Round Up

R.I.P. Bette Paige

R.I.P. Forrest J. Ackerman

Obama, I think you are the bomb, but RICK WARREN and ARETHA FRANKLIN. I don't want to get into a long diatribe about Rick Warren (and believe me I could). I like Re Re, but there are so many others you could have selected.

Every holiday season I buy a new ornament for the tree or some other decoration for the house. This year I thought I would make these gorgeous ice luminarias. Beautiful, festive, economical and ephemeral.

These pendants are so unusual.

And more Etsy shops I like: Edelweiss Vintage, Mayberries Vintage, Red Leaf, AngeLfood's Shop, Vermont Maple, Bottled Up Designs, Lily & Coco, and Faerie Made Soap. There are literally hundreds and hundreds of Etsy shops. If you are holiday shopping, why not buy something handmade.

I really, really like this Nordic Ware Microwave Popcorn Popper.

This Christmas Tree in a Box is a hoot.

What to give-What to get by some of your favorite authors (love Penguin)

Click on the different drawings to view "I Am What I Ate".

Submit your favorite word to Powell's and win the 20 volume Oxford English Dictionary (OED).

A conversation with Toni Morrison.

Oh my goodness-Goofus and Gallant.

Unesco has selected Iowa City as a City of Literature.

The 3 best cities for bookworms.

This is a short post, and will be my last post for 2008. I wish you and your loved ones a wonderful holiday season. May your days be merry and bright, and may you have a happy, health and fun 2008.

"Remember This December,That love weighs more than gold!"~Josephine Dodge Daskam Bacon

"Whatever else be lost among the years, Let us keep Christmas still a shining thing: Whatever doubts assail us, or what fears, Let us hold close one day, remembering Its poignant meaning for the hearts of men. Let us get back our childlike faith again."-- Grace Noll Crowell

Bookstore Blogs

I often wonder if people really, really know how totally obsessed I am with books, and anything to do with them. I spend hours reading book reviews, book recommendations, book catalogs and going to bookstores and libraries. I must say that my book buying budget is not what it used to be days, but I certainly love browsing and finding titles that I can borrow from the library.
I even love reading bookstore blogs. At the beginning of the year I started keeping a list of bookstore and publishers blogs that I came across. I am leaving out the university press blogs,which I will list in another post (those are a plethora of information as well.) What follows is a listing of those that I have found thus far. If anyone knows of any others, please let me know.

Abbeville Press-The Abbeville Manual of Style

Amazon

Atomic Books

Beacon Press-The Beacon Broadside

BookCourt

book culture

Books, Etc. and their children's literature blog

Book Passage Bookstore

Burkes Bookstore

Chronicle Books

Countryman Press

Gulf of Maine Books

Ignatius Press

Inkwell Bookstore (one of my faves)

Literary Life Bookstore & More

Maine Coast Bookshop-newsletter and blog

Overlook Press

Penguin

Powells

Raincoast Books

River Run Bookstore

Rocketship

Seal Press (groundbreaking books by women, for women)

Vroman's Bookstore (another favorite)

Fresh Eyes Now and Shelf Awareness (their archive rocks) are excellent if you want to know what's going on with books, bookstores, publishing or anything else in the book trade.

And remember Buy Books for the Holiday.

"From every book invisible threads reach out to other books; and as the mind comes to use and control those threads the whole panorama of the world's life, past and present, becomes constantly more varied and interesting, while at the same time the mind's own powers of reflection and judgment are exercised and strengthened." ~Helen E. Haines

Round Up

Allen Weinstein, the Archivist of the United States, has resigned due to health reasons.

This is fun and educational: The Spy Fact of the Day.

The Steve Leveen, the CEO of Levenger has a blog.

52 Books: A Year Long Reading Project (too bad I didn't find this at the beginning of 2008).

Top 10 Holiday Uses for Wine Corks.

I've been enjoying reading all of these end-of-years lists. I really like the Top 10 Most Irritating Phrases of 2008. Can you add any more?

PC Magazine has listed their Top 100 Classic Websites and Top 100 Undiscovered Websites. A few of my favorites from their lists are How Stuff Works, Fix Ya, Instructables, SnagFilms (for all of my kindred spirited documentary lovers), and Truveo.

Since I have been collecting unusual names for quite a few years now, I am always interested to hear what the most popular baby names are for a given time period. Nameberry has it all- a name of the day and a nice blog. I'm sorry but some of the names for babies that these celebrities are coming up with are just ridiculous.

Citeulike is a free service for managing and discovering scholarly references.

I've been spending some time searching on Hakia. I like it.

In my last post I mentioned the book Scrapbooks: An American History by Jessica Helfand. I think I forgot to mention she has a blog entitled The Daily Scrapbook. (and if I did mention it, it's certainly worth being mentioned twice).

Halfbakery is a communal database of fictitious inventions. People are incredibly imaginative.

Love this list of colors.

The Starfish Project collects the unused portion of people's antiretroviral drugs and sends them to Nigeria to people suffering from AIDS. They collect all sorts of medications so their site to see what they need.

Wonderful ice carvings.

Okay, May I live in one of these treehouses?

That's all for this week. Have a nice weekend.

"Don't compromise yourself. You are all you've got." —Janis Joplin

Round Up

R.I.P. Odetta.

If you are looking for hourly employment go to Snagajob.

I found this so interesting. Former Attorney General Janet Reno masterminded the Song of America, a 3-cd set contains new versions of American classics performed by artists such as Take 6, the Blind Boys of Alabama, and Harper Simon (Paul Simon's son).

The Brooks Brothers Non-Iron shirt was one of Oprah's picks. She swears that it really does come out of the dryer ready to wear. Would make a nice gift.

I am aching to read Scrapbooks: An American History by Jessica Helfand. I fell in love with her book Reinventing the Wheel, which was all about volvelles or information wheels.

I wish that I still had my scrapbook from when I was growing up. I can still see it. It was chock full of all of my girlhood detritus, and I could kick myself for not saving it.

Two other books that I would like to spend some time with are Road Trip Journal by Steven Shore (but at $250.00 who am I kidding), and the New York Times: The Complete Front Page: 1851-2008. I was in Costco the other day and started perusing the New York Times book and I even with all of the hustle bustle in the store, I became totally immersed in this wonderful tome.

If you are a dog lover, you must read the Boomer Chronicles 12/04/08 post.

I've said this before and I am saying it again. I wish I could retire and tour factories, visit small towns and their libraries and cemetaries, read Presidential biographies and the Rivers of America series. I would also like to be able to bake a different bath of cookies every single day. Since I can't I have been visiting Martha Stewart's Cookie of the Day site.

I really should give up on my quest to being able to identify every tree, flower, bush, weed, etc., etc. I let this obsession go for awhile and then it comes back with a vengeance. I have been spending quite a bit of time on this nifty Tree Identification site.

Look who is behind all of the cool Google Doodles?


I really like these outdoor Christmas presents. Very festive. I am also crazy about these signs.

If I were a little girl, or had a little girl, I would want to shop at Matilda Janes. Such adorable things.

Remember, if you are looking for gift book recommendations, or book recommendations of any kind, hop on over to Flashlight Worthy.

Have a nice weekend.


"The leaves fall, the wind blows, and the farm country slowly changes from the summer cottons into its winter wools."~ Henry Beston

Stuff

This is a short post about a couple of things I heard on the radio.

1. This woman called in exasperated because she asked her daughter what she wanted for Christmas, and her daughter said gift cards. Her daughter is 7 years old. She said she didn't even say what store she wanted the gift cards from, she just wanted gift cards.

2. Papa Johns Pizza has whole-wheat crusts. I am thrilled. Does anyone know of any other pizza place that has whole wheat?

3. I read this and heard this. If you have to buy a teacher's gift, please don't get them a mug or tote that says WORLDS GREATEST TEACHER. They have tons of that stuff and are sick of it. They want gift cards just like the 7 year old mentioned above.

Gotta go. Have a nice day.

"The worst sin toward our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them; that's the essence of inhumanity." - George Bernard Shaw