A Where Laptops Go to Die Weekly Link Round-Up

I mentioned several weeks ago that my laptop died. Well, its replacement has died, too. Should I be getting worried?

While I wait for yet another replacement, I'm thinking that, if this one rapidly gives up the ghost, I'm going to stop throwing good money after bad and stick to my desktop. What do you think? At least I haven't been buying top-of-the-line models, but still...

I have learned how to streamline my setup process, so this third... actually fourth (I had one die in Scotland, didn't I, Mike?)... one should go a lot faster and smoother. I just don't appreciate Microsoft's "S Mode." They try to tell you that S Mode in Windows is merely for our own protection, but it's really a way in which they try to ram their own programs and apps down your throat whether you want them or not. No, thanks! I'd rather jump through some of those hoops of theirs and set up my laptop the way that I want it.

This has also given me a chance to think about how my reading has changed lately. It's been almost entirely books on my Kindle. I haven't listened to an audiobook for weeks. I don't want any sort of headphones on when Denis may cry out in pain or for help. If he needs me, I need to be there. On the other hand, I'm not sure why I've almost completely ignored physical books. I guess my Kindle is easier to tote around in the basket of my scooter.

But while I mull over these "weighty matters," I hope everything is going well for you and yours.

Enjoy the links!

 

►Books & Other Interesting Tidbits◄

• The enduring appeal of the country house murder. 
• Why do we keep worn-out books?
• How to become an audiobook narrator.
• Reclaiming your anxious mind with reading.
• Searching for the notorious celebrity book stylist.
• John Keats (one of my favorite poets) on film: considering Jane Campion's Bright Star.
• The Publishers Association says that TikTok helps UK book sales reach record levels.
• Author David Grann on a post-modern murder mystery.
• Why are audiobooks so expensive?
• Why Twitter and Elon Musk deserve each other.
• The wider effects of harmful speech.
  

 

►Book Banning & Censorship◄

• Tit for Tat? A Florida man wants schools to ban the Bible after the state's efforts to remove books from schools.
• A Tennessee bill gives the state veto power over school library collections.
• Teens are fighting book bans with banned book clubs and lawsuits.
• Idaho state representative Heather Scott says, "Libraries are promoting an agenda to destroy families" and has partnered with Parents for Freedom and Liberty to remove books from schools.
• Rapid City, South Dakota area schools withheld more than 350 books and quietly tried to destroy them.

 

►Channeling My Inner Indiana Jones◄

• Melting ice in Norway has revealed a 1,700-year-old sandal.
• The stranger-than-fiction art heist that inspired The Duke.
• Anglo-Saxon royals were largely vegetarian.
• Archaeologists have discovered a temple in Egypt inspired byt he Greek god Zeus.
• Mysterious ceramic jars may actually be 900-year-old Crusader hand grenades.
• You can now explore an open-source encyclopedia of 10,000 years of South Asian art.
• How radar is tracking down lost Indigenous gravesites.
• Stonehenge was a hunting hotspot long before the monument was built.

 

►Channeling My Inner Elly May Clampett◄

• Gus, a three-legged dog with cancer, jumped into a Minnesota river to save a baby otter.
• This male spider catapults itself into the air to avoid sexual cannibalism. (Wouldn't you?)
• How Indigenous-led conservation brought a caribou herd back from the brink.
• Critically endangered spotted tree frogs have been released into the wild in Australia.
• A rare white humpback whale has been spotted swimming with dolphins off the coast of Australia.
• Scars on snails offer a 100,000-year record of crab populations.
• According to new genetic research, a dog's breed does not affect its behavior.
• What animals can show us about more meaningfully encountering the wider world.
• According to satellite images, Russia is using military-trained dolphins in the Black Sea.
  

 

►The Wanderer◄

• UK author Jon McGregor toured his latest book by bicycle.
• Five women writers on where they write.
• Are the Great Lakes really inland seas?
• The world's loneliest lighthouses.
• How a network of family-owned inns in Puerto Rico is preserving the island's culture.
• The lingering legacy of America's first cookie-cutter suburb.
• Flooded by tourists, Venice will start charging access fees. (Good!)
• The literature of the grocery store.

 

►Fascinating Folk◄

• The trail-blazing Black entrepreneurs who shaped a nineteenth-century California boomtown.
• New biographies and memoirs to check out.
• Neil Gaiman: "Whatever I loved about Enid Blyton isn't there when I return as an adult."
• Seventeen-year-old Benjamin Choi invented a low-cost, mind-controlled prosthetic arm.
• Author Don Winslow on why he's retiring from writing and turning his attention to activism.
• Harini Nagendra on women's education in colonial India.
• The real women behind art's masterpieces.
• The bookish life of Levar Burton.
• Phoebe Atwood Taylor: Prolific mystery novelist and creator of "the codfish Sherlock."

 

►I ♥ Lists◄

• Book nerds will love this clever literary mystery series.
• Ten must-read non-fiction serial killer and true crime books.
• How to make change, slowly.
• The Queen's jubilee book list.
• Twelve Star Wars cross-stitch patterns for your next embroidery project.
• The thirty best audiobooks of all time.
• Twelve BookTok accounts you need to follow in 2022.
• Thirty-two books that celebrate diversity.
• Ten books to read for Mental Health Awareness Month.
• Five non-fiction titles that are so vibrant they read like fiction.

That's all for this week! Don't forget to stop by next Friday when I'll be sharing a freshly selected batch of links for your surfing pleasure.

Stay safe. Stay healthy. And don't forget to curl up with a good book!