Reading is not the Challenge

Saturday, February 15, 2014

Net Reading

Back when I set my reading goals for 2012 I set this one:

Net Reading: Read some things that are not about books!

By this I meant something other than book reviews, new release announcements, publisher sites, book news (Shelf Awareness, the Millions, and such), author sites, etc.

So what have I been reading? The following is just a sampling.

Some interesting articles:

A history of the first Americans in 9½ sites by Colin Barras
That's archeological sites, not web sites.

Largest Solar System Moon Detailed in Geologic Map by Jia-Rui Cook, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA
Spotlight on Jupiter's moon Ganymede.

Soursop by Julia F. Morton, Miami, FL
Someone put a can of Goya brand Soursop (Guanabana) nectar in my Christmas stocking. Of course I was curious and now I know what I'm drinking. (I dilute it about half an half with seltzer over plenty of ice.)
This is from her book Fruits of Warm Climates which is fully (and freely) available on a Purdue University web site. Some good stuff.

Some non-book things I follow:

The Travelzine by Don and Linda Freedman
Some really great travelogs and travel tips from experienced travelers. Not a commercial site. (Discloser: I know these people)

Eater
Lots of foodie info: restaurant news, food trends, chef gossip, and other delicious stuff (and occasional--shh--book reviews)

Ptak Science Books by John Ptak
OK, OK, I know "Books" is in the title, but this is more about the science than the books. And it is wonderful science, off-beat, usually understandable, and entertainingly educational. I also follow him on Twitter.

The Curated Object
"Sometimes whispering and other times shouting, objects have their own time and cadence. The Curated Object is interested in the exhibition of objects and those who find our engagement with them compelling. Objects act out all the time and revolt against us. Listening carefully is our quest." Site has listings of exhibitions (worldwide in scope) and beautiful images from selected exhibitions. I love this.

@Matthias Rascher
"On Twitter to share my interests: linguistics, literature, history, archaeology, art, design, photography, science, technology, music, Los Angeles, travel." He is in Northern Bavaria (Germany). His tweets lead to a lot of interesting reading.

Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Blind Date with a Book

On Sunday (Feb 9) I posted about this from our local library

And here is the reveal

Ta! Dah!

This is super! I really like Christopher Moore but I haven't read this one--Perfect!

Sunday, February 09, 2014

Stocking up on Snow Supplies

Snow was predicted for today. So on Friday and Saturday we decided we'd better lay in a few essential supplies.

My daughter had picked up a few books at the library earlier in the week and realized she'd checked out books 1 and 3 of a trilogy. Only one nearby library had book 2 and it wasn't the library where I had a book waiting on the holds shelf. So there were two chores that had to be done before we were snowed in.

I decided to go with her to pick up her book. Oh boy, a library I haven't been to in several months! Whee... I checked out 16 books. She checked out 20.

Then on to the other library to pick up my hold. She asked if I was going to browse. I said I would if there was a line at check-out so she went in with me.

Need I say it? We browsed. We went easy on the browsing--only 4 books each.

The neat thing was
            we each got a
        Blind Date with a Book
                      I haven't opened it yet.
                         I shall reveal it soon.