Another Posting Delay

So, I was going to post something last Tuesday, but ended up not having time, and since then it's been a bit crazy around here.

In the middle of reading Does the Noise in My Head Bother You?, I quickly read through Wizardology: the book of the secrets of Merlin by Dugald Steer. This is part of the -ology series (i.e. Dragonology, Monsterology, etc.) and is as fun as the rest of them that I've read. I had a hard time finding one of the objects hidden throughout the book, though. I was just about to give up on finding the Cloak of Invisibility when I happened to glance at it. The copy I read was clearly well-used/loved; some of the moveable bits didn't work so well anymore, but I could tell still what was supposed to happen with them.

I did finish Steven Tyler's book on Thursday - I had a good bit of time between my shifts at work. I mostly enjoyed it, and learned a lot. As with the rest of the autobiographies I've read, now I'd like to have a conversation with Steven Tyler about some of what he wrote, but, also as usual, I rather suspect that won't happen (but at least he's still alive, so it's slightly possible). I was a bit sheepish to find that when he spoke of his daughter Liv, he meant Liv Tyler from Armageddon and The Lord of the Rings movies. Also I hadn't known that "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing" from Armageddon was an Aerosmith song/recording.

I decided to quick read the next two books in a fun series that I started a month ago or so. The first one I read was I So Don't Do Make-up and the second was I So Don't Do Famous (the first two books in the series are I So Don't Do Mysteries and I So Don't Do Spooky). These books, by Barrie Summy, are about Sherry (Sherlock Holmes Baldwin) and her Mother, an ex-cop ghost, who work together to solve mysteries as a part of the Academy of Spirits. In the third installment of the series, Sherry's make over birthday party runs into trouble with some sabotaged make-up. Sherry is determined to get to the bottom of this mystery before more people get hurt. In the newest book, Sherry wins a contest and gets to go to L.A. for the award ceremony - at which yet another celebrity is robbed; it's part of a crime spree. In this I rather guessed who the culprits were early in the book (although not the why or how and such). Also, while there, her Mom is determined to solve the mystery of Marilyn Monroe's death. These were some fun quick books and I'm slightly disappointed that there won't be any more in the series - I'd read more if they were written.

After I finished those, I decided I'd better read the book for the Lemmings book club next Sunday, and since I wasn't quite ready to go to bed yet, I started it late Friday night. We're reading Persepolis (in two volumes, or one big volume) by Marjane Satrapi. This is an autobiographical graphic novel. Marjane grew up in Iran and then when fairly young was sent to Austria for school because it would be safer. The books are about her experiences there, and then also a few years later after she goes back home. I still haven't decided what grade I'd like to give the book, but I suppose I ought to give it a pretty good grade because I stayed up till 2 or 3 in the morning to finish it.

From there I moved to one of the books Andrea Mariani gave me, The Lord of the World by R. H. Benson. So far I'm enjoying it pretty well, although there are parts that make me wonder if it is translated to English from another language or not (apparently not). Also, early on I had to check and see when it was published because there were some major historical events not mentioned (WWI and WWII) and the Roman Catholic Mass (and at least many prayers) were still in Latin. It was published in 1908, though so both of those are understandable. I'm not yet very far into it - too much else has been going on (as I already mentioned). Driving to and from Chicago to help move my brother back to college for school ate lots of time - especially when I was navigator for much of it. Oh well, I look forward to seeing what's going to happen. Oh and as I'm reading it, there's talk of this mysterious "Felsenberg (I don't remember the exact name off hand) working for the Masons. With all of the mystery surrounding him, I've been reminded of The Stealers of Dreams by Steve Lyons. In this Doctor Who book, there's a mysterious rebel leader that no one knows about and few have even met him - the character in this book almost sounds like the character in this other book I've already read. I'll have to see how right (or wrong) my initial impression is.