Rich in Love

It seems the recession is affecting women's taste in escapist fantasy. Men who are filthy rich have always been popular fare but I found this list of today's top selling Harlequin romance novels and it's very telling. It features one millionaire, three billionaires, but not one single cowboy! (Unless Valentino is a cowboy. I'm going to assume he's not.) Sure, cowboys are a sexy treat when times are good, but when the economy's in the crapper every girl wants herself a proper billionaire.

1. The Sicilian Boss's Mistress
2. The Greek Millionaire's Secret Child
3. Billionaire Extraordinaire
4. Valentino's Love-Child
5. The Ruthless Billionaire's Virgin
6. The Tycoon's Rebel Bride
7. The Moretti Arrangement
8. Billionaire Doctor, Ordinary Nurse
9. The Maverick's Greek Island Mistress
10.Temperatures Rising

Number 8 on the list, "Billionaire Doctor, Ordinary Nurse" is by the same author as last month's bestseller "Spanish Doctor, Pregnant Nurse". Maybe I could get a job at Harlequin going through books changing the word Spanish to Billionaire, and Pregnant to Ordinary.

"The Ruthless Billionaire's Virgin"? How could that not be good?

Reading

You would think someone who majored in English and is studying to work in a library would have tons of books but I don't. I have a decent stash at home, but it never occurred to me to bring any with me here. It's never really been a problem, but on Sunday night I was really desperate for something, anything to read.

Besides my textbooks, the most interesting of which is called Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules, I have only two books. There's the Everything Bridesmaid Book (thanks Janet!) and an atlas I bought when I was in England because I didn't know where anything was. I really wanted to get all those European countries straight in my head. Monday night I resorted to reading the atlas. It seems I'm just as geographically stupid as ever. As a child, I used to play with a globe. I thought the names of some of the foreign places would be beautiful names for my children one day. Kenya and Australia were two of my favorites. Unfortunately I don't remember anything useful.

I finally made it to the library yesterday where I got Heave and a Sue Grafton mystery novel. Every once and a while I crave a good mystery, but I'm not really a mystery fan. So I always think back to my Women and Detective Fiction course to identify good authors. As a result, I've only ever read mysteries by women.

I started with the Sue Grafton book. On page 3 there was a greasy thumbprint halfway down the page near the spine. I tried to read the page but my eyes kept traveling down to the thumbprint. It was driving me crazy! I tried putting a piece of paper over it, but I still knew it was there. I finally gave up after I had read the first sentence seven times. I've read books in much worse condition, so I don't know why this bothered me so much. I guess I started thinking that if the last person who had this book was the kind of person to leave a disgusting thumbprint, what else might they have done with this book? It made me think of the episode of Seinfeld when George goes to a bookstore and takes one of the books with him into the bathroom. The bookstore makes him buy the book because he had it in the bathroom. Later he tries to return it, but is told the book has been flagged as having been in the bathroom. He tries to donate it to charity but they won't take it either. I can't wait to deal with crazy book shenanigans like that when I work in a library.

Singing Machine

Well, I actually didn't win the lottery. But I did notice that I only ever buy lottery tickets when I don't have any money. I guess that makes sense.

I'm reading a really good book right now called White Oleander by Janet Fitch. Corie recommended it a couple years ago but I only just now got around to reading it. It's about a girl's experiences in foster care and her relationship with her imprisoned mother.

I stopped by the Nova Scotia Community College campus in Halifax this week to check it out. I applied for the Library and Information Technology program, so that's where I'll probably be this September. It seems like something I'd be interested in. I still don't know what I want to be. I had a dream last night that I was a cop. My partner and I responded to a call about a crazy man with a gun. It turned out to be Nick Lachey who sang in response to all our questions and during the shoot-out that followed. He took 10 rounds to the chest and didn't miss a beat. I had to do all the shooting because my partner only had a water gun. I've stopped trying to interpret my dreams; it's futile. However, I think this one means I want to shoot Nick Lachey. But who doesn't?