It takes me for-freakin-ever to read nonfiction.  Not sure why I can fly through fiction but nonfiction takes me at least three times as long to read.  Am I paying more attention or something?

Anyway, right now I'm making my way through Moab Is My Washpot, which is Stephen Fry's autobiography.  The

Moab Is My Washpot

Stephen Fry

 wonderful thing is that he did write it himself and it's completely in his "voice" so it's rather like sitting across from him as he tells you the silly tales of his childhood and school years.  I always wonder how people can remember their earlier years with such detail.  I certainly remember "scenes" but if pressed I doubt I could put them into an actual factual timeline.  It's just as well since I doubt anyone would want to read my life story anyway.  Although I did have a damn fun childhood.

Bad Science

Ben Goldacre

I'm also plowing (slowly, slowly) my way through Bad Science by Ben Goldacre.  I say "plowing" only because I read so dreadfully slow, not because the content is laborious.  If anything, Goldacre makes what might be snore-worthy and makes it fun and interesting.

This is a book that has been known in the Skeptical community as a must-read... along with Phil Plait's Bad Astronomy, and Simon Singh's Trick Or Treatment. It reveals what commonly-held beliefs are misplaced and generally teaches you to question what often sounds too good to be true.

What makes reading both of these books even more fun is both of the authors are also on Twitter so I'm "getting to know" them both through their writing and through their day-to-day twitterings as well. 

Originally posted on wickedlibrarianx.vox.com

Helpful/useful information for us all.

Available free for one week via Skeptic's Society!

Go! Print! Read!

Originally posted on wickedlibrarianx.vox.com

I don't like admitting it (who does?) but I'm not feelin' the NaNoWriMo this year.  I know, I know. I'm supposed to "just keep writing anyway".  It's the exercise in making yourself write, not necessarily the story that comes out of it.  I know this and yet, I've just decided not to do it this year. 

I will, however, fiddle around with this story idea a bit more, here and there.  I think there's something to it (and hey, I DO have an ending for it!) and maybe it's more that I think it deserves more time/effort than a violent 30-day writing gorge can give it.  Or, that's a hoity-toity excuse.

I do feel shame, and I do feel guilt. I read the cheering-on emails I get from Chris Baty and others and for a moment or two I think, hey, I'm only a week behind. Maybe....?

And then I think, don't be silly.

And then I think... well.... ..... maybe?

Originally posted on wickedlibrarianx.vox.com

I've made the mistake of writing the "end" of my NaNoWriMo story. 

It was in my head, and I was excited, because I'd actually come up with an ending.  Which I didn't start out with - so you can imagine my pleasure.  This freak of a story which I'd embarked upon without any knowledge of the characters or the world they live in (or, rather, die in, since I've already killed off half the cast) was just sort of flopping along, without any arms or legs, and while I pitied it, I kept on writing.

And then last night while at the gym (it's annoyingly cliche that my brain really DOES work better during exercise) I struck upon how this monster would actually end.  So I rushed home and wrote it, while it was still all pink and fresh and gleaming.

And now I feel like I'm done.  I know I'm not; I mean, there's a whole lot of middle-stuff that I haven't even considered yet.  Step one, character. Step two, ?? Step three, result!  It's the Underpants Gnomes of stories.  I'm finding it incredibly hard to care about the middle stuff though.  My brain has convinved itself that it's finished this story, and it wants to move on to the next one.

I sense the rest of this month of writing is going to be very painful.

Originally posted on wickedlibrarianx.vox.com

So guess what?  My Minchin-heavy blog will soon be filled with my so-entertaining moanings about writing.  I shall write in order to procrastinate from writing. That's brilliant, isn't it?

I haven't really got much of an idea of what I'll be attempting... I mean, I do have an idea, but there's no plot to it at all. Which might be all right - in the past, when I've had a plot in mind, the characters just sort of went off on their own anyway and completely ignored my wishes. Rampant, they ran. I have no control. It's a damn good thing I'm not a parent if I can't even keep track of my imaginary people.

SO, you've been warned. I think that's rather nice of me, don't you?

Oh and also, if you want to join in, please do visit nanowrimo.org and sign up. It's crazy-fun.

Originally posted on wickedlibrarianx.vox.com

Friday Night with Jonathan Ross airs in the United States on 30 Oct 2009 on BBC America.

BUT, if by chance you don't get BBC America (shame on you) here's the interview:

Tim Minchin interview on Friday Night With Jonathan Ross

Originally posted on wickedlibrarianx.vox.com

And he also had the first of his three sold-out gigs at London's Hammersmith-Apollo (his biggest venue yet, seating 3,500), which from what I hear and read on Twitter, was a huge, gigantic, smashing success. And finally, perhaps the icing on the cake, he trended on Twitter's top topics for a while!

Whew! Expecting a lot of new people to be trickling in over at Angry-Feet.com over the next few days. *sniff* Our lovely Tim is famous!

Set your DVRs! Tim Minchin will be on Friday Night With Johnathan Ross on BBC America on Oct. 30th!

And word is he'll be playing a NEW song on the show!


 

(Left to right - Johnathan Ross, Jamie Cullum, Joanna Page, Tim Minchin, and Boy George)

Pretty cool interview - just before his show in Glasgow a couple of days ago.

Originally posted on wickedlibrarianx.vox.com

Interview with Tim Minchin on the BBC Radio 1 Chris Moyles show - you can listen for the next 7 days!

GO LISTEN. (His interview starts about 2:15 in)

Next year of the 2010 is going to be very busy if I end up doing everything I want to do.  And if Tim Minchin and Duke Special actually do both end up coming to the US, then that's even more added excitement!

Originally posted on wickedlibrarianx.vox.com

Inform yourself!  This is a fantastic book.  If you have questions about alternative therapies, reading this (very accessible and easy-to-understand) book will give you a powerful knowledge base from which to make your own decisions and judgements.

Please, read it. 

Trick or Treatment: The Undeniable Facts about Alternative Medicine

Edzard Ernst

Originally posted on wickedlibrarianx.vox.com

I've never liked tea or coffee.  Bitter, yucky water, it always seemed to me.  When friends would have an after-meal tea, I'd order hot chocolate and feel like a four-year-old.

But I love to watch the process (of tea especially) because it seems so soothing.  Boil the water, dip in the teabag (I'm not yet advanced enough to know how loose tea works). 

It wasn't until I was in a hotel room in Bristol, England, with a sore throat, that I learned just how soothing tea could be.  I woke up at 3am, unable to swallow and feeling feaverish.  The ever-present tea set in the room beckoned - so I made myself a cup, adding lots of sugar and some milk, the way I'd seen my English friends do.  It wasn't so much the taste but the warmth that made me so happy for it.  Soothed my throat and I was able to sleep (and run around with my friend in London the next day.)

So with a few hits and misses, I'm still exploring the world of tea.  I think I like the dark teas best, because you can add lots of sugar and milk and that's how I like it.  "Light" teas and herbal teas are all right, but you can't really add milk to them (it ends up tasting like, well, watered-down, hot milk).  I've gotten lots and lots of tips from other tea-drinkers: use a bag only once.  Steep "until it's ready" (a length of time that is, apparently, completely different for everyone, and thus there is no right or wrong).  Many, many friends have gleefully offered me packets and samples of their favorite teas, and I'm still having fun trying out every one of them.

I will never like iced tea (sorry to my Southern family members) but having discovered a path through the varying world of tea (the British path!) I can now continue to discover new tastes and delights.

And feel like an adult, at last. 

Originally posted on slytherinlibrarian.vox.com

You can now purchase Tim Minchin's newest album, 'Ready For This' (live at Queen Elizabeth Hall) on iTunes!  This is the first album that is truly "internationally available" (although you CAN purchase his other albums from his website, www.timminchin.com... you just have to have the CDs shipped from England.)

GO HAVE A LISTEN.  It's fantastic.

Tmrft

Originally posted on slytherinlibrarian.vox.com

Dead Until Dark (Southern Vampire Mysteries, No. 1)

Harris Charlaine

So, you know the Sookie Stackhouse books by Charlaine Harris, from which HBO's True Blood comes? I read the first one again, and it's much better now that I've seen the show. The first time I tried to read this, I don't think I caught the snarkiness. Now I get it though, and I've enjoyed re-reading the first book.  Now I've got the second book, but I realize that it may give away some of the plot points of the second series of True Blood... and since I still like the show better, I'm going to hold off on reading any more of the books just yet.

Read Trick Or Treatment, by Simon Singh and Edzard Ernst. Read it front to back. Everyone needs to.  I thought Chiropractors were just "back doctors". They so totally aren't.

Trick or Treatment: The Undeniable Facts about Alternative Medicine

Edzard Ernst

Husband and I have been enjoying our bi-weekly boxes from the local CSA. So far they've mostly been lettuce, but as the summer progresses we'll be getting more things that I'm looking forward to, like zucchini and squash and cucumbers and tomatoes. Since I've learned I have no patience or talent for gardening myself, it's lovely to have fresh produce from someone who does.

On the fandom front, take a look at what Linzy's done to our home. It's looking quite snazzy! 

And speaking of fandoms, Harry Potter 6 is out next week!  I'm excited. I'm pretty sure I'm going to the midnight show, since I've got the Friday after that off.  We'll see if I have anyone crazy enough to go with me or not.

The Graveyard Book

Neil Gaiman

And finally, this upcoming weekend I will be in Chicago for the American Library Association Annual convention.  Neil Gaiman will be there, so I'll be getting my Graveyard Book signed, and will also attend the Newbery Award banquet to see him receive his award. Fun times!

Originally posted on slytherinlibrarian.vox.com

I blame it on the short week - we've got Friday off for Independence Day. Hooray! There will be fireworks in the park on the 3rd, and perhaps I can convince The Husband to sear me some cowflesh on the grill on the 4th.  Corn on the cob, too. Yummm.

So why are we all trying to better ourselves all the time?  Is there any point at which we ever say, "Okay, there, I'm as good as I"m going to get"?  On the flipside, if you're NOT trying to better yourself, you're seen as a lazybutt. Why AREN'T you trying to better yourself?  You're certainly not perfect - I'd be happy to list out your flaws for you if you don't know what they are.

It's also much easier, I think, to list your own flaws, and it's interesting to note that they don't always match the list that someone else might have for you. Something you list as a strength might be what someone else views as a weakness. Nothing to be done about it - but interesting to note.

So there you go, my false-mid-week philosophizing. Have some more cute Tim Minchin clips (he guest-VJ'd on Australias Rage TV) to numb your brain from the ache of all that thinking I just made you do.

Tim Minchin, Guest Programmer on r a g e (Morning)

Tim Minchin, Guest Programmer on r a g e (Evening)

Originally posted on slytherinlibrarian.vox.com

Technology's evolution is much like biological, (only much faster, obviously). The changes aren't always "good", or "forward". Sometimes someone invents something and thinks it'll change everything, but it disappears because in real-life usage, it just doesn't happen (8-track tapes, anyone? Beta?  Beta?)

However, I'd like to take a stand in support of my Kindle.  Perhaps even e-books in general, although I admit to having a bias for Amazon's fantastic setup - the 3G "Whispernet" which, without any additional costs, will deliver me books in under 60 seconds, immediately.  That's IMMEDIATELY, folks.  That means, that Tuesday at midnight when that new title for which you've been aching comes available, in can be in your hot little hands without you ever getting your lazy ass out of your armchair.  And if that ain't fantastic, I don't know what is.

For me though, it's not just instant gratification.  My kindle allows me the following squees:

1) I can carry LOTS of titles around with me, all at once.  I'm one of those people who tends to read several books at the same time. If I'm at work or in line at the post office, and I feel like dipping in to that fantastic Simon Singh book about the fallacies of alternative medicine, I've got it right there. Or if I want to continue reading my vampire porn by Laurel K. Hamilton, I've got them all, right there.  RIGHT. THERE. 

2) And by RIGHT THERE, did you know I don't even have to actually have my Kindle with me?  My selection of books follows me around in iPhone form as well.  Because my iPhone and my Kindle can talk to each other!  If I happen to be in that post office line without my Kindle in my purse (which, by the way, I can totally do because it weighs less than a paperback book and takes up less space) then I can pull up the title on my iPhone, and it'll be RIGHT THERE on the page i was last reading.  If that's not magic, I don't know what is.

3) The whiners cry, "But what about the FEEL of a book in your hands?  The smell of them? I like my physical books!"  Well, this sounds like a personal sort of fetish to me. But yeah, I do understand. Books should be smelly (to quote Captain Picard).  I'm NOT one of those people who say the e-book readers will take over and someday the library will be nothing but a stack of e-files to be downloaded.  But I DO believe that an e-reader, for a reading-lover, is a fantastic addition to a collection. You may resist trying them out, but once you do I think you'll understand.  You've been in that situation where you're reading Neal Stephenson's newest 960-page hardback brick, Anathem? Where you're trying to balance that in one hand while you eat your lunch in the other?  Ouch.  With my Kindle, I can read ANY book, whether it's Neil Gaiman's 176-page Coraline or the entirety of Stephen King's Dark Tower series without so much as straining my hand, or shifting around to turn the page. The button is RIGHT THERE.  Easially accessed by my thumb with a mere click.  The feel of a 2-lb. brick compared to a few-ounces?  I'm just not that much of a masochist.

4) And if you complain that the screen hurts your eyes, you've obviously never tried these e-readers because the "electronic ink" is *just* like reading a regular paper page. BETTER, damn you, because you can at-a-touch-of-a-button change the font size if you wish. And guess what, you can also look up words with the built-in-dictionary (again without having to get up and hunt down your copy or get online) and highlight paragraphs and write "notes in the margin", all just like a regular book, but better, because you're not defacing the thing by doing so. 

Finally, I do agree with the naysayers that the e-books, as of yet, don't really have a place in the public libraries.  I just don't see how that would really work - or why.  You "rent" out the unit, so the person can keep it for, what, a week? Two?  And browse the collection of books on the unit, or would they be able to download new titles?  It's just not a system that is set up for sharing.  If everyone in the world had an e-book reader, and could download titles from the library (for a week or two), then that might work.  But I don't think techology (or demand) is quite there yet.

I will not give up my physical books.  I do like them, and I agree there's nothing quite so wonderful as a shelf full of your favorite books.  But I will NOT be one of the e-book haters - I think the techology world has something fantastic going on there, and I think it's only going to get better.  Resist it all you want, but do you really want to be the only old fart on the block who still insists on listening to his records "because the scratchiness adds a certain blah blah blah"?  Really?  DO YOU?

Another added point: The reason the Kindle works so well for ME is, I already buy 99.9% of my books from Amazon. I can understand if you're not used to ordering your books online, that you'd balk at the idea that with a Kindle you'd have to purchase EVERYTHING (for the Kindle anyway) from amazon.com. It's a bit of a committment that some people may not be willing to accept. It works for me though because Amazon already gets most of my money anyway - all they need to do to own my soul completely is invent a Replicator so I can buy all my clothes, food, and other household items from them as well. :)

Originally posted on slytherinlibrarian.vox.com