Printed so that it read upside-down (yes, I can read upside-town text quite easily; it’s one of those useless skills you pick up in childhood and never quite lose):
Today’s book review is of Eldress Bertha Lindsay’s Seasoned with Grace, and today’s entertaining t-shirt design is:
The Human Gee Gnome Project
Discover the little oddities in life
This morning I was stunned to realize that Errant Dreams Reviews now contains 600 reviews. Six HUNDRED reviews. SIX hundred REVIEWS!
SIX HUNDRED REVIEWS!!!
*ahem* Sorry about that. Got carried away.
It took about 10 years, because I wasn’t always as focused on reviewing as I have been for the last year or so, but there you have it. Now that’s a milestone!
Edited to add: After all of that, you’d think I’d remember to post the link to today’s 600th review! Sheesh! Here it is: Susanna Carr’s upcoming Red-Hot and Royal!
Today’s Booking Through Thursday:
Here’s something for Valentine’s Day.
Have you ever fallen out of love with a favorite author? Was the last book you read by the author so bad, you broke up with them and haven’t read their work since? Could they ever lure you back?
I’m wracking my brains here, but no, I can’t think of one. All of my favorite authors have so far kept the faith with me. I look forward to checking out others’ answers to this question and seeing how often it’s happened for them.
I’ve posted several book reviews since my last post; all of them, for the first time in a while, are fiction—no cookbooks, no non-fiction. Weird, huh? Here they are:
I also have the awesomest husband: I got a box of books for Valentine’s Day! It includes some Val McDermid mysteries (I’ve wanted to read her stuff ever since watching the British TV version of ‘Wire in the Blood,’ based on her novels), one of which I’ve already started in on. I just couldn’t wait!
From this week’s Booking through Thursday:
Sometimes I find eccentric characters quirky and fun, other times I find them too unbelievable and annoying. What are some of the more outrageous characters you’ve read, and how do you feel about them?
For a brief moment I thought I’d skip this week’s BTT due to my notoriously bad memory for details; I was sure I wouldn’t be able to think of an answer. Then I realized it’s such a good question, and I had such a good answer for it, that even I could come up with something.
The two main characters in Bill James’s detective novels, Harpur and Iles, are… unbelievably quirky. And yet, I mean that in the best possible way. I’ve encountered them in two books so far: Wolves of Memory and Girls. They’re completely wacky, and yet so well-written that you just can’t rip your eyes away.
From one of my reviews:
Colin Harpur and Des Iles are two of the strangest detectives you’re likely to come across in your literary wanderings. They have a bizarre
interdependentcodependent relationship, and each of them has his insane quirks. Iles is a schizophrenic dandy who often scares people more than the criminals do. Harpur is a solid, methodical man who thinks very highly of Iles, despite having slept with his wife Sarah, a fact of which Iles is prone to reminding him—loudly—at the most inappropriate moments.
And the other characters in these books aren’t all that much more ‘normal’ than those two! They’re deliciously fun to read about, particularly since James has a knack for hysterical dialogue and interior monologues that can keep your attention for hours.
And speaking of reviews, today’s is of the EatingWell Healthy in a Hurry Cookbook. Yum!
So far the diabetic desserts cookbook is faring well in our testing, but the Shaker cookbook isn’t. The high-scoring cookbook streak had to end sometime, I guess!
I almost forgot about today’s Booking Through Thursday!
How much do reviews (good and bad) affect your choice of reading? If you see a bad review of a book you wanted to read, do you still read it? If you see a good review of a book you’re sure you won’t like, do you change your mind and give the book a try?
I make up my own mind about the books I want to read, but I use information from reviews to aid me in doing so. I.e., I’m not going to avoid a book because someone else didn’t like it, or read it because someone else did, but I’ll look at the reasons why they liked or didn’t like it and use that to help me figure out whether I’m likely to enjoy it or not.
This is the same philosophy I use when writing reviews. I firmly believe my reviews should be just as useful to folks who don’t share my tastes and views as they are to those who do. I think someone should be able to look at my gushing review of a book I loved and get enough information out of it to know they probably wouldn’t like it, and vice versa. I’m sure I don’t always succeed at this, but I try anyways.
Speaking of which, today’s review is of Elizabeth Falkner’s Demolition Desserts!
Short post today. 
I just wanted to link to the three recent book reviews I put up: Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day, The Writer Behind the Words by Dara Girard, and Soups & Salads for Spring and Summer Days. Upcoming: the Baker’s Odyssey cookbook, Bettie Sharpe’s Ember and John Karr’s Dark Resurrection.
Okay, okay, I admit that part of my lack of posting is a result of the Pirates of the Burning Sea pre-launch, which started Monday. Despite the mess that SOE made of the pre-order, the game itself is every bit as much fun as I’d hoped. I’ll post about it in more detail soon!
Today’s Booking Through Thursday is all about anticipation:
What new books are you looking forward to most in 2008? Something new being published this year? Something you got as a gift for the holidays? Anything in particular that you’re planning to read in 2008 that you’re looking forward to? A classic, or maybe a best-seller from 2007 that you’re waiting to appear in paperback?
Oddly, the two books I’m looking forward to the most are the ones I get to use this week. My husband and I are going to a Twelfth Night feast this weekend at a friend’s, and we were asked if we’d be willing to make bread for 25 people. Willing? We’re psyched! As it so happens—and this is a total concidence—I just got review copies of two very appropriate cookbooks. One is A Baker’s Odyssey, a book of traditional bread recipes from around the world. The other is Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. So we get to make a bunch of really great breads that we’ve never made before, share them with wonderful people, and test out two review cookbooks! It doesn’t get much better than that.
Speaking of cookbooks, I have two new book reviews up: Wild Game Cookery and Make-a-Mix. More to come—particularly those bread books!
*blinks sleepily and glances at the watch*
Yes, yes it is.
Here are some links to the latest book reviews:
I now have the ability to easily add new links to the main page of the site, so it’s being updated quickly now. I’m in the middle of reading Bill James’s Wolves of Memory and hope to have a review up for that Monday at latest.
An early-morning conversation:
Me: I’ve noticed a pattern. I’m most prone to insomnia after sugary, fatty desserts.
My husband: Another good reason to eat well and take care of ourselves.
Me: Oh, speaking of, I ran some EVE missions last night and sent you another 3 million ISK for implants.
My husband: I’ll pick up some cupcakes on the way home from work.
Actual conversation. 
I deployed three new designs to the cafepress stores last night. One went to Caffeinated Chicanery, the writing-reading-cooking-humor-etc. store:
THAT
They told me I couldn’t
wear that on a T-shirt
Okay, so we might be over-fond of wordplay and irony-based humor, but I think lots of other people appreciate it too. 
The other two went to Gamers’ Heaven, our gamers & geeks store:
It’s the companion piece to our Level 70 Mom design; I noticed sales of the latter were going up noticeably as the Christmas season approaches, figured folks were buying them as gifts, and thought it would be nice to have a matching design for dads too. So I set our business partner to the task of brainstorming image designs, and then I put them together. Fun process.
The other is called ‘Boss Faction,’ and it’s for all you working Warcraft or other mmorpg players:
I’m not kissing ass
I’m just grinding boss faction
Don’t forget if you sign up for the monthly store newsletters (left-hand navigation column, at the bottom) you’ll get access to a subscribers’-only sale each month. Also you won’t have to worry about missing our special announcement later this season!
That’s it for now, I think, although I’m sleepy enough that I’m not sure.
