So Emmett and I have been listening to the audiobooks for Harry Potter and are almost done with HBP.

I was poking around and was charmed by the story of Alice Newton, as it relates to the series finally finding a publisher with Bloomsbury:

It's not every exec who turns to his 8-year-old daughter for advice. But that's what publisher Nigel Newton did when he received a manuscript from an unknown children's author in 1997. The founder of Bloomsbury Publishing PLC handed Alice a sheaf of papers and asked her to read them. "She came down from her room an hour later, glowing," recalls Newton, "saying 'Dad, this is so much better than anything else.' She nagged and nagged me in the following months, wanting to see what came next."

Here's a picture of her at age 19 reading Deathly Hallows.

Attention Ginger: I have here a copy of Peterson's Magazine, 1880. It's a big fat damaged book with lots of nice pictures. The bookstore was going to recycle it. Does this mean to a true bibiliphile such as yourself, that this book has become fair game for a book-carving project?

I hate to do it and might not.

Katie, have the plates been stripped? They're worth $10+ each, although I think there's a special hell for people who strip books. It depends on whether you think it's salvageable as a book. Even damaged, it's probably worth $20 to $60.

Worth what you say? Really now? Good thing I checked.

I don't really want to keep the book, just scan a few of the more beautiful engravings. It has lots of semi-color fashion plates, some foxing, the spine is detached but included. Do tell me who would want the thing.

I really enjoyed the four page article about Mary, Queen of Scots.

The book carvings are so beautiful, but I hate to think of a book dying. Unless it's Vol. XIX of the Department of Agriculture's Midwestern Drought Survey of 1892 or something.

I'm reading "A Game of Thrones" and it is amazing but I'm starting to sense that I'm going to be unhappy when I get to the end of this series and it doesn't end. Aren't I?

Well, we're not at the end of the series yet, but I believe that the ending we get will be bittersweet at best.

I'm starting to sense that I'm going to be unhappy when I get to the end of this series and it doesn't end.

You. Have. No. I. dea.

I console myself by remembering that the frustration I feel in not being able to finish reading this series is nothing compared to the people who've been waiting since the last book was published. (Five years ago.)

Just finished Await Your Reply by Dan Chaon. This was on a "best of" list from last year, so I put it on hold at the library and just got it to read as one of my 24-in-a-year books. It turned out to be a much better "break" book than Chronic City. It is well written, suspenseful, and simply one of the best multi-narrative books I've read in a long time. I got into it right away--how could I not when it starts off with a severed hand?--and couldn't put it down.

Now it's back to Don Quixote. Which is also well written, but does not start with a severed hand. And is very, very long.

It is well written, suspenseful, and simply one of the best multi-narrative books I've read in a long time. I got into it right away--how could I not when it starts off with a severed hand?--and couldn't put it down.

Thanks for the review, megan. I've seen good recommendations (and had it recommended to me specifically), so it's been on my List. Good to know it lives up to the hype.