Hitting the Books

My baby turned one this past Friday. Need I say more?

Romancing the Blog put out this list of sites to help you name your characters, or just explore if, like me, you like names in general.

The Medieval Names Archive is especially well-documented, and a bit of an eye-opener. I had no clue that Fiona, Brianna, and Deirdre weren’t real medieval names (they’re all 19th century or later).

Romancing the Blog has put up another Top 10 List (I think all the usual contributors are still relaxing after the holidays), this time on Book-Shopping and Book-Swapping. The usual suspects are there–Amazon. Barnes and Noble, Book Clubs.

But there were a few new (to me) sites. The one that really caught my eye was BookCrossing. In their own words:

The “3 Rs” of BookCrossing… Read a good book (you already know how to do that) Register it here (along with your journal comments), get a unique BCID (BookCrossing ID number), and label the book Release it for someone else to read (give it to a friend, leave it on a park bench, donate it to charity, “forget” it in a coffee shop, etc.), and get notified by email each time someone comes here and records journal entries for that book. And if you make Release Notes on the book, others can Go Hunting for it and try to find it!

It’s a world-wide program, and sounds like loads of fun. I’m thinking I might try it with some of the books I have hanging around the house.

While ordering a book from abebooks, I came across their forum called BookSleuth. Don’t remember the title or author, but remember most of the story? Post your question and other readers help you find the missing information. A great way to share your knowledge of books, and to finally figure out what that annoying book you read as kid was called.

And yes, I did post a question. A Young Adult adventure/romance set during the Napoleonic wars. Something about a sapphire necklace, I think. Has been driving me nuts for about 5-6 years now. If anyone out there has any idea about a title or author, I would be extremely grateful.

LATER…

Okay, now I feel rather silly. Less than 24 hours after posting on BookSleuth, and less than 4 hours after posting this original message, I found the book. The Sapphire Pendant, by Audrey White Beyer. Odd thing is, that is exactly the title I thought it was. And I know the last time I looked on Amazon for it, it wasn’t there. Well, no matter. The lost book is now found, bought, and on its way here in a few days. Yahoo!

Think you know a lot about words and definitions? Think again. Test your knowledge of word origins here. I’m a voracious reader and have a pretty extended vocabulary and I still couldn’t get a perfect score. Thanks to Bonnie for the link!