I've been reading.....a little bit of very good horror!!!

I realized last night that I hadn't posted for most of this week! I made the decision to start reading more in the evenings, so I've been happily reading every night. This seems to mean less blogging......so I am still finding a balance between writing here - I would like to write every other day, at least - and reading. It has been blissful to sit every night and lose myself in a book. I read "Lean, Mean Thirteen" by Janet Evanovich, two wonderful short stories by Neil Gaiman in "Fragile Things", realized I couldn't keep reading "The Hero With a Thousand Faces" by Joseph Campbell since I've got it on my non-fiction challenge list that begins only in May! and I've begun "The Shaman's Crossing" by Robin Hobb, which I was supposed to read for the birthday challenge last month and missed getting to. All these I will review, but I am too tired tonight,too wired after our Ottawa Senators lost their hockey game tonight in a wild game. I was shouting at the tv so much my daughter came over to see if I was okay!

So I know what I want to talk about: Stephanie over at Stephanie's Confessions of a Bookaholic, has a post about the 2007 Bram Stoker Awards. For those who don't know, these are given out every year for the best horror writing of the previous year. This year's winner was for first novel: Joe Hill for A Heart-Shaped Box, and Sarah Langan for The Missing. Go see Stephanie's blog for the complete list and her comments, and the comments of her readers. They're interesting. What I wanted to talk about was, how many of us read horror now? So, I thought I'd do a little meme and see if anyone wants to answer. Feel free to pick it up for your blog, and let me know, or come whisper your comments :-) to me.....

Horror Reading Meme
Do you read horror novels?
Yes. But I am picky. I love spooky, atmospheric, creepy, ghosts and haunted houses and shadows. I dislike slasher books and movies intensely, though Hallowe'en counts as one of my all-time scary movies and I own it.
If we do,who do we read?
Stephen King! Dan Simmons, James Blaylock, anything with ghosts or vampires with it. I read the first 4 of the Lestat Vampire novels by Anne Rice. Shirley Jackson, Peter Straub. Ray Bradbury
What kind of horror?
See above. Ghost stories, particularly.
And if we stopped reading it, why?
Because it got silly in the last decade, with slasher cyberpunk gore books without much plot or characters. I really like atmospheric settings - Ray Bradbury was very good at evoking a mood, as is James Blaylock, and Stephen King.
I have started reading it again, because I have found scary ghost stories again. I read, last year, James Blaylock's Night Relics, which has a haunted house and ghosts, and though the ending wasn't what I expected, it still had plenty of chills. I've picked up Stewart O'Nan's The Night Country, which I have heard alot about and when Carl does his RIP challenge for this year (he has assured me he will!), this book is top of the pile. I'm getting Stephen King's new book for my birthday next month, Duma Key, which many reviewers has said is his best in a long time.
What are your favourite horror books?
It, - Stephen King
The Shining - " - this is the most frightening book I have ever read. I am still unable to read the novel when alone in the house, even though I have read it several times and I'm 44 years old!! the hedge moving at the corner of Jack's eyes, and little Danny and the terrifying things he sees that no one else does, completely terrify me.
The Haunting of Hill House - Shirley Jackson (and a very scary movie too,) one of the best ghost stories EVER!
Dracula - Bram Stoker still the best vampire novel, dark and gothic and frightening and creepy. The sense of moral dread as well, of not knowing how to protect from evil.
*Some Canadian Ghosts - SHeila Harvey - a collection of Canadian ghost stories. This is the first book I read about ghosts as a child, and the first four stories scared me so much that I got chills and had to put the book down. The 'story' (since these are supposed to be true stories) about Pamela and her haunted house, and the doll no one liked, even now writing this makes the hair on my arms move just writing about! Truly frightening hauntings.

There are short stories I could add, but I won't right now. I'll save it for October..... and it's late, and I have to go find them! but this brings me to Neil Gaiman's "October in the Chair" in "Fragile Things" , which is one of the two stories I mentioned at the beginning of this blog. This is what got me thinking about ghost and horror stories, since his story ends on a truly frightening note. As I read it, I thought, "aha! this is what horror is supposed to be like!" The thing in the closet, the thing upstairs/downstairs/at your front door, what we are all afraid is in a haunted house - this basic, primitive fear is what I want in my horror. Stories that are about the dark. But not serial killers etc, which are another whole kind of monster genre. I want the unseen, that which we know is true when the lights are out.

"October in the Chair" is the prelude to "The Graveyard Book", which as you all know is Neil's latest book, due out next fall. After reading this short story, I am going to be first in line...counting the days and hours...and I am awed in a way I wasn't before, by Neil's writing.
And, since I write ghost stories and horror stories, I have a new lease on this part of my writing life, which had laid dormant for years until recently. I have the answer to "why write horror?". Because we are all afraid of the dark. And we know there is good reason to be. So, we have ghost stories, horror stories, and fairy tales, and sometimes we make it out safely, and sometimes we remain lost in the woods forever.

Goodnight! Happy reading!!

Inkheart

It's done! I finished it yesterday. And......it's okay. I can't give it a rave review, because I struggled through the early and middle parts of the book to keep reading. I had two major complaints about the book: the main characters for the most part are so wimpy and until Fenoglio comes along, there is nothing to really cheer for except Dustfinger (more about him in a moment), and second, the bad characters have no redeeming characteristics. They are just bad, not complex or having anything that softens the badness. As we all know, no one is all bad or all good.
This could be the result of a few things: one, the writer (Fenoglio) wrote a fiction book that had cardboard good and bad characters, from which Basta, Capricorn and everyone else bad spring; or Cornelia Funke herself is not such a good character writer herself. I still haven't quite made up my mind about this. I was so annoyed at Capricorn and Basta, and found some of their actions and dialogue painful. They were evil, and here is the strange thing: they acted like badly drawn villains in a book, along with stilted dialogue - either the author (Fenoglio) wrote a turn-of-the-century children's novel that these characters came from, or the author Funke forgot to give her characters different voices, shades of gray in their characterization. All of her characters speak in the same way, and yet most of the baddies can't read. How could Capricorn talk at the same level as one of his minions? Did Fenoglio write him that way, or Funke? Is she more skilled to show Fenoglio as a so-so writer, or....?
Against those flaws, are the writing and setting, the story itself, Dustfinger, and the resolution. I love the story idea, that characters can be read from a book into life. I love the switch Funke plays on this idea too - please, Gentle Reader, I am not going to give many plot points away, because my intention with any book review is to give my opinion, but I'd like you to read the book yourself, so I don't intend to tell you everything about it! - and how she has Fenoglio take responsibility as the author of Inkheart, and how he solves it - is amazing. That was truly remarkable, and lifted the book. I like that one of the baddies is still on the loose, and where they all end up. I like Elinor, and even Mo, and how Meggie decides on finding out what her gifts are.
Especially, I liked Dustfinger. He was a complex character, good and bad, with a motivating factor that drove him to do what he did. He is the best drawn of any in the book. Inkheart is worth reading for him alone. He is the tragic figure that moves the plot along. I was angry at him, wanted to hate him in the beginning, but I found I couldn't. I had sympathy for him, and am of two minds about whether I want him to go back into his world or not!
I did in the end like Meggie - for a long time I wanted her to do something, anything, and finally, finally she does several things - tries to run away, gets a secret message to her Dad (very cute touch, how it is done), and that at the end, she decides what she wants to do. She makes choices of her own. If nothing else, this is a good book to illustrate why characters need to do something, anything, to make the reader care about them.
What I can't figure out, is why this book is banned. Somehow it was challenged in one of our libraries or schools here in Ontario, and this is depressing, because this is a fun read for a child. It is not a great book, but it is a good book, with its flaws at least being starting points for discussions with younger readers! ("what would you do if you were Meggie? Why are you mad at her father?" etc). It is a solidly-told story, and has delightful fantasy elements, as well as darker tones that might frighten very young children, and thrill older readers. I do love the Shadow......I wish it had been around a bit longer, existed longer, because that was truly chilling and original. I love the fantasy elements in this book, the fairies, dwarves, etc, and if the book was challenged for these, then I can only shake my head. If it was for the plight of most of the women slaves/maids in the book, and being a "girlfriend' of a baddie, then again, this is only referred to, and certainly nothing overt is ever seen.
I certainly will keep this book for my daughter to read when she gets older (she's only 5), and even with its flaws, I know I am going to read Inkspell, the sequel - I have to know what comes next!
So if I were to give it a rating, it would be 3/5.
Links: Eva

another giveaway

Here's another giveaway it's not too late to join: oakling is holding one this week, with a chance to win three books. Good luck!

I'm a sucker.......

Thanks to Emily I have been thinking this over, and decided that I cannot resist the poetry challenge. It's over at Kate's Book Blog who, funnily enough, lives here in Ottawa. No, I have not met her. though I'd like to one day!! Anyway, she is hosting a poetry challenge for April, (since April is National Poetry month for Canada and the US. All you have to do is post about poetry once this month! No category, just a poem, or collection. No pressure, just the love of words and poetry. So, haul out T.S. Eliot or something by Tolkien, Robert Frost, Sylvia Plath, Shakespeare.....

Myself, I just bought Ted Hughes "Birthday Letters", and while I was supposed to wait until August to read it for the Birthday Challenge, I find the book is calling to me, and I am unable to resist. So, I will be reading and reviewing it during this month.

However, to convince you reluctant(or shy to critique) poetry readers that poems can be fun and found anywhere, in the most unlikely spots, I am going to give an excerpt of and critique Neil Gaiman's "Locks," which a kindly Gentle Reader brought to my attention this morning (commenting on my post from yesterday).
Locks

We owe it to each other to tell stories,
as people simply, not as father and daughter.
I tell it to you for the hundredth time:

There was a little girl, called Goldilocks,
for her hair was long and golden,
and she was walking in the Wood and she saw-"

"-cows." You say it with certainty,
remembering the strayed heifers we saw in the woods
behind the house, last month.

Well, yes, perhaps she saw cows,
but she also saw a house."

"-a great big house," you tell me.
"No, a little house, all painted, neat and tidy."

"A great big house."
You have the conviction of all two-year-olds.
I wish I had such certitude.

A. Yes. A great big house."
And she went in...."

I remember, as I tell it, that the locks of Southey's heroine had silvered with age.
The Old Woman and the Three Bears....
Perhaps they had been golden once,
when she was a child.

And now, we are already up to the porridge,
And it was too-"
hot!"
And it was too-"
cold!"
And then it was, we chorus, just right."

The porridge is eaten, the baby's chair is shattered,
Goldilocks goes upstairs, examines beds, and sleeps,
unwisely.
But then the bears return.
Remembering Southey still, I do the voices:
Father Bear's gruff boom scares you,
and you delight in it.

(...................(excerpt several verses))

And then Goldilocks jumped out of the window
and she ran-"
Together now: "All the way home."

And then you say, Again. Again. Again."

We owe it to each other to tell stories.

These days my sympathy's with Father Bear.
Before I leave my house I lock the door,
and check each bed and chair on my return.

Again.

Again.

Again.

- Neil Gaiman, "Locks", from "Fragile Things"

- Note to my Gentle Readers - I had originally put down the entire poem, but then I started worrying about copyright, and using with permission of the author, so I left out part of the poem - not because it's not good! It's very! and all important - nothing in a poem is wasted (or ought to be). I just have to find out about copyright laws on the internet.

In fairy tale poetry there is a darker thread that runs through it, just like in the fairy tales they are based on. "Locks" is a good example of this - all along Gaiman drops hints of fear - in line 16, "I wish I had such certitude." What is he afraid or uncertain of? And then the line "The bears go upstairs hesitantly, their house now feels desecrated. They realize/what locks are for." (lines 46-48) This isn't a poem just about Goldilocks, which is what I first thought upon reading the title. It's a play on "locks", keeping the unknown out - keeping innocence in. Why? "And if I could," my father wrote to me,/ huge as a bear himself, when I was younger,/ "I would dower you with experience, without experience,"/ and I, in my turn, would pass that on to you./ But we make our own mistakes. We sleep unwisely." (lines 55-60) These lines reveal the poem is about wisdom, and growing up. Notice the little girl is 2, at the beginning of the poem. We know as readers that 2 year olds know nothing, and like this two year old are full of certainty. The same certainty that lets Goldilocks eat someone else's food and sit in their chairs and sleep in their beds, without knowing until too late that she would have to pay. She runs away, in the fairy tale. But the little girl in the poem wants this story told to her again, and again, and again. Note the use of three, which in fairy tales is a charm number, as well as a learning-by-repitition technique. The little girl, the author of the poem when he was young, and ourselves when we were children, all know that Goldilocks is doing something wrong, even though she is lost. We learn to ask permission, through this fairy tale, from Goldilock's point of view. But in this poem, Gaiman turns it on its head - its the bears who are afraid, and he identifies with the bear in the line "These days my sympathy's with Father Bear." (line 71) Why? - "that's what locks are for."(line 48) To keep things out. Why? Experience. Because one day his little bear (the little girl, our own children, us once upon a time) will be touched by the world outside. Someone has broken into their house, used their things, and slept in their beds! From the bears point of view, their house has been invaded. His child's things have been used! Who among us wouldn't get angry naturally? but in this poem, the bears, and the father/teller, are afraid. They know they can't stop their children from growing up.

We tell each other stories to keep each other wise, to warn each other, to teach each other. If you find yourself in the woods, don't just go into a strange house. Don't go into a stranger's house - that's Goldilock's lesson. The bears teach - lock your doors. Someone will steal your children away, but if we tell them enough stories, maybe, just maybe, they can learn without having to experience - but always, even the teller in this poem admits, children have to. Maybe a fairy tale can save a life, so they don't get in that car with the stranger, they don't go into that house, but even with that comes experience. Having to say no is an experience. The world is a big forest, and always, eventually, innocence is lost. So Gaiman treasures his little daughter's "cows", and "big house", and "again, again again," because one day "her mouth will curl at that line" and she will for a time, outgrow fairy tales (or so she thinks) and sleep unwisely instead.

I love the play between father and daughter, how Gaiman has caught the enthusiasm and joy of sharing in books - in stories - between parent and child, of the delight of being safe together while someone else faces the danger. You can never read enough with your kids, you can never tell them enough stories, because one day they won't need you tell them anymore, and they will have to make their own way through the woods with only our stories to guide them.

So, do you have a favourite poem or poet? Let's celebrate our poets who still work with this, the oldest tradition of all. And please, link to Kate's Blog, to join up, and let me know too what poem you are picking, or poet.

Now I'm going to go out for my walk near the woods (no bears there!), and see what birds are here, and enjoy the warm April sunshine. After snow and rain yesterday, it's beautiful here today!

things I have learned......

Things I have learned this week, this month, and this past 6 months of blogging:

- I went to Carl's site tonight and found not one, but two posts on faerie: Neil Gaiman (and the first photo made my heart stop, it is so breathtaking of Neil), and Brian Froud, and the links between them. I just watched Labyrinth (Brian Froud was the designer)last summer, for the first time in 20 years, and I enjoyed it, surprisingly so. and the poster that Carl was giving away, "Instructions" by Neil Gaiman, illustrated by Brian Froud, is one i am too late to put my name in the draw for (since the draw was yesterday!), but I want that too - the poem is instructions for entering the dark wood of fairytales, and it is beautiful and wondrous and magical, and found in "Fragile Things", Neil's latest short story collection that I am in the process of reading. I had read the poem recently and fell in love with it, and now I know it's a poster....my birthday list is growing! Please check out Carl's two posts, they each are incredible. What I learned - other than the same synchronicity Carl was talking about, at work in my life! - was that there is a whole group of us who love fairy tales and fantasy books, which are my main love. I am not alone!! I know people read fantasy in Ottawa (we've held conventions over the years, and had two specialty bookstores for science fiction, both gone now), but not so many people talk about it, and that is what I have been missing.

- I have discovered that we love books, and talking about them, sharing our thoughts, reactions, joys and disappointments. In amongst the books, we talk about our lives, too, and it's like a glimpse of one another through starlight - here's a star in Minneapolis, there's another in Germany, another in South Korea, several in Canada, oh another in England and still another in Ireland - oh look, France has joined....Australia....many many more the world over - so many in the US- I know this is what the Internet is, but this is wondrous, that we all can connect over our love of books. It's like how long-distance letter writing used to be (and I remember those days!), only this is more immediate, and this has its good sides (we get immediate comments on our ideas and thoughts, and cheered up and find amazing books!) and its bad side (those of us who write books end up blogging more instead of creatively writing!! and spouses come wandering over to see where we disappeared to...). I'm still in my baby steps, and i have to admit that it is a thrill to check my blog every night when I come home from work and see who has dropped by.

- BAFAB week - all the giveaways and contests. I don't care if I won or not. This is my first year blogging, and my very first witnessing to the incredible sharing of books in the book blogging world. What a wonderful idea, and it's amazing and fun to see how generous we are with our books. It's like saying "here, read this!" over and over! I had no idea when I started my blog that this book blogging community even existed, and I am thrilled to be part of it. Next BAFAB, I will be ready!

- that we have lots of thoughts about what we read. I know there has been a growing backlash from 'critics' about book bloggers and our lack of credentials, but I've decided that the book critics are jealous. We write about books because we love them, and we have an instinctual - and good reaction to whether we like them or not, or if they make sense. I studied literature at university, and it killed my ability to write for several years after. Not on purpose, but the critiquing of method, novel set-up, characterization, etc, made me incapable of writing anything because I was instantly analyzing before I had finished putting it down on paper! We need literary critics, and I also now think the book world needs us - we're the ones who love books, and pay our money for them, and we treat what we read with respect - even if we don't like a book, we give a thoughtful approach to why. And it's fun, it's like we have a huge book circle! Oprah, move over, the real book-reading world has far better choices about what to read! Hmmm,
and this is really odd - further signs of synchronicity - over at Neil Gaiman's journal site he has just written several answers to questions in the last week on creative writing classes and writing, and do they help or hurt writing? Oh....and he's gained "a tub' size in jeans, I'm not the only one this long long winter has affected!! Oh hurray!! very shallow of me, but hey, you have to read his description of his closet (see journal entry "snowdrops"....). note to self: must get a copy of "Odd and The Frost Giants" somehow......

- we really like fairy tales.

- it's really fun to sign up for challenges!!

- and even more fun to choose the books for each challenge!

- I got my sister to read Jane Austen for the first time through this blog! (Stand up, Lady P!!)

- Oh - Inkheart is getting better near the end, I'm almost finished!

- and the best of all, you, dear Gentle Readers. Meeting you, finding your blogs, sharing books and ideas and thoughts, I had no idea this was waiting for me. So, as I reflect on my first six months - I can't believe it's been only 6 months! - of blogging, I raise my milk bottle (baby blog can't drink yet...) to you in a toast - thank you - and I really thank all the writers out there, old ones and new, because without them we wouldn't have any books at all. And it's now 25 weeks, 2 days, 22 hours, and 35 minutes until *Neil's* next book, "The Graveyard Book" is out in the US (and hopefully Canada and the UK). :-)

A quiet Wednesday

Stephanie at So Many Books is giving away a Margaret Atwood poetry book, for anyone who is interested. I have to admit that I have not read any of Atwood's poetry until Stephanie put two on her blog. Now, I'm a fan. The second one, from today's post on her site, really applies to anyone who write :-) or wants to write.
Eva at A Striped Armchair is also doing a book give away, but first you have to do a very fun "match the quote with the book and author" challenge. I entered and I think I did very well - not perfect, there's two books I have no idea about - but most are fun quotes we all should recognize!! and Eva is so kind that for those who don't win the prize (Calvino's If On a Winter's Night a Traveller ) they will be entered in another draw to pick a book off her shelf of books looking for a new home :-) sounds good to me! So come and play!!
Another giveaway is at C.B.James at Ready When You Are, C.B. "the Master" by Colm Toibin, which was short-listed for the Booker Prize. He ended up with two copies and wants to give one away!! I'm entering...must read more prize-nominated books....plus, he's running a vote for the most popular Booker prize winner, so if you don't want the current leader "The Blind Assassin" to win, then please come vote! Since I have read exactly one winner, I'll have to vote for the Life of Pi....if only I read more prize winners!!! Not that I don't like the Life of Pi (and it's Canadian!), but I'm not sure it's the best Booker Prize winner ever...
Verbatim at Verbatim: Wanna Book has an amazing giveaway - she will buy you any book on Amazon you want so long as it is paperback, and you join in the BAFAB week - Buy a Friend a Book Week. So find a book a good home,and let her know, and see what you'd like on Amazon! (I wonder if she knows how many of us have long wishlists??) and do a good deed for a friend (and a book!) at the same time.
Nymeth at Things Mean Alot is giving away 4 books!! Plus a surprise one!! So it's a fun draw, and all you have to do is leave your name. There is a surprise 5th book, which is one I'm pulling to win (I really really want to read this) so you don't have to put your name down for this one - the fifth book, I mean. Please do enter the contest!
Both Literary Feline and Eva have other give-aways for BAFAB week celebrations, they are worth checking out, but I won't list here since going to their sites is also very fun! Both are sites I regularly visit.
So, good luck to us all!!!

I am very happy because finally, the ice and snow covering our sidewalks is GONE so I can at last, after two months of being unable to walk at all, I am finally able to start my long walks again. Tonight after work I walked over the bridge from Hull to Ottawa, in the sunshine, and my heart was overjoyed at the light! It wasn't warm - we set the record for a cold March, unfortunately, and I am beginning to hate the sight of my winter coat - but, it was sunny, and the ice is gone, and it's safe to walk on sidewalks again. I did my three miles, and it was good. :-)

And that's it for this quiet Wednesday. My Senators are on the verge of not making the play-offs (after almost winning the Stanley Cup last year!) and my Arsenal did so-so tonight in a big game (if *Nick* were here we'd be drowning our sorrows and blacklisting the referee AND stupid bloody Liverpool...), so I'm going to make it a strike for three and go try to finish Inkheart so I can stop carrying it everywhere!!!
Happy reading, and I am going to try to find a home for a book or two, or maybe I'll buy a favourite and send it to my sister or mother.....it's buy a friend a book week! My bright idea: I think this should be a holiday so we could have more time to read! To go with World Book Day :-)
Happy reading, everyone!

Odds 'n Ends

We are 16 cm away from setting the all-time snow record for Ottawa!!! That's about 6 inches of snow, for my American readers. 6 inches!!! We had snow yesterday, which thankfully got washed away in the rain later, about an inch of white stuff fell. We're so close now.....just one little storm and all this snow, the piles of snow everywhere still, would be worth it!!

I went book shopping today - a tiny used bookstore near my work had a 'liquidation sale', which turns out they are offering 25% off their sale price to reduce stock only. It's a mostly French bookstore, but since it is close to big government building (my building is one of two others further down the road), there is a selection of English books. I found 4! April shopping begun:
Two Penguin classics -
-Njal's Saga (trans by Magnus Magnusson). I'm collecting these. I am fascinated by the Norse culture, in part because York in England where i lived was settled by the Vikings in 800 AD, after the Romans built a settlement there. York takes its name from Yorvik, the old Viking name for the town. Every year there are re-enactments of various battles in and around York, including a Viking battle. There is also a fascinating Viking museum set up under a street in center York, where a large - one of the largest finds in England - of Viking life was found. York is layers upon layers of cultures, one of many reasons I love it so much. So I'm reading Norse sagas partly to understand Norse culture (and its effect on the British Isles when they came), partly because Tolkien built his Elvish language and wrote his sagas based on the Norse myths, and because I love old adventure stories and history!
-The Mabinogion, the Welsh medieval prose stories. My family ancestry is Welsh (among other countries) and I want to learn more about Welsh culture and history and literature. I also love Celtic names and myths, and this is one of the original Welsh sources for these.
-E. Nesbit's The Enchanted Castle - I honestly believe I have not read a book by this acclaimed children's fantasy writer, and i've decided to change that! Plus, the book comes with illustrations, so my daughter will have pictures to look at while i read it to her.
- Last, but not least - China Mieville's Perdido Street Station. I've wanted this book for so long, but never came across the paperback, and lo! there it was! So it joins my pile of TBR books immediately. I am so excited, this was a real find, and the best thing (other than finding these books) is that none have cracked spines! They are in excellent shape!

*Sigh* now I'm going to read Inkheart and see how quickly I fall asleep. At least Emily agrees with me that this is not the great read everyone makes it out to be, so I'm not the only one. I'm disappointed - I'm halfway through, and I really want to like this book! i will blog about it when I'm done. I will also be doing a follow-up blog to my Men of Jane Austen vote, when the second part of Sense and Sensibility is over next Sunday. So it's not too late to go vote at my blog post Emma
and cast your vote for your favourite lead actor in a Jane Austen production. At last count, Colin Firth (Darcy) was edging Jeremy Northam (Knightly)......

I will also do a quick follow-up blog to my fairy tale, since I had such a great response to my question on what's your favourite fairy tale Thank you so much, everyone, for responding! And it's not too late for those who are still pondering....
But I'm too tired tonight. Happy reading, everyone!