Shiny things (read: distractions)

The bookshelf is beginning to rule my life. Every time I have some free time, I think, "I have to read." Which, by the way, completely takes the joy out of reading (so I'm trying to avoid that too). And every time I pick up something that is not originally from my bookshelf, I think, "I am never going to get through my bookshelf."

There's a simple solution. I could just go through it and toss the books that are sitting there that I've started and have never finished because they're not up my alley, books that have appeared on my shelf and I've never started them because I have no idea how they got there.

But I don't really want to do that, as long as it's going to take me to do this.

And so it turns out that I'm writing a lot of blog posts about books (and copy editing). What can I say? Some people live with cats, I live with books.

Right now, I've detracted and started reading the Macdonald Hall books, by Gordon Korman, because I was talking with someone about No Coins, Please, and I remembered how much I loved the Macdonald Hall books, with Bruno and Boots.

There's a lot more to the series than I remember, though this is probably because we owned Go Jump in the Pool, and all the other ones would have been borrowed or loaned. Unfortunately, the library didn't have the complete series, so I think I'm missing the first one and one other one, but oh well, I guess. (Another excuse to read them all again later?)

They may be kids' books (they weren't even in the YA section. I definitely had to go to the kids' section to find them) but they're still good for a laugh. I also picked up Losing Joe's Place, which is not part of the Macdonald Hall series but I still love, and I can get through about a book and a half a day, which isn't bad either.

One of the fleeting thoughts I had when I was reading The War with Mr. Wizzle was how much times have changed — besides one other mention in another book that Elmer Drisdale has a computer station, the Magnetronic 515 is the only computer in the book.

In case you haven't figured it out already, I love the fact that I can read these books as an adult and still literally laugh out loud while reading certain parts. Maybe it helps that the books are set in Canada, but these sound like real people, that could have grown up and still be kicking around today. So considering the time warp with the computer, I started thinking — how old would Bruno and Boots and their peers be today? (Not actually that old, when you do the math, in case you were wondering — maybe mid-40s?)

One of the great things about these books is that besides some of the time stamps, like the computers or lack thereof, there isn't really a defining time period of when this was set (the copyrights on the books vary anywhere from 1979 to 1995) — I would have to probably read the first book to be completely sure, but as far as I know, we don't even know how old Bruno and Boots are. My best guess would be 11 or 12, if they were at the boarding school for seven years (there's seven books) and graduated.

But I think I'm thinking way too much about it. They're really fun reads though — so glad I left my bookshelf for another week or so.