that I’m complaining. I think I enjoy cooking more and more…) ate around three, then put up our Christmas tree. (Yes, a bit early, but, well, he’d gotten a deal on a tree…)

I had yesterday off and took it easy… Well, mostly easy; I had a lot of Thanksgiving dishes to wash and Christmas cards to address. Today I had to get back on the ball and run my usual weekend errand: grocery shopping for the coming week.

I also made a library trip today. At long last I had to return  How to Write and Market a Mystery Novel, and decided I would look for several mystery novels: the first “The Cat Who…” book (The Cat Who Could Read Backwards), the first Goldy Bear book (Catering To Nobody), the sequel to The Mistletoe Murder (the inexplicably titled Tippy-Toe Murders) and, finally, if possible, the sequel to The Beekeeper’s Apprentice - which I thought was Locked Rooms.

I was very annoyed. They didn’t have the first “The Cat Who…” book - but had about ten others. I thought about picking up the first Dick Francis novel, and carried that around for a while, but I don’t think that’s the kind of mystery I’m into right now and put it back. Then I went and looked for Tippy-Toe only to be disappointed in that respect as well - they had about six others, but not that one.

Then, since I was coming up short, I decided I would try a couple new authors. I browsed until I found things that looked appealing; I picked up an Anne Perry novel called The Face of A Stranger (which I could only find in a three-book anthology with its first two sequels, unfortunately). Then I went back to the “The Cat Who…” books and looked at them for a while, trying to figure out if maybe I had just missed the first book… I hadn’t. But next to it I saw books by Rita Mae Brown that looked like more of what I was looking for. I did some research, discovered Wish You Were Here was the first in that series, and almost couldn’t find that… until I found it, also in a three-book anthology with its first two sequels.

I took this picture with my phone to illustrate a fact: namely, that these two books are huge. Don’t forget - I’m on foot. Anything I take with me when I go places, I have to carry. This makes the enormous Rita Mae Brown book especially problematic because I’m not sure it will even fit in my purse. The size of both of them also necessitated me not picking up that many other books at the library today.

However, I did find one of the books I wanted - I located Catering To Nobody. What a relief to actually find one of the books that I was interested in picking up! Plus, it was a conveniently-sized paperback.

Then I remembered that I had also come to look for Locked Doors, and went looking for it, and found it! Then I suddenly experienced a moment of doubt: what if I was wrong? What if it wasn’t the direct sequel? I had turned down several likely novels today because I didn’t want to read them out of order - and I especially didn’t want to read these books out of order. So I flipped open to the front of the dust jacket, hoping it would begin with something like, “In this second installment of the Mary Russel series…”

AND PROMPTLY HAD AN ENORMOUS PLOT DEVELOPMENT RUINED FOR ME!!! I was so peeved. And NO, it WASN’T even the direct sequel to The Beekeeper’s Apprentice: that honor goes to the much more interestingly-titled A Monstrous Regiment of Women (which the library didn’t have, by the way). So I didn’t get the book I wanted, and now I’ve had a plot development of the series spoiled!! DRAT! DARN! HECK! Why on earth would they put something like that on the dust jacket of the book? Why?

Oh well, it was something that I’d anticipated anyway - but even so, it’s annoying to have it spoiled. So I came home from the library in a really bad mood. Mr. Hall was working today so I didn’t have anybody to brighten my day, so I directed my anger at the remainder of the dirty dishes in the sink. Now the sink is significantly cleaner and I feel somewhat better. Plus, I had a new bookmooch book in the mail when I got home - The Mysterious Affair at Styles, the first Hercule Poirot story. Thank goodness for another book that I don’t have to feel bad about reading because it’s out of proper order! (Oddly, though, it’s another anthology book: rather inexplicably paired with the last Hercule Poirot story, Curtain, which I won’t be able to read until I track down all the other Hercule Poirot novels… *sigh*).  — Mrs. Hall

P.S. I forgot to look for “The Mysterious Benedict Society.” Drat! However, since I technically came home with seven books, I feel somewhat vindicated.