It had obviously been a while since I'd been to a council library - they turned off my card. The guy behind the counter couldn't even find my record to reactivate it, he had to put in all my details again from scratch!
I had a sudden realisation last week as I scrolled through eBay, looking at all the things I "needed" to buy. I didn't have to buy these reference books - I could borrow them! After searching the elibcat, I was even more delighted to discover that they had cake decorating books at my local library! I had just saved my self considerable money by not having to buy so much wedding porn (as BabyCakes likes to call it). It also saved us both a lot of time at the cake tasting, because we had an idea of what we wanted before we got there and just had to worry about the finer details once we had a specialist with us.
Whilst wandering the shelves I also remembered that I can borrow novels... and borrow novels I did! Consequently, I've read a lot in the last week, a couple of days I read one book a day - not working* affords one all kinds of luxuries.
The first book I read was called "Faking It" By Jennifer Cruise. Despite being told not to judge a book by its cover, we all know we do, and this one was picked because it was bright and cheery - if we are looking for books that we've not read before, what else do we go on? I read the back and it seemed interesting, so the book came home with me. It was a fun and easy read. A romance novel without the Mills and Boon sensibilities. I enjoyed the quirky and bohemian household this story was set around. I easily read it in a morning, and will probably forget about it just as easily... fluff, but fun fluff.
Next I read "Rules of Passion" by Sara Bennett. This one was picked because after finding the first novel, I realised that I didn't have to buy cheap romance novels, I could borrow them and get my escapist fix. This one had a love heart sticker on the spine - Librarians helpfully put these stickers on to identify the genre of books for lazy people YAY! (I pity the person who picks up the copy of "Beauty's Release" that I borrowed once - it might have been "Beauty's Punishment".... but that does not matter... The librarian had seen that the writer was Anne Rice (under a pseudonym), and stuck a horror sticker on the spine... I guess to some people it might be horrifying, but I think it would have been better served with a love heart sticker! - I don't know that hey have an "erotica" or "soft core porn" sticker). Anyway, this was an easily identified romance novel, set in Victorian England, lots of dukes and lords and stuff, and courtesans... now, that just screamed great romantic read to me, added with the fact that the main character decided she wanted to be a courtesan too, I figured there was a good chance this could be an interesting romance novel. It took a bit more commitment to read it in a day, but hey, I had time on my hands, so I did. I enjoyed it enough to go back to elibcat and find out whether the other two books in the series were at my library!
Then, I went with my "trolling by author" pick... an Anne Rice novel I hadn't read - "Christ the Lord". This was an interesting read. It took longer to read than the other two, over a good two or three days in a few hour or two stints. It is basically a fictionalised story of Christ's childhood - the bits the bible left out.
I found it interesting for the historical aspect of how a devout Jewish family lived, how they worked and loved. Anne Rice tends to write fiction within a shell of fact, truth, honesty, which makes it easy to believe it as a story, your brain doesn't have to suspend its disbelief so far. I liked it. I liked that it was a simple story of a boy of 7 or 8, who sees a lot of weird stuff, and hears of lot of whispering, which stops when he is near enough to hear. His isolation despite being part of a big group, a big family. It is a fictional story about a person/character that people get upset if you treat wrong. I liked it, but then again, I'm a believer who liked "The DaVinci Code" as a read, and didn't find it sacrilegious - it is a story - fiction! To be perfectly honest, I don't understand "sacrilege" other than disrespect, but disrespect is not something you are vindictive for, it is something you rise above. This book is not disrespectful.
Now, I am reading "Memoirs of a Geisha" by Arthur Golden. I picked this one because I read it years ago, at a friend's house when I was visiting Melbourne. I enjoyed it then, and wanted to re-read it to see if I still did. I haven't seen the "major motion picture" touted on the cover of this edition, but maybe I will after I finish the book.
I'm almost ready to take back the huge stack of books I borrowed, now that the cake selection has been done (I've added a couple of pics to the wedding cake post, if people are curious), I don't think I need to keep the cake making books, and I'm almost out of novels to read.... Luckily I have plenty of time to go back and pick out some more!
* My boss keeps calling me to tell me he doesn't have work for me at this stage. While the luxury of time off is great, it does get a bit disconcerting, to be at someones whim is a surprisingly difficult way to live. At the moment it is not too bad because he is giving me a week at a time off, which means I can make plans etc. It gets very difficult when each day to the next I think I'm working, to find out when I wake up that I'm not.
What all this extra time off is giving me is a lot of time to think - which has its pros and cons! I'm starting to think I want a second job, a casual job, which can be solely used to pay for the wedding - with any luck I could earn enough to pay for a kick arse wedding and honeymoon!
