Caught?
This “catch” this morning for one of my books amused me. Of course, it may be pure coincidence that the anonymous finder misspells TranzCoastal in exactly the same way as the releaser – after all, you’d have to be a pretty sad type to resort to faking journal entries…
Anyway, now that I’ve got that bit of snark out of my system: not a lot to report, really. Spent most of the last few days getting done some of those little jobs (mostly of the spring cleaning variety) that I’ve been putting off for when I’ve got more time. And now is the time I’ve got more time. I won’t bore you with the details though (I dunno, a description of cleaning the vacuum cleaner’s filter could be pretty fascinating stuff…)
Nicholas came round yesterday afternoon to meet the cats. He’s going to be babysitting them while we’re down in Alex in a couple of weeks, saving us the hassle (and the cats the stress) of putting them in a cattery. Saffy seemed to take to him ok, but George was a bit wary (but then, he always is with new people) – I’m sure they’ll all get on fine together though (especially once the cats figure out he’s the one with access to the food!).
As usual, the outlaws had tucked a few pounds into our Christmas card (plus a few more into MrPloppy’s birthday card), so we took them in to the bank today to get them changed, and had a little shopping spree. We had a couple of Whitcoulls vouchers too, so we hit there first, but bypassed the books in favour of the DVD section’s 25% off sale. Boy there’s a lot of rubbish being put out on DVD these days! But after a lot of searching (and skilful avoidance of the weird guy singing along to the muzak at the top of his voice) we found something worth getting: series 4 of Doctor Who (the new version). After that we went to Scorpios, where the good books are, and I drooled over the popular science books (I could have spent a fortune in there, but I finally managed to narrow the choice down and in the end got Opening Skinner’s Box by Lauren Slater and Seeing Voices by Oliver Sacks) while MrPloppy searched the shelf of Forteana for something more to his taste.
There were a few more things we were planning to get done in town, but by that time the threatened southerly had hit, and things were getting nastily cold and wet, so we headed home. So we’ll probably have to go back in tomorrow. Yay, town on New Year’s Eve, such fun…
Speaking of New Year’s Eve, we’ve got absolutely no plans for marking the change of decade. Given that MrPloppy detests crowds at the best of times, we certainly won’t be heading into the square with everyone else in Christchurch (not that I’d want to anyway – crowds of drunken idiots don’t do a lot for me either). Anyway, I’ve got two new books to read, so I’d much rather be curled up with one of them than partying!
And talking of catches (I was way back up there at the top of the page, remember?), it’s been a while since I reported on some of the genuine catches I’ve had lately:
Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift – a second generation catch
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
Cyteen by CJ Cherryh
The Barrumbi Kids by Leonie Norrington
Armon Enkelit by Michael Palmer – a catch from the backpackers we stayed at in Singapore! It’s in Germany now and back in another backpackers, so it’s likely to travel even further.
The Famous Five Versus the Black Mask by Claude Voilier
Rift by Beverly Birch
Shaking by David Chadwick – took this one all the way to Wellington, and it was caught by another Christchurch bookcrosser! (who then found another suitable themed release spot for it)
Buttons: The Dog who was More than a Friend by Linda Yeatman (I still think that title is a bit dodgy ;-))
Sticky Stuff by Sam James – I’m not sure if this is two catches by different people, or just the anonymous finder re-catching it after joining. Good catch either way.
Round Behind the Ice-House by Anne Fine
Greyfriars Bobby by Eleanor Atkinson – I met one of the Wellington bookcrossers (Zuccini?) while I was releasing this. She didn’t catch it, but someone else did, almost straight away!
Hay Days by Sir Hamish Hay – I wonder if the book languished in the flatmate’s room for the whole three years between release and catch?
The Famous Five and the Knights’ Treasure by Claude Voilier – caught by an anonymous finder, re-released, and then caught again almost immediately!
Altar Ego by Kathy Lette
Surfacing by Margaret Atwood – no idea where I released this one, because I never made release notes. It surfaced in a Blenheim supermarket, anyway.
A Birthday for Bluebell by Rose Impey – another double catch.
The Other Side of the Dale by Gervase Phinn
The Wind Chime Legacy by A W Mykel
Brian’s Week by Brian Edwards
There was an Old Woman by Eric Weiner
A Place of Safety by Natasha Cooper
False Truths by Gwen Hunter
The Street Lawyer by John Grisham
Man’s Estate by Jon Cleary
Not the End of the World by Christopher Brookmyre
Second Hand Magic by Ruth Chew – another second-generation (or second-hand?) catch.
The Poetry Girl by Beverley Dunlop
The White Rajahs of Sarawak by Robert Payne – a lovely bit of serendipity in this catch.
The Laughing Policeman by Glenn Wood
‘Twas the Night Before Christmas by Clement C Moore – a catch from the Christmas tree!
Love Stories of World War II edited by Larry King
Skeleton Cave by Cora Cheney