Despite the fact that I am at D's apartment rather than my own, books just keeping leaping out of postal carrier's bags and into my hands. How odd! How I am going to transport them back to the east coast at the end of the summer (especially given the fact that I arrived in Los Angeles with two suitcases filled with library books and paperbacks - for work! - a month ago), remains something of a mystery. Does anyone know if there is a patron saint or god of bibliophilia (or biblioholism) in any religion? Because I need someone to appeal to for miracles now and then.

What has arrived in the last week? Well, let's see - I was alarmed by McSweeney's brush with financial peril, and (as a matter of civic duty, you understand) marched over to their online sale and made a couple of minor purchases: a ten-issue pack of The Believer (a magazine I had never read before, but always been intrigued by) for $19, and a copy of Noisy Outlaws, Blobs, and Some Other Things That Aren't as Scary, Maybe, Depending on How You Feel About Lost Lands, Stray Cellphones, Creatures from the Sky, Parents Who Disappear in Peru, a Man Named Lars Farf, and One Other Story We Couldn't Quite Finish, So Maybe You Could Help Us Out, which includes stories by Nick Hornby, James Kochalka, Neil Gaiman, Jeanne DuPrau, Jonathan Safran Foer, and a dustjacket that is an unfinished story by Lemony Snicket. You scribble an ending on it, fold it into an envelope along the convenient dotted lines, and mail it off to be judged by some nebulous entity. I will have to add NOBaSOTTAaSMDoHYFALLSCCftSPWDiPaMNLF&OOSWCQFSMYCHUO (as it is known, for short) to my August reading list. Meanwhile, if I enjoy my ten issue intro to The Believer, perhaps I will subscribe next year.

A couple of days later, my anxiously awaited copy of The Lee Bros. Southern Cookbook (origin of the delicious red velvet cake recipe) finally arrived, and D and I immediately plunged into an argument about the ridiculousness of using white vinegar to make (eastern) North Carolina style barbecue (see also pig-pickin'). Really. It was the worst argument we have had since disagreeing about the definition of the "procedural" genre. Anyway, let's just say I am unwholesomely excited at all the new ways the Lee Bros. offer to incorporate buttermilk and lard into my weekly diet.

I have recently become anxious (since the 2007 is now more than halfway over) about the limited amount of time I have left to read books for my "Year of Down Under" Challenge (not to mention the NYT Notable Books Challenge!), so I ordered a copy of Patrick White's Voss, the book which is most often cited as THE classic Australian novel. It arrived yesterday, and will also go on my August "to read" list.

Yesterday. The same day on which, in other news, I finished the latest in my Year of Down Under Challenge (YODUC?), the very unpleasant Alice Springs by Nikki Gemmell. A review to come soon, I hope. I have been working pretty hard on the dissertation lately, and cooking up a storm, and D and I did see the latest Harry Potter movie (meh), so I am vigorously adding to the backlog of unwritten posts while simultaneously using up all the energy I could use to write about things by actually doing them! Boo to me!