Book dilema

I am in a book funk. Not sure what I want to read, and everything I pick up doesn't do anything for me. Excep,t maybe "Gurnsey Literary and Potato Peel Society" which I read last month. It is a book written in letters from one character to another. It was pretty formulaic and not very deep, but it was sweet, funny, and quick to read. I would venture to say that any Jane Austen fan would probably enjoy this book quite a bit.

Just to read something I started "Ruby Red" by Kirstin Gier. It started out interesting enough, then became a bit unbelievable, then frustrating, and finally I arrived at "Gwyneth needs a good slapping".

A seemingly normal teenager, Gwyneth, can travel through time due to her inheriting some genetic anomaly. A secret society of rich old men is up to something which she, as a time traveler, is a part of.
Interesting premise but the time traveling wasn't really thought out well and thus became unbelievable and at times confusing. As Gwynet is dealing with her new ability, the people around her are refusing to answer her questions, or give her any information about the purpose of the society, her time travel, and the "secret big thing that will happen now that the last of the time travelers has arrived". Keeping information away from your readers is a cheap move Grier. It is frustrating and irritating and you should be pinched hard for doing it. Gwyneth is a suprisingly air headed main character. Slow to pick up on huge clues as to what is going on, goes along with whatever the grown ups tell her without question, but is somehow still a 'rebel' teenager. If I was traveling through time as a teenager I sure as hell wouldn't cooperate until someone told me something of what I was doing. She is like a stinky, floppy, old fish. You just kind of wrinkle your nose at her and make a weird sound of disgust.
To be fair, I have not finished it yet. Close to it and far enough in that I am beginning to loose hope that this is going to be something special. Will update once finished.

But what to read after this? Urgh.

UPDATE: I finished "Ruby Red" and it turned out better then expected. Gwyneth started growing a backbone and a brain. Yaaay! So, I am reading the next one. After I read this other book first, it's called The War of the Dwarves and is written by Markus Heitz and it is the awesum. The first book, called The Dwarves, was amazing. These are quick and easy reads. Any D&D fan will realize they are pretty formulaic but, nevertheless very entertaining. Great for teens or tweens that are just getting into the fantasy genre.


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My job, it rocks!

It is a little weird to me that I should have found my calling working at the library. As a kid, librarian as an occupation never occurred to me. But looking at my past and at who I am it isn't that weird at all. My favorite gifts are books and one of my favorite pastime was and is reading.

I come from a culture that loves both the spoken and the written word. Growing up, books were almost sacred. Everyone has a bookshelf in Iceland, actually the same can be said about most of Scandinavia (ever take a look at an IKEA catalog? Bookshelves. Bookshelves everywhere). When you give someone a book for Christmas it means you really like them, cause those suckers ain't cheap and you have to put some thought into the process of book giving. So, not strange at all that I ended up in the library.

People who work at a library are a bunch of weird, intelligent, and wonderful people, who are excited about strange things like media drawers, the smell of a new book, and the reference section. They will giggle with you over the horrible book cover design and cry with you over the end of your favorite book or the death of your favorite character. They are creative, artistic, eccentric and a little bit crazy. They work hard on putting on amazing educational and fun programsn and they read a ton of book every year just so they can make recommendations to their patrons. They sing, they dance, they write books. I am so lucky to be surrounded by such talent and awesomeness.

*Fun fact: I read a statistic that said that in the city of Reykjavik, pop. 200,000, the public/city library has a circulation number of 1.2 million. That means 100,000 books get checked out and read EVERY MONTH.

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