Shine A Light

I’ve added a link to my “Check it out” blogroll — to Mary McDonald’s Blog. Her reviews of two books with a Russian theme made me want to read them. And she makes me laugh!

Oh, here’s something from Sporcle that will make a reader smile: How many book titles can you name from their cover images?

From Read Write Web: 5 ways e-books are better than paper books

Also from Read Write Web: 5 ways paper books are better than e-books

And a bit of humor from McSweeney’s: After thorough testing of e-readers, their winner: the newspaper:

“…The most obvious advantage of The Newspaper was the size of its display, which outclassed its rivals both in terms of size and elasticity. The Newspaper display could be read at full size or, when flipped open, twice its normal width. We also had no trouble reading copy when the display was flipped to half or even quarter size. One of our engineers even figured out how to make a hat….”

Thanks to Shelf Awareness for the links.

From The Millions:

Jacob Lambert imagines a fourth-grader writing a book report on “Portnoy’s Complaint.”

This is hysterical. And rated R.

How about wallpaper that shows stacks of paperbacks?

How about Jane Mount’s “Ideal Bookshelf” art?

The New York Times has ideas for how to use those pesky, old-fashioned paper books, now that your library is filled with e-books.

The blogger at Forgotten Bookmarks displays the “personal, funny, heartbreaking and weird” stuff he or she finds it old books. Check out the great photographs found in books.

From Shelf Awareness— Excerpts from #bookstorebingo on Twitter, aka Crazy Things Customers Say, compiled by Robin Lenz:

GlennWhidden: Do you have (pause, consult reading list) Hamlet? It’s by (pause, consult list again) Shakespeare?

LFrannie33: Overheard: “Can you tell me who the author of Shakespeare is?”

GlennWhidden: Do you have the Autobiography of Ben Franklin? I’m not sure who wrote it.

mmerschel: “Do you have Shakespeare in English?”

Bookdwarf: I’m looking for a book but I only know the title, not the author. It’s called Dante’s Inferno.

VillageBksBham: “Who wrote Jane Austen?”

ragesinggoddess: @Watermarkbooks had a summer-long Jane Austen bookclub. Had someone ask when she would be there.

delmorepilcrow: “Where do yall keep the true fiction?”

joebfoster: “I definitely don’t want nonfiction. I like autobiographies and history.”

Bookdwarf: “Do you have books on monkeys, monkeys doing things like people?” (turns out they wanted monkeys having sex)

joebfoster:”This is the only bookstore I’ve ever been in that didn’t have a popcorn machine.”

LFrannie33: “I’m here for a Bible, not the KJV or anything. I’m looking for the original. You know the one that God wrote.”

joebfoster: One of my all-time faves: “My new girlfriend is pretty churchy. Would a Gutenberg Bible be a good gift?”

handeebks: Another fave from the brick & mortar days “Do you have any books with red covers? I’m redecorating my living room in red.”

ChatNoirBooks: Cust asks about return policy so I ask her why…. “Well if I don’t lose weight I should be able to return the book right?”

julialikesbooks: “I’m looking for white supremacy books. I tried to order them and they were stopped at the border. Can you imagine?!” #bookstorebingo

KatherineBoG: We keep getting emails from a guy who wants us to do an event w/ Pam Grier. He has no connection, just want to meet her

anna_steadman: How many books are there in the trilogy?

amyeureka: Overheard @EurekaBooks: Kid: “What is this place?” Mom: “It’s a library.”

Handeebks: “What do you mean? Why can’t I leave my 3-5 yo (unattended) in your shop while I go next door?!?”

chelseathe: Customer asks where ‘nonfiction’ is. I say it’s broken up into history/bio etc. She calls us a bad bookstore. Really?

corpuslibris: Most commonly asked non-book-related question: Do you have a copy machine? 2nd most common: Do you sell stamps?

bookladysblog: My favorite #bookstorebingo mistaken title: The Glass Menage a Trois.

HFBooks: Customer asked for THE ONION IN THE CLOSET; wanted INDIAN IN THE CUPBOARD.

KatherineBoG: Woman asked for CRUCIBLE, I gave it to her, she said “not the screenplay. The REAL one.”

joebfoster: 2nd week as bkseller, lady looking for the KITE WALKER. Was PISSED when I suggested that KITE RUNNER might be a quicker read.

ChatNoirBooks: Oooo Ooo – Tillers of the Earth. Was completely insulted when I suggested she might be looking for Pillars of the Earth.

3rdplacepress: “Do you have Atlas Rugged?”. “Uh. No, don’t you mean Atlas Shrugged, by Ayn Rand?”. “No. I need Atlas Rugged.”

KatherineBoG: Woman was outraged that we had signed Susan Branch bks b/c she said Branch died 2 yrs earlier. We had her in the week before.

lauriemuchnick: When I worked at Waterstone’s Charing Cross Road, people would ask, Is this Foyle’s? I never said, Can you read the sign?

ragesinggoddess: I like to think my ability to track down books from customer-provided cover colors is legendary.

ChatNoirBooks: I’m looking for a book. It had a chicken on the cover & my sister really liked it. Total WIN with no more info we found it.

GlennWhidden: Do you have those mystery novels by Angela Lansbury? I said yes and showed him the books by “Jessica Fletcher.” He was happy.

joebfoster: Someone once told me that the US government classified ANGELS & DEMONS as fiction to help the Vatican with the cover-up.

The Guardian offers a quiz of how much we know about siblings in literature.

A literary agent blogs about the slush pile. Funny stuff!

The Guardian offers a fun quiz on bad days in literature.

Over at The Millions, Jacob Lambert has been writing a comedic translation of Cormac McCarthy’s “The Road.”

The Guardian has published novelist Aifric Campbell’s list of the top 10 jobs found in fictional works. Fun and interesting. The jobs range from spy to cowboy to estate agent.