6.12.2006

Bookcrossing

I've found a website that speaks to me. It encompasses both my true love, reading, and my desire to recycle, reuse and conserve resources, mainly mine. www.bookcrossing.com is this crazy international (also important) community of bookworms that believe in sharing books. Why keep them? They just sit on my shelf. Except for those that I love and can't part with (and re-read every two years, mostly Steinbeck and a few other classics), I love to share my books. I have been rummaging through every bookshelf in my house and registering the books. It is amazing the number of books I have borrowed, purchased or stolen that I have not read. My TBR (to be read) pile is now over 20 books!

I also have been trying to stop spending a fortune at the bookstore. It's my favorite indulgence. For the price of postage (about $1.59, media mail rate) I can send a book or receive a book from another bookcrosser. It's a great deal.

I've added the banner to the site. Log in, go hunting, or release a book.

6.07.2006

Anna Karenina

I just read "the greatest novel ever written." Wow. What a book. What a story. What a philosophy. What a culture. Beautifully written. I have to read more Tolstoy. I was told I should try Chekov next. I wonder if I was born in the wrong century. Everything moves a little too fast for me. We are so disassociated from one another by technology.

Of course, then I remember that I'm a feminist and I probably would have died in childbirth or before that as a child of the plague.

Secrets

I blog in secret. I haven't told my soulmate, my husband, my partner, my love. I don't want to tell him. I haven't told anyone else either. I think he may have guessed, but I don't care. I want a "room of my own." A place where I can explore me and reclaim who I am outside of being defined by someone else's relationship to me.

I don't know why it has to be a secret, but I know that it's ok that it is.

6.02.2006

This music elevates my soul

Checked in on a fellow Austinite's website who, unlike me, actually lives like an Austinite. She had a link to a fantastic Peruvian black musician's site, Susana Baca, where I found the label's site with an online radio. Amazingly, I already own several of this label's albums. Latin music is the sound of my childhood (along with classical). It reaches my soul the way no other music does; it makes me feel sexy and alive.

I have to start exploring new music. I have always liked to find new stuff. I like this blog called Awesome Until Proven Guilty because they host mp3 and I can listen and decide if I like the group/artist and if I want to hear more, they provide links to websites. How cool is that? Then I can buy the CD or go to iTunes and buy a song or two. They also have a list of many other blogs that host mp3s. I haven't had a chance to browse, yet. I'm working on setting some goals for this year.

#1 Find new music
#2 Go out and listen to live music (i live in the damn live music capital of the world!)
#3 Go out more in general

I'll have to figure out how to make this list into some kind of permanent entry on my site, on the sidebar or something.

#4 Learn more html/template blogging design stuff so I can make this site mine

6.01.2006

Same planet, different worlds

My mother just called and asked me what a "blogger" is. I laughed as I attemped to define what a blog is and who the people are that write them. After about 10 minutes, I said "I'll send you links to some so you can take a look." I pulled together a few of my less embarrasing favorites and then googled some of her interests to find some she might enjoy. Had to share the list:
www.overheardinnewyork.com (hysterical)
http://1rabbi.blogspot.com/
http://www.lotteklaver.nl/log/ (art from amsterdam)
www.gofugyourself.com (I can't really explain this one, except it's funny and about fashion)
http://www.complete-review.com/main/main.html (book reviews-very literary, most I've never heard of)
http://blog.kir.com/ (houston blog, I haven't read it too much, but it's interesting when I do)
http://www.operacast.com/blogger.html (opera)
http://primalamusica.typepad.com/
http://www.therestisnoise.com/ (by the music critic for The New Yorker)

Then I asked where she had heard the term. "There are some in jail in Egypt and Iran. It's on the news."
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