For the book-lovers among us...

This morning an Israeli friend pointed me towards a terrific website: whichbook.net. You fill in the sort of thing you think you might feel like reading and it makes suggestions.

Would I ever follow one of their suggestions? Maybe, maybe not. I don't know how extensive their selection of choices is, but I love reading snippets about (or excerpts from) a variety of books I'd never otherwise hear of. I used to like doing book reviews for the newspaper because it introduced me to books and authors I'd never otherwise read - which has its downside too, since if I didn't like a book I was still obligated to finish it and write about it.

I set my controls to 'fairly happy, extremely unpredictable, a fair amount of sex and very unusual." My result:

Apocalypso
By Robert Rankin

Reader comment
An exuberant fantasy of old jokes, crazy ideas, running gags and unreliable anecdotes - if you like comic writing try this.


The excerpt: The man with the exploding beard was keeping his head down. Dr. Harney was gambolling aimlessly about making the sounds of a big brass band. Dilbert held up a fat finger. 'This is crap', he said. 'This fellow can't dance. Let's have him over here and see what he tastes like.' Er... offhand I think that sounds more surrealistic than funny, but maybe it needs context.

I like the idea, anyway. I could certainly waste time with this site.

Let's see, can I set it to "novels about sexy roguish outlaw heroes with cornflower blue eyes and an arcane way with literary quotes"?

I'm like a gay... what?

got this from new LJ user jfc013: Yes! Yet another quiz.

( I don't think it's true of me, but I like the picture that goes with it )

Ikea: land of wondrous distractions....

I just got back from a trip to Ikea. I had no need for furniture or lamps or anything major, though my friends did. And believe me, there was a sofa or two I could be persuaded to love. I needed a dish-rack and a saucepan. I got a saucepan, two semitransparent blue plastic trays, placemats, a lamp lit by tea candles (for the next big blackout), and a toilet brush.

And I had a wonderful time browsing. I love stuff there, even when it's things I wouldn't want to put in any house - like a bookshelf in the shape of a check-mark. Shelving, I adore good shelving - oh for a dozen sets of good bookshelves - and a place to put them!

I ran into an old friend named Shelley. "Phone me," she said. "E-mail me." She is a friend I have been planning or hoping to invite over for dinner for about two decades now. (Friends who haven't been invited over for a mere two or three years may cease to feel neglected, reading that.) This time I mean it. Can't e-mail her, I don't have her address, but a phone call is a real possibility.

I went into Michaels and swooned over their rubber stamping books. What is it that makes me love the art of rubber stamps so well? I make many greeting cards and gift tags and the like; pretty rudimentary stuff; I don't take the time to do anything ambitious. But how I love to see it. I was on a rubber-stamp mailing list for a while and loved seeing the terrific things people have made.

Another joy was discovering how good the food in the Ikea cafeteria is. I had an open-face egg and shrimp sandwich. Brings a smile to my face, really.

I had to think of "Fight Club", where the Narrator is referred to as "Ikea-boy". I can really relate.