Finishing Harry and Other Sundries

Last night I finished up the latest (and last) Harry Potter book. All I will say is that it was good. I didn't cry, though I did have a few little water-welling incidents. But no actual tears. And frankly, I'm pretty sure the welling occurred at places where normal people were not welling. But that's pretty typical of me and books. I still highly recommend the series (ahem, Robbo) and I have to say I think it's good that it ended when and how it did instead of dragging on and on and on.

So now it is on to The Rebels of Ireland - a book that makes Harry (at 758 pages) look short and incomplete. But it's about Ireland. And I'm going to pretend that I didn't slog through the precursor (The Princes of Ireland) and hope for the best. Though my heart sank a little when I saw the promo quote on the front cover that I had previously missed comparing this to Michener. *shudder* We were forced to read The Source in the...10th? 9th?...grade and I'm still not sure I'm fully recovered. Talk about slogging.

So far this year I have read 53 books (excluding textbooks.) I've never kept track before - it's kinda cool.

Finally, last weekend I got my hair cut. (Wait, it gets even more interesting...promise!) Anyway, near the salon where I go is a Family Bookstore. I think that's probably the closest Christian bookstore to me, honestly, though I'm willing to be wrong. Anyway, I thought I'd swing in and see if they had the Todd Agnew CD that Tim has been hankering for. (Usually we're able to actually find most Christian CDs we want at BestBuy - maybe that says we don't buy much Christian music, maybe it says they have a reasonable selection...I'm not sure. Point being, they didn't have this one, so I've been on the verge of ordering it a number of times.) Anyway, not only did they have this CD but they were having a CD sale!

Now, I am old enough to remember when Christian music used to come with little stickers on the shrinkwrap and you would cut out and save the stickers and when you had four (usually it was four) from one recording company you could get a free tape (um...yeah, this was back in the day, I mentioned that, right?) Oh how I loved those stickers. I was heartbroken when they stopped that because, you see, while most big recording companies (i.e. non-Christian) sell their CDs for right around $13, the Christian music industry still tries to get you to pay upwards of $16. And $3 extra a pop adds up. Thus the BestBuy thing (cause they're priced more normally there). Anyway...CD Sale = Good Thing.

And thus I can recommend to you now the following CDs as quite excellent (I'm not listing all 7 because Tim absconded with some of them and I haven't had a chance to listen yet. Big meanie.):

• Freedom (Michael W. Smith - from 2000, all instrumental, but so wonderful. How did I miss this!?)
• How Can We Be Silent (Barlow Girl - the new one. If you don't already love Barlow Girl, you're seriously missing out.)
• Beauty From Pain (Superchic[k] - like Barlow Girl, you're missing out if you haven't listened to them....though you may need to be a little younger at heart to enjoy their music.)
• Go (Newsboys - Oh how I love the Newsboys...and have for many many years. Everyone should love the Newsboys. This album may be their best ever - though I think that to myself with every new album. And they're Australian...which just makes them even cooler.)

Happy Friday, folks.