customers in bookshops

I recently came across this lovely blog: This Is Not the Six Word Novel. Jen Campbell is a writer who works in a bookshop in the UK, and whose blog series "Weird Things Customers Say in Bookshops" has recently scored a book deal.

I won't reproduce any of the quotes here, for fear of copyright et cetera, but trust me - they are GOLD. Check them out. In order to whet your appetite, here are some hints of what you might find:

better book titles

Just came across this awesome tumblr site, the idea for which is not all that different from my "life lessons from literature" blog post a while back: It's called Better Book Titles.

Some of my favourites are the alternative titles for:
Jane Eyre
James and the Giant Peach
Atonement
Oedipus the King
Lolita
The Very Hungry Caterpillar

the science of storytelling

I love this: the periodic table of storytelling. Check it out. It's hilarious to see all the "elements" of stories laid out "scientifically". I feel like making it into a poster!

It reminds me slightly of Jasper Fforde's The Well of Lost Plots, in which his main character, Thursday Next, discovers the great libraries of the Book World and its underworld dealing in clichés, plot devices and original ideas as literal currency.

just call me lara

Inspired by a few puns bandied around on facebook by some friends.

From now on, I will only answer to my new epithet, if that's okay with you.

playing with dolls of a fictional sort

I did something very silly yesterday.

I was bored. The essential prerequisite.

I went on facebook and nothing, absolutely nothing, was happening. Sometimes, in situations like this particular one, I feel like yelling, with virtual hands raised to the sky, "O facebook! ENTERTAIN ME!"

Here is what happened next. I created a new facebook account for Jane Austen.

Obviously, I am not the first person to have wasted time in precisely this way. But I still feel slightly embarrassed about the enjoyment I got out of listing her hometown, her final resting place, the languages she speaks, the school she went to (which, fantastically enough, still exists)...

Jane Austen (aka, Me) now "likes" Fanny Burney, Ann Radcliffe, and her own novels. She "likes" playing the piano. Burney, Radcliffe, Bram Stoker, William Makepeace Thackeray and so on have not yet accepted her friendship requests. I left out Charlotte Brontë on purpose, given her less than admiring comments about Miss Austen.

I don't know enough about her to know who/what else I should add. But doing some research on this should be fun!

Am still in two minds about posting this for all to see on the blog. It seems just a little too embarrassing...