Book Mayhem

I'm torn...I'm appalled to see this happen to books, but also envious, wishing I could stop by for a rummage:

Thousands in scramble for free books after Amazon supplier abandons warehouse

The warehouse, whose lease recently ran out, once contained as many as five million books destined to be sold online.

After the lease expired, he firm running the secondhand book business moved out, leaving it full of books.

Managers of the industrial estate invited people to help themselves so they can free up space at the site.

Do I wish I could be involved in this feeding frenzy? Of course. Would I still be appalled at the cavalier treatment of the books if I were there? Probably not. I'd be hunting for my own treasures.

Ah well. It's too bad I can't join the madness, but I'm sure my husband is pleased!

Lori

Zombies in Austen?

I can't tell if this is a gag, or a real book....so it's here, instead of on my book blog...

From Chronicle Books, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies:

As our story opens, a mysterious plague has fallen upon the quiet English village of Meryton—and the dead are returning to life! Feisty heroine Elizabeth Bennet is determined to wipe out the zombie menace, but she's soon distracted by the arrival of the haughty and arrogant Mr. Darcy. What ensues is a delightful comedy of manners with plenty of civilized sparring between the two young lovers—and even more violent sparring on the blood-soaked battlefield as Elizabeth wages war against hordes of flesh-eating undead.

Uh...Okay.

I feel gullible tonight. Maybe I should just go to bed. This will all make sense in the morning.

Right?

Lori

Lazy "Artists"

So, I was wandering in an adult toy store this evening...

Get your minds back here! I was in a Future Shop, not the other kind of toy store!

Anyway, I was browsing the cheap DVDs, and I came across this fabulous 1985 movie:

We all remember this one? I'm sure it was on everyone's Top 10 lists!

But Dennis Quaid's picture on this poster/cover made me stop short...

"Hell, he looks just like Miles Vorkosigan!!"

So, out there somewhere is an artist that got paid the big bucks at Baen books in 1995 for "creating" this very cool cover art.

Buddy, people have longer memories than that!

Lori

We Are What We Do

I was pointed in the direction of a great site today: We Are What We Do. It is a simple way of reminding people that all of the little things that we can do every day will make the world a better place. (Here's my public action list if you're interested.)

The key thing here is the word 'better'. Far too many people find themselves paralyzed by the enormity of the task of making the world 'perfect'...lower your standards, and things actually get done!

And that is the lovely, simple premise of the book The Better World Handbook (already in its second edition!). I had the great honour of being involved in a wacky one-day festival in Vancouver a few years ago that was celebrating this book.

Now the word is getting around, and people are happily lowering their expectations to better the world.

What did you do today?

Lori

Book Snobbery

I am a book snob. I'll admit it. You won't catch me reading an Oprah Pick on a bus...(that's a link to a post on this subject at my Book Nook, good discussion in the comments).

Over at casa az, the lovely and literate az has points us all to Cabanon Press, a fun collection of pictures used on the Guardian Saturday Review page. Here's my favourite:

Life does not happen in a vacuum.

What about you? What do you do when you know someone could be looking?

Lori

My Book

You're The Hobbit!

by J.R.R. Tolkien

All you wanted was a nice cup of tea when some haggard crazy old man
came into your life and told you it was time to do something with yourself. Now you're
all conflicted about whether to stick with your stay-at-home lifestyle or follow this
crazy person into the wild. While you're very short and a little furry, you seem to be
surrounded by an even greater quantity of short folks lately. Try not to lose your ring,
but keep its value in perspective!


Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.

Whew!! I don't know about the short and furry part, but I'm glad I'm a book I enjoy!

Via Casa Az, who ripped it from Archie's Archive, who got it from...ah, you know how it goes!

Lori

What more can I share?

Tagged again (here's my earlier post), with the 6 Weird Things about You "meme", this time by a woman who is weird in her own way. [I'm over a month late. Sorry.]

So, 'cause I love talking about myself [why else would I write a blog, now, eh?], here's some more about me:

I re-read books and re-watch movies, a lot. So much new to read, and I find that one of the best ways for me to relax is to watch/read something I've read/watched millions of times before. I'll open the book to the middle, skip the dvd to a scene halfway through...drop right into the story.

I prefer to take pictures of architecture and urban corners than people or flowers. It's so bad that I've got to get Creatrix to photoshop a picture of my husband and I together in Paris on our honeymoon!

Shopping for clothes is an activity I loathe. I have no respect for the fashion industry. I started watching The Devil Wears Prada with a sense of superiority, "Oh, a movie about the fashion industry...", started identifying with the main character (the woman who gets the job), then this scene showed up:

Miranda Priestly: [Miranda and some assistants are deciding between two similar belts for an outfit. Andy sniggers because she thinks they look exactly the same] Something funny?
Andy Sachs: No, no, nothing. Y'know, it's just that both those belts look exactly the same to me. Y'know, I'm still learning about all this stuff.
Miranda Priestly: This... 'stuff'? Oh... ok. I see, you think this has nothing to do with you. You go to your closet and you select out, oh I don't know, that lumpy blue sweater, for instance, because you're trying to tell the world that you take yourself too seriously to care about what you put on your back. But what you don't know is that that sweater is not just blue, it's not turquoise, it's not lapis, it's actually cerulean. You're also blindly unaware of the fact that in 2002, Oscar De La Renta did a collection of cerulean gowns. And then I think it was Yves St Laurent, wasn't it, who showed cerulean military jackets? And then cerulean quickly showed up in the collections of 8 different designers. Then it filtered down through the department stores and then trickled on down into some tragic casual corner where you, no doubt, fished it out of some clearance bin. However, that blue represents millions of dollars and countless jobs and so it's sort of comical how you think that you've made a choice that exempts you from the fashion industry when, in fact, you're wearing the sweater that was selected for you by the people in this room. From a pile of stuff.

Hmm.

I sometimes feel like I'm pretending to be an adult.

Okay, enough now. Feel free to tag yourselves.

Two days until the weekend, and then my new, all-grown-up-now job.

Lori

A definition of love

Just re-reading a great book today, A Civil Campaign by Lois McMaster Bujold (one of the many books in the Miles Vorkosigan SF saga), and I thought I'd share probably the best definition of love I've ever run across:

"She had felt flashes of profound ease in his company, it was true, brief perhaps, but calm like deep water. There had also been moments where she'd wanted to whack him with a brick."

Just wanted to share that with you.

Lori