Sunday Salon: A Little Bit of This & A Whole Lot of the Other

I am wearing the softest, most cozy socks. I can see why they are perfect for sleeping. It is not quite cold enough to wear them to bed, but they are well suited for keeping my toes warm on this chilly Sunday morning. Give me a second to check the kettle and see if the water is ready yet for a morning mug of hot chocolate.

Okay, I'm all settled in and ready to visit for a while.

Wouldn't you know it, the week I set aside blogging, Marie from Boston Bibliophile asks a question dear to my heart and then a question I had asked this past summer ends up on Booking Through Thursday. Just my luck. Well, it's never too late to join in, is it?

Tuesday Thinger Question:

Series. Do you collect any series? Do you read series books? Fantasy? Mystery? Science fiction? Religious? Other genre? Do you use the series feature in LT to help you find new books or figure out what you might be missing from a series?

I will keep my answer short. Yes. I collect and read series books in all sorts of categories, from crime fiction, fantasy, and science fiction to good ol' general fiction. I can't say I follow a religious series, but then, that's not really a genre I gravitate towards usually. I have never used the series feature in LibraryThing (LT). Frankly, I didn't even know it existed. Instead, I get most of my series information from sites like Stop, You're Killing Me! and the authors' websites when available.

I have fallen sorely behind in updating my series' lists, but I do recommend you check them out if you want to know just how series crazed I am (Serial Offender: Guilty As Charged and Serial Offender: Guilty As Charged, Part Two). Hopefully I will get around to updating the lists before the year is out.

I spent two days this past week catching up on one of my favorite series thanks to the spurring on of a coworker who threatened me with great bodily harm if I didn't. You can expect my review to be posted in the near future.

Booking Through Thursday Question:

Name a favorite literary couple and tell me why they are a favorite. If you cannot choose just one, that is okay too. Name as many as you like–sometimes narrowing down a list can be extremely difficult and painful. Or maybe that’s just me.

I would like to thank Monica for suggesting this question to Deb as a Booking Through Thursday question. I had originally asked the question as part of a giveaway in celebration of my 10th wedding anniversary this past July. I received a variety of responses to my question, from fictional (and nonfictional) characters to author couples. A couple of people wondered if I meant highbrow literary couples--and the answer to that question was an emphatic, "No!" I use the term "literary" in its broadest of sense. I compiled a list of the responses here. Do take a look!

Mention of my wedding anniversary reminds me that today marks another sort of special occasion. Or, at least in terms of the history of my blog. This is my 500th post. Leave a comment between now and November 2nd (along with your e-mail address) and you may be one of three lucky commenters to win a little bookish surprise from me to celebrate the occasion.

With the holidays approaching, readers all over the world are putting together their holiday reading lists and some already have started in honor of Halloween. I am not much of a seasonal reader and, while I have occasionally succumbed to holiday themed reading, it does not always work out the way I planned. A Christmas book I hoped to get to before the big day becomes a July read instead, for example. This month, however, I noticed that my reading has taken a supernatural turn--seemingly perfect for the Halloween season. It was wholly unintentional, which perhaps is the best way to go about it. At least for me.

My reading this past week especially has been full of the most fantastical of elements: vampires, fairies, witches, imaginary friends, and shape shifters. I might as well add ghosts to the mix since one of my upcoming books this week includes a few of those. Funny how sometimes these things work out the way they do.

I do hope you will drop by later in the week. Monday I will be posting my review of Stephen V. Masse's holiday crime fiction tale, A Jolly Good Fellow. On Tuesday, David Ebershoff kindly answers a few of my questions about his new book, The 19th Wife. And later in the week, I will share my thoughts about an anthology of short stories called Imaginary Friends. Keep your eye out for a couple of giveaways as well!

Until next time . . . Happy reading!