MONDAY!

For me, part of going back to school means re-starting my job as a library tech. This means I get paid 7 hours a week to deal with teachers who don't follow library rules or etiquette (some do, but about half don't) would it surprised you to know they actually just TAKE books out of the library? they do; children who forget to bring back their books along with their parents who insist that they have brought them back....and they mysteriously re-appear weeks later; trying to keep on top of shelving books when the above teachers themselves leave books out....many frustrations for little pay. However, the pay off is being able to read books to groups of young children and seeing their eyes widen with interest and hearing their cute laughter when I'm reading a funny book. That's a hell of a pay off. One of the few reasons that I'm hanging on to my little job by a thread. So once in a while....okay - daily! I become very frustrated and yet I stumble on...Sadly, this year our school has added yet MORE classes, and my job remains at 7 hours a week, $450 per month....sigh
:)

It's been no secret that during the school year, I abhor Mondays...and yet each Monday does bring us this fun weekly meme - hosted by Sheila of BookJourney

as usual, full guidelines of this fun weekly book meme is available at Book Journey. I'm too lazy to list them all here week after week. Besides, if you haven't been over there yet, it's a good reason to hop on over and check out her site. book reviews, contests, memes, and much more.

I didn't get a lot done if you count books read. However, I did spend a lot of time reading when I wasn't working. I really miss the summer vacation - 10 weeks off between school years just doesn't seem enough....I'm so glad I don't work in a year long job schedule - I'd never survive! I treasure each day off of the school year. This might mean I'm close to needing to retire for my sanity's sake. LOL. I'm just about readily mentally to throw the towel in. This is the very first school year that I didn't feel any excitement at all about seeing the students again - and this is a very new lack of feeling for me. It wasn't until the third week of school that I started to feel some of my old joy at being around the students and I think it finally came as I was having a conversation with this very sweet 2nd grader. She has such a joy about her, that it's infectious and I think it nudged my out of my back to work doldrums. At least it's coming back!
One of the books I finished this past week....hahaha - the ONLY book I finished this past week was Scardown by Elizabeth Bear. It's futuristic SciFi - with a bit of a apocalypse feel to it - Earth is going to hell in a handbasket and Canada is in a race with the PanChinese government to find a viable starship and travel to a viable plan.et to colonize. It's not set that far into the future, so it's a bit chilling to read. The first book starts in 2062 and the last book begins in 2063. That's just the bare gist of the plot of the trilogy. Scardown is the second of the trilogy which I am enjoying immensely. Of course, instead of stopping and taking the time to actually review Scardown, I jumped right into reading the third and of course, final in the trilogy - WorldWired.

So - I am currently reading Worldwired by Elizabeth Bear. A lot of this novel takes place on the starship Montreal. There is a lot of plot and characters packed into this novel - I haven't been bored with a single page ....with the exception of the dialog that occassionally takes place in French - with no translation. That is my only peeve regarding Ms Bear's trilogy. I don't speak French, and now I feel like I have to go to work finding translations to see what the hell these guys are talking about...and I read for pure entertainment - not to learn or think too hard (I've had t0 think way too hard in my life - don't make me work too hard to have fun reading! Damnit! if the book wasn't so good I would have just given up) Thankfully, these French dialogs aren't overwhelming - there are plenty of "regular" languaged dialog that keeps me interested. Even though I'm pretty sure that I'm going to end up looking up google translations of the French dialog at least in this last book. I found myself posting little blue post its on the pages with the French wording...just in case I want to spend the time typing French words into the google translator and then reading them..... (stomping my feet and crossing my arms while pouting)
I'm not sure what I'm going to read after this latest book. I've been on quite a SciFi blitz as far as reading. I think I've mostly read space travel books for most of the summer - at least the last half of summer vacation....I have more SciFi to read, but there are many of my urban fantasy authors that have put out quite a few sequels that I've been neglecting. In fact, there are quite a few debut novels or first in a new series that I've been neglecting - all for this SciFi obsession. So maybe I'll go back to them for a few books, then pick up the Jaine Fenn novel I started and put aside for some reason that I can't remember. I've been thinking a lot about that one, and I've had it here since January. Maybe I'll just dive right into that one - but then I'll want to buy the sequels......There are now four, with a fifth releasing in 2012. Yep - Now I have a jones starting up for the Fenn novels. Jesus.