Random Thoughts

It's Friday and closing time....so I present to you, random bullets!

• I'm about to begin this weekend by sitting OUTSIDE enjoying some lovely beverages with my lovely coworkers. Yes, I said OUTSIDE.
• I'm currently reading Handle with Care. It is seriously so depressing, I really just want to finish reading it. Too bad I'm not even halfway through. Reading it after 2 glasses of wine is probably not a good idea either.
• The Yankees lost so badly in their much anticipated home opener yesterday - get it together boys!
• Mean what you say and say what you mean....I'm not sure who said that, but it's something to live by. 

That's all I got for now. Happy Friday!

Let Us Step Into the Night

Happy Friday! Back to the business of books....I finished reading Water for Elephants this week. I'll save a full review of the book until after my book club meeting, but overall I enjoyed it. Unlike Harry Potter (which I am still currently reading) I didn't tear through this book, dying to see what happened. However, I like books that are full of little passages that make you stop and think for a bit. This book was full of them. And despite the serious nature of much of the conflict in the book, you are left with a happy, light-hearted feeling when you are done reading :)

I hate to admit that I was happy to finish reading it so I could get back to my HP. I'm so close to the end (only books 6 and 7 left) that I'm really getting into it! I have a pretty busy weekend ahead though, so I'll have to live with the suspense for a bit longer.  On Saturday I'm attending a co-worker's wedding. Although I'm going alone, my fun coworkers will be there, so it should be a good time. Tonight I'm going to my favorite local Irish pub for happy hour (martinis!), so it should be a great start to the weekend.

And in the words of Dumbledore, "...let us step into the night and pursue that flighty temptress, adventure." 

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

The only one he ever feared

This lovely, warm weekend has come to and end, and I actually got a lot accomplished, even with losing an hour! Unfortunately I was stuck inside Saturday leading an editorial meeting, but was able to get out and celebrate a friend's birthday last night. I was also finally able to finish the 5th Harry Potter book (Order of Phoenix). Ironically it was a "Harry Potter" weekend on ABC family, so I got a glimpse of a few of the movies.

So, my thoughts on the 5th book...Not my favorite, but still enjoyable. I saw this book more of a transition from book 4 to what is going to happen next. I actually enjoyed seeing a different side of Harry, but his anger at the world got a little annoying after a while. Reading about Harry's first attempt at love with Cho made my laugh out loud at moments - - I was glad how Rowling ended that situation. I wonder if Harry's love life will become a central part of the story at any point in the future? This was a loong book, which, for the first time, I felt was dragged out a little unnecessarily, but in the end was satisfying. I already knew about the impending death that was to occur at the end, but it was a character I had rooted for and was sad to see go.

More evident in this book than any other, I think Rowling's genius is in her story-telling ability. No doubt she is an excellent writer, but the depths and twists and turns she takes the plot continues to amaze me. Even through all the twists, the reader never gets off track and is only left wanting more. I mean, not many books can keep entranced after I wake up (accidentally) early, hungover, on a weekend morning after I've lost any hour. I was fighting sleep because I just needed to get to the end, to find out the prophecy....and I cant wait for more!

Bars 'n Books

Looking towards my weekend on Friday, I had no idea that the events to come would result in another fun blog post. Well, most of the weekend-events were not book-related at all. But one of my favorite blogs does a “Key learnings” section after her weekends to wrap up the things she learned. As I’m still new, I can use all the material I can get, so without further ado…here are some of the (random) key learnings:

• Never go to a bar in an office building that requires you to take an elevator. Although we ended up having fun anyways, this place was one of the sketchier places I have been since moving here.
• Never trust alumni clubs, and always check your tickets. Realizing 30 minutes before a sporting event is about to start that your tickets are actually for April is never a good thing. Going back to the bar to stalk the girl that gave them to you, finding her, and exchanging them for the correct tickets is genius.
• Hockey games are only 3 periods long, chugging the beer you had rationed for the 4th isn’t fun.
• Meeting the young mayor of your college town in a random bar will make any night better.
• Hearing his political raps is like the icing on the cake.
• I heart Ben Bailey (cash cab guy!)
• I still heart the Yankees (despite A-roid)
• If you are trying to hit on a girl at a bar, it’s probably not best to do so by crushing her dreams*.

*I feel that this final point needs a bit of explanation. On Saturday night I met up with a bunch of friends at a nearby bar. We were having a good time when a guy came up and bought us drinks and started talking. At one point in the night we got to talking about NYC and how I wanted to move there one day to pursue a career in book publishing. I’m not sure if he was just trying to make sure the conversation continued or if he really believed this, but he turned to me and said, “You know, I read an article last week saying that book publishing is dead.”

He tells me this after I’ve told him how I had considered moving there for graduate school and definitely wanting to go into the industry. Thank you dream-killer! He went on about new media, kindle, etc. I held on to my firm belief that yes, new media would definitely play a dominant role in the future landscape of book publishing and all publishing in general, but the printed word will adapt.

I admittedly do not know that much about this new e-reading technology, but do you really want to pull that out of your bag at the beach and dig into your guilty beach reading pleasure? Am I the only one who prefers buying books (despite the costs) so I can one day build a huge library and look at all the lovely books I’ve read. The smell of old or brand new books can’t compare to the clean, cold e-readers and e-books. I’m not saying these technologies don’t have their benefits, but I do not see, and truly do not hope, that the book publishing company is on the path towards it death.

What about you? Where do you see the industry going?