Birthday gack

Okay, so on the radio this morning they mention it is Rowan Atkinson's birthday. I'm cool with that, better than my old birthday buddy Richard Nixon. But, but then they said HE IS A YEAR YOUNGER THAN ME!!!! NOOOOOOOOOOOO. I mean, really, how can Mr. Bean be a year younger than me? I think I'm cancelling my birthday this year.

Ten things about me and books

Ros around Caledon library3
Originally uploaded by rowanf.

meme ganked from Michael Sauers. Only mine is 10 things 'cause I couldn't think of 15 (and I really should be working).

1. I actually am beginning to prefer electronic book reading. I started on my first Palm OS device years ago and am contemplating getting an iPod Touch with Kindle reader software. I've been using a Kindle from work for almost four months. I wouldn't buy one (mostly because of ownership issues) but the format is good.

2. I own a lot of books on herbalism and home remedies that I bought in the 1970's. I have an 1856 US Dispensatory and a midwife's manual of the same era. Also modern (okay, 1974) things like the Barefoot Doctor's Manual. I wonder if I was preparing for healing in the post-apocalyptic times ahead (or if it was just that I was a back-to-the-land hippy at the time).

3. My father was involved in First Fandom and I have been reading science fiction my entire life. As a kid, I snuck into the adult side of the library to read the collected Playboy science fiction series (in the library since I couldn't check them out).

4. I once collaborated on a novel with two friends (we each wrote our own characters and then worked together on transitions and general story arc). I took the first three chapters to a writer's workshop once just to see what that whole thing is about. I am so not a writer though. (That was the BayCon at which I had art in the artshow and won best in show in the costume contest. It was an amazing trifecta.)

5. I supppose it comes as no surprise that I have a lot of books on Celtic mythology, archaelogy and history. I have an early edition of all the volumes of the Carmina Gadelica. In other cool reference books I have all the volumes of A Dictionary of British Folk-tales.

6. Over the years I have had a number of friends who are authors. One even promised to thank me in the preface of one of her books after I helped her research, but she didn't. I almost never ask to have things autographed either.

7. I have quite a number of books that I have read in excess of 20 times. I feel like the characters are friends that I want to re-visit.

8. I used to read about a book a day until I went on the reading fasts prescribed by The Artist's Way. The author was trying to get one to free up time for art but I think it mostly freed up time for computer gaming in my case.

9. I always feel weird when I say "I'm a librarian" and the auditor says "Oh, you must really like books". I'm not sure that the two things are all that related these days. I have 2480 patents and 1852 scientific papers in my library database and only 1303 books. My job really isn't about books at all since by the time something is published it is old news in the research world.

10. When I was in college I worked at the Book Coop Bookstore in Tallahassee, FL. My prize acquisition from that time was the cardboard standee from The Princess Bride. I googled to see if any images of that amazing book cover could be found. It was done in relief with gilt edges and was amazing. Evidently images from the movie have totally overtaken it.