Fusenews: Death and Great Strides in Bookmark Technology

• I love me a good name.  Know who else does?  The Name of the Year blog.  They’ve got some beauties, I have to admit.  Perfect Engleberger.  Rockefellow Johnson.  Reprobatus Bibbs.  Authors looking for inspiration should check this one out (though 50% are just your basic potty names).  Thanks to Finding Wonderland for the link.

• Oz and Ends has reprinted a selection from the end of Tik-Tok of Oz where it is revealed that all these years Toto has been hiding his ability to speak.  I’d always enjoyed knowing that Toto was a closet conversationalist, but I was hard pressed to remember what book it was from.

• Remember Minx?  How it was going to commit itself hardcore to the teen girl readership of the world?  Yeah, whatever happened with that?  Chasing Ray has some ideas on the matter, and also on their upcoming titles.

• Me ears were burning yesterday, and I think I’ve been able to locate the culprit.  Know what’s even weirder than people asking you questions about your blog posts?  People asking other people about your blog posts.  And look at that response time!  Wowzer, that’s impressive!

• My library system is going through a whole host of changes at the moment.  Now some bloke named Edward Rothstein is weighing in on The New York Times.  He’s mighty fond of his own verbosity, but the sentiment ends with us on somewhat of the same side of the issue.  I’m just not going to get all that worried about lot of people being on our computers though, Eddie.  Sorry, dude.

• Science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke has died.  This comes from the AP announcement: "In an interview with The Associated Press, Clarke said he did not regret never having followed his novels into space, adding that he had arranged to have DNA from strands of his hair sent into orbit. ‘One day, some super civilization may encounter this relic from the vanished species and I may exist in another time,’ he told AP. Along with his DNA sample, Clarke enclosed a note with a brief handwritten wish addressed to that far-flung future: ‘Fare well, my clone.’"

• Author Terry Pratchett gives one of his first interviews since he was diagnosed recently with Alzheimer’s. Via Finding Wonderland (yet again).

• This will strike many of you as kind of sad, but I’m pleased about it.  I’ve just elbowed my way into the Top 50 Amazon.com reviewers.  Behold, me at #50.  Yeah.  You know what doesn’t get me a lot of lovin’ at parties?  Telling people I review on Amazon.  Nine times out of ten I just say I’m a librarian and leave it at that.  And advantages of this newfound position will include a distinct increase in the number of book solicitations I receive.  Particularly those that have nothing whatsoever to do with children’s litereature.  Once in a while there’s a surprise in the mix, but for the most part people see top Amazon reviewers as a way of getting more attention paid to their books.  Not that I’m complaining.  I’m oddly happy with my little "Top 50" notation with each of my reviews.  Now to claw up the ladder to #10 . . .

• And for my visual element (you always need one), you know what’s freaking hard to operate?  Bookmarks.  Why hasn’t bookmark technology changed in . . . well . . . ever?  I’m being sarcastic, of course, but someone has actually come up with a new kind of creation.  Behold the incredible inflatable bookmark! 

In the words of my sister-in-law, "Really?  Really really?"
Thanks to BoingBoing for the link.

Filed under: Fusenews