ajmatt blog

When the news is to depressing to bear, where does one turn? To the past, naturally. While surveying my LibraryThing account, I noticed I’ve recently toured: the plague years, frontier life, and the Great Depression. For free entertainment that will lift your spirits, head to your local library and pick up:
Company of Liars by Karen [...]

Yesterday I did one of those things that residents of the D.C. metro area never do: I went to a free local event. And kicked myself yet again, because it takes 30 minutes to get from my front door to the National Mall. 30 minutes! That includes driving to the metro, parking for free (all [...]

A free book arrived on my doorstep a few weeks ago courtesy of LibraryThing and Harper Collins Publishers. What does that mean? It means I am a LibraryThing Early Reviewer!
I signed up to be an early reviewer for the first time last month, requested a few books, and forgot about it. I never thought [...]

I promise not to start documenting every trip to the public library because… what better way to lose readers? But I had to write a follow-up post, just this once.
Last time I visited my local library, someone asked me for a recommendation. Today while browsing around Geraldine Brooks* a girl down the aisle from me [...]

I was efficiently making the rounds at my neighborhood public library—off-duty, incognito and librarian glasses long gone (lost, sadly)—when a total stranger asked me for a book recommendation.
I must have looked like I knew what I was doing, a pile of books under one arm and inspecting the “new books” section with the other, because [...]

And so much more:

[Click photo to see the big version, which reads: "Jane Austen lived here from 1809-1817 and hence all her works were sent into the world. Her admirers in this country and in America have united to erect this tablet. Such art as hers can never grow old.]
Matt’s grandmother and I visited the [...]

I’ve been looking for a venue to jot down thoughts on the books I read. My reviews don’t fit Amazon or LibraryThing, and both seem like very public places to post. So I decided to post them here, to a comfortably sized audience.
Jamestown: A Novel by Matthew Sharpe.
This book jumped off the “new” shelf [...]

When my day’s research is all 9/11 lawsuits and Virginia Tech fallout, without a presidential candidate spousal spat to lighten things up, it’s a relief to open Google Reader at lunch and check in with the Bennett family.
How does one knock out a little Pride & Prejudice (or Dracula or Frankenstein—I’m testing all three) every [...]

Allegra and I rapidly read the last Harry Potter this past weekend - once it arrived Saturday around 2pm, I continued to give Allegra the evil eye and saying things like “Done yet?!?” until she finished the book after reading all day Saturday and a bit Sunday morning. Of course, I started in right [...]

If you are an English major lost in a corporate world that doesn’t value your vast knowledge of British literature, looking for a way to return to your college glory days (when “work” meant reading Gulliver’s Travels or Wuthering Heights), and want to do so in a way that is easy and can be done [...]