Too many books in your house?

A camel might take them off your hands.

A Valentine's Day Mystery!

Someone stole The Maltese Falcon. (Saw this @ Maud.)

Billions

Though my folks didn't forbid television, they discouraged most of it. (Sadly I didn't listen, and am sometimes overwhelmed by the theme from Facts of Life looping in my brain, causing nausea and headaches.) But they did encourage me to watch Carl Sagan's 13 episode series Cosmos: A Personal Voyage. And now Vangelis plays a sort of counterpoint loop as well, often drowning out the Facts song, restoring order and sanity to my life.

Additionally, I have always had a soft spot for Sagan.

Last month, a book of lectures compiled by Sagan's widow was published. Read more about it here.

New Yorker stuff

Calvin Trillin read here recently. If you missed it, here (from the New Yorker website) is a conversation with Mr. Trillin.

Also of note in the new New Yorker is an article on the newly-flush journal Poetry.

I'd rather be reading...

And if I was reading, I'd be reading the newest book by former Spy magazine journalist and satirist Louis Theroux: The Call of the Weird.

Louis, who has been documenting the odd in America for a number of years, revisits some of his most interesting subjects in this book. Included are such eccentric luminaries as Thor Templar, Lord Commander of the Earth Protectorate, and Prussian Blue, twin teen white supremacists who sing charming little white power folk songs, like a hate-group version of the Cowsills or the Partridge Family.

And after that, I'd go back to the man who inspired Louis (son of Paul, by the bye), the wonderful Jon Ronson. (His book The Men Who Stare at Goats is pictured just behind Louis's.)

Plenty of time to reread the first six books

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the final installment in J.K. Rowling's immensely popular series, now has a release date. Mark your calendars:

July 21, 2007.

Not sure how University Book Store will be celebrating this release, but you can bet there'll be a shindig of some sort beginning on Friday, July 20 culminating in midnight sales of the book.

The guy who said the thing

It was James Garfield.

The audio version of Sarah Vowell's wonderful Assassination Vacation features Jon Stewart as the voice of Garfield. He's quite good.