Bookshelves

An important part of any book lover's home, has to be bookshelves. Thanks to the Steampunk Home blog, I am becoming fascinated with bookshelves that hide rooms. The link to the fascinating company, Hidden Passageway, got me thinking about a remodeling project that I could handle at home. And of course, a Google search brings up not only the necessary instructions, but the use of a Sherlock Holmes tome to reveal the hidden room - I'm in heaven!!

At Yankodesign I saw some fabulous bookcases that are a new take on the old brick and board shelves that I lugged around for years!! That candle is absolutely splendid



then I found some lovely bookshelves for dog lovers
makes me think of that wonderful Grouch Marx quote
"Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read"

Now I think I need to get another dog.......

Pirates...books..reading

I love it when I actually see something in the local paper about books and reading. This morning, Denver Post columnist David Harsanyi does take on the AP-Ipsos poll I mentioned yesterday. As a book-lover and reader he finds it surprising to see the number of Americans who never read books. He also gives a plug for our favorite bookstore, the Tattered Cover.

And now on to the most important book news of the day - the theme for this year's Banned Books Week is ... (ta da!!!) PIRATES!!!!!! .... how much happier could a Pirate-loving book mistress such as meself be? Well, if truth be told, they could have held it during the week of September 19th which, as readers of this blog should know, is International Talk Like a Pirate Day
(yikes - thar I be in Arr-e-gon for TLAPD 2005)

In case you need to prepare for TLAPD, you might consider downloading "The Pirates Own Book" by Charles Ellms from Project Gutenberg. Originally published in 1837, it has tales of the great pirates including Blackbeard, Jean Lafitte, Robert Kidd, Edward Low, and Anne Bonney

Aaarrrrrr... life be good!

And while I'm at it...

One in four American adults read no book last year!!!!!

*gulp*

An AP-Ipsos poll reveals that the average person read four books which is something of a relief to those of us who love the world of books.

I have been saying for years that adults are by and large unable to sustain reading for long periods of time as their brains have been re-programmed by the gotta-have-it-now sound-bite passing for information society in which we live.

On a brighter note, more women than men and more liberals than conservatives read books...perhaps there is hope for society yet!

Just when I thought I had seen it all .....

Old book smells for e-books? As a former used book seller and librarian I always gag when people tell me how much they love the smell of books....don't they know that they are talking about mold and dust? So a new e-book company, CafeScribe, claims to be giving a scratch and sniff old book smell sticker to each purchaser of their e-texts.

Wasn't it Mencken that said “Nobody ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public.”

Steampunk

I have always been a fan of steampunk but I never knew it until now - if only I had my own jetpack.....

Book Mules

this is, without a doubt, the coolest mobile library that I have ever seen

BOOK MULES!!!!

Where did the summer go?

Wow - August 1st and I see I haven't posted since April - yikes, better get busy...

here are some of my favorite sites right now:

this guy digitizes pics from old books
http://www.fromoldbooks.org/

this guy builds the computer in the style that I want - I think I will have to build my own - I should look around for an old flat screen monitor so I can get started
http://steampunkworkshop.com/lcd.shtml

ever wonder what you should do with those old Reader's Digest Condensed Books? try sending them here
http://booksoflove.com/Merchant5/merchant.mvc?Screen=SELLERSINFO

or turn them into art objects - results here
http://www.logolalia.com/alteredbooks/


yikes - I have to actually do some work now - more links later