In Which I Quote A 70s Icon

I never thought I'd quote Peter Frampton, buffon'd singer of the '70s, but in the words of the man who made one of the best selling live albums of all time and wrote the winner of Eurovision 2008*, oh baby, baby it's a small world.

I'm surfing Ravelry when I come across a pattern by Slagt En Hellig Ko who's cool with /many who's cool with Mr Palnatoke who's one of my dearest friends.

Oh baby, baby, it's a small world.

(* okay, just listen to the song and don't tell me it's not a variation upon Mr Frampton's best-known song?)

Can I Have Another Piece..?

I have a guilty pleasure blog that I read ever so often whenever I either want to cheer myself up or want to depress myself (and sometimes I want both - I'm a complex woman). The blog in question is Tartelette and it is a food blog. No, let me rephrase that: it's a food blog and I tell you them italics there make all the difference.

Tartelette features mainly desserts and baked goods - at least that has been the focus since I started dropping by ever-so-casually. A typical entry would be somewhere along the lines of this Lemon Rhubarb Mascarpone Mousse Cake entry: mouth-watering photography, exquisite recipe and a delightfully humourous blogging voice with oodles of that 'personal touch' which is so essential to a good blog read. And, of course, let's keep in mind that we're talking about a lemon rhubarb mascarpone mousse cake which is miles away from that lumpy lemon pound cake I managed the other day. It's good to daydream sometimes.

Seeing as I won't be making a lemon rhubarb mascarpone mousse cake (nor the honey panna cotta and raspberry terrine, alas), I think I shall have to pay The Mannequin a visit. It is a scrumptious tea and cake shop which has opened just a few minutes away from Casa Bookish. Last time we enjoyed their fabulous New York Cheesecake. I think it's time we sampled their Belgian chocolate cake.

Look Wot I Made..

This is my first major lace work (bar two projects we shall not mention) and I'm actually pretty happy with it despite my overly critical eye. The pattern is called "Swallowtail" and it's a nice little shawl. It was knitted in lovely DROPS Alpaca (which is available in Danish yarn shops, hint hint!). The second lace pattern from the top was supposed to have tiny "knots" but they were omitted because I decided they looked like fuzzy brambles.

The shawl pin is a silver replica of a Bronze Age shawl pin found in a bog close to where I grew up. E. gave it to me as a token of love and friendship when I moved from Denmark. I think of her every time I wear it.

I also realise that I have actually posted a picture of myself on my blog for the first time in.. well, the seven years I have been blogging (bar the profile photo, of course). I have been hesitant in showing my face to the world but I'm figuring that most of my readers nowadays* will either know me offline or have me friended on Facebook. Besides, since my blog stalker experience** I have realised that no matter how hard I try to keep myself fairly anonymous, people can and will find out personal details.. So, yes, say hello to my face (and the lovely lace shawl).

* Ah, my hotshot literary blogger days are long gone..
** surely I have mentioned this before? Let's just say the police were involved.

Books Running Through the Veins

If you can read Danish, it might amuse you to know that the editor of Bogrummet (The Book Room) is my cousin. I sorta-kinda-almost knew what she had been doing with her time, but it had sorta-kinda-almost slipped my mind.

It's still very cool and utterly amusing in a absolutely-definitely way.

Currently Reading..

Heard sung outside on the street at around 9am: I do, I do, I do believe in faeries...

I finished reading Cormac McCarthy's excellent The Road yesterday. Its sparse, exquisite prose reminded me of Marilynne Robinson's Gilead as did the preoccupation with love and tenderness. However, while Gilead is about a place and staying there, The Road travels through nameless towns, through woods and across mountains. It deals with a world where there are no places or localities - insofar as 'place' is situated in time (cf. Foucault and the discussion of space/place) or in memory. McCarthy's book is bleak, austere and shockingly beautiful. It is also a strong contender for Best Read of 2008.

Speaking of which, one of the best reads I had last year was the flawed but absolutely fascinating The End of Mr Y by Scarlett Thomas. I just picked up her PopCo and I am somewhat reassured by reviewers insisting that despite the ghastly cover, it is 'intelligent and witty'.

Finally, astute readers with stalkerishly attention to blog-details may note that I have re-designed Fourth Edition and that it now bears an astonishing resemblance to a certain blogspot blog I kept years and years ago. What can I say? I'm retro.

Re-Arranging Letters

Facebook has been asked to remove the Scrabulous application as it infringes upon Scrabble's copyright. Scrabulous is one of the two reasons why I have not grown entirely tired of Facebook yet (the other being Staries where I'm trying to get above 19000 points because I'm a sad individual). I might reconsider my Facebook profile if Scrabulous is pulled - although there is something to be said about reconnecting with people you haven't seen in fifteen years (what that 'something' is I will leave for you, dear reader, to decide).

On a much brighter note, this book just arrived in the post and seeing as I finished Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell last night, that is damn good timing. Thoughts on Strange & Norrell will be posted once I have finished processing it in my head.

Finally, the book widget question. Now Reading appears to be quite useful as a tracking tool rather than as a library tool. By that I mean that it enables me to track what I am reading (thus making the Books 2008 page rather obsolete) but it cannot keep track of my book collection. I'll keep it for now but any book widget suggestions are still warmly welcomed.

Edit: more on Facebook, Scrabulous and infringing copyrights