LibraryThing

I've always had a hankering to have my books organized. When I was a kid, I had various eclectic shelving systems (size, topic, publisher (I really liked seeing the colophons all lined up), etc), within the constraints of my slope-ceilinged room. As I got older I thought it would be cool to have my own card catalog equivalent. And now, thanks to LibraryThing (also Bitty and Bubblebabble), I do.

I just finished, or at least, I think I've gotten all the books entered (barring the ones in the give-away pile). 1768 books are nontrivial to enter, especially considering that many are ISBN-free, and a noticeable number required transliteration decisions in entering them. I'm sure it's not perfect (tags are never perfect, but at least a decent approximation...), but good enough for now.

It was a trip down memory lane, going through all the books. Some of them I associate with particular times (Nishmat, my bat mitzvah) or places (colonial Williamsburg, New York) or people (my parents, especially). Others had things tucked inside, a ticket or an old photo, cards, notes, etc. I found one note card from Mrs. Russell, a favorite teacher/artist, in her extremely lovely handwriting. One book had a fading squarish photo with rounded corners, very much from the 70s, of the Washington Monument tucked inside, while another had doodles from... high school? (I'm very much a packrat.)

Now that I'm up to speed, I don't think it will take too much effort to keep it accurate. Some people use LibraryThing to track the books they've read, but I've decided that way lies madness (for me, anyway: I'm too much of a completist, and how can I remember every book I've ever read?). So, just the books I've crammed into my small space. I wonder how much more space I'd have if I had no books? Though of course, there's really no way to imagine a home without books!

Boston Organics

Small box, one third fruit.

• two leeks
  
• two artichokes
  
• a zucchini
  
• a bag of green beans
  
• two bunches of broccoli
  
• three pounds of red onions (which is five medium red onions)
  
• three oranges
  
• a mango

Strangely, they never replied to my email last week about missing things. On the plus side, much with the green.

Random

Yesterday: first crocuses in bloom! Little yellow ones, with one purple outlier (color and location).

The store name is Barnes and Noble. Note the lack of final s. However, feel free to shop at your local independent bookstore :-)

Yesterday I pushed myself into some walking errands, and by the end, I was starting to feel tired. I thought it was maybe four miles, and felt lame, until I mapped it out online, and realized it was more than six and a half miles. Then I went to the gym and rode a bike for well over an hour. Yay, exercise.

The clocks changed this past weekend. I don't understand why the government moved the change later in the fall and earlier in the spring. There are so few hours of "regular" time that it seems silly to have it. Just switch over to whichever time, and stick with it, at this point. (I'm not cranky that the clocks changed right when Shabbat was getting to the perfect time, no, not at all.)

My newest RSS feed: Green_prophet, about living green (or at least, more green) in Israel. Given the state of things when I lived there (no recycling, lots of smoking, no mention of organics, etc), I'm particularly happy that this blog exists. (It looks like there are CSAs starting up, even!)

eta, 8:40 P.M.: As of today, no new LJs can be "basic." In other words, if you start an LJ now, you get advertising or you pay money. Thank goodness for grandfathered Basic accounts, but I still don't like this. Yes, I know it's a business. I still don't like coercion (nor advertising, when it comes to that).