Literary Synchronicity

I've been using this bookmark to hold my spot in the Neil Gaiman book I've been reading.

This morning I decided to flip it over to see what it said on the other side...

 

Little Free Libraries

What a great idea! I saw this on the news this morning. This project was the brainchild of Todd Bol and Rick Brooks, who first met in 2009 while exploring the benefits of green practices in small businesses.

They started with the very first "one room schoolhouse" seen to the left, and since then people around the country have built their own Little Free Libraries.

The idea is basically "take a book, leave a book". These are little libraries that belong to the community.

Their mission is:

• To promote literacy and the love of reading by building free book exchanges worldwide.
• To build a sense of community as we share skills, creativity and wisdom across generations.
• To build more than 2,510 libraries around the world--more than Andrew Carnegie!

Here are some of the libraries created by individuals across the country...

I'd love to have something like this in my area, but would worry about how to deal with our inclement weather. I live in south Florida, and we can have regular fierce rain storms!

They tell you how to order a library (they range $100-600 in cost), or how to build your own.

Like them on Facebook, and check out the map to see whether there is one near you.

Check out the Little Free Library website. Maybe you can do one in your area?

If you wanna blame someone, blame him...

Sorry I haven't been around this weekend. I've been a little distracted by this guy. His name is Smeagol (pronounced Smee-goal for those not familiar with Gollum from the Lord of the Rings trilogy), and he is the latest addition to our ZooCrew.

I've been planning on getting a dog, but Smeagol is totally NOT what I had in mind! However is the greatest little dog, so there is no way I could ever regret getting him. He is thought to be about 4-5 months old chihuahua mix (actually he was sold to me as a "Chihuahua", but I knew that he looked like a mix and strongly doubted what the rescue was promoting.)

You can learn more about Smeagol and see a video of him on my other blog, but in the meantime if you want to blame someone for my temporary absence, you can blame him...

Good luck with that!

Book Blogger Holiday Swap

Well, I have signed up once again for the Book Blogger Holiday Swap. If you haven't signed on already, you have until November 14th to get on board Santa's sleigh! Join in on the fun!

Vegas Interlude

Where the heck have I been? HERE. Where the heck have you been?

Secret Santa Gift Received

I actually received my Secret Santa gift awhile back, but I had committed to not opening it until Christmas. Well, I opened it Christmas Eve, but I think it was near midnight. So...I sorta waited until Christmas!

I opened the box to find several gifts inside!


When I unwrapped the gifts, I found a copy of Dead Souls by Michael Laimo and The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane by Katherine Howe-- both off of my Wish List! I also got two homemade leather bookmarks. Very nice!

Thanks so much to my Secret Santa Somer of Some Reads! I love all of my gifts, and they were well worth waiting for!

Santa is holding all of my packages...

...and I'm hoping I'll have one of these under my tree Christmas morning! (I had to "borrow" this image off the net. It was too good to pass up!) There's a lascivious double-entendre in there somewhere, but I'm not going there!

I've decided that I am not doing anymore posts of books received (no Mailbox Monday) until after Christmas. Any packages that come in are going straight under the tree. That means just more Christmas day! Then I'll do a post after Christmas about any books that arrived between now and then.

I did receive my Secret Santa gift yesterday! However it went straight under the tree, too. So I don't know what my gracious giver gave, but I want to throw a premature "thank you" their way!

Happy Holidays to all, and I hope you all get everything you dream of and hope for!

Holiday Swap

I've joined in on the Book Bloggers Holiday Swap. This is my first year, although the site says that it has been going on for 3 years now.

The swap is a sort of "Secret Santa" swap. If you want to join in too, just head over to Holiday Swap for the details and to sign up. But hurry up! The deadline for signing up is November 12th. Ho ho ho! Come join the fun!

A Profound Thank You

Looky, looky what came in the mail for me!

According to the accompanying card, that is a coin from 2nd to 4th century AD! This was a wonderful gift from author Michelle Moran for hosting a giveaway for her books The Heretic Queen and Cleopatra's Daughter, and I couldn't be happier or more surprised to receive it.
The 2nd to 4th centuries. 100-400 AD. The early days of Christianity. The days of Pliny the Younger and Ptolemy. Jonah is swallowed by the whale in this era. The days and decline of the Roman Empire. This coin is over 1500 years old! Can you wrap your mind around that?

I love "old things". So you can imagine how excited I am to have a coin from the early days of the first millennium. A coin that just missed sharing the earth with Christ by a mere few hundred years. A coin that could have sat in the hand of Ptolemy, or shared the sea with Jonah. Maybe it was lost at sea after being newly minted, and was never touched by anyone but the minters and the salvagers. But can you wrap your mind around the antiquity of this tiny little coin? It baffles the mind!

Michelle Moran-- thank you, thank you, thank you! I got such a kick out of receiving this coin in the mail. Learn more about Michelle's books here!

On a sidenote: I am reading Michelle's book The Heretic Queen right now, and I promise you that I have been in no way influenced by the coin when I say that I am loving the book! I love the ease of her descriptive writing style, which paints pictures in my mind of the scenes being played out. The coin just helps pull me even closer into the time period in which the story is staged.

Thanks so much, Michelle!

What Book Are You?

I found this on Books and Needlepoint. I took the quiz, and here was the result:

You're Siddhartha!

by Hermann Hesse

You simply don't know what to believe, but you're willing to try
anything once. Western values, Eastern values, hedonism and minimalism, you've spent
some time in every camp. But you still don't have any idea what camp you belong in.
This makes you an individualist of the highest order, but also really lonely. It's
time to chill out under a tree. And realize that at least you believe in
ferries.


Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.

I took the quiz. Now how about you?