Just The Facts Ma'am

Moonrat explains the awful facts of publishing's crash in September and October of this year. Her blog is one of my favorites (sidebar - Editorial Ass). I'll give a hint: it was the big chain stores' strategy of sending books back to publishers to raise money for the holiday shopping season. Publishers have to buy their books back whenever the stores decide they've been on the shelves long enough and haven't sold.

In fact, the books in my previous blog entry which were gutted and made into purses were quite likely originally returns of that kind. The solution? Buy books this Christmas. If you buy a book purse for your favorite book lover, buy a book to go in it as well. Books for everyone!

The NY Times is cautiously optimistic on the same subject, pointing out that inexpensive entertainment like books doesn't suffer as much in bad economic times as pricey fun like vacations, new electronics, new cars, etc.

Make it so, readers!

Holiday Shopping for Writers

Thanks to Ju'nen for leading met to this fab collection of book purses. Even if it is a bit naughty to gut hardcovers and make them into fashion items. I had a moment of rejecting the idea, then came around thinking it's a fact that many hardcovers get remaindered, then sent to the trash. Why not make something fun out of them? It's recycling.

Lose Weight! Get Laid! Find God!: The All-in-One Life Planner

"The Americans go for self-help books, the French buy unreadable philosophy books and the British buy books filled with trivia, which are often made up and generally aimed at being funny," Nielsen adds. "Those are the stereotypes, and they're not completely misleading."

Elephants' tears and ants' "arseholes" at the Guardian.

What's on your Christmas book list?

"In France, certainly, they buy a different kind of book. In amazon.fr's chart of the top 20 bestselling titles this Christmas is one by Schopenhauer. True, it comes in at 19, and it isn't the German pessimist's symphonic chef d'oeuvre The World as Will and Representation, but L'Art d'avoir toujours raison, a book on how to win arguments. But let's not spoil the story. As you know, Schopenhauer's most trenchant philosophical observation was that humans are eternally tormented by desire and it is only in the stilling of the human will - be it through disinterested aesthetic contemplation or ascetic renunciation - that one can elude the penal servitude of...our human fate."

Dana Paramita, a party

Last Saturday was Zen Mountain Monastery's annual holiday dinner. This about sums it up:

Charles Dickens wrote, "I have always thought of Christmas time, as ... the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow-passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys."

It's for the community. People dress up, bring their kids (to see Santa and get presents), and enjoy the food and music. A great party, and open to all, although it's usually the less privileged who attend. Daido Roshi, the abbot, remarked that people seemed impressed by the surroundings. That's no surprise. The dining hall is like a medieval banquet hall, with huge timbers and iron chandeliers hung with Christmas balls. The monastery is a landmark site, and has a lot of one of a kind ironwork done by hand. Not many of us ordinarily have dinner in a setting like that.

photo courtesy of Zen Mountain Monastery

Christmas package arrives in office with chocolate...

...truffles. From Harry & David's -- how long can I extend the eating of this amazing dark chocolate truffle? They're so good, but so poisonous. I read all the things about dark chocolate having antioxidants, but chocolate and sugar are still a deadly combo for me. I'm going to limit myself to one, but take as long to eat it as if I had the whole box.

Five minutes so far. It's the aroma that's really amazing. (Maybe I should let it melt on a light bulb.)

UPDATE: 25 minutes! A new record, and, an interesting side effect: the desire for the chocolate wore off. Must be some chemical reaction that makes us want it NOW.