Saturday, October 13, 2012

The What Day Is This Weekly Link Round-Up



Denis has been working the same shift for about a year now. This week was his first on a completely different shift, and it's taking a lot more getting used to than either one of us anticipated. As I was about to toddle off to bed last night, it suddenly dawned on me what day it was, and I immediately thought, "Oh crap-- I forgot the link round-up!" Ah well. Better late than never will have to be my motto!

Jasper reacting to a baby in the audience.
It was a nice, quiet week until Friday when Denis and I trekked to the Poisoned Pen for Jasper Fforde's book signing. The employees were expecting 40 people to show up because that's how many folks had "liked" their notification on Facebook. When I heard that, I knew they were wrong because I was one of those present who hadn't liked it (even though I really did). It's a good thing we showed up early because more and more and more people walked in. Will, Pat and Ariel had to hustle to bring in more chairs... more chairs... and then hustle to figure out where to cram in a few more chairs. I counted 55 people in my line of sight, but my guesstimate would be 80 people in that small bookstore (not counting the staff-- or Jasper). What a wonderful evening! For any of you who love his books, I can only say that the man is even funnier than his fiction, and I'll be telling you more about the evening next Wednesday right here on Kittling: Books.

Today was a blissful bookaholic day for me. After Denis went to work and I had the meatball cassoulet in the slow cooker, I sat outside in a big white wicker chair. The back garden was filled with birds singing, butterflies floating on the breeze, and a bright orange dragonfly sunning itself on the birds of paradise. Occasionally I'd reach for my tall glass of iced raspberry lemonade, but mostly my nose was buried in Susan Elia MacNeal's Princess Elizabeth's Spy. What a marvelous book!!! My review will be up on Tuesday, but I want to tell you now: get a copy pre-ordered-- I refused to leave my chair until I'd finished the book. I'm still smiling about it!

Oh yeah... those links I forgot about yesterday.... *blush*


Bookish News & Other Interesting Stuff
  • I know that I'm not the only Anglophile that reads these pages, so I'm going to share a UK site or two that I discovered this week. First up is The History Press which has a fiction page with some wonderful-sounding historical mysteries on it. But if you wander through the other pages, you're going to rack up dozens of other titles as well! (Don't grimace at me-- I'm an Enabler, remember?)
  • Another site for Anglophile mystery lovers is The Dark Pages from Simon & Schuster UK. Nothing like bolstering up the old wish list!
  • To whet your appetite for my recap of the Jasper Fforde evening, here's a Q&A with Jasper Fforde courtesy of Publishers Weekly.
  • Booksellers' responses to "I Have an Odd Request" made me smile.
  • Patricia Martin talks about The Future of Libraries in a Digital Culture.
  • An interesting article about how the major literary awards always diss genre fiction (probably why I don't pay much attention to the major literary awards).
  • Not only mothers but those of us with husbands will identify with the mom who went on strike to teach her messy kids a lesson.
  • Did you hear about the teenager who's opened a bookstore to pay for college?
  • I don't know about the rest of you, but there have been times that this wireless key finder could come in handy!
  • The American Booksellers Association has a new initiative aimed at furthering indie books and bookstores.

eBooks
  • Did you think that pirated books are a problem only in the eBook trade? Think again!
  • BookShout, a social reading and book retail application, lets readers import eBooks from any platform.

I  ♥  Lists

That's it for this week. Don't forget to stop by next weekend when I'll have a freshly selected batch of links for your surfing pleasure. See you then!

6 comments:

  1. Lucky you, to get to see Jasper Fforde!

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  2. I could have told them more than 40 people would show up to see Jasper Fforde! I swear, the older we get, the harder change is. Y'all will adjust to the new schedule soon.

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    1. I'm loving the new schedule, but my brain keeps wanting to stay in the old grooves, blast it! LOL

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  3. Cathy - Oh, I know just what you mean! We get so used to our routines and it's such a jolt when they change. Glad you got to the Poisoned Pen early; I love it that people really turn out for mystery novelists. Oh, and thanks for the links!

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