I’ll be honest, I’ve broken my “never loan books” rule a couple of times in the last year or so. Both books have yet to wander home, and I suspect they are prodigals that will never return.

The only other time I loaned one, was to someone that I’d have liked to have been under the “sleeping together” exclusion with anyway…and she was nice enough to return the book in a timely fashion AND discuss it with me at length when she returned it. The book in question was “America (the Book): A Citizen’s Guide to Democracy Inaction” by John Stewart (and the writers of the Daily Show). And she found it just as funny and enlightening as I did.

I’m looking forward to seeing your office. I’m guessing yours will say you are very entertaining.

Thank you!

That’s intersting about the bookworm battle. My husband had a similar situation over a Boggle game (thankfully he lost, as I don’t like Boggle at all).

There’s this moment during a divorce where you look at the other person and seriously wonder if they’re even human. It’s like aliens stole the person you walked down the aisle with and replaced them with the worst possible duplicate imaginable. It LOOKS like them, and SOUNDS like them, but is ACTUALLY an evil space alien bent on world domination…starting with my stuffed bookworm.

I am a pen/paper writer myself. I wish it weren’t so, as it would definitely cut down on the work…but I just feel more comfortable writing with my gel ink pens and my carefully selected notebooks.

I actually started writing fiction with a fountain pen in order to force myself to slow down and not rush the dialog. When I was creating at the keyboard I’d almost be able to keep up with the stream of conversation in my head…but the result when I went back and read it was essentially incomprehensible. Using a pen and really considering how the dialog is structured, and not just what I’m trying to have them say, has improved my writing considerably.

Regarding your book collection, I think the only thing I’ve read in your collection is the Lord of the Ring set. Clearly I have some reading to do.

As the Jane Austin fan that you are, I have to point you towards Susanna Clarke’s “Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell” and the subsequent “The Ladies of Grace Adieu” which have several allusions to Austin, Dickens and Bronte that just delighted me when I noticed them.

Also, not on my desk (or even out of whichever box it’s hiding in) is the marvelous “The Eyre Affair” by Jasper Fforde. It’s the first book in a series that I generally enjoyed, although the most recent book was a bit too “ponderous” for my taste. But I feel that way about more than half of the Bronte Sister’s oeuvre as well, so that’s not really much of a demerit.

My love, you can HAVE any and all that you desire.

xoxo

I love you so much that some days my chest physically hurts from trying to contain it all in my heart.

Ok, I can see the retro…so I’ll accept your “Old Skool Geek Cred” with pride.

Built in bookshelving is a beautiful thing – I used to have some at a house I used to live in. It made my heart sing just looking at a wall of books. :D

I’m pretty sure my long weekend is going to involve some light carpentry.

The amount of time it remained that tidy was measured in minutes, not even hours. Hell, not even “hour” in the singular.

i had a few boxes to go to goodwill and they were suddenly gone. i asked him where they went and he said “to goodwill.” i said “oh, because i thought that maybe you threw them in the dumpster at work.” “either way, they’re gone.”

yep. dumpster. what a dear.

I equate throwing a book away with burning it. Nazis burned books. I will now always think of you as “Amy, who’s married to A NAZI!!!” (I’m sure he’s a perfectly nice guy…he’s just a NAZI!!!)

I was actually leaning on a box with Pope, Dickens, Austin, Bronte, Bronte, Poe, Byron and Shelly in it when I took these pictures; so that just made me chuckle. And, honestly, Robert Howard’s Conan fiction is FAR better than the modern portrayal of sinewy stupidity.

For perspective, the majority of Howard’s Conan stories feature a character FAR closer to Viggo Mortensen’s Aragorn than to Arnold Schwarzenegger’s version of Conan.

Big pet peeve: when people borrow my books and never return them. That’s why I don’t lend the out. Ever heard of a public library or Barnes & Noble? Books are sacred.

After some bad personal experiences, I too refuse to loan out books. Unless we’re blood related or sleeping together. And even then I’d have to debate it. A lot.

This MUST be true, which explains why my “day job” cubicle has a brand-new stuffed Cthulhu lording over my external screen…I just wasn’t as productive without a (stuffed and fuzzy) squamous elder god watching over my every move.