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Saturday, October 04, 2008

Between Books

I can do this.
I can.
I can make it to Monday without a book to read.
I will follow the sage advice from The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy.

Due to an unforeseen shipping error and a bout of mid-week insomnia, I currently find myself 'between books'. Now I'm one of those people who MUST read something whilst I'm in bed before I can get to sleep. If I don't, my brain doesn't really wind down easily, and I end up tossing and turning and lying there all night.

I thought I'd got it covered, I thought that ordering 'Orphanage' by Robert Buettner from Amazon on Wednesday would mean that it would arrive possibly on Saturday, Monday at the latest. Unfortunately I didn't realise that it would be coming from America and wont arrive until mid-week at least.
Also, I thought it would be Monday at the earliest that I'd finish the excellent 'Line War' by Neal Asher, but my insomnia on Thursday night meant that I spent a good four hours or so just lying in bed reading and finished the book ahead of schedule on Friday evening.
I didn't even get a chance to buy a quickie today to tide me over. I ended up driving to Aberdeen and back so I didn't get near a book shop.

All this has left me at around the Olive mark on the stress chart below.

Anyone got a pamphlet I can borrow?

11 comments:

TLP said...

I don't even get on an elevator without a book to read. It could get stuck.

Never let yourself get that close to no-book-to-read!

BTW, have you ever used http://www.fetchbook.info/

Enter your book name or ISBN, or author, etc. Then after you get a result, sort by price. I've bought books for one penny there. Of course, shipping costs, but it's a great site.

Helen + ilana = Hi said...

I've heard that sex is as good as book for putting men to sleep. Or masturbation if yer short a partner.....surely you didn't get to the grand old age of 37 without making this discovery!

Steve said...

I've been told that the backs of cereal boxes can often supply an erstwhile reader with hours of edification (not to mention fortifying you with vitamins and iron)...

Inchy said...

Steve - This is true, and it also means I can send away for a free Cheerios pencil case.

H+I=Hi - Been there, done that, didn't work. It's an urban myth.

JW said...

You have my utmost sympathy: I don't have to read in bed at night (I'm usually too exhausted by the time I get there) but I feel so out of sorts if I go travelling without at least two books (the one I intend to read, plus a second just in case I fancy a change ... and, ideally, a few spares Just In Case).

You also have my thanks for posting something that has revealed Fetchbook.Info to me :)

Inchy said...

Ro - Try Bookkoob, it's the same sort of thing.

Rol said...

To avoid this ever happening to me, I keep a well-stocked to-read pile, and always buy in advance. (There are things on that pile I bought a year ago and still haven't got round to.)

Inchy said...

Rol - I usually try to keep my bookshelves well stocked, but lately I've been trying to reign in my spending a bit and use a just-in-time form of Russian roulette book buying.
Looks like I bit the bullet this time.

A new Ron,ron,ron a new ron,ron said...

Inchy, I recommend "No Man's Land" by Ruth Fowler. Its a sordid tale of the direspect and stereotyping shown by strip-club customers toward the girls who dance, interspersed with the tale of how a middle-class Cambridge graduate ends up a stripper in New York City.Its a memoir, and a damn good one. Besides which, I'm in it, 'cos my sister wrote it so buy it tomorrow!
Did you check out the new track pics I put up on Facebook?

Inchy said...

Ron, just checked out the pics. Lookin good, mate. What did you do to your foot?

A new Ron,ron,ron a new ron,ron said...

Dunno. River garbage - some yahoo thought it was OK to toss broken beer bottles near the river shore and I paid the price. On the mend now thoguh. Cheers.