You are on the archive wiki. The new wiki is here. so much on the backblog, and mandatory plush commentary after tonight's few blinding views, so I'll start with my book bleme from extemporanea (see previous post as to why "bleme")...

some of this is pre-composed and out-of-date - sooner, bloggier posts as soon as the tiki is upgraded, I promise ;) - posting in a rush, formatting and links may end up being corrected, and paragraphs completed

number of books I own

quite a few, certainly not as many as jessica - I'll let you know when I get round to writing that inventory system - for now I make do with a borrowing and lending sheet in excel

unevenly distributed over two cities (mostly in durban) and several apartments (hence the lending sheet)

at the ECR house & garden show I saw this brilliant storage system, like library stacks for your home!

the last books I bought

you know, I don't buy books that often; typically only when

I can't get my hands on them any other way
they seem essential to own
I know I'll lend them out

and, having worked in a bookstore, when I'm browsing I know I'm just handling stock (and if I forget myself I tidy shelves)

all of which was ignored when I visited my former place of work (Adams & Co) and stepped out with the accounts manager cackling:

Mind Wide Open (Steven Johnson)
{forgot title} (Why One Thing Happens After Another) ({author})
other titles I left in durban because actually I have enough to read, including a damned nice mediaeval picture book that's like an all-you-need-to-know for the SCA, which I'm beginning to rue

I downloaded Accelerando (Charles Stross) recently; for no other reason than that it's an online book with a Creative Commons license (and why mention it? because for my purposes 0 credits for a virtual book still counts)

the last book I read

Ravenous, a Poe-inspired graphic novel of Jo's; fun, but not awe-inspiring

before that, Mind Wide Open (described below) and before that, Jar of Fools (Jason Lutes), on the plane to durban, which goes to show that all I need is to be stuck in a tin can to finally get some reading done

recommended by Scott ))McCloud ?(( in Reinventing Comics, and it stands up to the scrutiny he suggests (not that I'd perform a full analysis without a looming essay deadline ;) - which, while I remember, reminds me to point out that it's patently obvious that graphic novels are too real books

(Jar of Fools was the two-months-down-the-line swop for The Art of Discworld I got for my birthday from brendan, lara, linda, liz & mike - a choice so brilliant I already had it ;)

still in the middle of

Ethics for Every Day (David Benatar)
New York Dreams (Eric Brown)
and when I'm done with those a whole wodge of borrowed books, some of which I'll have to turn back to page one when I start them again

five books that mean a lot

Understanding Comics (Scott McCloud ?)
pretty much redefined my understanding of art and communication, let alone comix, at a tender age - companion to Maus, an exemplar of comix (I never remember which I read first) (see also: Reinventing Comics)

The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy (Douglas Adams)
the whole damn trilogy, obviously, and while I'm breaking rules (adhering to the de facto standard, actually) let's include all incarnations in multiple media - because in terms of humor, bleakness, profundity, the banal, and technology hitting the pavement, HHGTTG is something of a cornerstone for me

(h2g2 used be a cornerstone, but, well, wikipedia happened)

so, yeah, I was kinda looking forward to the movie ;-)

Tales of Mystery and Imagination (Edgar Allan Poe)
the first antiquarian book I owned (of two, the second is an irreparably water-damaged copy of Prisoner of Zelda) - pretty worthless on all counts, but carefully turning browned pages to reread The Gold Bug was a purely sensory experience

Mind Wide Open

{details about pop sci here}

the electronic book (as yet unrefined by any manufacturer)
cheating into the abstract; I can't think of a time when I didn't want a single device carrying a library of virtual books

a laptop will be a fair approximation

book you'd like to burn

none; in the short term, unworthy books don't sell, in the long term, unworthy books don't last, like Tristram Shandy

(worthy includes books that are worthwhile reminders of roads less travelled because they're dark, dingy and addle-headed; and if you don't like a tenacious survivor, write a rebuttal)

you've been pinged

there were a number of non-bloggers I considered of pinging, but in the end, that would just be pimping, and I'd have to say "you've been bl-inged", and bad puns lead to the dark side, or at least a bruising

(and there'd be questions begged of when the tiki would be upgraded, yadda yadda yadda...)

tiki blogger: WombatBoy, purveyor of whatever you call your blog these days
non-tiki blogger: Schpat
open box blogger: Eden
overseas blogger: the pinkness that man was not meant to know