I spent $87 at Border’s today, and didn’t technically buy any books. I did by some literary anthologies, but since they were on the magazine rack, they don’t count. One of them Glimmer Train was recommended to me by my aunt as a place I should consider submitting short stories, but at the time she suggested it, I was in denial about having any talent.

I’ve since decided I have as much talent as anyone else, but I need to work on turning off the business part of my brain when I’m writing, and not turning it back on til the muse is satisfied.

As always, it all comes down to balance.

Anyway, I’d looked for this anthology at Barnes and Nobel, which I usually find is the place to get the best buy on books, because their rewards card is better than the one at Borders, and the copy there was mangled. One copy, mind you. Since I had occasion to be at Borders today, anyway, and they had more than one copy, life was good.

So, a lovely chat, a good collection of short stories, and projects galore, and I’m a happy woman.

For the moment, anyway.

While neither of these shows was overtly about CAT6 cable, both had lengths of strewn around in many themes, which is why I’m connecting the Stargate Atlantis episode “Midway” with the Knight Rider movie that was on tonight. Well, that and my love of alliteration.

The first was a satisfying episode: snarky Teal’c, muscley Ronin, wraiths dying all over the place and a gratuitous scene in which Shepard stowed himself in a space suit. I don’t always focus on Stargate when I watch with Fuzzy, tuning out to read, or whatever, but staying in the room to keep him company, but “Midway” kept me interested.

“Knight Rider” on the other hand kept me laughing. Serious mockery was occurring in our living room, and can you blame us? We were wagering on and off all evening about whether or not Hasslehoff would have a cameo, and I complained a lot about the new Voice of KiTT. I’m sorry, but I miss William Daniels. A Lot.

It’s pretty sad when the Mike on a Date four-part commercial was more interesting than the actual show.

When I was a teenager, I went through a phase when I could not read enough of those Silhouette Desire romances. You know, the red-covered novels with advertisements that promise you a cute heart pendant on a gold chain, if you just agree to have the books shipped each month, in a carton of six.

I never got the shipments, since a friend got the books for free, but I confess that a part of me wanted the necklace. I never got that, either, but when I was cleaning out my office the other day, I found a box that dated back to high school, and in it was one of the advertisements ripped from one of those novels.

I know that there are many who think those romance novels are silly and stupid. I’ll grant that they are a bit formulaic. (More than a bit.) But now, I also know that they are an important entrance into professional writing for many authors, and that being successful in that genre can lead to much greater success, though it can also be a satisfying career in and of itself.

I confess, if I could write such a novel, I totally would.

Well, this Presidents’ Day won’t see us shopping for discount furniture or painting the kitchen, though I still want a chaise for my living room and a daybed for my office, and though we’d planned to paint the kitchen over the long weekend, when we thought the long weekend was next week, but it did see me picking up some great discounts from the bookstore after my facial and eyebrow wax yesterday.

Am I the only one who loves the $4.98 table at Barnes and Nobel? I often find stuff I’d planned to read months before and never got to, so then I get it for a quarter of the price.

Among my purchases yesterday were a chick-lit-ish book called Notting Hell and another title that looked interesting, The Electric Michelangelo. Both will eventually be reviewed here.

With the purchase of new exercise equipment – no not beer pong tables, but a weight set that took five hours to put together, my lofty plans for the library have changed.

Is it still a library if you have a weight machine in the corner? I think so, after all the books outweigh the weights. Really. The new plans are to move the television from my office into this room, to add bookshelves so that we can get our current collection off the floor, and to add a new cd player, to provide inspiring tunes to work out with. Inspiring in the “pump up the energy” sort of way.

I’ve used it twice so far, and I like the space – our library is L-shaped, and the weight machine is in the short part of the L along the windows, facing the couch, but far enough info its niche that the couch can still be extended (it’s a sleeper) should it need to be. The thick carpeting mutes the sounds and makes a lovely place for doing crunches, and the windows make the space feel like a studio.

I still wish it was my office, but I like the new use of the space, as well.

I just wish I could read WHILE lifting.

I’ve just spent several minutes teaching my popup blocker that the halo-scan comments some of my blog-buddies use are not a threat, and should be allowed. I’m quite certain I’ve done this before, but I have three computers, so maybe this one got missed.

While I’m on the subject of blog-buddies, I’d like to welcome two bookbloggers to my blogroll.

Becca, who I met through Michele‘s meet-n-greet, has opened Bookstack, and has written recently about the perfect choice of book for taking on a plane.

Carl is someone I’ve just met, when he left a comment on my regular blog. His site is called Stainless Steel Droppings, and he reviews a lot of books, especially sci-fi/fantasy type stuff. His most recent post, however, is related to To Kill a Mockingbird.

Go visit them. You’ll be glad you did.

As much as I’d love to have a zero gravity recliner. the closest I can come, at least for reading, is a tub full of lightly fragrant bubbles floating on hot water. a back pillow, and a bottle of cool water to sip.

The thing is, more and more recently, I’ve been just lounging in the tub, or getting down to really important tasks, like shaving my legs, and not actually reading.

Even so, I’ve finished reading The Amber Spyglass recently, am halfway through Amy & Isabelle and just received a book of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s newspaper columns, that I’m really looking forward to reading.

My question for You: Where do you like to read? And what’s on your reading list?

If Barnes and Nobel was closer, it might well become my second home. It’s already my favorite weekend destination. Oh, we have a library in the neighborhood, and I used to be a frequent haunter of libraries, but used books smell funny, and I don’t like to have to give things back.

We have a new Borders that is slightly closer than the B&N, but I don’t really like it as well, and no, it’s not because they serve non-Starbucks coffee. It’s just…not as warm, not as inviting, doesn’t have comfy chairs, and seems too bright somehow.

I like Half Price Books, despite the funky used-book smell, because they do encourage lingering and lounging, but they don’t generally have cafes, and I think they’re the poorer for it. Books and coffee go together. So do books and tea.

So, for now, since our town lacks ANY decent independent bookstores, I shall stick with Barnes and Nobel.
And their green comfy chairs.