I laugh so I don't cry...
Friday, September 26, 2008
Monday, September 08, 2008
10 Great Countercultural Children's Books
Occasionally I head over to Woot to see what they have say. This is today's post. I was meh at the beginning, but laughing out loud by the end.
10 Great Countercultural Children's Books
1. William S. Burroughs’ The Little Engine That Shot Its Wife
2. Green Eggs And Ham On Rye by Charles Bukowski
3. A Clockwork Orange: My First Book Of Colors And Time by Anthony Burgess
4. Are You There, God? It’s Me, Esther by Sylvia Plath
5. Justine And The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by the Marquis De Sade
6. Franz Kafka’s Metamorphs #1: Insectified
7. Henry Miller’s The Cheerful Little Tugboat Crosses The Equator
8. The Horse And His Boy by Peter Shaffer
9. D.H. Lawrence’s I’ll Love You Forever
10. How The Grinch Stole The Best Minds of My Generation by Allen Ginsberg
10 Great Countercultural Children's Books
1. William S. Burroughs’ The Little Engine That Shot Its Wife
2. Green Eggs And Ham On Rye by Charles Bukowski
3. A Clockwork Orange: My First Book Of Colors And Time by Anthony Burgess
4. Are You There, God? It’s Me, Esther by Sylvia Plath
5. Justine And The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by the Marquis De Sade
6. Franz Kafka’s Metamorphs #1: Insectified
7. Henry Miller’s The Cheerful Little Tugboat Crosses The Equator
8. The Horse And His Boy by Peter Shaffer
9. D.H. Lawrence’s I’ll Love You Forever
10. How The Grinch Stole The Best Minds of My Generation by Allen Ginsberg
Friday, September 05, 2008
What to do when your book gets slammed
The most brilliant use of negative reviews I've seen in a good long while.
Wednesday, September 03, 2008
Drink the Neil Gaiman kool-aid
Neil Gaiman is one of my favourite authors, and Neverwhere was the first book of his that I read. For a limited time only, Harper Collins is offering the complete novel for free to read online or download. Check it out.
Saturday, August 30, 2008
Things that make me smile
I get a lot of publisher catalogues at work. This year the most eye-catching catalog covers come from Independent Publisher's Group. Actually, IPG usually has the best covers, this year I've just managed to remember to scan them in. Don't these covers make you WANT to see what's inside?
This one makes me giggle and crave a croissant at the same time
And this one is disturbing and brilliant as well
This one makes me giggle and crave a croissant at the same time
And this one is disturbing and brilliant as well
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Fortune cookies in China
A few months ago I read Jennifer 8 Lee's book The Fortune Cookie Chronicles, which traces the history of Chinese restaurants in the United States. It was then that I learned that fortune cookies are not Chinese at all - they were invented in America by Japanese bakers. Anyway, Lee took the opportunity while traveling in China to hand out fortune cookies to people there and recorded their reactions.
Monday, August 25, 2008
Richard Dawkins loves his anti-fans!
I just saw this video of Ricard Dawkins reading out some of the hatemail that's been emailed to him. Surprisingly hilarious!
p.s. interesting fact I just found out: Dawkins is married to Lalla Ward, who played Romana in Doctor Who.
p.s. interesting fact I just found out: Dawkins is married to Lalla Ward, who played Romana in Doctor Who.
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Jane's Addiction
This one is for sebethis, who is somewhere between Philly and Chicago right now, preparing for her big move to London. I'm sorry I lent you Spaced and you ended up watching that all night instead of a repeat viewing of Pride and Prejudice. Actually, I'm not sorry at all because Spaced rocks. Anyhow, here's something to have with you when the Jane Austen marathon picks up again
This is from Mostly Water Theatre Company, as heard on The Irrelevant Show
This is from Mostly Water Theatre Company, as heard on The Irrelevant Show
Thursday, August 14, 2008
BBQ Madness
Now that I have a patio, I have also acquired a BBQ grill. And now that I have a grill, I think I need a swashbuckling BBQ sword!
Yes, the mask is included :)
Yes, the mask is included :)
Saturday, July 26, 2008
Happy Birthday to me!
I love birthdays. I love them so much I spend about a month celebrating mine. We started back on the 12th with a birthday picnic and things really kicked into high gear today. Yes, today is my actual birthday. Yippee!
I spent the day doing fun things like going to Klondike Days (now called the Capital Ex) with my sister and wandering the midway, zoning out with a good book and a slurpee, and doing Taste of Edmonton with the family and stuffing my face (4 different ice creams!).
One of the reasons I love my birthday so much is that this is the time of year I fly out to Edmonton and visit the old stomping grounds and touch base with all my friends back home. I got here yesterday and I'm spending the next week hanging out, eating my face off, shopping, and generally having a great time.
Life is good.
.
.
I spent the day doing fun things like going to Klondike Days (now called the Capital Ex) with my sister and wandering the midway, zoning out with a good book and a slurpee, and doing Taste of Edmonton with the family and stuffing my face (4 different ice creams!).
One of the reasons I love my birthday so much is that this is the time of year I fly out to Edmonton and visit the old stomping grounds and touch base with all my friends back home. I got here yesterday and I'm spending the next week hanging out, eating my face off, shopping, and generally having a great time.
Life is good.
.
.
Friday, July 18, 2008
Saturday, July 05, 2008
New comic obsession
I was at ALA this past weekend in sunny Anaheim. Aside from getting my grubby little hands on the new Terry Pratchett book (and 70 more pounds of books), I stumbled across a web comic called Sheldon. The guy was right next to my standby Unshelved booth, and I picked up a page with sample comics on it and thought they were adorable. I don't think it's really a library cartoon per se, but it is in the middle of an adorable summer reading storyline. Go to the site, the strips start on June 25, 2008. Here's some of my favourites so far:
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
The president's daughter
Last year at ALA I picked up an advance copy of Long May She Reign by Ellen Emerson White from the magnificent folks at Feiwel and Friends. It's taken me a year to get around to it in my quest to finally read all the books I actually own, but I've been saving the best for last. Long May She Reign is the long awaited (so long that I thought there were only three and maybe the author had died or stopped writing back in the 80's or something) fourth book in a series about a teen girl who's mom runs for and wins the presidency of the United States.
I remember reading the first book back when I was about ten or eleven and then devouring the series as it came out. It's not a fluffy girl book either - Meg, the president's daughter, deals with a whole bunch of shit, especially in the later books - including her mom's attempted assassination and her own kidnapping and torture. But she's a believable girl dealing with extreme (yet believable) situations and I'd love to have her for a friend.
This fourth book picks up right where the third left off, which Meg and her family dealing with the physical and psychological effects of her kidnapping. I'm only about 150 pages in so far, but I've been sucked right back into her world.
If you've never read the series before (and you don't have to be a teenager to love them), Fiewel and Friends is re-releasing them with nifty new covers on July 22.
I remember reading the first book back when I was about ten or eleven and then devouring the series as it came out. It's not a fluffy girl book either - Meg, the president's daughter, deals with a whole bunch of shit, especially in the later books - including her mom's attempted assassination and her own kidnapping and torture. But she's a believable girl dealing with extreme (yet believable) situations and I'd love to have her for a friend.
This fourth book picks up right where the third left off, which Meg and her family dealing with the physical and psychological effects of her kidnapping. I'm only about 150 pages in so far, but I've been sucked right back into her world.
If you've never read the series before (and you don't have to be a teenager to love them), Fiewel and Friends is re-releasing them with nifty new covers on July 22.
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Sunday, May 11, 2008
Grrr
Well, I woke up chipper and disgustingly perky this morning, and then I went to Lowe's. I wanted to get the Bug Off Instant Screen Door for the back door so we can keep it open in the spring without the mosquitos swarming in and attacking my roommate en masse.
I checked online to see if they had it and then headed down. I ended up waiting 15 minutes in the door section for someone to come help me, and when someone finally did show up he was not even from that department, he was from the garden department. He had absolutely no clue what I was talking about and kept pointing at random doors and asking if that's what I wanted. I kept explaining what I need by name and description and offering to show it to him on their website.
He finally called a manager who goes through the whole process again, and then looked in their catalogue (finally) and saw that they should have 3 in stock. Of course, neither of them has heard of what I'm looking for, and they don't know what the packaging looks like, and they spend another 15 minutes wandering down aisles looking for it. Garden guy also called another store which had the screen to have them describe the packaging to him.
Some other guy showed up and knew exactly what I was looking for and led us right to it (right on the end of an aisle in the door section) but it was the wrong size. At this point (at least 45 minutes from when I started looking for someone to help me) the guy who actually works in the department showed up and told me that they don't have it in, the computer inventory is wrong. Argh!
I left the store in a really pissy mood, came home, and bought a brand new Bug Off screen door on eBay for half the price.
This day had better get better.
I checked online to see if they had it and then headed down. I ended up waiting 15 minutes in the door section for someone to come help me, and when someone finally did show up he was not even from that department, he was from the garden department. He had absolutely no clue what I was talking about and kept pointing at random doors and asking if that's what I wanted. I kept explaining what I need by name and description and offering to show it to him on their website.
He finally called a manager who goes through the whole process again, and then looked in their catalogue (finally) and saw that they should have 3 in stock. Of course, neither of them has heard of what I'm looking for, and they don't know what the packaging looks like, and they spend another 15 minutes wandering down aisles looking for it. Garden guy also called another store which had the screen to have them describe the packaging to him.
Some other guy showed up and knew exactly what I was looking for and led us right to it (right on the end of an aisle in the door section) but it was the wrong size. At this point (at least 45 minutes from when I started looking for someone to help me) the guy who actually works in the department showed up and told me that they don't have it in, the computer inventory is wrong. Argh!
I left the store in a really pissy mood, came home, and bought a brand new Bug Off screen door on eBay for half the price.
This day had better get better.
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Happy Spring!
The flowers are blooming, the sun is shining, and I've been wandering around outside in short sleeves. Of course, that's because I'm in the sunny south - here's what it looked like in Edmonton yesterday:
Hee hee!
Hee hee!
Monday, April 21, 2008
Book of the Week
I'm going through our paperback order list to decide what to buy for the library, and this title just jumped out at me
Where DO they come up with these?
(and no, I'm not buying a copy, although it is tempting...)
Where DO they come up with these?
(and no, I'm not buying a copy, although it is tempting...)
Friday, April 18, 2008
Thursday, April 17, 2008
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