Happy 7th month birthday.

tomorrow, this blog will be 7 months old. and what did i learn in 7 months of blogging about food and books?

that I read way more than I formally cook. I'm averaging just over a book a week. . . and formally cooking not that often. So I've decided to unformalize this blog. Instead of posting weekly, with a book and a recipe in each post, I will post whenever I want about what I'm reading, and you'll get a recipe . . . probably not as often. thank god books don't have calories.

alright, into the literary fray. I tried to resist Harry Potter. really, I did. But my friend managed to end up with three copies (yes, three! all from Amazon!), so she lent me one. I read it in 28 hours, my husband finished shortly after I did. And my other friend says she just mailed me her just-read copy! so, I'm going to have two. If I'm a really good friend, I'll give both copies back to their rightful owners, along with a copy of one of my favorite books. . . .

Harry Potter. will i get struck down by lightning if i say i was unimpressed? That it felt like 500 pages of mostly nothing, and 200 pages of confusing choppy, blocky, funky action? will i lose my fictionfan liscense if i say the best part for me was when Neville Longbottom got to swing that beautiful Griffyndor sword? i shan't spoil it for anyone who hasn't read it, suffice to say it didn't end the way I expected.

I blame really good fracking books for my nonexcitement of HP. not that Ms. Rowling is a bad author, far from it. Just these fellas are way better. Said fellows would inlcude my latest obsession, Scott Lynch, author of The Lies of Locke Lamora. Alliterative titles aside, this is the most fun i've had all year, and i've learned all sorts of new and exciting ways to use the word $^#&! click on the link, read the review, buy the book. suddenly I feel like changing my e-mail signature to "Captain Jack who?" I expect Lynch is hiding in the far corners of Wisconsin to get away from the storm of fangirls this series could ignite.

You heard it here first folks, I may have an internet exclusive on the first online review of Gary Wassner's fourth book in his GemQuest fantasy series, The Revenge of the Elves. I couldn't find any other reviews floating around, and i just got so sucked in, the book wouldn't let me go! Again, go read the reviews (and the reviews of the others), and get the first three books in the series. by the time you finish those, this 4th book should be on bookshelves near you.

I'm about 30 pages into Hal Duncan's Vellum. another one of those books that i kept hearing good things about, that it was surreal, that it was weird, that maybe it was right up my alley. Well, it's weird. I'll check back in another 100 pages.

catch ya later.