I have certain authors I read from. It takes me a lot to trust that a new book is going to be good enough to buy.

Plus my hobbies include drawing and playing video games, so I have a lot of ways to entertain myself.

It is funny though that I picked up my first Kushiel book while I was moving. All of my stuff was in storage so I went to the bookstore and picked up the second one by mistake. I was only 14 years old, boy was I in for a surprise when I got further into that!

:XD I don't remember how I picked out the first Kushiel book but I do remember that I hadn't read it previously, even from the library, and it was a risky purchase for me. Normally I would never buy a book I hadn't read before - I mean, that's what libraries are for, right?

I play video games as well and watch anime. Actually I have a lot of other things I could do but reading gets priority.

What did you think about the second book when you were 14?

Well, I noticed from reading that one and then moving on to the others, is the second one seems to have a lot more politics in it than the others do. It made it a little difficult to understand a lot of the why all this was happening and I wasn't harboring the deep hatred for Melisande that would have made the ending that much sweeter.

The sex definitely surprised me! I hadn't read anything like that so it was quite a shocker.

But I came away feel good about the story and when I saw the first book in the bookstore I quickly picked it up and have been reading her books ever since.

Just finished Namaah's Kiss last night. It was excellent and I can't wait to read the next one. I wish soft cover books came out sooner than they do.

I did really miss the old characters every time they were mentioned though. :(

I know! When I was reading through Imriel's books the first time I kept mentally jumping at the book every time the original characters were mentioned or had a scene in the story. I did it less with the latest trilogy but I always think to myself, "Hey! Hey! I know who they're talking about! Yeah, I'm in the know~!"

Yeah, I feel kinda all powerful when they talk about stuff in the new books like it's ancient history and I'm like "Yeah, I remember when that happened."

That's exactly what it's like for me.

I love how in the first book of the newest trilogy during the carriage ride with the two nobly born women they're talking about Melisande as if she isn't a traitor to the nation and the most reviled person of her time. I kept thinking to myself, "Phedre would be amused but Joscelin would be so pissed off. So would the rest of Phedre's boys."

Yeah, it's amusing to think of. XD I love how all the sailors like to say that they're descendants of Phedre's boys.

It's a distinct possibility! They really got around.

That is true. XD

It totally is!

I'm sad I haven't been able to start the latest book. To be honest, I'm not even sure the library has it yet and I can't afford to go buy a hardcover right now. Le sigh.

The second Namaah book? I really want to read it too, but I always buy my books in soft cover so I'll be waiting.

I was surprised to find out that my local library has a couple of them. I mean, I live in a smallish town in the bible belt. I did not expect to see Carey's books there.

I would for exactly that reason - libraries are supposed to be places of refuge and they can't legally censor what goes into a library. I've typically found that the smaller libraries in smaller towns or the libraries in highly conservative areas generally have a wider range of what might be considered inappropriate by others because people may not have access to those kind of books otherwise. I'm specifically talking about teenagers and from experience. Without my library I wouldn't have been able to read at all as a child and teenager.

It's a big part of why I want to become a librarian myself someday.

I actually think my high school library had a much better selection of interesting books though. I was cruising through the young adult section (which is more likely to have fantasy books I would interested in) and found next to nothing. I ended up just reading a few of the same books I'd already read before.

Do libraries get most of their books through donations, or do they purchase them themselves? I mean, that would explain some of the missing books in series, but my school library bought a lot of new books my junior year, so I'm not sure.

It's a mix bag of donations and library purchases. Librarians try to buy what patrons want to read and one way to let them know what you want to read is to find the purchase suggest form and drop it in the box/e-mail/whatever. If a series ends up not being popular with patrons they're less likely to continue buying it. Also, sometimes books go missing and haven't been replaced yet.

I think it's easier for high school libraries to have a better selection because the librarian there has a smaller group to work with. Public libraries have to cater to everyone in a given area and high schools only worry about teenage patrons.

They generally buy their own books through a third party consultant, depending on the size of the library and their budget. Honestly, if they're designating the funds towards a certain genre, then they have no excuse to be missing books unless the sections they do have were donated.

Oh I see. I don't think our library gets a lot of funding. :/

Unfortunately, that would not surprise me in the least.

I loved reading the first four books, and then kind of got distracted with life and money problems. I'm so behind now, I don't even know how many more in the series have been published since then. >.<

Well, they finished Imriel's tale and they've started a new story. So.. I guess that means there's 8 books now in the series. Yeesh, it seems like a lot!

I'm working on the latest book but we're visiting in-laws and my partner forgot to grab the book before we left the house. :stare:

Wah! That IS a lot. I've got a lot to catch up on, then. >.>'
Speaking of libraries... I wonder if mine would have them. I'm betting, based on my previous experiences at this library - that there will be two books on the shelf that I've already read, and two that I haven't - but not the one I actually NEED. I won't read a book out of order on purpose.

Ahah! I'm the same way and I'm betting that's the way it'll be at the library too. Isn't that always the case? Oh well. I know I do a lot of reserving titles from my local library online and then picking them up. Perhaps that would be an option for you?