eBookshelves for voyeurs

Someone enlightened me about a book cataloguing and reviewing site that is more elegant than librarything!!

Checkout: Goodreads.com

It still involves searching an adding, but it's less unwieldy and more responsive than librarything.
I believe you have to be a friend to share bookshelves though ;-)

Random Acts of Kindness

I do them. Little things with no expectations of thanks or acknowledgment. Sometimes consciously, mostly spontaneously. Often a situation makes me feel a tug on my empathy strings (action of my mirror neurons). And I act, almost compulsively. I am not looking for a pat on the back for being a 'good Samaritan' because there exist more compassionate people who do far more than I, more actively, more frequently. And I have no halo to burnish.

I don't want to be labelled a do-gooder, or charitable person; mostly because it would be undeserved. I am sure I could do more. And there is a personal reward involved; that modest payback of knowing I done good.

It's also a matter of pride. Or how not to encroach on the receivers dignity by not being 'patronizing' about it and avoiding basking in ones self righteous afterglow of the good deed in question. Sometimes dropping a few rands/groceries/clothes into a box offers welcome anonymity. But othertimes it's paying for bread and milk for someone obviously less fortunate than you at the tillpoint. (No one has ever offered this to me at Woollies though :-| ) . Or letting an old person steal your parking spot and not honking your horn in a fit of rage. Sometimes they are bigger and closer to home, like careboxes to my sister at Wits University when she was a starving student and I was earning a lowly interns minimum wage.

Do it.
Move on.

And receive random acts of kindness that fall your way with dignity.
***

I used to tutor/mentor "township kids" when I was in high school (also a few of my less academic friends, for that matter :P). English, history and biology were my fortes (I have awards to prove it ;-).

I have always believed that literacy and education is critical to uplifting society. I also know that it's not so easy when you're living under the bread line; books and reading are hardly a primary concern. Yet, it's an initiative I support. I have contributed to the local schools drive to collect money for their library (more enthusiastically than I did the raffle for their rugby tour :P).

And SA's new Minister of Education has just reduced funding for literacy projects! :-\
That said, here are 2 associated fantastic projects that deserve support:





Books for Africa
"Books For Africa. A simple name for an organization with a simple mission. We collect, sort, ship, and distribute books to children in Africa. Our goal: to end the book famine in Africa."









Better world Books
"Better World Books collects and sells books online to fund literacy initiatives worldwide. With more than two million new and used titles in stock, we’re a self-sustaining, triple-bottom-line company that creates social, economic and environmental value for all our stakeholders."



They raise funds for global literacy and save books from landfills! And all you have to do is buy your books from them instead of Amazon! (or Loot, or Take 2 for 'Saffers' - I still despise that word)

Friendly libraries

I visited one of my super friendlies this weekend to belatedly celebrate a birthday with her last Saturday (just as the cold front hit). To compensate for the fact that I forgot (well, technically, I did not forget, I just thunk it was 20 day later :P) , I made a 2nd time lucky chocolate pecan pie and (with help from my kitchen elf) a thai green curry, which complemented my friends veg cannelloni very nicely ;-) It did, I tell you! Well, I have a great deal of respect for her skill and patience and I watched in ravenous awe as she filled the last few pasta tubes with yumminess. Not something I'll be doing anytime soon.

I will post the chocolate(base) pecan pie recipe I adapted (from 500 chocolate delights ) later, but here's the curry for now.

The cooking was accomplished by asking my faithful kitchen elf (actually, he's more of a wizard and his cooking skills complement mine ;-) to get things going while I handled the aftermath of my violet black purple hair dye escapades and forced my (in need of a haircut) tresses into order with the clumsy use of my GHD (if only results were about the tool and not my handling of it, sigh). Anyway, the food was delicious and my hair looked ok.

*Trixified Thai Green Curry

• about 6-8 skinless chicken thighs and drumsticks
• 1 tin lite coconut milk
• 1/2 finely chopped onion
• 1-2 pieces of cinnamon bark
• 4 dried lime leaves
• 2-3 tbs green curry paste
  
• 1 tsp crushed cumin/jeera
• 1tsp crushed coriander/dhania
• a thumb sized piece of ginger, peeled and finely slivered
• 1/2 tsp ginger and garlic paste
• julienned carrots, baby marrow, red/yellow/green peppers
  
• salt
• sugar (to temper)
  

Saute onions, cinnamon stick, lime leaves on low heat until golden. Add chicken and rest of spices and pastes and brown briefly, then add coconut milk and about 1/2 cup of water and cook on medium heat for 10 minutes. Add veg/ginger and cook until just tender. Serve with basmati rice, garnish with fresh coriander. The lemongrass I had in the fridge did not look as healthy as it did when I bought it else that would have gone in too.

While we were chinwagging after eating the yummies, the conversation drifted towards blogging, since my birthday friendly had read mine on her cellphone. I was inspired to give blogging another go after another friend (also at supper) started hers (Memento Vivere).

Our hostess, being the super insightful, fabulous friendly that she is, went to scour her bookshelves for treats I would appreciate. This is what I got to borrow from her library:

Julie & Julia by Julie Powell - because of my blog, a book about a blogger who cooks her way through a Julia Child cookbook and her experience of life, love and a book deal. I can dream, can't I?

The Patron Saint of Plagues by Barth Anderson - I had the flu earlier in the week (nope, not the flying pigs virus type) and had been talking about The Zombie Diaries which documents a similar sounding outbreak...

Altered Carbon by Richard K. Morgan - coz of my review of Kiln People; this is along similar lines (the copy I loaned has a more appealing cover, but the title does not appear on it)

I will review after I read them, so watch this space ;-)

P.S. I read slowly :P

Dead tree pulp

This incisive Penny Arcade strip still evokes a mirthful chuckle. Thanks love!

While I may have (classic) e-books on my DSlite and I look forward to an affordable e-ink device that is more compact and portable than my unwieldy hardcover preciouses, I will always have a special space* reserved for superlative literary quality dead tree pulp.

*something I constantly require more of as my bibliophilic avarice compels me to liberate books from stores so that they may become part of my personal library...

I have tried in vain to catalogue my books (see my Librarything for a partial browse of my bookshelves) but the rate of acquisition far exceeds my compulsion to catalogue.

I idealistically made an attempt to review books as I read them but posted them to an inappropriate forum, so they were appreciated by only a few who share my passion. My intention is to blog them here, for posterity and maybe a shade of hubris ;-)