Seanan McGuire (seanan_mcguire) wrote,
Seanan McGuire
seanan_mcguire
  • Mood: amused
  • Music: AC/DC, 'Let There Be Rock.'

The wheel o' Jim Hines (or, my friends amuse me).

Matt, Michelle and I have a long-standing tradition of passing books around the three of us like red rubber balls during a game of four-square. It started when we were in high school, where we knew what we all liked and didn't have much money to throw around. It's continued into our adult lives, where we still know what we all like, and still don't have much money to throw around. We see each other about once a month, when I take the train up to Sacramento for hanging out and role-playing games. (Yes, I still play with my high school gaming group. No, I don't see a problem with that.)

When I went up to visit in November, I brought Jim Hines's Goblin trilogy* to loan to Matt, and my ARC of The Stepsister Scheme** to loan to Michelle. When I went up this past weekend, Michelle returned The Stepsister Scheme -- she's going to be buying her own copy once it hits the store shelves -- and Matt returned the Goblin books. I began putting things into my bag to take home. Michelle promptly inquired, of the Goblin books, "Are you going to leave those here?"

Hee.

So I left the Goblin books in Sacramento and returned to the Bay Area, where my mother picked me up from the train station and drove me home. Once there, she hung around to chat a bit, and -- as I was unpacking my bags -- caught sight of The Stepsister Scheme. Bet you can guess what happens next, can't you? Good guess. My house is totally devoid of the works of Jim Hines, and I am amused. (My house is also practically devoid of the works of Kelley Armstrong, as Michelle is borrowing everything from Industrial Magic to Living With the Dead, but those had a less entertaining chain of custody.)

(*Goblin Quest, Goblin Hero, and Goblin War, all published by DAW Books, all available now from a retailer near you. Support your local bookstore. Buy more books.)
(**Coming from DAW Books on January 6th, 2009. The day after my birthday!)
Tags: jim hines, my mom is nuts, reading things, social life
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  • 14 comments

bkwrrm_tx

December 9 2008, 20:47:19 UTC 8 years ago

And I've just requested all the Goblin War books from the library.

I would have bought them, but I'm broke.

seanan_mcguire

December 9 2008, 20:51:50 UTC 8 years ago

No need for smallness. Libraries are amazing awesome spectacular things, and without them, a lot of us would never have become readers. Also, when a library gets a sufficient number of requests for an in-print book (with the value starting at a single request), they buy copies. The circle of literacy continues.

I hope and pray people will request Rosemary and Rue from their local libraries. And actually, you know, check it out. Fake requests waste the library budget, and that just isn't cool.

bkwrrm_tx

December 9 2008, 20:54:50 UTC 8 years ago

Well, I'm planning on getting it, so count one vote in Waco TX. *g*

seanan_mcguire

December 9 2008, 20:57:00 UTC 8 years ago

Hooray!

(I love your icon.)

jimhines

December 9 2008, 20:52:19 UTC 8 years ago

Word of mouth is a wonderful thing. Thank you! :-)

(And I know I still owe you an e-mail.)

seanan_mcguire

December 10 2008, 03:31:08 UTC 8 years ago

Tragically, it's not even because I adore you, it's because I shove books at my friends like my mother shoves burnt chocolate chip cookies. Although I only really advertise the ones I like, and only draw comic strips about the ones I really like. Or, um, really hate, but those are pretty easy to spot.

catnip13

December 16 2008, 01:01:58 UTC 8 years ago

I loved it, and can't wait to see what you do next with this series.

I'm taking the goblin books to Los Angeles for Christmas, as I got sucked into a Kelley Armstrong marathon last week.

catnip13

December 9 2008, 23:48:49 UTC 8 years ago

After we dropped you off, we went to Avid Reader, where Matt noticed that Steven Brust's Dzur is out in paperback. I wound up buying it, and then handing it to Matt as we left the store. After all, I have a stack of Kelley Armstrong to get through. Two down, by the way.

seanan_mcguire

December 10 2008, 03:31:24 UTC 8 years ago

I got your text. You're gonna run out, you know.

firestrike

December 10 2008, 07:24:08 UTC 8 years ago

And I'll be giving Dzur back to you tomorrow. It's good.

scholarinexile

December 10 2008, 14:19:16 UTC 8 years ago

I'm currently facing the problem of not being entirely clear who has some of my books, given that the chain of custody of, for example, some of my Pratchett collection has becomes so involved, and anyone who's read them has gone off and gotten their own copies afterwards anyway.

And I too still game with my high-school group, although this often involves chat programs, webcams, and a Java-based map system, since we now live in three different time zones and are only reliably all back in town at Christmas. My local gaming groups (I run four campaigns; yes, I'm that crazy) include two of my middle-school-gaming buddies, one of whom has been in my games literally since the day I started GMing.

seanan_mcguire

December 16 2008, 15:22:26 UTC 8 years ago

Owwwwwwwww. Yeah, I have the same problem with books and several CDs (at least one of which I think I just need to bite the damn bullet and re-buy, as it's been missing for years now).

batwrangler

December 15 2008, 15:41:36 UTC 8 years ago

I spent most of Saturday and part of Sunday waiting for Godot a generator and reading Golbin Quest based on this post (the GQ part of my days, that is). Thank you for a) making the wait much more bearable and 2.) causing sales people to remember me in a good way (you were the lady sitting in the corner with a book!).

seanan_mcguire

December 16 2008, 15:22:36 UTC 8 years ago

Hooray!