Re(ad)treat: Finals and partials

On the way over to the state park on Friday, I finished the last little bit of The witch's vacuum cleaner and other stories by Terry Pratchett; read by Julian Rhind-Tutt.  This was a fun collection of stories that don't really go with anything else; they don't really match up with what appears in Pratchett's novels, and (*cough*note, publisher*cough*) I'd be even more interested in reading this, or other short story compilations, with an introduction for each story with information and commentary-- the dates the writer worked on it, what else he was working on at the time, if he ever pointed out anything in the story that he thought was interesting or noteworthy, etc.  This was one of the last Sync downloads I grabbed and I've been chipping away at it since July.

Excellent narrator, easy to listen to.

A slip of the keyboard: Collected nonfiction by Terry Pratchett; read by Michael Fenton Stevens.  I listened to this while packing up and driving home today and am only about half-way through.

Everything included here is an essay or article or speech given by the author, so people who compulsively read and have consciously sought out absolutely everything this author has ever written may have already encountered these bits in their original settings.  They are all new to me, though, and I love them.  There are several in a row here towards the middle in which the author talks thoughtfully about genre fiction; I'm bookmarking heavily so I can listen to the segments again when I get back to work and incorporate some into an upcoming Readers' Advisory training.  Meta-readers, readers who think and care about the kinds of things they read, will have much to be interested in.

Another excellent reader, understandable, and, as a change at a constant volume-- it can be difficult to listen to audiobooks while driving because the speaking volume varies too much: if you turn it up loud enough to understand the whispered bits, the shouty bits deafen you; if you turn it down so the loud bits are only minorly uncomfortable, you could miss huge swathes of the story.

I cam home earlier than expected, as posted check-out time for the cabin campers was 11:30.  I thought about getting everything together and then sort of hanging out until I was booted, but if I had done that, then of course the Park Ranger would have shown up (I didn't see him the whole weekend, nor any other park personnel, but Murphy's Law).  I thought to walk along the beach and listen to my audiobook, the weather being actually nice, but the only available beach was directly in front of the park; the rest was cut off by "private property" signs, which I'm not sure is legal.  (My great uncle owned beach-front property farther down the canal when I was younger, and I'm pretty sure the beach itself is public, but I'm the type to follow posted instructions.)  The benches were all wet from overnight rain.  I could have gotten out the camping chair and enjoyed the sunshine, but crowds of people were setting up for a wedding in the park, so it was noisy and there were bunches of unsupervised children and the adults were giving me funny looks since I wasn't with the party.  (Not like it's a public park or anything...)  Having not much else to do, I came home and took a shower and sat on the couch.  Am most of the way through...

A kiss at midnight by Eloisa James.  This is another one of those authors that, for some reason, I tell myself I like alot more than I actually do.  If I were going to truly enjoy a romance novel, it would probably be this author.  Her characters aren't silly-stupid, just willful or short-sighted.  This title, obviously, is a Cinderella retelling and not bad.  I like that from this author I can usually expect full sentences, not too many dropped plot elements, and a reasonable number of characters.

final time: 50 hours, 13 minutes.