Oh, this is marvelous: [link]

Rudyard Kipling at 23 hunts down Samuel Clemens.

You are a contemptible lot, over yonder. Some of you are Commissioners, and some Lieutenant-Governors, and some have the V. C., and a few are privileged to walk about the Mall arm in arm with the Viceroy; but I have seen Mark Twain this golden morning, have shaken his hand, and smoked a cigar—no, two cigars—with him, and talked with him for more than two hours! Understand clearly that I do not despise you; indeed, I don’t. I am only very sorry for you, from the Viceroy downward. To soothe your envy and to prove that I still regard you as my equals, I will tell you all about it.

x posted with Bitches... I seem to have written a what's on your bookshelf post - I'm worried I sound like a wackaloon (more than usual). [link]

You don't sound like a wackaloon; you sound like a bibliophile.

Rudyard Kipling at 23 hunts down Samuel Clemens.

Heh...

Have you ever, encumbered with great-coat and valise, tried to dodge diversely-minded locomotives when the sun was shining in your eyes?

No, sir, I have not!

There's a great account by Kipling of coming to San Francisco and meeting two office girls at work and his portrait of them is so fond and besotted with their liveliness and bold independence.

You don't sound like a wackaloon; you sound like a bibliophile.

Sox, I just discovered Cat Valente recently too! She has a middle grade novel coming out this month, I think, called The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making, and it's fantastic. Now I need to track down everything else she's written...

Oh, go read her Palimpsest! That's how I first found her. And "The Girl Who Circumnavigated..." is referred to in Palimpsest, which predates "The Girl..."

"The Girl..." wasn't originally intended to ever be written, but she started it as a project on LJ as a way to earn income, and then a publisher picked it up. I forgot that it was coming out as a book in its own right; I need to pick it up.

Anyway, read Palimpsest. It's lovely and mind-blowing.

I'm looking forward to reading Fairyland, and now Palimpsest too!

Okay, I almost ordered "The Girl who Circumnavigated..." based on a Tweet from Kate P earlier this week - but now you guys have forced me to order that and Palimpsest.

sumi, do you mean another Kate P or someone else? I love love love The Girl Who Circumnavigated... , but I'm not on Twitter.

I will definitely have to check out Palimpsest now! And I have Deathless as well, which I would like to get to sometime this summer.