gearing up

I have all my SRP stuff ready at work, all printed out, and I've got a stack of books at home, so that I've got plenty to put down if I don't like the one in hand. I haven't been totally excited about reading for the last week or so, and that makes me sad.

The Mammoth Book of Paranormal Romance by Lara Adrian, et al. I ordered (and checked out) this book so I could read the Gail Carriger story inside ("Marine Biology").  I didn't read any of the other short stories.
Carriger's story was a little too short for it's own good.  The main character is pretty good, but the secondary characters are a bit flat/stereotypical. They are quite forward, to move the plot speedily.  I think readers familiar with the involved pack structure and detailed werewolf abilities she set up in her Parasol series will get a bit more out of the story, but that background is probably not strictly necessary.

Just My Type: A Book About Fonts by Simon Garfield.  686.2. By the time I decided I didn't want to finish this book, I was so close to the end that I finished it just so I could count it.  I can't say I retained any information from reading this, because I can't tell how this book is organized, if at all: not by font name, by designer name, or even geographically. It is probably supposed to be organized by design families (serif/sans/etc.), but this meant we were jumping around in time,talking about the same artists in chapters far-separated.
I know some people who are really into fonts.  For the first couple of chapters, I was really into it, too.  But now I'm just frustrated and leaving all my programs on their default fonts.

Four Seasons in Rome (928) and parts of The Education of Werner Pfennig (in Tin House vol.14(3)) by Anthony Doerr.  This author's name has been tossed around as a possibility for our 2014 Everybody Reads author. (Everybody Reads is like One Book, One Bloomington or whatever it might be called in your area.)  I'd never heard of him, so figured I should arm myself to be able to make intelligent decisions.
I would be totally happy to have Doerr as our ER author.  His writing style reminded me a little bit of Jim Lynch.  I really enjoyed his writing, although I did find a handful of places in Four Seasons when it seemed he was trying a bit too hard.
(The reason I only read parts of The Education... is because it isn't out until 2014, but a couple chapters were published in this literary magazine.)  Four Seasons was good, but this new book is going to be much better.  I already care very much about Werner.
In Four Seasons he talks about trying to write The Education... but he gets sidetracked by a short story he ends up spending quite a bit of time on.  If anyone knows what that short story is, please share.
We have (or will soon, since I ordered what we didn't have) Doerr's other works, some fiction and some nonfiction.  I intend to read them even if we don't have him come.