SO. BOOK BLOGOSPHERE. I had this idea and I am curious to see what you think. I frequently discover that I have music tastes in common with people on my blogroll. I am always on the hunt for new music. I love, love, love making and receiving mix CDs. Would anyone have any interest in doing a book bloggers’ mix CD swap? I thought we could do it in the New Year, maybe in late February or early March (for Mardi Gras, perhaps?). My scheme is to set it up rather like Book Blogger Secret Santa (but not secret): you…
36 CommentsCategory: Misc.
I lost my gloves on the subway the day before yesterday. They were beautiful gloves that I got for Christmas in 2005. I had told my then-boyfriend that what I wanted for Christmas more than anything in the world was beautiful black leather gloves exactly like my friend Nezabeth’s, and he got me those exact gloves. I have had them for years, and I am desperately attached to them. They are so soft and warm, and five years on from when I got them, they were just like new. I was on the B train, which I have only taken…
55 CommentsI have a gorgeous copy of Doctor Zhivago and I have previously enjoyed the book (by comparison with other Russian novels) and I have seen not one but two film adaptations of the book and thus know who the characters are. This should be a recipe for extreme, resounding Russian-novel-reading success. Instead of that, I had a middling amount of success. There are a lot of characters in Doctor Zhivago, and they all – you may have noticed – have different names. Several names. Full names, partial names, and nicknames. Eva, who knows about Russian things because she has been…
31 CommentsI got a job! A really cool job that is exactly what I wanted! A job whose interview passed in such a way that upon getting the job, I had to sit down and think about all the life decisions I’ve made (learn Latin, go to college in Louisiana so as not to have debt, not go to grad school for library science), and gloat about what good decisions they all were. It’s very validating. I love it when people say “Jenny, you were right,” and it’s even that much better when it’s the universe saying “Jenny, you were right,”…
136 CommentsMy verdict: Never again. There is this one episode of Doctor Who where the Doctor is standing around waiting for a monster to show up, and he says “Is this how time normally passes? Reeeeally slowly, in the right order?” and if you substitute “books” for “time” (and “pass” for “passes”, to retain proper grammar), that is exactly how I felt throughout the month of September. Except more depressed. I think part of the reason I have been lax about writing up reviews is that my reading was so dreary and depressing compared to normally, I couldn’t face writing reviews.…
71 CommentsToday, the first day of Book Blogger Appreciation Week, you are supposed to talk about great new blogs you’ve discovered in the past year. This is problematic for me because I have a wobbly relationship with time and can’t remember when I discovered anything, and also because there are so many wonderful blogs it’s hard for me to pick one, or two, or even eight or nine, of which I am especially fond. But I will try to tell you five blogs that I am pretty sure I have found in the last year. Stella Matutina – I think Memory…
47 CommentsAs you have probably all heard, the R(eaders) I(mbibing) P(eril) Challenge has returned! September and October are the months for the blogosphere to be reading books that are spooky and mythic. I have made up a tentative list of books for myself, and I shall pick the best ones to read this month and next month. On Jellicoe Road, Melina Marchetta Tooth and Claw, Jo Walton The Magicians and Mrs. Quent, Galen Beckett Here Lies Arthur, Philip Reeve (does this count? I can’t decide) Affinity, Sarah Waters Blue is for Nightmares, Laurie Faria Stolarz The Shadow of the Wind, Carlos…
72 CommentsIt’s because I believe in percentages, not in probability. I took against probability on one of our family vacations to Maine, when we stopped in Washington D.C. on the way there to visit some friends. The newspaper was running an article, I remember, that said that one in ten black men in Washington D.C. had a criminal record, and I could not wrap my head around this. “So if you take any ten black dudes from Washington D.C.,” I said, “one of them will always have a criminal record.” “According to this article,” said my mother. “But what if you…
33 Comments