CS and I went over to a crawfish boil being given for his friend who’s getting married in two months. I was reluctant to go and be the only chick. But seems the groom wanted to see my belly for himself. As we are heading out the door, CS grabs his “guitar.” I put the word in quotes because it’s his guitar from Guitar Hero II. Now I could spend this whole blog on CS and that damn X-Box game, but I won’t. Suffice to say he LOVES it and is totally addicted. I find it amusing to watch him “play” for about 10 minutes, then I am good for a long while.

Turns out, you can have two players on the game–one playing bass, the other guitar. So once we get to the boil and are settled in, the boys plug in and start “strumming.” I held on as long as I could but after about an hour of seeing this, I had my fill and left (we had the foresight to drive separately).

I then drove to the bookstore. It is rare for me to buy a book these days. A few years back it became apparent how small our house was and how much space in our house was dedicated to books. Novels; law books; books on yoga, photography, knitting, cooking, Buddhism, computers, comics; books from when I was a child. It was ridiculous. So I stopped buying them. But I didn’t stop reading. Instead, I started going to the library. Ahhh. Trees everywhere love me. Read, return. It is a great system. And it’s FREE!!

If I expect the book to be one I will re-read, I will buy it. This tends to be novels by Anthony Trollope, and I usually get these on e-bay because I like the Penguin series that are no longer in print (and are much cheaper).

This past year, I have found myself reading a lot of pregnancy books–books that were loaned or given to me (I did buy one book on this topic). And since starting to blog, I find I read others’ blogs, now, too. And I am filled up on 1850s Victorian novels these days. So I found myself in desperate need of some good novels. But I didn’t know exactly what books I wanted, so I headed to the store to flip through some different books and read a paragraph or two.

It was MAGNIFICENT! The bookstore, my old friend! I fished through the novels first and settled on I Am a Cat by Soseki Natsume. A friend turned me on to Japanese novelists many years ago, and I love them. I’ve never read Natsume before, but this novel sounds fascinating–the back of the book reads, “I Am a Cat is the chronicle of an unloved, unwanted, wandering kitten who spends all his time observing human nature–from the dramas of businessmen and schoolteachers to the foibles of priests and potentates. . . .” And it’s over 400 pages! I love long novels!

Then I meandered to the New Orleans section looking for a book I could not locate. Instead, I came across The Lost German Slave Girl: The Extraordinary True Story of Sally Miller and Her Fight for Freedom in Old New Orleans. After having done extensive genealogy research on my mother’s father’s family and discovering that they were German and came to New Orleans in 1848, this book readily appealed to me.

I then visited the knitting section and luxuriated in all the pretty books that are out right now on this topic! What did I not look at? Books about mothering, birthing, nursing, or parenting. With Mother’s Day around the corner, this was a wee bit hard to do–mommy books were at every turn. But I held strong and stuck with just my two paperback books.

Then I checked out. And almost passed out. My two measly books cost $36!! Wha?? Apparently I have not bought a book in some time as this seemed CRAZY to me. When did reading become a hobby for the rich? I’ll be back at the library in no time.

Anywho, my real dilemma is do I want to read about a cat in early 1900s Japan or a German slave girl in 1840s New Orleans? Oh, what a lovely problem to have.

Do you have a great novel that you are just dying to get someone else to read? Send me the title and maybe once I get these two read (you know, what with all that free time I’ll have once Sun is born), I can know what to look for at the library next time I go!