Sundry distractions

I've been too busy with babies and the garden recently to concentrate on anything else. As a result, the mind is cluttered with bits and bobs of unfinished business, so I'm going to have a Saturday clear out. (That seems like a much better idea than cleaning the kitchen cupboards.)

• The public library

I read this interesting post on Stephen's Arts Blog the other day concerning Jeanette Winterson's moan about users of Read It Swap It and other book swapping schemes. As Stephen points out, the argument is a nonsense but it did get me thinking about public libraries. Although I have a valid ticket, I haven't borrowed a book from the library for several years and then I only ever used the non-fiction section. So, feeling that I ought to support struggling writers with the 2p they would get for each book I borrowed, I set off this morning with my Wish List.

I know ours is only a village library, the main library being in the town about 7 miles away but even so, out of a list of 20 books, all currently in the public eye, they only had one - Alexander McCall Smith's The Careful Use of Compliments. I borrowed it and came home to cross it off my Amazon order for my summer reading. AMS gets 2p from the library instead of whatever his share of Amazon's £11.99 would have been. I hope that makes Ms Winterson happy! Fortunately, the library didn't have a single copy of any of Martin Edwards' books so I'll be paying the going rate for those when I buy my summer reads, Martin.

I did find a book I might not otherwise have read, A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers by Xiaolu Guo. I heard it on Book of the Week recently and enjoyed it; check out the cover and see why I couldn't resist it.

• BookRabbit
  

I first read about BookRabbit on Musings from a Muddy Island. I admit that I wasn't sure what benefits I might get from joining since I already belong to Library Thing (and haven't had time to add more than a couple of hundred of my book titles) and the Book Depository is a good place for bargain prices and free postage. However, I registered an interest and was quite excited when I got an email with an invitation to join!
I placed my first order yesterday, for David Lodge's Deaf Sentence. There is a fantastic offer on at the moment: spend £10 and get a free book selected by the BookRabbit Team, based on the books in your library, if you have uploaded any, or from the order you place.

I have only uploaded a few books to date so the team didn't have much to base their judgement on (split infinitive!) but their choice was brilliant - Engleby by Sebastian Faulks. It arrived this morning along with the book I ordered only yesterday. A bargain price and prompt and FREE delivery. I also got a limited edition founder's badge (balanced on the David Lodge book in the picture).

My only problem with BookRabbit is that I can't type that lovely inverted R!

• Searching for a word

Friend Keith, who is a priest, has just heard that he has been appointed to the Cathedral Chapter and will be called Canon instead of Father Keith. He has invited me to the rather low-key ceremony and I am wondering what to write on the congratulatory card: I want to say "Well done on your canonisation" but the MM wants to say "You're fired!" I wonder if Hallmark has a suitable card?