I've got two people willing to play along with the book swap, and haven't asked at work yet. Anyone else? I need to either tag up or bow out in the next couple of days. See http://domesticat.net/node/1494 for info.

I got a fun letter in the mail from a friend this week, asking me to participate in a bit of literary chain mail. Since I'm posting it here, that should indicate I'm interested.

The premise is pretty simple. I send a used paperback -- one that I liked -- to the person included on the back of the letter I was sent. (It's the person who invited the person who invited me.) I then send the letter out to six of my friends, and change the address on the back of the letters I send so that the books will be sent to the person who invited me.

...and that's it. It's one book, ping six friends, and you're done.

I only have a few days left to get my part in order, though. Interested? If so, leave me a comment or drop me an email. As soon as I've got six, I'll get started. I'm guessing between the librarians and the far-flung friends, I can probably dig up six people.

I've been wrapped up in Salman Rushdie's The Ground Beneath Her Feet for a few days now. I realized I was on to something unusual when I started flagging passages every few pages.

Comments from the narrator so far: Read the rest »

Two links, partly because they both interest me and partly because I need to test whether or not my changes have fixed the permissions problems I was seeing yesterday (HT to Geof for tipping me off) --

Sun acquires mySQL - cue standard O NOES from all involved geeks until we have some idea how this will actually shake out. I won't bother to pretend I know, but I'll be watching with avid interest ...

and

...an excerpt of Iain Banks' new novel is available on Orbit books -- and yes, it is a Culture novel. I've heard references that indicate his Culture novels are each intended to serve as a different perspective on the same civilization (from inside, from those they conquer, from those who run it, etc.). (Thanks, Patrick)

Lunch with Wendy today led to a snicker-filled discussion about a flap in the publishing world I hadn't heard about yet. Apparently a prolific romance novelist, Cassie Edwards, who has authored over a hundred romance novels, was outed as a plagiarist by the romance-novel review blog Smart Bitches Who Love Trashy Books, whose contributors used Google Book Search to spot numerous similarities between Edwards' work and other works.

If you're curious, check the site; Smart Bitches has posted transcripts. (Ouchie.)

The real winning moment, however, comes from this article in the New York Times: Read the rest »

I lay on the bed this afternoon, drowsy with sunshine and tea and salacious novel, and trawled fingers through Edmund's orange fur. As my hand crept over and around, to reach the white fur on his belly, the purring changed from lazy to nearly explosive, as if to say, oh yes, pet me right there...

Stolen from Stephen and Misty.

Misty: "These are the top 106 books most often marked as “unread” by LibraryThing’s users. I’ve bolded what I’ve read and italicized what I started but couldn’t finish..."

49 read, 2 in progress, 2 instances of sheer loathing:

1984
The Aeneid
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
American Gods
Anansi Boys

I've been meaning to point out two things that I've added as extras on the site, because some of you might find them equally nifty. I have an industrial-grade barcode scanner on loan from the library, which I used to go through our book collection and scan barcodes into librarything. Every book we own is now listed in our librarything catalog. I opted to just buy a lifetime account and get it over with.

I've been at a bit of a loss for words lately. Many things have happened here, and each time I've had a reason, whether personal or professional, for choosing silence over writing, and I've just left it at that. I'm well aware that I'm out of the habit of writing now, but I'm also aware that I have to be very careful of what I say, because my name is now well enough known in the library world that my co-workers can easily google my name and turn up this site.

I started this habit when Stephen and Misty began returning books to me with little removable flags, like Post-It notes but smaller, affixed to the margins of pages. What a great way to remember something that caught my eye, I thought.Months later, I stumbled across a set of the flags and promptly purchased them, stashing a dispenser or two in the rooms that I typically read in.