Friday literary quote #3

W. Somerset Maugham

When I read a book I seem to read it with my eyes only, but now and then I come across a passage, perhaps only a phrase, which has a meaning for me, and it becomes part of me.

Friday literary quote #2

Laurie Perry, Crazy Aunt Purl:

When I was little I had my nose stuck in some book all the time, books were my key to a world outside the small town I lived in. I LOVED to read. We didn't watch TV in my family, and I would just read all day long and well into the night until some cruel parent forced me to go to sleep. My folks never put any restrictions on what I could read, and I remember once when I was little, my mom and I were at the checkout counter in the library and my mom had to "have words" with the library lady, who was insisting the books I wanted were certainly not appropriate for a girl of six or seven years old. My mom stood her ground in my defense, and I got my Lloyd Alexander sci-fi thankyou, and I did not turn out to be an axe murderer so all is well. Take that, library lady!

PS - Therefore, Nina's Books 4 Israel Project, still going strong even if the blogging is on an unscheduled summer hiatus.
PPS - Sorry about Roy, Laurie.

Friday literary quote #1

Julie Burchill:

If you don't read books you have been fucked over in a major way. You have been castrated and conned. To read, voluntarily, is the first step to asserting the fact that you know that there is somewhere else.

Book bargains in the Toronto area

I just donated a tonne of books to the Bruce Trail Association yard sale. There are at least 120 recent mass market paperbacks, including a half-dozen Bookcrossing books. And I am not the only donor, so I bet this would be a sale worth checking out. The sale will be held in Limehouse, Ontario, a place I have never been since I do not drive.

All the details I know are below:

The Bruce Trail Association hosts its 18th annual yard sale, 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Limehouse Memorial Hall (Fifth Line and 22 Sideroad). Box for a toonie between noon and 1 p.m. Will take Canadian Tire money, LCBO and beer bottles. Rain or shine.

For more details about the sale, please contact the BTA (not me!).

"Fat, Broke & Lonely No More" by Victoria Moran

(This is the first of book reviews I decided to publish on this blog. It's one of the main motivations behind my Books 4 Israel project. I see reading as a net positive in this world, and everyone should get the opportunity to share my addiction!)

Moran, Victoria. Fat, Broke & Lonely No More: Your Personal Solution to Overeating, Overspending, and Looking for Love in all the Wrong Places. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2007.

"Life coach" Victoria Moran's latest book is, at first sight, just another fix-your-life inspirational self-help tome, and I was fully prepared to mock it when I started reading it. But something happened as I was gathering ammunition towards mocking the book. I began to enjoy it!

Moran doesn't offer one-size-fits-all solutions, or five-easy-steps to complete happiness. Instead, she has suggestions that can help anyone improve their relationships, their bottom line, and their waist size. Very few of her suggestions are radically new to someone weaned on women's magazines and TV news magazines. However, there's nothing wrong with re-enforcing the basics. In addition, Moran can offer a new way of looking at the old problems of the perpetually fat and broke.

There are no obscure secrets to financial health, for example -- spend less than you make, and you are two-thirds of the way there. However, Moran has helpful common-sense suggestions for keeping track of your money, so that you know exactly how much you are earning and spending. She also has unusual advice, such as tithing or donating a tenth of what you make -- regardless of how rich or poor you are.

Moran's suggestions are based mainly on valuing yourself and on calling on a Higher Power for help. Within reason, the former is always great advice. I find the latter slightly offensive, actually -- my Higher Power is a bit above worrying about my budget and calorie count. The universe is not a benevolent entity that just wants to provide me with "abundance", à la Oprah-endorsed The Secret. The universe does not care, much as we might wish it did. Any abundance we generate comes from us alone. Which does not make Moran's advice any less useful, just like doing yoga helps even those of us who do not believe in reincarnation.

She also has a charming way of writing, like a chatting with a friend over a mug of tea. Personal anecdotes provide examples that help make Moran's point. And the occasional touch of humour helps even the unpalatable, but necessary, advice go down.

If you are an inveterate reader of self-help books, you'll be reading this book anyhow. If you never touch self-help books, this book is unlikely to change your mind. However, if you believe there are some genuinely beneficial books in the genre (such as Your Money or Your Life), you may want to add Fat, Broke & Lonely No More to your bookshelf.

A Helpful Compendium of Cute Kitten Links

I am not only working mad hours these days, I keep being disappointed in the level of political discourse I am subjected to. Plus there's a huge rainstorm scheduled for tomorrow!

Sometimes, even my own cats are not enough to cheer me up, and so I turn to cat cat pictures on the Interwebs. I believe that, at this juncture, there is officially more "kitty pr0n" on the web than the regular kind.

First of all, thank God for Fraser Lewry, who not only travels to North Korea for fun, but also runs:

• The Daily Kitten does exactly what it says on the tin, at 3:07 PM GMT every day.
• Cats in Sinks (another "what it says on the tin" project).
  
• Kittenwar!, a project that asks you to do the impossible, viz. compare the cuteness level of kittens.
• The Random Kitten Generator, which generates pictures of kittens, rather than actual kittens. (Just anticipating the confusion.)

And he doesn't even own a cat!

Outside of the Lewry kitten-pic empire:

• There's Stuff On My Cat, with pictures of cats with stuff on top of them. (Some of the pics do not strictly meet the "stuff on top" criteria, but they are all cute.)
• Cute Overload claims to be the #1 Choice of Hamsters, but it also provides you with your daily kitteh picture requirements.

When all that unalloyed cuteness gets you down, there's also cuteness with nudge and a wink:

• Cat pictures with kitty-language-captions at I Can Has Cheezburger?
  
• I am also perversely attracted to Cats That Look Like Hitler, which features mustachioed cats with dark parted head fur and a tendency to invade Poland.
• If you want to see pictures of real cats, doing real-cat stuff like horking hairballs, ruining furniture, and looking down on humans, turn to My Cat Hates You.
  

What web sites do you turn to for cheer?