We’re off to see Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. I’m excited to see Lupin and Sirius again. I find them some of the more endearing characters in the book series and the film casting has definitely grown on me over time. In fact, it was really too bad that Sirius’ role from the fourth book was cut down to one scene, although I understand that not everything written in a 700-page book will fit into a two-hour movie.

I’ll also be happy to see Mrs. Weasley back, because I love her. I think we all need a Mrs. Weasley in our lives…

It’s looks ready to start pouring out right now, which will make the us a bit soggy for the movie, but I don’t care!

We’re very excited about seeing the film at the great, old-style Uptown Theatre a few miles up the road from us in D.C. We’ll be particularly happy if we get seats up in the balcony, which is truly a wonderful place to see a movie from!

I can’t wait!

Photo courtesy of KCIvey, under the Creative Commons agreement.

My reading mojo had been missing for the last six months, but it seems finally to have returned with a vengeance. This month I finished eight books, the most since last year at this time. (I wonder if that’s just a coincidence or if June has always been a reading high-point for me?) (more…)

The American Library Association meeting was a successful one, both from a work perspective and a personal one.

On the work front, I found this to be the first national conference we’ve attended where librarians en masse seemed excited about our consumer health materials. Whether that was due to overwhelming attendance (and thus merely a larger version of the core audience who had always appreciated our free materials) or to a shift in professional perspective on the topic, I cannot say. But I can say it was very exciting to have to return to the office three times in order to retrieve more material. I hope the books come in use to library communities.

On a personal front, the grand total for the weekend book acquisitions ended up at 21 (including gifts). I paid a whopping $9 to purchase three of the books I wanted for gifts, but otherwise everything was free. I’ve started one of my new books already, but probably won’t get to finish it until next month, so look for a review of it and others at the end of July. (I currently have four other books I’m currently in the middle of reading…)

I also got to have dinner with Bill and Jana of Unshelved. It was a nice, laid-back evening of conversation and Ethiopian food and I came away after dinner feeling more relaxed than I have in a while. (So relaxed, in fact, that I dozed off in front of Trader Joe’s while reading my book after I stopped to buy milk and bread.) As always, I’m impressed by what nice people Bill and Gene know and look forward to meeting Jana, their store manager, again.

The only regret of the weekend is that I missed meeting Maggie, who is hosting the Southern Reading Challenge, which I’m taking part in this summer. Hopefully, I’ll get to catch up with her at some future conference.

I’ll be working this weekend, but I’ll also be collecting some new books at this weekend’s ALA convention in D.C. If you are a librarian and are coming, be sure to stop by my booth (4055) and say hi.

If you’re local and just want access to free books and gichgaws, come to the convention center this weekend. This link might get you free registration; otherwise it only costs $25 to get into the exhibit hall and you’ll come away with an armload of new or upcoming books that more than covers the price of admission.

Authors have been announced for this fall’s National Book Festival. This event is always a lot of fun and well worth a day in the city.

Thanks to Book Moot for the tip that the list was out!

You wouldn’t know it from this list, but I really have been reading some books aimed at adults (and books outside the fantasy genre). They will feature in June’s Into the Stacks, however, because I’m not done with them. Patience, people. Patience… (more…)