I bought this book at Talking Leaves and I'm not very satisfied with it. I don't have the receipt and I don't want to try to return it.

I'm wondering if someone would like to swap books with me. You give me something that you're not going to read again or isn't of interest to you and I'll give you Istanbul: Memories and The City.

It's a memoir of this individual's life that accounts what it is like to grow up in Istanbul. A lot of black and white photos of the city. It's written by a Nobel Prize Winner of Literature so it must be a good book to a lot of people. It just wasn't what I was looking for.

So throw something at me that might be of interest to me and I'll trade you. I really like historical fiction; memoirs (except for this one); and travel literature. Or maybe you just think there's something I absolutely should read.

e:James was so kind as to accompany me to the Linda Yalem 5K Safety Run at UB's North Campus this morning.

The race started with bagpipers playing Amazing Grace in memory of Linda Yalem. And then we were off. I started with the 10 minute mile group and e:James went with the 9mile group. I think we both regretted it and should have moved up by one so we could get out faster. I wasted a lot of initial energy dodging around people and I did run my first mile at 9 minutes, my second mile at 10.5 minutes and the last 1.16 miles at 10.5 minutes.

I was happy to end at 30.5 minutes which is a 2 minute decrease from my previous 5k. But I had bee hoping to hit 29 minutes or under. James put me to shame with his 26.5 minute run.

We left the race full of UB cafeteria food, stylish t-shirts, tired bodies, and happy feelings!