Some more books and walks and stuff.

Some more recent conquests in the book world have been "Amo, amas amat... and all that" - How to become a latin lover, by Harry Mount, and A Book Addict's Treasury (yes, very fitting, I know).

The Latin one was very interesting, it's like a basic introductory course to Latin. The good thing about it is that even if you don't learn any of the verbs or declensions or nasty grammar stuff, it's full of amusing and interesting anecdotes about where some of our English words came from, and Roman emperors and contributions to society. I recommend it as a nice light read, and if you want to take it seriously you can refresh your Latin as well! Good stuff. 3 thumbs up.

The Book Addicts treasury is a collection of quotes and writings and tips on how to keep your books, catalogue them, lend them, find them, buy them and borrow them. Great to dip in and out of in between other books, and fantastic for finding arguments for keeping books! (Though you have to keep it under lock and key, as there are arguments against keeping books too....sssh don't let the Book Police find it)


Speaking of finding books, I found my first book from www.bookcrossing.com (tell them I sent you - prenderb there too). For those of you that haven't heard of book crossing, the principle is that you register the book on the website, and it's given a unique identifier. You make a journal entry, maybe review the book, then flag it on the website when you leave it somewhere public for someone to find (called releasing). People who look in that location (say it's Naas, or Newbridge) will then get an email notifying them, and the hunt is on! When it's found, in theory the finder should log it on the site as found, so you can follow the book on it's journey.

I got the email on a Sunday evening, saying that a book had been left in a large DIY/Interior shop in Newbridge-with quite specific instructions that it was in a drawer on a furniture display. So Monday morning (gotta love flexitime...) I was opening drawers in the furniture display at 9 am. I opened about 15 different drawers and presses before I found it - excellent! So it's being read at the moment, and I'll naturally tell you about it in due course. I plan to release it, and hopefully follow it onto the next reader. (I released a book before, but nobody logged it on the website awh....)

And I've been walking again in the Slieve Blooms. Another fairly serious 10-miler, at Hundredacre and along the Crumlin river. Great scenery and the weather was very kind to us - it didn't rain till I'd started the engine when we were finished! More details on www.slievebloom.ie/walking