In Which Kati Confesses All....Again

It's a rainy day here and I feel the need to cleanse my soul. I do it frequently here on the blog. But since I haven't actually posted anything of any substance recently, here are 10 confessions that make me a not very good person:

1- I judge men who can't drive a stick shift car. Now sure, how could they know how if no one taught them? But I think men should be able to drive a manual transmission. I learned. So can they.

2- I sleep with four pillows. Two under my head, and one on each side of me that can get tucked between my legs. What can I say? I'm a side sleeper.

3- I tend to be very pious about how I don't watch reality TV. Except that I used to obsessively watch MTV reality. I loved Laguna Beach (I had to resort to talking about it with my niece Meghan, who was about 12 at the time), and I loved Newlyweds - Nick & Jessica, and my greatest love of all was Sorority House. Loved Sorority House - the bitchy, the drunkenness, the screechy "sisterhood" talk. LOVED IT!

4- I was the only person in America who was devastated when Savannah was canceled. Does anyone else remember Savannah? Aaron Spelling show, aired in 1996-1997, set in, what else, Savannah. Had Jamie Lunar and George Stults and Shannon Sturges and Ray Wise? OMG. I adored that show and was so pissed when it ended on a cliff hanger!

5- I've seen the Lord of the Rings movies approximately 100 times each. But my favorite is Fellowship of the Rings. I tried desperately to read the books and couldn't make it through one. I hate Tolkein's writing. Which probably makes me a heathen.

6- I love the Pride & Prejudice movie and the Sense & Sensibility movie, but I loathe Persuasion. Which DEFINITELY makes me a heathen.

7- I still don't really get the Loretta Chase obsession most romance readers have. Nor do I get the Laura Kinsale thing. I read and loved Lord of Scoundrels, and I've read Flowers from the Storm. But I haven't encountered a single other book by either author that has held my interest in the slightest since. I also don't get the Elizabeth Hoyt thing. Haven't liked a single one of her books.

8- I hated the movie Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. I've tried watching it on three separate occasions and never have made it more than 45 minutes in. I think it's self-indulgent and completely over rated.

9- I also never understood the big whoop about The Sopranos. I watched FIVE episodes of it and never got the appeal. Tony Soprano was a dirt bag. That didn't make him interesting, it made him a DIRT BAG.

10- I adore office products. I could spend hours in Office Depot or Office Max just looking at all the office supplies. I especially love all of the organization products. And I could own 10,000 pens and still never feel like I had enough.

There, it's not necessarily an interesting list, but it's a list.

So go ahead, cleanse your soul, confess something to me. And if you don't want to confess something, feel free to judge me about something I've confessed.

Everybody Cut, Everybody Cut...

Happy Wednesday, Everybody! Enjoy the toe tapping.

So Dark....So Twisty

Getting Your Clothes Ripped Off

Today on Twitter, Shiloh Walker, Jane Litte, Elyssa Papa and I got into a round robin about clothes being ripped off in romance novels.

Very often, during the heat of the moment, a hero will rip the heroine's shirt off. Buttons flying everywhere is creates quite a visual during a sex scene. Or, in the latest Kresley Cole book, the hero, a demon, rips panties and bras off the heroine on at least two occasions. And in general, the scene reads really hot.

But as some one who loves pretty lingerie, and has been known to wear it for her man (although said man is pretty much firmly in the "That's pretty, take it off" camp, not that I'm complaining), I would be seriously peeved if my pretty Victoria's Secret panties were ripped off me. Those suckers are like $20 a pair! Plus, if I'm buying it, generally it's to match a bra, and you can't always replace those. Needless to say, if you rip my panties off, be prepared to make a trip to the mall the next day to replace them.

Who's with me??

Pondering Audiobooks

I've had my Audible account for about two years now. In looking back on my library, what I find is that almost all of the books I've downloaded are books I've already read. Which I think might be weird.

The majority of my downloaded books are some form of Nora, either Nora Roberts or JD Robb. I particularly enjoy the In Death books because they are exciting and the narrator is really excellent. I've also got all of Lisa Kleypas's contemporaries, which are total comfort reads for me. And I just downloaded one of my favorite Linda Howard books, Shades of Twilight, which I adored, both in print and on audio.

The only "new to me" stories I've downloaded have been YA books: The Gemma Doyle series by Libba Bray, which I truly loved, the Wicked Lovely series by Melissa Marr, and The Awakening by Kelley Armstrong. I enjoyed all of them as well.

I also re-tried Jennifer Crusie's Welcome to Temptation, which I honestly didn't love in book form, but quite enjoyed in audio format.

I've also got Nalini Singh's Guild Hunter books, but that's mostly because I re-read that series regularly and having it on audio means I can listen to it while I'm working.

YOUR TURN: When buying audiobooks, do you download new to you books? Or old favorites?

10 Things...

Hey Everyone! Here's 10 things I'm thinking about this week:

1- Thank you Monica! Special thanks to the delightful Monica Burns for visiting last week. If you aren't reading her Order of Sicari series, you really must! And congrats to LeeAnn, who won the books from Berkley. Also, the book came out officially yesterday. If you haven't already done so, go buy it! You won't be sorry!

2- Don't hate me, but I've read Nalini Singh's next Psy/Changeling series book, Play of Passion. It's...outstanding. I've already sent off a gushy email to Nalini. Lovers of this series will be both delighted with the romance and shocked by the turn of events that take place in the story. And for lovers of Hawke, well, *SWOON*.

3- I'm playing Fantasy Football again this year. And I got the 9th pick in the draft (of 10) for the second year in a row. I'm not happy about it. Last year my team went 4-8. Part of it was crappy picking on my part, but part of it was being 9th of 10. I'm just sure of it. Ah well, fantasy is almost always an exercise in futility for me anyway.

4- I'm listening to a stupendous performance of Shades of Twilight by Linda Howard on audiobook. This is one of my all time favorite old school favorites, and the narrator is amazing. I still absolutely adore my Audible membership.

5- Daily "Awwww": If you don't have ZooBorns in your Reader feed, you should add it. My goodness the animal babies they feature are adorable!

6- I got my iPhone 4 last week. I'm still definitely figuring out how to use it, but thus far? I'm in love. It's a really fun toy, and unsurprisingly, I'm mesmerized by the cuteness. Apple really is diabolical.

7- One of my coworkers went to see Lady Gaga last night. I'm pea green with envy. Her roommate surprised her with tickets. She said the show was ridiculous. I'll bet.

8- I'm completely crushing on two completely different songs right now: OMG by Usher - how I freaking LOVE this song, and Stuck Like Glue by Sugarland - which might be the happiest song ever.

9- My girl Halle Berry bounced back from breaking up with Gabriel Aubry, the hottest man, like ever. To be dating Olivier Martinez. You go girl!! He's hot too!

10- Scott and I celebrated our first year together yesterday. And by celebrated, I mean, completely disagree about our anniversary. I maintain it was yesterday, he maintains it is Columbus Day weekend. I'm trying to take it philosophically, two anniversaries might not be a bad thing. Either way, I love you, Handsome. Thank you for the best year of my life.

Sneaking a Peek

Sure, I started reading romance young. I was 12. And I jumped almost immediately into "adult" romance, i.e.: Nora Roberts, Johanna Lindsey, Julie Garwood. But as my appetite for romance grew, and as my mother's awareness that I was reading books that probably weren't "good" for me grew, it became harder and harder to get my hands on the books that I wanted to read that my mom wouldn't object to.

I started furtively perusing my sister's shelves, looking for books that I could read. Mostly, Judith Krantz. I remember reading Princess Daisy in seventh grade. There was a f/f sex scene in that book. The stories themselves weren't great. But when you're 12 or 13, the sex scenes were smokin' hawt! I also remember a very worn copy of Lace by Shirley Conran going around my seventh grade french class. There is the memorable scene where one the male characters actually inserts a goldfish into his female lover and then sucks it back out of her. (OH. DEAR. GOD.)

Then there was Forever by Judy Blume. In the early 80s, most romances spoke about boy parts and lady parts in extremely purple terms. There were lots of loveswords and honey pots being used as euphemisms. But then we had Forever. A book that spoke frankly about sex and used the correct terminology for sex. It was shocking, and I re-read the book over and over.

I remember reading Lie Down with Lions by Ken Follett during a trip overseas and being scandalized by the sex in the book. It was graphic and earthy. But my folks would never have complained about me reading Follett. It was the clinch covered romances that they objected to.

Now of course, I read anything I want, but I remember vividly sneaking around reading the "dirty parts" of all kinds of books that my parents would not have approved of.

YOUR TURN: What books did you sneak to read when you were younger? Anything that would get you in trouble?

Graceful curtsy to EW for their 25 Most Scandalous Books post today, which inspired this post.