THE MARTIAN -- POPSUGAR READING CHALLENGE #14

image from Goodreads

This was on my reading list for the longest time. And I mean the loooongest time.

I saw it at the library and put it on my reading list (in hardback). I watched the movie; it was still on my reading list.  I got the paperback last year --- and it was still on my reading list.

So I finally broke down and picked it up for the Popsugar Reading Challenge #14: A book set in space.

Let me tell you, I loved it!!! I highly recommend the book.

The book was intelligent and funny and just plain cool.  The book had a bit more depth (naturally) and had some great new bits not seen in the movie.

One of my favorite scenes is still the moment where he calls himself a space pirate.  My other is when he razzes Carl Sagan about colonizing Mars.

So what were your favorite scenes or lines from the the book or movie?

GOOD 2019 EVERYONE!!

I've been busy for the last few months. The real life job has been full of books, books, and more books.

I had to use up the money from (I think) three grants before they expired. That meant A LOT of processing.  The good thing is that our public library now has a decent manga collection that I feed with my regular funds. 

The cool thing is that the stats for the collection was astounding. It had super high stats for the year.  It did better that some of our other collections. Woot!

Image from Playway.com

And it was not only books. There were a ton of playaways. Those are audio books. Tiny, portable, and can go just about anywhere.  They run on a AAA battery. 

I had two major projects in the works that had to be done. A major weeding of my Juvenile and YA sections.

Other than that, life has been going on. We were sadden to lose one of our fur babies. She was 17.

We were all depressed.

A month later, my brother brought home an impy little turd named Reba. She is a tiny 7 lb. bundle of Speedy Gonzalez energy. She has two motions stop and light speed.  She is also a sand worm from Dune. She burrows under the covers like one.  Nothing like getting a frigid nose butting your arm at 3 a.m. so she can bury herself under the covers.

I have decided to do the Popsugar Reading Challenge again. 

I know, I know. I tried in 2015 and didn't finish. This time I've planned ahead and found books to fit the categories ahead of time. So now I just have to read them.  Plus, I decided to do a reading log to go with it.

I've labeled the reading log with each of the Popsugar challenge categories ahead of time. Now I just fill in the pages with the books I choose.

I've also decided to pledge a set number of books in the Goodreads reading challenge, which I've never ever done before. I officially read 300 books (okay, mostly manga) last year. This year I said 250.

Sounds like a lot, but it's not really.

I also want to downsize my billions of books. So I'm bound and determined to read them and get rid of the ones I don't want anymore. 

So how has your January treated you?

ABSENCE MAKES THE HEART GROW FONDER

Hi everyone.

Yes, I've been absent for a long time.

I've been grinding hard on the whetstone of life.

Work has been a big thing with Summer Reading Program in June and July. It was a blast. We did rocks, fossils, geodes, clay sculptures, and music. The theme this year was Libraries Rock.  Very easy to interpret into different things like music and geology.

And before that, I was having fun creating a new manga and light novel collection with grant funds for the library. Yes, it sounds horrible. Our public library has had no manga or graphic novels for the entirety of my life until last year.

I was a kid in a candy store! There are so many series that I couldn't make up my mind to get. But I had a poll I did and narrowed it down.

 I have Fairy Tail, Assassination Classroom, Death Note, Black Butler, SAO, and, of course Dragon Ball. As some of my shonen series.  Ouran HSHS, Black Bird, and some smaller shojo series.  For the kiddos, I got Legend of Zelda, Yokai Watch, and a host of new Disney/Tokyo Pop manga.

All in all, my colleague and I processed about 600+ manga on top of the regular monthly orders throughout 2017.

I've been reading quite a a bit too. My new obsession is light novels.  There are so many out there now. According to an article from Japanese Times, Yen On (a manga and light novel imprint of Hatchette Book Group) has had give or take a 1000% increase in four years.

I am definitely on this bandwagon. I love Sword Art Online, Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon ?!, Death March To a Parallel World Rhapsody, No Game No Life, Your Name, Log Horizon, Arifureta, Irregular at Magic High School, I've Been Killing Slime For 300 Years and I Maxed Out My Level.

Many series are in the Isekai genre,  Isekai is the "I died and got reincarnated into another world. I was transported to another world. I was sucked into a video game world." or any variation on that theme.

In my experience so far, I find I want to read the books after watching the anime. Death March was one such series.  The anime only from book 1-3. There are now six books published. And now I hope the anime gets a second season so I can watch the next books come to life again.

Wow, that was a huge tangent I went off on.  Heh heh heh.

Anyway, that has been my life for the last while.

If you're a manga or anime fan give some light novels a try. If you are new to the light novel franchise,  there worlds to explore that can only be found in them.

If you have a favorite or want to ask about mu latest obsession, give me a buzz.

FULL METAL ALCHEMIST IS LIVE!

I just found the live action Fullmetal Alchemist movie on Netflix!!

So watching it as I type!

For those who do not know, FMA was created as an anime in the late 90s as well as a remake called FMA Brotherhood in the 2000s.  It was based on the manga of the same name.

There are anime movies as well as ovas for each series.

This has been on my watch list since the news of its production was released.

If it is as awesome as I hope, this will be a preorder.

Already two things I know will happen that will destroy me.  All I will say is Hughes and Shou Tucker.  Those that have seen the anime will know and those who haven't will not be spoiled.

I will now go hide with my tissues and blankie waiting to bawl my eyes out without regret or remorse.

WELCOME TO WINTER!

As yesterday was the Solstice, I'm wishing everyone a wonderful winter.

Have a wonderful holiday season!

MY NLA CONFERENCE: CRAZY LIBRARIANS RUNNING AMOK!

Hey everyone! Happy Halloween, Samhain, Dios de los Muertos, and whatever else you want to celebrate!

This is my post for the NLA-MPLA 2017 (Nevada Library Association- Mountain Plains Library Association) conference that took place in Tahoe.  It was three days of Hard Rock, Harveys, and librarians from all over the states.

We arrived for the early bird sessions.  I went to the Early Literacy one. It was an eye-opening session. It made me think about how important it is for kids to be happy and supported and to help them to learn to read.  I loved the booklet that was given to us. It is a very useful tool.

The vendors were all amazing. The A.W.E. station and the book vendors were really interesting.  The swag was awesome.

My favorite had to be the Rocky Mountain Puppets.  Their presentation was enjoyable and I loved every minute of it.  I hope we have the chance to get them here.

I was sad to miss the book signing with Dan Bar-el, but luckily, he was nice enough to sign extra books for those that couldn't make it.  He was one of the NYRA (Nevada Young Readers' Award) winners this year.

We stayed in the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino.  There was a place to get good coffee. Needed my fix of chemical dependence or I can't function as a human.

We had a lovely dinner and lunch at the Lucky Beaver just across the street and a couple of doors down. Yummy, yummy food and some 'unique' titles for their meals.

All and all, I had a wonderful time with lots of fascinating information and great people.

A to Z Challenge 2017 -- Reflections #atozchallenge

REFLECTIONS

So I was hedging on whether to do A to Z this year.  I was totally not going to do it.  Then, I watched Sword Art Online: Ordinal Scale in theaters on March 9th.  It was a fantastic edition to the SAO franchise.  I loved it.  I love the anime and the light novels.

It inspired and excited me so much that the idea for this year's theme popped into my head then and there.

Thus, I ended up changing my mind.

So I did a headlong frenzy of name finding. I internet searched anime lists, I scoured my anime shelves and manga books, and racked my brain to find those ever elusive Q and X letters.

I had to hedge on only one this year. Stupid X.  But my X post happens to be in my top ten of absolute favorites. So, all was cool. I was happy about it once I resigned that there wasn't an X anime character name that I had watched and liked.

My first post was prewritten on March 13th and it went on from there. I finally got Y (yes, I finished Z before Y) on April 26th.

But the most wonderful thing was I didn't get sick in the midst of April like I usually do. So that was fantastic.

So onto the awesome and not so awesome.

Thank you everybody who visited my blog this year.  Real life kicked my bootie this year with Summer Reading Program prep as well as other catastrophies.  So I couldn't get to other blogs as much as I wanted. I wish I could have visited more but life before fun sometimes.

I really, really missed the linky list.  It was handy to tab out 10 or more blogs and see what was happening on them.  I had a few regulars but not many new ones popping up on my blog this year.

So that was the not so awesome.

The awesome was there were some amazing A to Z blogs I did find. There was the snarky and hilarious posts about Mythology, Hair Bands, and Folklore.

Here are some of the anime characters that didn't make the list that I love as well:

Agil - Sword Art Online
Amon - Witch Hunter Robin

Creed Disketh - Black Cat
Chidori Kaname - Full Metal Panic

Ein - Cowboy Beebop
Edgar - Earl and Fairy

Gintaru - Gingitsune
Goku - Dragon Ball

Hiei - Yu Yu Hakusho
Hagi/Haji - Blood+
Hayate - Pretear

Yuuko Ichihara - XXXHolic

Karma Akabane - Assassination Classroom
Kurapika - Hunter X Hunter
Krusty - Log Horizon
Klein - Sword Art Online

Levi - Attack on Titan

Mikona Modoki - XXXHolic and Tsubasa
Mamoru Kusanagi - Blue Seed
Major Motoko Kusanagi - Ghost in the Shell

Lucrezia Noin - Gundam Wing

Okarin - Stein's Gate

Ryo-Ohki - Tenchi Muyo
Raven - Earl and Fairy

Sephiroth - Final Fantasy VII Advent Children
Sadao Maou - The Devil is a Part Timer

Twilight Sazuka - Outlaw Star
Trunks - Dragon Ball Z
Thoth - Kamigami no Asobi

Vincent Valentine - Final Fantasy VII Advent Children

Yu Kanda - D Grayman
Heero Yui - Gundam Wing