Robert Plant & Alison Krauss

Rediscovered that I had this CD and enjoyed it all over again today!

R.I.P. Challenge IV

It's that time of year again!!! The R.I.P Challenge IV, hosted by Carl V. at Stainless Steel Droppings, officially begins September 1st and runs through October 31st (but Carl says "... let's go ahead and break the rules. Let's start today!!!").

R.I.P. stands for Readers Imbibing Peril and the reading for this challenge can come from any of the following genres:

Mystery
Suspense
Thriller
Dark Fantasy
Gothic
Horror
Supernatural

One of the things I love about the R.I.P. Challenge is that Carl wants this challenge to be fun, so there are two simple goals to the Readers Imbibing Peril Challenge:

Have fun reading
Share that fun with others

I will most likely want to read more than one book for this challenge, but what I will commit to is:

Peril the Third
Read One book of any length, from any of the subgenres listed earlier in the post.

Here is the pool of books I'll be drawing from (pool may become larger with time!):

The Ghost Writer by John Harwood
The Seance by John Harwood
We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson
The Vampyre by John Polidori
The Monsters: Mary Shelley and the Curse of Frankenstein by Dorothy and Thomas Hoobler
The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters by Gordon Dahlquist
The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters
Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury (re-read)
Tales of Moonlight and Rain by Ueda Akinari (also reading for Bellezza's Japanese Literature Challenge)
The Haunted Hotel by Wilkie Collins
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
Sunshine by Robin McKinley

Word Verification

Sorry folks, but I've had to add word verification for awhile due to what appears to be daily spam. If it turns out not to be spam, I'll move to comment moderation for awhile. Hopefully I can go back to making it easy for you to comment sometime soon.

The Trail

I thought I'd post a few pictures of the lovely trail that I've been spending much of my time on lately ... instead of blogging. And it's just a short walk from my front door!

(Click pictures for larger views.)

The eucalyptus trees near one of the trail heads.

Homes border much of the trail, but you rarely see them. Some of these nice folks maintain gardens with benches and water spouts for the enjoyment of those using the trail.

One of a number of trail branches.

One of my favorite old shade trees. The trail is just covered with oak, eucalyptus, and elm trees.

You've got to watch out for horse traffic when you're on the trail. This nice neighbor stopped and posed for the camera.

Miles of loveliness. You can forget you're in the city.

Reading, and reading, and ...

Yes, any free time I've had lately has gone to either reading or taking advantage of the lovely weather we are having here. I've done a lot of walking both before and after work and on weekends. Between work and reading and getting some much needed exercise, I've not been online posting or even visiting. I will be back though!

I'm currently reading The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami and loving every minute that I can spend in his surreal world. As usual, it will probably be a challenge to convey my thoughts on this Murakami book in writing! By the way, did you know that there is a Reader's Guide to this Murakami book? I just stumbled on it: Haruki Murakami's Wind-Up Bird Chronicle: A Reader's Guide by Matthew Strecher. I can't vouch for the guide since I just found out about it, but I wanted to put it out there for anyone else who might be interested.

Hope you all are doing well and getting in some fantastic reading and last minute summer fun!