Satan's Bookclub

Generally, I am in favor of anything that gets people to read. The NYT has an article about the increase of book sales in grocery stores. I hoping that this means people who did not read a lot will get into reading, and then expand their tastes beyond the top ten books from the Best Sellers list. I've purchased books at the grocery store, because I wanted the book, and it was there. Usually at a discount. But nothing can replace the joy of going into a book store and exploring. Finding something new on which to take a chance.

You'll need to sign in to read that article, but just go to Bug-Me-Not to get an ID and password. If you are morally opposed to giving your email to read a newspaper article. Like me. I'd rather buy the paper and read it, than give my email out to a large, corporate website like the New York Times.

Posted by jodi at 09:56 AM | Permalink

And you know I say that with love.
The National Review's Deroy Murdock is going after librarians in his article on the Patriot Act.

"These dangerously naïve or clandestinely seditious librarians are beyond foolish. They potentially jeopardize the lives of American citizens.

No square inch of this country should be a safe harbor where terrorists calmly can schedule the slaughter of defenseless civilians. Whether fueled by sincere civil libertarianism or malignant Bushophobia, those who thwart probes of Islamo-fascist library patrons have the same impact: They make it easier — not harder — for terrorists to kill you."

I had to look up the word "seditious." Man, I don't think Mr. Murdock knows what he's up against. Librarians can mess you up bad. He's a foolish man. Not to mention paranoid, and perhaps a wee bit fascist.

From Bookslut., who also puts their money on the librarians.

Posted by jodi at 11:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I have discovered the source the comment problem. And am working on getting it fixed. It's a spam filter on the host level. I was blocked for commenting, using the word "sexy" and that just is NOT going to work for me. And oddly enough, we had a lengthy discussion about dildos over on jodiferous.com, and were never blocked. But sexy?

Since I know ALL comments here are made by sexy sexy people, I'll get this taken care of.

Additionally, I have set up two new mail lists. One for bookclub information exclusively, and the other for book review announcements. Sign up for either one or both here. I should probably mention that they are sexy sexy maillists. Thanks River, for the suggestion. You know what you are, don't you?

Posted by jodi at 11:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

There has been a reoccuring theme of Christianity in my life lately, and it's ain't pretty. First there are the pharmacists. Don't get me started on the pharmacists!! Too late. I'm already thinking about them. As PK Victor said, "I don't want to go suck dicks, all day, ergo, I'm not a gay prostitute." It's that simple. And then there is that show "Revelations" which I cannot resist, due to a longtime crush on Bill Pullman and a love of mystic stuff. But Revelations is not the happy Christianity. And the pharmacists are making me mad. And the people wanting to divert money from public schools, including universities, for any type of art that has a gay theme. [alabama]. And the creationists. And the people opposing gay marriage. I mean... I really thought by 2005, we'd live in a more enlightened age, you know? But no.

And so, because of this, and because someone asked for this book, and because I love this book tremendously, and I need something to make me understand that Jesus was way cool, our first bookclub selection will be "Lamb: The Gospel According to Bif, Christ's Childhood Pal" by Christopher Moore.

Read this book, and see if you don't dig Jesus bit more than you used to, but be prepared to be even more frustrated with what people do in his name.

Here's how it works, go out, get the book, and read it. We'll open the discussion on May 26th. In the coming weeks, there will be more updates in the weeks to come about the discussion site. Including a mail list just for bookclub news and information.

Posted by jodi at 08:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (15)

but... you'll have to excuse my lack of book review for Down on Ponce. I'm currently experiencing a time of hectic activity that's been in the planning for months. Soon to reach the apex, at which time I can resume my normal self centered interests. I worked over the weekend! yuck! But the way I figure it, I might get that review done sooner, rather than later, simply because I have to finish my taxes! Nothing makes more things magically finish than having to do something far less pleasant.

Anyway, Iris tried to post this link, about more protective parental shenanigans, but was experiencing technical difficulties. Anyone else experiencing technical difficulties? Let me know.

Oh... and start thinking of ideas for the first bookclub selection. Someone suggested Lamb, by Christopher Moore, and I am so all over that idea with mint jelly. Any other ideas? [the mint jelly comment, while subtly genius, is not mine. It's actually what is signed on the inside of my hardback copy of Lamb. By the author.]

Posted by jodi at 10:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Perhaps I should give up before I start as I fear I will never manage to write a description as great as "Anti-Christian, angel-spanking, Satan-grade evil".

Although not recent I felt I had to share this excellent piece of journalism by Mark Morford.

Posted by Louise at 11:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Hi!
I've made some changes to the "Why a bookclub with Satan?" page. I think there was some confusion about what we really want and plan to do here. The problem is, Louise and I did not sit down and devise a clear mission/vision statement. Of course we didn't! Clear mission/vision statements suck. We have to deal with those at work. Nonetheless, I have tried to better express our five point plan to the world on said page. Some people were concerned that we would not be reading adult fiction. Which, of course we will. That will probably be the majority of what we read. Duh.. we are adults. Sorta. You know what I mean.

Posted by jodi at 07:34 PM | Permalink

The American Library Association publish a handy, dandy PDF chart that is an invaluable reference when planning your next soon to be banned novel. Research ahead of time can save the heartache of not making the "challenged" list later. Lose that abortion theme that will barely raise a complaint and be sure to include plenty of offensive language and sexually explicit content.

I like that there were 20 challenges based on "inaccuracy" and 16 for "insensitivity". Do you think people who complain about sex education in books would be okay if it was inaccurate sex education? you'd think they would be fine with that on principle.

Posted by Louise at 12:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Ok, Right now, the layout does not work in IE for Windows. You want to know why? Because Internet Explorer sucks. Plain and simple it is an arrogant and ignorant browser, and just completely disregards CSS compatibility. That's right! I said it! Fuck you microsoft!

*deep breath*

Ok, so, right now, the right sidebar is forced down under the left sidebar. I am trying to fix this, however I have a mac. It looks great on a mac! It [also works well in Firefox in Windows.] This means I cannot make a change and test it real quick. It means I have to make changes and find one of my pc friends to look at it. Sad. I've been doing a lot of reading about IE and CSS and, I'd love to just say we don't support it here. But I won't. IE users, just please bare with me. Or would it be bear with me? Hell, I don't know. Bear/bare with me, and I'll see what I can do. In the mean time, won't you please please please consider switching to Firefox? Please? You'd really like it!

I want to say thanks to everyone who is sending us nice comments and emails. It's gotten us all riled up and excited. Which wasn't easy to do, because Louise is still buried under a mountain of dirty kleenix.

Posted by jodi at 06:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Hello and thank you for poking around in here before I officially pronouce it live on Monday. While building it, I had it set up to a different directory. One of the things I want to make sure, is that the links all work properly. There are place holder entries to test the archiving. There are only three pages of actual information at this point.
"Why a bookclub with Satan?"
"Satan's grand plan: How everything works"
"Hell's librarians."

so go ahead and poke around and make comments and such. Please let me know if you have any feedback. The difference between book reviews and bookclub books is not well explained, I think. But... Also, I had to force those sidebars to be as long as they were. Because they wanted to be too short. Bastard sidebars.

Thanks!!

Posted by jodi at 06:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)