The Kat Cave

JD Salinger, author of Catcher in the Rye, and Franny and Zooey…

…turned 90 on January 1.

I always presumed he had left this world some time ago.

So, I’ve been having more thoughts, in between feeding babies, playing with children, soothing Evan and Joe, and occasionally eating and sleeping.

I want to start a reading group. Each member will take a turn in selecting a book that we will all read and discuss - probably in an online forum….

Would anyone like to join? If so, let me know by email or in comments.

My 2000 copy of Jack Kerouac’s On The Road, with introduction by Ann Charters, is BACK on my bookshelf.

Time for a re-read soon. Currently re-reading Huckleberry Finn.

My daughter and my son have had dinner, and clean diapers, and are swaddled tightly and sleeping side by side in their crib.

My room smells of newborn baby.

My copy of Americana has reappeared.

Perfection.

So, a copy of On The Road is still missing. I love Kerouac. Overrated? Possibly. But as a fellow French Canadian, he’ll always be dear to me.

I love the original unedited version of the book, before the names were changed, when the characters are Jack, Allen Ginsberg, William S Burroughs….

However, as much as I love the writing of Burroughs, when I hear or see his name now, I think of this:

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So, I’ve been having discussion with people about the name I’ve chosen for my unborn daughter, and how it’s a name from a poem. A poem that is symbolic of the struggle of French Canadians against Zee Dastardly Eeengleesh.

Now, there are millions of baby-naming websites.

There are lots of sites about the meanings of names.

There are lots of sites where you can search for books by author or title or ISBN or even publisher.

Why can’t you search for books by character? Or search for a name to see what books that name appears in?

So, why not build a Wiki where everyone can input character and book details, so people can search?

Because, frankly, the google search string - http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&rls=GGLD%2CGGLD%3A2005-18%2CGGLD%3Aen&q=site%3Aamazon.com+++book+%22named+INSERT NAME HERE%22&btnG=Search does not trip of the tongue so easily.

….and 2 are missing.

1 copy, in English, of Jack Kerouac’s On The Road - Penguin

1 copy, in English, of Don DeLillo’s Americana - Picador

WHERE ARE THEY!

I’m in love. I’m in love with a cat. A CueCat, to be precise.

I’ve lost you already, I see that.

OK, let’s start from the beginning.

I’m having twins, I’ve had to move out of my office to make room for a nursery. To compensate for my pain and misery (of losing an office), RH bought me three large book cases. Granted, this isn’t going to even slightly cover my book case needs.

I have over 5,000 books. There may be more.

How do I know what I have? I just do.

But, to make things easier, I’ve just installed BookPedia, like iTunes, but for books. Simply add the ISBN in and away it goes to get the book information. I need to tweak a little more, to add in things like edition numbers, signed copies, first draft… but hey.

And the cool thing? With a Bar Code Scanner, I don’t even have to type.

They’re hideously expensive….

…so RH has found an old CueCat… These are consumer level bar code readers, once give away free with Wired Magazine. It was a way to connect users with advertising, more directly. You see an ad with a Cat Code, you scan it with the CueCat, and you get taken to a webpage for whatever you scanned. Technology no one wanted.

And so, millions of CueCats are now homeless. And then came the Mac Geeks, who figured you can actually use them for other things. Like scanning your book / CD / DVD / game barcodes, and building up your library database automatically. WOOHOO!

More on CueCat:

• http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000037.html
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CueCat

I like nothing better than to be organised.

I love bar code scanners. I think I was born to work in WalMart.

When copy editors get bad…..

This weeks reading:

John Steinbeck - Cannery Row
Douglas Coupland - The Gum Thief
JD Salinger - Franny and Zooey
Susanna Kaysen - Girl, Interrupted
Ken Kesey - One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest
Lewis Carroll - Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
L Frank Baum - The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
Sylvia Plath - The Bell Jar