Of course, once the weekend arrives the temperature and humidity are both supposed to rise, but until then I’m going to be loving it. As it is I’m tenatively planning to try and hit the Smithsonian Folklife Festival on Saturday, and to pull the camera out and dust it off. After working on a self-portrait-a-day series last year, I slightly burnt out on photography and took some time off. Over the past week or two I’ve started to miss it, though, and that means that the rest period should come to an end. We’ll see how long I last before deciding I don’t want to bake any more.

Finally resumed reading Poppy Z. Brite’s Second Line, which collects two short novels about chefs G-Man and Rickey, the stars of Liquor, Prime, and Soul Kitchen. I’ve only read Liquor but I adored it, reading about their attempt to start their own restaurant in New Orleans and using the theme of alcohol in all of their dishes. I’ve been meaning to read the other books for a while, and now that I’m about a third of the way through Second Line I’m pushing the other books up to the top of the to-read list.

Oh, still no progress on my kitchen reorganization, but the week isn’t over yet.

The Arlington County book sale was this weekend, which made me happy because it means that starting May 1st they’re accepting donations again. I stopped by on Saturday to check out a copy of Malinda Lo’s Ash for book club in a few weeks, and while I was there I wandered through the book sale. I managed to escape with only two books being purchased, thankfully. Three things that jumped out at me while was there, though:

Seeing Books I’d Donated
This got quite a few chuckles from me. Every now and then I see books I’ve donated on the shelves (for instance, the time I was walking through the Pimmit Hills Library and suddenly came across a run of fifteen volumes of The Prince of Tennis, which made laugh since I stopped after volume 15), but I always figure the books more often than not end up in the book sale. I think I must have seen a good twenty copies of books that I’d given them in one section alone; one in particular had the same little fold on the top of the cover that I remembered so well. (No, I’m not saying which books I donated and which ones I kept in my own personal library!)

Seeing Books I’d Wanted But Long Since Forgotten About
Do you have books that you thought about buying over and over again but never did? One of those books for me was Tea From An Empty Cup by Pat Cadigan, which I think I must have picked up and put back down on the shelves at the (no longer in existence) Borders around the corner from my apartment, years ago. I’d read some of Cadigan’s Wild Cards short stories, and I heard great things about the book. But I never, ever bought it. They had a lovely hardcover copy of the book for sale, and for $2 I decided to finally scoop it up. I suspect that once I read it, I will donate it back to the library and let the cycle continue for someone else!

Seeing Books I Didn’t Know Existed
I had no idea until yesterday that Food & Wine magazine publishes an annual collection of all the recipes from that year. There was a copy of their 2006 annual available, and a quick flip through showed off enough I was interested in that I decided it was worth a purchase. And once again, if I end up getting bored with it, well, back to the library! And if I like it, well, it looks like a lot of used copies of the Food & Wine annuals are available for under a buck.

That said? I am glad the big book sale only comes several times a year, for the sanity of my own bookshelves and wallet. After I had my two books, I decided to stop while I was still somewhat ahead and fled for the exit. I’m no fool. I know that path has disaster written all over it for me.

I ended up tying 2007′s movie tally with 20 films, and amusingly enough that was also the number of novels I read. As for graphic novels… well, let’s just say the final tally was a wee bit higher.

Movies:

1. The Women (the 1939 version)
2. Frost/Nixon
3. Watchmen
4. Every Little Step
5. Star Trek
6. Little Ashes
7. Away We Go
8. Up
9. Public Enemies
10. The Hurt Locker
11. (500) Days of Summer
12. Paris
13. Inglorious Basterds
14. An Education
15. Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ By Sapphire
16. A Room With a View
17. A Serious Man
18. Fantastic Mr. Fox
19. Up in the Air
20. A Single Man

Books:

1. Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
2. Altered Carbon by Richard Morgan
3. Wicked Gentlemen by Ginn Hale
4. All Seated On The Ground by Connie Willis
5. Consider Phlebas by Iain M. Banks
6. Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris
7. Sea, Swallow Me and Other Stories by Craig Laurance Gidney
8. The Cabinet of Light by Daniel O’Mahony
9. The Player of Games by Iain M. Banks
10. Shell Shock by Simon A. Forward
11. Farthing by Jo Walton
12. The Baum Plan for Financial Independence and Other Stories by John Kessel
13. Listening Is an Act of Love edited by Dave Isay
14. A Companion to Wolves by Sarah Monette and Elizabeth Bear
15. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Seth Grahame-Smith and Jane Austen
16. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz
17. Psycho by Robert Bloch
18. After the Quake by Haruki Murakami
19. The Host by Stephenie Meyer
20. Kindred by Octavia E. Butler

Graphic Novels:

1. Dororo Vol. 3 by Osamu Tezuka
2. Solanin by Inio Asano
3. Oishinbo A La Carte: Japanese Cuisine by Tetsu Kariya and Akira Hanasaki
4. Pluto: Urasawa x Tezuka Vol. 1 by Naoki Ursasawa
5. Tsubasa Vol. 19 by CLAMP
6. Dead, She Said by Steve Niles and Bernie Wrightson
7. MPD Psycho Vol. 3 by Eiji Otsuka and Sho-u Tajima
8. Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service Vol. 7 by Eiji Otsuka and Housui Yamazaki
9. Scott Pilgrim Vol. 4: Scott Pilgrim Gets It Together by Bryan Lee O’Malley
10. Scott Pilgrim Vol. 5: Scott Pilgrim vs. the Universe by Bryan Lee O’Malley
11. My Mommy is in America and She Met Buffalo Bill by Jean Regnaud and Émile Bravo
12. Call of the Wild by Patrick McDonnell
13. Miss Don’t Touch Me by Hubert & Kerascoet
14. I Saw You…: Comics Inspired by Real Life Missed Connections edited by Julia Wertz
15. Why I Killed Peter by Alfred & Olivier Ka
16. Tsubasa Vol. 20 by CLAMP
17. DMZ Vol. 6: Blood in the Game by Brian Wood and Riccardo Burchielli
18. Phoenix Vol. 8: Civil War, Part Two by Osamu Tezuka
19. Blade of the Immortal Vol. 20: Demon’s Lair by Hiroaki Samura
20. Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei Vol. 1 by Koji Kumeta
21. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Century: 1910 by Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neill
22. The Complete Peanuts Vol. 6: 1961-1962 by Charles M. Schulz
23. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: The Black Dossier by Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neill
24. Batman: Year One Hundred by Paul Pope
25. Hulk Visionaries: Peter David Vol. 1 by Peter David and Todd McFarlane
26. Pluto: Urasawa x Tezuka Vol. 2 by Naoki Ursasawa
27. In the Flesh by Koren Shadmi
28. First Time by Sybiline and various artists
29. Oishinbo A La Carte: Sake by Tetsu Kariya and Akira Hanasaki
30. A Drifting Life by Yoshihiro Tatsumi
31. Sandman Mystery Theatre Vol. 7: The Mist & the Phantom of the Fair by Matt Wagner, Steven T. Seagle, and Guy Davis
32. French Milk by Lucy Knisley
33. 20th Century Boys Vol. 1 by Naoki Urasawa
34. A Distant Neighborhood Vol. 1 by Jiro Taniguchi
35. The Color of Earth by Kim Dong Hwa
36. Wolverine: Prodigal Son Vol. 1 by Antony Johnson and Wilson Tortosa
37. Superman Chronicles Vol. 1 by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster
38. Skim by Mariko Tamaki and Jillian Tamaki
39. Bourbon Island 1730 by Appollo and Lewis Trondheim
40. Batman Chronicles Vol. 2 by Bill Finger and Bob Kane
41. Real Vol. 3 by Takehiko Inoue
42. Real Vol. 4 by Takehiko Inoue
43. Fairy Tail Vol. 5 by Hiro Mashima
44. Chicken With Plums by Marjane Satrapi
45. Moomin: The Complete Tove Jansson Comic Strip Book Three by Tove Jansson
46. Nana Vol. 14 by Ai Yazawa
47. You Have Killed Me by Jamie S. Rich and Joëlle Jones
48. Hikaru No Go Vol. 13 by Yumi Hotta and Takeshi Obata
49. Hikaru No Go Vol. 14 by Yumi Hotta and Takeshi Obata
50. The Essential Dykes to Watch Out For by Alison Bechdel
51. Hellblazer: Scab by Peter Milligan, Giuseppe Camuncoli, and Stefano Landini
52. Showcase Presents: The Doom Patrol Vol. 1 by Arnold Drake, Bob Haney, Bruno Premiani, and Bob Brown
53. The Best of Simon and Kirby by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby
54. Parker: The Hunter by Richard Stark and Darwyn Cooke
55. 20th Century Boys Vol. 2 by Naoki Urasawa
56. Phoenix, Vol. 10: Sun, Part One by Osamu Tezuka
57. Pluto: Urasawa x Tezuka Vol. 3 by Naoki Urasawa
58. Mijeong by Byun Byung-jun
59. Detroit Metal City Vol. 1 by Kiminori Wakasugi
60. Yokai Doctor Vol. 1 by Yuki Sato
61. Little Mouse Gets Ready by Jeff Smith
62. Britten and Brulightly by Hannah Berry
63. Oishinbo A La Carte: Ramen and Gyoza by Tetsu Kariya and Akira Hanasaki
64. Vagabond Vol. 28 by Takehiko Inoue
65. Children of the Sea Vol. 1 by Daisuke Igarashi
66. Popeye Vol. 1 by E.C. Segar
67. The Photographer: Into War-Torn Afghanistan with Doctors Without Borders by Emmanuel Guibert
68. Prince Valiant Vol. 1: 1937-1938 by Hal Foster
69. Jack Kirby’s Fourth World Omnibus Vol. 2 by Jack Kirby
70. Nana Vol. 15 by Ai Yazawa
71. Hikaru no Go Vol. 15 by Yumi Hotta and Takeshi Obata
72. 20th Century Boys Vol. 3 by Naoki Urasawa
73. Real Vol. 5 by Takehiko Inoue
74. Black Jack Vol. 2 by Osamu Tezuka
75. Pluto: Urasawa x Tezuka Vol. 4 by Naoki Urasawa
76. Barefoot Gen Vol. 1 by Keiji Nakazawa
77. Ôoku: The Inner Chamber Vol. 1 by Fumi Yoshinaga
78. 20th Century Boys Vol. 4 by Naoki Urasawa
79. Tegami Bachi: Letter Bee Vol. 1 by Hiroyuki Asada
80. The Big Kahn by Neil Kleid and Nicholas Cinquegrani
81. Hikaru no Go Vol. 16 by Yumi Hotta and Takeshi Obata
82. Little Nothings Vol. 2: The Prisoner Syndrome by Lewis Trondheim
83. Nana Vol. 16 by Ai Yazawa
84. Awakening Vol. 1 by Nick Tapalansky and Alex Eckman-Lawn
85. Love and Rockets: New Stories No. 2 by Gilbert Hernandez and Jaime Hernandez
86. The Punisher Vol. 10: Valley Forge, Valley Forge by Garth Ennis and Goran Parlov
87. Yotsuba&! Vol. 6 by Kiyohiko Azuma
88. Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service Vol. 8 by Eiji Otsuka and Housui Yamazaki
89. Japan As Viewed By 17 Creators by Various creators
90. ACME Novelty Library Vol. 19 by Chris Ware
91. Neptune by Aron Nels Steinke
92. Festering Romance by Renee Lott
93. What a Wonderful World! Vol. 1 by Inio Asano
94. X-Men: Misfits Vol. 1 by Raina Telgemeier, Dave Roman, and Anzu
95. West Coast Blues by Jean-Patrick Manchette and Jacques Tardi
96. Far Arden by Kevin Cannon
97. Thor Visionaries: Walter Simonson Vol. 1 by Walter Simonson
98. Monsters by Ken Dahl
99. What a Wonderful World! Vol. 2 by Inio Asano
100. Pluto: Urasawa x Tezuka Vol. 5 by Naoki Urasawa
101. Showcase Presents: Eclipso by Bob Haney, Lee Elias, Alex Toth, and Jack Sparling
102. Driven By Lemons by Joshua Cotter
103. Marvel Masterworks: The Fantastic Four Vol. 1 by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
104. Dark Entries by Ian Rankin and Werther Dell’Edera
105. Pluto: Urasawa x Tezuka Vol. 6 by Naoki Ursasawa
106. Dungeon, The Early Years Vol. 2: Innocence Lost by Lewis Trondheim, Joann Sfar, and Christophe Blain
107. Year of Loving Dangerously by Ted Rall and Pablo Callejo
108. Oishinbo A La Carte: The Joy of Rice by Tetsu Kariya and Akira Hanasaki
109. Incognito by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips
110. Beanworld Book 3: Remember Here When You Are There! by Larry Marder
111. Moyasimon: Tales of Agriculture Vol. 1 by Ishikawa Masayuki
112. Luna Park by Kevin Baker and Danijel Zezelj
113. Marvel Masterworks: The Amazing Spider-Man Vol. 1 by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko
114. Children of the Sea Vol. 2 by Daisuke Igarashi
115. not simple by Natsume Ono
116. Filthy Rich by Brian Azzarello and Victor Santos
117. Bloom County: The Complete Library Vol. 1 by Berkeley Breathed
118. Years of the Elephant by Willy Linthout
119. Nightschool: The Weirn Books Vol. 1 by Svetlana Chmakova
120. The Punisher MAX: From First to Last by Garth Ennis, Richard Corben, Lewis Larosa, John Severin
121. 20th Century Boys Vol. 5 by Naoki Urasawa
122. A Distant Neighborhood Vol. 2 by Jiro Taniguchi
123. xxxHolic Vol. 13 by CLAMP

But! Since I now have a Kindle (thanks to a deal I could not refuse!), all was not lost. I went onto the Kindle Store, found a free copy of Dubliners, and before I knew it I was spending Christmas Eve curled up in bed with Gabriel and Gretta Conroy. Christmas was saved, and the future is now. Sometimes, technology is awfully handy.

My favorite small press publisher of prose, Small Beer Press, is having a sale. And, for every book you buy from them, they’ll donate $1 to the Franciscan Children’s Hospital. SBP co-owners Gavin Grant and Kelly Link have had a family member in their hospital for a while now, and in general I think the idea of a hospital specifically for long-term care of children is such an incredibly necessary thing. (You can read the full story of their time with the hospital at this link.)

Anyway, they have a lot of great books for sale. Some of my favorites include:

The Baum Plan for Financial Independence and Other Stories by John Kessel. Kessel’s “Lunar Quartet” is alone worth the price of admission, but “Pride and Prometheus” and its merging of Pride and Prejudice with Frankenstein has to be read to truly be believed.

Perfect Circle by Sean Stewart. Stories about people who can see ghosts are a dime a dozen, but Stewart’s book is about family and dead relatives and promises and the things that bind us. Breathtakingly beautiful prose. (His book Mockingbird is also available and I love it to death too.)

Magic for Beginners by Kelly Link. In the future, everyone will know about Kelly Link’s genre-defying short stories. They’re hard to describe and all peculiar but in a twisted, wonderful sort of way. Seriously, if there’s one book you’re going to buy, make it this one.

Second Line by Poppy Z. Brite. I haven’t actually read this one, but I have read Liquor, her novel which also stars the same characters (two chefs in New Orleans who eventually open a restaurant where all the food is cooked using alcohol in some way, shape, or form). Brite made her start as a horror author but it’s her novels about cooking and living in New Orleans that have made her into a must-read author for me. Seeing someone shift genres so effortlessly was a real revelation, and a reminder not to automatically push someone into a narrow box.

Or, buy something entirely different! Those prices are ludicrously cheap. I rarely buy prose books these days because of space; instead I keep visiting the library. I make an exception for books from Small Beer Press.

Of all the new series that will show up at the site, it’s this one that starts showing up on July 23rd that I’m really excited about.

Saturn Apartments By Hisae Iwaoka

A touching, character-rich vision of an intriguing new world.

Far in the future, humankind has evacuated the Earth in order to preserve it. Humans now reside in a gigantic structure that forms a ring around the Earth, thirty-five kilometers up in the sky. The society of the ring is highly stratified: the higher the floor, the greater the status. Mitsu, the lowly son of a window washer, has just graduated junior high. When his father disappears and is assumed dead, Mitsu must take on his father’s occupation. As he struggles with the transition to working life, Mitsu’s job treats him to an outsider’s view into the various living-room dioramas of the Saturn Apartments.

To me it’s got everything—an interesting setting, and what sounds like a combination of a mystery (the vanishing father), drama (having to inherit something unwanted), and sociological examination (the observing of other people’s lives). It sounds like there’s an almost infinite number of potential stories to be told here. Hopefully it’s as good as it sounds!

(Any books in particular that you’re dying to read based on the description alone?)

I wasn’t smart enough to bring my camera with me, but I did snap a quick photo with my cell phone, enough to give an idea of the finished product. (I suppose I should’ve turned on the lights and taken off the yellow registration card on the left-hand side, but oh well.)

Afterwards, I took the metro back over to L’Enfant Plaza (there was a Nationals Game next door to Artomatic so getting parking there just wasn’t going to happen) and I just kept marvelling at what a beautiful night it was. I can’t remember the last time I’ve walked around DC at night where it wasn’t a busy city street; just a stroll through the monuments, or around the Mall, that sort of thing. It’s so beautiful and peaceful then, and you really feel like you have the whole place to yourself. I need to make time to do just that over the summer.

But more importantly, walking back down the street, looking at the Capitol up ahead, I remember thinking how great it was to still find myself in a real “work in progress” stage of my life. My photography is still in its early stages but it’s been really uplifting to feel like I’m learning. I’m still finding new things I enjoy to do, or rediscovering old forgotten ones. Over the past few days I’ve gotten some really nice e-mails regarding reviews I’ve written. It’s like, yeah, it’s starting to fall into place.

In unrelated news, I had my first allergy serum shot this morning. So far there has been no mutation into some sort of supervillain. Very disappointing. But it did give me time to read 80-odd pages in John Kessel’s The Baum Plan for Financial Independence and Other Stories, and I’m enjoying the anthology so far. I’ll almost certainly finish it and several other books on my trip up to Indiana, PA this weekend for a family reunion. This reunion closes out two months of craziness when it has come to my weekends. I have almost nothing on the calendar for June and I’m making a concerted effort to keep it that way. Don’t get me wrong, it’ll be really nice to see a lot of the extended family this weekend, but I’m going to be happy once it’s over and I’m home and getting to focus on little things, or doing nothing at all.

Isn’t that what warm pre-summer nights are for, after all?

No, not the current, “You must forward this onto 35 people for good luck, otherwise your house will be crushed by Cthulhu” spate of chain letters, or even the “tell me 25 things about yourself” series of questions (although at least the latter makes the person write something). I’m talking about the old school chain letters, where you added your name onto the bottom of a list of six people, and sent something like a recipe to the person at the top before sending the new letter out to six more people. If that chain went somehow unbroken you’d end up with over 46000 recipes, but of course the reality was never that good.

I was overjoyed, then, to recently get an old school chain letter mailed to me from a friend and former co-worker who lives up in the wilds of Wisconsin these days. It’s a much simpler chain, one with only two rungs. You send a paperback book to the person at the top, add yourself to the bottom (and do so by adding in mailing labels, which is an elegant solution so that there’s no retyping or such), and if it ends up unbroken you’d end up with 36 books in the mail.

The letter referred to it as an informal book club, and I love the idea of it. I actually spent a bit of time trying to figure out who to send my six letters to. They had to love books, of course, but I also didn’t want to send the letter to friends who knew each other, so that  it wouldn’t get stuck on the same people. (So for example, I sent it to only one person in my book club; that way he has the option to pass it along to other members.) I also tried to spread the locations out a bit; one letter went to Oakland, another to Boston, still another to Williamsburg.

Now, of course, I’m waiting to see if I get anything in the mail. How far will the chain reach? Will all six people I’ve sent it to break the chain? (Hopefully not, I tried to think of people who would be equally enamored with the idea.) If nothing else, hopefully the person I sent Connie Willis’s Doomsday Book to will love it. It’ll be fun to see what if anything arrives here. Mind you, I love getting mail that isn’t a bill or junk. So hopefully, I’ll hit the jackpot before too long.

Until then, though, I’m going to be dreaming of chain letters involving chocolate chip cookies arriving at my home. Mmmmm, cookies.

But I have to say, the best part of Saturday? It may have been after I’d finished taking care of everything out at the family estate, and I got to sit out on the deck and read my book for about an hour.

I know, it doesn’t sound like much. But one of the things that I’ve really missed when I moved into Arlington was having my own porch or balcony; it’s something that while in both Falls Church and Tysons that my place had and I somewhat took for granted. There are a lot of nice parks in my current neighborhood that I can walk to and kick back and relax at… but there’s something extra-special about being somewhere all by yourself and just able to really and fully unwind. Especially in the spring.

It was just a great way to spend the afternoon; finishing the second 400 pages of Yoshihiro Tatsumi’s A Drifting Life, drinking a (rare for me) soda, letting the sun keep me warm, and not worrying about anything else. It’s a great way to spend an afternoon, and being outside means that I don’t find myself looking at everything in my home and thinking, “I really should take care of that.”

I also got to fiddle around a bit with a new camera lens; it’s a macro lens that lets me get some tight focuses on objects and blur everything else out behind them. I’m definitely still learning its finer points but so far I’m pretty happy with what it’s letting me do.

Mom’s daffodills are already getting a little droopy and towards the end of their cycle, so it was nice to have someone appreciate them while they’re still out. (You know, for someone who hated hated hated weeding the garden all those years, every now and then I think that it would be nice to have a garden of my own. What sort of horrible subliminal brainwashing is going on with me?)

And speaking photography, I started looking at alternate lighting ideas for Artomatic this year, and may have found paydirt. Of course, what I really need to do is get up early on Saturday and hopefully finish up the set of photos for the exhibit. And then print the photographs, and buy frames… and paint for my wall at Artomatic… get new business cards…

It’s no small wonder I still owe some people e-mails from two months ago. Or why updates here are few and far between. I’m ready to become fabulously wealthy and live a life of leisure, can’t you tell?

Well, perhaps not, but it’s a nice idea, isn’t it? I’m so sick of it still being dark when I wake up to hit the gym on Monday mornings, or perhaps to do some before-work running on Tuesdays or Thursdays. If it’s still dark out, it just drags me back into slumberland. At least we’re at the point now where it’s not pitch-black when I leave work so I can get the running in then, but still… not a fan. I don’t know how people live up near the Arctic Circle during the cold months; not even so much for the brutal temperatures but the lack of sunlight.

On the other hand, I’ve been having taking three virtual trips into Japan as of late to get through my desire of being somewhere else. As I think I’ve mentioned before, Animal Crossing: City Folk on the Wii is still intensely a funny, an adorable and low-key simulation game where my biggest worry is trying to eventually catch all 64 fish for the local museum’s aquariums. Also in the game realm, though, is Phoenix Wright, Ace Attorney: Justice For All, which I finally started playing on the NintendoDS. It’s a fun cross between an adventure game and a novel, as you navigate the twists and turns of Phoenix Wright’s latest cases before coming to the inevitable conclusion. In many ways it’s like reading a mystery/investigation novel where you have to solve the crime before the author point-blank tells you. I enjoyed the first of these games, and it’s fun checking out the second one.

Last night I also started reading the 856-page comics autobiography A Drifting Life by Yoshihiro Tatsumi. I’ve really enjoyed reading Tatsumi’s comic short story collections as they’re translated into English; they’re always slightly twisted and depressing little vignettes of life in Japan by slightly pathetic people, with something just off-beat enough to attract as a reader. What’s great about A Drifting Life so far (although to be fair I’m only on page 80!) is that Tatsumi is able to really plunge the reader into a different place and time without ever overtly doing so. There’s no huge info dumps or exposition, but it really gives me a strong feel for 1949 Japan.

In many ways, A Drifting Life is just the kind of autobiography that I really like, because it lets me “travel” to not only a different place but a different time as well; it’s a much less expensive way of visiting somewhere that would otherwise be inaccessable. Really good stuff, and once it’s officially released (next month?) I think it’s going to knock people’s socks off. I hope so, because I love the Tatsumi short story collections and want there to be many, many more down the line.

(And, with no exercise scheduled for tomorrow morning—my spinning class is in the evening—that means I can stay up a little later and read some more of the book. Yay!)