The wildly popular blogger S.D. Smith has a list of blogging fears which land close to home. “#7 That I’ll get too big for my britches because I do a weblog which any ten-year old could do.”
S.D., that’s why you need insightful linkage and essaying like what you find here. What is this bit of silliness? Fake book covers? Funny, but what if I decide to read those books? I could be led astray by The Shaq, and would you want that on your conscience? I hear that book has heresy in it.
As one without a drop of Irish blood that I know of, let me wish our Irish readers a blessed St. Patrick’s Day.
After all, what was it that made Ireland great?
Vikings, of course.
No need to thank me. Just send a girl who looks like Maureen O’Sullivan.
On planting memorial trees in Ireland: “It’s remembering a life, or an event in a life, that’s the idea,” says Mary Walsh, head guide at Muckross House, where donated trees are easily accessible to visitors. “We get them for births, marriages, but often it’s the memory of a life that’s being acknowledged.”
Walsh says the trees draw a surprising number of Irish Americans. “We get some out of the blue, they want to see the trees.”
The historical mystery is a challenging genre, calling for a lot of research, as well as a judicious balance between authenticity and audience sympathy (which can be difficult to sustain due to differences in societal attitudes).
Male heroes written by female authors are another kind of challenge. Lindsey Davis takes on both in her Marcus Didius Falco mysteries, set in the 1st Century Roman Empire.
My opinion, based on reading Last Act in Palmyra, is that she succeeds pretty well in the first challenge, not so well in the second. Continue reading Last Act in Palmyra, by Lindsey Davis
“Wallace And Gromit – A Matter Of Loaf And Death” will soon be released in the UK on DVD. Don’t know about the US. There’s a PC game to be released this month too.
Due to what the customer service guy called “line problems,” my internet connectivity at home is gone today. You’ll know when it’s back up, because I’ll post again.
Update, Monday p.m.: I’m online again.
Beyond the dread arena of Google Fight. What ideas, whose ideas, reign supreme in the mindshare of Google users. The truth could hurt.
Here are answers to all of those questions you’ve been meaning to ask.
1. To mark your page you: use a bookmark, bend the page corner, leave the book open face down?
I use bookmarks. The novel I’m reading now has those folded back cover flaps, so I’m using on of those to mark my place, but I’ll probably grab a bookmark soon because only so many pages will fit inside the front cover flap. I have two pretty Celtic lettered bookmarks I bought in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, a few years ago, and I have two black leather tourist bookmarks from Washington D.C. which I often leave in large volumes I read for a bit, return to the shelf, and then wonder where I left that bookmark. I also have paper ones from the library and bookstores, and then there’s business cards, personal notes from celebrities, autographed photos, etc.
2. Do you lend your books?
Yes, and I try to not to expect them to return them, but that can be hard. I am very careful with books I borrow from others.
3. You find an interesting passage: you write in your book or NO WRITING IN BOOKS!
One of my college professors taught me to make checks and stars instead of underlines or other large marks, so what I do mostly, except in a study bible. I can mark that up a good bit.
4. Dust jackets – leave it on or take it off.
Unless I can’t hold the book well with its jacket on, I leave it on.
5. Hard cover, paperback, skip it and get the audio book?
What is the question? I like all of them, but I feel weird listening to an audiobook without doing something. I’ll return to the audiobooks I have on my iPod when I start gardening and mowing the yard again.
6. Do you shelve your books by subject, author, or size and color of the book spines?
I have done all of these, but I generally want the fiction organized by author’s last name. My non-fiction is sorta-kinda by subject.
7. Buy it or borrow it from the library later?
Both. Gifts are also very nice. I want to think about the library more, and we have a good library, but I don’t yet. I plan to borrow the next Harry Potter from the library sometime this year. I’m on #6.
8. Do you put your name on your books – scribble your name in the cover, fancy bookplate, or stamp?
I have before for both hardcover and paperback, and I have some extra bookplates, but I haven’t used any in years. I can’t remember the last time I wrote my name in one, but I’m not against it.
9. Most of the books you own are rare and out-of-print books or recent publications?
Most are recent. I count 27 old, probably out-of-print, books from where I’m sitting.
10. Page edges – deckled or straight?
Which do I prefer? Straight is appropriate for most books.
11. How many books do you read at one time?
What exactly do you mean by read?
12. Be honest, ever tear a page from a book?
Yes. In high school, we were on a trip and needed a blank sheet of paper. I ripped one neatly from a Frank Peretti book, claiming I was a writer and could do that sort of thing. I have fits of gall at times. Nowadays, I say “I’m sorry” too much.