Get to know me!

U.L. Harper, author of The Flesh Statue, is hosting a few weeks of blogger interviews over at his blog, and I'm one of them!

Go visit my post to learn more about me and tell him you've come over from my blog!

Announcing the 50 Followers Contest!

Holy canola oil, guys! I just announced the 50 Followers Contest this morning, and here I have 50 followers. You guys are awesome!

Here are the details:

1. You must be a follower to participate. New followers are eligible, too.

2. I don't care if you live outside the US or Canada. Since my followers are so awesome, and some live far away (Hi, people in Thailand and Australia and other places!), I'm opening this contest to everyone. This includes PO Boxes.

3. The prize is a copy of The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery, my favorite read from the last couple of years. If you already have a copy of this book/have read it and you win, I will give you a copy of Gourmet Rhapsody, also by Muriel Barbery. If you have/have read both of these, well, I'll think of another book!

4. All followers are eligible, but it would really, REALLY help me out if you would leave a comment with your choice of prize book and your e-mail address if you want to participate. Please, preserve my sanity!

5. Contest closes Monday, March 1 at 10 p.m. CST. I will e-mail and announce the winner shortly thereafter.

6. If, by chance, I make it to 100 followers by the end of the contest period, I will have TWO winners. Yay!

Thanks so much for all your support. I'm so excited to be able to offer this contest after just two short months of blogging!

The Honest Scrap Award

I received the Honest Scrap Award from Kathmeista at [Insert suitably snappy title here]. Thanks! The rules for this award are:

1. The Honest Scrap Blogger Award must be shared.

2. The recipient has to tell 10 (true) things about themselves that no one else knows.

3. The recipient has to pass on the award to 7 more bloggers.

4. Those 7 bloggers should link back to the blog that awarded them.

My 10 things are:

1. I don't mind doing laundry, cleaning the bathroom or vacuuming, but I hate, hate, hate doing dishes. Since we don't have a dishwasher, this means that dishes can sit in our sink/on our counter for a couple of days before being washed.

2. I like knowing where everything is in my house and at work, so certain things are hyper-organized. However, when I'm in the midst of working on something, I can make a huge mess that will sit there until the project's done.

3. I have a very different approach to organizing my books. You would think that, as a librarian, my books would be organized according to the Dewey Decimal System. Not true (Although I have toyed with doing so recently). I currently have three floor-to-ceiling shelves full of books, and the organization goes like this: Shakespeare and contemporaries; American fiction and poetry alphabetical by author; world fiction and poetry alphabetical by author; anthologies; drama; non-fiction; British poetry and fiction alphabetical by author; books to be read organized by date they were bought (Most recent at top) and then alphabetically by author within those dates (ie, If I purchased a group of books at a book sale on one day, I will alphabetize them by author).

4. I didn't set out to be a journalist or a librarian. I started college wanting to be an English professor. It wasn't until the second semester of my junior year in college that I started writing for my college's newspaper. From there, I was hooked and spent the next three years as a journalist. I became a librarian because I saw an advertisement in a local newspaper and was itching to get out of full-time journalism.

5. When I studied at New College, Oxford, for a term, I rowed on my college's novice team. We came in second in the big novice regatta (Against something like 60 other teams) only because one of my teammates caught a crab. GDBM.

6. When I'm not reading or writing, I'm cooking or knitting. I love to cook and knit. A lot.

7. I have an unhealthy addiction to Shakespeare merchandise. Anything with a Shakespeare picture, quote, etc., is fair game for a purchase. It is kind of ridiculous, especially if you ask my husband.

8. If I could have dinner with any three people in history, living or dead, I would choose Shakespeare (See above!), Sylvia Plath and Atilla the Hun. Why Atilla the Hun? Because I think it would add a little bit of spice to the meal.

9. I'm trying to give up processed sugar this year. I just recently (Like, yesterday) began this one, so we'll see how it goes. I have a feeling I'll be having withdrawal pains somewhere around Friday.

10. I drive a car with a manual transmission. My husband taught me how to drive stick when we first began dating, and I'm on my second manual car. I always feel kind of cooler than the rest of the drivers because I'm driving a stick. :)

The seven blogs to whom I pass on the Honest Scrap Award are:

silencing the bell

a ska loving geek

a lovely shore breeze...

Find Your Next Book Here

As Usual, I Need More Bookshelves

Bermudaonion's Weblog

Library Queue


Thanks again, Kath!