What was that book?

I just learned about a cool web site called Fresh Fiction. If you've ever watched or listened to a program on the tv or radio, and heard about a book you want to read, but then you forget the title or maybe you can't remember which show it was on, this site is the place to go. From a drop down menu, you can choose a program, and then it will show a list of books going back as far as 2005 in some cases. Or, you can search a book or author, and it will show which programs are reviewing it. Nice!

THE BACKYARD HOMESTEAD

The Backyard Homestead is a new book edited by Carleen Madigan. It describes how to grow "all the food you need on just a quarter acre." A significant number of pages are dedicated to vegetable gardening, but there are also sections on growing your own grains, raising poultry for eggs and meat, and even beekeeping. I've included a photo of my own backyard homestead. I'm growing some fall veggies under cover-beets, kale and spinach. I don't think I'll expand into urban chickens, but if I do there are books for that as well. Try The joy of keeping chickens by Jennifer Megyesi or How to raise chickens: everything you need to know by Christine Heinrichs.

Wretched writing

The annual Edward Bulwer-Lytton contest has announced its 2009 winners. In case you haven't heard of this award before, Mr. Bulwer-Lytton was a 19th century politician and author, who is probably best known today for writing the now infamous opening sentence to a novel, "it was a dark and stormy night." For the past 26 years the English dept. at San Jose State University has sponsored a contest asking entrants to write the most wretched opening sentence to a novel possible. This year's winner, David McKenzie from Federal Way, WA, wrote the "winning" entry:

"Folks say that if you listen real close at the height of the full moon, when the wind is blowin' off Nantucket Sound from the nor'east and the dogs are howlin' for no earthly reason, you can hear the awful screams of the crew of the 'Ellie May,' a sturdy whaler Captained by John McTavish; for it was on just such a night when the rum was flowin' and, Davey Jones be damned, big John brought his men on deck for the first of several screaming contests."

The library has two books by Mr. Bulwer-Lytton if you're curious about his florid writing. Something I didn't know about him: he is credited with coining some very well known phrases such as "the pen is mightier than the sword," "the great unwashed," and "pursuit of the almighty dollar."

The Coming Race
The Last Days of Pompeii