In anticipation of going to the beach next week, and also in an effort to reduce the number of books I buy, I placed holds on 4 books at the library last week. (Here in Wake County, you can go to the library's website with a list of books you want to read, place holds on all of them, and have them held at the branch closest to you (or whatever branch you want, actually). I did not plan on picking all four of them up together. However, they are all in now. I am hopeful that three of them will be 3-week loans; the other is a newer, in-demand book, so it is probably a short loan. But clearly, instead of purging/packing, I will be reading.

What books are they, you ask? Saturday by Ian McEwan, Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt and Steven J. Dunbar, The Princes of Ireland by Edward Rutherfurd, and My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Piccoult.

P.S. I'm having spam comment problems, and I know some of you faithful readers have an authentication script- I have to type in a series of numbers to leave comments on your site. Does it help? How do I get one?

P.P.S. I also have 2 full sets of Bradford Exchange collectors plates that I bought years ago (I had this bizarre fascination with the Civil War.). The fascination is gone, I no longer want the plates, but I don't want to just throw them out. How would I go about selling them? Ebay?