Literary Buffistas, I can't find if I've asked this before:

When I was a youngster, there was a scifi book about a boy who investigates a cave that is rumored to be haunted. Actually, a spaceship crashed there years before and Bad Aliens had enslaved the Good Aliens to do their bidding.

The Good Aliens each were part of a collective - a TV-looking-thing that was the "Think Think", long-fingered critters that lived under rocks that were the hands, one critter that was the eyes, one that was the ears, etc. The protagonist befriends a young "think think" and works to free the aliens.

I cannot remember what this is called.

Do any of you know?

Interesting instant coffee ad campaign from the UK: [link]

Ooh, I've watched some of those, but didn't realize there were so many more!

I'm sad to see that Carte Noire is now apparently part of Kraft Foods.

They've always had great ads.

So I was only half-right on the Big Twist of The Thirteenth Tale. I thought that Vida was actually Emmeline, not Adeline (and Emmeline was Adeline), but I didn't really see what that would accomplish. The actual truth was kind of cool, really, and I love the added twist of Vida's not knowing whether it was Adeline or Emmeline she saved. It's maddening; there are so many reasons I should have loved this book, but it just didn't do it for me. I also agree that Margaret's obsession with her "lost twin" was melodramatic and annoying and was one reason I never gave a flip about her. Christ, woman, can you honestly feel this much separation anxiety for THIS LONG over a twin you never knew? And then all the business with "seeing" her twin (especially at the end WTF) was just dumb.

Does anyone have any experience selling books via Amazon? I'm thinking about it for some of my old grad school books - a few of which are worth a lot - and wondering what people's experiences have been. I have sold stuff on ebay, but Amazon seems like a better fit for these books. Except it looks like it's mostly book dealers?

flea,

I've been doing it for the last year or so, mostly with academic books and French items (comics, novels) that are fairly expensive here. I just took a quick look at my account and have sold about 30 items for $500. For personal things (novels, travel books, etc.), it doesn't seem worth the trouble because the "stores" have shipping deals and can sell those things for rock-bottom prices.

I have a few items that mostly just sit there, even though they are well under the crazy prices for new, either because they are obscure, or because they don't show up properly in searches (some Tintin editions I have). But every once in awhile someone shows up to buy one.

I find it remarkably easy to list and price things (compared to ebay), and now you don't have to re-list ever (though, given my Amazon programming sources I know it's better to delete and re-list every so often). Of course, when I began I was living with said programming source, who got packages from Amazon almost every day, so I didn't have to buy packaging. And I work across from a post office.

Feel free to ping me with questions.

Mom gave me Definitely Dead by Charlaine Harris because "it has vampires in it." It seems to be the latest in a number of books about the same heroine. Will I be lost if I dive in? At first glance it seems not that great. Thoughts?

Laga, those are the books that the (great) show True Blood is based on. DW is reading them now and has deemed them fluffy fun.

Thanks, GC. Does DW have an opinion about reading them out of order?

I don't know about the order, but my wife loves them, too.