Manfiction, Baby!

Last week, in Entertainment Weekly, columnist Stephen King discusses the idea that the male audience for fiction is disappearing, since most bestsellers on the fiction list are by women.  He makes the case that men love escapist, entertaining fiction just as much as women do, and gives a selection of authors he highly recommends for a good, manly read, including Robert B. Parker, John D. MacDonald and Lee Child. 

I’d also put local favorite Vince Flynn on the favorite Manfiction list.  Who are your best Manfiction bets?  (Carol J.)

British TV – Is It Really Better Than American?

Or does it just seem that way because of the snazzy accents? 

One of the best things about the amazing number of television shows on DVD is the many British television series that you could only see either by having BBC America, or by travelling to the British Isles yourself.  (Since TPT seems to only play Keeping Up Appearances and Good Neighbors.  Over and over.)

Some of the most popular ones include the new Doctor Who and Torchwood, which have quite a lot of requests.   Personally, I have a (now, not-so) secret love for Hotel Babylon, which is essentially, The Love Boat in London.  See how it always comes back to The Love Boat? 

So share:  What are some of your favorite British tv shows on DVD?  (Carol J.)

To Read Lists

How do you do it? 

How do you keep track of the myriad fascinating sounding books that cross your desk every day as part of working in a library?  How do you remember the name of that novel that your coworker just raved about for fifteen minutes in the break room?  How about that intriguing book on the shelf which caught your attention while you were supposed to be looking for a title for a patron?

You can’t check everything out–you just can’t.  And if you request it, everything seems to come at once, and if it’s popular at all, you need to give it up after two weeks.

So how do you handle it?  Have you figured out a great way to use Library Thing for this, or Amazon Wishlist, or even our own MyList function on Horizon?

If you’ve got a great way of managing your To Read Lists, please do share with this overwhelmed reader.  Thanks!  (Carol J.)