My pool of books currently consists of:

• Society of S – Susan Hubbard
• High Spirits – Robertson Davies
• Classic Victorian & Edwardian Ghost Stories – Rex Collings
• 18 Best Stories by Edgar Allan Poe – Edgar Allan Poe
• Faust – Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
• Betrayed – P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast

(Yeah, there are a few vampire books there, which I totally bought before I was sick of the whole vampire thing. But at least if I get them finished I won’t feel guilty that I still have them and haven’t read them, right? …Right?)

In other news, I’m actually about to set off to Toronto for the weekend for Fan Expo. QUITE excited about it – some of the panels look totally awesome. I’m looking forward to two in particular: Modern Literary Monsters (which is today) and Vampires in Fact and Fiction (which is on Sunday). Yeah, for someone who is sick of vampires, I really really want to see this one. Also: Bruce Campbell is going to be at FanExpo this year, which means I’ve been totally fangirling for the past month. Yes!

Anyway, need to head off now to finish packing and such.

Maybe I’ll take up audio books so I can listen to them and work at the same time… but I always find that I get distracted and don’t actually pay attention to what is going on in the book.

Even so, without as much time to read, I’m going to join a reading challenge. I told myself I was going to stop joining reading challenges, but this one fell in line with some of the books I’m reading/planning on reading soon anyway. It’s Chris’s Eco Reading Challenge. The requirements are as follows.

Part One:
Pick 1-5 books with a Environmental theme and read them in 5 months.

Part Two:
Commit an Act of Green Reading.

The two things that I am certainly going to read are Lori Bongiorno’s Green Greener Greenest and Grist Magazine’s Wake Up and Smell the Planet. I’m thinking about also reading Tamsin Blanchard’s Green is the New Black and Eric Chivian’s Sustaining Life… and possibly another one if I actually get that far.

My acts of Green Reading are to spend more time in my window seat reading and going to the park to read. Normally, I sit in my living room which has no windows – and thus, I am in need of using lights to read to.

1. A book with a color in its title.
The Blue Girl by Charles de Lint
That Yellow Bastard by Frank Miller (I would have to read The Big Fat Kill before getting to this one)
Blue Bloods by Melissa De La Cruz

2. A book with an animal in its title.
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

3. A book with a first name in its title.
Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict by Laurie Viera Rigler
David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
The Betrayal of Arthur by Sara Douglass

4. A book with a place in its title.
London Calling by Edward Bloor

5. A book with a weather event in its title.
The Tempest by Shakespeare
Storm Front by Jim Butcher (Book 1 of the Dresden Files)

6. A book with a plant in its title.
The Masque of the Black Tulip by Laura Willig

But it’s been a good challenge. I didn’t stick to my list (as per normal), but I did get a bunch of books I had been wanting to read done, and read about so many other books on other blogs that I have added to my TBR list. Next time I’m looking for something gothic or scary, it won’t be a struggle to find something, let me tell you. Anyway, I managed to read the following for this challenge:

The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux
The Strange Case of Ambrose Small by Fred McClement
Dreamquest by Brent Hartinger
The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova
Among the Shadows by L.M. Montgomery
Mirrormask by Neil Gaiman
Prowlers by Christopher Golden

It was a fun challenge, and I want to thank Carl for hosting it. :)

I’m not going to limit myself to thirteen specific books to read, but those that I am for certain planning on reading are:

Barbara Haworth-Attard’s A is for Angst
Will Ferguson’s Spanish Fly
Rick Mercer’s Rick Mercer Report: The Book
L.M. Montgomery (at least one of her short story books)
O.R. Melling’s The Hunter’s Moon

There’s a big huge list on the main challenge post recommending books, but there are a couple others that I would recommend to anyone joining in on this as well:

Will & Ian Ferguson’s How to Be A Canadian (Even If You Already Are One)
Will Ferguson’s Penguin Anthology of Canadian Humour
Really, anything by Will Ferguson
L.M. Montgomery’s Rilla of Ingleside
Maggie L. Wood’s The Princess Pawn & The Princess Mage

naval officers, pirates, buried treasure, U-Boats, submarines, sailors, dragons, fairies! There can even be “fencing, fighting, torture, revenge, giants, monsters, chases, escapes, true love, miracles…”!

I haven’t decided yet whether I will be participating at the Second Rank: Captain level or the Fourth Rank: Admiral level. It all depends on whether I get my hands on two more books before the end of the challenge. ;)

At any rate, I plan on reading the following two books:
• Scott Lynch’s Red Seas Under Red Skies. This is the second book in the Gentlemen Bastard Sequence. I’ve heard mixed reviews about it, so I’m not entirely sure what to expect from it. But there are pirates, apparantely.
• Kai Meyer’s The Wave Runners. Picked this up while in Stratford this summer. A couple of kids aboard a pirate ship? Sounds like fun to me.

And, if I decide to go for the Admiral level, I’ll include:
• Patrick O’Brian’s Post Captain. I haven’t read the first one in this series, but Rachel says I ought to start with the second or third book as the first is a little dry, and I trust her judgement when it comes to Aubrey and Maturin.
• Jules Verne’s Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. I’ve never read this book, but have always meant to, so this might be the perfect time to actually get around to it.

Of course, I could change everything but that’s how it’s looking now.

(Also, I think I may kick the challenge off with a Horatio movie marathon on the first weekend of November… Just throwing that out there so everyone knows.)

R.I.P. II is a September 1st through October 31st celebration of all tales gothic, eerie, creepy, and dark. Tales that one reads in the dark of night, experiencing delicious shivers of terror and suspense at each creak of the floorboards or each gust of wind.

I’ve decided to go with Peril 1 for the challenge, and I will be reading the following books:

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (a re-read)
The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova
The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux
Prowlers by Christopher Golden

Possible Additions:
Among the Shadows by L.M. Montgomery
Blood and Chocolate by Annette Curtis Klause
Gothic Tales by Elizabeth Gaskell
The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells
Mirrormask by Neil Gaiman & Dave McKean
Nine Coaches Waiting by Mary Stewart
Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury

In all honesty, I want to read all of my possible additions for this challenge, but I doubt I’ll have the time… but if not for the challenge, definitely soon. One of the main reasons that they’re in the additions list, and not one of the books I’m definitely going to read for the challenge is that I already own all of the ones I’m going to read for the challenge, and have to go on a hunt for the rest.

I ended up reading the following books:

• Robert Holdstock’s The Iron Grail
• Jonathan Stroud’s The Bartimaeus Trilogy : The Amulet of Samarkand
• Orson Scott Card’s Enchantment
• Scott Lynch’s The Gentlemen Batard Sequence : The Lies of Locke Lamora
• Holly Black’s Valiant
• Neil Gaiman’s Coraline
• Ruth Manning-Sanders’ Scottish Folk Tales
• Francesca Lia Block’s Psyche in a Dress
• Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream

I had so much fun with this challenge; I want to thank Carl for organizing and running the challenge. Not only did I get introduced to new authors that I now will need to read more of (Gaimon and Block), I revisited authors I had previously enjoyed (Shakespeare, Black, Card). I’ve now got a bunch of other books I need to add to my TBR list; most importantly I’ve also discovered a handfull of other blogs that I’ve added to my Bloglines feeds.

1. Thomas Malory’s Le Morte d’Arthur.
2. Robert Holdstock’s The Iron Grail: Book Two of the Merlin Codex.
3. Scott Lynch’s The Lies of Locke Lamora.
4. Jonathan Stroud’s The Amulet of Samarkand: Book One of The Bartimaeus Trilogy.
5. Orson Scott Card’s Enchantment.

I am going to attempt to fit in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, because it will always hold a spot dear in my heart. It was the second Shakespearian play I had ever seen at Stratford. Actually, it was the second Shakespearian play I had EVER seen, period. I saw it twice that season, and Colm Feore was in it. Ah, how lovely! (And it is quite possible that was one of the defining moment leading to my becoming a fangirl.)

Depending on how I’m feeling, I may substitute some books for others – I have too many fantasy books lying around here that I haven’t read yet. Enchantment is a re-read, but I feel it fits in with the fairy-tale part, as it is a re-telling of Sleeping Beauty, and also includes references to various Russian folk-tales apparantely. I was also debating adding Beowulf in there for more of the folklore bit, but really, I feel that with that poem and Malory… well, I wouldn’t get through it all. I mean, Le Morte d’Arthur itself is like five million 900 pages long. There’s no way I’d get everything else done too if I attempted Beowulf.

I was also going to add Cassie Clare’s City of Bones, but let’s face it, I’m about 50 pages from the end at the moment so that would be cheating. I will most likely be posting about THAT book tomorrow. LOVE.

Anyway, as a fake round-up, I did end up reading The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien, Celtika by Robert Holdstock, North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell, and Watership Down by Richard Adams. I lost interest Fairies at Work and Play by Geoffrey Hodson before I had even started it.