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From NPR’s On Point with Tom Ashbrook broadcast: Dec. 22, 2008
Books That Changed America

In the age of video games, cell phone texting, and the instant message, the idea that books shape a nation may seem like a stretch.

But look back across American history, and at nearly every key moment of definition, of transition, there stands a book that nails the change.

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- WWII Huts Rescued!! Bletchley Park has been awarded a grant by the National Lottery of £460,500. There’s still a long way to go – which is why it will be the focus of fundraising efforts as the main charity for National Shed Week 2010 – but it’s a great start.

Items ordered before the following local cut-off times will be delivered the same day:

New York City – Order as late as 10 a.m.
Philadelphia – Order as late as 10 a.m.
Boston – Order as late as 10:30 a.m.
Washington D.C. – Order as late as 10:30 a.m.
Baltimore – Order as late as 10:30 a.m.
Las Vegas – Order as late as 11 a.m.
Seattle – Order as late as 1 p.m.

worth reading • Bon Appetit magazine’s feature on Portland, Maine makes mention of Rabelais Books “…has become the town square for Portland’s food community.” Rabelais must have missed a meeting, because last I checked all independent bookstores were coughing up blood. They certainly aren’t supposed to become any sort of foodie Mecca…what the hell goes on in Portland..don’t they know we decided to kill the book trade! we voted on it! sheesh.

worth hearing • NPR’s On Point has the author of Finding OZ, the new book on Frank L Baum, Evan Zchwartz.

well worth reading • from the Consumerist Textbooks Publishers Using “Packets” To Fight Used Book Market, as much as I understand publishing and the pressures on the industry, the costs, and the difficulties..like everyone else – I left college with a serious distaste in my mouth for text book publishers and they have never done anything to make me think anything better of them. They are greedy corporations who should be ashamed of themselves.

stupid human tricks - A small town near Milwaukee has been rending and wailing about teenagers having access to books about homosexuality, you know – the naughty kind, the kind that say “it’s okay to be gay and your parents will still love you”. Apparently this nonsense issue brouhaha has blown up into a good old fashioned book burning. How come groups labeled Christian Civil Liberties Unions, are never civil nor Christian and against anything that smacks of liberty.

worth hearing – Lizzie Skurnick guest’s on NPR’s Talk of the Nation regarding about her new book: Shelf Discovery: The Teen Classics We Never Stopped Reading. – .between V.C. Andrews and Are you There God it’s Me Margaret that little town in Michigan’s gonna pull out the pitch forks and torches, lynch the librarian and burn down the entire library.

It seems everything tends to crash and burn at the same time…my dvd player died, my laptop took ill and still hasn’t recovered – no one has bought anything from sicpress in a week and I can’t even remember the last time I sold a book. The torrents of raining turning my basement into a damp cave is just over the top. Did I mention that the apt above me leaks into my kitchen and I have been blaming my poor dog?

In the meantime, I am listing books I haven’t listed before, delisting items I am tired of seeing. Trading in DVDs for actual cashy money. Taking stuff off Craigslist and Bonanzle and throwing it out on Freecycle: extra printers, tools, bicycles, even a bloody great dollhouse. The only frustrating part of selling to locals is getting them to show up, you are always afraid to say, “sorry I’m offering it to the next person”. Because then you get the old “i don’t have a car, i need to get a ride from my ex” yatta yatta yatta…way too much information. If you want something come get it, otherwise I have a nice big blue dumpster that takes away all my sins.

worth hearing • I spent many decades listening to comedy albums of some very observent people…and instead of experiencing deja vu, I experience moments when I hear voices in my head – Either it’s Bill Cosby trying to get the definition of a cubit to build an ark, or George Carlin – talking about ‘stuff’, the acquisition and the storing of same. But I can’t remember any funny rifts about divesting.

worth reading • Luckily the barter system is alive and well in the US Barter Economy: 14 Great Places to Trade Stuff Online

worth reading • from Small Living Journal, Radical Downsizing Techniques

worth hearing • from NPR Did Shakespeare Want To Suppress His Sonnets? by Lynn Neary