I just paid $240 for the priveledge of looking for a parking spot

It seems a bit outrageous to me to charge that much for a parking permit. Especially since staff don't even pay that much if they make under a certain amount. Well, students are definitely not making that much....it all seems a bit unfair. And now that I've found a great parking spot free right in front of the gradplex, I don't want to move my car. Which defeats the purpose of having one. Sigh....

Lots of books to catch up on!

Just finished reading: The Thief Lord, by Cornelia Funke. I keep seeing this places and thinking I should try it, and then I saw it on the shelves of the college library's juvenile collection (and I just want to add that I think it's fabulous that a college has a juvenile section, because it's often a nice break to come back to the books we loved reading as a kid or to see what's new and relatively short) when I was looking for the books we need for our Adolescent Literature class and I picked it up. I had a somewhat ridiculous walk back home--I'm not even sure why it was so ridiculous, maybe just because it was hot?--and I basically collapsed on my bed and pulled it out and ignored everything else for a while. The book was very good, the right mix of those improbable situations you imagine when you're a kid, like running away, with the real and practical, like street children having to find and preserve a place to sleep. And there's lots of plot twists and a hint of magic in there, too, so I'll leave you to discover them on your own. I will just say that I'd really love to know Victor's back-story....

Also recently read: The Inferno, by Dante Alighieri; translated by John Ciardi. Ever since the eleventh grade class I worked with at Camphill Special School studied this I felt like I should read it. I'd gotten a fair way through it but kept picking up other more immediately interesting things (see the rest of this list!). But now I've finally finished it. And may I say that I hadn't quite realized how much of this was Dante's commentary on the political situation? Which I suppose was much more relevant to when the book was written. I suppose I should find a copy of The Purgatory next.

The Umbrella Man and other stories, by Roald Dahl. Someone at Bookcrossing had mentioned this as being more for young adults than children, and I did find it in the YA section of the library. I'd forgotten how well Dahl can do just the right touch of creepy that it makes you uneasy for a while after you're done reading.

Otherland: Mountain of Black Glass and Otherland: Sea of Silver Light, by Tad Williams. I finally got through it! Not that it was a chore, it's just...he's so darn wordy, as a friend put it. And I'm amazed that he could keep all those seperate storylines straight in his head as he was writing it, because I had trouble keeping them in mine as I was reading! I'd be really into what one set of characters was doing, and then he'd have the next chapter be about a different person, and I'd think "Oh, right, I forgot about him!" That said, I liked most of the characters and I'd want to read any more stories set in this universe, like the one that was in Legends II. This feels like too little to say about such long books...but I think that's all I have for now.

Countdown to the start of school: 9 days