I learned an important lesson for a needlepointer this week: do not use plastic canvas by the yard. The gauge isn't always consistent, and it isn't nice to spend hours doing needlework only to find that-- when you begin to sew the pieces together-- that the pieces refuse to line up. I'm afraid that some language was used here at Casa Kittling that would make a sailor blush. Good thing Denis was at work, eh?
Now I'm having trouble finding sheets of plastic canvas. I'm having no trouble at all increasing my yarn stash (some of which is thirty years old), but I've had to go online to buy my canvas.
I've also been bad in other ways, but I'll save that for another post. It's time to go through my reading on the web to see what links look the most interesting. Hopefully you'll find them worthwhile, too!
Bookish News & Other Fun Stuff
- The Wall Street Journal wastes no time in telling us which book sold more eBooks than hardcovers during its first week of sale.
- One of my favorite authors, Val McDermid, was interviewed during a tour in New Zealand.
- Digital Overload: Your Brain on Gadgets.
- The next wave of eReaders is coming soon. One of these days they may actually have one that I want. Not that I'm picky or anything....
- The UK government is also looking to save money from closing libraries. An agency defends libraries' impact in literacy.
- Does a book's popularity guarantee its movie's success?
- The reading differences between couples: Of Two Minds About Books. There's a bit of that here at Casa Kittling: give me physical books any day while Denis much prefers audio books.
- The Top Ten Bookstores in the US. (I've only been in two.)
Blogging & Social Media Tips
- If you gotta know: 10 ways to track what people are saying about you on Twitter.
- 6 Steps to a Prettier Blog (sans designer).
- Page after page of great Twitter badges for your blog.
Around the Water Cooler in the Book Blogosphere
- If you haven't discovered it already, many of your favorite authors are blogging, and you can learn some amazing things about them. One of my favorites, Jacqueline Winspear, blogs at The Lipstick Chronicles and recently talked about her horses and training in dressage. Great story and photos!
- Jen of Jen's Book Thoughts has an excellent post about social media.
- Amanda of Desert Book Chick talks about Classics and The Commonplace Book. She made me drag out all my commonplace books from my high school and college days.
New to My Google Reader
That's all for this week. I hope you found some interesting tidbits. Don't forget to stop by next Friday when I'll have a fresh batch of links for your surfing pleasure. See you then!
Great links as always!
ReplyDeleteAlyce-- Thanks! :)
ReplyDeletere: the new readers..I must say the advent of color e-readers may push me over into buying.
ReplyDeleteI love the blog Words, Words, Words . . . Her photography is excellent, sometimes very moving, and even though I'm not much on poetry, I do enjoy the poetry she quotes. It's a delightful blog and I'm a new follower of it.
ReplyDeleteI use an e-reader regularly, but the truth is, dedicated e-readers are cheaply enough made that I wouldn't recommend others buy one until they are less than one hundred dollars, maybe quite a bit less. My Kindle bit the dust after only fifteen months (plastic four-way controller button split diagonally).
ReplyDeleteCaite-- That would help, but one of the greatest things that would do the trick for me is if there's no umbilical cord back to the mother ship. I don't want to buy eBooks only to have them disappear from my reader, and I don't want them keeping track of my significant passages, etc. I'm all about books and reading, and I share that all the time here on my blog. What I don't like is someone spying on me in the background as if I'm reading up on how to construct bombs.
ReplyDeleteBarbara-- I'm so glad. She found my blog somehow, then I went to check hers out... sometimes it's a very fun circle we travel. :)
Joe-- I would imagine there's some planned obsolescence in them as well.