ME
You know that initial sequence in Disney's Beauty and the Beast where Belle is walking into town to visit the library? And how she picks up a book that she's already read a bunch and the old guy gives it to her? And then she immediately starts reading her book as she's walking through the town? And how it's more important to her that she read and care for her book than have some idiotic hunk's attention? And how she is inspired by her books and longs for "adventure in the great wide somewhere"?

That's totally me, right down to the natural hair-color. The only erroneous details are that I'm not French and my father's not a crazy inventor.

FAVORITES
Fiction: The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, Woman at Point Zero by Nawal el Saadawi, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami, etc.
Science Fiction: The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. LeGuin, Dune by Frank Herbert, A Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein, Neuromancer by William Gibson, The Snow Queen & The Summer Queen by Joan D. Vinge, etc.
Fantasy: A Song of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin, The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle, The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien, The Golden Compass (only) by Philip Pullman, the Wolfwalker series by Tara K. Harper, and I'll stop there.
Contemporary History: I am woefully under-read in this area. Rec me!
Poetry: Dream Work by Mary Oliver, She Had Some Horses by Joy Harjo, The Black Unicorn by Audre Lorde, the collected works of William Butler Yeats, etc.
Anthology: The Fairy Tale series anthologies, ed. by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling.
Antiquity: Tao Te Ching (ostensibly by Lao Tsu).
Books That Changed My Life: The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle. Ishmael by Daniel Quinn, The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, and some more I'm sure I'm not remembering at the moment.
Books That Should be Hurled with Great Force: MIDDLESEX. By Jeffrey Eugenides.
Best Never-Written Book I Never Read: Is it wrong of me to want to list books that are never-written books I made up and referred to in my other writings? Because I really want to list "The Book of Seraphim" or "The Book of Aqualis." Failing that, I suppose I would list either the works referenced throughout Tara K. Harper's Wolfwalker series or "The Book of Om."
Favorite Guilty Pleasure: The Harry Potter books by JK Rowling and the Vampire Hunter D books by Hideyuki Kikuchi.

WHAT'S GETTING READ NOW
Well, that's quite a bit. Today, I am currently reading The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco and it is both intellectually and literar-ily delicious. I'm also reading Frankenstein by Mary Shelley and The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle for two classes I'm teaching. I'm nearly finished with Frankenstein and we've just started reading The Hound of the Baskervilles. (How amusing to be reading The Name of the Rose and a Sherlock Holmes novel simultaneously!) Tomorrow, I start reading The Dark is Rising with the tdir_readathon.

SERIES I WANT TO COMMIT TO READING/RE-READING SOON
All of the Dune books by Frank Herbert. (Dune is a re-read. The rest would be first-time reads.)
The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien (including The Hobbit and The Silmarillion. All would be re-reads except The Silmarillion.)

BOOKS I WANT TO COMMIT TO RE-READING SOON
The Prince by Niccolo Macchiavelli.
Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll.
Dracula by Bram Stoker. (I have the Norton Critical Edition!)
Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett.
American Gods by Neil Gaiman.
Coraline by Neil Gaiman.

Here's a link to my LibraryThing. It is woefully incomplete.

Here's a link to the Reviews section of my personal website. (It needs to be updated as I continue to be a reviewer for Green Man Review and I haven't added any of my recent reviews.)

( And here's a pic of my supposed reading space...!Collapse )

Who said my subject line, guys?

This is a gentle reminder for those of us (like ME!) who have yet to post an Introduction to the community. Let's get that done, gang!

I'd also like to ask a few of you to mosey on over to the Recommendation post and see if there are any suggestions you'd like to add.

Oh, and we also still need a few signatures over on the General Rules post.

And that's your upkeep for today!

ME
I am female. I like--love--to read, much like everyone else here. Fantasy is my beloved first genre, but recently I've been expanding out into all kinds of places. And I have nothing else to say, really. But feel free to ask!

FAVORITES
"Lit": All the Fishes Come Home to Roost by Rachel Manija Brown (memoir), A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
Science Fiction: Nekropolis by Maureen McHugh, The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood, Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
Fantasy: Sailing to Sarantium and Lord of Emperors by Guy Gavriel Kay, Swordspoint by Ellen Kushner, A Song of Ice and Fire series by George R.R. Martin, Odalisque and Emissary by Fiona McIntosh.
Anthology: Firebird and Firebirds Rising edited by Sharyn November. I'm also looking forward to slowly reading through my very own hardcover copy of The Coyote Road: Trickster Tales edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling.

WHAT'S GETTING READ NOW
I've been itching to read some mindless romance, maybe because life is more stressful than usual. The Vampire Queen's Servant by Joey W. Hill is at the top of my to-buy list, and I think I have a LKH coming in at the library. I do own a substantial pile of acclaimed fantasy novels, just waiting to be read, but my brain isn't ready for them at the moment.
Currently reading: The Annotated Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen and David M. Shepard, Material World by Peter Menzel.

The public entries of my personal blog are mostly a booklog, so there may be cross-posts.

ME
"And did the book have an adventures for people who had brown eyes and brown hair? No, no, no...it was the blond people with blue eyes and the redheads with green eyes who got the stories. If you had brown hair you were probably just a servant or a woodcutter or something. Or a dairymaid. Well, that was not going to happen, even if she was good at cheese. She couldn't be the prince, and she'd never be a princess, and she didn't want to be a woodcutter, so she'd be the witch and know things, just like Granny Aching--" -The Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett, p. 35-36

I have brown hair and brown eyes. I've been an avid reader since kindergarten, although I've slowed down considerable since then (what with work and boyfriend and drinking and all that). I normally juggle about 3-4 books at any given time, finishing them as I can. I used to read alot of sci-fi and fantasy, but these days I'll only commit myself to an exceptional story. I also love history books, usually Japanese history or European prior to 1900. Oh and pirates. But if a book catches my eye I can't resist picking it up.

FAVORITES
Fiction: Norwegian Wood Haruki Murakami
Science Fiction: Stranger in a Strange Land Robert Heinlein
Fantasy: A Song of Ice and Fire George R. R. Martin
History: The History of Pirates Angus Konstam
(Auto)Biography: Geisha, A Life Mineko Iwasaki
Books That Should be Hurled with Great Force: Anything by Anne Rice after The Queen of the Damned, really.
Best Never-Written Book I Never Read: The Book of Om
Book that should have been read in High School: The Divine Comedy Dante Alighieri

WHAT'S GETTING READ NOW
Too many things! From Dawn to Decadence: 500 years of Western Cultural Life : 1500 to the present Jacques Barzun, Delta of Venus Anais Nin, Frankenstein Mary Shelley, and The History of Pirates Angus Konstam.

And here is a link to my library thing.

I'm not proposing that we start our first group read for some time yet, but I thought we'd go ahead and start talking about good possible books for one.

Here's how it works:
In the comments, suggest any book you'd be interested in reading together as a community and discussing with the rest of us. That's it. It can be of any genre, as long as it's published and (preferably, anyway) in paperback.

Young Master Will, although jumping the gun a bit, came up with an intriguing format for introductory posts. I like it so much that I'm putting it forth to all of you to copy if you will.

The Format

ME
Take a moment to describe yourself and your reading habits. Include an anecdote. Pen a description.

FAVORITES
(Post some of the titles of your favorite books, by genre. Listed below are some arbitrary genres, but feel free to add, remove, or replace them with your own list.)
Fiction:
Science Fiction:
Fantasy:
Contemporary History:
Poetry:
Anthology:
Antiquity:
Books That Changed My Life:
Books That Should be Hurled with Great Force:
Best Never-Written Book I Never Read:

WHAT'S GETTING READ NOW
Give us insight into what's open on your lap now or what's coming up in your to-read pile. Tell us what's about to be published that you're absolutely dying to get your hands on. Etc.



Feel free to add any additional sections you consider fun and/or germane! Want to show us pictures of your library? Include a link to your LibraryThing? Share how many books you own? Include one of your all-time favorite quotes from one of your all-time favorite works? Go ahead!

Hello, and welcome to the Vellum Bazaar! As our profile says:

Here you'll find a lively market, filled with table upon table of remarkable books: some old beyond your years, some new with the ink still fresh, others curious and odd and not-quite-ever-written. You'll find tables filled with blank books, sheafs of parchment waiting for the touch of your pen or your brush or your nib recently garnered from the pen-and-ink sellers up the row. And you'll find countless pubs and cafés, open to the sun, moon, and stars with myriad tea-sets and coffee-spoons and little aperitifs of quality and curiosity.

Browse the bazaar, let silver cross the palms of your book-benefactors, pull up a chair with the rest of us wandering souls...

and read.

And, yet, as with any gathering (even of the busy, the erudite, and the bibliophilic), there must be some ground rules. Therefore, below you will find a series of guidelines: on what we welcome and on what we revile.

NOTE! After you've read the guidelines, please be sure to leave a comment stating that you have done so.

Things That Are Welcome In the Bazaar

1. Reviews of whatever you are reading.
This is a place to share what you are reading with other readers who are open to a variety of literature types. Here, we want to be exposed to a wide variety of the written word. We're interested in science fiction, in fantasy, in biography, in nonfiction, in gonzo journalism, in mystery, in romance... Or maybe we're not. But we're awfully willing to listen to what you've got to say on what you're reading and why. Sell us on something! Introduce us to something new! Engage us on topics well-beloved. We're game.

2. Discussions of what we happen to be reading together.
Sometimes, a few members might end up reading the same thing (e.g., until recently, thewriteratwork and I were both reading Vellum by Hal Duncan). At other times, we'll decide on a book as a community and read it together (more on this later, but understand it'll be optional and only about once every three months or so). At that time, one of the mods will start a discussion post (or several) for talking about that novel.

3. Bookish Essays.
Any time you get a wild hare (or are required to do so by a class) and write an essay on anything literary-- consider us interested! Some of us might even be willing to look over it for you and offer some pointers. I wouldn't count on it, though-- mostly we'll probably just be keen on discussing content.

4. Cross-comparisons between literature and film.
Recently, I've been quite interested in film as a storytelling device and where it can succeed in some ways that literature fails. And vice versa. Other people may also be keen on this, so posts of that nature are welcome.

5. Reading-related anecdotes.
Sometimes funny or irritating or downright memorable things happen when we're reading in public or purchasing a book or perusing shelves at the local library. As everyone needs a break from the purely literary at least every now and then, such anecdotes could serve as a refreshing addition to table-talk in the bazaar.

6. Reading recommendations.
Occasionally, I'm sure some of you may want suggestions in a genre. Or you may be interested in reading something by a new author, but are uncertain where to start. Well, why not make use of our collective brains and pick them? (We just want to make sure that these sorts of posts don't go overboard-- check the tags/memories before every recommendation request to make sure your particular request hasn't been made before.)

7. Bookish icons.
I admit it: I'm a compulsive icon-maker. It's not quite an obsession: I don't do it all the time. But I like to have a place to post my icons when I give into this urge. Therefore, any literary icons are welcome in this community. Hopefully I won't be the only one who avails myself of this allowance.

Things That Will Have You Forcibly Removed From the Bazaar

1. Uncut Spoilers
In the course of discussing books, facts that some may not yet know come up. These facts should only come up behind an lj-cut. Warnings will be issued in the case of accidental spoilage. Malicious spoiling will result in banning. Instances where the information is almost universally-known will be considered on a case-by-case basis.

2. Bad Behavior/Flaming.
Discussing literature involves sharing opinions. Sometimes, these discussions can get a bit heated. Heated intellectual discussion is acceptable. Flaming, personal attacks, and/or ugly behavior are not. Any comments that are obviously racist, sexist, etc., are also completely out. Perpetrating any of these behaviors will result in warning and then eviction.

That about does it for the "Don't"s! Just keep those in mind and enjoy yourself.

If anyone has any questions about the rules or suggestions for something I've overlooked, please feel free to make them in response to this post. Also, as stayed above, please leave a comment stating that you've read through this post.

In addition, we'd all be most interested in each of you introducing yourselves.

* The quote in our subject line is by Mortimer J. Adler.

Hi, guys! We're trying to get the community up and running, but it's slow going what with various sicknesses going around. Soon, this post should be replaced with the requisite administrative posts and then we can take off running!