This Week's Finds

Last week was a slow week for finding books...of my interests. Amid the  piles of mystery/romance paperbacks we received, I only found one:

Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight by Alexandra Fuller

One woman's story of her childhood in Africa during the Rhodesian War in the 70s. I've heard it is a very good book.

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Now, this week was slow as well--until this morning. I woke up early, walked around town an hour before work, and came in to find more piles of books, in which I found these:

The Book of Bunny Suicides and Return of the Bunny Suicides by Andy Riley

Two very funny (and still somewhat disturbing) books about bunnies coming to an end on purpose. You laugh and feel bad for laughing; but laughter is the best medicine (and sometimes we just need to feed out sadistic side).

Walden by Henry David Thoreau

One of my favorite poets from high school, as soon as I saw this, I knew I had to add it to my collection. It describes Thoreau's experiment in living from 1845-47.

The Catcher in the Rye and Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger

Even before his death, I liked his work and wanted to own copies of them. I have never come across of F and Z, so this might be my one opportunity for a while.

I'm trying something new with adding covers with links to Amazon for people interested in buying a copy for themselves. I'll add specific covers for anything unique I find.

(I'm also realizing once again how little room I have now, and I haven't even moved into a college-dorm yet...)

Internship and Wingmailer

So, I started an internship at the local paper that I've been freelancing for (since about last May). Now instead of just updating their blog and writing almost-weekly features, I'm in the office quite a bit now.

I usually just edit my own articles, format the weekly articles (like the Police Blotter and Community Calendar), take calls, and learn how to do other things once and a while.

One of my favorite things in the office though, is the Wingmailer.

The Wingmailer is an old-old piece of ingenuity that allows someone to cut and adhere lots of labels in a (relatively) short amount of time. Of course, there's big machines that can print labels on newspapers, but it's expensive, and we can get away with some manual labor around here.

This Week's Finds

I'm still rather busy, so I'll slap up another pictureless list of what I snagged this week. Maybe I'll go back and put up the cover artwork this weekend.

Someone brought in a ton of donations on Monday. A colleague found 12 boxes full of books outside the library that morning. When I started working, I immediately went through the stacks to see what there was.

There were tons of old paperbacks, and I found a lot of books I've read/previously owned, and still needed to own a copy.


Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury
I have another, less intact version of this book, so I'll replace it with this week's version. It's a book about the future where the government has banned books, and burns them if found.

Typing...

The other day I watched the movie Alex & Emma with my girlfriend, when suddenly Emma, Kate Hudson acting as a stenographer for Luke Wilson (Alex), pulled out this awesome little contraption from her bag.

(What is circled in green and not being fired upon by Luke-lasers, aka Lukezers)

When I saw it, I told my girlfriend two things: "That's nifty" and "I want one now."

Things I've Read...

Here are the last six books I've read since my last post on the matter (back in January)--as well as the blogs I have been frequenting lately.

• The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks - Rebecca Skloot
This book is about one of the largest medical mysteries, and is unknown to a majority of the public. It tells of the story of the HeLa cells, what they are, and from who they came from. Skloot not only writes about Henrietta Lack's life, but the life of her family since the 1950s, and the story behind Skloot tracking everything and everyone down. After decades of the world not acknowledging the HeLa cells came from a person, finally the truth is exposed for all to read.