The Month in Review and of Things to Come

February may have been my single biggest book buying month ever.  Outside of the ten books I bought here,  I also picked up The Red Tree by Caitlin R. Kiernan, an Everyman's Library edition of The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco, and Firebirds Soaring, edited by Sharyn November.  That's thirteen books on the month, fifteen really since one was an omnibus containing three novels.  The average price per book comes out to $2.93; I'm feeling good about myself. 


Firebirds Soaring was the only real random purchase of the month; it was in a bargain bin in a local bookstore.  The cover got me.  It may be my favorite cover for a book... ever.  The cover bills the book as "An Anthology of Original Speculative Fiction."  I'm not familiar with the editor.  I opened to the table of contents and had only heard of one author.  The combination of the factors meant I had to buy it as I fancy that I know a thing or two about speculative fiction.  It is for young adults and adult readers and I've noticed that the more I read YA fiction the more I like it.  I'm not sure what that means.  I've read two stories from the collection so far and have been extremely pleased.

I'm cutting back on my hours at work so I can have more time to enjoy life; at least that's the plan.  I hope to even get more reading done.  Also it's getting nice outside and there are so many Atlanta area patios calling out to me when the weekends come.  It's taken awhile but I've made the adjustment to having less income so now I'm looking forward to readjusting to having more fun.

I don't foresee any craziness in March.  The door-stopper for the month is The French Lieutenant's Woman by John Fowles.  I also hope to knock out Slaughter House Five by Kurt Vonnegut, Soldier of Sidon by Gene Wolf and my first 2011 read of the year, The Hammer by K.J. Parker.  If it ever gets here, I'll read Parker's long-short story Blue and Gold as well.  I've also been siphoning stories from George R.R. Martin's Dreamsongs II in addition to Firebirds Soaring but I'm not committing myself to finishing either of those this coming month.

You can expect a commentary of Andrzej Sapkowski's phenomenal The Last Wish sometime tomorrow; I haven't been this excited about traditional fantasy since ever.  Even though it's just making more work for myself, I'm not going to count that commentary for March (when I put these commitments on my blog--in writing as it were--I tend to hold to what I say much more faithfully).  

I honestly have no reason for it, but I've been feeling great these past two days and I think that bodes well for an ass-kicking March.  There will be some random comments on Tanqueray 10, as well as The Perfect Manhattan, possibly my power bill and the heat.

That's all.