My Trip to the book store

So, those of you who know me, and heck, even those of you who just read my blog probably realize I'm addicted to books. Luckily, right by my house is a great used book store. Only problem is it's open crazy hours (just during the day, and not at all on Sundays) and there's no parking except on-street. You know what that means. I have to go by myself with both boys who will no longer sit in a stroller, and I have to parallel park the van. I feel like I need some kind of award just for attempting to go. I guess I do get a nice reward...a zillion new books.

I went a little overboard today, as a tend to do whenever I manage to get to the bookstore. And, with both boys running around like the little crazy men they are, I don't get much time to think about my selections. I just pick it up, peruse it for thirty seconds or so, and have to make a final decision about whether or not to put it back on the shelf.

Here's what I got. What do you think I should read next?

• A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. LeGuin (this is the next selection for an online book group I'm in, and won't be discussed until May 1 so I probably won't read this any time soon unless someone highly recommends I read it immediately).

• Blood Rites, Book 6 of the Dresden Files by Jim Butcher

• Dead Beat, Book 7 of the Dresden Files by Jim Butcher. Since I haven't read books 3-5 in the series yet, I doubt I'll read these two books anytime soon but I figured since TK and I are both enjoying the series, I may as well pick these up for half-price for once we have read books 3-5.

• The Alienist by Caleb Carr. I think someone in my book group had recommended this, but I can't remember for sure.

• The Jane Austen Book Club by Karen Joy Fowler. Sounds like a good light read.

• The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon. I'm really excited to read this book. It's about a boy with autism solving a mystery. I fear it won't live up to my expectations, though.

• Running with Scissors by Augusten Burroughs. A book that I've somehow managed to miss reading up until now.

• Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich. This is a nonfiction book about trying to live on a minimum wage salary. The author took minimum wage jobs to research this. It sounds interesting, but I haven't heard anything else about it so I have no idea how well done it is.

• The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, by Michael Chabon. I can't remember if I heard this was good or bad. I can't remember what this is about. And there's no blurb on the cover of this, so that was no help. I bought it just based on the vague memory that I'd heard *something* about this book. I sure hope I heard it was good and not that I heard it was terrible!

So what do you think? Any votes for the top of my to-read pile?

And book group members, you may notice Animal, Vegetable, Miracle is conspicuously missing from this list. Looks like I'm going to have to splurge and pay full price for that one as there are 30 holds on the next available copy at the library and it wasn't at the used book store. Oh well, it sounds really interesting so I'm willing to buy it.

Random unrelated thought: Every night at bedtime, my boys pick how they want to get into their cribs. Sometimes like an airplane, sometimes like a dinosaur, sometimes like a boat. You get the idea. We fly them, or stomp them, or row them into their crib. Well, last night, my little B-man's choice proved we have been spending far too much time talking about the potty. He asked to get into his crib "like a big poopy". What?? How does a big poopy get into a crib? And why are we pretending to be a poopy? Oh well, I went with it. We "tooted" our way over, then I "flushed" him into his crib.

The things I never expected about parenting...