Books, books, twitter, life.

Two bits of news:

I've joined Goodreads in an attempt to keep up with my reading for 2010. Since I was late in finishing Cannonball 1 I was unable to join Part 2, though it was half as many books in the same amount of time. It's alright though, as I preferred to not do another marathon read and take my time about reading and reviewing as I settle into life in Dallas. I really want to get back into reviewing, because I really love doing it, but I found that when I tried to go back to books I had read months ago I had an incredibly hard time trying to remember how I felt about them. Which is my own damn fault of course, I should have been reviewing as soon as I finished a book, but I got lazy and I got further and further behind. I think I'll try and review some of the 40-odd books I left unreviewed (you can see the list on the right hand of the blog down there) but I probably won't review them all.

What I would like to do is review books I'm reading now. One of the most wonderful things about moving to the States, I've found, is the availability of great books in English. I've told you before how Honduras had one bookstore chain that sold books in English, and their selection was greatly limited--just about everything there was by Stephanie Meyer (blight upon the world), Stephen King (read everything by him), and other bestselling dreck. So you can imagine my utter joy at walking into a gigantic bookstore here, drawing a deep breath and taking in that wonderful smell that bookstores have and realizing --HOLY CRAP I WANT TO BUY EVERYTHING HERE. AND I'm not limited by how many books I can fit into my suitcase! It's intoxicating, is what it is. I have an ever-growing list of books I want to read (based largely on recommendations by Pajibans), and knowing that I can actually find them here is exhilarating. I had to keep myself from spending more money than I could on our last trip to the B&N, and limited myself to two books: Rhett Butler's People (review coming up!) and The Adventures of Kavalier and Clay (which I have yet to start). I started the year with my husband's (don't get me started on how weird it is to write that word) copy of the massive The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, and I'm almost done with that. After two months. I'm hopelessly stuck at Justinian. I know I should, and I know that I can finish it, but every time I pick it up it seems to weigh a hundred pounds and it just repels my brain. And I don't quite know why, because I was enjoying it immensely so far. I think it's just that I can only take so much rape and pillaging and family murders before I get tired of it, you know? Even I have limits.

So, I'll make myself review a book this weekend.

The other news is that I've finally, after much resistance and pain, joined Twitter. I hate myself for it, a little bit. But truth is that there's a) there's a buttload of people I want to follow and it's the easiest way to do so, b) I love wasting my time on shit like this, and it's not like I have anything else to do, and c) I love talking about myself. And limiting myself to 140 words might be a challenge. As you see, I'm nothing if not long-winded. So, add me if you'd like, the username is "figgidaboudit". Clever, eh?

In other news, life is pretty sweet right now. We've sent off my paperwork to the USCIS, telling them that yes I did marry before the 90 day deadline was up, and starting my process to get a Green Card. It's a looooooong process, taking at least a year, during which I can't travel outside of the US (so Christmas in Honduras is most likely out, which makes me pretty damn sad). But I can start looking for work, which is pretty wonderful. Lounging around has its high points, but I'm ready to become a useful member of American society. I really need to start looking into getting my teaching certificate, and figuring out what exactly I'd like to teach. I think I'll look into teaching younger kids, because I nearly died from Middle Schoolers two years ago. Granted, I'm sure teaching in the US will be a vastly different experience (hopefully much, much better) so it might not be so bad. But we'll see.

That's it for now. Hope you have a good weekend!