Bunny or Hamster -- which are you?

Are you a nibbler...

Or do you lean more toward...

...gorging yourself?

No, I'm not talking about food. I'm talking about reading.

I know, I know...but I couldn't find any pictures of cute little animals reading books, so I chose to go the metaphorical route with the illustrations. Besides, who can resist a cute little bunny or hamster? Those ears? Those tiny, twitchy noses? And the whiskers...OMG!

*Ahem* But back to the subject at hand...

To narrow the question down even further, what I really mean is, reading a particular author. Say you find a book you really enjoy. Do you immediately try to track down other books by the same writer, or do you spread out the enjoyment, only reading another here and there, interspersed with other books?

A related question: do you like to mix up your genres, or feast on one until you're good and sick of it before you switch to something else?

Me? Glad you asked.

I am a gorger. Man, when I find a new author I really like, I will stuff those books down like there's no tomorrow, and weep with frustration when I run out.

Right now I'm in the middle of a Kristan Higgins smorgasbord. In the past week I've read Just One of the Guys, Too Good to Be True, Fools Rush In, and am in the middle of Catch of the Day.

I blame Tawna Fenske, who got me going on Higgins with this post. I downloaded Just One of the Guys, planning to keep it in reserve for when I didn't have anything better to do. Didn't think any more of it until four or five days later, when I sat down to give my overworked typing fingers a break.

Honestly, I don't know how I haven't managed to read these books before. They are hilariously romantic, and I do love me some good romantic hilarity. It's going to be depressing as heck when I catch up to, and finish reading, Higgins' most recent novel, My One and Only, but at least my appetite for rom com should be sated for a while.

I did the same thing after I discovered Harlan Coben. Plowed through his Myron Bolitar books first (love-love-LOVE Myron, and his batshit-crazy sidekick Win), and then moved on to his others. Same for Charlaine Harris's Sookie Stackhouse books -- I practically inhaled them.

I would have done the same to Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series if I hadn't discovered it so early that I was forced to wait -- in agony! -- for each new addition after the first one. I so envy the people starting now, who can read one right after the other without having to pull their hair out, wondering what will be happening to Jamie and Claire next. (I especially advise not reading book 2 (Dragonfly in Amber) until you have book 3 (Voyager) safely in hand, ready to begin immediately when you finish. Trust me on this.)

Are there any authors you find particularly Gorge Worthy? Or do you nibble your way through your To Be Read pile?

So...BUNNY or HAMSTER? Come on, tell. I wanna know if I'm in the majority or not.

Yeah. Bring it, baby. It's BUNNY v. HAMSTER SMACKDOWN time!!

How impolite! How impertinent! How rude! How...um, true.

I've heard of it, but I've never actually run across it in the comments section of any of the blogs I read on a regular basis. Though, if I'm honest, some of them may have *cough* deserved it on occasion, mine included.

What, you may be asking yourself, could Linda be talking about?

The dreaded...

Yes, the old "tl;dr" in the comments. Shorthand for "too long; didn't read."

Ack. How impertinent. How rude.

How...*whispers* sometimes true.

Now, seeing the tl;dr in the comment stream doesn't mean a post is bad. It could be fantastic -- well-written, informative, witty. A true joy to read. But regular readers of blogs tend to read a lot of blogs. If one blog takes a long time to read, and you multiply that by ten or twenty, or more...well, a good chunk of your day can disappear real fast. Or else you have to stop commenting at all, and that's no fun.

Hearing about tl;dr got me thinking, though. Does the opposite hold true? Is there such a thing as "ts;wb" (too short; why bother)? (Hmm. That one might come in handy for situations other than blog reading...)

Or maybe "jr;tyfnbtlots" (just right; thank you for not being too long or too short)?

There probably is and ideal range for blog post length, though I confess I'm not sure what it is. Long enough to have some substance. Not so short nobody can think of anything to say about it in the comments.

What do you think? Do you like your posts long or short? (No, that is NOT a euphemism!) (Okay, maybe it is. But let's not go there.)

Also, can you come up with a good comments acronym? (STFU has already been taken, so don't use that one. No matter how tempted you are...)

If it's Wednesday, it must be...CAMEL TIME!

Come on. You know you love it. You were probably just thinking, Gee, I sure hope Linda has camels on her blog on this fine Hump Day -- it wouldn't be Wednesday without camels from Linda!

Well, it's your lucky day, for I am NOT one to disappoint!

Today's camel:

Isn't he jolly? Doesn't he just look so...so...um, not debonair, precisely...

Damn. What is the word I'm looking for?

Oh, yeah. Dumb.

*sighs* Okay, that was kind of mean. If I've offended any camel lovers out there, I apologize. It's not the camel's fault somebody dressed him (her?) up. Honestly, no one should do that to such a dignified creature. It's almost as bad as this one:

But not quite.

Maybe. It's a tossup, really. I know! Let's take a vote. Which camel looks dumber? Camel #1 (in the hat and tassels) or Camel #2 (in the clown makeup)? 

[I KNOW. This post is a dumber than the camels.  But it's summer now, and I think that excuses a lot. Just go vote, and try not to over-think it. ]