June 9, 2008

The Table of Contents gathers again

The Table of Contents met for our monthly luncheon today at Ryan’s Grill at Ward Center in Honolulu. It’s all about books, friends and food. Purple58 and Islevampir kicked off the literary discussions.

Ghir completed the most recent NaNoWriMo with a hilarious book about a series of murders and mishaps at a BookCrossing convention in Honolulu. BookCrossers killing each other off? Okay, not likely, but very funny stuff, especially since she used real BookCrossing members as her characters. She’s on the left above, with Hyphen8 in the foreground.

Dustyflint brought her daughter today. We’d met Rose before, but I didn’t remember how much she looks like her mother until I saw this picture. She’s witty and charming and will be warmly welcomed anytime she wants to come around.

We always try to get the books sorted out first thing so we can clear the table to make room for food. We never succeed. I forgot to take a picture of my meal. I ordered a pupu intstead of an entree because I was saving room for dessert. The Kobe Beef Sliders with Taro Strings were delicious and the portions so generous that I had to bring half home with me. I still ordered dessert, of course. More about that later.

It was a little disappointing to find out that Chaz no longer works weekends. He’s been “our” waiter for several years. We know his taste in literature and several of us brought books designated for him. Trevor (above) is our new guy. He likes fantasy books and is remarkably skillful at figuring out how to position massive quantities of food into the minimal amount of space that’s available when we gather. We’ll miss Chaz, but Trevor segued neatly into our routine, so I think we’ll keep him.

The books we exchange at our gatherings are all registered with BookCrossing, where we make journal entries each time a book changes hands. After everyone in the group has had a chance to read whatever comes around, it gets released into the wild. We leave them in public places for strangers to find and adopt. In keeping with my efforts to declutter my life, I try to leave with less books than I take to our meetings. Today I took ten or twelve books with me and most of them were taken home by the other gals. I carried seven home with me, so I’m ahead of the game, though not by much.

Books I brought home:

Magic Mirror: A Fable for Adults Orson Scott Card
Alone in the Trenches: My Life as a Gay Man in the NFL Esera Tuaolo
After Hamelin Bill Richardson
Heart-Shaped Box Joe Hill
Agatha Raisin and the Haunted House M.C. Beaton
The Fran Lebowitz Reader Fran Lebowitz
Earthborn Sylvia Waugh

Books I released into the wild:

Sweetwater Creek Anne Rivers Siddons
The Singing Fire Lilian Nattel
Martin Dressler: The Tale of an American Dreamer Steven Millhauser

There’s one more feature to our gatherings. One thing we never discuss when we meet is diet pill reviews. It would be rather pointless, since none of us is planning on changing our ways. See, we have a thing for dessert. There are a lot of good reasons why we return to Ryan’s again and again, but an important one is the Chocolate Caramel Ganache Cake, sometimes called The Chocolate Volcano. It is the epitome of chocolate decadence and comes with an amusing but embarrassing story. The first time I had it my reaction was … unexpected. The cake itself is dense and rich. It could stand on its own, but that’s not Ryan’s style. The hollow core is filled with an even richer chocolate ganache, a hot bittersweet chocolate sauce is drizzled across the top and a bit of caramel sauce and whipped cream provide the finish. With my first bite I experienced a - let’s call it a physiological response. There was no way to hide it. My face was red and flushed and I gasped right out loud. There was a lot more than just endorphins coursing through me, as was obvious to everyone at the table. That was several years ago and gets mentioned whenever we go to Ryan’s and any other time we discuss chocolate (which we do with disturbing frequency.) Several of us have it every time we go to Ryan’s now. The others love it, but if it effects them as it does me, they’re better at hiding it. We always have to stop and think of the real name before we order because in our minds it will always be Chocolate Orgasm. Um, yeah - it’s that good. Every time.

Technorati Tags: books, BookCrossing, chocolate, friends, Ryan’s Grill

May 4, 2008

Contented with the Table of Contents

The Table of Contents (aka: TOC) met today for lunch at Downtown, a restaurant in the Hawaii State Art Museum. TOC is a group of BookCrossers who have been meeting about once a month for the last four years or so. Above, left to right: Ghir, IsleVampir, Karen (whose BC name escapes me at the moment) and our special guest, FutureCat. Karen is a formerly active member we were especially pleased to see today after an absence of over a year (life gets in the way sometimes!)

It’s books and BookCrossing that bring us together, but I think we all agree that our friendships are the driving force. A special bonus that comes with being BookCrossers is that it frequently brings us new friends. FutureCat is a New Zealander who is visiting us this weekend. We’re one of the last stops on her around-the-world tour as an ambassador for the 2009 International BookCrossing convention, which will be held in her hometown of Christchurch. She showed us a very well-done video presentation about Christchuch, her local BookCrossing friends and the convention. Our other special guests were Robbie, daughter of TOC member Dustyflint, and Maggie Rose, future BookCrosser. Above, left to right: Hyphen8 (back to camera,) Purple58, Dustyflint, Ghir (turned away from camera) FutureCat, Robbie and Maggie Rose.

We met at The Hawaii State Art Museum (HiSAm) last August. We were thrilled to return to the restaurant and to have Chris as our waiter once again. He took wonderful care of us and I think he was as happy to see us as we were to see him. We left him about twenty books to distribute to restaurant staff and museum patrons. We’ve often noted that wait staff in Honolulu tend to be highly literate and they’re always pleased to be invited to help themselves to our books. Above: Chris and Hyphen8

You all knew to expect this picture, right? Despite her expression above, Maggie Rose is a very contented little girl who smiled and giggled all through her time with us.

I gave Maggie Rose a teeny-tiny BookCrossing tee shirt, which she was pleased to model for us with her mom and grandmother looking on.

This has nothing to do with our meeting, but I couldn’t resist snapping a picture and sharing it with you. The mosaic is installed above the main entrance to Alii Place, the commercial building where I parked today. Isn’t it lovely?

All in all it was a wonderful day. The meal was delectable, the deserts to die for, the fellowship warm and the books delicious and delightful, as always. My allergies kicked in about the time I arrived, but Hyphen8 was able to supply me with a non-drowsy allergy tablet and it got the sneezing and most of the snuffling under control. Hopefully I’ll be completely well by the time we next meet.

Technorati Tags: BookCrossing, book groups, books, luncheon, Table of Contents

December 15, 2007

Friends, food, books, aloha!

~Dustyflint, JulieBarreto, Purple58, Hyphen8 and Skeeterbess celebrate the holidays~

The Table of Contents had our holiday gathering today. For the uninformed, Table of Contents is a group of local BookCrossers who have been meeting for several years. A couple of our regular members were unable to attend and were sorely missed, but we soldiered on without them and managed to have a good time. It was a special treat to have Julie Barreto with us today. She’s a BookCrosser from the Big Island and had business on Oahu just in time for us all to meet. She and I have exchanged messages at the BookCrossing forums and via pm over the last few years, but this was our first face-to-face meeting. She charmed us all and I’m hoping she’ll make it a regular habit to schedule the rest of her life around our gatherings.

I made pecan pralines last night for the first time in about twenty years and tucked some into gift bags with some bookmarks and other goodies for my friends. Hyphen8 frequently shares the products of her considerable talent with us. She’s an artist with paper and today she gifted each of us with a dragon who flaps his wings when his tail is pulled and an envelope that opens up into a gift box. I’ve added those to my little collection of H8’s previous gifts, including a pinwheel and a collection of spinning tops. Purple58 had little notebooks made for us with TOC on the cover. I wish I could be as creative as my friends - and organized enough to get things like that done ahead of time instead of staying up until two in the morning when inspiration and a recipe come together.

I’m proud to say that I behaved myself, clutter-wise, this time. I brought home less books than I took. Some that I brought were taken home by TOC members and others were distributed to cafe patrons and waitstaff. Setting books free, whether by placing them in someone’s hands or releasing them in the wild, is what brought us all together and is still the glue that binds the Table of Contents.

Technorati Tags: BookCrossing, book clubs, books, friends, holiday gatherings

October 23, 2007

Tempest in a teapot(ter)

I’ve never considered anyone else’s sexuality to be my business unless I was contemplatinging an intimate relationship with them. Truely, I can’t imagine any other circumstace in which another’s sexuality would matter to me. It stands to reason, then, that whether or not Albus Dumbledore is seen by J.K. Rowling as gay has little impact on my life. Yet her statement to that effect has caused an uproar and been taken completely out of context to be used as ammunition to castigate her for endorsing a gay lifestyle. Let’s try to put the thought back where it belongs: in the author’s internal creative processes as she developed the character. Surely we can accept that most authors know more about their characters than ever makes it into print. Rowling’s official website is a goldmine of information she developed while writing, but which was never used in the books of the Harry Potter series. One of the magical qualities of the stories is that Rowling has imbued her characters with full-blown personalities. It’s not surprising then, that she spent a great deal of time in forming her own picture of each of the players before she brought them to life in publication, or that she could not possibly have used everyting that she knew or thought about each of them once the writing began.

Was it a mistake for Rowling to make her startling revelation? I don’t think so. She has a reputation for being honest with her fans. A question concerning Dumbledore’s love life was asked by a fan during her recent Open Book tour of the US. Should she have ignored the question, or, worse yet, dressed up the answer in a wardrobe that would have disguised the thoughts that helped her shape Albus Dumbledore into the wise headmaster beloved of many? J.K. Rowling has never talked down to her young fans. Should she have started now, after they’ve helped her become one of the richest and best-known authors of our time? I, for one, relish the opportunity to look inside the mind of the billionaire author, and find nothing offensive in the revelation. Not to belabor the obvious, but Dumblefore is a fictional character. Why, oh why, are so many of you suddenly feeling judgemental of a part of his history that doesn’t change a thing about the role he played in a series of books you all adore?

Rowling herself stated today that she knew Dumbledore was gay “probably before the first book was published” and felt no need to point it out to her readers. Could that be because the information was merely part of the developement process and had no impact on the stories? More to the point, she’s saying that Dumbledore was always gay. He was gay when you first met him. He was gay when you were admiring his wisdom and when you grieved his passing. Nothing has changed except that you now know that he was gay. Can someone please explain to me how that little bit of hindsight has suddenly colored so many people’s opinion of a series and a character they’ve loved?

Sources:

Washington Post.com

Newsweek.com

Canadian Press.google.com

Technorati Tags: Albus Dumbledore, fictional characters, Harry Potter, homosexuality, J.K. Rowling, public opinion

August 12, 2007

Pardon my absence

Surely you understand? I’ve had the treasure in my home for what - two weeks? - and just have not had the opportunity to dig in and see what’s inside. It’s taunted and tempted me, trying to lure me into its snare, and I’ve resisted as stoically as I could. My resistence has finally weakened, though. My resolve to tend to “important things” has finally crumbled. I’ll emerge soon. Right now I ‘ve got to get back to my happy place, curled up with a good book.

Technorati Tags: books, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, just stuff

July 30, 2007

It’s here!

My kid knows me well. I knew he was sending the latest Harry Potter for my birthday. He knows me well enough to know that I would buy it immediately if he didn’t warn me that he was sending it. So that part of my birthday gift was no surprise. I had no idea he was sending the entire second season of Lost, though. Y’all will pardon me if I disappear for a while, won’t you? When the last HP came out, I re-read the entire series before cracking its covers. I’m too anxious this time and will dive right into The Deathly Hallows and see where the story goes. I will need to watch the entire first season of Lost before I delve into the second, though. So many little intricate details that I will need to call to mind in order to establish continuity. If you don’t see me for the next few days, it won’t because I’ve checked into drug rehabilitation, though I may well need some kind of intervention when I come out the other side of the other-worldly experiences that await me.

Technorati Tags: birthdays, Harry Potter, Lost, sons

July 26, 2007

Table of Contents

I joined BookCrossing back in February of 2003 and registered my first book on March 13, 2003. The first book I actually journaled had been sent to me by a message board friend in Florida. I passed it on to another message board friend who lives here in Hawaii. Her screen name is Ghir and she and I had recently met and started going to the theatre together. She was the only BookCrosser I actually knew in real life. About a year later she and I both noticed the frequent release alerts from another local BookCrosser named Fanclub. We exchanged a few messages and decided to meet. We selected a restaurant and on January 25, 2004 I was delightfully surprised to find that a fourth member, Allysther, had been invited to join us. I don’t think any of us anticipated what a special thing was being birthed that day.

That’s Fanclub, me, Ghir and Allysther at a Zippy’s Restaurant in downtown Honolulu, the first meeting of what would eventually become The Table of Contents. We all had so much to talk about and thoroughly enjoyed each other’s company. I think that meeting ran three or four hours - none of us wanted to leave! We all agreed that this was something that needed to become a habit, so we set up another meeting and were soon inviting other BookCrossers to join in the fun. I think the largest gathering we’ve had was attended by about twenty people, but the average over the years is more like eight or ten.

We all love food almost as much as we love books. We decided early on that, rather than having a central headquarters, we’d select different restaurants for our gatherings. Each meeting allows us to taste a new menu, an added bonus to the good fellowship, our passion for BookCrossing and the great books that we share. Our foodie natures even played a role in the selection of our name. The literary reference is obvious, but there’s a little play on the words, too. We tend to go into fits of rapture over certain dishes, especially desserts. When that occurs we transition from being the Table of CONtents (with the expected pronunciation) to the Table of ConTENTS, acknowledgeing the contentment that comes with a good sugar high!

BookCrossing members around the world meet on a regular basis. I think that the Table of Contents has attained a level of “specialness” that others might not achieve, but the love of books and a desire to meet other BookCrossers is certainly a good enough reason to come together. Start by scanning the Conventions and Meetings Forum to see if there are any announcements for your region. If not, don’t despair. You can always Go Hunting for other BookCrossers in your area. You can contact them through private messages once you’ve found them through Release Alerts. Another option is to become active on the BookCrossing Forum and look for connections there. Some cities and regions have official meetups, others are more casual gatherings like ours. Do what works for you! There were “official” BC meetups going on in Honolulu around the time that the Table of Contents was formed, but their meetings were always on weeknights and in the city. That just didn’t work for some of us, so we created our own group. The other group still meets and we actually selected the same restaurant at the same time recently - lovely serendipity! While real life meetings are not a requirement for BookCrossing, they’re a wonderful enhancement to the experience. I hope some of you will discover the same joy that we have in getting to know each other!

Technorati Tags: BookCrossing, books, friends, reading groups, social gatherings

July 24, 2007

BookCrossing.com

I wrote several posts about BookCrossing when I first started my blog, but that was a year ago. I have a lot of new reader’s now and haven’t mentioned BookCrossing in a while. I was reminded of that when Kate posted a comment to my birthday/Table of Contents post: “Love the way your group shares reading material and releases it into the wild. I sure wish we had something like that around here.”

Well, Kate, you do! Everyone around the globe does, or can have if they want it. Let me explain what BookCrossing is, then in a later post I’ll tell you a little about our own local group. The premise of BookCrossing is that books on a shelf aren’t doing anything for anyone. Sure, most readers have a few “keepers” that we read again and again, but, let’s face it, most of our books are just gathering dust. We read them once and then allowed them to become a permanent part of our decor. In my own home the more appropriate word would be clutter. Why not do ourselves a favor by reducing the clutter, while doing someone else a delightfully surprising favor at the same time? Why not give our books away as a random act of kindness?

Sounds pretty crazy, doesn’t it? But think about it. If you really liked the book, you’ll be giving someone else the opportunity to discover the same joy you found between its pages. If you didn’t care that much for it, well, why are you keeping around anyway? There’s a reader out there for every book ever printed. Let serendipity take a hand in bringing the two together.

It’s really easy to get started. Pick a couple of books off of your shelves and click on my referral link. You’ll land on a page with instructions for registering to be a BookCrossing member. (It’s not the kind of referral where I make money off of you, but I get to call you friend if you use my link.) Once you’re a member, you’ll learn about The Three Rs: Read, Register, Release. Let’s assume you’ve already read the book. Now register it with BookCrossing. Takes about two minutes, maybe a little more if you choose to make a comprehensive journal entry about your experience with the book (not mandatory, but a very cool thing to do.) As soon as you get the book registered you’ll be given a unique BookCrossing ID number. Put this BCID inside the front cover of the book. There are labels on the site you can download, or you can just write the BCID along with a brief message if you prefer. BookCrossing also sells beautiful, self-stick bookplates you can use. Great way to support the service, but that’s not mandatory either. BookCrossing is free, so it’s only going to cost you money if you choose certain options. Now it’s time to start the fun stuff. Relase your book! Leave it on a park bench or a table at a restaurant. ATMs are great places to leave books, as are bus stop benches. Let your imagination guide you. Add a note to your book’s entry noting where you left it. Someone will find your book and take it home. If they have a computer, they’ll go to BookCrossing and enter the BCID number. They’ll read what you wrote about the book and some of them will be inspired to make their own entry. It’s an amazing experience to discover that the book you left in front of the corner drugstore has found a new home and made someone happy. It’s even more thrilling when your book grows legs and travels around the world! You’ll love it when your books start writing home to tell you about their adventures!

Those are the basics. There’s a lot more you can do with Bookrossing. Make sure you sign up for release alerts. That will notify you when someone sets a book free in the region you’ve selected. You can put on your safari hat and go hunting. Finding a book released by another BookCrosser is almost as thrilling as having one of your own books found. I also swap a lot of books with the local BookCrossers that I meet with on a regular basis. I go through fanatical stages with my BookCrossing from time to time, so the books I’ve registered don’t necessarily reflect my personal taste. I sometimes buy used books at thrift stores specifically for release. I usually end up reading a few of them, but most of those are released unread (by me) with a specific purpose. Before they closed down the homeless encampment near my home I made it a habit to release books there on a regular basis. I don’t expect to hear back from those books, but that’s okay. They’re out there making people happy. Some of my used books were purchased so that I could participate in release challenges among other BookCrossers. No one is going to police you to make sure you follow a specific pattern, so have fun with BookCrossing in whatever way works for you!

BookCrossing will assign you a bookshelf when you register. That’s the place where you keep track of the books that you’ve put into the system. I’m hopelessly behind on journaling, but you can see some of the books I’ve registered and released on
my bookshelf if you’d like.

Edit: Here’s my post about The Table of Contents, the local BookCrossers that I meet with in real life.

Technorati Tags: bookcrossing, books, reading

July 21, 2007

And a good time was had by all

Any gathering of the Table of Contents is cause for celebration, but today went beyond special. Allysther and I both got a bit teary-eyed as we greeted each other, two years having passed since we last had that privilege. Her little man did not remember us, but quickly demonstrated that he is still the sweet and charming youngster we all love. He’ll be six next week, so he and I were both given birthday honors today. I was presented with two lovely leis, and the munchkin gifted all of us with Power Ranger masks to contribute to the festive atmosphere.

Friendship, food and books were on the agenda, as always. We talked story throughout our time together, catching up on each other’s lives and sharing a few laughs. Allysther and the munchikin presented each of us with Kinder Joy eggs, reminding us of a past gathering when we first discovered these delightful little chocolate treats with toy prizes inside. It’s late and I’m tired, but I’ll be doing a separate post about the Kinder Joys later. Islevampir likes them so much she was inspired to live-blog, taking photos and making posts from her phone (a technology that still scares me.)

Hyphen8 has just returned from a national origami convention, and made tiny, working spinning tops and pinwheels for each of us. We all opted to wear the pinwheels behind our ears where local custom dictates we should have tucked flowers. We’re not exactly a conventional group.

After desserts were ordered, Purple58 presented me with a gift bag and insisted that I needed to utilize it immediately. Ah, she knows me well! She somehow guessed that I’d be ordering the chocolate caramel ganache and supplied me with the appropriate attire.

I had ordered a small seving of chicken with pasta in a cajun sauce for my meal, but the ganache was still a bit much for me. Allysther and I shared its gooey, chocolate goodness.

Each of us had brought books to share or release. By the time dessert was finished our table was heaped with dirty dishes and each of us had selected a few books to take home. We inquired as to the reading preference of our wait staff and made sure each of them had a few books, too. Whatever was not otherwise assigned would be released into the wild by its last reader once we parted.

All good things must come to an end, but we’ll get together again next weekend, since we crave a little more time with our visitors before they continue on their journey to their new home. Ghir will be back from her annual fishing trip to Alaska by then, so I’m sure there will be new tales of adventure to keep the gathering lively.

Technorati Tags: birthdays, BookCrossing, books, celebrations, friends

July 7, 2007

The Symposium Updated

Our fair Lady Joana has been doing some remodeling since the last time we visited The Symposium, the book blog arm of the Nanashi, Inc. network. Her new theme is sophisticated with just a touch of whimsy. What hasn’t changed is the “brutal dose of honesty” promised by her tagline. Whether the author is an old favorite or a promising newcomer, Joana keeps it on the level in her reviews.

I’ll admit I probably would have picked up Mysteria by Mary Janice Davidson et al simply because I was disappointed in my last read in the Undead series and want Davidson to redeem herself. Joana has saved me the trouble of searching out the book and perhaps wasting the cover price. The brutal honesty I menitoned? How’s this: “Truth be told I forgot the events that unfolded by the time I got to writing the review and had to re-read it again. Why did all the details slip my mind? Because there was nothing worth remembering. Disappointing doesn’t begin to sum up this short story.” Oh, but it gets better: “Do I recommend this novel? Only if you plan on forcing hardened criminals to read it while wearing a tutu or you’re just the type to enjoy cheap dime store romance fiction.” Joana has no patience with bad writing, pathetic characters or weak story lines.

While she enjoyed Birth of an American Family by Geoffry Moehl II enough to give it four stars out of a possible five, Joana kept it honest and gave a balanced review. The author told her a pleasing tale, but suffered a few mis-steps along the way. Joana gives her readers a straighforward review that will benefit them as they decide whether or not to seek out the memoir.

Reading challenges spring up like mushrooms in a damp basement during the summer months. The overabundance sometimes makes it hard to decide which are worthy of participation. Joana has joined the Beach Blanket Bonanza challenge and selected an eclectic mix of books to get her through it. The challenge reminds us that even serious readers need to do some of their reading “just for fun.” Registration by July first was recommended, but you probably won’t be turned away if you decide to jump onboard soon.

Check out my friend Joana at The Symposium. I like her style and I think my reading friends will too! There’s a problem with sidebar displacement in IE, so I recommend you view in FireFox.

Technorati Tags: blog reviews, bogs, book reviews, books