Umm...

Having scored a bunch of free bookcases recently, I've been sorting the substantial quantities of books we own so that we stand a fighting chance of finding the one we're looking for. It has been going pretty well, and mostly there's a logical place for any given book. But some defeated me and I decided I needed a category of "books that have no category".

Results so far have been disappointing. I must ponder this a while.

Stay classy Harper Lee fans

When I heard that a prequel (of sorts) of To Kill a Mockingbird was to be published, my first thought was that it was a really bad idea. Even worse, it's reported that Harper Lee's editor at the time knocked it back for a re-write that became the classic. In my experience a professional editor's judgement is usually pretty good. It's the same reasoning that makes me avoid 'director's cut' packaging of films; artists aren't usually dispassionate judges of their own work.

I note that Jessa Crispin writing in the NY Times had the same view. (She also thinks the Harry Potter books are dreadful, so gold star for Jessa.) But ultimately it doesn't matter. There's an Anchorman 2 out there somewhere, but I've managed to never see it, read reviews of it or even seriously acknowledge its existance. For me the legend of Ron Burgundy is untarnished. Have some jazz flute (with a nod to Jethro Tull for good measure):




Yeah, I just compared To Kill a Mockingbird to Anchorman.