Which Blatantly Abuses Ranganathan's Third Law.

Wow, what an overwhelming response to that last post! Incredible.*

Okay, okay. Many of the books are Fairly Lame by both my standards and yours. It's true. But according to S. R. Ranganathan, there should not only be a book for every reader, but a reader for every book. Are you going to argue with the father of modern library science? I didn't think so.

I don't actually believe I'm going to get a lot of takers on the books I've posted, but I love the idea, and I think it has a lot of potential as a means of redistribution for those of us who have too much stuff (which describes most Americans). Can you imagine if everyone's blog/LJ/myspace had a list of things they don't want anymore, and are willing to give away? How fun would that be?

My experiences with swapping possessions through various venues has been really fascinating. Attending local clothing exchanges has not only improved the quality of my wardrobe, it has changed my attitude toward clothing entirely. Shopping for clothes can be hard for the frugal female; there's so much pressure to choose the right garments. If you spend money on something, you'd darn well better wear it enough to get your money's worth out of it, and if it gets stained or torn, well, you lose, loser. But if the clothing is free, all of that pressure is gone. These jeans don't fit quite like you want them to? Ahh, no biggie. Take 'em home for a trial spin, see how it pans out. If you don't want to keep them, bring 'em back to the next exchange. And if nobody wants them, they'll go to a women's shelter, not to a store that charges too much for your castoffs. On the other hand, they could end up being your new favorite pair.

Swapping books and CDs hasn't been quite as life-changing an experience, partly I think because of the more formal (one to one) trading structure, and partly because I get a little tired of shipping so much stuff. Don't get me wrong, I love those swaps too; they're just not as much fun as sharing.

So that's the idea behind the giveaway book widget.

*And while I was writing this post, or rather while my roommate was distracting me from writing this post, Tabitha commented on the previous one, so my snarky remark was invalidated. Thanks, TJ! You give me hope for the future of mankind.

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Last night I saw Mew play at the Aladdin. The link is to one of those sites with audio that doesn't ask permission before playing, but it's a fairly accurate glimpse of how weird and cool their performance was... complete with surreal visuals projected on a screen behind the band. They are musically pretty interesting, and when they have a hook it's a powerful hook (see "The Zookeeper's Boy," which I posted a while ago), though many of their songs could be described as "completely hookless" or even "lacking a compelling melody." But considering the relentless multi-pronged hookiness of some of their compatriot musicians, I can see how they might want to avoid that from time to time.

One thing I never realized about Mew until I saw them live was that they have no female members. Wow. That's a lot of falsetto.

Anyway, good band, good show, but the one disappointment of the evening was the venue. Don't get me wrong, I love the Aladdin. But all day I was so sad that they didn't play at the now-defunct Meow Meow... because then I could have told everybody, "I'm going to see Mew at the Meow Meow," and they'd be all, "Are you even speaking English right now?"