Life has been the Pitts lately...

Life has been the Pitts lately… 

My personal blog, 6/5/14

 If life is a bowl of cherries, what am I doing in the pits? - Erma Bombeck

I had forgotten about Erma’s book until I started writing this blog today. I actually had my title in my head when her book popped up in my memory and I thought it would make a nice tie in…...sort of like Dean Koontz’s Book of Counted Sorrows. 

Anyway…. 

Yes, lately life has been the Pitts. I realized this while juggling not two, but three different novels. I just finished two novels in which the leading characters happened to share the last name of Pitt. First there was Owen Pitt, from Monster Hunter International by Larry Correia. I stumbled upon this book, which is actually a collection of 3 novellas, in the new book section of my local library. Given the current pop culture fascination with zombies, this book has that and more. Just think of it as the ultimate monsters and villains combo plate and you’ll get the idea. 

The other novel is part of a series of books by Clive Cussler. I prefer to listen to audiobooks during my commute to and from work. While reading Monster Hunter International at home, I was listening to Poseidon’s Arrow in the car. Mr. Cussler has several different series of novels to his credit, and Poseidon’s Arrow belongs to the “Dirk Pitt adventures.” Actually, Poseidon’s Arrow belongs to the “NUMA Files,” which is a subset of the Dirk Pitt series. 

So there’s the other Pitt. 

It took me a while to discover Mr. Cussler’s works, but I’m glad I did. After finishing MHI (and Poseidon’s Arrow as well, to tell the truth), I started on Zero Hour, the most recent release of the NUMA series. While I’ve enjoyed his novels from the NUMA series, I actually prefer his books from the “Oregon Files.” I’m sure that’s because my first exposure to Clive’s works was a novel from this series. This also happened to be the audiobook version of Plague Ship. As of today, I’m 8th in line on the library hold list for the latest release of the Oregon Files, Mirage, so I hope they’ll buy multiple copies. 

I use both Shelfari and Goodreads as a way to keep track of what I’ve read and what I want to read. Both of these websites have many similar features, but there are enough differences in functionality between the two that I maintain lists on both sites. I use the export feature from both sites to collate a master list in Excel of my “want to read” books. I then organize these books by both title and author. It makes a handy list to use when looking for them in my library’s online catalog. Unfortunately, many of these books aren’t available at the library and I have to request them through the inter-library loan program. My “want to read” queue is even longer than my Netflix queue. A quick check today showed 135 books in my want to read queue and 109 DVDs on my Netflix queue. 

Now why does such a long list of books remind me of Time Enough at Last? 

Until next time… 

carpe cerevisi