books books books! and horrifying unidentified book objects.

It's pollen season in Georgia. If you're not from 'round here, that probably means nothing to you. If you are a fellow lucky Southern pollen-state resident, you're probably not even able to read this through your watery, itchy eyes, fuzzy head, and nonstop sneezing. Ugh. We only get to enjoy spring for about a week before the beautiful blooming trees, weeds, and grasses all conspire to kill us with their death pollen. It sucks. Especially when you're me and you'd much rather be outside enjoying the trees and flowers than doing anything else. Boo and extra boo.

Luckily I've been on a book reading rampage that makes being stuck indoors much less miserable. My new BFFs are the folks at the holds desk at the library. And my friend Colleen, who has been knocking it out of the park lately with her book recommendations. Last week I read Red Rising-- "Hunger Games for smart adults," Colleen called it. And she was very right. It took a little while for me to really get into it (which Colleen had warned me about), but once things got going...it was amaaaazing. My main complaint with the book is that the author is a very good looking infant baby child who has already written a bestseller and he is ONLY 26 YEARS OLD. So like, that's just insulting. What have I done with my life??! On the plus side, at least he has a good eighty years of writing ahead of him. It sucks when you discover an amazing author and they didn't start writing books til they were like 60. OH THE WASTED YEARS.

After Red Rising I knocked out this month's book club selection, This is Where I Leave You. It was really funny and also really uhhh...scandalous. So. There's that. It made me alternately laugh and squirm quiiiite a bit. Should make for an interesting (or short?) book club discussion!

As soon as I closed TIWILY I moved onto Colleen's next pick.

Source

 I was super excited about this one because Dave Eggers is the author of the best short story collection of all time, in my humble opinion: How We Are Hungry. Despite the fact that my college besties and I read HWAH (out loud to each other) cover to cover probably 20 times in college, I haven't actually read any of his full-length novels. Come to think of it, I bought A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius at a yard sale last year and haven't read it yet! It must be hiding on a shelf somewhere. Hm. Anyway, as soon as I read the summary of The Circle I knew I had to read it immediately. I'm not quite finished with it, but I can already definitely highly recommend it. It's blowing my mind and creeping me out on so many levels...I need everyone to read it immediately so that we can discuss. Thanks!

I have about 40 pages left in The Circle, but I'm already thinking about what I'll read next. (Yes, I'm also the kind of person that starts planning her next meal before she's done with the current one) I'm torn between The Rosie Project and Room. I think it's going to depend on how creeped out and stressed I am when I finish The Circle. If I need a mental break from anguish, I'll probably go with The Rosie Project, since it looks more lighthearted. If I feel like doing some more stressing and deep thinking, maybe Room. Or maybe sometime between now and the time I start my next book, Colleen (or someone else!) will open my eyes to something even better! The possibilities are endless, and that's really good, because pollen season is looking kind of endless here, too. 

I've been getting most of these books at the library because none of them met my 'free to $3' Kindle purchase requirement. And it's been working out just fine; I can find them on the library's archaic online library system, and 400 clicks later, reserve to have them on hold. Then the library magically contacts whichever remote backwoods Georgia library has the one available copy of the book I want- I'm guessing they do this via smoke signals or carrier pigeons, based on the time it takes and the prehistoric nature of their webpage design. Then the book travels to the Athens library (probably via covered wagon), and a few days later I get an email notifying me that it's available for pickup! And it's awesome. I mean, I mock, but really-- it's awesome. And since I have so many books I'm already reading, I'm not in a huge rush, so I don't really care that it kind of takes forever to get a book that's supposedly at a branch 30 miles away. Whatever. I appreciate the freeness of it.

What I do NOT appreciate?

Turning to page 184 and discovering a random brown crusty thing stuck to the page of my book.

EW EW EW EW EWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW.

What IS IT?!?! Toast. OBVIOUSLY it is a crumb of toast stuck to the page because I really just cannot allow myself to think about what it REALLY looks like (BOOGER BOOGER BOOGER) because then I would die of being grossed out. ICCCCKKKK. So...I don't know. This disgusting library book phenomenon has happened more times than I'd like to recall lately, and I will have to say...there are many, many amazing things about 'real' books (as opposed to Kindle books). I'll never judge you for being on Team Real Books Are Awesome and E-books Are Stupid. I get that. But can I just say...unidentifiable gross crusty objects on page 184 NEVER HAPPENS ON KINDLE. So...take that, Team Real Books.  

PS. I don't know if anyone cares, but for the record, none of these are affiliate links. Click away with abandon knowing I won't earn a single fraction of a penny off you! But for the record, I wish they WERE affiliate links. And that I could redeem the penny fractions for MORE BOOKS, preferably on Kindle...for obvious reasons.