Notes and stuff

[serene]

1) The Munchkin is here, and adorable. And teenaged. And occasionally annoying. But mostly, I'm just happy to see zir.

2) Tomorrow, we plan to go to Food Not Bombs if I can get zir up in time, and then I thought I'd take zir to Pegasus to buy cheap manga.

3) My injured foot still hurts like hell.

4) Organizing the books today (something I can do mostly sitting down -- same with the laundry). Much fun for me to make the categories (we have fun categories like "books by people we know", "books by crazy fundy religious nuts", and we will probably have a catch-all "WTF?" shelf. :-) Also, books about sex fill almost a shelf so far (not anywhere near done yet), crafty books likewise, fiction several shelves, including at least one for science fiction and fantasy, a couple shelves for skepticism/atheism/science/humanism, writing and writers at least one, short stories at least one, politics/race/class/gender at least one. And I'm limiting my cookbooks to three small shelves in the kitchen. Anything else gets given to the thrift store or BookCrossed (see #5).

5) Haven't touched my BookCrossing account since I lived in San Diego. Today, I registered seven or eight books, and I'll do more as I get the energy (they're not showing up on my BookCrossing profile yet, but the site's slow and I'm sure they will). Gonna go dump 'em in the first public place I hit tomorrow. Between those and the stuff I'm just plain getting rid of, I've freed at least two shelves. Yay for decluttering.

I've been so busy with Munchkin duty (and with the other munchkin and my mom, who both left this afternoon) that I haven't even given any thought to a get-together for them what wanna meet the Munchkin. More on that later.

Comments

[bayarts.livejournal.com]

Want to trade some veg or dessert cookbooks for something that I might have? (Tell me what you like and I'll tell ya if I have it.)

[serenejournal.livejournal.com]

I'm keeping all the veg cookbooks if I have space for them, but you are welcome to anything I'm getting rid of. I'll try to remember to send you email every time I update my list. Here, let me know if you want any of these: http://bookcrossing.com/mybookshelf/serenejournal/page_1/statusfilter_2

Also in the pile to give away right now:

(all these are softcover)

The Fannie Farmer cookbook
Celebrity Cooks Across America: The Ingredients for Managing Diabetes
Top Secret Recipes: Sodas, smoothies, spirits, & shakes
Strip AIDS USA (comic strips about preventing HIV/AIDS)
Szechwan & Northern Cooking: From Hot to Cold
The New Harvest: A Cook's Guide to Exotic Fruits and Unusual Vegetables (I think you'd like this, though you wouldn't find things like cherimoya to be especially exotic, I think)

(and these are hardcover, though small)

Meal in a Bowl: Soups Salads Pasta Fish Meat Poultry
Ice Creams & Sorbets

[serenejournal.livejournal.com]

Just put some more books on my list: http://bookcrossing.com/mybookshelf/serenejournal

please explain book crossing

[clever-doberman.livejournal.com]

well, I went to your site, then read some of the FAQs, but I still don't understand.

let's say I have a pile of books I'm no longer interested in keeping. if I look up and find that someone wants it, then what? or that's not what it is? argh, I'm confuzed!!!!!

Re: please explain book crossing

[clever-doberman.livejournal.com]

okay, it may be coming into focus. if there is a book on Serene's "released" list that I am interested in, I can go find it where she left it, or we can arrange a release from Serene to me, and then I can register that it crossed my path or whatever.

so, if I have a bag of books I no longer want, but don't want to shlep to a bookstore to maybe have them give me $3.50 for the bag, then I can register them and others can say "I want that" and I can give it to them?

well, maybe I'm getting it, maybe not.

Re: please explain book crossing

[sogwife.livejournal.com]

Once I've released it, it's out there and someone may have picked it up. However, if you see anything on my "available" list at this URL, I will gladly hold it for you: http://bookcrossing.com/mybookshelf/serenejournal

And yes, once you have it, if you want to, you can go to the bookcrossing site and put in a note of where you found it (or that I gave it to you). And then let them know when you release it, and the next person who finds it can list *their* finding, and so on.

If you have books you don't want, you can register them and then leave them on a bus bench or something. You don't have to wait for someone to say they want it. It's kind of fun seeing where your books end up by pure chance.

Re: please explain book crossing

[serenejournal.livejournal.com]

Oops, sorry. Forgot I was on my wife's login. :-)

Re: please explain book crossing

[(Anonymous)]

It's way less complicated than matching your book with someone who wants it.

Basically, you take a book you've read (or don't want any more), "tag" it with a unique identifying number that BookCrossing provides you with, and "release" it (into the wild, as it were, or to a friend, or whatever). You leave it at a bus stop, or in the laundromat, or you give it to someone. Then the person who finds it, if they want, can go to BookCrossing.com and put in the number that you've tagged it with. They say where they found the book, they read it, they pass it on, and the next person does the same thing.

n this way, your book finds its way around the world, we hope, and you get an email every time someone new makes a note of it. It's a fun way to recycle books, and it's neat to see where your book has been and where it ends up.

(There's a similar thing with dollar bills, called, I believe, WheresGeorge.com.)

Whoops. That was me.

[serenejournal.livejournal.com]

For some reason, LJ keeps logging me out when I close my browser, even though I'm telling it not to.

[clever-doberman.livejournal.com]

so, where did you leave your books?

[sogwife.livejournal.com]

I still have all of them, but today unless someone expresses interest in one or more, I plan to take them to the next public place we go to. The Munchkin and I are going to Berkeley -- I may leave them in the cafe at the Berkeley Bowl, or in a coffeeshop somewhere. I try to leave them where people might be sitting around -- laundromats, bus benches, coffeeshops.